In advance of UCLA's Experimental Arts Festival in April of 1967 Kurt planned and organized a 24-hour long Seminar for his art department students, and roughly 20 of them participated. The seminar consisted of traveling to 20 different locations in Los Angeles, and documenting the entire event with notes, photographs and tape recordings. In short, Kurt staged "a happening."
Student reactions were mixed; "During this trip, there was a rather violent-argument between two of the passengers. One felt von Meier was crazy, the other worshiped him. Neither convinced the other of anything, and the rest of us began to feel extremely uncomfortable." Student documentation, a transcript of an end-of-event tape recording and Kurt's preliminary notes were in Kurt's archives, and are presented here.
Only Two Can Play This Game
In addition to being a visionary mathematician, G. Spencer Brown was a poet, and his small book Only Two Can Play This Game was as important to Kurt von Meier as Brown's book Laws of Form. Kurt regularly distributed this excerpt from the "notes" section of Brown's poetry book to his students, which Brown had published under his pseudonym James Keys. The excerpt neatly encapsulates a number of topics of particular interest to Kurt, including The Void, Eternity, Unity, and Brown's mathematical model, the key unlocking the mystery of being.
Kurt's Semiotexts
Among the many hundreds of books Kurt read, a handful appear to have played a major role in his personal and professional life. In some cases, they influenced his profession as an art historian and professor; in other cases, they informed and enhanced his interests in mystical, esoteric cultural and spiritual traditions. References to these books and their authors can be found throughout his published and unpublished writings.
Kurt's Kachinas
Kurt's study and visits with Hopi Elders in the late 1960s made a lasting impression on him. He was among the first non-Hopi to receive Hopi permission to hear about their prophesies, and he spoke about them often. Among Kurt's artifacts are the Hopi Kachina Dolls above. Traditionally, Kachina Dolls were carved by the men in Hopi tribes, and presented to girls in the tribe along with sacred teachings. The "dolls" generally replicate particular design features, and the ones pictured above, which are old, feature snout-like mouths.
The Heart Sutra
The Sutra of the Heart of Transcendent Knowledge--The Heart Sutra, as it is commonly known--is the most widely chanted Buddhist sutra, worldwide. A condensation of the very much longer Prajnaparamita Sutra of 8,000 lines, it is a pith Mahayana Buddhist teaching which includes the famously paradoxical phrase "form is emptiness, emptiness also is form." It was a favorite of Kurt's and often introduced to his classes during his 40 years of teaching. The full text is available.
Mary Jane Superweed's Herbal Aphrodisiacs - 1971
Kurt's interest in all things herbal and psychedelic was long-standing. This little booklet from 1971 was found among his archives.
INTRODUCTION: What is an aphrodisiac? Everybody talks about aphrodisiacs, but no one seems to know anything about them. Many so called "experts" insist that there is no such thing as an aphrodisiac. It is not surprising that only a few decades ago many of the same "experts" assured us that the idea of sexual pleasure and orgasm in the female was "totally absurd". Our own definition of aphrodisiac includes substances which do any one or several of the following things: Produce erections in the male, arouse sexual feeling by stimulation of the genitals or nervous system, increase sensual awareness, relax inhibitions, augment physical energy, strengthen the gonads or other glands involved in sex, improve sexual health, increase the production of semen, help conquer impotence and frigidity (bearing in mind that these maladies are frequently of psychological origin), overcome sexual exhaustion, and prevent premature ejaculation. (Copyright 1971 - Stone Kingdom Syndicate)
Artist Fritz Scholder Returns to Sacramento: A Transcript
In 1988, Artist Fritz Scholder (1937-2005) paid a visit to Sacramento. He had attended Sacramento State University in the late 1950s, and a book about his work had just been published. Scholder gave a talk and Kurt, naturally, made sure it was recorded and later transcribed. The final transcription has Kurt's proofreading marks all over it.
It's a wonderful talk, illuminating and entertaining. And this transcript, found in Kurt's archives, is a welcome addition to the material available about this important artist.
On Audio: Alan Watts and G. Spencer Brown discuss Laws of Form
This is the tape of a discussion between Alan Watts (above), G. Spencer Brown and others which Kurt von Meier recorded in the mid-seventies. While touching lightly on the mathematics of Brown's Laws of Form, the discussion mostly centers around consciousness and the perception (or we might say, conception) of self. It's interesting, funny and thought-provoking and runs about 40 minutes in length. It takes a few moments to load.
Popping Around the Groves of Academe
Here's a pop quiz on pop music created by Kurt that ran in the UCLA student newspaper The Daily Bruin on Wednesday, May 11, 1966. Perhaps you know the answers to a few of these 100 questions. If you know more than ten, you're either in the music business or you are getting old.
Julian's - Vallejo's Smartest Nite Spot
By all accounts, Kurt was enamored with his father, Julian von Meier (pictured above), who died unexpectedly when Kurt was only eleven years old. In documents, Kurt variously describes Julian as a gourmet chef, avid fisherman and restaurateur. Julian's Restaurant was located in Vallejo, a big navy town in 1943 during WWII. The menu reveals restaurant prices at that time, quite the shock by today's standards.
Duchamp Regular - Upper and Lower Case plus Readymades
Kurt was trained in typography and lithography during his two years stint in the U.S. Navy, and he never lost his appreciation of fonts and printing. Among his archives was found a type sheet sample of a font based on the handwriting of Marcel Duchamp, and a set of Duchamp "wingdings" modeled on his Readymade sculptures.
Interview with Composer Morton Feldman
The combination of art historian Kurt von Meier and composer Morton Feldman makes for a lively and fascinating discussion in New York in 1968. This transcript of a recording from tapes made by Kurt using his trusty Nagra tape-recorder reveals Feldman's love of art and the creative process. The subject of time and its relationship to art takes on a special dimension in the hands of these two intellectual heavyweights. Some recordings of Feldman's compositions have been inserted into the transcript; listening while reading is recommended.
Oops! The SDI Shield is Upside Down!
Ever observant, Kurt wrote to TIME magazine about their photo of the Strategic Defense Initiative's "Star Wars Logo" shown behind Lt. General James Abramson in their June 23, 1986 edition: The Shield (modeled after the shield of Ajax) is depicted (shown above) upside down! Read more to see a copy of Kurt's letter.
Princeton Professor Erwin Panofsky
As one considers the question of how it is that Kurt became the man he was, the figure of Erwin Panofsky looms large. Panofsky was a Jewish/German scholar and art historian who taught at Princeton while Kurt was earning his Ph.D.; Kurt makes reference to him frequently in his writing. At U.C. Berkeley, Kurt originally pursued a degree in International Affairs, but along the way switched his major to Art History. By the time he arrived at Princeton, pursuing Art History was his intent.
Panofsky was instrumental in establishing and elevating the field of Art History. One suspects that his focus on iconography and visual symbolism caught Kurt's attention, and the approach Panofsky refined is clearly reflected in Kurt's methodology and approach. Panofksy is credited with codifying a three-system approach to visual analysis:
1. Primary or natural subject matter: The most basic level of understanding, this stratum consists of perception of the work’s pure form.
2. Secondary or conventional subject matter (iconography): This stratum goes a step further and brings to the equation cultural and iconographic knowledge.
3. Tertiary or intrinsic meaning or content (iconology): This level takes into account personal, technical, and cultural history into the understanding of a work. Essentially, this last stratum is a synthesis; it is the art historian asking "what does it all mean?"
MD: Three pieces in twine
Kurt's interest in Marcel Duchamp was long-standing. Here's a note he typed to himself on September 16, 1985 in which he references three works by Duchamp, all incorporating the use of twine. As we now know, he then focused upon A Bruit Secret as the the vehicle for his 350,000-word opus, which he completed in 1991. Images of the works mentioned are included here.
Artist Noble Richardson
Desert artist Noble Richardson first met Kurt at UCLA, and they became fast friends. That friendship lasted until Kurt's death in 2011. They shared a love of art, nature and psychedelics, and Noble was a resident artist at the Diamond Sufi Ranch on-and-off during the 1970s. Noble painted the huge mural which adorned one wall in the Diamond Sutra Restaurant; more examples of Noble's silk-screen prints and paintings are available by clicking on the link below.
The Tibetan Alphabet
Kurt's great facility with language enabled him to master French, Spanish, Greek and German, and the capacity to learn the basics of Japanese, Persian and Tibetan. He was particularly focused on alphabets and mastering the strokes and accents of calligraphy.
The chart of the Tibetan Alphabet below (a system of writing developed to transmit the Dharma) was found among his archives, along with this printed image of Six-Armed Mahakala (painted by Cynthia Moku), a so-called wrathful deity counted among those in Vajrayana Buddhism designated as "Dharma Protectors."
John C. Lilly and Heinz von Foerster discuss inter-species communication
John C. Lilly (1915-2001) became well known for his study of dolphins and research into human/dolphin communication. Heinz von Foerster (1911-2002) was an Austrian-born scientist recognized as one of the pioneers in cybernetics and artificial intelligence. Both John and Heinz were friends of Kurt. This recording was made by Kurt in 1975 during a small conference about inter-species communication. It runs about 20 minutes, and takes a short while to load.
Hopi Teachings and Prophecy
In 1969, Kurt traveled several times to the southwest with his trusty Nagra tape recorder and met with a number of Hopi Elders, including Thomas Banyacya (pictured - 1910-1999). In subsequent years, Thomas was visited by the Dalai Lama, and addressed the United Nations in 1992. He worked tirelessly as a spokesperson for the Hopi ("People of Peace"). The first interview transcript below is of a discussion with Thomas Banyacya and another Tribal Elder named Ralph Selina.
Kurt's questions focus on Hopi philosophy, spiritual views, challenges facing them and their land (including mining operations by Peabody Coal), and the Hopi Prophecies. Notably, the recent reduction of the protected portion of Bear's Ears National Monument by the Trump Administration (2017) directly affects the Hopi homeland.
Kurt also separately interviewed a Hopi tribal member named White Bear; their discussion concerns the author Frank Waters, whose book Book of the Hopi was published in 1963. Their conversation then turns to rabbit hunting, the preparation and ingredients of traditional Hopi meals, and the preservation of Hopi teachings.
Finally, this article includes Hopi commentary selected by Kurt from the transcripts, which he included in his 350,000-word online book, With Hidden Noise.
Over several years, the tapes of these interviews were carefully transcribed by Kurt's students, but generally have been otherwise unavailable.
The Diamond Sutra Restaurant: Tantric Cuisine
Kurt and his two long time pals Tom Genelli and Jene LaRue teamed up in 1970 and opened a restaurant at Diamond and 24th Streets in San Francisco. They called it The Diamond Sutra and offered Tantric Cuisine. Over time, they blew everybody's socks off (with the red hot chili peppers alone), and in their own way transformed San Francisco's food scene. By the time they were featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, they were ready to move on.
