Such a pleasure to come across a good homepage. Here’s Douglas Kahn’s: http://www.douglaskahn.com. He is of course, the author of Noise, Water, Meat, probably one of the best books on sound in the arts.
He’s also editor now of an academic magazine on Sensory Studies: The Senses and Society, behind the academic firewall, but the first issue is available for free: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/berg/tsas/numberandsomesessioninfo.
Haven’t read any of this yet, but I’ve collected the links:
The American NEA has published a study on reading: http://www.nea.gov/news/news07/TRNR.html.
Critiques from Matthew Kirschenbaum: http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=fgprwfnh32l7d3thj18vh3jz79k9f6fw
And discussion on if:book: http://www.futureofthebook.org/archives/2007/11/the_neas_misreading_of_reading.html.
All this via Jill Walker: http://jilltxt.net/?p=2184.
Tonight we expect a packed OT301 (Overtoom 301, Amsterdam) for the DNK-concert of Ultralyd and KTL. Ultralyd is Anders Hana, Kjetil Moster, Kjetil Brandsdal and Morton Olsen. KTL is Stephen O’Malley (Khanate, Sun O))), Lotus Eaters) with Pita (Peter Rehberg). I’t going to be wonderful immersive and really loud drones/noise and exquisite electro-acoustic dark freerock. Or something like that.
Stephen O’Malley: http://www.ideologic.org
Ultralyd: http://www.n-collective.com/index.cgi?article=14&dept=groups & http://www.myspace.com/ultralydh.
DNK: http://www.dnk-amsterdam.com/
Monday 19th, 21.30h, Overtoom 301, Amsterdam. (I guess it’s 5 euro’s).
For all those who (like me) dwnldd all that terrific early Braxton-music from the now defunct Church#9: http://ifyouknowwhatimsaying.blogspot.com/. Close listening & comments, chronologically going through all the Braxton material.
I’ll do this in Dutch, because it refers to art in Amsterdam, and is quite specific.
O.K. Het Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst heeft geld voor community arts. Mooi. In het buitenland (met name Angelsakische landen) is community arts een vrij duidelijk gedefinieerd gebied waar veel aandacht naar uit gaat. Het is vooral omdat F. in dit gebied werkzaam is, dat ik er zo langzamerhand aardig wat over weet. F. is een groot project aan het opzetten (Dream Depot), het is gestart in Ierland en heeft daar aardig wat aandacht gehad. Ze wil een volgende fase graag in Amsterdam ‘draaien’ – en heeft daarvoor een goeie samenwerking opgezet met een jongerencentrum in Noord, een jongerenwerker en met Artimobiel. Nu nog geld om het te kunnen draaien.
Het AFK heeft een speciaal traject voor community arts. Mooi. (Want eerder vielen haar projecten al gauw buiten de boot, omdat ze nergens in passen). Gesprekken met de cultuurverkenner en anderen vallen goed.
Maar wat blijkt: het geld voor community arts kan alleen worden aangevraagd als de kunstenaar in kwestie de WIK heeft! (F. is sinds 2 of 3 jaar uit de WIK en weet sindsdien ‘te overleven’).
Met andere woorden: er is community arts in Amsterdam, maar het wordt alleen serieus genomen als manier om kunstenaars uit de WIK aan het werk te krijgen. Zucht.
Natuurlijk, F. kan proberen geld aan te vragen in een ander traject (“talentontwikkeling”), maar het is zo zuur omdat haar project ‘community arts’ in optima forma is.
Collaborative blog about 18th-century literature, with 2 excellent collaborative readings: http://long18th.wordpress.com/. The critical discussion of The Triumph of Augustan Poetics: English Literary Culture from Butler to Johnson, a book by Blanford Parke, made me almost buy the book immediately…
If you’re in or nearby Groningen: there’s an Audio Office Audio Art Event running from the 9th till the 11th of november (at the Steenhouwerskade 9). Sound art, deejays, installations. With a.o. Steven Jouwersma, Jobbe Holtes, Sjanet Bijker and Pascal Petzinger. More info: http://www.audiooffice.nl/.
Yesterday we had a presentation of JODI in Groningen – as part of the lecture series Future’s Past: Re-Imaging Art and Media, organised by Eric de Bruyn. (We had Alex Galloway two weeks ago, Joost Raessens coming up next week).
Or better, we had a DI-(Dirk Paesmans)-presentation, as Joan Heemskerk couldn’t make it. Dirk and me had ‘stamppot’ and beers beforehand, talking about how the game-art and digital art is doing very well (booming?) now in the NY-art-market, talking about the works of Cory Archangel, and about living in ‘isolated’ Dordrecht.
Here’s some of JODI’s current stuff. Jet Set Willy Variations 1984: http://jetsetwilly.jodi.org/, and they’re part of the Composite Club: http://compositeclub.cc/.
Reading / browsing books with lots of pictures is like, well, watching a good documentary on television. Or better?
These days I sometimes browse through Vic Gatrell’s City of Laughter, a very detailed account of the satirical prints published in London between 1760 and 1820: with lots of color-illustrations. The text is a bit too detailed for the level of my interest in 18th century London culture, but the prints are great. Review in the Guardian: http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,,1933468,00.html.
Less academic – so closer to watching a documentary on tevee is The Seventy Great Journeys in History, published by Thames and Hudson. I love a book like this for the pleasurable way in which it fills gaps in my knowledge. And it’s nothing I have to know for any special reason.
I love clicking from one wikipedia-entry to another too as a way of discovering, filling in gaps and learning, but sometimes you just want to lie in a chair with a picture book.
Available in december in Dutch, and in spring 2008 also in an English translation: De Monografie, a complete overview of the works of Dutch avant-gardist, conceptualist, theatermaker, composer and pioneer of electronic music Dick Raaijmakers.
Arjen Mulder and Joke Brouwer of V2_ have worked by now almost three years on the book, and have gone through Dick Raaijmakers papers and other archived ‘stuff’ for it. (I’ve seen quite a few originals pass by here in the V2_ office…).
If you order the Dutch version now, you’ll get a discount. More info: http://www.dickraaijmakers.nl/