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December 1st, 2007 10:02 AMIt is not our group affiliations that define the structure of SFØ – it is our actions.
The conscious domination of history by the people who make it — this is the entire revolutionary project. Modern history, like all past history, is the product of social praxis, the (unconscious) result of human activities.
[On Poverty of Student Life, Situationist International and the Students of Strasbourg, November 1966]
This is not a player-photograph-mob; this is not a task-flagging charade. This is a show of strength. We will wage this war in the Praxis, through the completion of Tasks. Tasks are the only currency of SFZero, and the Praxis is the only battlefield.
We will Task the University out of the Praxis!
YOUR ORDERS:
As a Soldier of the Revolution, you will Task to manifest the viability of non-Aesthematics. These are appropriate Soldierly activities:
1) Complete a task which is not available to the U of A. Rub it in their faces what they cannot do without our help!
2) Invite an Aesthematic to collaborate on a task which they are normally barred from completing. Lure them away from the University!
3) DO NOT FLAG legitimate Aesthematic posts. This war cannot be won through violence. WE CAN DEFEAT THE UNIVERSITY THROUGH TASKING ALONE!
As an Officer of the Revolution (a self-inaugurated position), you will take action to promote the War on Aesthematics:
4) Task true to your Trajectory of Desire. It has often been tempting to complete general-list tasks in an Aesthematic fashion by creating art-objects or altering digital images. Reconsider how you can creatively evoke your Group in the tasks you complete: manifest the ephemeral in real life, task for a cause, check your timing, play the fool, use your pen as a sword, task while walking the dérive! Make this visible in your Praxis.
5) It is widely believed that nearly any Task can apply to the Aesthematic Trajectory. Prove that all tasks can apply to your Trajectory as well: Complete an Aesthematic-only task illegitimately, from a non-Aesthematic point of view. For example, complete Standing in the Shadow of Art in the forest. Find a subversive way to post this completion to the Praxis (perhaps a reversal of #2, above).
Psychogeographers: Art On The Go demands your action!
6) Propose a Task which champions a non-Aesthematic Trajectory, and Group it appropriately. Post no more “groupless” tasks – too many Group-specific tasks have been listed as General Tasks. Think your suggestions through – show no weaknesses of creativity!
7) When an Aesthematic-only Task is posted to the Praxis, analyze it in terms of its validity to a non-Aesthematic Trajectory of Desire. If it champions a non-Aesthematic Group over the U of A, congratulate it in the Praxis with a Vote and appropriate commentary.
8) An Officer of the Revolution never lowers themselves by heckling and slander! That is the realm of Aesthematic insular art-critics like [Senator] Burn Unit.
POST NON-AESTHMATIC TASKS WITH AESTHAMATIC COLLABORATORS HERE
(luring the enemy to our side!)
Correspond with a spammer- Completed with the help of Jane Doe
Vandalize reality- Completed with the help of Jane Doe
Bathe a Book - Completed with the help of Lia Lowry.
USE THIS SPACE TO POST OTHERWISE ILLEGITIMATE AESTHEMATIC COMPLETIONS:
I know you can't really see what's going on, but it is my shadow in the form of black plastic on a Eucalyptus tree in the panhandle at three am.
Take apart art- Completed with the help of Neil.
Image sanitization- Completed with the help of Neil.
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Oh, and I note that, except for Suzy suz, no one who has enlisted so far is in the UofA. That makes me feel a little better, knowing that, at least in this task, the pooinson of division has not entered our hallowed halls (haven't looked closely at the two declarations of war yet, though).
Allow me to add my words as well:
I love The University of Aesthematics. Indeed, I love SF0 and all the groups it contains.
I have always seen the university as a welcoming and accepting group, open to artists of all kinds. The fact that it is this way is one of the things that appealed to me; its broad scope was an invitation, not an exclusion. We seek art. We find art wherever we can, and create it when we cannot. That drive naturally pulls us each in our own direction, and thus we spread broadly. But that does not mean that we have lost our Drive. Far from it! We see our drive everywhere, as I suspect we all do.
I love the other groups as well; I can honestly say that it was a hard choice for me when I joined. And I am always happy to collaborate and work with other groups; I think that the group requirement is a brilliant way of getting people to come together and build something greater. It is a small obstacle which teaches us to overcome all obstacles.
If I were a better opponent, I would perhaps be angry and feel compelled to strike back against those who are waging war against the university. I do not. I hope that those who fight may still be convinced to lay down their arms and build a better future alongside me. I feel only sadness for those who would rally against any SF0 group, mine or any other. Sadness that they feel anger against something I am a part of, and sadness that they feel that we have kept art for our own. Of course you do not need to be an Aesthetematician to create art! Just as you need not be in BARTPA to seek travel and transportation, in Biome to find the joy in living things, in Equivalenz to take the virtual and make it real, or in Humanitarian Crisis to strive to make things better for people. For better or for worse, these groups each speak to something inside us; those conflicting and overlapping desires are not a terror--they are a joy! Yes, we each have our own trajectory of desire, some passion which runs strongest within us--but each mighty stream has many tributaries which feed it; these rivers flow within us all.
Strike our face? We embrace you.
Tear down our walls? We open our doors to you.
Destroy us? You cannot. You are us, as we are you.
I refuse to accept this war. You are not my enemies.
I agree that the basis of the University needs to remain somewhere within sf0, I merely believe it covers too much.
I do not seek to destroy the university, I seek to split it into 2 or possibly 3 smaller groups. This will solve the problem of the UofA being the highest signed up to group, and the problem of the UofA included in many more tasks than any other.
You can have a trajectory that's too narrow, and one too wide.
All of sf0 is art, or creativity at least.
To me the revolution is just about reminding people to step out of the bounds of regular drawing/painting and contemplate how to be completely unique in tasking.
I was intrigued by that function of the revolution and immediately started wondering how I could complete "Honest Mail" without drawing, as I was planning to.
Your numbers do not intimidate me. The Trajectory is too broad; the Task list might as well be entirely Black. There is no difference to be found within the title of the Aesthematics; difference is only found with-out. Players who join the University do so uninformed. They do not yet know the inefficacy of the University system. The Revolution offers these players a way out, and we will welcome them with open arms.
------
The University was built to breed product. It is a factory of meaning that feeds the capitalist system. Artists should have no need of its structure any longer. The University cannot teach us to manufacture meaning: meaning is found in the streets. I speak these words as a dissatisfied member of the University of Aesthematics, who has abandoned those empty halls in pursuit of the Real.
If we separate the Aesthematics from their interest in Product and Appearance, the only tenet left is Technique. A Group based only on Technique would be called Artificers or Aestheticians, and the University would be a Guild. A Group patterened thus would still be questionable, because it has no Desire, only Skill -- but it is not mine to decide. My prerogative is only to destroy the University.
The Revolution will be total, or it will not be.
Eddy! Why did you enlist? Come back from the dark side!
I think I'm going to stay on my little UofA Switzerland....
1. GY0 Tom - If your goal is not to destroy the UofA, then you do not belong in this revolution. Your goal is counter to The Revolutionary's, as he clearly states above. Spidere and I are not in the party of folks who wish to war with the Revolution. We simply wish to stop it and work peacefully on ways to better both the UofA (which definitely has flaws) and SF0 in general. I think I can speak for Spidere and say that we feel that the complete dissolution of the UofA would cause tragic harm to SF0 as a whole, and is unnecessary to fix the issues regarding the weight of the different trajectories of desire. Please join us. Hopefully there will be a more concrete way to do so soon.
2. annnna - I believe that many of the things spoken of by the Revolutionary are much needed ideas about how to view tasking in general and how to view it in relation to the different trajectories specifically. I think they are great, and yours is a perfect example of one of them. But as I said, the Revolutionary is specifically seeking the destruction of the UofA, not just fixing some flaws in the system. If you don't agree with dismantling one of the groups entirely, then you don't belong in the revolution. If you believe you want to try to fix the flaws and make SF0 better, you belong with those of us who are willing to put our energy into that, rather than putting energy into squabbling over semantics.
3. Revolutionary - your comment above, as I eluded to in my last sentence, is squabbling over semantics. First, just because the UofA might be a "factory" of meaning, that is not necessarily a bad thing, nor does it mean we serve the "capitalist system". Look at Warhol's factory. Yes, they sold things. Yes, they did much that was commercial. However, at every step, Warhol and the others in that Factory subverted the very same commercialism. Look at the coke bottles or soup cans and tell me it is not a comment that both criticizes and celebrates mass production and consumerism at the same time. That is not feeding the capitalist system, and the fact that the capitalist system then went on to re-frame it for it's own purposes does not damn the original creators for making it. A factory is not a bad thing, necessarily.
And lastly, how can you separate the Aesthematics from our interest in Product and Appearance. You can't. Aesthematics is not solely about any of the things you list, but is about all of them, including desire and passion, and you cannot separate any as they are melded too tightly together.
Your airy revolutionary babble is neither cogent nor coherent to the true points at hand, and only dazzle and confuse. The real issue is that you don't like the over reaching influence that the UofA has on the task list in general, nor do you like the fact that so many more people have chosen UofA over the other groups. Both are problems and both can be solved. Peacefully, and without revolution or war. I implore you, too, to lay down your revolutionary banner, and join us in bringing SF0 into a brighter, better tomorrow.
My goal is technically to destroy the University.
However, I believe SFZero does need a group to represent the arts, or 2 or 3.
Maybe one for visual arts, one for written arts and one for auditory arts.
The difficulty with having a group representing the written arts is that writing is often an individual action. Yes, writers collaborate all the time, but much more often a writer is a sole creator, working alone. Forcing players from other groups to collaborate on every writing based task would make many of those tasks more difficult and less appealing at the same time.
I haven't read the LEWL texts yet, and perhaps you've already solved these issues... but if not, I would say that most writing based works belong in the set of tasks available to everyone (especially since one can easily write from the point of view of any trajectory of desire).
And you did not mention performing arts, or their subcategories of dance and drama. Subdivision can go on for quite some time, and good arguments can be made for each subdivision. This makes SF0 more complicated. But perhaps that is a good thing. I don't know yet.
Just an example of the kind of thoughts that can go into a peacful resolution instead of a fighting revolution. Killing the University outright will not achieve your goals GYO Tom. It will only make them harder to attain.
If you'd read through the LEWL tasks and completions you would've seen that we took the text-heaviness of the completions into account and tried to incorporate general language and symbology into the group.
We trusted the people of sf0 to be able to think of many new and exciting tasks involving the written, the spoken and the symbolic.
Too many tasks are completed in the name of the Aesthematicians merely because they emphasize technique and presentation. Should no other group take pride in a task well done and well presented, merely because that presentation makes it the domain of the University? When other groups take pride in presentation and form, what then separates the Aesthematic tasks, except their lack of adherence to another Trajectory?
The Aesthematic trajectory is too broad; it does little to distinguish the completions by its members from groupless completions.
Moderate amounts of restriction, exemplified by the other trajectories, breed creativity and cooperation. Tear down the University. Make tasts for those groups that align with the spirit of the task itself. Through the group alignments, and the limitations they impose, our creativity can be magnified.
Long live The Revolution!
I understand that, I was saying that there is room for LEWL tasks to be visual, auditory or written.
As with every other group.
Exceptionally eloquent, Levitating Potato.
The goals of the Revolution have been stated. They are clear, and they are undeniable. Save your art-theory prattle for the wretched lecture halls of the University.
If there is truth to be found, it is in the Praxis. No one makes themselves heard on the comment board.
Get to Tasking, Sir JTony. That's what we're all here for.
“Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! Let’s do something, while we have the chance! It’s not every day that we are needed. Let us make the most of it before it is too late!”
[Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett]
"The understanding of art changes very slowly. The work character of art was already being questioned one hundred years ago. Since then artists have attempted to perform functions that go far beyond the production of objects."
[From the Object to the Concrete Intervention, WochenKlausur]
Get tasking indeed, Mr. Revolutionary.
I take that charge to heart.
But I task neither for the Revolution nor Against it,
but for the betterment of all of SF0.
I believe it would be better if we all just
Gave Peace a Chance
I, too, am for the betterment of all of SF0. I choose to express how that betterment may best be accomplished, in my opinion, through my participation in the revolution.
We, who have declared war on the war on the University of Aestematics agree that change is good and revolution can lead to great things. However, The Revolutionary has insisted that the Revolution will be total or it will not be. We demand that it not be.
We demand that the forces of the Revolution recognize that the University is an integral part of SF0.
We demand that the forces of the Revolution recognize that the University's trajectory, as it stands now (being about form rather than content emphasizing Technique, Presentation, and Product), is sufficient.
The forces of the Revolution will stand down immediately or face retribution (perhaps with the use of designated player killing zones).
Sir Lincoln,
Unfortunately, there will be no stand-down. The goals of the Revolution have been clearly stated, are justified, and have not been met.
I appreciate your Declaration of War. Resistance is far more productive than apathy. I will interpret this as a collaboration between your forces and ours to create a more perfect SFØ.
Apologies again, esteemed foe, but should we capture you, we will behead you in a Player Killing Area.
Yours,
The Revolutionary
i could not be prouder to have been added to the ranks of this noble cause.
as a member of the offending class, i am in a strange position. i signed up for u of a based on the (genius) statement of purpose presented to me on the groups page before seeing a single task or praxis falling under its gigantic umbrella. reading the description of the group, i believed that u of a stood for everything that i love about creating, and against everything i hate about the
world of art. it seemed like a golden path of ideas over object worship, process over end result, unexpected mediums over squares on the wall, tiny audiences over mass appeal. in short it seemed perfect.
in fact, in so far as trajectories go, i still stand behind u of a's; on paper, i am u of a through and through. but i have been disappointed with my experience of the reality of u of a in opposition to my vision of what it should be. looking through my completions (and my queue) there is not a single black-only task, and most of my praxes have been completed in non-u of a specific modes.
it is my belief that this discrepancy can only be accounted for by admitting that u of a has, in practicality, become something other than what is laid out in its trajectory. the tasks being created for it have thus become less compelling. i feel that many tasks that are unavailable to me are better suited to what i consider the spirit of u of a, and i find it endlessly frustrating. i feel moldy and stiff. i feel like a part of an overfat ruling class that is resting on its laurels. i feel like a cog in an outmoded machine not running at maximum efficiency.
it is for these reasons that i have decided to join the side of the revolution and do my part in overthrowing the institution of u of a. this, of course, has no bearing on my feeling about its members, who are widely known to be some of the most creative and inspiring characters in the game. truly, i feel that other u of a members would be wise to heed the call as well if they are interested in using their many incredible talents for purposes that fall outside of the convention that is often termed "art" for lack of more elegant and specific words.
and jtony: i feel that perhaps the reason that there are not more "black" players listed on this page yet is because we had to take an action by completing a task with a non u of a player, which takes time and coordination, especially in the case that you want the completion to be not just a gesture, but something worthy of the history books. i suspect that you will see the color black seeping into this praxis like india ink into damp rag paper before you know it.
Lara, you are astoundingly articulate. I admire that. And I admire you exponentially more after perusing your recent praxis.
Looks like this has backfired in my case. As a relatively newly-minted SF0 player, as an Aesthematician who had been torn between multiple groups upon entry, and as a tasker who bears much love and respect for my fellow SF0 players of all groups, I would appear to be a perfect target for this revolution.
Even more so, as when I learned that my University would be retiring at the end of the era, I was actually pleased - both to have been a part of it during its run, and to have a chance to experience life in other groups. I was satisfied to have been there, and would need no revolution to move on.
What went wrong is this: the more I see of the Revolutionary's divisive and bombastic rhetoric, the more inclined I am to oppose the revolution as a whole. I will not turn against my fellow SF0 members with division in my mind, and being encouraged to do so - by one who espouses only vile invective towards my fellows and our works - does nothing but strengthen my resolve to stand by my fellows.
Leaving our beloved University may be unavoidable in the new Era, but I will never denigrate or disparage its teachings. I will carry them onwards in my travels with new groups. A proud Aesthematic Baccalaureate, regardless of where I will move on to from the University, but its teachings will be carried on by me and my many, many classmates.
...and I have no idea what the heck has been going on.
But anyways, I will continue to invite Aesthmatics to complete Existenz tasks. The revolution can happen, one task at a time!
You declare your feelings well, Fizzbang. We'll see you on the Praxis.
故勝兵若以鎰稱銖 , 敗兵若以銖稱鎰
勝者之戰民也 , 若決積水于千仞之谿者 , 形也
mr. fish,
thank you for the kind words about my words and the propers on the recent completion. let's hope it wins a few people over to our side!
you can't fire me, i quit!!
get us out of this silly little completion.... posthaste.
Jackson,
I was wondering the same, so I asked a friend I know who can read classical Chinese to translate it for me. Her answer (bracketed comments are hers, not mine):
"Thus, to win with soldiers is like calling an yi a zhu, while to lose with soldiers is like calling a zhu an yi. [An yi is a measure of weight, either equal to 480 or 576 zhu.]
As for the fighting of the victor against the people, it is like trying to remove the accumulated water in a valley one thousand ren deep. [A ren is a unit of length.]"
EDIT: By the way, it's a quote from Sunzi, which is unsurprising given who posted it.
The state of things in sf0 is the will of the people.
If Aesthematics has a lot of members, it is because it speaks to a lot of folks.
If it has a lot of tasks it is because they have been proposed by the people who play.
If people do not interpret their trajectory narrowly, it is because this kind of constriction is not interesting to them.
The citizens of sf0 have spoken. And most of them have said “Aethematics.” Saying this has meaning for them. But does not affect you.
Some of them have said Biome. Some have said HC or Equivalenz or BartPA. And they can say it until they are blue in the face, but it impacts me not at all.
Dear Queen Bex of the Aesthematics,
It is my fear that the Revolution is necessary. I have articulated my perspective here. If you have the time, I would love for you to give me your response to these claims.
The Revolutionary is correct.
All of the other groups should be absorbed into the University.
"WE'RE ALL ONE OR NONE!" "TEACH LOVE THY ENEMY!"ONE! ALL ONE! Whatever unites mankind is better than whatever divides us! I work hard perfecting first me, like Mark Spitz-arctic owls-penguin-pilot-cat-swallow-beaver, bee. No half-true hate! Enlarge the positive! All One! 100% Pure and Cruelty Free! Dilute! Dilute!
maybe all we need is a good group hand washing!!!
A Hegemony of Homogeneity? No.
You didn't need to create chaotic unrest and hate in the groups.
May peace and reason reign,
-Someone,
Still a member of the university,
Second floor, painting and lit department.
Quit the University. It'll get you nowhere.
I like and agree with your orders (and mostly the way you word them (though heckling Burn Unit in an order forbidding heckling is at best hypocritical plus showing your minions a bad example). Unfortunately, because I agree AND I think the current system ALREADY embraces most of these ideas, I cannot enlist and am against the revolution as a whole.
One thing your orders seem to leave out is the idea of the system being as much about people as groups. The group system is there to foster cooperation between people with different trajectories of desire. When it works, From Calvinball to Doorhenge, it works wonders (note that even my own Restoration task, which launched me headfirst into sf0 ended up being a collaboration between UofA and EquivalenZ... even though no such cooperation was required. I believe these ad hoc cooperations happen all the time.
I think the problem you see is that the UofA is so strong in numbers of people, that it is to popular and thus holds the other groups back. I do believe there may be too many people in the UofA compared to the others, and that perhaps some sort of campaign for the other groups might help them grow their numbers (in the current decade of "Greenness" I'm sure biome could benefit by jumping on that bandwagon). Perhaps petitioning a way to SF0 at large to allow members of each group to write up the marketing copy etc. for each group that new players see when they choose might be another good tactic. Perhaps doing those things instead of wasting time and dividing the UofA with a needless revolution.
I also want to say that I am reluctant to join the "War" on the other side (although I could surely use the points... trying to get to Level 7 before the New year). I am against the divisiveness that is being shown and would rather see people thinking about bigger and better solutions. A war just saps resources, time, and energy we could all be using to task.
So, I am not enlisting, but instead say simply, Vive La Difference!