The finest example of how determinism turns into resignation is found in the Arab philosophy; there, the basic principle of Being has no longer (a) sense, and not pleased with it, its purpose is reduced to a single word. It doesn’t really matter how you spell it: mektoub, maktoub, maktub, or maktoob, the fact is that “fate is written,” and there’s nothing to do about; “it’s written,” they insist. Such is the life sentence to which humankind has been condemned; not even last words, that's a privilege god have denied to us. Hence, in order to remain true/real humans, Beings, we must realize that under these terms the word of god is no longer good, which means that we must “challenge and change fate... cut-up the words, make them a new world” (Burroughs) in order to become the kind of artist/person we respect, and transform the resignation heritage into the gift re-signification. Yes, Fate is a euphemism for history, but even if it’s "true" that “all histories ever possible” have been already written, it doesn’t mean they have been read as well, it’s literary impossible. This is our chance to choose in which tense, the sentences of our own version of the history of writing, will be rewritten. After all, “poetry and most poets comeback to what is already written” (Rancière) Just like Brion Gysing did fifty years ago in his series of Mektoub-recordings, whose experimental methodology provided us with the source-code used to write the action script for the Mektoub-Manifesto of Comprehensive Written Art, so it could run smoothly following its basic principles and parameters as identified and explained/exemplified in the following lines (to make sure the interactions between the different elements be absolutely clear before the same criteria be applied to the final experiments), as an attempt to provide enough tools to trigger as many readings as possible without requiring extensive technical support:

 

Signified as Referent: “It’s Written” is written in a wall, creating an "abyss effect".

 

Content – Writing Technique: To overcome the determinism implied in the term MEKTOUB we must perform a poetic translation and prove that neither fate nor history are absolute concepts, even if already “written.” Therefore a chalk-graffiti is the manifestation of a statement subject to disappear; like a lesson in a school blackboard.

 

Content – Location: The word has been written over the pillars supporting a tunnel leading (following the reading) to the Rue du Brabant/Brabantstraat, one of the busiest shopping streets, characterized by the predominance of busyness owned, attended and visited Arabic-descents; a place where fate is either meet or re-written.  

 

Signified as Reference / Documentation - Content: the documentation is a mektoub-video_recording in clear reference to Gysing’s Mektoub-recordings, and the interpretations of the word (written) and experimental written arts that derive from it. The five-word sentence subject to systematic permutation is the alternative translation of the word: everything has been already written. The caption and uttered meant to reinforce the transition from speech to text as the starting point of history. The redundancy is also a middle ground for the recording and the written exercises performed separately around permutation writing techniques. After each combination is performed, both audio and video channels gain noise until neither image or sound is recognizable towards the end, yet the sequence is meant to be reproduced in loop, a process inevitable once the meaning gets to be found lost amongst translations. streets, characterized by the predominance of busyness owned, attended and the predominance of busyness owned, attended and visited Arabic-immigrants; a place where fate is either meet or re-written.