For Sprint 2023, we launched the Manuport Manifesto T-Shirt in a variety of colors. Designed by Alice Fiorelli, this T-shirt showcases a manifesto inspired by the practice of Manuport, brought to life through her unique illustrations.

The printed text:
Manuport is the name given to a natural object removed from its original context and transported elsewhere. A Manuport is a stone, shell, or fossil deliberately chosen for its aesthetic or magical qualities, gathered or relocated by hand. (1) The Makapansgat pebble, bearing natural markings that make it resemble a small stylized human face, has been recognized by anthropologists as the earliest known example of symbolic thinking, allowing us to establish a profound temporal connection with otherwise inaccessible hominids. (2) We choose a Manuport because it is easy, accessible, granted to all by grace—like an encounter. (3) We define as Manuportable any occasion to rediscover an object of beauty, ready to be carried away. A Manuport is thus a defunctionalized object, re-signified, selected not for profit but for the creation of a new landscape. (4) To find a Manuport—witnessing the manifestation of imagination—is to allow oneself to be found. Manuport is a defiance (5) of common sense, for Manuport seeks its own sense. Manuport favors play and shadow, attends to insignificance and the infraordinary, is brazenly indifferent to the market, and is congenial to children, aliens, amateurs, and the uninhabited. Manuport is solid but has the nature of liquid, for it flows, percolating into liminal and deviant crevices, slipping into any hidden or marginal space. It emerges from anonymity and in the spirit of community. Manuport dissents from the professional and rational logics of the integrated adult grey individual. It equally rejects the pretensions of the romantic-genius-artist-magician and is alien to expertise and competition. Manuport evades predetermined control; it cannot be planned, rationalized, formalized, immobilized, defined, or framed. It defends its nature as an enigma, a mystery, an uncertainty, a wandering. Manuport is the antiperformative act that destabilizes and disperses. Manuport reminds us that only by losing the compass can hope be found. Manuport is liberated energy, an agent of chaos. It does not submit to the totalizing, policing grasp of comprehension, nor does it end in the static perfection of death. (6) Manuport crosses the mirror. Manuport, through the disorientation of the object, provokes entropic unease and surprise. (7)

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(1) Lioconcha hieroglyphica is a species of saltwater clam naturally adorned with bacilliform markings, which combine through cellular automation to often resemble hieroglyphic, runic, or cuneiform scripts. This natural artistry evokes a sense of ancient communication, as if nature itself had penned a message for us to decipher.
(2) Whether the first hominid truly perceived such an object as a face, regarded it with a sense of magic, or simply delighted in the small stone remains a matter of debate. In the distant future, archaeologists may similarly ponder over our Manuports, curious about their symbolic significance. It would be wise to leave them ample evidence of our capacity for symbolic thought.
(3) Illustration
(4) By questioning the placement of an otherwise insignificant object that gains meaning, purpose, and significance in its new context, Manuport aligns itself with the tidal movements of Duchamp’s tradition, situationalism, Fluxus, and Italian post art. Each Manuport, like these avant-garde movements, challenges conventional boundaries and redefines the landscape of meaning.
(5) Illustration
(6) “Great is the confusion under heaven. The situation is excellent.” This sentiment captures the essence of disruption, where altering the original arrangement of things can lead to unpredictable and profound consequences. The order within a space reflects additional dimensions, energetic flows, and secret macrocosmic machinations that subtly, yet powerfully, influence the lives of animals, plants, and fungi.
(7) These changes ripple outward in random cascades, guided by the strange attractor of Lorenz, obeying erratic orbits in a cacophony of eccentric noise, often touched by an almost fateful magic. In this chaotic dance, the act of shifting a single element has the potential to reshape entire systems, unveiling the hidden interconnectedness of all things.