Neoism is aparodistic-ism. It refers both to a specific subcultural network of artistic performance and media experimentalists, and, more generally, to a practical underground philosophy. It operates with collectively sharedpseudonyms andidentities,pranks,paradoxes,plagiarism andfakes, and has created multiple contradicting definitions of itself in order to defy categorization and historization.
Definitions of Neoism were always disputed. Themain source of this is the undefinable concept of Neoism which createdvastly different, tactically distorted accounts of Neoism and itshistory. Undisputed, however, are the origin of the movement in the late 1970s Canada. It was initiated by Hungarian-born Canadian performance and media-artistIstvan Kantor (akaMonty Cantsin) in 1979, in Montreal. At around the same time the open-pop-star identity of Monty Cantsin was spread through theMail ArtistDavid Zack[1] (born New Orleans, June 12, 1938, died presumably in Texas ca. 1995) with the collaboration of artists Maris Kudzins and performance artist Istvan Kantor.
Schisms followed in the mid-1980s. Questions and concerns arose about whether the "open pop star" Monty Cantsin moniker was being overly associated with certain individuals. Later, writerStewart Home sought to separate himself from the rest of the Neoist network, manifesting itself inHome's books on Neoism as opposed to the variousNeoist resources in the Internet. In non-Neoist terms, Neoism could be called an international subculture which in the beginning put itself into simultaneous continuity and discontinuity with, among others, experimental arts (such asDada,Surrealism,Fluxus andConcept Art),punk,industrial music andelectropop, political and religiousfree-spirit movements,science fiction literature, 'pataphysics and speculativescience. Neoism also gathered players with backgrounds ingraffiti and street performance, language writing (later known aslanguage poetry),experimental film andvideo,Mail Art, the earlyChurch of the Subgenius andgay andlesbian culture. Neoism then gradually transformed from an active subculture into a self-writtenurban legend. As a side effect, many other subcultures, artistic and political groups since the late 1980s have—often vaguely—referred to or even opposed Neoism and thereby perpetuated its myth.
Since the gradual disappearance of Neoism in the 1990s, brief offshoots have appeared includingThe Seven By Nine Squares, Stewart Home's frequent use ofKaren Eliot (as well asSandy Larson,Luther Blissett (nom de plume) and others) to replace Monty Cantsin as the embodiment of the open pop star concept. "This project... confuses the restrictions that both define and delimit individual identity.... Changing details, such as biographical particulars... are usually considered indispensable [sic] in securing the signature of an individual."[2]
Neoism, as a name for a different context, was coined in 1914 by the American satiristFranklin P. Adams as a parody of modern arts.[3]Sydney J. Bounds used the word as the name of a planet in his 1977 science fiction storyNo Way Back.[4] In 1980 Monty spent two weeks at mail artistGinny Lloyd's San Francisco Storefront,[5] a one year living art project holding art events and installations in a storefront window. He lived in the space, compiled writings and launched his Blood Campaign.
Neoism quickly spread to other places in America, Europe and Australia and involved up to two dozens ofNeoists. Until the late 1980s and before the mass availability of theInternet, themail art network continued to be used as the main communication and propaganda channel for Neoism.[6]
Neoists refer to their strategies as "the great confusion" and "radical play". They were acted out in semi-privateApartment Festivals which took place in North America, Europe and Australia between 1980 and 1998 and in publications which sought to embody confusion and radical play rather than just describing it. Consequently, both Neoist festivals and Neoist writing experimented with radical undermining of identity, bodies, media, and notions of ownership and truth. Unlike typicalpostmodern currents, the experiment was practical and therefore existential. Monty Cantsin, for example, was not simply a collective pseudonym or mythical person, but anidentity lived byNeoists in their everyday life.
For these purposes, Neoists employedperformance,video, small press publications (such asSmile, the international magazine of multiple origins) andcomputer viruses, but also food (Chapati), flaming steam irons and metal coat hangers (used as telepathic antennas). Borrowing fromThomas Pynchon, Neoism could be more suitably called an "anarchist miracle" of an international network of highly eccentric persons collaborating, often with extremist intensity, under the one shared identity of Monty Cantsin and Neoism.
In 2004, Neoism was cited byJavier Ruis in response to theNational Assembly Against Racism's condemnation ofanarchists disrupting the ThirdEuropean Social Forum session on anti- m and anti-racism inLondon (PGA Considered As Neoist Invisible Theatre).
In the early 1980s, the NeoistReinhard U. Sevol foundedAnti-Neoism, which other Neoists adopted by declaringNeoism a pure fiction created by Anti-Neoists. The Dutch NeoistArthur Berkoff operated as a one-person-movement "Neoism/Anti-Neoism/Pregroperativism". Similarly,Blaster Al Ackerman declared himself a "Salmineoist" after Sicilian-American actorSal Mineo, andJohn Berndt was credited by Ackerman as having given Neoism the name "Spanish Art," circa 1983. In 1989, following the post-Neoist "Festival of Plagiarism" inGlasgow, Scotland, artistMark Bloch leftmail art and after publishing "The Last Word" remained defiantly silent on Neoism for almost two decades. In 1994,Stewart Home founded theNeoist Alliance as an occult order with himself as the magus. At the same time,Italian activists of theLuther Blissett project operated under the name "Alleanza Neoista".
In 1997, the criticOliver Marchart organized a "Neoist World Congress" inVienna which did not involve any Neoists. In 2004, Istvan Kantor received theGovernor General's Award, and an international "Neoist Department Festival" took place inBerlin.
Withtheir design prankCONSUMER'S RESTLounge Chair,[7][8][9][10] the "one-man artist group"Stiletto Studio,s [fr][11][12][13] established a sub- as well as counter-culturally motivated connection between neoistically determined aspects of cultural consumption criticism and design consumption critical aspects ofNeues Deutsches Design (New German Design) [de] at the9th Neoist Festival inPonte Nossa in 1985 and at theFestival of Plagiarism inBraunschweig'sUniversity of Art in 1988.[14][15][16] They also engaged in media consumption-critical public relations work in neoist collaborations and conspirations, especially with Neoism's foremosttherroristtENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE (cit.: "Neoism is a prefix and a suffix with no substance in between"[17]) on the aspect ofInterpassivity, a neoist term coined by Stiletto. Since 1988 they had been consulted byGordon W. [de] on a regular, from 1994 on predominantly interpassive basis as antineoistnutritionists. In 1995Stiletto Studio,s presentedLESS function IS MORE fun as a post-neoist special waste sale ofdesign-defuncts in theSpätverkauf project store byLaura Kikauka at theVolksbühne Berlin.[18][19][20][21]
Other artists who explicitly if vaguely credit Neoism areThe KLF,Luther Blissett,Alexander Brener/Barbara Schurz, Lee Wells andLuke Haines (ofThe Auteurs andBlack Box Recorder). The contemporary Dutch ArtistThomas Raat created a series of artworks based on Neoist manifestos and photographic documents.[22]
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"Neoism is a prefix and a suffix with no substance in between" - tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
"Neoism is a movement to create the illusion that there's a movement called Neoism." "Come, join us. We want war with you." - John Berndt
"If Neoism didn't exist, we would have to NOT create it" - Artemus Barnoz
"It is not a matter of describing Neoism but of abolishing" - Luther Blissett
"Neoism doesn't exist except in the reactions it creates" - Roberto Bui (Wu Ming Yi)
"Time is not money and we have plenty of it" - Kiki Bonbon
"Plagiarism is Necessary. Progress Implies It. NO MORE MASTERPIECES!" - Karen Eliot
"Neoisms not just for Xmas, it's for life!" - Stewart Home
"We are the Neoists, do NOT listen to us" - Monty Cantsin