hello all
about luther blissett and neoism
Lloyd Dunn wrote:
> This latter name has become rather too closely identified with a
> group in Bologna, Italy, but at least they don't claim it as their
> exclusive domain.
i had a chance to experience some of the "pranks" made under the name
luther blissett. lb's activities are a kind of neoism that is built on
two main paths, situationism and psychogeography. i saw that someone
else on the list listed the influences of neoism, and some of these are
in lb too.
an example: lb had a radio programme, and it was organized that people
would exchange objects through the intervention of "luther blissets"
driving around town: people would call the radio and offer an object and
they would receive what was given before in exchange. it's an old
system, the kula system of exchange, i think it's called, as was studied
by some anthropologist i can't remember now.
the main thing here was the mobility on urban territories, and
"incongruent" behaviour. sometimes actual theatrical actions took place
on buses, at the station, etc etc. and this was monitored by radio
live.
but the best lb was/is good at is media pranks, the manipulation of the
italian media, including the book publishing industry.
now lb just won an "important" establishment book prize.
don't know what they're up to now, don't know how many lb are left.
this brings me to observe that indeed the lb "movement" was identified
with a single group of people in bologna, and in fact that in some
moments you could count these people with the fingers of a single
hand...
but you know, potentially everybody is luther blissett, so it will never
end :-)
(btw, lb is the name of this english football player, in italy this has
more meaning in that english football players never had shiny careers in
italy, unlike many other foreign players)
I had a laugh when i read this:
Nicola Battista:
> by the way, other less known movements have really nothing artistic. The
> Inismo I mentioned is one.
> It is just a guy waking up in the morning and pretending he's part of
> something (the inist guy is into mail art and other stuff but he never did
> anything to distinguish himself from other movements...) but actually there
> is no idea at all behind the -ism...
a movement made of *one* guy... ha ha ha
it reminds me of this scene in Monty Python's "Brian of Nazareth", at
the stadium, where John Cleese etc are part of a conspirationist
anti-Roman group in Israel, made of about four people who are very
divided in their opinions. and they then indicate their major enemy, a
movement with a similar name but made of "traitors": the movement is a
single old man sitting a few meters beside them.
in fact lb was made of very few people in certain periods, for instance.
i don't know if it's Italy that maybe experiences more of this kind of
thing, any idea if this kind of atomization happens in the countries you
all live in?
later
nd
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