First published in "Nova revija", No. 23/24, 1997 (a Slovene review for cultural and political issues).
10 ITEMS OF THE COVENANT
The Slovene Luther Blissett Manifesto
1.
Luther Blissett works as a team (the collective spirit), according to the principle of industrial production and totalitarianism, which means that the individual does not speak; the organization does. Our work is industrial, our language political.
2.
Luther Blissett analyzes the relation between ideology and culture in a late phase, presented through art. Luther Blissett sublimates the tension between them and the existing disharmonies (social unrest, individual frustrations, ideological oppositions) and thus eliminates every direct ideological and systemic discursiveness. The very name and the emblem are visible materializations of the idea on the level of a cognitive symbol. The name Luther Blissett is a suggestion of the actual possibility of establishing a politicized (system) ideological art because of the influence of politics and ideology.
3.
All art is subject to political manipulation (indirectly - consciousness; directly), except for that which speaks the language of this same manipulation. To speak in political terms means to reveal and acknowledge the omnipresence of politics. The role of the most humane form of politics is the bridging of the gap between reality and the mobilizing spirit Ideology takes the place of authentic forms of social consciousness. The subject in modern society assumes the role of the politicized subject by acknowledging these facts. Luther Blissett reveals and expresses the link of politics and ideology with industrial production and the unbridgeable gaps between this link and the spirit.
4.
The triumph of anonymity and facelessness has been intensified to the absolute through a technological process. All individual differences of the authors are annulled, every trace of individuality erased. The technological process is a method of programming function. It represents development; i.e., purposeful change. To isolate a particle of this process and form it statically, means to reveal man's negation of any kind of evolution which is foreign to and inadequate for his biological evolution. Luther Blissett adopts the organizational system of industrial production and the identification with the ideology as its work method. In accordance with this, each member personally rejects his individuality, thereby expressing the relationship between the particular form of production system and ideology and the individual.The form of social production appears in the manner of production of Luther Blissett himself and the relations within the group. The group functions operationally according to the principle of rational transformation, and its (non-hierarchical) structure is in-coherent.
5.
The internal structure functions on the directive principle
and symbolizes the relation of ideology towards the individual.
The idea is concentrated in one (and the same) person, who is
prevented from any kind of deviation. The quadruple principle
acts by the same key (EBER-SALIGER-KELLER-DACHAUER), which - predestined
- conceals in itself an arbitrary number of sub-objects (depending
on the needs).
The flexibility and anonymity of the members prevents possible
individual deviations and allows a permanent revitalization of
the internal juices of life. A subject who can identify himself
with the extreme position of contemporary industrial production
automatically becomes Luther Blissett (and is simultaneously condemned
for his objectivization).
6.
The basis of Luther Blissett's activity lies in its concept
of unity, which expresses itself in each media according to appropriate
laws (art, music, film...).
The material of Luther Blissett manipulation: Rosicrucian, psychogeography,
Mail Art, dadaism...
The principle of work is totally constructed and the compositional
process is a dictated "ready-made:" Industrial production
is rationally developmental, but if we extract from this process
the element of the moment and emphasize it, we also designate
to it the mystical dimension of alienation, which reveals the
magical component of the industrial process. Repression of the
industrial ritual is transformed into a compositional dictate
and the politicization of the name can become absolute anonymity.
7.
Luther Blissett excludes any evolution of the original idea; the original concept is not evolutionary but entelechical, and the presentation is only a link between this static and the changing determinant unit. We take the same stand towards the direct influence of the development of culture on the Luther Blissett concept; of course, this influence is a material necessity but it is of secondary importance and appears only as a historical cultural foundation of the moment which, in its choice is unlimited. Luther Blissett expresses its timelessness with the artifacts of the present and it is thus necessary that at the intersection of politics and industrial production (the culture of art, ideology, consciousness) it encounters the elements of both, although it wants to be both. This wide range allows Luther Blissett to oscillate, creating the illusion of movement (development).
8.
Luther Blissett practices provocation on the revolted state
of the alienated consciousness (which must necessarily find itself
an enemy) and unites warriors and opponents into an expression
of a static totalitarian scream.
It acts as a creative illusion of strict institutionality, as
a social theater of popular culture, and communicates only through
non-communication.
9.
Besides Luther Blissett, which concerns itself with the manner
of industrial production in totalitarianism, there also exist
two other groups in the concept of Luther Blissett Art aesthetics:
LE COCO FRUITWEAR studies the emotional side, which is outlined
in relations to the general ways of emotional, erotic and family
life, lauding the foundations of the state functioning of emotions
on the old classicist form of new social ideologies.
RIGUSRS (Geo-Art Statistic Research Institute of the Republic
of Slovenia) is a contribution towards the definition of the typology
and topology of the slovenian mediterranean artists (The era of
peace has ended).
10.
Luther Blissett is the knowledge of the universality of the moment. It is the revelation of the absence of balance between sex and work, between servitude and activity. It uses all expressions of history to mark this imbalance. This work is without limit; God has one face, the devil infinitely many. Luther Blissett is the return of action on behalf of the idea.
Luther Blissett,
Trbovlje 29-9-1997