Fluxus

I was very enlightened after reading Fluxus by Hannah Higgins. Before today I never knew what Fluxus was nor have I even heard the term before. It apparently has made a dent in peoples’ views on art and I’m surprised so many of us have never come across it. After reading the first couple of pages, I had to look up a video because I really wanted to see how fluxfilms create this optical experience Higgins talks about. With just a couple of clips, I can see how the eyes grow fatigued… it’s hard to keep up with all the flashing blobs. It reminds me a lot of being in a car or on a train and passing by trees and other slim objects (which is apparently where Brion Gysin came up with this). If you just look at a tree only as you pass it, it looks less like a tree and more like a blob. Usually, this makes me very dizzy and fatigued because there’s no way my eyes and mind can keep up with the pace of the objects we zoom past. I also found the fluxkits interesting and I would love to see one in person. It’s different, to me, how fluxus art redefines “specialness." Fluxus is very special and it is so intriguing how it gives new meaning to what we “see” because of its combination of the visual and the optical.