The recent death of Fluxus poet Emmet Williams prompted me to write about the not-so-well-known anti-art "movement." Fluxus is a loosely organized group of poets, musicians, performers, collagists and other visual artists founded in the early 1960's by Lithuanian artist George Macunias.

Like Dada before it Fluxus centers around the artist's personality and attitude. It strives to create art that is based in the mundane. It takes its cues from low culture: slapstick, vaudville, the circus. Its work is ephemeral. It is improvisatory. It is fun.

Artists affiliated with Fluxus are founders Jackson Mac Low, Al Hansen, George Brecht and Dick Higgins, as well as Yoko Ono, Geoffrey Hendricks, John Cage, Robert Watts, Nam Jun Paik, La Monte Young, Charlotte Moorman, and Ray Johnson.
I had the great pleasure of working with Hendricks and Watts in the late 1970s. Through them I developed a sensibility of art as a very personal endeavor that shouldn't be taken too seriously.

There are a great many Fluxus resources on the web. A good place to start is the Fluxus Portal, which contains a history, examples of work, current activities and lots of links. Of particular interest is the Flux Tellus, a repository of sound works available for download. Also worth checking out is UbuWeb, a resource of avant garde and outsider art.