Name: George Maciunas

Biography: George Maciunas (1931-1978) was born in 1931, in Lithuania. In 1948, his family emigrated to New York. In 1949-1952 he enrolled at Cooper Union in New York City (Kellein 21). He studied art, graphic art and architecture. In 1952 he enrolled at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, where he studied architecture and music. In 1955, he graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in architecture (Kellein 21). Then, in 1956 he returned to New York City. Following graduation, he decided he wanted to become a professor of art history. Shortly after completing his B.A., he enrolled at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University (Kellein 21). At New York University, he established a foundation for his lifelong obsession with art historical data. During his art history studies he took a strong interest in cities. Later, when Fluxus was already in development he photographed facades of historical buildings throughout Europe. He filled hundreds of notecards with each building's details. Many of the index cards he created contained laminated maps on the back of them (Kellein 27). He wanted to inventory the entire world, but also to "set up an autonomously functioning information system" (Kellein 27). According to his mother, "His memory was phenomenal. he could arrange everything neatly in his head" (Kellein 27). Maciunas' obsession with gathering data and devising ways to store it and to access it became a central component to establishing his vision for an artist colony and bringing Fluxus to multiple continents throughout the world. The data Maciunas collected was on numerous subjects, ranging from hardware supplies to wigs, from ancient maps to details on architecture (Schmidt-Burkhardt 7). Maciunas' way of thinking, his ability to organize vast amounts of information allowed him to organize Fluxus concerts, Fluxus anthologies, Fluxus editions, Fluxus cooperative housing, architectural prefabrication plans and systems, art information and extraordinary art history charts, such as the Expanded Arts Diagram, which strives to see Fluxus' relationship to other forms and periods of art.

Biography CItation #1: Kellein, Thomas. The Dream of Fluxus. London: Hansorg Mayer, 2007. Print.

Biography Citation #2: Schmidt-Burkhardt, Astrit. Maciunas' Learning Machines. Berlin: Free University, 2003. Print.

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Image Citation #1: George Maciunas on the fire escape above a water installation in the 80 Wooster Street rear yard, June 4, 1970. Bernstein, Royslyn, and Shael Shapiro. Illegal Living. Vilnius: Jono Mekas Foundation, 2010. Print. p34

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