In reading the article by McLuhan, I thought that the concept of receivable texts was interesting as it seems to portray what the Fluxus movement was all about in that a network of artists came together through an informal way and thus created different forms and pieces of art. This idea of receivable texts is described in the article by McLuhan as it discusses the concept according to Roland Barthes in that “this text, guided, armed by a notion of the unpublishable, would require the following response: I can neither read nor write what you produce, but I receive it, like a fire, a drug, an enigmatic disorganization” (McLuhan 3). This definition of the concept is interesting to me as it seems to imply that the idea of receivable texts is very different and unique as it does not involve a formal way of making and producing art which in turn makes it seem unconventional. Despite this though, Barthes alludes to the idea that even though these texts that were produced were often very difficult to understand and read, they essentially consumed artists when they received them. With this, this idea of fascination with these receivable texts leads me to believe that although this concept seems to not have been intentional, it was very popular among a network of specific artists at the time.
In further reading about this concept of receivable texts and what it entailed, I found myself beginning to see direct influences of the Fluxus movement within it. These influences became apparent as I learned that these receivable texts were essentially an intimate relationship that ultimately arose from the formation of a network of relationships among many participants that sent and received these texts in the mail (McLuhan 4). Considering these texts were passed around through a network of artists, I believe this portrays one of the beliefs of the Fluxus movement in that collaboration among artists is better than one’s own individualism. From this, it appears that this concept of receivable texts consisted of the fact that these texts were produced for and circulated among only the participants of a specific network as they were passed from one person to another person in the mail. This concept is interesting to me because this close network of different artists that shared these texts together seems to reflect the attitude of Fluxus even more as having this collaborative method seems to allow each individual artist to focus on their own imagination and creativity. Each artist seems to be able to focus on these two aspects due to the fact that when they would receive the specific text in the mail, it is likely that they could then do whatever they wanted to with it. Furthermore, because these texts were often very difficult to understand and interpret according to Barthes, I believe that this allowed each artist to essentially perceive the text in any way they’d like which seems to ultimately force one to dive into their creativity and imagination even more.
After reading the article even more, it was also interesting to learn that this network of participants was tied together not only as a result of the desire to make and send these texts to one another but also because many of the artists’ attitudes and perceptions mimicked one another. For example, the article says that these receivable texts all reflected a militant attitude towards mercantile constraints of publication for which is expressed by almost all of the multiple senders of these texts (McLuhan 4). This is interesting as these attitudes seem to reflect the overall sentiment of the Fluxus movement even more in that it is crucial that an artist’s creativity is not held back by the constraints of society as this ultimately limits one’s imagination and creativity. In thinking about the fact that these receivable texts reflected negative attitudes towards the constraints of mainstream publication and art forms, I believe these perceptions allude to the idea that these artists may have shared the belief that these receivable texts were essentially created in order to be substantially different from the mainstream forms and works of art. This idea is further apparent through the article’s mentioning of how these receivable texts created intense, intimate situations rather than the polite and pleasurable feeling one would normally get from reading something such as a magazine (McLuhan 4). With this, it seems as if these receivable texts contradicted the cultural standards of publication and rather took a different approach in which the artists shifted the tone and images of society. This shifting of tone and different images of society was depicted through the fact that the article says that these artists often used ironic satire, parody and inside jokes. I believe that the fact that these artists created these receivable texts for which incorporated parodies of mass-media images and concepts of society further alludes to the idea that they were contradicting and in a way mocking mainstream publication. Through all of this, this concept of receivable texts ultimately depicts and highlights the idea of Fluxus in that collaboration among a network of artists essentially allows individualism to overtake cultural conformities and constraints which ultimately results in creativity and new forms of art.
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