"When you cut into the present the future leaks out." - William S. Burroughs
As a writer and sometime mystic, i am always excited by new ways of writing and receiving inspiration. William Burroughs, the writer of many books and articles, took a great interest towards something he called "The Cut Up Technique". Inspired by fellow writer and mystic Brion Gysin, who was partly inspired by the Dada poet Tristan Tzara, the cut up technique is a way of creating strange and interesting texts from previously written work, sometimes uncovering hidden meanings previously not present within the text. Because the words and the meaning are already written into the piece, when you rearrange the ordering of the words, new and sometimes bizarre meanings and abstractions are revealed, sometimes completely changing the idea and tone of the piece itself. Some of Burroughs best known works and collaborations, including the novel "Naked Lunch" make particular use of the technique as a way of removing context, and bringing out subtext, as well as creating a bizarre dreamlike style that retains it's content, but destroys all structure.
The more Burroughs worked with the technique, using it more dynamically using photographs and video and audio works, the more he started to notice that as you combine different material, you beget different results. Sometimes strange omens of the future, sometimes hidden motives and understandings.
Taking the idea further, he ventured that perhaps it was useful a method of divination. That by combining artefacts found in the present, it was possible to imagine what the future held in a particular situation or scenario. Burroughs and Gysin worked together on a book entitled "The Third Mind", a collection of their unedited cut ups and essays on the method.
There are many writers who took this technique and have used it since, Kurt Cobain's lyrics have been identified as possible cut ups, or at least as something that was influenced by the method. Cobain and Burroughs in fact recorded a spoken word disc together entitled "The "Priest" They called him", with Burroughs reading from his own work, and Cobain providing a guitar soundtrack.
Taking this idea, and running with it (as fast as i can, in whatever direction i end up going, with my eyes firmly shut) i have decided to use this technique to create works of my own. Some using articles from newspapers or the internet, some using pictures or sounds. Whether they "work" or not is up to you, i am just putting them here as a record of the work, and because i enjoy the style so much, i would like to introduce it to others.
With that in mind, i present to you my work thusfar. It's keeping me quite busy at the moment, so expect many updates and rewrites. Whether they are divinatory, if they uncover motives and agendas behind organisations or individuals, or whether they come out as garbage, is for you to decide. I try and take them as seriously as possible, because it is only in that state of mind that the magic can occur.
Thankyou for reading, and enjoy.
Anton Krasauskas
