Void Network Manifesto
First Attempt at Communication
We didn’t invent the following ideas…We are just a small wave in the ocean of the evolution of all these ideas, all libertarian atmospheres, dreams and revolutionary plans that keep expanding
in the Vast Open Horizon.
Void Network (Theory, Utopia, Empathy, Ephemeral Arts)
Global Eye (London Void Network)
WarCryCinema (New York Void Network)
Void Network first appeared in Athens-Greece in 1990.
Its aim is the radicalization of every day life and the construction of Public Space situations through the creation of Utopian Public Environments.
Discussions, multi media lectures and poetry shows, open free festivals, multi screen Void Optical Arts Atmospheres (live cross-platform collaborations between visual artists, photographers, poets, lecturers, d.j.s), performances, documentary representations, culture jamming, organization of demonstrations, street parades and public actions, celebrations, concerts, open collaborative workshops of artists, activists, academic scientists and spiritual friends that through dialogue, interaction and synchronized activity manifest multi formic conditions of open access to creativity, education, free information, open liberated autonomous public zones, meeting places, places of communication, empathy, expression and creation for thousands upon thousands of people.
Void Network’s research is directed and co-ordinated through the work of six open laboratories :
>The Void Laboratory for Poetry and Philosophy
>Laboratory for Kosmo-Political Consciousness
>Void Optical Arts Laboratory
(for ephemeral outopian atmospheres)
>Electro Void Laboratory
(for electronic and experimental contemporary music)
>"Open Dialogue" Void Laboratory
>Void Laboratory of the "Translators"
Void Network is a free network of free people, active social beings, artists, scientists and travelers who co-create dynamic interactions of Theory, Utopia, Empathy and Ephemeral Arts
"Void”: void of separate existence, an Open Horizon, a Vast Open Ocean
"Network” : a phenomenon of Global Interdependence
"Theory”: a process of intellectual inquiring, learning and uprising of critical understanding
"Empathy”: care for all beings equally that appears through communal experience.
"Ephemeral Arts”: a signal without leaving a sign, a message without leaving matter.
Void Art / Art without an Artist / Art without an audience / Chaotic acts of Love / Collective Outopian Atmospheres / Situations / Open Public Ephemeral Ecstatic Zones/ TemporaryAutonomousZones
If you need to search for the "art-piece" you have to search for it...in the mind and heart of everyone that was offered to...
Since 1990, Void Network / Athens , Global Eye / London Void Network and WarCryCinema / New York Void Network have presented a series of 300 situations in Greece, Italy, U.K., Spain, Germany, Russia, Austria, Switzerland, USA, India, Nepal and many other countries. This philosophic community’s revolutionary work has appeared in urban spaces, deserted factories, social centers, universities, squares, mountains, forests, beaches and highways. The nature of each situation is directly formulated according to the special characteristics of each space, location, area, social context and specific social needs.
Year after year, people from Greece, England, Italy and New York were growing to understand that they had been engaging in similar activities and using the same vocabulary to express their ideas. They decided to try to build an international network that could manifest public situations, nomadic art and creative meeting points for people from all around the world. They desired a chance to exchange ideas, information, abilities, archives and together, create new forms of cultural and social experience.
Currently two permanent open social zones exist that accommodate the activities of the network in London (Penzance Castle) and in Athens (Free Social Space: Nosotros).
Last year two international projects were activated:
Talking About Total Freedom World Tour.
Global Earth Academy.
We also participated in the creation of European Vision Caravan with artistic and political collectives from all over Europe.
The Fear of Emptiness :
The threat of expulsion in the absence of conformity: This state of fear disables the individual.
A mental control that subsequently becomes physically manifest.
We believe that societies’ biggest impairment is the belief that any one of us or even all of us are not capable of improving our world for the better. The root of this impairment is solely mental, not physical. As a result, we aim to fight power structures while empowering the individual as well as collective consiousness. The very existence of international financial, political, religious, intellectual and artistic Elites has resulted in the denial of Freedom of speech, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Open Public Assembly, Freedom of Mutual Aid and Collaboration.
Placing “art” solely in an art context is, in a way, relegating it to exist only within that context. Restricting the distribution of and opportunities to access new ideas and emotions is something "govern-mental" institutions do. Why voluntarily censor yourself? We see Art, Philosophy, Critical Thinking, Enthusiasm, Collective Ecstasy and Revolt as mental and emotional practices perfectly suited as a tool for enablement, a mental liberator that in turn can lead to positive physical changes.
Utopian Atmosphere is the creation of a temporary enclosed feedback system, where activists, artists, and scientists have an opportunity to provide input that will be transformed and reformulated by participants.
Art without an audience.
Art without an artist.
Inner Space Art
The light of Perception, the light of Awareness
Political and social meditative abstraction :
(hungry children, fat capitalists, homeless people, a sunrise, happy super market girls, walking refuges, air-bombed cities, street riots and waves in stormy weather, naked people, raindrops on flowers, the shouting prisoner, an afternoon in San Francisco, the night in Rome, burned cars from Paris, masses of corpses from 1915 in Armenia, 2000 thumbnail images of mass graves from all 20th century, the rain coming, red clouds, a photograph of the president, dead Tibetan monks infront of Chinese liberators, a dollar in the hands of a beggar, the sound of crying children, the sound of distant drums, the sound of voidness)
Presenting the stunning beauty of our planet, sudden inspirational moments, the universe and life, the miracle of interdependence, matter, electricity, chemical reactions….. This planet being a living organism, comparing it with microcosm, macrocosm, human body, insects, urban society, technology... Presenting capitalism and authority as viruses, parasites on the planet, the bigger organism. An analysis of psychological manipulations used in advertising, e.g. stereotypes, propaganda, consumerism, mental health, pre-defined ideals (beauty, fitness, leadership, work, family, school, army) revealing images that get bypassed by mainstream media. The communication system used is intended to break through barriers of nationality, education, age, cultural background and apathy.
Void Art / multi-screen projection shows (video art, computer arts, digital photography, anticopyright internet photo archives, 8mm films, slide shows, philosophical and political fragments) / light shows and multi- media / live- mix visual and sound improvisations / many different spiritual friends with many different projectors in the same moment / a moment of understanding / all the participators or just one person / the understanding of the interdeependent nature of the phenomena / a deep feeling of empathy and compassion.
We consider social gatherings as a vital meeting point of minds in a state of openness transcending the separation of selfish, modern life. We consider the essence of art to be truly independent of any physical object or act, reproduction or representation. Art is a moment, a mental and emotional practice, an open process. Any physical object or physical act is simply the tool used for the creation of art’s ultimate aim, the creation of thought and feeling. The ability to create new thoughts and feelings does not require change in the physical world, but change in the mental world, which in turn can effect the physical world.
In the physical world, we tend towards new possibilities of existence, beyond the constructed realities of modern societies. Our aim is to create an experience from a situation, a live art piece, where the actual experience created is the art piece. The collective experience of being there, the interaction with the people around you, the different thoughts and emotions created amongst the people feeding back and effecting future thoughts and emotions IS the art piece.
The tools used to create this experience are space, time and all the different forms and elements of Void Art, Theory, Philosophy and Living Practice. Art should evoke emotion, provoke thought and inspire change for the better. The art, philosophy and cultural-social activism we engage in,
in the vast open public sphere, promotes the development of ideas, images, experiences, thoughts and emotions through the collective interaction of mental and emotional processes. In a way, it is a collective mental-emotional sculpting. This technique is principally based on real time cross platform collaboration, living the experience of interaction and interdependence, changing people’s perception of themselves and their potential by breaking some of society’s traditional illusions. People in modern, every-day life identify with systems, which in effect are based on illusions; they believe they have freedom, choice and power within an infrastructure of a civilization bound by morality, ethics and righteousness. In order to achieve freedom and empowerment it is necessary to identify often deeply hidden, conditioning thoughts. What we are talking about is very different from having a shallow conversation or paying to see a concert and has nothing to do with an "art exhibition".
Creating an overall art piece in a Utopian Atmosphere enables people to immerse themselves in a state of receptiveness through a series of experiences and situations that effects their minds, bodies, and souls. The objective is to facilitate people’s creativity, openness, empowerment, satisfaction, safety, inclusiveness, solidarity, expression and general mental and physical happiness. We work to create a space which maximizes the ability of people to enter deep contemplation about their own lives and the world around them. These events attempt to break down perceptions of established reality by confronting neuroses, paranoia, self-doubts and fears whilst facilitating creativity, freedom and uninhibited joy, intensive talks about life, unity and bonding. These events challenge ownership, greed, possessions, and encourage generosity, inspiration and awakening of personal, critical mind.
Our situations tend to be moments that gather thousands of people into experiments in new forms of public life, in a non-profit economy, transforming spaces into atmospheres of equality, dialogue and non-exploitative collective understanding. The abolishment of profit is one the main steps in the direction of an "Eco-nomy Without Profit and Exchange" based on "Constant Free Distribution" and "Direct Access". We believe that our situations are anti-commercial and non-consumerist.
All the artists, the scientists, the visioneries, the constructors and the helpers of the situations are against salaried employment and profit.
Our intention is to spread libertarian ideas, communication, motivation, inspiration, education and the self-organization of "Open Public Ephemeral Zones".
This can happen outside of the established constructions of the "govern-mental" state authorities, private interests, corporations, pop-celebrity pseudo-reality, employment and all kinds of material gain.
Negations, non-dogmatism and inclusiveness
We deny the separated puppet role of the "artist", "politician", "scientist", or "philosopher". We believe that each one of us must keep in equilibrium the political, artistic and philosophic consciousness by keeping alive empathy, critical inquiry, inner cultivation, educative public communication and public open expression, solidarity and participation in the Public Sphere.
So, as we negate the morals of employment and the nuclear family social shell we focus on the achievement of new experimental ways to achieve Utopia in our everyday life,NOW!.
The pleasure of life is hiding outside of the norms, outside of the eight hour programmed workday, outside of the dead cities and the melancholic architecture of private life. Our dreams must be capable to construct a new architecture, new atmospheres, new kinds of relationships, new body language, new ways of expression and new kinds of day to day activity, new pleasures, new techniques, new designs and new future plans. As creative human beings we pursue the connection of every type of intellectual and artistic creation with the demand for social and personal liberation. Experimental behavior, new lifestyle choices and collective construction of social, aesthetic, philosophical and political situations are necessary components of free co-existence without any limitation of action and thought.
Total Freedom is a pre-requisite of existence...Not a reward...
When this is understood, a state of war or confrontation with all manners of authoritarian dogma inevitably results. We must face this fact, personally and socially.
events , projects, history: