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114-517: COUM had a rotating membership, and included both intellectual and criminal elements and existed formally from 1969 until 1976. In that year, P-Orrige and Tutti exhibited at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts in a show called Prostitution , which consisted of explicit photographs of lesbians, assemblages of rusty knives, syringes, bloodied hair, used sanitary towels, press clippings, and photo documentation of COUM performances in Milan and Paris. There

228-488: A pseudo-scientific justification for the crimes of the state . In "An Interview with Milton Friedman" (1974), the American economist Milton Friedman said that businessmen and intellectuals are enemies of capitalism : most intellectuals believed in socialism while businessmen expected economic privileges. In his essay "Why Do Intellectuals Oppose Capitalism?" (1998), the American libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick of

342-664: A circle, which were then played as musical instruments while either P-Orridge or Robertson conducted the piece. COUM's next major work was Couming of Age , performed in March 1974 at the Oval House in Kennington , South London ; it represented the most conventional theatrical performance of their career. After the show, they were approached by an audience member, Peter Christopherson , who shared many of their interests; P-Orridge and Tutti nicknamed him "Sleazy" because of his particular interest in

456-703: A collaboration with the Canadian artist Clive Robertson ; their co-created piece was titled Marcel Duchamp's Next Work . It premiered on 24 January 1974 at the Fourth International Festival of Electronic Music and Mixed Media at the Zwaarte Zaal in Ghent , Belgium, and had its second performance at Brussels ' Palais des Beaux-Arts. The piece entailed bringing together twelve replicas of the dada artist Marcel Duchamp 's 1913 sculpture Bicycle Wheel , assembled in

570-557: A commercial success and so sought out other forms of funding, successfully applying for a small Experimental Arts Grant from the Yorkshire Arts Association , a publicly funded body. Now openly describing themselves as performance artists, COUM looked up to the work of the Dadaists and emphasised the amateur quality of their work, proclaiming that "[t]he future of music lies in non-musicians", and strongly contrasting themselves with

684-466: A concrete proposition or to denounce an injustice, usually by either rejecting, producing or extending an ideology , and by defending a system of values . The term "man of letters" derives from the French term belletrist or homme de lettres but is not synonymous with "an academic". A "man of letters" was a literate man, able to read and write, and thus highly valued in the upper strata of society in

798-651: A day out to Brighton, while throughout the year they sent postcards that they had designed to mail-art shows across the world. "COUM enable all kinds of people to discover their abilities to express ideas through different media. COUM believe that you don't NEED special training to produce and/or enjoy, worthwhile, significant and unique works. COUM demonstrate that there are NO boundaries in any form. It has NOT all been done before, and that which has can still bear valid re-interpretation. Thee [sic] possibilities remain endless." COUM Manifesto, 1974. In January 1974, COUM decided to refocus their attention on music, doing so in

912-578: A great interest in the radical counter-culture, P-Orridge had dropped out of h/er studies at the University of Hull and spent three months living in the Transmedia Explorations commune in North London during late 1968. The commune members adhered to a strict regimen with the intention of deconditioning its members out of their routines and conventional behaviour; they were forbidden from sleeping in

1026-495: A limited edition of 500, as was the case with Early Worm ( Genesis P-Orridge , Spydeee Gasmantell, Pingle Wad, and Ron Megson (the father of Genesis P-Orridge ), 1968) in 2008. The COUM Transmissions The Sound of Porridge Bubbling LP was recorded in 1971 featuring Genesis P-Orridge , Spydeee Gasmantell, Ray Harvey, Cosey Fanni Tutti and others. What musical content the LP features is improvisational and avant-garde in nature, and for

1140-550: A plural noun to refer, usually with a figurative or ironic intent, to a collection of people who might be identified in terms of their intellectual inclinations or pretensions." In early 19th-century Britain, Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the term clerisy , the intellectual class responsible for upholding and maintaining the national culture, the secular equivalent of the Anglican clergy. Likewise, in Tsarist Russia, there arose

1254-605: A polythene tunnel in order to enter the venue. In December 1969, P-Orridge and Shapeero moved out of their flat and into a former fruit warehouse in Hull's dockland area, overlooking the Humber . Named the Ho-Ho Funhouse by P-Orridge, the warehouse became the communal home to an assortment of counter-cultural figures, including artists, musicians, fashion designers and underground magazine producers. At Christmas 1969, Christine Newby moved into

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1368-574: A prerequisite for receiving funding; the Council insisted that they perform in at least eight specifically-chosen venues a year, although COUM felt that this meant performing to the same audiences repeatedly and wished to perform at a wide range of other locations, such as in fields and on streets. In August 1974 they carried out a spontaneous unauthorised piece of performance art in Brook Green , Hammersmith . Titled Airborn Spells, Landborn Smells , it entailed

1482-403: A social class, Jean-Paul Sartre said that intellectuals are the moral conscience of their age; that their moral and ethical responsibilities are to observe the socio-political moment, and to freely speak to their society, in accordance with their consciences. The British historian Norman Stone said that the intellectual social class misunderstand the reality of society and so are doomed to

1596-403: A status group they must be autonomous in order to be credible as intellectuals: It is relatively easy to demonstrate autonomy, if you come from a wealthy or [an] aristocratic background. You simply need to disown your status and champion the poor and [the] downtrodden [...]. [A]utonomy is much harder to demonstrate if you come from a poor or proletarian background [...], [thus] calls to join

1710-524: A term which is sometimes applied today. The word intellectual is found in Indian scripture Mahabharata in the Bachelorette meeting (Swayamvara Sava) of Draupadi . Immediately after Arjuna and Raja-Maharaja (kings-emperors) came to the meeting, Nipuna Buddhijibina (perfect intellectuals) appeared at the meeting. In Imperial China in the period from 206 BC until AD 1912, the intellectuals were

1824-475: A time when literacy was rare. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the term Belletrist(s) came to be applied to the literati : the French participants in—sometimes referred to as "citizens" of—the Republic of Letters , which evolved into the salon , a social institution, usually run by a hostess, meant for the edification, education, and cultural refinement of the participants. In the late 19th century, when literacy

1938-628: A variant forms the name of the adjoining River Hull . The estuary appears in some Latin sources as Abus (A name used by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene ). This is possibly a Latinisation of the Celtic form Aber ( Welsh for river mouth or estuary) but is erroneously given as a name for both the Humber and The Ouse as one continuous watercourse. Both Abus and Aber may record an older Indo-European word for water or river, (as in

2052-474: A work of literary journalism devoted to the Merry Pranksters , a U.S. communal counter-cultural group who advocated the use of psychedelic drugs . COUM's music was anarchic and improvised, making use of such instruments as broken violins, prepared pianos, guitars, bongos and talking drums. As time went on, they would add further theatrics to their performances, in one instance making the audience crawl through

2166-455: A worthy one. It was good enough to be praised and imitated in 18th century Europe. Nevertheless, it has given China a tremendous handicap in their transition from government by men to government by law, and personal considerations in Chinese government have been a curse. In Joseon Korea (1392–1910), the intellectuals were the literati , who knew how to read and write, and had been designated, as

2280-455: Is existentially -based", the intellectuals, who create and preserve knowledge, are "spokesmen for different social groups, and articulate particular social interests". That intellectuals occur in each social class and throughout the right-wing , the centre and the left-wing of the political spectrum and that as a social class the "intellectuals view themselves as autonomous from the ruling class " of their society. Addressing their role as

2394-578: Is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England . It is formed at Trent Falls , Faxfleet , by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent . From there to the North Sea , it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank and North Lincolnshire on the south bank. Also known as the River Humber , it is tidal its entire length. Below Trent Falls,

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2508-517: Is associated with an ideology or with a philosophy . The Czech intellectual Václav Havel said that politics and intellectuals can be linked, but that moral responsibility for the intellectual's ideas, even when advocated by a politician, remains with the intellectual. Therefore, it is best to avoid utopian intellectuals who offer 'universal insights' to resolve the problems of political economy with public policies that might harm and that have harmed civil society; that intellectuals be mindful of

2622-472: Is further upstream, a Napoleonic-era emplacement replaced in the early 20th century by Stallingborough Battery opposite Sunk Island . The Humber Bridge was the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world from its construction in 1981 until 1998. It is now the twelfth longest . Before the bridge was built, a series of paddle steamers operated from the Corporation Pier railway station at

2736-507: Is how Chilean intellectuals worked to reestablish democracy within the right-wing , neoliberal governments of the military dictatorship of 1973–1990 , the Pinochet régime allowed professional opportunities for some liberal and left-wing social scientists to work as politicians and as consultants in effort to realize the theoretical economics of the Chicago Boys , but their access to power

2850-549: Is noted in the Domesday Book and in a charter of 1281. The ferry was recorded as still operating in 1856, into the railway era. The Humber was then one mile (1.6 km) across. Graham Boanas, a Hull man, is believed to be the first man to succeed in wading across the Humber since ancient Roman times. The feat in August 2005 was attempted to raise cash and awareness for the medical research charity, DebRA . He started his trek on

2964-705: Is now submerged beneath the North Sea . The Humber features regularly in medieval British literature. In the Welsh Triads , the Humber is (together with the Thames and the River Severn ) one of the three principal rivers of Britain, and is continually mentioned throughout the Brut y Brenhinedd as a boundary between the southern kingdom ( Lloegyr ) and various northern kingdoms. In Geoffrey of Monmouth 's 12th-century historically unreliable chronicle ( Historia Regum Britanniae ),

3078-403: Is to communicate the complex and specialized knowledge of the scientist to the general public. He argued that intellectuals were attracted to socialism or social democracy because the socialists offered "broad visions; the spacious comprehension of the social order, as a whole, which a planned system promises" and that such broad-vision philosophies "succeeded in inspiring the imagination of

3192-520: The Scholar-officials ("Scholar-gentlemen"), who were civil servants appointed by the Emperor of China to perform the tasks of daily governance. Such civil servants earned academic degrees by means of imperial examination , and were often also skilled calligraphers or Confucian philosophers. Historian Wing-Tsit Chan concludes that: Generally speaking, the record of these scholar-gentlemen has been

3306-655: The intelligentsia (1860s–1870s), who were the status class of white-collar workers. For Germany, the theologian Alister McGrath said that "the emergence of a socially alienated, theologically literate, antiestablishment lay intelligentsia is one of the more significant phenomena of the social history of Germany in the 1830s". An intellectual class in Europe was socially important, especially to self-styled intellectuals, whose participation in society's arts, politics, journalism, and education—of either nationalist , internationalist , or ethnic sentiment—constitute "vocation of

3420-657: The Cato Institute argued that intellectuals become embittered leftists because their superior intellectual work, much rewarded at school and at university, are undervalued and underpaid in the capitalist market economy . Thus, intellectuals turn against capitalism despite enjoying more socioeconomic status than the average person. The economist Thomas Sowell wrote in his book Intellectuals and Society (2010) that intellectuals, who are producers of knowledge, not material goods, tend to speak outside their own areas of expertise, and yet expect social and professional benefits from

3534-679: The Contemporary Artists reference book. The work meant that he had less time to devote to COUM but gained a wide range of contacts in the art world. During that year, COUM embarked on a series of five performance pieces which it termed Omissions ; these were performed across Europe, including at the Europa-Tag in Gross Gerau and the Kulturamt in Kiel . In March 1975, COUM performed Couming of Youth at

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3648-713: The European Economic Community in 1973, while that year P-Orridge featured a piece of conceptual art, 'Wagon Train', at the Ferens Art Gallery's Winter Show , proving controversial in local press. Following continual police harassment, P-Orridge and Tutti relocated to London , moving in to a squat and obtaining a basement studio in Hackney which they named the "Death Factory". After a brief correspondence, here P-Orridge met American novelist and poet William S. Burroughs (1914–1997), who later introduced him to

3762-586: The On Cue programme for Radio Humberside and were interviewed by Jim Hawkins. As well as their radio and press exposure, they performed a variety of other happenings, such as Riot Control at the Gondola Club and then their first street action, Absolute Everywhere , which got them in trouble with the local police force. The Gondola Club was raided by the police and closed down soon after; most other local clubs blamed COUM and unofficially banned them from performing in

3876-524: The Thames . There are numerous theories for how the hydronym of Humber is derived from Celtic or Pre-Celtic languages. For example, it may be a Brittonic formation containing -[a]mb-ṛ , a variant of the element *amb meaning "moisture", with the prefix *hu- meaning "good, well" (c.f. Welsh hy- , in Hywel , etc). The first element may also be *hū- , with connotations of "seethe, boil, soak", of which

3990-620: The Victoria Pier in Hull to the railway pier in New Holland . Steam ferries started in 1841, and in 1848 were purchased by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway . They, and their successors, ran the ferry until the bridge opened in 1981. Railway passenger and car traffic continued to use the pier until the end of ferry operations. The line of the bridge is similar to an ancient ferry route from Hessle to Barton upon Humber , which

4104-636: The chungin (the "middle people"), in accordance with the Confucian system. Socially, they constituted the petite bourgeoisie , composed of scholar-bureaucrats (scholars, professionals, and technicians) who administered the dynastic rule of the Joseon dynasty. The term public intellectual describes the intellectual participating in the public-affairs discourse of society, in addition to an academic career. Regardless of their academic fields or professional expertise, public intellectuals address and respond to

4218-572: The halo effect derived from possessing professional expertise. In relation to other professions, public intellectuals are socially detached from the negative and unintended consequences of public policy derived from their ideas. Sowell gives the example of Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), who advised the British government against national rearmament in the years before the Second World War . Humber The Humber / ˈ h ʌ m b ər /

4332-403: The intelligentsia , a status class organised either by ideology (e.g., conservatism , fascism , socialism , liberalism , reactionary , revolutionary , democratic , communism ), or by nationality (American intellectuals, French intellectuals, Ibero–American intellectuals, et al. ). The term intelligentsiya originated from Tsarist Russia ( c.  1860s –1870s), where it denotes

4446-465: The normative problems of society, and, as such, are expected to be impartial critics who can "rise above the partial preoccupation of one's own profession—and engage with the global issues of truth , judgment, and taste of the time". In Representations of the Intellectual (1994), Edward Saïd said that the "true intellectual is, therefore, always an outsider, living in self-imposed exile, and on

4560-471: The social stratum of those possessing intellectual formation (schooling, education), and who were Russian society's counterpart to the German Bildungsbürgertum and to the French bourgeoisie éclairée , the enlightened middle classes of those realms. In Marxist philosophy , the social class function of the intellectuals (the intelligentsia ) is to be the source of progressive ideas for

4674-417: The "Who?", the "How?" and the "Why?" of the social, economic and political status quo —the ideological totality of society—and its practical, revolutionary application to the transformation of their society. The Italian communist theoretician Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) developed Karl Marx 's conception of the intelligentsia to include political leadership in the public sphere. That because "all knowledge

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4788-423: The "educated representatives of the propertied classes", of "revolutionary socialist intellectuals", such as were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels . The Hungarian Marxist philosopher György Lukács (1885–1971) identified the intelligentsia as the privileged social class who provide revolutionary leadership. By means of intelligible and accessible interpretation, the intellectuals explain to the workers and peasants

4902-573: The 'Five Rivers' of the Punjab ). An alternative derivation may be from the Latin verb abdo meaning "to hide, to conceal". The successive name Humbre / Humbri / Umbri may continue the meaning via the Latin verb umbro also meaning "to cover with shadows". Although it is now an estuary its entire length, the Humber had a much longer freshwater course during the Ice Age , extending across Doggerland , which

5016-570: The 20th century, the term intellectual acquired positive connotations of social prestige , derived from possessing intellect and intelligence , especially when the intellectual's activities exerted positive consequences in the public sphere and so increased the intellectual understanding of the public, by means of moral responsibility, altruism , and solidarity , without resorting to the manipulations of demagoguery , paternalism and incivility (condescension). The sociologist Frank Furedi said that "Intellectuals are not defined according to

5130-469: The British airship R38 crashed into the estuary near Hull, killing 44 of the 49 crew on board. From 1974 to 1996, the areas now known as the East Riding of Yorkshire , North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire constituted the county of Humberside . The Humber, from 1996, forms a boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire (to the north) and North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire, to

5244-622: The English/Canadian poet and artist Brion Gysin (1916–1986). Gysin would become a major influence upon P-Orridge's ideas and works and was h/er primary tutor in magic . 1973 saw COUM take part in the Fluxshoe retrospective that toured Britain exhibiting the work of the Fluxus artists; it was organised by David Mayor, who befriended P-Orridge. At that year's Edinburgh Festival , they undertook their Marcel Duchamp -inspired Art Vandals piece at

5358-552: The Funhouse after being thrown out of her home by her father. Having earlier befriended P-Orridge at an acid test party, Newby would move into h/er room at the Funhouse, adopting the pseudonym Cosey Fanni Tutti after the title of Amadeus Mozart 's 1790 opera Così fan tutte . Joining COUM, Tutti initially helped in building props and designing costumes, and was there when the group began changing its focus from music to performance art and more theatrical happenings; one of these involved

5472-448: The Hull area. COUM drew up a petition which they distributed locally to gain support for the group and as a result, the group got a booking at the local Brickhouse, which was their first performance in which the audience applauded and called for an encore. However, the petition had contained their phallic logo, and the police charged P-Orridge and fellow COUM member Haydn Robb (now known as Haydn Nobb) of publishing an obscene advert, although

5586-568: The Humber is named for " Humber the Hun ", an invader who drowned there during battle in the earliest days of the chronicle. The Humber remained an important boundary throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, separating Northumbria from the southern kingdoms. The name Northumbria derives from the Anglo-Saxon Norðhymbre (plural) = "the people north of the Humber". The Humber is recorded with

5700-698: The Humber passes the junction with the Market Weighton Canal on the north shore, the confluence of the River Ancholme on the south shore; between North Ferriby and South Ferriby and under the Humber Bridge ; between Barton-upon-Humber on the south bank and Kingston upon Hull on the north bank (where the River Hull joins), then meets the North Sea between Cleethorpes on the Lincolnshire side and

5814-699: The Melkweg in Theater Zaal, Amsterdam. Adopting a more violent stance than their previous work – in this reflecting an influence from the Viennese Actionists – the performance involved self-mutilation, Cosey inserting lighted candles into her vagina, P-Orridge being crucified and whipped, and P-Orridge and Cosey having sexual intercourse. At Southampton 's Nuffield Festival in July 1975, COUM performed Studio of Lust , where P-Orridge publicly masturbated and all of

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5928-557: The National Rock/Folk Contest at the New Grange Club in Hull with a set entitled This Machine Kills Music ; a parody of the slogan " this machine kills fascists ". They also put together their first book for publication; the first volume in a projected project known as The Million and One Names of COUM appeared in 1972, containing 1001 slogans, such as "COUM are Fab and Kinky" and "A thousand and one ways to COUM.". This

6042-653: The Ninth Paris Biennale at the Musée d'art modern. The prestige of being invited to such an event led to the Arts Council awarding them a grant for £1,600, although only the first half of this was ever paid out. COUM's mail art had taken on an increasingly pornographic dimension, and in November 1975 the police charged P-Orridge with distributing obscene material via in the postal system under the 1953 Post Office Act ; this trial

6156-555: The Richard Demarco Gallery, in which they engaged guests in unconventional conversation, and spilled their food and drink on the floor. Exhibiting alongside the Viennese Actionists , they came under increasing influence from these Austrian performance artists, adopting their emphasis on using shock tactics to combat conventional morality. September 1973 saw them produce their first film, Wundatrek Tours , which documented

6270-543: The World Open Water Swimming Association. He raised over £900 for Humber Rescue, who provided safety support during the swim. The Humber is home both to resident fish and those returning from the sea to their spawning grounds in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire . Salmon , sole , cod , eel , flounder , plaice , sprat , lamprey and sand goby have all been caught within the estuary. It

6384-691: The abbreviation Fl. Abi (The Abus river, Ancient Greek : Ἄβος ) in Ptolemy 's Geographia , discharging into the German Ocean (the North Sea ) south of Ocelum Promontorium (Spurn Head). Ptolemy also gives the Iron Age tribes of the area as the Coritani south of the Humber and the Parisi to the north. In the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe , Crusoe leaves England on a ship departing from The Humber. On 23 August 1921,

6498-467: The article, Haydn Robb, would subsequently join the performance collective. Tim Poston (1945–2017), subsequently a lecturer in mathematics at Warwick University went on to undertake research into catastrophe theory , influenced, it is claimed by Genesis P'Orridge, by his work in COUM. COUM released one song produced in this early period, "Dry Blood Tampax", on their 1983 cassette 23 Drifts to Guestling . They recognised that they would never become

6612-457: The band in Disco and Music Echo , remarking that "[s]ome might say that Coum were madmen but constant exposure to mankind forces me to believe that we need more madmen like them." They also featured in an article in Torch , the publication of the University of Hull's student union, entitled "God Sucks Mary's Hairy Nipple"; a title from a message received during a seance in Solihull attended by P'Orridge, Gasmantell and others in 1967. The author of

6726-406: The charges were later dropped. Gaining coverage in the music press, interest in the band grew, and they were asked to support the rock band Hawkwind at St. George's Hall in Bradford in October 1971, where they performed a piece called Edna and the Great Surfers , where they led the crowd in shouting "Off, Off, Off". The following month, the band attracted the interest of John Peel , who discussed

6840-487: The classically trained figures involved in progressive rock which had attained mainstream popularity in Britain at the time. P-Orridge began to take an increasing interest in infantilism, founding a fictitious school of art, the L'ecole de l'art infantile, whose work culminated in a 1983 event known as the Baby's Coumpetition held at Oxford University 's May Festival, which he had co-organised with Robin Klassnik and Opal L. Nations. Another invention of P-Orridge's at this time

6954-809: The country, Genesis P-Orridge settled down in their parents' new home in Shrewsbury , and volunteered as an office clerk in their father's new business. P-Orridge first developed the concept for COUM on a family trip to Wales, while sitting in the back of the car; P-Orridge became "disembodied and heard voices and saw the COUM symbol and heard the words 'COUM Transmissions'." Returning home that evening, P-Orridge filled three notebooks with various artistic thoughts and ideas, influenced in part by time spent with Transmedia Explorations. In December 1969, P-Orridge returned to Hull to meet up with friend John Shapeero, with whom P-Orridge would turn COUM Transmissions into an avant-garde artistic and musical troupe. They initially debated as to how to define "COUM", later deciding that like

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7068-434: The course of the 19th century, other variants of the already established adjective 'intellectual' as a noun appeared in English and in French, where in the 1890s the noun ( intellectuels ) formed from the adjective intellectuel appeared with higher frequency in the literature. Collini writes about this time that "[a]mong this cluster of linguistic experiments there occurred ... the occasional usage of 'intellectuals' as

7182-663: The cut-ups were also put on display. Toward the end of COUM, performances would often consist of only P-Orridge, Cosey and Sleazy, the core group who went on to form Throbbing Gristle . COUM ended when, at a performance in Antwerp, P-Orridge had ingested leaves, bark, and whiskey and started cutting their skin with nails and became sick and had to be taken to the hospital. They decided to "stop doing performance art." In July 2009, American record label Dais Records released archival vinyl LP releases by COUM Transmissions entitled The Sound Of Porridge Bubbling (2009), Sugarmorphoses (2011) and Home Aged & The 18 Month Hope (2013) in

7296-411: The errors of logical fallacy , ideological stupidity, and poor planning hampered by ideology. In her memoirs, the Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher wrote that the anti-monarchical French Revolution (1789–1799) was "a utopian attempt to overthrow a traditional order [...] in the name of abstract ideas , formulated by vain intellectuals". The American academic Peter H. Smith describes

7410-458: The first person to attempt and complete a two-way swim across the estuary, beginning and finishing at Hessle foreshore, with Barton on the south bank as the mid-way point, fulfilling the land-to-land criteria, covering a total of 4,085 m (4,467 yd). Royal holds the record for the fastest one-way swim across the Humber (35 minutes 11 seconds) and the fastest two-way swim (1 hour, 13 minutes, 46 seconds), certified by Guinness World Records and

7524-450: The first recorded woman to swim the Humber. Boyall, then aged 19 and living in Hull, was the Yorkshire swimming champion. She crossed the Humber from Hull to New Holland Pier swimming the distance in 50 minutes, 6 minutes slower than the existing men's record. Since 2011, Warners Health have organised the 'Warners Health Humber Charity Business Swim'. Twelve swimmers from companies across the Yorkshire region train and swim in an ellipse from

7638-507: The foodstuff which he lived off as a student. His new nom-de-guerre was intentionally un-glamorous, and he hoped that by adopting it he would trigger his own "genius factor". This caught the attention of the Yorkshire Post , who featured an article on COUM Transmissions on 11 February. Soon, COUM began to attract further media attention from newspapers across the country. On 18 April 1971, COUM, consisting of Genesis P'Orridge & Spydeee Gasmantell broadcast their first live radio session, for

7752-406: The gender balance, including concepts of gender confusion; P-Orridge for instance dressed in female clothing to adopt the persona of 'Crystal P-Orridge' on one occasion. In another piece performed at the AWB, which was titled Filth , P-Orridge and Tutti performed sexual acts using a double-ended dildo while on a bed. COUM were frustrated with the restrictions imposed on them by the Arts Council as

7866-704: The general public". This expresses a dichotomy, derived from Plato, between public knowledge and private knowledge, "civic culture" and "professional culture", the intellectual sphere of life and the life of ordinary people in society. In the United States, members of the intellectual status class have been demographically characterized as people who hold liberal -to- leftist political perspectives about guns-or-butter fiscal policy . In "The Intellectuals and Socialism" (1949), Friedrich Hayek wrote that "journalists, teachers, ministers, lecturers, publicists, radio commentators, writers of fiction, cartoonists, and artists" form an intellectual social class whose function

7980-498: The group made use of wordplay in their artworks and adverts. COUM's earliest public events were impromptu musical gigs performed at various pubs around Hull; titles for these events included Thee Fabulous Mutations , Space Between the Violins , Dead Violins and Degradation and Clockwork Hot Spoiled Acid Test . The latter combined the names of Anthony Burgess ' dystopian science-fiction novel A Clockwork Orange (1962) with Tom Wolfe 's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968),

8094-483: The group members pretending to be dogs and pushing along a pram containing chicken's heads and bloodied tampons; during the performance, police arrived and put a stop to the event, deeming it to be obscene. In September 1974, COUM were invited to attend the Stadfest in Rottweil , West Germany , and they proceeded with a travel grant from the British Council . Their first performance there was titled Schlimm , which involved P-Orridge and Tutti performing anarchic actions in

8208-409: The group turning up to play a gig but intentionally not bringing any instruments, something P-Orridge considered "much more theatrical, farcical and light-hearted" than their earlier performances. On 5 January 1971, by now living at 8 Prince Street Hull, Megson officially changed his name to Genesis P-Orridge by deed poll , combining his adopted nickname of "Genesis" with a misspelling of " porridge ",

8322-543: The intellectual". Moreover, some intellectuals were anti-academic, despite universities (the academy) being synonymous with intellectualism . In France, the Dreyfus affair (1894–1906), an identity crisis of antisemitic nationalism for the French Third Republic (1870–1940), marked the full emergence of the "intellectual in public life", especially Émile Zola , Octave Mirbeau and Anatole France directly addressing

8436-530: The intellectuals of Latin America as people from an identifiable social class, who have been conditioned by that common experience and thus are inclined to share a set of common assumptions (values and ethics); that ninety-four per cent of intellectuals come either from the middle class or from the upper class and that only six per cent come from the working class . Philosopher Steven Fuller said that because cultural capital confers power and social status as

8550-435: The intellectuals" to change and improve their societies. According to Hayek, intellectuals disproportionately support socialism for idealistic and utopian reasons that cannot be realized in practice. The French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre noted that "the Intellectual is someone who meddles in what does not concern them" ( L'intellectuel est quelqu'un qui se mêle de ce qui ne le regarde pas ). Noam Chomsky expressed

8664-461: The jobs they do, but [by] the manner in which they act, the way they see themselves, and the [social and political] values that they uphold. According to Thomas Sowell , as a descriptive term of person, personality, and profession, the word intellectual identifies three traits: In Latin language , at least starting from the Carolingian Empire , intellectuals could be called litterati ,

8778-446: The long and thin headland of Spurn Head to the north. Ports on the Humber include the Port of Hull , the Port of Grimsby and the Port of Immingham ; there are lesser ports at New Holland and North Killingholme Haven . The estuary is navigable for the largest of deep-sea vessels. Inland connections for smaller craft are extensive but handle only a quarter of the goods traffic handled in

8892-462: The margins of society". Public intellectuals usually arise from the educated élite of a society, although the North American usage of the term intellectual includes the university academics. The difference between intellectual and academic is participation in the realm of public affairs. Jürgen Habermas ' Structural Transformation of Public Sphere (1963) made significant contribution to

9006-558: The matter of French antisemitism to the public; thenceforward, "intellectual" became common, yet initially derogatory, usage; its French noun usage is attributed to Georges Clemenceau in 1898. Nevertheless, by 1930 the term "intellectual" passed from its earlier pejorative associations and restricted usages to a widely accepted term and it was because of the Dreyfus Affair that the term also acquired generally accepted use in English. In

9120-414: The matters of public policy , the public intellectual connects scholarly research to the practical matters of solving societal problems. The British sociologist Michael Burawoy , an exponent of public sociology , said that professional sociology has failed by giving insufficient attention to resolving social problems, and that a dialogue between the academic and the layman would bridge the gap. An example

9234-516: The members undressed and adopted sexual poses. "When we shifted from Coum Transmissions to TG, we were also stating that we wanted to go into popular culture , away from the art gallery context, and show that the same technique that had been made to operate in that system could work. We wanted to test it out in the real world, or nearer to the real world, at a more street level – with young kids who had no education in art perception, who didn't come along and either empathised or didn't; either liked

9348-401: The most part the album's tracks consist of spoken word material and sound experiments, at times reminiscent of the audio material that William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin had been experimenting with in the 1960s. One track, Nude Supper is a direct reading by Spydeee Gasmantell from William S. Burroughs work, Naked Lunch. The online version of this album has subsequently been amended so that

9462-475: The music press ignored COUM and saw TG as experimental art rock , while the arts press ignored TG, viewing COUM as performance artists. Despite their intention of operating within the realms of popular culture, TG never had chart success, and remained a cult band ; their audience was however far larger than COUM. COUM continued to operate alongside TG, and in October 1975 they performed Jusquà la balle crystal'' at

9576-427: The name dada it should remain open to interpretation. P-Orridge designed a logo for the group, consisting of a semi-erect penis formed out of the word COUM with a drip of semen coming out of the end, while the motto "YOUR LOCAL DIRTY BANNED" was emblazoned underneath. Another logo designed by Megson consisted of a hand-drawn seal accompanied by the statement "COUM guarantee disappointment"; from their early foundation,

9690-529: The noise or didn't. A little mini-Dada movement, eh?" P-Orridge, 1983. COUM were introduced to Chris Carter in the summer of 1975 through their mutual friend John Lacey. Lacey believed that Carter would be interested in COUM as a result of his particular interest in the experimental use of light and sound. Together, Carter, Christopherson, Cosey and P-Orridge founded a musical band, Throbbing Gristle, on 3 September 1975; they had deliberately chosen that date for it

9804-520: The north bank at Brough ; four hours later, he emerged on the south bank at Whitton . He is 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 m) tall and took advantage of a very low tide. He replicated this achievement on the television programme Top Gear (Series 10 Episode 6) when he beat James May who drove an Alfa Romeo 159 around the inland part of the estuary in a race without using the Humber Bridge. On Saturday 26 August 1911, Alice Maud Boyall became

9918-410: The notion of public intellectual by historically and conceptually delineating the idea of private and public. Controversial, in the same year, was Ralf Dahrendorf 's definition: "As the court- jesters of modern society, all intellectuals have the duty to doubt everything that is obvious, to make relative all authority, to ask all those questions that no one else dares to ask". An intellectual usually

10032-455: The other hand, felt she had only just begun. Though she feels the name COUM to be "tainted" now and unusable, she has been known to say her individual projects are still a part of the COUM family of work. For a while, she operated a website at COUM.co.uk. The founder of COUM Transmissions was Genesis P-Orridge (1950–2020), a Mancunian by birth who later founded Throbbing Gristle and other projects. A university student who had developed

10146-570: The participation of academic public intellectuals in the public life of society is characterized by logically untidy and politically biased statements of the kind that would be unacceptable to academia. He concluded that there are few ideologically and politically independent public intellectuals, and disapproved public intellectuals who limit themselves to practical matters of public policy, and not with values or public philosophy , or public ethics , or public theology , nor with matters of moral and spiritual outrage. Socially, intellectuals constitute

10260-659: The public affairs of society. Consequently, being designated as a public intellectual is determined by the degree of influence of the designator's motivations , opinions, and options of action (social, political, ideological), and by affinity with the given thinker. After the failure of the large-scale May 68 movement in France, intellectuals within the country were often maligned for having specific areas of expertise while discussing general subjects like democracy. Intellectuals increasingly claimed to be within marginalized groups rather than their spokespeople, and centered their activism on

10374-479: The public funding of such events. In the House of Commons , Scottish Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn demanded an explanation from Arts Minister Harold Lever and proclaimed P-Orridge and Tutti as "wreckers of civilisation". Fleet Street was not slow to pick up the story. The reviews were cut up, framed and put on display for the remainder of the exhibition. This was also reported in newspapers, so cut-ups about

10488-457: The same place on consecutive nights, food was cooked at irregular times of the day and all clothing was kept in a communal chest, with its members wearing something different on each day. P-Orridge stayed there for three months, until late October 1969, after deciding to leave, due to being angered that the commune's leaders were given more rights than the other members, and believed that the group lacked an interest in music. After hitch-hiking across

10602-461: The sexual aspects of COUM's work. He began to aid them using his skills as a photographer and graphic designer, and would first perform with them in their March 1975 work Couming of Youth . In May 1974, COUM issued a manifesto published on an A3 double-sided sheet titled Decoumpositions and Events . In April 1974 the Arts Council of Great Britain gave COUM the first half of a £1,500 grant, which

10716-413: The social and cultural ties created with their words, insights and ideas; and should be heard as social critics of politics and power . The determining factor for a "thinker" (historian, philosopher, scientist, writer, artist) to be considered a public intellectual is the degree to which the individual is implicated and engaged with the vital reality of the contemporary world, i.e. participation in

10830-577: The social problems relevant to their areas of expertise (such as gender relations in the case of psychologists). A similar shift occurred in China after the Tiananmen Square Massacre from the "universal intellectual" (who plans better futures from within academia) to minjian ("grassroots") intellectuals, the latter group represented by such figures as Wang Xiaobo , social scientist Yu Jianrong , and Yanhuang Chunqiu editor Ding Dong ( 丁東 ). In

10944-437: The south bank to the north bank of the estuary under the Humber Bridge over a total distance of approximately 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (2.4 km). Since then, an organised group crossing at the Humber Bridge has become an annual event, with a small number of pre-selected swimmers crossing in a 'pod' which remains close together, in aid of Humber Rescue. In 2019, Hull-based competitive open water swimmer Richard Royal became

11058-584: The south. The Humber Forts were built in the mouth of the estuary for the First World War . Planned in 1914, their construction started in 1915 and they were not completed until 1919. A coastal battery at Easington, Fort Goodwin or Kilnsea Battery , faced the Bull Sands Fort. They were also garrisoned during the Second World War, and were finally abandoned for military use in 1956. Fort Paull

11172-751: The street using a range of props. The next day, they followed this with a second street action, All that Glitters is not Kunst , which earned them praise from Bridget Riley and Ernst Jandl , both of whom were present. The acclaim that COUM received at Rottweil established the group's reputation as "one of the most innovative performance art groups then on the London art scene", convincing the Arts Council and British Council to take them more seriously and offer them greater support. In February 1975, P-Orridge gained his only full-time job, working as an assistant editor for Colin Naylor at St. James' Press, in which he helped to compile

11286-483: The track titled 'Nude Supper' now refers to the track 'Sound of Porridge Bubbling', the track 'Sound of Porridge Bubbling' is a taped version of The Stripper . The original spoken word version of the reading from Naked Lunch is only found on the original 500 vinyl copies of the album. Other, Like Me: The Oral History of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle , a documentary on both projects consisting of archival footage and photos and interviews with their members,

11400-399: The transformation of society: providing advice and counsel to the political leaders, interpreting the country's politics to the mass of the population (urban workers and peasants). In the pamphlet What Is to Be Done? (1902), Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) said that vanguard-party revolution required the participation of the intellectuals to explain the complexities of socialist ideology to

11514-461: The uneducated proletariat and the urban industrial workers in order to integrate them to the revolution because "the history of all countries shows that the working class, exclusively by its own efforts, is able to develop only trade-union consciousness" and will settle for the limited, socio-economic gains so achieved. In Russia as in Continental Europe , socialist theory was the product of

11628-488: The universities of the U.S. are bureaucratic, private businesses, they "do not teach critical reasoning to the student", who then does not know "how to gauge what is going on in the general struggle for power in modern society". Likewise, Richard Rorty criticized the quality of participation of intellectuals in public discourse as an example of the "civic irresponsibility of intellect , especially academic intellect". The American legal scholar Richard Posner said that

11742-434: The view that "intellectuals are specialists in defamation , they are basically political commissars , they are the ideological administrators, the most threatened by dissidence ." In his 1967 article " The Responsibility of Intellectuals ", Chomsky analyzes the intellectual culture in the U.S., and argues that it is largely subservient to power . He is particularly critical of social scientists and technocrats, who provide

11856-476: The wealthy in common cause appear to betray one's class origins. The 19th-century U.S. Congregational theologian Edwards Amasa Park said: "We do wrong to our own minds, when we carry out scientific difficulties down to the arena of popular dissension". In his view, it was necessary for the sake of social, economic and political stability "to separate the serious, technical role of professionals from their responsibility [for] supplying usable philosophies for

11970-458: Was a lot of outrage expressed by London newspapers and UK politicians, including Tory MP Nicholas Fairbairn , who referred to COUM as the "wreckers of Western civilization". However, memberships to the ICA increased sharply as a result of the COUM show. The last official COUM performances and art shows took place in 1976. Around that time, P-Orridge proclaimed to be through with performance art. Tutti, on

12084-460: Was based on the science fiction short story The Nine Billion Names of God written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1953 Another of P-Orridge's early publications was the book Copyright Breeches (1973), which explored his ongoing fascination with the copyright symbol and its wider implications for art and society. COUM organised events for Hull City Council 's Fanfare for Europe to commemorate the UK's joining

12198-476: Was co-produced by BBC Television and aired on BBC Four in December 2021. Intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking , research , and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the world of culture , either as a creator or as a mediator, the intellectual participates in politics, either to defend

12312-421: Was contingent upon political pragmatism , abandoning the political neutrality of the academic intellectual. In The Sociological Imagination (1959), C. Wright Mills said that academics had become ill-equipped for participating in public discourse, and that journalists usually are "more politically alert and knowledgeable than sociologists, economists, and especially ... political scientists". That, because

12426-502: Was gradually superseded by the academic method, and the term "Man of Letters" became disused, replaced by the generic term "intellectual", describing the intellectual person. The archaic term is the basis of the names of several academic institutions which call themselves Colleges of Letters and Science . The earliest record of the English noun "intellectual" is found in the 19th century, where in 1813, Byron reports that 'I wish I may be well enough to listen to these intellectuals'. Over

12540-543: Was his Ministry of Antisocial Insecurity (MAI), a parody of the governmental Ministry of Social Security . He also set about working on creating a character known as Alien Brain, and in July 1972 performed the World Premiere of The Alien Brain at Hull Arts Centre, a multi-media happening that involved the audience and which had received funding from the Yorkshire Arts Association. That summer, they also entered

12654-702: Was largely used to pay off the groups' £300 debt. The money stabilised the group, which now included P-Orridge and Tutti as directors, John Gunni Busck as technical director, and Lelli Maull as musical director. During that year, they made use of various artist-run venues in London, most notably the Art Meeting Place (AMP) in Covent Garden , where they regularly performed during 1974; these actions included Orange and Blue , Gainsborough's Blue Movie Boy , 4 Hours Music Action , Signals , and Throbbing Gristle . A number of these works entailed P-Orridge and Tutti exploring

12768-513: Was relatively common in European countries such as the United Kingdom , the "Man of Letters" ( littérateur ) denotation broadened to mean "specialized", a man who earned his living writing intellectually (not creatively) about literature: the essayist , the journalist , the critic , et al. Examples include Samuel Johnson , Walter Scott and Thomas Carlyle . In the 20th century, such an approach

12882-543: Was set for February 1976. Their Prostitution show, in 1976 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, exhibited Tutti's pornographic images from magazines as well as erotic nude photographs. The show featured a stripper, used Tampax in glass, and transvestite guards. Prostitutes, punks , and people in costumes were among those hired to mingle with the gallery audience. The show caused debate in Parliament about

12996-481: Was the 36th anniversary of the United Kingdom joining the Second World War . The term "throbbing gristle" was deliberately chosen for it was a Yorkshire slang term for an erect penis. Throbbing Gristle, or TG as it was widely known, was aimed at a wider audience than COUM, thereby aiming to work within popular culture rather than the elite realm of the art scene. COUM and TG were largely treated as distinct entities;

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