Page 14 - Studio International - January 1972

A critical look `explanation'. This Report stands or falls by of the Holy Fool. The Holy Fool can approach
Delta. The 'explanation' begins as follows : 'This the highest authority in the land, utter profound
at Artist is a new concept whereby an old problem can truths, and even make verbal threats — on
be made accessible, the evaluation of the condition that his truth is intermingled with
Placement Group difference in state between unconsciousness gibberish, and a high volume of redundancy.
(e.g. sleep) and an optimum state of awareness — Too much truth and challenge — and it's the
Gustav Metzger firstly as to a single individual, and subsequently chopper ! But if gibberish is not sustained by
as to any coherent group or community. The nuggets of abrasive truth, then it's scraps from
state of sleep, not taken too literally, could be the servants in the kitchen, instead of tit-bits
represented on the scale of Delta representation at the High Table.
as > = o. Correspondingly the optimum state And so we find an explanation for the dizzy
would be represented by, say > = 100, thereby gyrations and random genuflections in this
indicating intermediate states.' Report: it is a veritable dance for life.
Following this paragraph, the term 'time-
base' is introduced. 'In signifying Delta value The Politics of APG
it can be seen that considerations of longer time- This can be summed up as The Middle Way.
base carry automatically an extending range of The history of the twentieth century has shown
On the occasion of its Hayward Gallery attention-potential and ensuing actualization. that this always leads to the Right.
exhibition, December 1971, the Artist Placement A notation associated with the > symbol may `Recognizing that industrial decisions are based
Group issued a 'Report and Offer' whose main extend for practical purposes from the just- on criteria of financial profitability, those of the
object is the securing of a sum of £48,000 from identifiable, at one tenth of a second, to the artist individual are different, economy for him
the Government to finance its operation during upper limits talked about by geologists and being an economy of expression.
the period 1972-1975. A xeroxed note attached astrophysicists, since both brain rhythm and `The two different requirements for 'the
to the 23-page Report states : 'This is a work planetary cycles demonstrate a specific economical' became the basis for the notion of a
intended to operate when read by someone who insistence and requirement, and ideas associated single principle of economy underlying the
is familiar with the format of company with them may require concerted action. A phenomenal totality, and within which both
prospectus documents. The context is half the provisional notation is that time base, of value parties were inseparable, since the connection
work.' Seven copies of the Report were chained `t', referring to the specific event under previously existing in the social sphere had
to a structure near the entrance to the exhibition; consideration, is printed at the upper right of become either subject to the criteria of currency
the Report is available from APG and the Lisson the sign : the coverage, indicating the number of or else alienated and opposed to interaction of
Gallery. people affected by the communication, and any kind.' (6)
The Report gives an outline of the history, signified by the letter `n', is printed at the lower How many lies, how many errors, can you
purpose, achievements, finance and prospects right. Thus an attention rating of > n would detect in these lines ?
of APG. I have read it with great care and have refer to a number of people affected or 'reached'
come to the conclusion that since it contains by a communication, and also to the density or Distortions and false claims
such a profusion of inaccuracies and false claims, time-base of that communication.' (19) We are told a sob story how Shannon, the lone
it would meet with total rejection by an It is quite evident that we have here a system Individual, his Delta units working overtime,
institution like a Stock Exchange, and that if it of such mechanical crudity, one that so blatantly invented Information Theory singlehanded,
were presented as a thesis at an art college it disregards reality, that in comparison the but the wicked Capitalists would not give him
would justifiably be failed. computer turns into God. I can only sum up the an adequate recompense. And what about
There are two versions of the history of Delta unit and its deployment in this Report as public applause, or in the words of the Report,
APG; the prosaic and the sublime. 'The Artist an ad-man's stunt; a designer's device to both the `Public Verdict' ? All he gets is a small
Placement Group was formed in 1966 to attract and divert attention; a method to paper sentence in the Encyclopaedia Britannica;
examine the potential activity of a "fine artist" cracks in the proposals: `Apart from which there is no further reference.'
relative to industrial and commercial (13) Apart from the fact that the same
organisations, to investigate the circumstances The language of APG Encyclopaedia, in the article 'Information
of their professional segregation, and to look Language can be used to inform—and to confuse : Theory', starts its bibliographical listing with
into ways in which the two might be brought used to sharpen our sense of reality—and to a book by Shannon, there are tens of thousands
closer together.'(7) (Numbers in brackets refer blunt it. Much in this Report is quite of references to his work in the literature.
to pages in the Report) meaningless. Meaning slithers; a line of thought There are claims galore in the Report, but
The sublime version appears in a series of is distorted even within the confines of a single this one stands out for its imaginativeness : 'It
APG inserts in Studio International: . . . APG sentence; a barrage of contradictory statements should not be unreasonable to predict that as a
could be said to have started from a position chase each other. Further, there is a bombastic, result of carefully directed dissemination of the
in outer space, albeit focused hard down on the holier-than-thou thread running through the basic concepts, in 20 years some thousands of
surface phenomenon of an encapsulated planet. Report, in tandem with a cringing, qualifying millions of people will have their lives
The view is projected by the shafts of ploy. significantly improved, qualitatively, as
illuminating energy that come from individual How is one to understand this specialized compared with their condition today; many
apprehensions of a new fundamental concept, APG language ? I suggest that there is a very major policy-decisions will have been altered
one that has not yet reached the public circuits'. simple explanation: the language of APG is a and innovations introduced of a kind which will
(February 1971). survival language. APG is an organization with be fundamentally democratic on a wider base
a minimum of social power and money, whose than is possible under the present short-term
Delta unit aim is to penetrate the richest powers in the considerations of power.' (8)
The 'new fundamental concept' mentioned land — the giant industrial corporations. But
above may well refer to the Delta unit. Both the it is also dependent on a steady influx of young The structure of APG
term and its symbol > are liberally artists. In order to steer through these two The Artist Placement Group is a charitable
scattered throughout the Report, and an entire mutually opposed groups without splintering Trust, associated with APG Research Limited,
page of small type is taken up with an apart, APG has adopted the language and stance consisting of fourteen people, including eminent
4