This extraordinary letter from George Maciunas to George Brecht, sent in early 1963, provides a highly detailed record of the artists’ collaborative design process and their ongoing deliberations over the intellectual significance of Brecht’s events and their transcription as event scores.
In the first part of the letter, Maciunas draws a diagram that imagines the relation between optical and acoustical elements in a work of art, possibly in response to Brecht’s remark in another letter that, “a minimum condition for my work . . . is a lack of distinction between ‘optical,’ ‘acoustical’ and other such categories” (Brecht to Maciunas, early 1963, Hanns Sohm Archive, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart). To this, Maciunas adds the dimension of artificial versus concrete (or “reality”). With reference to scores by Brecht that had been performed during the European Fluxus concert tour—namely Piano Piece (1962; “a vase of flowers on(to) a piano”) and Word Event (1961; “EXIT”)—Maciunas considers the fine line between art and non art, between deliberately formed and ready-made gestures, and between conceptual and perceptual experience that the scores traverse, ultimately comparing their operation to Zen Buddhist philosophy.
In section two of this letter, Maciunas discusses the disposition of Water Yam (1963) in terms of future editions and copyright and introduces the idea of a renewable subscription model or “perpetual” box. He mentions Fluxus newsletter no. 5, which he wrote and distributed to the Fluxus network in January 1963, as “a draft for a written agreement.” In that controversial newsletter, Maciunas proposed that affiliate artists assign to Fluxus the copyright and exclusive publication rights for their works in order to present a “common front” for Fluxus activities and to achieve financial security (with individual artists retaining 80 percent of profits from the sale of their work). In section three, Maciunas reports on his research into international locations amenable to his dream of developing a self-sustaining, permanent Fluxus commune.
In the fourth section of this letter, Maciunas attaches samples of paper for the printing of the Water Yam event score cards for Brecht to choose from. An added note in Brecht’s handwriting shows his first choice of white for all cards.
In two pages appended to this letter, Maciunas returns to the topic of the design for Water Yam, addressing card size and sketching out playful box and label design ideas for Brecht’s consideration.
Courtesy of Billie Maciunas.
