| 
THE
FOUNDATION FOR ART IN ZERO-G an
introduction
reading / performance, the
2nd uk space art forum (11.00)
companion text >>
INVENTION BY NECESSITY
The
FOUNDATION FOR ART IN ZERO-GRAVITY was invented
by necessity in 1999.
I
say necessity for a couple of reasons. The
most obvious reason was that it was a logical
hybrid of the main interests in my life
- art, science fiction and the pig-headed
rejection of accepted cultural 'norms'.
The
other reason for the birth of the FOUNDATION
was entirely the fault of a smart, sassy
(but none too sexy) group of pranksters
and the product of their collective angst
-
THE ASSOCIATION OF AUTONOMOUS ASTRONAUTS.
I
had kicked around the pavements of the AAA
wondering where I would fit in. I hadn't
undergone the 'Underground Anarchist Subversive'
training programme, so I occasionally felt
like a fraud, smoking Marlboro and wearing
Adidas at their irregular gatherings. However,
they would always say that "everyone
can be an autonomous astronaut", so
I didn't worry too much about my footwear
issues.
The
AAA's central tenant went a little something
like this: "in our inevitable transition
to space and zero-gravity living, we do
not need to burden ourselves with the mistakes
made by our forefathers, or indeed, our
peers." All bets are off and so on
and so on and so it goes. The main advantage
of this scheme was that there need be no
rules or definitions to burder ourselves
with either. Getting off the planet and
out there into the great beyond was to be
mankind's 'Year Zero' - a new beginning,
a chance to wipe the slate clean, start
re-building what it means to be human from
the ground up. Or something along those
lines.
This
was a joyful revealation - suddenly things
started to gel. All my life I hed harboured
a love for art, literature, music, performance
- and in all my life I had never devoted
any time to the study of such things. I
was the observer, the voyuer - never the
birthday boy. It wasn't that there was a
mystique as such, it just seemed too much
like hard work. All that reading, all that
studying, all that memory recall. I'd far
rather get drunk and shout a lot.
So
here was a chance to say that art was hokum
- that art, as it stood, had no place in
space. It was a stand-up fight between me
and the intelligensia (the 'academia' of
art) - a rejection of the entire canon of
critical theory. Fuck you all, this is one
in the eye from the forgotten half of the
equation.
It
was however a risky and confusing proposition,
utterly flawed, utterly stupid. In reality,
I was just having a tantrum because someone
else had all the toys. The fact that someone
else had spent a great deal of time learning
how to procure those toys never seemed to
bother me. I was trying to mask my relevant
ignorance with a great deal of white noise
and a semi-flash web site. It was never
going to work.
And
so the project went to sleep, held in stasis
until I could work out what was going on
in my head.
Which
brings us to here and now. The FOUNDATION
is now, catergorically, a state of mind.
The FOUNDATION is the process of coming
to terms with the 'meaning' of art in my
life. I watch it, listen to it, read it,
and sometimes I even feel like I'm eating
it (I think they call it 'vertical food').
And yet, I'm still not participating. I
don't think I want 'to be' an artist. But
then, maybe it's not up to me to make the
choice - maybe the choice has already been
made.
So
it goes.
Stuart
Buchanan
27.09.01
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