Workshop for Non-Linear Architecture: Difference between revisions

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Artist [[Ralph Rumney]] (1934–2002) is credited with bringing the workshop's activities to a wider audience. He was acquainted with many of the original Parisian Letterists and participated in one of the group's ''dérives'' in London in 1995. It was assumed that WNLA had disbanded shortly after releasing the fourth and final issue of its journal ''Viscosity'', which is now infamous for being selected by the K Foundation to announce its 23-year ban on all artistic practice. However, the journal suggests that the temporary ban applied to the K Foundation and WNLA itself, with the group committing to stop intervening in their activities entirely until 2018.

British cultural commentator and activist [[Stewart Home]] became a champion of WNLA's adventurism, including excerpts from the journal and the type of works undertaken in a series of edited collections published by [[Serpent's Tail]]. References to the workshop's activities have appeared in "The Joker: A Game of Incidental Urban Poker" and were printed in ''Mind Invaders,'' describing a game of poker played between cities from playing cards found in the street. "St. Andrews Arena" appears in the collection ''Suspect Device'' and narrates one particular ''dérive'' in Glasgow in 1993. Other references have appeared in Home's articles, notably in the journal ''Variant''.<ref>Home, Stewart. [https://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue1/success.pdf "There's no success like failure"], ''Variant'', Volume 2 Number 1 (Winter 1996), p18<br /> Home, Stewart. [https://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue2/mondo.pdf "Mondo Mythopoesis"], ''Variant'', Volume 2 Number 2 (Spring 1997), p7</ref>

{{quote| While the Workshop for Non-Linear Architecture has received little press, this is due to the WNLA's indifference towards media coverage rather than a policy decision. Indeed, the WNLA text 'The Joker: A Game of Incidental Urban Poker' included in the anthology describes exactly the sort of 'unusual activity - teams of players scavenging city streets for playing cards that make up the hands in games of poker which go on for months - that might receive coverage in the press if those involved had the slightest interest in publicizing their activities".<ref>Home, Stewart. "[http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/ga/swamp.html Mind-Bending, Swamp Fever & The Ideological Vortex]". ''Public Netbase'', Vienna. 29 April 1998.</ref>}}