Stewart Home: Neoism, Plagiarism & Praxis (1995)

Neoism, Plagiarism & Praxis is concerned with what’s been happening at the cutting edge of culture since the demise of Fluxus and the Situationists. It provides inside information on the Neoists, Plagiarists, Art Strikers, London Psychogeographical Association, K Foundation, and other groups that are even more obscure.

Publisher AK Press, Edinburgh & San Francisco, 1995
ISBN 1873176333, 9781873176337
207 pages
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The Plagiarist Codex: An Old Maya Information Hieroglyph (1988)

“We have discovered from the barren wastelands of Central America an essential document in the early history of copyist strategies. Thought to have been created toward the end of the classical period of Mayan civilization, 998 A.D., the codex has been translated by a brilliant group of London plagiarists & the esteemed Amendant Hardiker from Wisconsin. Originally published by Plagerizedæ (Sic) Books in 1988 on the occasion of the Festival of Plagiarism held in London, San Francisco & Madison, WI. It is now distributed by Xexoxial Endarchy.” (mIEKAL aND, 1998)

“Something of a manifesto for plagiarism, Wisconsin style. Speaks to the enrichment of cultural dialogue through the reuse of old ideas in new combinations. An extension of collage theory if you will, in that not only are images and texts conflumed in a single multitrack, they are enriched by their new context and the new way they are perceived. The booklet consists of a series of ideograms put next to series of words, parallel text like the Rosetta Stone, serving to transliterate the sense of the pictures. Some, it would seem, are genuinely Maya, others are not. The coinages are exquisite: a useful one is “imagiarism”. Speaks of a communal body of ideas to which everyone has unabashed and inalienable rights. How can you steal whatʼs already yours?” (from the PhotoStatic Magazine review, 1988)

Publisher Plagerizedæ (Sic) Books, Madison, Wisconsin, 1988
Distributed by Xexoxial Editions
ISBN 1440442851
50 pages
via Xerox Sutra Editions

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Stewart Home (ed.): Plagiarism: Art as Commodity and Strategies for its Negation (1987)

“This is a pamphlet intended to accompany the debate that surrounds ‘The Festival Of Plagiarism’, but it may also be read and used separately from any specific event. It should not be viewed as a catalogue for the festival, as it contains opinions that bear no relation to those of a number of people participating in the event.

Presented here are a number of divergent views on the subjects of plagiarism, art and culture. One of the problems inherent in left opposition to dominant culture is that there is no agreement on the use of specific terms. Thus while some of the ‘essays’ contained here are antagonistic towards the concept of art — defined in terms of the culture of the ruling elite — others use the term in a less specific sense and are consequently less critical of it. Since the term ‘art’ is popularly associated with cults of ‘genius’ it would seem expedient to stick to the term ‘culture’ — in a non-elitist sense — when describing our own endeavours. Although culture as a category appears to be a ‘universal’ experience, none of its individual expressions meet such a criteria. This is the basis of our principle objection to art — it claims to be ‘universal’ when it is very clearly class based.

Hopefully this pamphlet, and the festival itself, will go some way towards demonstrating that there has been an opposition to art since the term took on its modern meaning in the eighteenth century.” (from the Introduction)

Publisher Aporia, London, 1987
ISBN 0948518871, 9780948518874
No copyright
30 pages

The Last Word: Art Strike, Word Strike, Plagiarism and Originality (by Mark Bloch)

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