Joe Jones (Fluxus artist)

Joe Jones (1934 New York City - 1993 Wiesbaden) was an avant-garde musician associated with Fluxus especially known for his creation of rhythmic music machines.

Formation

Joe Jones grew up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and received a classical musical education at Hartnett Music School in New York City. In the late 1950’s he began a short career as a jazz drummer. In 1960 Jones began to study avant-garde experimental composition first briefly with John Cage and then Earle Brown. Through these associations he formed an artistic alliance with Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles and LaMonte Young.

Fluxus

Jones first started experimenting with mechanical instruments in 1962, creating objects like musical boats, solar music umbrellas and a pedaled vehicle that pulled handmade instruments on wheels called "The Longest Pull Toy in the World". [Obituaries, New York Times, 2/18/1993 "Joe Jones, an Artist With a Musical Bent and an Inventor, 58" ] The following year his works were exhibited at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York City.

Beginning in 1963 Jones participated in the Fluxus art movement, taking part in a number of Fluxus performance art activities with his automaton-like music machines - made from found ready-made instruments. [ [http://www.sukothai.com/X.SA.07/X7.Jones.f1.html] Interview with Joe Jones by Nakagawa Shin (1992) ] In 1963 he performed his machinic noise music at the Yam festival [Owen Smith (1998) Fluxus: The History of an Attitude, San Diego State University Press, pp. 118] in New Brunswick and a year later he performed again at the Avantgarde music festival in New York City. He created many machine drum exhibitions and art actions in New York City and Nice, France during this period.

In 1969 he opened his own "Music-Store" at 18 N. Moore Street in New York City. There he presented his repetitive drone music machines in the window so that anyone could press the numerous door buttons to play the machine noise music in the window. [Obituaries, New York Times, 2/18/1993 "Joe Jones, an Artist With a Musical Bent and an Inventor, 58" ] He also gave small musical installation performances by himself and the likes of Yoko Ono and John Lennon [Owen Smith (1998) Fluxus: The History of an Attitude, San Diego State University Press, pp. 206-209 ] , among others. After moving out of 18 N. Moore his store-loft space became the art studio of Fluxus archivist and digital artist Joseph Nechvatal, then the once Theatre of Eternal Music member Jon Hassell and finally video artist Bill Viola before being merged into Walkers Restaurant.

In 1971 Jones produced the album Fly together with John Lennon and Yoko Ono and founded the 'Fluxus-Airline' with George Maciunas. [Owen Smith (1998) Fluxus: The History of an Attitude, San Diego State University Press, pp. 117-119 ] Soon after he left New York for Europe; living in Amsterdam, Asolo, Berlin, Düsseldorf and finally Wiesbaden and continued to exhibit worldwide in galleries and museums.

Since the mid-eighties Jones produced short digital art films on computer that he called "Fluxus-Home-Movies". He also devised larger orchestra-like installations with his music machines called "solar orchestras" [ [http://www.ubu.com/sound/jones.html] mp3s of music by Joe Jones at UbuWeb ] that would be performed from when the sun comes up to the sun goes down by solar power.

In 1988 his works could be seen at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne and in 1992-93 there was a big touring exhibition with stops in Helsinki, Nuremberg, Rotterdam and Wuppertal. [ [http://www.sukothai.com/X.SA.07/X7.Jones.f1.html] Interview with Joe Jones by Nakagawa Shin (1992) ]

References

Bibliography

* Owen Smith (1998) Fluxus: The History of an Attitude, San Diego State University Press
* Block, René, ed. 1962 Wiesbaden Fluxus 1982. Wiesbaden (BRD): Harlekin Art; Wiesbaden: Museum Wiesbaden and Nassauischer Kunstverein; Kassel: Neue Galerie der Staatliche, 1982.
* Friedman, Ken, ed. The Fluxus Reader. Chicester, West Sussex and New York: Academy Editions, 1998.
* Gray, John. Action Art. A Bibliography of Artists’ Performance from Futurism to Fluxus and Beyond. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1993.
* Hendricks, Geoffrey, ed. Critical Mass, Happenings, Fluxus, performance, intermedia and Rutgers University 1958–1972. Mason Gross Art Galleries, Rutgers, and Mead Art Gallery, Amherst, 2003.
* Hendricks, Jon. Fluxus Codex. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1989.
* Jon Hendricks, ed. Fluxus, etc.: The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan: Cranbrook Museum of Art, 1982.
* Higgins, Hannah. Fluxus Experience. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
* Kellein, Thomas. Fluxus. London and New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995.
* Milman, Estera, ed. Fluxus: A Conceptual Country, ["Visible Language", vol. 26, nos. 1/2] Providence: Rhode Island School of Design, 1992.
* Moren, Lisa. Intermedia. Baltimore, Maryland: University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2003.
* Paull, Silke and Hervé Würz, eds. "How we met or a microdemystification". Saarbrücken-Dudweiler (Germany) 1977, Engl.-German, AQ 16, Incl. a bibliography by Hanns Sohm.
* Phillpot, Clive, and Jon Hendricks, eds. Fluxus: Selections from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1988.
* Schmidt-Burkhardt, Astrit. Maciunas’ Learning Machine from Art History to a Chronology of Fluxus. Detroit, Michigan: Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection, 2005.

Discography

*Joe Jones, "Back and Forth, Exhibition Sound, 31.8.1985", Hundertmark Editions, CD, 60 Minutes, Edition of 500

*Joe Jones, "XYLOPHONE", Hundertmark Editions CD, Edition of 500 Copies

*Joe Jones, "Solar music at Sierksdorf, Ostsee", Hundertmark Editions, CD, 60 Minutes, Edition of 500

*Joe Jones, "Solar music, April 20, 1983", Hundertmark Editions CD, 60 Minutes, Edition of 500 Copies

External links

* [http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/jjones-fluxmusicbox.html] Joe Jones "Flux Music Box"
* [http://www.sukothai.com/X.SA.07/X7.Jones.f1.html] Interview with Joe Jones by Nakagawa Shin (1992)
* [http://www.ubu.com/sound/jones.html] mp3s of music by Joe Jones at UbuWeb