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Jun. 2nd, 2012 11:20 amI went out with an old friend the other night- a good friend and the conversation was winning. Here- I'll tell you something: A ways back, I decided and realized that I wanted this thing here to be all about what I make. In the past I've written my blog to be about what I've done and with whom - that was good - I had a good time with that - it had a lot to do with something I thought of once, long ago, in my youth, my early 20's when I was a madder man. I thought of this because old-friend the Sophisticrat, he mentioned it to me.
See it was like this - I was living in the all-girls house out in the weird neighborhood behind exchange street. I had a lot of downtime, a few weird odd-jobs, a lifestyle like you wouldn't believe - dancing and drinks and makeouts till forever. And I was sitting at my crummy old computer and thinking one day and I wrote this:
Manifesto for Maniacs
The highest purpose of achievable by anyone
is the stimulation of another’s intellect. Aesthetic sensibilities are
easily stirred. Emotional inputs are quickly discovered and
manipulated, but the intellect is the ivory tower of an individual life.
To stimulate this intellect by any means demands cleverness and
dedication. The Maniac is not satisfied to simply stimulate the
intellect, the Maniac must draw in the object of his machinations so
fully that the object becomes obsessed by the Maniac’s ideas, by his
works and by his very personality. To the Maniac art is not simply the
manifestation of his ideas or persona, but himself as a whole, his
person in toto. The proper Maniac then is a work, a never completed
canvas that demands constant attention by his own existence. The Maniac
is his own finest work. Indeed his only work. The ultimate aim of any
Maniac is to so draw in his audience (read: the world) that he
completely subsumes the audience’s will and becomes the audience’s
object of contempt/admiration etc… In short, the Maniac draws the
audience into himself and stimulates them so successfully that they come
to completely alter their entire view of the world in response. The
successful Maniac interfaces with those around him in such a way that
they are notably altered through brief interaction. The successful
Maniac with such universal ability may not and may never exist. This is
unimportant. The entire concept of Mania is unimportant. This is why
it is discussed. This is why the principles of Mania have been set
down. They are unimportant and frivolous. In this Mania mirrors the
object of Mania (the audience). The insignificance of art can be
estimated by contemplating the insignificance of all people. Even
People, writ large, is unimportant, an artificial construct meant to
grant serenity to the isolated individuals massed within the
conflagration known as People. Art is a means by which the individual,
self-styled and self-important can interface with People and draw
attention to his own isolation (whether it be self-imposed or
otherwise). Art is a means by which individuals interface with society.
Thus it is insignificant because both individuals and society are
insignificant. This is half formed logic, but logic itself is
insubstantial and meaningless.
Memory is more important than
reality. Nothing can be adequately comprehended in real-time.
Retrospect is required to fully understand or explain any experiential
phenomena. Memory can be altered. Memories can be erased, altered,
invented outright. Memories are subjective and contextually subjective.
Remember if you will, a time when you were happy. In ten years time
such a question will elicit a different response. Memory gives the
illusion of linear progression to existence. Whereas one moment is in
actual point of fact virtually indistinguishable from the last, memory
segregates moments into sequential cells. Time itself exists not as a
function of the present or our experience of the present but of memory.
Reality is not perception, but memory. The Maniac attempts to alter
memory in his audience by infecting the audience’s awareness so
powerfully that memories are drawn out, disassembled, reinforced or
concealed. The successful Maniac can alter the audience’s perceptions
of reality by tampering with memory in advancing degrees.
One of the
simplest ways of altering memory is by altering context, as mentioned
earlier. One of the simplest means of altering context is by expanding
understanding. Information expands understanding. Maniacs disseminate
information in the attempt to alter context and thereby memory. Maniacs
broadcast new information, whether factual, invented or nonsensical at
all times in an attempt to alter the audience’s contextual awareness.
The successful Maniac broadcasts specific information tailored to suit
the audience based on the audience’s presuppositions. Tampering with
presuppositions is the quickest means of altering context, but is
equally unreliable. This is because while an audience will prove
relatively quick to disavow its presuppositions, it is just as quick to
readopt them later. The best method of altering context in an audience
is by shaking violently its faith. This is also the most difficult
method to adopt for a Maniac. By shaking the audience’s faith a Maniac
plants the seeds of lingering doubt that will haunt an audience far into
later life. Doubt is an ongoing questioning of accepted context.
Doubt is useful.
-+-+-+
The Maniac’s ultimate role is
simple to grasp. The Maniac must at all times consciously affect those
he comes into contact with and must at all times realize that his
conduct affects those he comes into contact with in some way. The
Maniac is a distillation of ideas and the transmitter of ideas, faiths,
doubts and fears. The Maniac affects, but is unaffected. The Maniac is
affect. The Maniac is a transmitter incapable of reception.
Later I spent every penny I had on me to make copies and then I wrote- copy and distribute on them and handed them out outside the club. That's something I did - the kind of person I decided I'd be. And then I set about living up to these kind of veneery ideas. I did okay with it too. So I mean to say, in the past, I'd write incessantly about weekends and adventures and travels- all the things that I'd done that were essentially these tactics to having a handmade life. But the thing of making things- and you've noticed too, when you make things- you compromise on choices, you under-develop concepts out of laziness or inability, you leave questions unanswered because you, yourself don't know the answers. That is, there are shortcuts and mistakes. The problem with using your Self as the canvas is that you end up in corners that you've written yourself into, of you run out of supplies or you just end up with a story that can't go any other way but is not the story you set out to tell. So you end up with a flawed artwork and it's true and good and yours, but flawed. And you're not ashamed, and you're not disappointed- but you're not flagwavingly proud either, you're satisfied with what you've done - but you're not really interested in a lot of external attention. Get it? You have something fit only for a private audience.
So you abandon the project, stop living in a way and just live whatever way it is that you want to live. I... You can put age on it, say that's an element, maturity, fatherhood, there's a lot of cause. I don't care about or really ascribe cause, but I notice. So there's that. But then? After that there's what?
I decided to keep going, talking about the things I make, and only make the things that need less input from outside, make my paintings, write my books, solitary and less-dependent works. Which are harder to devise but happier to contemplate, truer. That was an awakening - to know that.
But I mention this all because I was awoken by an old friend's visit and recalled that there are other ways. I could - I could turn this thing around, I could start yelling about politics and telling you about books and movies that I look at, mention the aspects of culture that intersect with me. Or I can just make and show my work, like a math problem until it's all an enormous thing, crafted, finished and whole. I'm saying that these are the options, there is some thought put in here, that's what I'm saying.
See it was like this - I was living in the all-girls house out in the weird neighborhood behind exchange street. I had a lot of downtime, a few weird odd-jobs, a lifestyle like you wouldn't believe - dancing and drinks and makeouts till forever. And I was sitting at my crummy old computer and thinking one day and I wrote this:
Manifesto for Maniacs
The highest purpose of achievable by anyone
is the stimulation of another’s intellect. Aesthetic sensibilities are
easily stirred. Emotional inputs are quickly discovered and
manipulated, but the intellect is the ivory tower of an individual life.
To stimulate this intellect by any means demands cleverness and
dedication. The Maniac is not satisfied to simply stimulate the
intellect, the Maniac must draw in the object of his machinations so
fully that the object becomes obsessed by the Maniac’s ideas, by his
works and by his very personality. To the Maniac art is not simply the
manifestation of his ideas or persona, but himself as a whole, his
person in toto. The proper Maniac then is a work, a never completed
canvas that demands constant attention by his own existence. The Maniac
is his own finest work. Indeed his only work. The ultimate aim of any
Maniac is to so draw in his audience (read: the world) that he
completely subsumes the audience’s will and becomes the audience’s
object of contempt/admiration etc… In short, the Maniac draws the
audience into himself and stimulates them so successfully that they come
to completely alter their entire view of the world in response. The
successful Maniac interfaces with those around him in such a way that
they are notably altered through brief interaction. The successful
Maniac with such universal ability may not and may never exist. This is
unimportant. The entire concept of Mania is unimportant. This is why
it is discussed. This is why the principles of Mania have been set
down. They are unimportant and frivolous. In this Mania mirrors the
object of Mania (the audience). The insignificance of art can be
estimated by contemplating the insignificance of all people. Even
People, writ large, is unimportant, an artificial construct meant to
grant serenity to the isolated individuals massed within the
conflagration known as People. Art is a means by which the individual,
self-styled and self-important can interface with People and draw
attention to his own isolation (whether it be self-imposed or
otherwise). Art is a means by which individuals interface with society.
Thus it is insignificant because both individuals and society are
insignificant. This is half formed logic, but logic itself is
insubstantial and meaningless.
Memory is more important than
reality. Nothing can be adequately comprehended in real-time.
Retrospect is required to fully understand or explain any experiential
phenomena. Memory can be altered. Memories can be erased, altered,
invented outright. Memories are subjective and contextually subjective.
Remember if you will, a time when you were happy. In ten years time
such a question will elicit a different response. Memory gives the
illusion of linear progression to existence. Whereas one moment is in
actual point of fact virtually indistinguishable from the last, memory
segregates moments into sequential cells. Time itself exists not as a
function of the present or our experience of the present but of memory.
Reality is not perception, but memory. The Maniac attempts to alter
memory in his audience by infecting the audience’s awareness so
powerfully that memories are drawn out, disassembled, reinforced or
concealed. The successful Maniac can alter the audience’s perceptions
of reality by tampering with memory in advancing degrees.
One of the
simplest ways of altering memory is by altering context, as mentioned
earlier. One of the simplest means of altering context is by expanding
understanding. Information expands understanding. Maniacs disseminate
information in the attempt to alter context and thereby memory. Maniacs
broadcast new information, whether factual, invented or nonsensical at
all times in an attempt to alter the audience’s contextual awareness.
The successful Maniac broadcasts specific information tailored to suit
the audience based on the audience’s presuppositions. Tampering with
presuppositions is the quickest means of altering context, but is
equally unreliable. This is because while an audience will prove
relatively quick to disavow its presuppositions, it is just as quick to
readopt them later. The best method of altering context in an audience
is by shaking violently its faith. This is also the most difficult
method to adopt for a Maniac. By shaking the audience’s faith a Maniac
plants the seeds of lingering doubt that will haunt an audience far into
later life. Doubt is an ongoing questioning of accepted context.
Doubt is useful.
-+-+-+
The Maniac’s ultimate role is
simple to grasp. The Maniac must at all times consciously affect those
he comes into contact with and must at all times realize that his
conduct affects those he comes into contact with in some way. The
Maniac is a distillation of ideas and the transmitter of ideas, faiths,
doubts and fears. The Maniac affects, but is unaffected. The Maniac is
affect. The Maniac is a transmitter incapable of reception.
Later I spent every penny I had on me to make copies and then I wrote- copy and distribute on them and handed them out outside the club. That's something I did - the kind of person I decided I'd be. And then I set about living up to these kind of veneery ideas. I did okay with it too. So I mean to say, in the past, I'd write incessantly about weekends and adventures and travels- all the things that I'd done that were essentially these tactics to having a handmade life. But the thing of making things- and you've noticed too, when you make things- you compromise on choices, you under-develop concepts out of laziness or inability, you leave questions unanswered because you, yourself don't know the answers. That is, there are shortcuts and mistakes. The problem with using your Self as the canvas is that you end up in corners that you've written yourself into, of you run out of supplies or you just end up with a story that can't go any other way but is not the story you set out to tell. So you end up with a flawed artwork and it's true and good and yours, but flawed. And you're not ashamed, and you're not disappointed- but you're not flagwavingly proud either, you're satisfied with what you've done - but you're not really interested in a lot of external attention. Get it? You have something fit only for a private audience.
So you abandon the project, stop living in a way and just live whatever way it is that you want to live. I... You can put age on it, say that's an element, maturity, fatherhood, there's a lot of cause. I don't care about or really ascribe cause, but I notice. So there's that. But then? After that there's what?
I decided to keep going, talking about the things I make, and only make the things that need less input from outside, make my paintings, write my books, solitary and less-dependent works. Which are harder to devise but happier to contemplate, truer. That was an awakening - to know that.
But I mention this all because I was awoken by an old friend's visit and recalled that there are other ways. I could - I could turn this thing around, I could start yelling about politics and telling you about books and movies that I look at, mention the aspects of culture that intersect with me. Or I can just make and show my work, like a math problem until it's all an enormous thing, crafted, finished and whole. I'm saying that these are the options, there is some thought put in here, that's what I'm saying.
