George Maciunas, a Lithuanian artist and architect, was the motivating force behind a loosely knit international circle of avant garde musicians, writers and artists who organized in the early 1960s under the banner Fluxus. The group fostered performance art. Composers favored unorthodox sounds, not those produced by standard musical instruments, and prose instructional compositions rather than notated music. Their music ranged from playful and humorous (George Brecht's Drip Music) to violent and destructive (Nam June Paik's One for Violin).
Currently, staff of the Music Library have produced an exhibit of Fluxus materials featuring photographs of Fluxus composers and performances, scores, posters, and manifestos. La Monte Young, Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, and Benjamin Patterson were among the notable composers actively involved in the movement.
Paul Friedman curated the exhibit with assistance from Charles Schneider and Richard Miller, and some resources on display were lent by the Kohler Art Library and the Memorial Library's Special Collections Department. The exhibit was developed in conjunction with a related exhibit in the Special Collections Department entitled "famous for other things." The Music Library exhibit will continue through the end of the semester.