Concrete Manifesto By Coyote, the Laughing Fool, Cthulu Basis for Concrete operations and The Reformation, written November 1995. rewritten December 1995. rewritten January 1996. (See? We are organic. We grow and do not suffer from our paperwork.) Contents: --------- Part 0. Some background on this document Part 1. Mission statement, what '?' is. Part 2. Other ? related info sources Part 3. Meat of this document I. Lifecycle of an article II. Goals, types of material wanted, what to aim for III. How to easily distribute that material IV. Purpose of meets V. Promotion VI. End goal/when '?' dies. Part 4. Summon a Demon - Getting in Contact Part 0. Hereafter, in this Document, the character '?' aka hex code 134, shall refer to the writer's/artists/coders/etc group known prevoiusly as 'Concrete'. It may also be used in the capacity of a cultural effigy (usually appearing at the end of a sentence.) So remember to substitute 'Concrete' where you see '?' ? reformation stuff. keep in mind that this is sort of STRICTLY A BETA and really if you can help it nothing in here SHOULD BE TAKEN SERIOSLY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. It is still democratically unclean. THANK YOU for your time. (and other 3 dimensions you are using.) Anyone interested in the physical works should skip now to part 2 to ignore the philosophy. Thankyou. Part 1. mission statement: (yes, all of it.) ------------------------------------ This section defines exactly what the spirit behind '?' aka Concrete. This is the collective vision of Coyote, The Fool, and Cthulu. Note that '?', like the Tao, cannot be defined by words, indeed even by itself. This is just some organization to impress you. we believe that: 1) "?" EXISTS PRIMARILY AS A VEHICLE OF THE "ARTIST'S" VISION. ***VEHICLE BEING DEFINED AS A WAY TO "STORE" and "DISTRIBUTE"*** AN "ARTIST'S" WORK. i) "STORAGE" IS AS CLOSE TO IMMORTALITY AS POSSIBLE, "DISTRIBUTE" IS AS CLOSE TO TELEPATHY AS POSSIBLE. ii) "ARTIST" REFERS TO PRACTITIONER OF ANY MEDIUM WHICH CAN BE TRANSMITTED VIA THE MEANS AVAILABLE TO "?". WHAT SEPARATES AN ARTIST FROM A NON-ARTIST IS A MATTER OF "QUALITY." iii) "QUALITY" IS DEFINED BY THE "MEMBERS" OF "?" BY MEANS OF REALPOLITIK, IE. "IT'S COOL" OR "IT SUCKS." OR BY OTHER MEANS IF YOU LIKE. iv) "MEMBERS" ARE THOSE WHO ADMIT TO THE WORLD, AND TO "?" THAT THEY ARE "MEMBERS." AND IN DOING SO, ARE ACCEPTED BY "?". v) THESE ARE NOT RULES. JUST SOLID BULLSHIT. THEY ARE SUBJECT TO OUR WHIMS AS ARE SAND TO THE WIND. vi) OH BOY!!!! LETS ALL GO TO LAW SCHOOL AND BECOME LAWYERS!!!! 2) THIS VISION TRANSCENDS ALL HUMAN-DICATED RACIAL, LEGAL, RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL BORDERLINES OF OUR CHOICE. THIS VISION WILL BE ATTAINED THROUGH AN ECLECTICISM OF MEANS. 3) THESE RULES ARE BULLSHIT, AND ARE NOT CONCRETE. THEY ARE LIKE THE SHADOW OF A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: THEY SHOW YOU ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU WANT THE SPIRIT. THEN YOU ARE LEFT WITH THE NEED TO CREATE THE THING THAT MADE THE SHADOW. post statement addendum: ------------------------ To search for truth is not necessarily to facilitate expression. Thus, truth is not always art. Thus, it follows that art is not always truth. This does not mean that the deep underlying truth that the universe posesses shall not be represented in ? ECLECTICISM n. (ek'LEC't@'sizm) - being of a variety of, belonging to/one of an eclecti. So What is '?' -------------- '?' as a group of people, it a bunch of artists that produce work and socialize together (eg. have fun, suffer). As a emag, '?' is a means to distribute and store the work of the artists of '?'. '?' is a group, which exists as people, and as produced work. We preserve the spirit by living it, and the work by creating it. mission statement derived from following ideas: ----------------------------------------------- - Work must be good - Work must be in control of the artist - Work must be immortal (or close), and preserved - ? must distribute, and encourage good work as its primary goal - ? must provide a decentralized place for artists to submit their work, and to store it. Namely, Odyssey (mucho hard disk space, wheelchair accessible) and ConcreteNet. - ? must be totally devoid of bureacracy, to the point of frequent revolution and disagreement. Part 2. information sources These are some files that contain some basic functions of concrete. They are, of course, bullshit. Read them because they may help you join us. They are not the law, just path of least resistance. MANIFEST.ZIP - You're reading it. CONCRETE.ZIP - All these ZIP's in one. OnE Stop SHoPpinG. SUBVERT.ZIP - '?' Do-It-Yourself Subversion kit. If you want to subvert kids in your neighborhood/University, this is a copy of our propaganda posters for your distribution. Eg: Stuff one in the disk drive of every SparcStation in your computer lab. MEMBER.ZIP - '?' Membership list (recompiled every 3ish months) CONCNET.ZIP - Information on ConcreteNet, the '?' distribution and participation system. How to get an Echo, some REALLY interesting humor. RHESUS.ZIP - Project RHESUS FAQ. Very useful. Describes '?' cold storage of past issues, and time capsule etc. If you have trouble obtaining this stuff, give us a holler (we are people, and enjoy conversation.) At the end of this document in Part 4, there are a number of ways to get through to '?' Part 3. nuts and bolts. (anticapitalizational or what?) --------------- This section contains some simple stuff on the basic organizing, maintaining, and running of ?. The first section outlines the lifecycle of a ? article, in phases than can be easily followed (to make a submittee's work easier) and generally keeps ? housekeeping to an efficient minimum. I. '?' article lifecycle: Birth to Cold Storage. (easily followed steps.) A. INSPIRATON. Idea springs up at ? meet, or in Hottub, or while driving through Heavy Traffic (unlikely but potential) B. GRUNTWORK. ? artist GOES HOME (or not) and CREATES raw work ^^^^^^^^^ by him/herself. Focus on doing work outside meets. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STAGE. C. SUBMISSION. Artist submits to the body of work as 'raw' , preferrably online, and less preferrably at a meet. Uploads or hands it to some person for decentral storage. Eg. Uploads it to Odyssey or ConcreteNet. D. REFINEMENT. By email, or at meets, artist accepts ideas (or does not) on work. Editorial is given on request. Nothing is forced. E. MARKUP. Work is transformed by volunteer in to a distributable form. The artist specifies which distribution it should be in (bare/paper/HTML or just Cold Storage) If a piece is not distributable, or is more suited to a particular distribution, it will be routed there. At this phase, a piece is 'done' or 'ready to distribute.' F. DISTRIBUTION. The piece is distributed with the next cycle of ? distribution. Time based (all MARKED UP articles 'bound' chronologically, or whenever a quota is reached, and shoved brought in to the public eye.) * If a paper edition is wanted (and contributions achieve enough to do it..) then volunteers (I volunteer, Coyote volunteers) bind together the work in to an acceptable format, and consult with artists along the way. OR artists may take responsibility for getting their work in shape for paper publication. I prefer the OR option. G.STORAGE. ? work is archived away, either in active storage (accessible to the public by request) or in cold storage. For future posterity, It is recommend that the work be freely accessible. This may not be possible with paper, However Coyote has (allegedly) suggested scanning of paper issues. That '?' work remain free and devoid of all censorship is central. See Project RHESUS FAQ for information on Cold Storage. II. things to aim for. Types of formats that ? should seek to cultivate. We, of course, accept anything, but the following are personal soft spots of '?' 1996. When a person makes a conscious effort to make a '?' Work, they might consider aiming for what we ('?' 1996) want, which is: A. Text - Articles - Reviews - Essays - Interviews - Poetry - "Papers" - Commentary - Random noise - Anything - Fonts B. Pictures - Photos - Scanned images - collage - alteration art (ie: mona lisa with a doob, etc) - anything else done on paper - anything else done digitally (jpeg or common format pleez) - Original art - Paintings - "Images" - ANSI - Anything C. Sounds - Spoken Word - Poems - Music - Art of Noise - Anything D. Actions - Damage Art - Live Performances - Media Pranks - Promotion of ? - ? Meets (counted as accomplishments because of summaries etc. included in distribution mayhaps?) reviews written in 'tabmeet'-style (if they don't mind our concept pilfering) - Anything E. Code - Code - Hardware - Method - Legend III . distributions (The media, and some hints on preparing to submit.) ? SHOULD EXIST PRIMARILY AS A STORAGE/DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM A. Paper - Accomplished by considerable effort, a PROSPECTIVE goal - See 'Raw Files' B. HTML/Java - Pieces submitted raw, and "typeset" by someone other than the artist. - Use of 'Ez to use' share/freeware to develop the piece as HMTL/Java - Artist learns HTML/Java at ? meets, or by other means and does his/her own. C. Raw files - This is the most IMPORTANT thing. - Is the FIRST STEP before the other two. IV. meets The conceptually ideal ? meet: - Purpose is to work on IDEAS for articles, and, to the lesser extent, work ON articles. This is an ideal of course... Enthusiasm should be kept focused on ? matters by devoted members. - Socialization between members is a good thing. - Focus should be on getting work done at home, unless some portable computer of reliable power source can be found. - Used to plan Actions (stuff to do). Meets are include in Actions category. - Execution of media pranks, etc. V. promotion - An IMPRESSIVE first release formed and executed as to show an example. - I suggest a local advertising blitz on art boards, selected writing boards etc. Not nessecarily Tab boards. Our preview uploaded. - Covert ads (see the DO IT YOUR SELF SUBVERSION KIT) - Other options for promotion must be explored. VI. end goal/death of ? - Hopefully will be transformed and continued as members leave. - If not, then writing must be scattered around or archived for future sociologists. - Friendships must be maintained no matter what. We are people. Part 4. how to summon a demon, or, getting in touch with us --------------------------------------------------- I) THE IN-NERD-NET URL http://helix.net/~maxy/concrete.html (may be subject to change) II) EMAIL Coyote: jeff_cheah@mindlink.bc.ca The Laughing Fool: maxy@helix.net (Or on Odyssey BBS, fool@Odyssey) III) TELEPHONE Concrete Hotline: (604) 930-0328 IV) CONCRETE FAX SERVER (24 hrs) (604) 263-5440 To: Submissions Fool Subject: Concrete V) SNAIL MAIL Concrete c\o Coyote 15312 111a Street Surrey, British Columbia V3R 6G7 VI) SILICONETICA Odyssey - (604) 261-0309 Sysop: The Laughing Fool (SLIP/PPP too!) The Screaming Tomato - (604) 430-8805 Sysops: Nitnatsnoc, Cthulu VII) TELEPATHIC COMMUNICATION Just think real hard - it might work. Real-time chat, too, like IRC. VIII) PERSONALS Take out an ad. We read the papers sometimes. (No. we make em :)