Editing Fluxus (section)

===Neo-Dada Anthology of Chance Operations to Early Fluxus===
In 1961 the American musician/artist [[La Monte Young]] had been enlisted to guest-edit an East Coast issue of the Wast Coast literary journal ''[[Beatitude (magazine)|Beatitude]]'' to be called ''Beatitude East''. But as the ''Beatitude'' connection was prematurly terminated, [[George Maciunas]], a trained [[graphic design]]er, asked Young if he could layout and help publish the [[Neo-Dada]] material.<ref>Colby Chamberlain, ''Fluxus Administration: George Maciunas and the Art of Paperwork'', University of Chicago Press, 2024, p. 4</ref> Maciunas supplied the paper, design, and some money for publishing the anthology which contained the work of New York [[avant-garde]] artists from that time. The project took the title of ''[[An Anthology of Chance Operations]]'' from its full title ''An Anthology of chance operations concept art anti-art indeterminacy improvisation meaningless work natural disasters plans of action stories diagrams Music poetry essays dance constructions mathematics compositions''. ''An Anthology of Chance Operations'' was completed and published in 1963 by [[Jackson Mac Low]] and La Monte Young, as Maciunas had by then moved to Germany to escape his creditors.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/magazine/design-in-flux/. |title=Chamberlain, Colby. "Design in Flux" Art In America. 1 October 2014 |access-date=7 July 2015 |archive-date=8 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150708165151/http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/magazine/design-in-flux/ |url-status=live }}</ref> After opening a short-lived art gallery on [[Madison Avenue]], which showed work by [[Dick Higgins]], [[Yoko Ono]], [[Jonas Mekas]], [[Ray Johnson]], [[Henry Flynt]] and La Monte Young, Maciunas moved to [[Wiesbaden]], West Germany, having taken a job as a graphic designer with the [[US Air Force]] in late 1961{{sfn|Hendricks|1988|p=22}} after the gallery had gone bust. From Wiesbaden, Maciunas continued his contact with Young and other New York City-based artists and with expatriate American artists like [[Benjamin Patterson]] and [[Emmett Williams]], whom he met in Europe. By September 1962, Maciunas was joined by [[Dick Higgins]] and [[Alison Knowles]] who traveled to Europe to help him promote a second planned publication to be called '''Fluxus''', the first of a series of ''yearbooks'' of artists' works. Maciunas had first come up with the title ''Fluxus'' for a never done anthology of New York's [[Lithuania]]n artists, but instead applied the term to artists working in the ''Anthology of Chance Operations'' vein.<ref>Colby Chamberlain, ''Fluxus Administration: George Maciunas and the Art of Paperwork'', University of Chicago Press, 2024, p. 4</ref> Because after fleeing Lithuania at the end of [[World War II]], his family settled in New York, where he first met the group of avant-garde artists and musicians centered around [[John Cage]] and [[La Monte Young]]. Thus Maciunas coined the name ''Fluxus'' not for his perceived group of Lithuanian artists but for the [[Neo-Dada]] art being produced by a range of artists with a shared sensibility as an attempt to "fuse... cultural, social, & political revolutionaries into [a] united front and action".<ref>''Fluxus Manifesto'', 1963, by George Maciunas</ref> 

Maciunas first publicly coined the term ''Fluxus'' (meaning 'to flow') in a 'brochure prospectus' that he distributed to the audience at a festival he had organized, called ''Après Cage; Kleinen Sommerfest'' (After Cage; a Small Summer Festival), in [[Wuppertal]], West Germany, 9 June 1962.{{sfn|Hendricks|1988|p=91}}

Maciunas was an avid art historian, and initially referred to Fluxus as 'neo-dadaism' or 'renewed dadaism'.<ref>Maciunas, ''Fluxus Prospectus'', quoted in {{harvnb|Hendricks|1988|p=23}}</ref> He wrote a number of letters to [[Raoul Hausmann]], an original [[dada]]ist, outlining his ideas. Hausmann discouraged the use of the term;
<blockquote>
I note with much pleasure what you said about German neodadaists—but I think even the Americans should not use the term "neodadaism" because neo means nothing and -ism is old-fashioned. Why not simply "Fluxus"? It seems to me much better, because it's new, and dada is historic.<ref>Raoul Hausmann, quoted in {{harvnb|Maciunas|Ay-O|1998|p=40}}. Letter dated 4 November 1962, according to {{harvnb|Kellein|2007|loc=n. 47, p. 65}}</ref>
</blockquote>
As part of the festival, Maciunas wrote a lecture entitled 'Neo-Dada in the United States'.<ref>The lecture was actually given in German by Artus C Caspari</ref> After an attempt to define 'Concretist Neo-Dada' art, he explained that Fluxus was opposed to the exclusion of the everyday from art. Using 'anti-art and artistic banalities', Fluxus would fight the 'traditional artificialities of art'.<ref name=fluxus62>{{harvnb|Kellein|2007|p=62}}</ref> The lecture ended with the declaration "Anti-art is life, is nature, is true reality—it is one and all."<ref name=fluxus62/>