1996. of(f) the w.w.web

1996. of(f) the w.w.web

The 1st letter I received from Florian Cramer was dated August 27, 1990. It was friendly & included some photocopies. He may've been living in Berlin, Germany at the time. Germany would've only been recently reunited. I replied to him by sending him my Mike Film Distribution Form #7 in a German version + a tape of my "Official" Project + our Official Business booklet + a note on an article about the "Official" Project's cofounder, Neil Feather, in Maryland Musician.

The next letter I received from him wasn't until one dated April 20, 1991, & it included a COA (Change Of Address) & a SMILE - A Hook is a Hat. SMILE was (& hypothetically still is) a magazine produced by multiple makers in multiple locations but all bearing the same name. It was initiated by Stewart Home in 1984 & quickly became the main Neoist magazine. I've made a website regarding it here: SMILEs .

We became close friends & exchanged through the mail a fair amount after that. International mail was still 'affordable' then, unlike now. By 1992, he was probably going to a university in the New England area in the US. Such proximity to where I was living in BalTimOre might have made it easier for him to come visit me at the 1,500 square foot warehouse space where I was living in January, 1993. This was our 1st in-person encounter. The visit was brief but it produced this movie taking a poke at how few women are involved in Neoism:

155. "What's Your Fucking Problem You Bloody Gash"

- with Florian Cramer & Michelle Cutler

- 8mm vaudeo -> 1/2" VHS cassette

- january 16, '93

- 9:10

b. "What's Your Fucking Problem You Bloody Gash" (YouTube version)

- very slight re-edit w/ credits added january 4, 2010

- 9:04

In 1994, I went to live in Berlin, Germany, for 3 months & Florian & I collaborated again on the German version of the "Official" Project which had disbanded in BalTimOre the year before. This is the quasi-documentation from our 2 "Uncerts":

183. "UNCERTS"

- Another 2 hour VHS compilation in the series that began with "VAUDIO" that covers work of mine or by friends of mine made from 1990 to 1996. The "Frothing Catatonic Siamese Twins Volunteers Collective XXVII" piece is the last thing on it - hence it's listing here. It may've been assembled somewhat later in the chronology.

- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/ShRgYeTSK40

07. "TV Hospital: Official.. TV Audience.. Medium Band": https://youtu.be/ShRgYeTSK40?t=42m44s

484. "Das Offizielle, 21 Mai 1994 Era Vulgari Hypothetisches Tagediebetage Mittel-Band/Landesjugendorchester"

- an "Official" concert at the Tagediebetage Festival at the Milchhof in Berlin on May 21, 1994

- featuring tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE (DX27S Synthesizer, Mirage 8 bit Sampler/Sequencer, & Tone Generators), Brad Hwang (Alto Sax), Yvonne Harder (Pretend Bass, Recorder, Voice), Florian Cramer (Alto Sax, Small Keyboard, Flute), Björn Balcke (Guitar), Dr. Meyrink (Trumpet).

- edit made by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE & finished May 13, 2017E.V.

- 720X480 (3/2) SD

- 55:39

- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/VQELYKRVHF0

After Berlin I returned briefly to the US before moving to the Funny Farm, a 19 room installation farmhouse, in a remote area of Ontario. Thanks to James "Sarmad" Brody, I got my 1st computer there, a used Mac SE. It only had something like 1-4MB of RAM, storage was on floppy discs, & files were only a few KBs each. Nonetheless, it was a fantastic thing to be able to use & it enabled me to send discs to Florian no later than February 26, 1995, & to receive discs from him as well.

Florian asked me for electronic copies of my writing so that he could put them online. That was very exciting. I didn't have access to the internet yet so such a possibility, now taken for granted by most people as a daily norm, was very fresh. Living in extreme isolation & poverty, as I was at the time, this would've been a remarkable way of reaching a public that I otherwise had little access to. As I put it in my online "Bibiliography":

"[Probably starting sometime around Fall, 1994 thru Spring, 1995, Florian Cramer began to put a huge quantity of my writings online. Since I mainly thought of being published in terms of hard-copy at the time & since I didn't have access to the internet, I didn't keep records of what was published when. "of(f) the w.w.web" (see September, 1996) was probably the 1st CD-ROM publication that I rc'vd (again thru Florian) that represented this material.]"

By January of 1996 I'd moved to Pittsburgh, US@. By the fall of that year, I had my 1st email address, probably something like luther_blissett@hotmail.com . I didn't have internet access at home so I only checked my email at the public library where I think they had rules against doing so but no-one seemed to enforce that.

According to my online "Bibiliography" again, this was the era when Florian sent me the publication under study here:

"[The following CD-ROM is the 1st, & possibly the last, of my internet-published materials made available in an off-web form.]

[March 11, 2018 note: The below links are to the things listed below as they appear on the mirrored The Seven by Nine Squares website: http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_index.html . The original website is no longer available. Not everything listed below is available online.]

0289. a. "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE BIBLIOGRAPHY (of non-"vanity press" material) as of early 1996e.v." (the 1st 122 entries)

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_biblio.html

b. "On the Use of "paradox" as a Philosophical "Electric Prod" & EmBEDed Ulterior Motives as Trickster of the SubConscious in the Writings of Tim Ore" - E.G.Head

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_confession_comment.html

c. "& the DeadBeat Goes On & On & On.."

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_disco.html

d. "PUBLISHED AUDIO (& VAUDIO) RECORDINGS

(in Chronological Order by Approximate Publication Date)

(compiled in November, '94ev)" (the 1st 63 entries)

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_disco.html

e. "Diszey Spots Voice-Over 1 {written while drunk & while sober}"

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_diszey.html

f. "egnekn's fridge"

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_egnek.html

g. "IN SUPPORT OF FUN & AGAINST POLARIZING "AUTHORITIES" VS - the idea of revolutionary guerrillas creating situations intended to bring into overtness the intrinsic nazism of legalised power."

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_fun_guerrilla.html

h. "Grounded!"

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_grounded.html

i. "History Begins Where Life Ends" - David A. Bannister

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_history_begins.html

j. "YOUR HOROSCOPE!" - Karen Eliot

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_horoscope.html

k. "Impractical Seriousness" (all 7 stories:)

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_impractical.html

k.1. "Free "Bob" Oster"

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_impractical_bob.html

k.2. "Sheep Fucking Jesus, etc.."

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_impractical_casandra.html

k.3. "Pancreas/Tonsils, the Maze, Reinhardt & Via, Jeffrey Cohen, Dr. Thorne, the London Zoo, & the C.I.A."

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_impractical_litvinov.html

k.4. "Laura's intercepted mail, Laura's being welcomed back by her room, Laura's trail of messages leading "nowhere".."

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_impractical_laura.html

k.5. "John Berndt's Bag Returners' Society [or, "Flow my tears, the Neoist Said"]" - w/ additional commentary from John Berndt

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_impractical_john.html

k.6. "Waking Rupert"

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_impractical_rupert.html

k.7. "Double Agents"

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_impractical_jake.html

l. "USIC - square root of - 1 = A Plethora of No Longer Neglected Audio/Conceptual Obstacle Courses"

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_usic_ess.html

m. "A Mere Outline for One Aspect of a Book on Mystery Catalysts, Guerrilla Playfare, booed usic, Mad Scientist Didactions, Acts of As-Beenism, So-Called Whatevers, Psychopathfinding, Uncerts, etc.. {3rd Edition - July '95 Version of Text Only}" (the 1st 194 entries)

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_mere_outline.html

n. "Melody"

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_melody.html

o. "Movieography (from late 1974e.v. to late 1994e.v.)" (1st 169 entries)

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_movies.html

p. "Total Mobile Home Micro Cinema "Theme""

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_mob_home.html

q. "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE @ the Music Gallery"

r. "A Few Simple Statements about Neoism"

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_neoism.html

s. "An Awful Title in the Life of a Labor Pool Worker" - Michael Tolson

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_pool_worker.html

t. "the "Philosopher's Union Member's Mouthpiece Mega-Project""

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_pumm.html

u. "Telepathy Receptivity Training"

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_telepathy.html

v. "Upping the Anti-School of Fucked-Up & Away"

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_upping_a.html

w. "Vampire of Sacramento" - David A. Bannister

http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_vampire.html

- all credited to: tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE unless noted otherwise

- given that this is written in HTML, Florian Cramer took advantage of this to meticulously create cross-referencing links

- All of this is contained in the "seven" folder - wch is an abbreviation for "Seven by Nine Squares" wch was what Florian Cramer had online

- While this was far from my complete writings of the time (probably less than 20%) it was & STILL IS the most comprehensive collection ever compiled by someone other than myself!!

- published as part of the "of(f) the w.w.web" CD-ROM from the European Media Art Festival (September, 1996)

- published in Germany

- the "Seven by Nine Squares" was created & edited by Florian Cramer"

Data CDs could & can, obviously, contain huge amounts of information. They can be extremely compact encyclopedias. I'm happy to report that this one still opened with no problem 21.5 years later. Here's the index display to give you an idea of what's on it:

Within that, there's the "seven" folder, an abbreviation of The Seven by Nine Squares, Florian's project that contained my writing. An image of the index for that is here:

As you can see, this was an incredibly ambitious project of Florian's that took extreme dedication. Here's the index for just my work followed by an example of only one of my pieces as presented in The Seven by Nine Squares: