Robert Watts | A Flux Atlas

Robert Watts
A Flux Atlas
New York City, USA: Fluxus, 1973
12 x 9 x 2.5 cm.
Edition size unknown

In an April 1973 Fluxnewsletter, George Maciunas solicited help in collecting the rocks for Watts' Flux Atlas:

"We need about 50 pebbles (smooth, rounded small rocks) to fit in a compartment not larger than 25mm x 40mm x 15mm from specific and well described locations (country, town vicinity, which beach or shore, which sea, lake or river). This is for a large Geography box by Bob Watts, which will contain pebbles from various parts of the world (so far we have pebbles from Azores, Menorca, Cycladic Islands, Cape Hatterras, end of Long Island, Manhattan, Nova Scotia*, Maine). All contributors will receive a box in return."

This crowd-sourcing of materials was common in Fluxus, from the overt collaborative pieces by Mieko/Chieko Shiomi (her Spatial Poems in particular) to Paul Shartis' Paper Events. Ken Friedman sent some stones but received a letter in April of '73 stating "I got the rocks, but they are too small, they should be about 1/2" diameter or the size to fit the plastic partitioned boxes"

There were several versions of the work produced, including a large 91 stone, produced for the Fluxfest in Seattle, in 1977. This 7-compartment version appears to be the smallest. It was originally offered in Fluxus newsletters for a price of $20, and later discounted to $16 in price list from 1976.


"As is often the case, much of the work necessary to transform the object from a "box of rocks" into a "Flux Atlas" is performed by Maciunas' label design. The compartmentalization of the designation "a flux atlas by bob watts" on the label mirrors the structure of the box's interior. The label's graphic association with a premodern cartographic tradition both indicates that this atlas is founded on actual experience rather than on rational, scientific principles, and participates in the longstanding Fluxus appropriation of outmoded graphic idioms."

- Walker Art Centre

* I'm guessing that Geoff Hendricks provided the Nova Scotia stone (see Canadian Art obituary by Amish Morrell, here).