Kyle Guzik revised manifesto 1242016

1. As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.
—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

2. Twelve years have elapsed
since my first tentative effort to
invent a system to demonstrate
that mind could actually reach
out to mind independently of
any known channels of sense
by using geometric figures as
vehicles of thought
transmission.
- Lilian Spencer Thompson
Geometric Telepathy, 1939

3. In the last decades, however, progress on one approach to finding a theory of quantum
spacetime—or quantum gravity, as it is usually called—affords us a forward look at how
the passage of time may eventually find a place in science.The approach, causalsettheory,
is based on the hypothesis that spacetime is fundamentally granular or atomic at the Planck
scale and that this atomicity opens the door to new dynamical possibilities for spacetime
and, hence, to a new perspective on the dichotomy of being and becoming.
- The Birth of Spacetime Atoms as the Passage of Time,Fay Dowker,2014
In Minkowski space-time the fourth coordinate X4 = ict is not a temporal coordinate. Time
t as the numerical order of material change we measure with clocks is merely a component
of a X4. X4 is spatial, too. Minkowski space is not 3D + T,it is 4D.The point of view which
considers time to be a physical entity in which material changesoccur is here replaced with
a more convenient view of time being merely the numerical order of material change. This
view corresponds better to the physical world and has more explanatory power in
describing immediate physical phenomena: gravity, electrostatic interaction, information
transfer by EPR experiment are physical phenomena carried directly by the space in which
physical phenomena occur.
- New Insights into the Special Theory of Relativity,Sorli, Kilnar, & Fasicaletti, 2011
9. The first works to be reduced are the ones that take up the most space:this refers to big
public artworks,or architecture – related pieces that urgently need to disappear. The new
public commissions should propose what works have to be reduced and the manner of
recycling the leftovers…
11. Our consciousness will slowly grow into a direction of diminishing instead of
expanding and the awareness of what advantages can be brought by the act of removing
instead of adding.
- Reductionist Art Manifesto,Kinga Kielczynska, 2009
Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies.
- These Are Jokes,Demitri Martin, 2006

4. Kyle Guzik
Art Manifesto
ARTE 780
October 19, 2016

5. Kyle Guzik
Statement
ARTV 29850
November 11, 2006
“We are receiving as sensations and projecting into the outside world as phenomena, the
immobile angles and curves of the fourth dimension.
On this account it is not necessary and possible to realize that the world is immobile and
constant, and that it seems to us to be moving and evolving simply because we are looking at it
through the narrow slit of our sensuous receptivity.
In contrast to this limited viewpoint, a four dimensional consciousness ‘can see the past and the
future lying together and existing simultaneously.’ What appears to us as temporal succession is,
for such a consciousness, an eternal present- a single, infinitely extended and complex spatial
datum.
Here my aim is to carry these deep analyses one step farther, by taking account of recent
developments in quantum gravity; the emerging branch of physics in which Heisenberg’s
quantum mechanics and Einstein’s general relativity are at once synthesized and superseded. In
quantum gravity, as we shall see, the space-time manifold ceases to exist as an objective physical
reality; geometry becomes relational and contextual; and the foundational conceptual categories
of prior science – among them, existence itself – become problematized and relativized. This
conceptual revolution, I will argue, has profound implications for the content of a future
postmodern and libratory science.
Of course, it is quite reasonable to ask – even if consciousness is a C-choosing function, can’t it
simply reside in our apparent 3-D world? Why should its natural domain be in four or higher
dimensions? Many people would argue that there is no reason to appeal to higher-
dimensionality; that the workings of the 3-D world are quite mysterious enough to hide many
hidden potentialities. Yet I find myself firmly in the higher-D camp. There are basically two
reasons, which together make the higher-dimensionality argument seem more likely, or at least
more appealing.
First is the aforementioned trend in the physics world indicating that only an appeal to higher-
dimensionality can produce a unified field theory. If the known forces reside in higher
dimensions, then it only stands to reason that undocumented and undetected forces and fields,
which we postulate are at least related to consciousness, also reside there.
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao;
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
College is not the place to go for ideas.”
-Hellen Keller

6. Commentary:
Ten years ago, for an undergraduate class, I wrote my first, and up till now, only, artist
statement. Ten years later, this statement can now be revised into a manifesto via inclusion of a
commentary, which explains how the manifesto makes a didactic claim about remix culture. The
following commentary serves to provide context for the manifesto to relate it to art education.
The first two pages comprise the original statement; the second two complete the manifesto. All
of the manifesto is composed of the thoughts of others. This reflects my interest in remix
culture, which was novel ten years ago, and ideologically pervasive today. In order to explain
how I repurpose the thoughts of others to function as an artist, teacher, and human being, it is
first important to explain what I find interesting about the quotations included in my manifesto.
The first three paragraphs are from P.D. Ouspensky’s Tertiam Organum. The book was
originally written as a series of articles in Russian and was presumed lost during the violence of
the Russian Revolution; however, unbeknownst to Ouspensky, a fellow Russian migrating to the
United States brought it to New York and gave to an architect, also interested in the fourth
dimension, who translated into English. The book attracted the attention of prominent
philosophers and eventually Ouspensky benefited from its success. It can be described as a work
of esoteric philosophy and is presented as a unified theory of everything. One of its features is
the advocacy of the concept of eternal return, which also interested Nietzsche, the idea that the
universe repeats cyclically in a self-similar manner. Ouspensky disagrees with Aristotle’s
Formulation of Idenity, “A is A,” claiming instead that A is both A and not A. Ultimately the
work rejects the reality of space and time.
The second three paragraphs are from Alan Sokal’s "Transgressing the Boundaries:
Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" published in Social Text, an

7. academic journal of postmodern cultural studies. Sokal (1996) intentionally wrote the paper to
be meaningless, adopting the conventions of postmodern analysis and incorporating heavy
citation of postmodern theorists. Among other things he argued that physical reality is
fundamentally a “social and linguistic construct.” After the paper was published, Sokal revealed
that the paper was a hoax and was intended to critique weaknesses in the peer review process
because it contained grievous factual errors regarding the nature of quantum gravity but flattered
postmodern ideological bias.
The next lines are from a religious text of Taoism, Tao Te Ching, followed by a quote
attributed to Hellen Keller, her point being that real life experience is more meaningful that
academic study. The entire passage is contained within one set of quotation marks as if Hellen
Keller had said all of those things. On the next page, there is a red square, a reference to Kazimir
Malevich and Suprematism. The statement concludes with a “found poem” by Donald Rumsfeld
on the nature of knowledge. What does all of this imply? It is my attempt to juxtapose various
earnest attempts to invalidate reality, which is not possible. I view these projects as
fundamentally nihilistic because they are grounded in the notion that reality is a social
construction. In this line of reasoning reality does not exist independent of human observation.
There is no evidence to suggest that this is true. Pretending that all human beings do not share
one common reality is nihilistic for two reasons. The first is that this worldview questions the
existence of other human beings. The second is that worldview allows one to deny objective
reality. Ayn Rand writes in Anthem, “It is my eyes which see, and the sight of my eyes grants
beauty to the earth.” If reality is contingent upon the observations of one individual, one could
conclude one is the only consciousness that exists and that the universe will cease to exist upon
one’s own death. This alienates the individual from society and the world that surrounds them.

8. On the third page of my manifesto I have included the introduction of the revised edition
of Geometric Telepathy, in which Lilian Spencer Thompson relates various anecdotes about
instances where she imagined geometric figures and her friends and acquaintances
instantaneously (and miraculously) visualized the same shapes. Apparently the method for
projecting concepts into the minds of others involves simple geometric forms. There is also
some discussion about various geometric figures as archetypes (for example, the asymmetric
polygon represents chaos). I find the book’s chatty conspiratorial tone appealing in addition to its
visual alignment with Malevich and Mondrian. Suprematism and Neoplasticism are antecedents
of Minimalism, which when integrated, or remixed, with the works of Marcel Duchamp lead to
the formation of Conceptual Art. Conceptualism proposes that art is an idea first and this is the
concept that motivates my own work, which is focused on remixing conceptual associations.
The quotes from Dowker (2014), and Sorli, Kilnar, and Fasicaletti (2011) are genuine
attempts to describe the nature of time and reality. I don’t really understand the math or physics,
but there is a minimum unit of length the Planck length, named after its originator, Nobel prize
winner Max Planck, and because light travels at a constant speed, a minimum unit of time, the
Planck Time. Perhaps space and time are granular in the same way that elements are composed
of an integer number of atoms. So time is discrete. There are not an infinite number of instances
between moments. Causality is connected to the interactions of these quanta in a way I don’t
understand, but that some people are trying to determine in a verifiable manner. Statements
these researchers make about nature can be proven to be false if they are incorrect. This is an
aspect of knowledge that postmodern theory rejects. This leads me to the question, if truth does
not exist, how can an individual make any claim? Grounds warrant all claims. Grounds are
individual pieces of evidence, which support a claim. One may reject a claim by questioning its

9. warrants or grounds. If a claim, and its warrants and grounds cannot be verified or invalidated it
contains no meaning. There is no reason to believe a claim is true if one cannot critique the
arguments surrounding it as true or false. The elements of remix culture that most interest me
regard how found objects and readymades can be arranged to depict conceptual associations.
The readymade is is an object that exists. The object exists and it conveys ideas because of its
status as a physical object. The object’s physical reality makes conceptual associations conveyed
by the object possible. Reductionism is the proposition that a subject can only be understood by
breaking it into its constituent parts.
In this manifesto my intent is to mimic with words the process by which objects can be
used to remix conceptual associations. In remixed music a selection from a song is isolated,
altered, and reintegrated with other selections to create a new song, perhaps in an entirely
different genre than the original. This process is analogous to the procession of the Hegelian
dialectic: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Texts are deconstructed by reduction into their
constituent parts and then remixed to create new texts, which may support or contradict their
antecedents. Found objects and readymades are another form of text. Combines and assemblage
mimic the process of argumentation in written text. I am interested in the ways that remix of
conceptual associations via physical art objects can support the continuing modern project
towards reason, technological progress and human development.