Update on Protocol Architecture

I posted earlier about the Protocol Architecture Competition. Geoff Manaugh from BLDGBLOG, one of the other judges, has written more about the Protocol Architecture competition and the group’s other projects (guided by v. progressive thinker Ed Keller). Check out Geoff’s post DOCUMENTS, MAPS, AND FILES OF A FICTIONAL ARCHITECTURE. He has included some images from the publication Protocol Architecture – Recovering Berlin (Danil Nagy, Yvual Borochov, Lisa Ekle) on his blog. You can download the book here. But the printed book is very nice if you can buy it (order here).

Transmission Annual: Hospitality

Transmission Annual: Hospitality has just been published. Hospitality edited by Michael Corris, Jaspar Joseph-Lester and Sharon Kivland is in conjunction with their ongoing Transmission series of artists’ talks organized by Sheffield Hallam University in association with Site Gallery. For more information check here: http://transmission.uk.com/.

The annual includes clusters of ‘friends’ who asked each other to participate. Contributors include: Graham Allen, Kristen Alvanson, Amanda Beech, Jerome Carroll, Clegg & Guttmann, Kris Cohen, Clare Connors, Nigel Cooke, Michael Corris, Eileen Costa, Juan Cruz, Meritxell Duran, Tim Etchells, Marcia Farquhar, Rachael Garfield, Charlie, Gere, Judith Goddard, Laura Heit, Vit Hopely, Nancy Hwang, Alfredo Jaar, Jaspar Joseph-Lester, Ahuvia Kahane, Sharon Kivland, Esther Leslie, Yve Lomax, Juliet Flower MacCannell, Robin Mackay, Marko Maetamm, Victor Mazin, Penny McCarthy, E. Elias Merhige, Forbes Morlock, Reza Negarestani, Hayley Newman, Dany Nobus, Haralampi G. Oroschakoff, John W. P. Phillips, Cesare Pietroiusti, Jeanne Randolph, Antonio Santos, Javier Santos, Naomi Segal, Roy Sellars, Blake Stimson, Thomson & Craighead, Irene De Vico Fallani, Rodrigo Villas, Nina Wakeford, Sarah Wood.

Transmission Annual: Hospitality

Edited by Michael Corris, Jaspar Joseph-Lester, Sharon Kivland

ISBN: 978-1-906441-24-1

Artwords Press London

Available Through: http://www.artwords.co.uk/acatalog/Artwords_Press.html

Open Space in Singapore

My dESIRE Project is currently included in Open Space an online and on-site exhibition exploring the theme of Open Space curated by Patricia R. Zimmerman, Nikki Draper and Sharon Lin Tay at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore with Wenjie Zhang. Open Space will be up during the International Communication Association (ICA) Conference in Singapore from June 22-26, 2010. The exhibition is shown as the digital arts exploration of the conference theme Im/Material.

Other artists/filmmakers participating in the exhibition include:

Vaibhau Bhawsar

Andreas Zingerle

Myriam Thyes

Babak Fakhamzadeh

Reclaim Land: Justin Zhuang, Sam Kang Li, Wong Shu Yun, Serene Cheong

Nguyen Bich Thuy

Alessandro Perini

15 Malaysia: Ho Yuhang, Yasmin Ahmad, Amir Muhammad, Linus Chung, Liew Seng Tat, Desmond Ng, Kamal Sabran, Tan Chui Mui, Woo Ming Jin, James Lee, Benji & Bahir, Johan John, Khairil Bahar, Nam Ron, Suleiman Brothers

Gebhard Sengmüller 

For more information check here: http://www.ica2010.sg/openspace/view.html

Anonymous Materials Opening

My installation Objects 302 (made up of documents related to my chapter in Cyclonopedia) and Spell Map drawing A Thousand Ways to Die are included in Anonymous Materials an exhibition curated by Pamela Rosenkranz at Binz39 in Zürich from 4th June to 4th July, 2010 /Opening hours Thursday - Saturday, 2 - 6 pm.

Opening 6 pm Thursday / June 3rd/ 2010/ Binz39 /Sihlquai 133, 8005 Zürich

Including contributions by:

Kristen Alvanson, Kim Seob Boninsegni, Pavel Büchler, Ida Ekblad, Ulrik Heltoft, Marie Koelbaek lversen, Fabian Marti, Rachel Mason, Ketuta Alexi Meskhishvili, Lucy Pawlak, Martin Soto Climent, Mai-Thu Perret, Urs Zahn

“Anonymous Materials” brings together artists who use very different approaches in their practices. But its presentation of their works draws attention to a particular form of complicity common to them, and unfolds its consequences for our understanding of art-production. As the title indicates, the exhibition focuses on the autonomy of those materials which constitute an elemental component in the process of creating art. The show therefore explores art as a material-driven process of production so as to raise the question: How does the autonomy or contingency of the artists’ material influence or interfere with the artwork itself? In examining the conditions of art production, the show emphasizes the dynamics and ambivalence of the concept of materiality in artistic production, rather than deconstructing the meaning of the artwork by thematizing its material substrate.

Neither does this examination of materiality entail a fashionable celebration of those aesthetic effects commonly associated with processual tropes of artistic production (the presentation of raw materials, open-endedness, and so on). It does not rely upon the unfinished status of an artwork as a form of process-oriented practice. It could be said that such artistic sensibilities only exacerbate or obfuscate the enigma of materiality, semantically supercharging materiality in a way that can only be grasped by an audience hungry for meaning. Therefore, these processual tropes reestablish the authority of a privileged sentience whose correlation with meaning is ultimately a complete dismissal of both independency and contingency of materials in art production. As opposed to this approach, the artists in this show were chosen because their practices involve clear decisions towards the problems mentioned. In tracking the traces of production in the artwork, this group show could even be understood as a critical response to a current tendency to be too “sensitive” to materials; a tendency that could further be defined as an eclectic approach to the visual reminiscence of conceptual art.

The title of the show is taken from Iranian philosopher Reza Negarestani’s book Cyclonopedia: Complicities with Anonymous Materials. It refers – in an open manner – to the book’s take on the problem of ‘inauthenticity’ whereby the subjective identity of the author is repeatedly overturned and undermined by the intervention of references, materials and narrative processes which enjoy autonomy and contingent complicities of their own. The show opens up, unfolds and reinvents this problematic embracing of materiality by evoking the randomness of functionality attributed to artists’ materials and allowing a multiplicity of relations between the artwork and its arbitrary context. Systematically blocking the tendency for a ‘higher meaning’ to emerge, the show resolutely focuses on the active, contingent role of the material conditions of the artwork. The studio-like installation itself explores the process of creating art in its very contingent and disruptive character.

Protocol Architecture - Design for the Speculative Future

I had fun judging Protocol Architecture's [Recovering Berlin] competition. For more information on the competition and the entries check here: http://protocolarchitecture.wordpress.com/ Also check back soon for the announcement of the winning entries.

Protocol Architecture is a group of researchers, artists and architects based in New York City that investigates potentials for future design through the creation and analysis of hyper-fictional documents. These document sets create evidence for future scenarios that string together a specific history of political, social and technological developments.

A discussion at Columbia University GSAPP with Mark Collins of Proxy, Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG and Ed Keller of aum took place to discuss the [Recovering Berlin] entries and remote responses were posted on the site.

List of Jurors:
Kristen Alvanson, artist
Juan Azulay, Matter Management
David Benjamin, The Living
Mark Collins, Proxy
Eric Ellingsen, Species of Space and Olafur Eliasson Workshop
Bradley Horn, CCNY
Ed Keller, a|Um
Jamie Kruse, smudge studio
Geoff Manaugh, BLDGBLOG
Reza Negarestani, author of Cyclonopedia
Michael Rotondi, RoTo Architects
Roland Snooks, Kokkugia

Images of Spell Chador no. 98 in Repurposes exhibition

Repurposes

One of my Spell Chadors is in Repurposes. Repurposes is an exhibition representing themes of reexamination and reengagement of personal and public convictions. In a time of historic change and challenge—politically, economically, technologically—how do we remake our world and ourselves? The exhibition presents 31 artists working in a variety of media—collage, sculpture, video, web, artist books, graphic design, assemblage, and more—from the U.S., U.K., Italy, Germany, Iran, and Spain. Curated by Kenneth FitzGerald, Associate Professor of Art, Old Dominion University, and Garland Kirkpatrick, Associate Professor of Art, Loyola Marymount University. A joint project of Ephemeral States and Helvetica Jones.
 

 Baron and Ellin Gordon Galleries at Old Dominion University

4509 Monarch Way, Norfolk, VA

Saturday, March 20 through Sunday, April 18, 2010 (Opening reception: Saturday, March 20 7-9pm)

Cosmic Drapery Flag Update

An appliqué from Flag 5 of the Cosmic Drapery Flag project.

To date 109 women from Iran have added their own appliqués to six Cosmic Drapery Flags. For more images and information on this project check here: http://cosmicdraperyflags.blogspot.com/ and http://www.kristenalvanson.com/new/drapery-flags.html.

Collapse VI: Geo/philosophy

The new issue of Collapse is now available. I have a couple photos in the issue which accompany Nicola Masciandaro's 'Becoming Spice: Commentary as Geophilosophy' essay.

Contributors to the volume include: Charles Avery, Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain, Stephen Emmott, Owen Hatherley, F I E L D C L U B, Iain Hamilton Grant, Renée Green, Gilles Grelet, Manabrata Guha, Nicola Masciandaro, Timothy Morton, Greg McInerny, Robin Mackay, Reza Negarestani, Drew Purves, F.W.J. Schelling, Eyal Weizman, Rich Williams.

Following Collapse V's inquiry into the legacy of Copernicus' deposing of Earth from its central position in the cosmos, Collapse VI: Geo/philosophy poses the question: How should we understand the historical and contemporary bond between philosophical thought and its terrestrial support?

Collapse VI: Geo/philosophy begins with the provisional premise that the Earth does not square elements of thought but rather rounds them up into a continuous spatial and geographical horizon. Geophilosophy is thus not necessarily the philosophy of the earth as a round object of thought but rather the philosophy of all that can be rounded as an (or the) earth. But in that case, what is the connection between the empirical earth, the contingent material support of human thinking, and the abstract 'world' that is the condition for a 'whole' of thought?

Urgent contemporary concerns introduce new dimensions to this problem: The complicity of Capitalism and Science concomitant with the nomadic remobilization of global Capital has caused mutations in the field of the territorial, shifting and scrambling the determinations that subtended modern conceptions of the nation-state and territorial formations. And scientific predictions present us with the possibility of a planet contemplating itself without humans, or of an abyssal cosmos that abides without Earth - these are the vectors of relative and absolute deterritorialization which nourish the twenty-first century apocalyptic imagination. Obviously, no geophilosophy can remain oblivious to the unilateral nature of such un-earthing processes. Furthermore, the rise of so-called rogue states which sabotage their own territorial formation in order to militantly withstand the proliferation of global capitalism calls for an extensive renegotiation of geophilosophical concepts in regard to territorializing forces and the State. Can traditions of geophilosophical thought provide an analysis that escapes the often flawed, sentimental or cryptoreligious fashions in which popular discourse casts these catastrophic developments?

Continuing to combine and connect work from different disciplines and perspectives in innovative ways, this new volume of Collapse brings together philosophers, theorists, eco-critics, leading scientific experts in climate change, and artists whose work interrogates the link between philosophical thought, geography and cartography. This multiplicity of engagements makes Collapse VI a philosophically-rich yet accessible examination of the present state of 'planetary thought'.

Visit Collapse's website at www.urbanomic.com to purchase a copy. A PDF preview of the editorial introduction to the volume is also available on the website.

dESIRE Update

dESIRE #003100

Recent sales and a trade bring the price of one unit of desire (100 intangible desires and their photographic representations) up from $200 to $500. The last increase was in October 2008 when the price was raised from $125 to $200 due to global inflation and demand. There are still units available and I can always make more ;)

For more information on the dESIRE Project, please check here:

http://www.kristenalvanson.com/new/market.html

2009 Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale

I participated in the Women Artists’ Archive Project for 2009 Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale, Incheon, Korea in August. For more information about the Biennale, check here: http://iwabiennale.org/2009_new/eng/main/main.php

Or here: http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/09/artseen/2009-incheon-women-artists-biennale

Vilnius Update

Images from the 5th International Artist’s Book Triennial Vilnius 2009 in Vilnius, Lithuania

The triennial includes 132 works of artists from 34 countries around the world including Jordan, Pakistan, Iran, Mexico, Cuba, Singapore, Iceland, South Africa, Canada and others.

A hand-binded catalogue has been created in an addition of 500 (all catalogues are numbered).

My spell text book

Kestutis Vasiliunas' Pr 32,29 book behind spell book

Wakilur Rahman's book (Bangladesh)

For more information check here: http://www.bernardinai.lt/index.php?url=articles%2F95034

5th International Artist’s Book Triennial Vilnius 2009

Gallery "Arka", Vilnius, Lithuania
April 30 – May 16, 2009 

Opening of the exhibition will take place on April 30th 2009, 6 p.m.

Gallery "Arka", Vilnius
Ausros vartu Str. 7, LT–01129
Vilnius, Lithuania

My Text Spell Book is included in the 5th International Artist's Book Triennial Vilnius 2009, the theme of which is “Text”. The Book Triennial will be on exhibit in multiple countries throughout 2009. The first showing was held at the Leipzig Book Fair in March.

1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran: BELGRADE

The 1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran's next stop is Belgrade:

URBAN JEALOUSY IN BELGRADE 

3-10 APRIL 2009 
Urban Jealousy 
the 1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran
3rd station: Belgrade, 3rd -10th of April 2009
Curated by Serhat Koksal and Amirali Ghasemi 
Belgrade Contact : Isidora Krstic

For more information check here: http://www.biennialtehran.com/

Exhibition in Leipzig Book Fair

My Text Spell Book will be included in the 5th International Artist's Book Triennial Vilnius 2009, the theme of which will be “Text”.

The Book Triennial will be on exhibit in multiple countries throughout 2009. The first exhibition will be launched at:

5th International Artist's Book Triennial Vilnius 2009

Exhibition in Leipzig Book Fair

12-15 of March, 2009

Iakh - Internationale Ausstellung für Künstlerbücher und Handpressendrucke

HALLE 3, H 501

Leipzig, Germany 

Then it continues on to Vilnius, Lithuania in April (more info to follow).

ITCH MAGAZINE

The third issue of ITCH Magazine, addressing and exploring the $ symbol, is now out. Itch is a South African born online/offline periodical. 

I have a short photo-text sequence in the issue on what you can buy in Iran for a dollar. You can check it out here:  http://www.itch.co.za/?article=102

New Humanist Issue 124 is now available

My photos accompany an article on Iran entitled ‘Before the Dawn’ by Nasrin Alavi in the current issue of New Humanist (issue 124 Jan/Feb 2009). Issue includes:

Editorial: Fine Lessons

Funny how atheists enjoying themselves can be so threatening to believers

Cover Stories

Power Struggle

For decades, it was the scourge of the environmental movement. But now, discovers Angela Saini, the greens are going nuclear

Features

In the burning house

In 2005 Russian artist Anna Alchuk was publicly vilified and put on trial for her involvement in the Caution:Religion! exhibition. Three years later she drowned herself. Her husband, the philosopherMichail Ryklin, reads her diaries to find out why

Bad Faith Awards 2008

Following a tough campaign and a hard-fought election, we can finally announce last year's most scurrilous enemy of reason

Before the dawn

Thirty years after the revolution consumerism and political apathy dominate Iran. But a new generation may change that, says Nasrin Alavi

Days of atonement

Visiting Israel just weeks before the current Gaza conflict, Sally Feldman found that rising religious bigotry is one of the biggest barriers to peace 

Unsafe havens

The Government is planning tougher penalties for men who use trafficked prostitutes. But who is helping the women themselves? Rahila Gupta uncovers a distributing trend 

True disbelievers

Being faith-less is no excuse for rewriting history, says Theodore Dalrymple

Regulars

Endgame: One track mind

Laurie Taylor hopes he’s not a running joke

Diary: Trump cards

Our religions game seemed to annoy everyone. Result! says Christina Martin 

Culture

Darwin's journey

For poet Ruth Padel the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great scientist is more than a historical milestone, it’s a family celebration 

Book Reviews

The Weight of a Mustard Seed by Wendell Steavenson

Nina Power considers complicity in Iraq 

Three-Letter Plaque by Johnny Steinberg

Andrew Mueller enjoys some journalism with a human touch 

The Strangest Man by Graham Farmelo

James Randerson encounters a strange legend of physics

Teenagers: A Natural History by David Bainbridge

Bill Thompson gets down with the kids 

Once on a Moonless Night by Dai Sijie

Philip Womack barely survives the tedium of a new Chinese novel

The Artist, the Philosopher and the Warrior by Paul Strathern

Brenda Maddox enjoys some Renaissance history

Check out it out here: http://newhumanist.org.uk/1947

FACELESS MUSIC

Artist Jason Sweeney has made a 'silent film' of my flesh photos as part of his Faceless Music project. He is currently collating materials (recorded and/or written stories, sounds, noise, anecdotes, nightmares and confessionals about attempts at living a life online) and reworking them into an audio-museum project. The project is being assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council.

Check out Flesh Film here: http://ifnotforyouthenwho.blip.tv/#1629630

Serial Drapery

Please visit my Cosmic Drapery Flags Blog: http://cosmicdraperyflags.blogspot.com/

Cosmic Drapery Flags is part of a series of inter-connected works in my Cosmic Drapery Project. Cosmic Drapery Flags is a collective project in which numerous women participate in creating hanging flags (each 90 cm wide by 119 cm long) made of heavy black crepe-like fabric on which nomadic fabric is appliquéd on to both sides of the flag by means of stitchery. These appliqués and their emerging stitches turn the black fabric into an ultimate entity of syncretic drapery.

This blog has been created to document the flags' development -- track the flags, show updated embroidery work and profile some of the women who have participated in the project.

 
blütenweiss presents:

ANONYMOUS DRAWINGS #9

December 20 & 21, 2008

Opening: December 19th at 7 pm
Greeting: Sirgid Klebba

Opening hours: 12 - 7 pm
Kunstraum Kreuzberg / BethanienMariannenplatz 210997 Berlin, Germany tel.:0049(0)30/90298-1455U-Bahn Kottbusser Tor
more information:

www.bluetenweiss-berlin.de

1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran Travels to Berlin

The Roaming Biennial of Tehran is headed to Berlin, check below for information on the various events related to the biennial:

The 1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran, Berlin
20 Nov.2008 - 7 Dec. 2008
Urban Jealousy in Berlin

Openings and Opening Performances:

20 Nov. WEST GERMANY
Skalitzer Straße 133 10999 Berlin
Exhibition Opening: 7pm (Music performance Starts at 8pm)

SONATA REC ( audiovisual performance )
[-HYPH-] ( live electronics )
ERFAN ABDI ( sound art )
DJ KOSTULAH ( post punk/ussian garage /centralasia electro )
VJ GENTRIFISUAL ( Goodzilla VS Badzilla )
BALLGARD ( Tehrani Free Funk Rock Band )

21 Nov. NEWYORCK IN BETHENIEN
Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin

Performance by EMANUELE RODO ,MATTEO ROVESCIATO , DARIO FARIELLO ( Words ,Painting ,Sax, improvisation )
In front of bethanien Building at 5pm

Exhibition Opening: 7pm (Music performance Starts at 8pm)
UTKU TAVIL ( Audio Performance )
BIJAN MOUSAVI ( Acoustic rock )
GUDUBIK ( Experimental Dub Band )
KOSTJA PICUNDA 84 ( Cello and Electronics )
2/5 BZ ( Audio-gentrifisual Performance )
ARASH SALEHI aka THE11 ( Intelligent Techno / Bandar Beats )
BALLGARD ( Tehrani funk Rock band )
JUNKTION 'NASDIA' ( Dubstep to Orientalcore Dj Set)

22 nov. GALERIE WALLYWOODS
Kulturhaus Peter Edel, Berliner Allee 125, Weissensee, 13088 Berlin
Opening 6pm (music performance starts at 7pm)

BIJAN MOOSAVI/ARASH SALEHI/ERFAN ABDI (AV Performance )
JAVAD SAFARI / KAVEH KATEB (Electronic Folk ) + ARASH KHAKPOUR and FARID JAFARI (Visuals )
UGLY AMERICANS ( Wallywoods' Punk Funk )
BALLGARD ( Tehran Free Rock Band )
GUDUBIK ( Experimantal Dub Band )
FREE JAM Session with BIENNIAL TEHRAN BAND and Guests

23 nov. ICH ORYA
Oranienstraße 22 - 10999 Berlin
Opening:10 pm

BIENNIAL TEHRAN BAND (SUPRISE ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE)
DJ NASE ( Kontra Oriental )

For more information on the Biennial check here: http://www.biennialtehran.com/

Umelec Magazine Issue 2/2008

Umelec Magazine has published a review entitled ‘Unfolding the Middle East: Kristen Alvanson’s Nonad’ (by Robin Mackay) on my ‘nonad’ exhibition in their current Issue 2/2008. Umelec is based in the Czech Republic and is published in English, German, Spanish and Czech.

Mackay begins, “In his 1998 book on Leibniz, philosopher Gilles Deleuze proposed the figure of ‘The Fold’ as a way in which a philosophy of immanence might measure the multiplicity of the uni­verse. If Being speaks in one voice, if we invoke no transcendent plane of organisation, then how can difference be articulated? Deleuze’s vision of folds-within-folds, which he discovers to be the reigning principle of the baroque, extends to labyrinthine structures enfolding infinite complexity (or implexity) without yielding to any form of transcendence. Kristen Alvanson, an American artist working in Iran, suggests that we read the Middle East, in all its obscurity, inscrutability and hybridity, in terms of such a topological model, as a fabric folded and refolded into a baffling surface where disparate elements abut unexpectedly and overlap each other in paradoxical fashion. Inversely, her recent work demonstrates how the multiple cultural codes at work in the region can be manifested through the folds of its fabrics…”

For more information on Umelec and where to purchase it check here: Umelec Magazine

For more information on work from my Cosmic Drapery Project, please visit a new section on my website which includes information on Nomadic Fabric Chadors, Spell Chadors, Cosmic Drapery Flags and Abjad-9. http://www.kristenalvanson.com/new/drapery.html

Pharmakon Library

Pharmakon Library
Created + Curated by Christina McPhee
The project is produced in association with Silverman Gallery, San Francisco.
NY Art Book Fair, October 23-26, 2008http://www.nyartbookfair.com

My work ‘Poison In/Poison Out’ will be included in Christina McPhee’s Pharmakon Library. Pharmakon Library is an ongoing series of graphic folios created and curated by Christina McPhee. The folios comprise a series of open works by artists who address, through image and/or text, the principle of critical reversability, or proximity of poison and cure. "Pharmakon" in Greek may mean antidote, recipe, poison, drug, spell, remedy, drug, talisman, gift and paint. Each folio consists of pigment jet archival prints by three artists. Each folio is produced as an edition of three. The scale of each folio images is 13 x 19 inches each (Super B). Print stock is Epson exhibition photographic paper and Niyodo washi; and printed with K13 Ultrachrome Epson pigment inks.

The project debut will occur at the New York Art Book Fair October 23-26, 2008, with the release of the initial folios in limited edition.

with invited contributions from artists
Kristen Alvanson, Bertien van Manen, Naeem Mohaiemen, Neal Robinson, Kevin Hamilton, Mickey Smith, Elin Lennox, Dave Iseri, and Christina McPhee.
set one: spell
Elin Lennox, Mickey Smith, Neal Robinson
set two: paint
Naeem Mohaiemen, Dave Iseri
set three: recipe
Bertien van Manen, Kevin Hamilton
set four: antidote
Kristen Alvanson, Christina McPhee

For more information check:pharmakon folio documentation pdf

click-through thumbnail index (images only)

dESIRE Update

dESIRE #003538


Due to global inflation and demand the price of one unit of desires has been increased from $125 to $200. The last increase was in March 2008 when the price was increased from $100 to $125.

For more information on my dESIRE Project, please check here: http://www.kristenalvanson.com/new/market.html

Specialten Magazine issue 22

Specialten the bi-monthly publication, has reprinted my 'Arbor Deformia' article and photography which first appeared in Collapse Vol. 4 in their new Issue 22. Along with my article, the magazine has also printed an interview on Collapse with editor Robin Mackay.

Issue 22 is the third of the hardback editions, contains a DVD disc of interviews, documentaries, art Installations, short films and music videos. This is accompanied by 56 full color pages containing text and photography relevant to the DVD. Each issue also contains a separate Ltd edition print commissioned by an artist. In this issue a Ltd. Edition Print by Irena Zablotska.

Issue 22 includes:
Bruce Webber - Film Interview
Yayoi Kusama - Documentary
Arbor Deformia – Collapse - Article
The Last Shadow Puppets - Film interview
First Place - Short Film
The Notwist - Music Video
Claire De Rouen
meet Micachu - Specialten Session
Ana Begins - Film Interview
Sigur Rós - Music Video
Fear{s} Of The Dark - Film Preview
Cut Copy - Music Video
Bon Iver - Music Video
The Object - Short Film
Blindness Of The Woods - Short Film
Closing Time - Documentary
Puppet Boy - Short Film
Drift - Short Film
and more...

For more information, check here: http://www.specialten.com/issues/22/Arbor_Deforma_Collapse.html.

CYCLONOPEDIA

CYCLONOPEDIA the theory-fiction work of the Iranian philosopher Reza Negarestani has just been released by re.press and is now available in bookstores and online. I have written the opening narration chapter and designed conceptual diagrams for the book. More information below…



"Incomparable. Post-genre horror, apocalypse theology and the philosophy of oil, crossbred into a new and necessary codex." – China Miéville, author of Perdido Street Station

"Reading Negarestani is like being converted to Islam by Salvador Dali." – Graham Harman, author of Guerrilla Metaphysics: Phenomenology and the Carpentry of Things

CYCLONOPEDIA is a theory-fiction by Iranian philosopher and writer Reza Negarestani. Hailed by novelists, philosophers and cinematographers, Negarestani's work is the first horror and science fiction book coming from and written on the Middle East.

"The Middle East is a sentient entity – it is alive!" concludes renegade Iranian archaeologist Dr. Hamid Parsani, before disappearing under mysterious circumstances. The disordered notes he leaves behind testify to an increasingly deranged preoccupation with oil as the lubricant of historical and political narratives.

A young American woman arrives in Istanbul to meet a pseudonymous online acquaintance who never arrives. Discovering a strange manuscript in her hotel room, she follows up its cryptic clues only to discover more plot-holes, and begins to wonder whether her friend was a fictional quantity all along.

Meanwhile, as the War on Terror escalates, the US is dragged into an asymmetrical engagement with occultures whose principles are ancient, obscure, and saturated in oil. It is as if war itself is feeding upon the warmachines, leveling cities into the desert, seducing the aggressors into the dark heart of oil ...

At once a horror fiction, a work of speculative theology, an atlas of demonology, a political samizdat and a philosophic grimoire, CYCLONOPEDIA is work of theory-fiction on the Middle East, where horror is restlessly heaped upon horror. Reza Negarestani bridges the appalling vistas of contemporary world politics and the War on Terror with the archaeologies of the Middle East and the natural history of the Earth itself. CYCLONOPEDIA is a middle-eastern Odyssey, populated by archeologists, jihadis, oil smugglers, Delta Force officers, heresiarchs, corpses of ancient gods and other puppets. The journey to the Underworld begins with petroleum basins and the rotting Sun, continuing along the tentacled pipelines of oil, and at last unfolding in the desert, where monotheism meets the Earth's tarry dreams of insurrection against the Sun.

For more information on the CYCLONOPEDIA, please visit: http://www.re-press.org/content/view/58/38/

KLEBNIKOV CARNAVAL August 17-24 2008 Belgium

There are only two days left to visit Grapes of Art and Vilt's KLEBNIKOV CARNAVAL.

Participating Artists and Writers:
Marko Niemi (Finland) - ZAUMACHINEDidi de Paris - spoken word/performance/voordracht (B)
Herlinda Vekemans (B)
Alain Delmotte (B)
Peter Holvoet-Hanssen (B)
TOX! the new collective consisting ofTine Moniek,(B)
Olaf Risee (NL)Xavier Roelens (B)
Lucas Hüsgen - voordracht (NL)
Maarten Inghels - voordracht (B)
Han van der Vegt - voordracht (NL)
Dirk Vekemans - ha
Helen White (USA)
Philip Meersman - video/audio (B)
A. Andreas - Brahamian Intelligence Service - email Opera/informatieverstrekking/voordracht (NL)
Sonia Dermience (B)
Grapes of Art
Ilse Derden (B)
Arnout Camerlincks (B)Jan Vossen (B) - painting
Angela Genusa
Christina McPhee
Sergio Basbaum
David-Baptiste Chirot (Canada)
Lanny Quarles (USA)
Johannes Gutenberg (CANADA) - prints/ vispo
Rustin Larson (USA)
Erik Rzepka
Kristen Alvanson - video (Iran- USA)
Reza Negarestani- text (Iran)
Yerna Van Den Driessche - optreden/voordracht (B)
Bert Lema - tekstueel (B)
Luc Fierens (B)
David Troch & Sylvie Marie De Koninck (o.v.) (B)SAGE (Saskia van Herwijnen & Gerrit van Schuppen) - video (NL)Fre Widdekind -spoken word/voordracht/(muziek) (B)Jaan Patterson - graphics (Germany)Moabi & Michael - dance/music (Portugal/België)Lexicon Valley - verhalende performance beeld-geluidJJ Pollet - studyrooms/assemblage

For more information check here.

Cabinet Magazine issue 30

My photos of Iranian mannequins accompany Nina Power's article 'Mannequins, Manners, and Mutilation' on Mary Wollstonecraft and the mannequins of Iran in the current issue of Cabinet Magazine. Please seek out a copy. The issue also includes:

Digging up numerous items of interest, including:
- Michael Saler on the London Underground's aesthetic departures
- Sina Najafi interviews Rosalind Williams on the subterranean imagination
- Magnus Bärtås uncovers the temple of Damanhur
- Mark Wasiuta on Ant Farm's plans for missile-silo reclamation
- Alessandro Scafi on the underpinnings of Dante's Inferno
- Joshua Foer interviews Michel Siffre on his six-month sojourn in a cave

And closer to the surface:
- Nina Power on Mary Wollstonecraft and the mannequins of Tehran
- Paul La Farge on Victor Hugo's sainthood in Vietnam
- Michael Taussig on the headier influences of Walter Benjamin and William Burroughs
- Sasha Archibald on Alfred Yarbus's science of visual attention
- Moyra Davey on feeling marooned- D. Graham Burnett explores the commonplace book
- Celeste Olalquiaga on coral polyps and the politics of science
- Josiah McElheny on the curious position of Mies van der Rohe's Glass Skyscraper Project
- Allen S. Weiss on the intoxicating aspects of a Japanese guinomi
- Margaret Wertheim interviews Nancy Knowlton on the vanishing world of coral

Cabinet is on sale in the US at independent bookstores, Barnes & Noble, Tower, Borders, Hudson News, and Universal News. Also available in Canada, the UK, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Singapore, New Zealand, and Japan. A partial list of retailers worldwide can be found at http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/information/wheretobuy.php

Urbanomic Studio Event for Under Pressure print exhibition

UNDER PRESSURE
Prints by
Henri Matisse
Edward Bawden
Sara Ogilvie
Simon DaraSam
Bradbury
Kristen Alvanson
Ruth & Robin Mackay

Saturday 19th July, From 6pm at Urbanomic, Falmouth.

Urbanomic
The Old Lemonade Factory
Windsor Mews Studios
Falmouth, UK
TR11 3EX
07977 449416