The Introduction: Art as a Protocol

In the world of software engineering, an algorithm is a finite sequence of well-defined instructions to solve a class of problems. In the 1960s, a group of artists decided that art should function the exact same way.

They called it Fluxus.

While the rest of the art world was obsessed with the “object” (the painting, the sculpture), Fluxus was obsessed with the “process.” They didn’t write symphonies; they wrote scripts. They didn’t paint canvases; they executed logic loops.

For a kernel developer, Fluxus is the most satisfying art movement to study because it strips away the bloat. It is low-level, stripped-down, executable human code.

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#!/bin/fluxus : The Event Score

At the heart of Fluxus lies the “Event Score.” To the untrained eye, it looks like a short poem. To a developer, it is unmistakably a script waiting to be executed.

George Maciunas, the “sysadmin” of the movement, and artists like George Brecht or Yoko Ono, understood that if you reduce an idea to its absolute minimum instruction set, it becomes universal. It becomes Open Source.

Take a look at this piece by Yoko Ono. It’s not a description of a feeling. It’s a while(true) loop.

#!/bin/fluxus
# EARTH PIECE (1963) by Yoko Ono

function earth_piece() {
    listen_to_the_sound_of_the_earth_turning();
}

# The runtime is infinite.
while (alive) {
    earth_piece();
}

The beauty here is in the abstraction. The artist provides the source code, but the compilation happens in your head, or in the physical world, depending on how you choose to run the binary.

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Hardware Hacking: Nam June Paik

If Yoko Ono was writing the software, Nam June Paik was handling the hardware interrupts.

Before we had glitch art or datamoshing, Paik was physically manipulating the cathode ray tubes (CRT) of television sets with large magnets. He wasn’t painting a picture on the screen; he was interfering with the electron beam’s magnetic deflection fields.

He was essentially doing hardware debugging on a consumer appliance to create art. He proved that “noise” isn’t an error—it’s an aesthetic. For anyone who has ever stared at a corrupted framebuffer or static on an oscilloscope, Paik’s work resonates instantly.

Garbage Collection for the Ego

The philosophy of Fluxus aligns perfectly with the Unix philosophy: Do one thing and do it well.

Fluxus artists rejected the complexity of high art. They used everyday objects, simple actions, and humor. They wanted to purge the “ego” from art, much like we refactor code to remove “magic numbers” and unnecessary complexity.

They created “Fluxkits”—small boxes filled with simple objects and instructions. Distributed cheaply, accessible to everyone. It was the first true distribution of Art-as-a-Platform.

Conclusion: Execute the Script

We spend our days managing complexity, wrestling with the borrow checker in Rust, or tracing race conditions in the Kernel. Sometimes, the system needs a reset.

Fluxus reminds us that the most powerful code is often the simplest. It doesn’t need a heavy framework. It just needs an instruction and an observer.

So, here is a script for you to run this week, courtesy of Fluxus artist George Brecht:

/* THREE AQUEOUS EVENTS (1961) 
 * Author: George Brecht
 * Execution: Physical environment
 */

void main() {
    // Event 1
    ice();
    
    // Event 2
    water();
    
    // Event 3
    steam();
    
    return 0;
}

// Pay attention to the state changes. That’s where the art lives.

SEE ALSO

• Fluxus.org – The primary archive and central node for Fluxus history.
• UbuWeb – A vast repository of Fluxus audio recordings and films (essential for the noise enthusiasts).
• Monoskop / Fluxus – Detailed wiki and log files on the movement’s key operators.