Editing Fluxus (section)

===European festivals and the Fluxkits===
[[File:PianoActivities.jpg|280px|left|thumb|''Piano Activities'', by [[Philip Corner]], as performed in Wiesbaden, 1962, by (l–r) [[Emmett Williams]], [[Wolf Vostell]], [[Nam June Paik]], [[Dick Higgins]], [[Benjamin Patterson]] and [[George Maciunas]]]]
In 1962, Maciunas, Higgins and Knowles traveled to Europe to promote the planned Fluxus publication with concerts of antique musical instruments. With the help of a group of artists including [[Joseph Beuys]] and [[Wolf Vostell]], Maciunas eventually organised a series of ''Fluxfests'' across Western Europe. Starting with 14 concerts between 1 and 23 September 1962, at [[Wiesbaden]], these ''Fluxfests'' presented work by musicians such as John Cage, [[György Ligeti|Ligeti]], [[Penderecki]], [[Terry Riley]] and [[Brion Gysin]] alongside [[Performance art|performance]] pieces written by Higgins, Knowles, George Brecht and [[Nam June Paik]], [[Ben Patterson]], [[Robert Filliou]], and [[Emmett Williams]], amongst many others. One performance in particular, ''Piano Activities'' by [[Philip Corner]], became notorious by challenging the important status of the piano in post-war German homes.

The score—which asks for any number of performers to, among other things, "play", "pluck or tap", "scratch or rub", "drop objects" on, "act on strings with", "strike soundboard, pins, lid or drag various kinds of objects across them" and "act in any way on underside of piano"<ref>[http://marcusboon.com/node/23 Marcus Boon] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101102022741/http://marcusboon.com/node/23 |date=2 November 2010 }}</ref>—resulted in the total destruction of a piano when performed by Maciunas, Higgins and others at Wiesbaden. The performance was considered scandalous enough to be shown on German television four times, with the introduction "The lunatics have escaped!"<ref>"Die Irren sind los" quoted in {{harvnb|Kellein|2007|p=65}}</ref>
<blockquote>At the end we did Corner's ''Piano Activities'' not according to his instructions since we systematically destroyed a piano which I bought for $5 and had to have it all cut up to throw it away, otherwise we would have had to pay movers, a very practical composition, but German sentiments about this "instrument of Chopin" were hurt and they made a row about it...<ref>George Maciunas, letter to [[La Monte Young]], 1962, quoted in {{harvnb|Maciunas|Ay-O|1998|p=53}}</ref>
</blockquote>
At the same time, Maciunas used his connections at work to start printing cheap mass-produced books and multiples by some of the artists that were involved in the performances. The first three to be printed were ''Composition 1961'' by La Monte Young ([https://web.archive.org/web/20150722033506/http://archives.carre.pagesperso-orange.fr/Young%20La%20Monte.html see it here], ''An Anthology of Chance Operations'' edited by Young and Mac Low and ''[[Water Yam (artist's book)|Water Yam]]'', by George Brecht. ''Water Yam'', a series of event scores printed on small sheets of card and collected together in a cardboard box, was the first in a series of artworks that Maciunas printed that became known as ''Fluxkits''. Cheap, mass-produced and easily distributed, ''Fluxkits'' were originally intended to form an ever-expanding library of modern [[performance art]]. ''Water Yam'' was published in an edition of 1000 and originally cost $4.<ref>Price listed in the ''Fluxus Preview Review'', July 1963, quoted in {{harvnb|Hendricks|1988|p=217}}</ref> By April 1964, almost a year later, Maciunas still had 996 copies unsold.<ref>Maciunas, letter to Emmett Williams, quoted in {{harvnb|Maciunas|Ay-O|1998|p=106}}</ref>

Maciunas' original plan had been to design, edit and pay for each edition himself, in exchange for the copyright to be held by the collective.{{sfn|Hendricks|1988|p=24}}{{sfn|Kellein|2007|p=69}} Profits were to be split 80/20 at first, in favor of the artist.<ref>This was to go down to 50/50 within a year{{harvnb|Kellein|2007|p=88}}</ref> Since most of the composers already had publishing deals, Fluxus quickly moved away from music toward performance and visual art. John Cage, for instance, never published work under the Fluxus moniker due to his contract with the music publishers [[Edition Peters]].<ref>Maciunas sent out letters to 20 international artists between late 62 and early 63, demanding each artist relinquish any publishing rights and have Fluxus as sole and exclusive publisher. Maciunas likened his agreement to Cage's arrangement with Peters Editions. Only two artists—[[Henry Flynt]] and [[Thomas Schmit]] signed up. Cage was not asked, due at least on Maciunas' side, to the aforesaid contract with editions peters. {{harvnb|Kellein|2007|pp=69–71}}</ref>
<blockquote>Maciunas seemed to have a fantastic ability to get things done.... if you had things to be printed he could get them printed. It's pretty hard in East Brunswick to get good offset printing. It's not impossible, but it's not so easy, and since I'm very lazy it was a relief to find somebody who could take the burden off my hands. So there was this guy Maciunas, a Lithuanian or Bulgarian, or somehow a refugee or whatever—beautifully dressed—"astonishing looking" would be a better adjective. He was somehow able to carry the whole thing off, without my having to go 57 miles to find a printer.<ref>George Brecht, "An Interview with Robin Page for [[Carla Liss]]", In ''Art And Artists'', London October 1972, pp. 30–31 reprinted in {{harvnb|Maciunas|Ay-O|1998|pp=109–110}}</ref>
</blockquote>
Since Maciunas was [[colorblind]], Fluxus multiples were almost always black and white.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/24/arts/art-in-review-069620.html|title=Art in Review: The man who organized Fluxus|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=24 May 1996 |access-date=17 May 2022|archive-date=27 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170627120907/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/24/arts/art-in-review-069620.html |url-status=live|last=Cotter|first=Holland|author-link=Holland Cotter}}</ref>