Reviews for Vtc Fall 2001 IEEE 54th Vehicular Technology Conference 7-11 October 2001 Atlantic City Conv...

The average rating for Vtc Fall 2001 IEEE 54th Vehicular Technology Conference 7-11 October 2001 Atlantic City Conv... based on 1 review is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-05-12 00:00:00 Jim Jordan This book is a gorgeous curiosity of book as art object by Dick Higgins, one of the real poets of the Fluxus conceptual art movement. I had the fortune of spending an afternoon with Dick Higgins in Chicago once through some very linked-in alliances, in fact my friend Philip and I were assigned to keep Higgins company while our other friend had to go to a meeting, and spent an hour or so talking about book designers. This book is a prime example of his knowledge in that area: it is constructed like a bible, or more accurately, a supplemental church book with similar black binding, red ink on the edge of the pages and a silk ribbon bookmark. The pages are divided into columns through which four streams of collected poems, plays, scores for actions and other run. In its structure and content it is both playful and quite serious, perfectly embodying what Fluxus is all about. For instance, this random snippet from page 122, left column: Two Long Performances by Flux higgins i. Losing fifty pounds ii. Gaining fifty pounds back again New York February 1967 Good one, Dick. Or this more complicated selection from pages 28 and 30, left column: Lecture Number Eight (On Muscatel) As early in the morning as possible, on as inconvenient a day as possible, at as uncomfortable a season as possible, and having notified as many people as possible of the forthcoming lecture, the lecturer sets out before sunrise, equipped with a flashlight and accompanied by (page break) the attenders of the lecture, to whom, however, he says not a single word throughout. They are led through his favorite and unfavorable places, and he points with the flashlight at his favorite and unfavorable places - or where they were or might be. It is observed that the sun rises. (December 1964) The power of Fluxus is one that the game facet of the art distracts you enough to get you to comply and only in reflection are its effects truly felt, and as you feel them, you reflect more and feel more. It sideswipes the bullshit you and I come to art with. For instance, that page break in the selection above I suspect might just be happenstance of printing, but I equally suspect it isn't. This guy was an obsessive book designer after all, and this is an obsessively designed book. The page break separates the preparation from the action, leader from follower, intention from result - it is the fulcrum on the teeter-totter of existence. And it may not be real at all - but it is now that I said it, and isn't that kind of psychic thermodynamic flow why we bother looking at art and think about books and contemplate our existence? Or is it?