5 6

         87
           9                                                                 Torqued

                                      Tesselations

wind/wind  .     .


                                                           and The enigma of Postage not sent

(Found poem written by the Wall Street Journal)

!UNØ

As of this October, we celebrate our first year of existence/our first year of persistence, in the age of hyperactive intermedia. The Surrealism Server began as an intention enveloping the Surrealist Compliment Generator. To date the compliments given to the masses number in the hundreds of thousands, and the compliments submitted by the masses number some few orders of magnitude less on the numerical scale. We salute the masses for their massiveness and their mindful attention that perpetuates our belief in opium.

WHAT IS SURREALISM?
You would be foolish to accept any answer. Do not be deceived, for it is better to ask, 'What is the sound of two hands clapping?'

Surrealism is not an entity to read about in books or in magazines.

Surrealism is art, literature and politics, and it goes far beyond art, literature and politics.

Sleep is both the goddess and the destroyer of Surrealist pursuits. The lucid dreamer and the chronic insomniac experience different sides of the same coin.

There is nothing more sacred and surreal than the exportation of objects and events from the unconscious into the physical relm of the conscious.

The subconscious is your bridge to widened perception of both conscious and unconscious sensation. Use it to your advantage.

The use of Automatism and Critical Paranoia in Surrealist practice and technique may be seen as a means of conditioning the subconscious as a perceptive tool for creative device; to know what is not knowable, to connect the unconnectable. By forcing these situational realizations upon the higher and lower centers of thought and perception, may you begin to make use of what resides in the subconscious mind. You may choose to call it what you will, and do with it what you will.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF SURREALISM?
What was the future of Surrealism before there was Surrealism? Bosch and Ducasse seemed to know of it before Apollinaire coined the actual phrase 'Surrealism'. However, would Surrealism (or monotheism, or fascism..) have contributed so significantly to the history and events of the 20th Century if Surrealism had not been so aptly named 'Surrealism'? Regardless, it seems unlikely that anyone shall soon disprove Surrealism or invent new engines and devices to make it obsolete before the coming of the next millenium.

WHAT ABOUT SURREALISM AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB?
Ahhh, something of relevance.. Mentioning Surrealism and the World Wide Web in the same breath brings two points to mind: what people call 'Surreal' and the opportunities for Surrealistic Metastasis throughout this developing medium. As of one year past, Lycos and Webcrawler were amassing information about sites and content on the web. Running a search for the word 'Surrealism' produced very little.. a few sites with some images by Dali, and a page at LeWeb Museum. Run the same search now and you could spend a few hours investigating the output of links presented. Of course much of this material reflects the presence of more sites with pictures by Dali (including ours), the expansion of LeWeb Museum, and the many pages featuring the word 'Surrealist' before 'breakfast' or 'lightbulb'.

The more interesting question however, is how Surrealist technique and vision can make use of the Web, and not just the WWW, for FTP, IRC, CuSeeMe and other appendages of the Internet present some truly astounding means for real-time collaborations with people from around the world. No longer do you need to crowd everyone in the same room for an evening of Exquisite Cadaver. Do it electronically, and spread your contacts from coast to coast across the continents. For those of you saying 'it's not the same', indeed it isn't! It is an experience unto itself and what it may lack in physical location is met in other ways and means that cannot be attained by having people at the same location at the same time. The practice of Surrealism can only benefit from collaborative interaction, and the fact that the internet is a medium specifically for communication means the two go naturally hand in hand.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE SURREALISM SERVER?
Our purpose is to say distinctly that we have no profitable purpose. To server the masses some tidbits in the name of Surrealism is as good a purpose as any. You may compliment yourself on this point, we have seen to that. The collective of Enigma Engines for a Better World only furthers our purpose to this heightened degree. Follow what you will. See. Read. Write. Cry. Scoff. Aggrandize. Such is the path to an unrealized state of enlightenment.

                        -- Banjo Ruthless &  I.N.X.J.U.