Recollection Services Incorporated

For Friday, June 6, 2025 report, we measure the acoustic event according to a dreary photograph that appeared in “The Blind Man.”

We can only speculate the reason why Mr. Mutt signed and dated the urinal and affixed a deposit for “Fountain.” The original was lost or destroyed and the images we have of it were published in the anti-art Da-Da “Blind Magazine.” By doing this, Mutt signed away the modernist archetype prevalent at the time. A Mr.Mutt, one from Philadelphia submitted a payment along with a five-dollar bill to the Society of Independent Artists, whose statement of information read, “to form an idea of the state of contemporary [modernist] art.” The Society could accept all submissions, provided the fee was submitted.

On opening night for a special event, two valves stared blankly, 3/4′ threading, a five-sized die puncturing a ceramic frame in the convex target splash. Where should the Society place the urinal fixture? “Fountain” was never placed in the showroom for exhibition @ Grand Central Palace, where collectors could view it. One Marcel Duchamp, known for “Nude Descending a Staircase” resigned because the fixture was voted down as a work of art.

A Boston daily reported, a “Richard Mutt threatens to sue the directors because they removed the bathroom fixture, mounted on a pedestal.” The bathroom fixture appeared again in avant-garde paper, “The Blind Man,” redistributed by one Alfred Steiglitz, the photographer. Marcel Duchamp denies ever having submitted the bathroom fixture, instead attributing it to a Da-Da colleague. Ostensibly the source of the porcelain statuette is from a New York fixtures catalogue for J. L. Mott Iron Works. The original was lost or destroyed. 14 replicas were signed “R. Mutt 1917” in 1950, one more in 1964.

Upon entering the noise capsule, our subject perceives that the urinal is the automatic recognition-processing system for waste. Why R.Mutt submitted “Fountain” to a distributed design palace? To urinate on crowds. Perhaps he ought to have placed a sink so patrons could wash their hands after urinating and signed it “S. Mutt.”