PhotoStatic Magazine Nº38 THE FESTIVAL PhotoStatic/Retrofu- The following letter was sent to, but never Letter Writers turism is a bimonthly Ralph Johnson, 52 Parsons St, San Francisco CA 94118 not for profit periodi- published in, the San Francisco Chronicle, in re- cal of xerographic art sponse to an article appearing in their weekly Luke McGuff, P.O. Box 3987, Minneapolis MN 55403 and by extension, magazine This World: Crag Hill, 491 Mandana Blvd #3, Oakland CA 94610 machine-based art Pascal Uni, 617 N Upland, Metairie LA 70003 generally. Much of Geof Huth, 225 State St #451, Schenectady NY 12305 the work in Photo- Editor— John Eberly, P.O. Box 8312, Wichita KS 67208 Static/Retrofuturism I am writing in regard to the article “When overlaps into the Jake Berry, 2251 Helton Dr #N7, Florence AL 35630 fields of correspon- Artists Copy”, (This World, 6/4/89). While some Al Ackerman, 137 Burr Rd, San Antonio TX 78209 dence art, concrete key points are raised, the depth of the issue is tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, P.O. Box 382, poetry, photography, audio video, film, neatly, though perhaps unwittingly, skirted. Baltimore MD 21203 performance, and Clearly, the modern art world has turned into a much of whatever big closet. Anyone can reach in, pull something Graphics Makers else is going on in out, try it on and pass it off as his own. But that 1412 Prof. Elizabeth Was, 1341 Williamson St, Madison WI contemporary cul- 53703 From her textbook “Classical Plagiartism” ture. activity is necessarily entailed in regarding art as 1419 Transmission Gallery, 28 King Street, Trongate, Subcriptions are property. The real act of theft is in considering a available as follows: Glasgow G1 5QP Scotland UK $8 (more would be work as your own. While certain leisure-loving 1420, 1424, 1426 and back cover: appreciated if you artists may casually appropriate images their col- can afford it) for one Mark Pawson, 104 Glyn Road, London E5 OJE UK year (six 48-page is- leagues labored for years to achieve, others are 1421 from Smile, edited by Stewart Home, 41 Irvine House, sues) of PhotoStatic/ consciously engaged in an attempt to reclaim cul- Uamvar St, Poplar, London E14 6QG UK Retrofuturism, deliv- ture, our lives, from those who would claim rights 1432 Philippe Billé, B.P. 249, 33012 Bordeaux France ered bulk rate. For an additional $6, you to it. Collectively we struggle under the banner 1433 M. Schafer, 75 Fairview Ave #3B, New York NY 10040 will recieve one year Plagiarism. 1441 John McCarthy, 1459 W Cortez St, Chicago IL 60622 (two 45-minute is- Our goal is to be brilliantly successful. Our 1451, 1454–57 sues) of PhonoStatic Lang Thompson, P.O. Box 49604, Atlanta GA 30359 on audio cassette. To strategy: not to become thieves, but to deny the Canada/Mexico: possibility of theft. Plagiarism is the revolution $10/$18, respec- Columnists and Writers tively. of this denial. As artists, we recognize that Pla- 1425 Mark Bloch, P.O. Box 1500, New York NY 10009 Submissions: any- giarism is inherent in all “artistic” activity, since 1425 Florian Cramer, Retzdorffpromenade, 31000 Berlin 41 thing is welcome; in- both pictorial and literary “arts” function with an clude a self-ad- West Germany dressed stamped en- inherited language; even when their practitioners 1429 Bob Grumman, 1708 Hayworth Rd, Port Charlotte FL velope (SASE) if you aim at overthrowing this received syntax, (as hap- 33952 want your work re- 1429s Neil K Henderson, 46 Revoch Dr, Knightswood, turned or else it won’t pened with modernism and postmodernism). We be. Send SASE with must regard the desire to copyright as a tendency Glasgow G13 4SB Scotland your request for a to further commodify an already established “cult 1430 Pascal Uni, 617 N Upland, Metairie LA 70003 free catalog of what’s 1434 Michael Helsem, 1031 Dewitt St, Dallas TX 75224 currently available. of originality”. But this cult is little else than the 1434 John Berndt, P.O. Box 22142, Baltimore MD 21203 PhotoStatic Maga- further mystification of art, art as a fetish. zine and PhonoStatic 1435 R Keith Courtney, 942 Iowa Ave #2, Iowa City IA Cassettes are ISSN As Plagiarists we use pre-existing, previ- 52240 0893-4835, and are ously constructed sources in order to critically 1438 Tim Coats, 1774 42nd Ave, San Francisco CA 94122 edited by Lloyd Dunn expose that our life, our culture, now owned as 1439 Zendex Chercuthyl, 1341 Williamson St, Madison WI in Iowa City, U.S. Ret- rofuturism is edited property by others, has become external to us. We 53703 by the Tape-beatles. possess it, gaze at it, think about it, but we cannot 1440 Geof Huth, 225 State St #451, Schenectady NY 12305 Send them an SASE live it. We have become what we have. 1440 Thomas Wiloch, 43672 Emrick Dr, Canton MI 48187 with your request for Plagiarism enriches human language. It is a 1462, 1464 a free press kit. Pho- The Tape-beatles, P.O. Box 8907, Iowa City IA 52244 toStatic/Retrofuturism collective undertaking far removed from is sponsored by The Drawing Legion, a postmodern “theories” of appropriation. Plagia- nonprofit intermedia rism implies a sense of history and leads to pro- art and performance gressive social transformation. In contrast, the company based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “appropriation” of postmodern ideologists is in- Address all corre- dividualistic and alienated. Plagiarism is for life, spondence to our e- postmodernism is fixated on death. Plagiarism is mail address: psrf@ detritus.net. Visit our necessary, progress implies it. web site at http:// Karen Eliot pwp.detritus.net/. 1410 OCTOBER OF PLAGIARISM Retrofuturism Nº11 more powerful than one first thinks. And they deserve more respect.… Letters to Luke McGuff 8/10/89 Dear Lloyd, … Actually got to sit down for a the Editor couple hours with Nº37. Though I was antsy, as I normally am, it was time well spent from the start—John started out in the zine network (many Berndt’s letter and your response. Sympathetic years ago) I was trying to get away Along with Berndt, I question some from the objective standards of sci- people’s motives in sending out and Response fi magazines. publishing their work, and feel stan- There has to be an individual Dear Lloyd: dards are low enough to use any- push for experimentation and …Berndt’s letter [pS 37] touched thing swept under the rug—but like change. And to realize, on a con- on something I’m beginning to see Berndt, I would sensus level, that the experimenta- more of. There was a letter in Sound tion of five years ago is not the same Choice #11… and in a recent Score as experimentation today.… never suppress Sheet (an anonymous review). The In some sense, perhaps the Art it, I just don’t want to see it (sadly basic gist of these two or three com- Strike would provide a chance for closing my mailbox doors), I just mentators is that whatever the for- some time off, meditation. “Do I re- don’t have the time, time I need to mat (tape, zine, mail art) the social/ ally need to do this or has it become spend with the people whose work correspondence/trade networks are a form of habit?” My own fears are stimulates me. Originally, in the ex- becoming so swamped that the act that the good producers (i.e., the citement of involvement and interac- itself is no longer justification for ones I like) would then find them- tion, I responded to everything. I will participation.… selves perfectly happy with hand not do so now. I will not be content The initiators of these actions all painted oil paintings, or rhymed with the content. had something important poetry published in little magazines, …what you have done w/pS to say, and were inventing new me- or after-hours jam sessions in ware- over the years, evolving from a shy dia (or redeveloping existing media) house lofts. Hah! And then we’d be little magazine to a surging, seeth- in order to say it. And part of what left with the likes of (someone you ing center of diverse ideas—is very they wanted to say, perhaps, was privately dislike but whom you’d be interesting. I personally do not mind that everyone had more creative reluctant to criticize in public.) Hah! if an editor (that name will have to potential in them that society wants In any case, some idle thoughts. be changed) cuts up something I sent to admit. to fit it into something larger. I fact, But now we’re left with the ex- Yes, we need more. I’d look forward to see what you do ample of these various media and But what more? Not objective stan- with it. networks being swamped by their dards. An individual push for Will you be striking? I’ve loved own democracy. We need something change and experimentation, adap- all the hard-hitting rhetoric and more. tation. Not objective standards. I theory to date, but none of it inter- But what more, I ask? Not “stan- think H.L. Mencken said there is no sects with my life—I have never re- dards”. Objective standards are truth to be got at, only errors to be ceived a grant, had a show in any some of the things we’re trying to uncovered. So we need to realize as for-profit gallery, rarely even look get away from—at least, when I individuals that these media are into galleries and such—in other 1989 1411 PhotoStatic Magazine Nº38 THE FESTIVAL words have little contact with the A liturgical tirade proclaiming that machinery of the mainstream, that I this NET-working is becoming too could care less (as I could care less Berndt Epistle loose and has too many holes in it if they cut NEA money—those who to sufficiently TRAP and convey its really care do it out of their own Draws Ire hefty prey of concepts.