1997. Neoismus
I don't really read or speak German although I can understand a little of it.
I do speak it enough to recognize myself being quoted on the back cover: "Ein Präfux und ein Suffix ohne Worstamm" = A prefix & a suffix without "a word stem" = A prefix & a suffix without anything in the middle.
This is a quote from Monty Cantsin (Istvan Kantor) & he's being funny - acknowledging that things don't always turn out as one intends & that, in some cases, this goes predictably in a certain way.
This quote from Stewart Home's novel "Slow Death" is what really sets the tone of this whole book.
As I understand the story, the author, Oliver Marchart, apparently read Home's novel "Slow Death"in which there's a fictional art movement called "Neoism" & an art critic named "Jock Graham" who decides to make his name by writing the 1st text on the subject. The 'art movement', however, is really a front for various criminal activities performed with leftist ideology justifying it. Or something like that. I haven't read "Slow Death" so I'm only telling you what I vaguely remember hearing about it 20 years or so ago.
Apparently, Marchart was inspired by this & thought it would be fun(ny) to write an art history text on this fictional movement so he contacted Home to interview him about it. Home was presumably amused by this & probably told Neoist Florian Cramer & others about it. Cramer contacted Marchart & told him that the movement really existed & that the 'reality' was more interesting than the fiction & proceeded to try to put Marchart in contact with actual Neoists. I was one of them.
I had some slight email correspondence with Marchart in which I don't recall him having much interest in actual Neoism at all - certainly not in communicating with me. One possibility is that he was afraid of us & wanted to keep his interaction with Neoism on the safe fictional side.
After the book was written, he decided to have an Apartment Festival (a generic name for Neoist festivals) to launch it but didn't invite any actual Neoists. This was all taking place in Vienna, Austria. Monty Cantsin (Istvan Kantor), the founder of Neoism, went to the launch, probably uninvited & unwelcome, & was assertive enough to get multiple copies of the book to give out to Neoists at the Neoist Festival that took place in Hungary soon thereafter from July 2 - July 12, 1997 in Vác, Budapest, & Debrecen. Part of this was called "XXXPanzio A Neoizmus?! Anti-Esemény / XXXPanzio In the Name of Neoism?! Anti-Event". This was one of my favorites of the Neoist festivals, Monty Cantsin (Kantor Istvan) did a fantastic job of organizing it.
Since I can't read German, I asked Florian Cramer what he thought of "Neoismus" since he'd read it & I recall his strongly disliking it & telling me something to the effect that it's somewhat insulting to most of the Neoists. This would fit its having been mainly inspired by Stewart since Stewart at the time was going to great lengths to character assassinate most Neoists because we refused to follow his party line & accept him as our Führer. I also got another German-speaking friend to read it & asked his opinion. He agreed that it was gossipy & snarky.
That said, at least the 1st chapter seems to give credit to people other than Stewart - while the remainder of the book seems to be mainly promoting him.
&, of course, there's ye olde must-refer-to-'real'-name syndrome coupled with can't-use-punctuation-in-a-name - soon to be followed by can't-even-spell-the-word-"tENTATIVELY".
I am pleased that he actually manages to refer to some of the work & to get outside of history exclusively determined by Stewart. In the above he mentions B.O.M.B. (Baltimore Oblivion Marching Band). Our movie made at Three Mile Island can be witnessed here:
& then there's my "Party Naked" text & my "One Word per Person Party" movie which can be found online here:
He even shows the schedule from the 1982 Training Camp - which you can learn more about here:
1982.
The Neoist Network's First European Training Camp
I even have a fondness for the above diagram, which I'd forgotten about, given that there were times when many of these people were some of my best friends.
"indicidueller Mensch, der jeder sein kahn" ("indidivudal human who can be anyone" - close enough)
For more information about SMILEs.
I was going to take the time to translate both these paragraphs since they seem to be 'about' me as the 'archetypal kamikaze-Neoist' but, really, I just feel like finishing this web-page & moving on.
&, yes, there was conflict between Kantor & Home & I've written about it in various places but it might be best to just go here:
1995.
Neoism, Plagiarism & Praxis
Maybe this book isn't the art world exploitation that I was under the impression it was, maybe it's hilarious, I don't know. But if you're going to read books about Neoism I'd recommend the following (as well as Istvan Kantor's "Book of Neoism" which will hopefully be released later this year):
1991.
Neoist Manifestos / The Art Strike Papers
1997.
The House of Nine Squares
2010.
A NEOIST RESEARCH PROJECT
2013.
Anti-Media - Ephemera on Speculative Arts
Some of them will be very hard to find while others are easily located online. 'Reality' is much messier than 'fiction'.
idioideo at verizon dot net
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Anti-Neoism page
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Audiography page
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Bibliography page
to my "Blaster" Al Ackerman index
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE BYOC page
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Censored or Rejected page
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Collaborations page
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE (d) compositions page
to Amir-ul Kafirs' Facebook page
to the "FLICKER" home-page for the alternative cinematic experience
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's GoodReads profile
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Haircuts page
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Home Tapers page
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE index page
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Instagram Poetry page
to a listing of tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's manifestations on the Internet Archive
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE as Interviewee index
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE as Interviewer index
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE'S Linked-In profile
to the mm index
to see an underdeveloped site re the N.A.A.M.C.P. (National Association for the Advancement of Multi-Colored Peoples)
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's Neoism page
to the DEFINITIVE Neoism/Anti-Neoism website
to the Philosopher's Union website
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE movie-making "Press: Criticism, Interviews, Reviews" home-page
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's Score Movies
to SMILEs
to find out more about why the S.P.C.S.M.E.F. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Sea Monkeys by Experimental Filmmakers) is so important
to the "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - Sprocket Scientist" home-page
to Psychic Weed's Twitter page
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's Vimeo index
to Vine movies relevant to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE made by Ryan Broughman
to tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's presence in the Visual Music Village
for info on tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's tape/CD publishing label: WIdémoUTH
to a very small selection of tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's Writing
1984.
APT 8
1988.
Yet Another Slow-Burning Feast of a Few Months' Mischief in the U.K., Maybe
(A Partial(ly) Epistolary Account of Non-Non & Non-Participation, Maybe)