 A study of anomalous art, from the Paleolithic to the Present, by Dr. Hannah Morel, head of the Artistic Anomalies Unit. The following excerpt is from pages 6-9 of Dr. Morel's paper. The full document may be accessed from the Foundation Central Archives. According to William Tartor, founder of the Artistic Anomalies Unit, an art is a piece of artistic media with an anomalous effect that was intended by the artist as part of the expression of the piece. There are instances where media will exhibit anomalous properties unintended by the creator, and in such instances, the anomalous properties are unconnected with what is being expressed. This definition has served for almost 40 years, and in my experience and the experience of many others is the one certainty in the study of anomalous art. Of course, this definition is certain because it is broad and universal. Moving beyond this surface description, an art becomes much more difficult to define. An art will often use experimental, illegal, or impossible mediums of expression, and the expressions made by an art are often incredibly esoteric, completely nonsensical, or impossible for human beings to understand. Many times, scholars attempted to define an art will fall into the old debate of what is art, an act which rarely aids them. This document is meant as a study of the history of anomalous art or an art, and aims to provide an overview of its major schools, philosophies, styles, and practitioners. Literary anomalies will not be covered in this paper. The chaotic and bizarre nature of an art makes classification of styles incredibly difficult. While in certain periods we may see an overarching including the fine theme, where the majority of anarts follow the same philosophy with predictable results, this is the exception rather than the rule. It is rare for more than small sales of anarts to follow a single philosophy, and often sales of an individual will make schools and styles as according to their whims. However, study of anart in the long term reveals patterns and internal consistencies. Throughout history, there have been four major schools of anomalous artists, those who want to repair reality through art, those that wish to remake reality, those who wish to destroy reality, those that wish to create new realities. It should be noted, however, that these schools are arbitrary labels created by the Foundation in order to define something that is very difficult to define. The practitioners of these schools will never claim themselves as such, and no anartist or piece of anart will ever fit entirely neatly into these categories. These schools and their primary sub-schools are as follows. Reconstructionists, these anartists who wish to fix social, economic, and ethical problems through the implementation of anart. Reconstructionist anart is meant for the sole purpose of achieving an end, and is therefore temporary, becoming unnecessary when the goal has been reached. Panty Reconstructionists, supporters of movements that did not originate with anartist or group of anartists. This sub-school has become increasingly prevalent since the middle of the 20th century up through the present. New Reconstructionists, the founders of movements. The goals of these movements may be similar to nonanomalous groups, but they maintain no association with them beyond shared goals. The deist radical Reconstructionists, this school exhibits no sense of coherency in their causes or methods outside of the pursuing of a goal, albeit a nonsensical one. The deist Reconstructionist movements rarely last long, and very rarely span more than a single person. Both the result of the seemingly necessary lack of sanity required. Recreationist, these anartists who shape pre-existing reality according to their will. Unlike Reconstructionist art, recreationism does not necessarily work towards a greater end, and is meant to be a permanent fixture. However, there is still a great deal to overlap. Minor Recreationist, the most common recreationist sub-school wherein anartists use transform on a small scale, a person, an object, or a single place. It is common in the present day for many anartists, even those of highly opposed schools, to experiment with minor recreationist art, most commonly in body modification. Major Recreationist, this sub-school is based solely on the scope of the anart used, as it is aimed at transforming countries, societies, the entire world, or things of similar large scale. These projects usually involve large sales of anartists, often of different schools, led by a specific individual or group. These projects very rarely come to fruition, as they are usually either interrupted by outside forces, or collapsed due to end-fighting or mismanagement. Reform Recreationist, art is for the transformation of the self in all aspects. This sub-school has traits similar to that of religions, and as such is rife with conflicting themes and ideas. This sub-school is notable in the general lack of external artistic media. Their reform recreationist considers the soul to be the perfect canvas, and as such is the only one worth using. Deconstructionist, these anartists who act to destroy facets of pre-existing reality without providing replacement. Pseudo-deconstructionist, this sub-school focuses on toppling what they view to be oppressive or corrupt structures of society. This sub-school often mixes with the reconstruction school's most commonly petty reconstructionism. True deconstructionist, the target is not only to be destroyed, but erased utterly from reality so that it never existed in the first place. This is a very rare sub-school, a testament to the difficulty of creating such a work. Of course, it should be noted that the rarity might be a result of their past success. Deconstructionist, a school based on the belief that existence itself is both corrupt and meaningless and must be destroyed completely. Members of this sub-school are highly dangerous and openly hostile, and should be dealt with using extreme caution. Creationist, the broadest school of anart, focusing solely on the creation of art and expression through it. Some scholars claim that all anart is by nature creationist, and so the label is redundant. To an extent this is true, there is extensive overlap between creationist art and other schools. However, the general opinion that creationism is specific enough to exist on its own. True creationist, the vast majority of anartists fall into this category, and it serves as an effective catch-all for those who do not easily fall into other categories. This definition extends to all anartists who create anart for its own sake, and whose view of art does not place them among the high creationist or artistic deists. High creationist, through the act of creation the anartist does not only express reality, but defines it. This is a property shared among all anartists, and so all anartists are considered valid in the eyes of the school. Recent scholarship has argued that this is not a true school of anart, and the physician has been gaining momentum in recent years. Artistic deists, the artist's god, unlike high creationists, were the ability to define truth and reality as shared by all artists. The artistic deists believe that the right is theirs alone, and that no other individual may define truth. Artistic deists are often highly dangerous, often exhibiting traits of megalomania. Sufficiently skilled artistic deists may be considered in the same category as reality manipulators. Each of these schools and their respective sub-schools will be explained in greater detail in later chapters.