Introduction

Chaos, according to the Oxford English Dictionary means:

1. A gaping void, yawning gulf, chasm, or abyss.

2. The "formless void" of primordial matter, the "great deep" or "abyss" out of which the cosmos or order of the universe was evolved.

There are a couple of additional definitions, but they are irrelevant to this discussion. When chaos is used in magic, there is no place for confusion or disorder.

Chaos is the creative principle behind all magic. When a magical ritual is performed, regardless of "tradition" or other variables in the elements of performance, a magical energy is created and put into motion to cause something to happen. In his book, Sorcery as Virtual Mechanics, Stephen Mace cites a scientific precedent for this creative principle.

I quote:

To keep it simple, let us confine our example to just two electrons, the pointlike carriers of negative charge. Let us say they are a part of the solar wind - beta particles, as it were - streaming out from the sun at thousands of miles a second. Say that these two came close enough that their negative charges interact, causing them to repel one another. How do they accomplish this change in momentum?

According to quantum electrodynamics, they do it by exchanging a "virtual" photon. One electron spawns it, the other absorbs it, and so do they repel each other. The photon is "virtual" because it cannot be seen by an outside observer, being wholly contained in the interaction. But it is real enough, and the emission and absorbtion of virtual photons is how the electromagnetic interaction operates.

The question which is relevant to our purpose here is where does the photon come from. It does not come out of one electron and lodge in the other, as if it were a bullet fired from one rock into another. The electrons themselves are unchanged, except for their momenta. Rather, the photon is created out of nothing by the strain of the interaction. According to current theory, when the two electrons come close their waveforms interact, either cancelling out or reinforcing one another. Waveforms are intimately tied to characteristics like electric charge, and we could thus expect the charges on the two electrons to change. But electron charge does not vary; it is always 1.602 x (-19) coulombs. Instead the virtual photons appear out of the vacuum and act to readjust the system. The stress spawns them and by their creation is the stress resolved.

Austin Spare understood this principle in regard to magical phenomena long before scientists discovered photons or began experiments in the area of chaos science.

Austin Osman Spare - some history

Austin Spare was born at midnight, Dec. 31st, 1886 in a London suburb called Snow Hill. His father was a London policeman, often on night duty.

Spare showed a natural talent for drawing at an early age, and in 1901-1904 left school to serve an apprenticeship in a stained-glass works, but continued his education at Art College in Lambeth. In 1904 he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art. In that year he also exhibited a picture in the Royal Academy for the first time.

In 1905 he published his first book, Earth Inferno. It was primarily meant to be a book of drawings, but included commentaries that showed some of his insight and spiritual leanings. John Singer Sargent hailed him as a genius at age 17. At an unspecified time in his adolescence, Spare was initiated into a witch cult by a sorceress named Mrs. Patterson, whom Spare referred to as his "second mother". In 1908 he held an exhibition at Bruton Gallery. In 1910 he spent a short time as a member of the Golden Dawn. Becoming disenchanted with them, he later joined Crowley's Argentium Astrum. The association did not last long. Crowley was said to have considered Spare to be a Black Magician. In 1909 Spare began creation of the Book of Pleasure.

In 1912 his reputation was growing rapidly in the art world. In 1913 he published the Book of Pleasure. It is considered to be his most important magical work, and includes detailed instructions for his system of sigilization and the "death postures" that he is well known for. 1914-1918 he served as an official warartist. He was posted to Egypt which had a great effect on him. In 1921, he published Focus of Life, another book of drawings with his unique and magical commentaries. 1921-1924 Spare was at the height of his artistic success, then, in 1924 he published the Anathema of Zos, in which he effectively excommunicated himself from his false and trendy artistic "friends" and benefactors. He returned to South London and obscurity to find the freedom to develop his philosophy, art and magic.

In 1947 Spare met Kenneth Grant and became actively involved with other well-known occultists of the period. In 1948-1956 he began work on a definitive Grimoire of the Zos Kia Cultus, which is referred to in his various writings. This is unfinished and being synthesized from Spare's papers by Kenneth Grant, who inherited all of Spare's papers. Much of this information was included in Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare by Kenneth Grant, but there are some unpublished works which Grant plans to publish after completion of his Typhonian series.

References for this section are mostly from Christopher Bray's introduction to The Collected Works of Austin Osman Spare and from Excess Spare, which is a compilation by The Temple Ov Psychic Youth of photocopied articles about Spare from various sources.

The Magic of Austin Osman Spare

Spare's art and magic were closely related. It is reputed that there are messages in his drawings about his magical philosophy. One particular picture of Mrs. Patterson has reportedly been seen to move; the eyes opening and closing. Spare is best known for his system of using sigils. Being an artist, he was very visually oriented.

The system basically consists of writing down the desire, preferably in your own magical alphabet, eliminating all repeated letters, then forming a design of the remaining single letters. The sigil must then be charged. There is a variety of specific ways to do this, but the key element is to achieve a state of "vacuity" which can be done through exhaustion, sexual release or several other methods.

This creates a "vacuum" or "void" much like the condition described in the introduction to this discussion, and it is filled with the energy of the magician. The sigil, being now charged, must be forgotten so that the sub-conscious mind may work on it without the distractons and dissipation of energy that the conscious mind is subject to. Spare recognized that magic comes from the sub-conscious mind of the magician, not some outside "spirits" or "gods".

Christopher Bray has this to say about Spare's methods in his introduction to The Collected Works of Austin Osman Spare:

So in his art and writing, Spare is putting us in the mood; or showing by example what attitude we need to adopt to approach the "angle of departure of consciousness" in order to enter the infinite. What pitch of consciousness we need to gain success.

Chaos is the universal potential of creative force, which is constantly engaged in trying to seep through the cracks of our personal and collective realities. It is the power of Evolution/Devolution.

Shamanism is innate within every one of us and can be tapped if we qualify by adjusting our perception/attitude and making our being ready to accept the spontaneous. Achieving Gnosis, or hitting the "angle of departure of consciousness and time", is a knack rather than a skill.

There are other methods to utilize the same concept that Spare explains for us. Magicians since Spare have written about their own methods and expantions of his method quite frequently in occult magazines, mostly in Great Britain. Spare is certainly not the first person in history to practice this sort of magic, but he is the one who has dubbed it (appropriately), Chaos.

Chaos since A.O.S.

Austin Spare died May 15, 1956, but his magic did not die with him. There have been select groups of magicians practicing versions of Chaos ever since, especially in Northern England and Germany. In the late 1970's, Ray Sherwin was editor and publisher of a magazine called The New Equinox. Pete Carroll was a regular contributor to the magazine, and together, due to dissatisfaction with the magical scene in Britain at the time, they formed the "Illuminatos Of Thanateros". They advertised in New Equinox and a group formed. Part of the intention of the group was to have an Order where degrees expressed attainment rather than authority, and hierarchy beyond just organizational requirements was non-existent.

At some point, about 1986, Ray Sherwin "excommunicated himself" because he felt that the Order was slipping into the power structure that he had intended to avoid with this group, and Pete Carroll became known as the leader of "The Pact". The IOT continues to thrive and is identified as the only international Chaos organization to date. The IOT has also spread to America, and has headquarters in Encino, California and Atlanta, Georgia.

There are smaller groups of Chaos practitioners, as well as individuals practicing alone. Chaos since Spare has taken on a life of its own. It will always continue to grow, that is its nature. It was only natural that eventually the world of science would begin to discover the physical principles underlying magic, although the scientists who are making these discoveries still do not realize that this is what they are doing. It is interesting that they have had the wisdom to call it chaos science...

Chaos Science

Modern chaos science began in the 1960's when a handful of open-minded scientists with an eye for pattern realized that simple mathematical equations fed into a computer could model patterns every bit as irregular and "chaotic" as a waterfall. They were able to apply this to weather patterns, coastlines, all sorts of natural phenomena. Particular equations would result in pictures resembling specific types of leaves, the possibilities were incredible. Centers and institutes were founded to specialize in "non-linear dynamics" and "complex systems." Natural phenomena, like the red spot of Jupiter, could now be understood. The common catch-terms that most people have heard by now; strange attractors, fractals, etc., are related to the study of turbulence in nature. There is not room to go into these subjects in depth here, and I recommend that those who are interested in this subject read Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick and Turbulent Mirror by John Briggs & F. David Peat.

What we are concerned with here is how all this relates to magic. Many magicians, especially Chaos Magicians, have begun using these terms, "fractal" and "strange attractor", in their everyday conversations. Most of those who do this have some understanding of the relationship between magic and this area of science. To put it very simply, a successful magical act causes an apparantly acausal result. In studying turbulence, chaos scientists have realized that apparantly acausal phenomena in nature are not only the norm, but are measurable by simple mathematical equations. Irregularity is the stuff life is made of. For example, in the study of heartbeat rhythms and brain-wave patterns, irregular patterns are measured from normally functioning organs, while steady, regular patterns are a direct symptom of a heart attack about to occur, or an epileptic fit. Referring back again to "virtual" photons, a properly executed magical release of energy creates a "wave form" (visible by Kirlian photography) around the magician causing turbulence in the aetheric space. This turbulence will likely cause a result, preferably as the magician has intended. Once the energy is released, control over the phenomena is out of the magician's hands, just as once the equation has been fed into the computer, the design follows the path set for it.

The scientists who are working in this area would scoff at this explanation, they have no idea that they are in the process of discovering the physics behind magic. But then, many common place sciences of today, chemistry for example, were once considered to be magic. Understanding this subject requires, besides some reading, a shift in thinking. We are trained from an early age to think in linear terms, but nature and the chaos within it are non-linear, and therefore require non-linear thinking to be understood. This sounds simple, yet it reminds me of a logic class I had in college. We were doing simple Aristotelian syllogisms. All we had to do was to put everyday language into equation form. It sounds simple, and it is. However, it requires a non-linear thought process. During that lesson over the space of a week, the class size dropped from 48 to 9 students. The computer programmers were the first to drop out. Those of us who survived that section went on to earn high grades in the class, but more importantly, found that we had achieved a permanent change in our thinking processes. Our lives were changed by that one simple shift of perspective.

Chaos science is still in the process of discovery, yet magicians have been applying its principles for at least as long as they have been writing about magic. Once the principles of this science begin to take hold on the thinking process, the magician begins to notice everything from the fractal patterns in smoke rising from a cigarette to the patterns of success and failure in magical workings, which leads to an understanding of why it has succeeded or failed.

Defining Chaos Magic

Chaos is not in itself, a system or philosophy. It is rather an attitude that one applies to one's magic and philosophy. It is the basis for all magic, as it is the primal creative force. A Chaos Magician learns a variety of magical techniques, usually as many as s/he can gain access to, but sees beyond the systems and dogmas to the physics behind the magical force and uses whatever methods are appealing to him/herself. Chaos does not come with a specific Grimoire or even a prescribed set of ethics. For this reason, it has been dubbed "left hand path" by some who choose not to understand that which is beyond their own chosen path. There is no set of specific spells that are considered to be "Chaos Magic spells". A Chaos Magician will use the same spells as those of other paths, or those of his/her own making. Any and all methods and information are valid, the only requirement is that it works. Mastering the role of the sub-conscious mind in magical operations is the crux of it, and the state called "vacuity" by Austin Osman Spare is the road to that end. Anyone who has participated in a successful ritual has experienced some degree of the "high" that this state induces.

An understanding of the scientific principles behind magic does not necessarily require a college degree in physics (although it wouldn't hurt much, if the linear attitude drilled into the student could be by-passed), experience in magical results will bring the necessary understanding.

This series is directed toward the increasing numbers of people who have been asking, "What is Chaos Magic?" It is very basic and by no means intended to be a complete explanation of any of the elements discussed. Many of the principles of magic must be self-discovered, my only intent here is to try to define and pull together the various elements associated with Chaos Magic into an intelligible whole. For those who wish to learn more about this subject I have prepared a suggested reading list for the last section, however, I must emphasize that there are always more sources than any one person knows about, so do not limit yourself to this list. Chaos has no limits...

For Further Reading:

The Book Of Pleasure by Austin Osman Spare
Anathema Of Zos by Austin Osman Spare
A Book Of Satyrs by Austin Osman Spare
Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare by Kenneth Grant

The Early Work of A.O.S.
Excess Spare
Stations In Time

These three are collections available through TOPY.

Available from most bookstores (at least by special order):
Chaos: making a new science by James Gleick
Turbulent Mirror by John Briggs & F. David Peat
Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter J. Carroll
Practical Sigil Magick by Frater U.D.

Shozo Shimamoto Voted Chairman of the Japan Association of Art and Culture for the Disabled

In March this year, I was voted chairman of the Japan Association of Art and Culture for the Disabled, an organization founded by the "Tanpopo House", Japan's largest association for the disabled.

In 1994, I had a book called "From Gutai to Networking" published by Mainichi Shinbun. It was reviewed as "The Best Book of 1994" by Professor Muroi of Yokohama International University in the magazine Image Forum. He noted that my book and work have been greatly influenced by the paintings and poetry of children and the mentally and emotionally disabled. It was then proclaimed at the symposium held at the Pompidour Centre in Paris that I was "L'art Brut" of Japan and since then, I have been mentioned as "L'art Brut" of Japan on a number of occasions!

While continuing to exhibit my own work, I hope to use this opportunity as chairman to advance research in the art and work of the disabled. In this regard, I hope you will honour me with your advice, ideas and opinions.

April 1995, Shozo Shimamoto

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Shozo Shimamoto, presently a professor at the Takarazuka University of Art and Design, receives an:

Honorary Professorship from Kyoto University of Special Education

June 1, 1995

Research and announcements during his tenure as professor at the Kyoto University of Special Education:

1983 - Plans the Ryujin International Art Village in Wakayama Prefecture, and presently continues to preside as head of the village.

1984 - Makes "NETWORKING DECLARATION" at Gifu Prefectural Art Museum.

1985 - Has head shaved by the head priest of Shitennoji during the Osaka Sister City Festival. The Italian Mail Artist, Cavellini, a guest of Mr. Shimamoto at the event, writes his messages on Mr. Shimamoto's shaved head. Mr. Shimamoto then begins his use of the shaved head concept for Mail Art.

Invited to the Japon Des Gardes at the Centre Georges Pompidou and labelled "Japan's L'art Brut" at the opening day symposium.

1987 - Philippine President Aquino sends a peace message written on a photograph of Mr. Shimamoto's shaved head.

Visits Mr. Bern Porter, one of the nuclear physicists who invented the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. Mr. Porter writes his peace message on Mr. Shimamoto's shaved head.

1990 - Goes on the 15,000 km "Sacred Run", across Europe, with Native American Dennis Banks.

Holds the post of Principal of the Kyoto University of Special Education Attached Campus (elementary, junior and senior high school for the disabled). Plans and holds a symposium and exhibition for the disabled at Osaka's Expo Park.

1991 - Plans and holds Japan's first "Art Festival for the Disabled" at the Osaka Sea Aquarium. Article written in the Mainichi Newspaper titled "Possibilities in Art for the Disabled", about Mr. Shimamoto's discussion with Jean Kennedy Smith (the sister of former U.S. President Kennedy) about the exhibition for the disabled.

ART UNIDENTIFIED 133
1995

"NET-RUN-ACT II" The Sacred Run ď95 will be held this year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the Atomic Bomb, and AU will be participating through its art. They invite to send mail art to seven locations on the course of the Sacred Run, 3910 km across the islands of Japan: from Hokkaido to Hiroshima and Nakasaki. Other part of this issue documents AU's exhibition of contemporary art at Tofoa, Tonga.

1-1-10 Koshienguchi, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 663, Japan
Tel. 0798661893 / Fax. 0798645723

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Poezine III / 8
1995

Visual poetry magazine edited by Avelino de Araujo. This issue features work from Fernando Aguiar, bp nichol, Décio Pignatari, Spencer Selby, and others. Here's also a reprint of a text from the catalogue of Arthur Bispo do Rosário's exhibition, "O Inventario do Universo", and addresses of other publications.

R. Seridó, 486-Ap. 1106, CEP 59020-010, Natal, RN, Brasil
Tel. / Fax. (084) 222-5428

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Something 3
June 1995

A single folded sheet of text and visual work from half a dozen authors. The high point is John Weller's visual treatment of Queen Elizabeth's face, like nine pocket-mirrors on the page.

T. Lorenc, 8 Dowding Road, Bath, Avon, BA1 6QJ, U.K.

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een boomkruiper op het malieveld
1995

Johan Everaer's writings about bird-watching. Also, article about Birds & Borders mail art project by Rod Summers and Ever Arts. They introduce Corvus monedula, Manx Shearwater, as a symbol of freedom. Very beautiful book.

EVER ARTS, Dr.W. 28, 4317 AB Noordgouwe, The Netherlands

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Geoffrey Lavelle: An Expatriate's Sketchbook
Graffiti Petals/O!!Zone, 1994
ISBN 1-884185-05-3

Tu Fu drifted through time
on ancient China's mystical rivers and lakes
that probably haven't changed, though history takes
a woeful toll on culture,
art and even the colorful building facades
that decorate life. He survived, and I'll
outlive my worst mistakes

Thoughts written down by the U.S. poet, fleeing to old Hyèges, in his attempt to escape the war and misery spread by America. Brooding views from a solitary hill, a solitary fortress (remembering "Yeats of yellow hair"), Lavelle's monologue reflects on daily news, modern world with its false love and false hate. He speaks of the silence of an approaching mistral in the air, like a latent nervous tension waiting to break out in a rage. He still believes in peace, a precious harmony of love and hate, and sees poets as the true minds to lead the world.

Only creative hate (as a positive force)
can free our bodies and minds to concentrate
on real love.

O!!Zone, 1266 Fountain View Drive, Houston, TX 77057, USA

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Guy R. Beining: 100 Haiku Selected from a Decade (1982-1991)
Codex Editions/O!!Zone, 1993
ISBN 1-884185-00-2

A paler self
under lens
of rain.

A collection of (mostly) Autumn pictures; slow, melancholy pieces. The calm mood of the text is confused by the cover's collage design that suggests a prose work, but is well balanced by two ambiguous line drawings by Beining. Edition of 55.

A butcher senses
the wisdom
of bones.

O!!Zone, 1266 Fountain View Drive, Houston, TX 77057, USA

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Joh. W. Glaw / Serge Segay: Blut Poesie
Edition d'oro, 1992

Glaw's blood drawings and Segay's zaum poems.

Writes Glaw: "Die Arbeit mit Blut als Material hat für mich eine kultische, fast eine liturgische Dimension: das Erleben der Tötung des in die Schlachthalle geführten Tieres; das Auffangen des noch warmen Blutes in einem Gefäá aus Glas; die Vorbereitung auf den Malprozeá durch einen Akt innerer Konzentrierung auf Blut und Bild; die ersten Blutspuren auf wiáem Grund, gleichsam eine Transformation des Blutes als Lebens- und Leidenssubstanz durch den Tod hindurch zu einem neuen Leben."

Introduction by Prof. Gerald Janecek.

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Paula Gabrielle Titterton: Fylgja
1995

Xerox booklet of text illustrated with mandala-like circular collages of repeated faces and limbs, small monoprint Rorschach patterns, and portrait photographs. The slightly overdone graphic look is smoothed by the ingenious assembly of the booklet: it can be read as a double book. Maybe the result could have been more powerful, had she used just one graphic technique, as this combination is little too overdone and doesn't suit well with the mixed mood of aggression and melancholy of the text itself. "Torture me, exhortations in the making and out of her throat, screams, loaded with rapidity, shaking backwards and forwards - teeth between. Blood rushing down onto her hands."

Paula Gabrielle Titterton, 32, Vernon Avenue, Audley, Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire, ST7 8EF, England

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AN OU EAR ME ?
State of Being Press, 1994

Material from an interactive fax project between John Fowler, Reid Wood, and Karl Young. Though this booklet reproduces only a small selection of fax works received and transmitted by Wood, one can sense the mutating process of the project itself, as the images and words are transformed and degenerated in continual transmissions

Reid Wood, State Of Being, 271 Elm St., Oberlin, OH 44074, USA

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Guido Vermeulen: Greetings from Lewis & Harris / Carte de non-identité en visite...
Lingua & Littera Editions, 1994

Booklet documenting Vermeulen's visit to the Standing Stones of Callanish on isle of Lewis & Harris, Scotland. "Back in Stornoway, i did a serial of 11 sketches, one after the other, so profound was the impact of the landscape in my mind. The patterns of rocks, how i saw & read the signs in the scattered stones mixed themselves with the patterns of the wall paper in the room of the Thorleeguesthouse." Later, in Belgium, he reworked these sketches and added some text to them. Other part of this booklet reproduces 10 sound-drawings by rap poet Jacques Bernimolin. "He was a chemist & pharmacist and was not afraid to follow the same paths as Henri Michaud did (cfr. connaissance par les gouffres)."

Lingua & Littera Editions. Bld. Ad. Max 83/b4, 1000 Brussells, Belgium

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Serge Segay: with help of Carla Bertola, Rea Nikonova, John M. Bennett, Alberto Vitacchio, Robin Crozier, J. Lehmus, Mark Corotto
Can editions of Serge Segay

A collection of Segay's visual "cellular poems" co-worked & mutated by his correspondence art friends. Rea Nikonova mixes Segay's cells with her architectural music, while other pages reproduce Crozier's cut-up drawings, and handwriting by Bertola and Bennett.

Serge Segay, Sverdlova 175, 353660 Yeisk, Russia

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CATALOGUES:

Edward Mortimer
Jan van Eyck Akademie
Maastricht, the Netherlands
1992

Edward Mortimer, Quinton Hill, Mount Street, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, BD19 3QD, England

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Máté Guyla Kiállítása
Tüautzzománcképek, elektrografikák
Szombathelyi Képtár
1993. Június 10 - Július 4.
1993

Catalogue of an exhibition of Máté's graphic work, from 1969 to 1993. (Electrographics, enamelled pictures, photograms, wire brush and carbon ironing works.) "Some of my electrographic pictures can be seen in Spain (Cuenca) the only electrographic Museum existing in the world. In the same year in 1991, I organised and arranged for an International Electrographic Exhibition in Bonyhád. The electrographic pictures were sent through telefax from my friends and I enlarged, framed them and were hanging by the wall ready for the exhibition in the afternoon. ... I'm a person who is really interested in experiments and in newly introduced technics. I'm searching for and with my arts I would like to show what sort of natural relationships exist among different objects, shapes, and their occurrances - the appearance of material differs but their appearance forms are assimilated."

Máté Guyla, H-7150 Bonyhád, Alkotmány u. 39, Hungary

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Juegos alrededor del libro - 23 obras para 7 artistas
Universidad de Granada et al., 1994

Catalogue from an exhibition of artist's books by group 7 Artistas 7 (Gabriel Ramos García, José Francisco González, Inmaculada López Vílchez, Maribel L. Perea Retamar, Luis Javier Sánchez Ruiz, José Miguel Fuentes Martin, and Ángel SanzMontero). Each artist's books are introduced with colour photographs. To mention some of the most interesting works: González's paintings in boxes ("De Ali-Bey a Bowles", seven overpainted photographs from Tanger); Vilchez's tiny domino books; Retamar's woven textile book scroll; Martín's totem-book; dreamy sequence of classical David as homunculus in a test tube, and "Libros de viajes", automobile-book installation by SanzMontero.

The scheme of the exhibition follows a curious numerological formula: one artist presents one work (consisting of one, three, and five books), four artists present three works, and two artists present five works, totalling 23 works by seven artists.

The catalogue includes also descriptions of book as an artistic medium, a long introduction by Ignacio Henares Cuéllar (he addresses artist's book as a post-Gutenbergian turn to handicraft and credits Marcel Duchamp as the initiator of artist's book in contemporary art), a brief bibliography and a list of artist's books exhibitions in Spain.

The general realization of this book is brilliant.

La Compania, c/. San Antonio, 13, Cogollos Vega, 18197, Granada, Spain

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Sociedad Limitada
Exposicion de poesia visual
Julián Alonso, Nel Amaro, José Luis Campal, Rafael Marín, Yolanda Pérez Herreras, J. Seafree
Cafe Manuela, Madrid
1995

Cafe Botilleria Manuela, c/ San Vicente Ferrer, 29, Madrid

THREAD - NETWORKING

Please send me the thread. (Tape, cord, rope, etc. ... everykind is ok.) The thread that you send me put decoration on myself body, take a photo and I shall send you the photo.

Reika Yamamoto, 4-7-7 Eirakuso Toyonaka, Osaka 560, Japan

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Art of Swim Wear

Please send me an idea of Swim wear which you imagine, the swim wear that you want wear this summer, or of your favorite. Illustration, Photograph, Collage and any kind is OK. Documentation (with photo) to all. No deadline.

Junko Ohmae, 2-1-5-102 Hata Ikeda City, Osaka 563, Japan

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QUINTESSENZE

200 anni fa, il 26 agosto, moriva il conte di Cagliostro, sigolare e controversa personalit… di primo piano nella sua epoca e tuttora figura di riferimento in ambiti di interesse esoterico. Rimase per quattro anni rinchiuso nella cella detta del "pozzetto" nel forte di S. Leo, allora carcere pontificio, senza mai uscirne fino alla morte. Nello stesso spazio, e nei locali attigui, gli artisti Alessandro Benfenati, Marcello Diotallevi, Ruggero Maggi, Paolo Pasetto, Gian Paolo Roffi, realizzeranno dal 26 agosto al 16 settembre un progetto di installazioni denominato "QUINTESSENZE".

E "quintessenziali" dovranno anche essere i messaggi del progetto fax-art collegato all'esposizione: sei infatti invitato a spedire via fax un tuo intervento poetico, visivo e/o verbale, che illustri la tua personale visione riguardo la vitale necessit… di liberarsi dalla "prigione" delle costrizioni al fine di raggiungere una verit… essenziale.

L'intervallo di tempo entro cui effettuare l'invio sar… dalle ore 9.00 alle ore 19.00 del giorno dell'inaugurazione, il 26 agosto 1995, al numero 0039 541/916164. Tutti i lavori verranno esposti in un locale all'interno del forte. A tutti une successiva documentazione.

Gli artisti

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MONO/PROD

Art Department - Auburn University - Auburn, Alabama 36849 - U.S.A

Mono Production / a new mail art show based on artist response

The call: A new mail art show on issues of printmaking/painting exploring the multiple in terms of "gesture", monoprint, monotype and the "unique" in terms of content, relevance, value and worth.

All entries exhibited. No works returned. Format - 8 1/2" x 11" (20.3 cm x 25.4 cm). An additional 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of explanation, critique, written statement of word/words may accompany each entry (not necessary but invited/encouraged).

No fee. No work accepted after December 31, 1995.

Spring 1996 Exhibit in Auburn, Alabama, U.S.A. Precise dates for the exhibition, place and/or additional sponsors pending artist response. Documentation furnished to all exhibitors.

Contact:

Conrad Ross, Art Department, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 26849, U.S.A.

by e-mail to: rosscon@mail.auburn.edu or fax: 334 844-4024

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HERBARIUM

Thema: eine Pflanzensammlung

Grösse: A4; bei Objekten höhe max. 2 cm

Technik: frei

Material: frei (Grafik, Foto, Objekt, Poesie, Collage, Natur - alles ist möglich)

Sende: 100 Exemplare signiert & numeriert (1-100)

Nur Originale / keine Kopien (auáer bei Poesie)

Einsendeschluss: 31. Juli 1995

Jeder Teilnehmer erhält ein Portfolio in Form eines Herbariums mit allen Einsendungen und Dok.

Hans Hess, Neuanbau 5, 08340 Schwarzenberg, Germany

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COLLAGE

Magazine is an artist-magazine with original contributions for exchange and communication for all networker mail-artists and visual-poetry authors. Theme: il Diabolo. The works are to be sent to:

Ornella Garbin, viale Marche, 40, 30093 Cologno Monzese (MI), Italy

Please, 30 copies.

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Those little arrows I invented in your minds for what is formally called a dipole, don't ignore each other. They align in reverse like a bunch of little soixante neufs and one can grab one partner and turn the arrow and the other partner will follow [not in lockstep but there will be fooling or following and one can use computational chemistry to model it] and it's not just plain old "69"'s but it more closely approximates menage a huit's or some such larger array and the partners of one daisy chain are trading with others and the group size is not fixed and the net result is that there is communication of orientation [where does YOUR arrow point?] from one molecule, through its nearest neighbors, to the far reaches of all things are connected to each other. So I can shout in one corner of the bottle [shout, twist an arrow, move a molecule of agave flavour essence [tch! we weren't talking about anything but water and ethanol, but little arrows, but numbers, but the number 10**24 and though everything is connected to everything, we [WE] can't predict tomorrow's weather too well or very well because of... well, we call it chaos, the intrusion of chaos into our life or we intrude our organizing principle, information want's to be free, I want to know everything, kill god and fuck Gaia or whatever, but we can predict that weather will not include tomorrow "Tornados with increasing incidence of volcanic eruptions and maybe even the sun will go supernova and it's a lot less likely that all will collapse back into a black hole from one side of our Milky Way Galaxy [wouldn't a bit of chocolate go great right now?] to the other so I'm selling black hole insurance, authorized by Courtney Love Gobain, for the absurdly [low] price of your soul signed here in your blood that you will obey the laws of nature and nature's god until you die or dei which ever comes first and for the first imaginary number of people to call me this morning or last night and take effect of this offer, I'm throwing in free insurance against collapse of our galactic cluster as well as a set of steak knives for those registered with the department of redundancy department as vegans or vegetarians and who are not simultaneously registered with the vendetta bureau as having a hard on to kill a vampire. And if you can remember all of that, then YOU DESERVE to know at least one more, clearly divergent place that these words can be at one time. And that is in the receptacle department. This is a place which has been created by satan, master of freezing change and fearer of anything he does not control, to keep a record of everything and so protect it that not even the next contraction [we're down to every second now and this document is nearly birthed] the next Gnab as it were, will erase it. Graven images, toenail clippings the home of lost keys and chances all those things you can't find, HE has them, safe and ready to spring out where they can do good do god, the coathangers that keep disappearing and then you find a bundle of a goodly mein at a yard sale for only a quarter, you can't resist them, they call out to you, YOU MUST RESIST, those coathangers contain the essence of evil, I want you to go to your closets and grasp all the coathangers firmly and in a clear voice say, SATAN GET THEE HENCE! and than proceed to your front yard and THROW not drop, THROW all of your EVIL COATHANGERS on the good earth where they will lose their charge of evil in the bosom of Gaia [still dripping from the Rogering I gave her back up there in the text] and you are then abjured and conjured to take a picture of these NO LONGER EVIL coathangers lying about your yard and send that picture to your local man of the cloth with a letter explaining that he can now retire and get a real job and carry some of the burden of supporting the welfare class and I FURTHER ABJURE YOU to send me also a picture of your product your CLEANED COATHANGERS in your yard or on the sidewalk outside of your apartment or in the hallway outside of your padded room or in the aisle separating your cell from the now very suspicious guard and that picture or other sending you will send me as a love offering shall be included in a commemorative object and it shall be called good and it shall be distributed to each and every alike of those good persons who send ME THEIR PICTUREDS and their loved COATHANGERS and the spiritual nature of his and her shall be pictured therein also and we wlll REJOYCE in the fulsomeness of the age and we shall crown the jewel in the loaf and the mule and the farmer's daughter shall lie down together and in time shall come a sign on ye, the blackguarding of a postle or in a trice, whosoever bleeveth in TRANSMOG shall be reborn in another age as the least of gnats buzzing a silurian's hemorrhoid as were created in great hot water, AMen and Hose Anna for me willya

950822 Ficus
==========

         ^~^
        (. .)
 +---oOO-(_)-OOo-----------------------------------------
 | strangulensis Research Labs          language poetry
 | Ficus strangulensis, prop           Otherstream art
 | Rt 6 Box 138                       objet's d'mail arte
 | Charleston, WV 25311 USA          recorded words/noize
 | far@medinah.atc.ucarb.com        ludic spirits served
 |
 | TRANSMOG- a ZaumDaDa, found, surreal, poetry/aRT 'zine
 | sample for your snailAddress & $1 or 3-stamp, long SASE

__________________________________________

"Cyberstamps" Mail Art's First World Wide Web Mail Art Show

Here's your opportunity to become part of the new media realm of "cyberstamps." The Artistamp Gallery website

(http://mmm.dartmouth.edu/pages/user/cjkid/ArtistampGallery)

at Dartmouth College is hosting a mail art show. Theme is "cyberstamps"

Deadline: November 1, 1995. Work Size: Exactly 1 1/2" wide by 2" length. No Fees.

All work in color, preferably bold design. Text must be bold. No rejections (except imposed deadline) No work returned. Will accept all mail art and emailart cyberstamps. NO, YOU DON'T HAVE TO OWN A PC TO PARTICIPATE. If sending via email, encode visual images in GIF Format Only and send to:

(Cathryn.L.Welch@dartmouth.edu).

If sending via snail mail address to:

Cyberstamps, PO Box 370, Etna, NH 03750-0370.

Documentation will appear on the World Wide Web.

Hakim Bey
c/o Dreamtime Village
Rt 1 Box 133
LaFarge
WI 54639
USA

Guy Bleus
Administration Centre
P.O.Box 43
3830 Wellen
Belgium

Crackerjack Kid (Chuck Welch)
P.O.Box 978
Hanover
NH 03755
USA
[cathryn.l.welch@dartmouth.edu]

Ficus strangulensis
Rt 6 Box 138
Charleston
WV 25311
USA
[far@medinah.atc.ucarb.com]

Patrick Mullins
231 Elizabeth St.
Athens
GA 30601
USA

Guido Vermeulen
rue Dupont 38
1210 Bruxelles
Belgium

Karl Young
7112 27th Ave.
Kenosha
WI 53143
USA
[karlyoung@delphi.com]