1989 - christopher columbus voyage in the planet of art

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THE 1992 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUSVOYAGE IN THE PLANET OF ART

To continue the Plexus art journey, from a controversial story of Christopher Columbus,

in his early experiences as captain, about a route correction made by altereting thecompass of his ship, in front of the Island of San Pietro, off Sardinia, Sandro Dernini gotthe idea to organize there an event in 1992, on the occasion of the 500 th anniversary of Columbuss landing in the Americas. Therefore, on March 10 of 1989, in New York, atthe Anderson Room of New York University, it was establish The 1992 Christopher Columbus Consortium, made up by a group of universities, community organizationsand individuals with the purpose to develop a variety of projects of voyages of culturalnavigation, within the global vision of the living planet.

The 1992 Christopher Columbus Anniversary : A Cultural Navigation

Artworks by Ivan Dalla Tana, New York 1989

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Christopher Columbus Consortiums Report N.1 to the Community

Joanee Freedom and Sandro Dernini, CUANDO, New York 1989

Arturo Lindsay and Sandro Dernini

Miguel Algarin and Mickey Pineros father, Juma Santos, CUANDO, New York 1989

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Christopher Columbus Consortium Report N.2 to the Community

Rivington School, 172 Forsythe Street, New York 1989

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The Departure of the 1992 Christopher Columbus Cultural Navigation

S. Di Lauro, Shock Troop Theatre, S. Dernini, G. Chaikin, Institute of Computer Art, New York 1989The Departure from the Albert Einstein's House

George Chaikin and Sandro Dernini, at Albert Einstein's House, Princeton 1989The Landing at the Physics Dept. of the University of Cagliari

Willem Brugman, S. Jackson S. Di Lauro, A. Caboni, David Boyle, Franco Meloni, Sandro DerniniPhysics Dept, University of Cagliari, 1989

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The 1992 Christopher Columbus Cultural Navigation

Elisabeth boat, Carloforte, Sardinia 1989

Antonio Caboni, Willem Brugman, Tanya Gerstle, Monte Liuru, Sardinia 1989

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Christopher Columbus Voyage in the Art Planet

Poster by Micaela Serino, Metateatro, Rome 1989

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M. Pia Marsala, M. Schwartz, Antonio Caboni, Willem Brugman, David Boyle, Tanya Gerstle, LuisaTaravella, Micaela Serino, Loreto Pappadia, A. Ducrot, Sara Jackson, Stephen Di Lauro,

Roberto Federici, Sandro Dernini, Fabrizio Bertuccioli

Stephen DiLauro, Willem Brugman, Sara Jackson, David BoyleMetateatro, Rome 1989, photos by Beppe Forli

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Antonio Caboni, Metateatro, Rome 1989

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PLEXUS BLACK BOX

At the end of the art opera 1992 Christopher Columbus Voyage in the Planet of Art ,Plexus was conceptually closed in a black box . The idea was metaphorically to "freezePlexus and its activities within a "black box" to be preserved for contemporary arthistory. It was a conscious act made for the historical survival of Plexus, in order tobypass internal artists conflicts raised by the participation of Plexus into the C.ColumbusConsortium and to gain time towards a new art strategy for the survival of Plexus.Therefore, Plexus Black Box was identified by Sandro Dernini as the subject of hisPh.D. dissertation in art education at the New York University.

The Closing of Plexus into a Black Box to Be Delivered to Art History

Roberto Federici , Sandro Dernini, Fabrizio Bertuccioli, Metatetro, Rome 1989, photo by Beppe Forli

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The Closing of Plexus into a Black Box to Be Delivered to Art History

Paola Muzzi and Sandro Dernini Antonio Caboni

S. Dernini, Metateatro, Rome 1989, photos by B. Forli

The Black Box (La Scatola Nera) At the finish of July we commence acomforting phase of auto-analysis that ismade possible by the relative confinement of the Plexus movement within the scattolanera (black box). The confinement isaccomplished by utilizing the material residue of the movement that we call documentation in a ritual manner. Until thisdecisive moment/action the Plexus

movement was following the traditional path into history, but by this action whichconstitutes an intervention in the process,we choose our point from which to addresshistory. The traditional path included agradual abandonment of active interest inthe movement. By utilizing the metaphor of planetary mass we could understand theevacuation of the most heavy elementsfrom the core of the body (mass) results inan instability that necessitates a collapseof the body to re-establish the core mass.

Rather than to wrack the body of thismovement with such a change of structure,we have intervened to freeze themovement in time through the use of ritual documentation. The core group isstabilized by this action. Founding members of the movement cited dissatisfaction with the shift within themovement away from new ideas. Theaction taken by the remaining elements of the movement to place the movement in asort of stasis to facilitate analysisrepresents a sort of retrospectiveconsensus.

David Boyle, New York 1989

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Open The Door of Your Heart to Go into the Future

Installation by Fabrizio Bertuccioli, Metateatro, Rome 1989, photos by Beppe Forli

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PLEXUS BLACK BOX OPEN CALL1982 1989

BRING YOUR IDEAS FOR A GENERAL DISCUSSION ON

PUT INTO A BLACK BOX YOUR CONTRIBUTION FOR AN ACTUAL DEFINITION OF WHAT

PLEXUS HAS BEEN, WHAT IT SHOULD BE, AND WHAT IT COULD BE.

The data collected until next September will be analysed by an

international board of referees after the public opening of the BLACK BOXin HollandFranco Meloni, Dept. of Physics, University of Cagliari, Italy, July 4 th, 1989

Paradox Any serious consideration of PLEXUS must take into account the distinction betweenthe objective reality, which is independent of any theory, and the physical conceptswith which the theory operates. Why to use a fundamental article at the basis of theunsolved questionable dispute between the probabilistic exponents of theCopenaghen School, and the deterministic scientists, Einstein et al., to introduce adiscussion concerning PLEXUS? To gain credibility, for example. And because of theintimate fashion that I see looking to problems involving few definite positions and many possible developments able to augment our desire to implement connectionsbetween different domains of knowledge. The most exciting and sometime appealing question I have ever heard in these two years of activity in PLEXUS concerns my

position as scientific entity in the not-ever-clear artistic movement. Generally, - What is PLEXUS? and what is your position in it? - is a very intriguing statement, mainly because of the complexity of the answer. I have tried many times to avoid a clear definition, but a night, forced by Sandro, a kind of equation came out in the form:PLEXUS = kB ln . There is a strong influence in this late-night output due to my old love for Boltzmann and for the implication that the true formula, where PLEXUS = S,the entropy of the system, had for the developments of Physics in many directions. It is very easy to connect the statement to many concepts in some way related toPLEXUS: i) there is the sense of the whole system as composed by separate but important parts: the artist in the first person; ii) there is the answer concerning thesystem as open or not, and the consequent entropy increment, with or without critical filters; iii) there is the close connection with the freedom of and in communication,Shannon relations of 1948 defining information as the difference of entropy beforeand after a message, and PLEXUS concerns also information; iv) there is in general the relationship between order and disorder; v) there is something of artistic in thedefinition of non-deterministic entities, in a sense exciting as von Neuman said on theterm entropy related to information: "...no one knows what entropy really is, so in adebate you will always have the advantage" ...

Franco Meloni, Department of Physics, University of Cagliari

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Plexus Black Box In all computers programs what they do not understand goes in a black box.Plexus Black Box project is basically a container for all miscellanies archetypes of artwhich are not explainable, when they not fit in the existing stereotypes of artworlds of music, theatre, visual art, etc. Plexus every two - three years goes into a reborn

phase, redefining what is going to do and Plexus Black Box serves for it. The bigproblem that Plexus is facing is money. A community-based urban intelligentsia,placed in different cities in the world, is the today core of Plexus and each hastheoretically pieces of the original archetype of Plexus Black Box turned into ametaphor. None knows what it is and what they are doing with it. But it allow allPlexus people to feel part of that culture and to make their own definition of it, which isfine because more information goes into and more information has to be defined.Plexus Black Box is an artform of artificial intelligence which about nobody knows inadvance because it is made as an happening with no money. In the end, themethodology of the conceptual Plexus Black Box may be considered as themethodology of the construction of a Faustian toy, in which more non usefulinformation goes in there. In turn, in the Plexus Black Box, more metamorphosis willcome out.

Mitch Ross, New York

Artwork by Mitch Ross, New York 1989

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1989 - christopher columbus voyage in the planet of art

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