Franklin Furnace and the spirit of the Avant-Garde: a history of the future

186 Pages·2011·6.459 MB·English

by  Sant, Toni

FRANKLIN
FURNACE
AND THE
SPIRIT
OF THE
AVANT-
GARDE
A HISTORY OF
THE FUTURE
TONI SANT
Franklin Furnace and the Spirit of
the Avant-Garde
Visit the New Facility (1983) by William Wegman. (Reproduced by permission; courtesy of Franklin Furnace)
Franklin Furnace and
the Spirit of the Avant-Garde
A History of the Future
Toni Sant
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First published in the UK in 2011 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2011 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2011 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
Cover image: Original logo for Franklin Furnace by Pavel Büchler
Cover designer: Holly Rose
Copy-editor: Ed Hatton
Typesetting: Mac Style, Beverley, E. Yorkshire
ISBN 978-1-84150-371-4 / E I S BN 978-1-84150-443-8
Printed and bound by Gutenberg Press, Malta.
The future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed.
– William Gibson, novelist

We drive into the future using only our rear-view mirror.
– Marshall McLuhan, media theorist
I have a headache of which the future is made.
– Jim Morrison, poet
We are called to be the architects of the future, not its victims.
– R. Buckminster Fuller, visionary
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
– Alan Kay, computer scientist
This present moment used to be the unimaginable future.
– Steward Brand, online community pioneer

What remains is future.
– Patti Smith, poet
To Christine
Contents
Acknowledgements 9
Introduction 11
Part I 17
Chapter 1: Franklin Furnace: A Timeline 19
Chapter 2: A Long Conversation with Martha Wilson 31
Art and the Loft Law in Downtown New York City – Paul M. Gulielmetti 36
Money and Art at Franklin Furnace in the Early Years – Barbara Quinn 48
Some of My Performances in Retrospect – Annie Sprinkle 52
When Franklin Furnace Went Virtual – Robert Galinsky 72
Exemplary Quality Irreverence – Adrianne Wortzel 78
You Can’t Stay Avant-Garde – David S. Perlmutter 82
Part II 85
Chapter 3: Broadcasting Artists’ Ideas 87
Chapter 4: Virtually Live 109
Chapter 5: Preserving the Avant-Garde 135
Franklin Furnace Publications 153
References 177
Index 181

Acknowledgements
T
his book has come about because of the generous spirit that has driven Franklin
Furnace since 1976. I must therefore start by thanking Martha Wilson for making
it all come together. I feel privileged to know the subject of my book beyond the
archives she keeps in the name of Franklin Furnace.
Stacy Horn started the chain of events that led to the writing of this book. Robert Galinsky
was among several guests she invited to speak during her Virtual Culture class, which I took
at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program in 1998. I asked him to
accompany me to the Fourth Performance Studies International conference at Aberystwyth
in Wales and he insisted on inviting Martha Wilson to join us. I had been casually following
Franklin Furnace as part of the contemporary New York art scene for about a year or so
before actually meeting Martha Wilson in person for the very first time at New York’s JFK
Airport in April 1999. Galinsky has been a gracious friend ever since. He was always my
man on the inside and helped give the beast that is New York City a human dimension I’ve
come to treasure greatly.
Richard Schechner, Diana Taylor, Andre Lepecki, Anthony J. Pennings, Branislav Jakovljevic,
and Eric Miller gave me valuable feedback on some of my earlier research on Franklin Furnace
for my doctoral dissertation at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Department
of Performance Studies, in 2002/2003. Special thanks to Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, my
guide throughout my years in New York (she’s the one who first pushed me to write more
about Franklin Furnace), and Catharine R. Stimpson, the amazing dean of NYU’s Graduate
School of Arts & Science, whose support and sense of duty I will cherish forever.
My colleagues at the School of Arts and New Media on the Scarborough Campus of the
University of Hull have been very supportive over the years I’ve been with them. The same
goes for the deans who have overseen my department in the years I’ve been in Scarborough:
Craig Gaskell and George Talbot. Special thanks to Fiona Bannon, Jennifer Parker-Starbuck,
Linda Hockley, Maria Chatzichristodoulou (aka Maria X), and Jason Raven. Jonathan Cant,
Tracy Bower, and Liz Wilson from the University of Hull’s Research Funding Office deserve
a special mention, too. Their assistance makes it possible for me to thank the Arts and
Humanities Research Council for providing financial support enabling me to finish this
book through their Research Leave Scheme.