Workshop for Non-Linear Architecture
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The Workshop for Non-Linear Architecture (WNLA) was the group name of experimental artists and Psychogeographers. The group was active in parts of Great Britain and Glasgow during the 1990s. Informed to a large degree by the urban practices of the Paris-based Lettriste Internationale (1952–1957), the workshop focused its practice on developing the Letterist theory of Unitary Urbanism. The development of the theory was done through physical research and behavioural intervention.
The artist Ralph Rumney (1934-2002), who had known many of the original Parisian leaders, participated in one of the groups derived in London in 1995. He is credited with bringing the activities of the workshop to a wider audience. The workshop appears to have disbanded shortly after the release of the fourth and final issue of its journal Viscosity. The journal is now infamous for having been selected by the K Foundation to announce their 23-year ban on all artistic practices.
British cultural commentator and activist Stewart Home became a champion of their unrestrained adventurism, including excerpts from the journal and an alluring taste of the type of works undertaken. These were present in a series of edited collections published by Serpent's Tail.
"The Joker, the incidental game of urban poker", was printed in "Mind Invaders". It describes a game of poker played between cities from playing cards found in the street. "St Andrews Arena" appeared in the collection "Suspect Device". It narrates one particular derive that took place in Glasgow in 1993. Other references to the workshop's activities have appeared in articles by Home, notably in the journal Variant.[1]
History
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During its 2-year 'Psychogeographical Survey of Glasgow' (1992–1994), the group concentrated on refining the interplay between the Letterist (and later Situationist) techniques of derived and constructed situations. The outcome, described in the essay "Programmed and constructed drifting; the event architectures of Unitary Urbanism" (Viscosity No.3 Glasgow, Jan 1994), highlighted the false separation between these two classic Situationist tools and their indivisibility in practice. The techniques were initially borrowed from the constrained writing techniques of the Oulipo, where the pure flow of an otherwise unbounded dérive is directed in its apparent randomness (and given an element of control over its protagonists) by applying parameters. The behavioral algorithms employed by WNLA range from elaborate "drifting machines" that are carried across the terrain and deployed at regular intervals to generate recursive instructions for movement (non-linear feedback loops), to the simple "anywhere" hitchhiking sign, a regular sight in the summer of 1993 being held aloft on the westbound pavement of the bridge on The M8's Great Western Road.
Artist Ralph Rumney (1934–2002) is credited with bringing the workshop's activities to a wider audience. He was acquainted with many of the original Parisian Letterists and participated in one of the group's dérives in London in 1995. It was assumed that WNLA had disbanded shortly after releasing the fourth and final issue of its journal Viscosity (now infamous for being selected by the K Foundation to announce its 23-year moratorium on all artistic practice). However, the journal suggests that the moratorium applied to the K Foundation and WNLA itself, with the group committing to stop mediating their activities entirely until 2018.
British cultural commentator and activist Stewart Home became a champion of WNLA's lucid adventurism, including excerpts from the journal and the type of works undertaken in a series of edited collections published by Serpent's Tail. References to the workshop's activities have appeared in "The Joker: A Game of Incidental Urban Poker" and were printed in Mind Invaders, describing a game of poker played between cities from playing cards found in the street. "St. Andrews Arena" appears in the collection Suspect Device and narrates one particular dérive in Glasgow in 1993. Other references have appeared in Home's articles, notably in the journal Variant.[2]
While the Workshop for Non-Linear Architecture has received little press, this is due to the WNLA's indifference towards media coverage rather than a policy decision. Indeed, the WNLA text 'The Joker: A Game of Incidental Urban Poker' included in the anthology describes exactly the sort of 'unusual activity - teams of players scavenging city streets for playing cards that make up the hands in games of poker which go on for months - that might receive coverage in the press if those involved had the slightest interest in publicizing their activities".[3]
References
- ^ Home, Stewart. "There's no success like failure", Variant, Volume 2 Number 1 (Winter 1996), p18 Home, Stewart. "Mondo Mythopoesis", Variant, Volume 2 Number 2 (Spring 1997), p7]
- ^ Home, Stewart. "There's no success like failure", Variant, Volume 2 Number 1 (Winter 1996), p18
Home, Stewart. "Mondo Mythopoesis", Variant, Volume 2 Number 2 (Spring 1997), p7 - ^ Home, Stewart. "Mind-Bending, Swamp Fever & The Ideological Vortex". Public Netbase, Vienna. 29 April 1998.
Bibliography
- Mind Invaders: A Reader in Psychic Warfare, Cultural Sabotage, And Semiotic Terrorism (Serpent's Tail London, 1997).
- Suspect Device: Hard-Edged Fiction (Serpent's Tail, London 2120)
External links
- The situationist website, containing many of the original translations undertaken by WNLA of the letterist bulletin Potlatch.