here & now » theory

I’M COMIC SANS, ASSHOLE.

kvr — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:36:36 +0000

It’s always a nice diversion to pass through McSweeney’s Internet Tendencies every now and then for some challenging thoughts.

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS ACCORDING TO BOB DYLAN

kvr — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 09:54:09 +0000

VERBAL EXPLOSIONS Á LA BADIOU.

mc — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:20:48 +0000

Taking inspiration from the philosopher Alain Badiou, We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves is a statement by John Maus to the current forms of mass communication. Watch his verbal explosions and manic gesturing live, accompanied by Gary War!

John Maus & Gary War
Saturday, Dec 03, 2011 / 20 p.m.
Berghain
Am Wriezener Bahnhof
10243 Berlin

Adorno Constructions, Inc.

ub — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:00:02 +0000

Company Background

“Frank Adorno III founded Adorno Construction in 1988, one of the structural concrete construction leaders. In addition to doing structural concrete construction, Adorno Construction, Inc. also creates decorative concrete surfaces.”

Call today and find out more about Adorno : +1 408 369-8675

WO STEHST DU, KOLLEGE?

tw — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:11:02 +0000

On the occasion of the first 20 years of the Berlin-based magazine Texte zur Kunst a symposium organized by Isabelle Graw and André Rottmann asks the question of art criticism’s potential as social criticism. When the magazine was founded in Cologne in 1990 the methods of ‘Social Art History’ promised to present contemporary art in an extended social, economic and ideological context. Even if this approach remains fundamental for many of the regular authors and editors at Texte zur Kunst, new models of theoretically advanced reflection with contemporary art have come into being: The ongoing debates on bio-politics and immaterial forms of work under the circumstances of post-Fordism have radically challenged the long-held assumption that (post-)avant-garde-art in capitalism has an antagonistic role per se. At the same time there has been a revision of the category of aesthetics. For a long time it seemed discredited due to its vicinity to idealist ideas, but now it has its comeback with a new concept of an ethically based apology of art-experience and an emphatically claimed attention to formal details. The symposium takes this situation as its starting point to debate about the possible power and methods of art criticism as social criticism. Full program here.

Wo stehst Du, Kollege? Kunstkritik als Gesellschaftskritik
Symposium on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of Texte zur Kunst (all talks in English)

Participants: Franco Berardi, Luc Boltanski, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Sabeth Buchmann, TJ Clark, Diedrich Diederichsen, Helmut Draxler, Andrea Fraser, Isabelle Graw, Gertrud Koch, Jutta Koether, Sven Lütticken, Christoph Menke, Juliane Rebentisch, André Rottmann, Martin Saar

11.12.2010, 4 pm
HAU 1
Stresemannstrasse 29
10963 Berlin

Tickets: 7 €, reduced 5 € – book tickets here

IMPENDING DOOM

uk — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:12:25 +0000

After the recent fad of apocalyptic films, television and video games such as The Road, Fallout New Vegas, the so-so Book of Eli, and the excellent new AMC series The Walking Dead, had all had effects on my psychological wellbeing and possibly making me believe that the end of the world is imminent. As always there are lots of conspiracy theories flying around but one which is almost believable and explains why the weather at the moment is so cold is to do with the Gulf Stream flow and the handling of the Oil Spill by BP and Barack Obama. The theory explains that the Gulf of Mexico is the engine of the Gulf stream and allowing the use of millions of gallons of toxic dispersant Corexit mixed up with crude oil has changed the viscosity, temperature and salinity of the Gulf’s seawater, thereby causing the ancient Gulf Stream loop system to stall causing a dramatic effect on the weather system. So what does this mean for us; will Britain’s temperature become more and more like Moscow? Will this trigger the next ice age? Is it worth buying up real-estate in the Southern hemisphere? Will we be frozen instantly like the woolly mammoths happily eating grass one minute and then being served as a delicacy in restaurant thousands of years later? So can we really f**k up the ancient orders of the planet? “Yes we can!” or so the theoretical physicist Dr. Gianluigi Zangari would agree.

For other people they are more concerned about Planet X coming into alignment with our orbit in 2012. Planet X or Nibiru will cause impending doom and a possible polar shift. They believe the last time it came into orbit was around the time Noah built his Ark. These people believe that governments around the world know about this already and are prepared to evacuate the chosen few (doctors, nurses, scientists, politicians etc) to underground lairs. The rest of us would have to face martial law or go off into the country and fend for ourselves. They explain explicitly that forming small groups of survivors would work best by the way. If you want to find out more about this subject then you can go to Nibiru’s founding member’s Nancy Lieder’s Zetatalk’s website. Fortunately for us she is in direct contact with the extra-terrestrials from the Zeta Reticuli star system due to a implant in her brain when she was abducted some while back so you know you are in safe hands!

Want more?! Then check out this nice stable fellow who explains that evolution of our species was in fact aliens visiting Earth and genetically engineered apes to form humans, after all he explains, that gives us a strong proof why we cannot find the missing link!

L’ÉCOLE DE STÉPHANIE

tw — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:29:16 +0000

Under the strict authority of director Stéphanie Moisdon questions and thoughts around artistic practice and visual culture will be addressed during three days of school at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. L’école de Stéphanie is a place of projection, of creation and of language aiming for the exchange and mediation of knowledge, skills and subject matters. 15 artists, philosophers, theorists, writers and curators function as teachers: Hans Peter-Feldmann, Aurélien Froment, Dorothea von Hantelmann, Sylvère Lotringer, Jean-Charles Massera, Nathaniel Mellors, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Ruwen Ogien, Anri Sala, Julia Scher, Elaine Sturtevant, Andrea Viliani, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Thomas Zipp. Hans-Peter Feldmann creates an unrestrained class-room inviting you to once again become a student. Sound by Trisha Donnelly.

Friday, April 30 – Sunday, May 2, 2010

KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Auguststrasse 69, 10117 Berlin

100 Years of Technical Existence

ub — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 10:25:45 +0000

Max Bense would have turned 100 years earlier this week. Even if his reconstructive post-war modernism does not appeal to today’s postmodern mainstream, and there is not a single hit on wired.com, Max Bense’s work is still worth a glimpse. That’s why the Center for Arts and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM) has put up an exhibition about Bense as a mastermind of cybernetics as well as concrete poetry.

A brief introduction, and an extensive overview.

NONE THE WISER

kvr — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:01:39 +0000

I’ve come to really appreciate Christmas, but mostly for the reason that it affords the luxury of time: time to sleep in, time to talk to people you have lost sight of for a while, time to read that issue of mono.kultur you never got around to finishing, time to think, time to kill time. I really enjoy that the whole western world shuts up for a few days; to recover, to rethink, to regain some energy before launching into the next year and starting all over again. Hopefully, these days will also spare me some time to look at and listen to some of the talks and lectures gathered at Ted. This brilliant website aims to archive and make available thoughts by the luminaries of our time – from politicians to economists to scientists to artists. People who have insight into the state of our world, from all kinds of angles, and who will hopefully make you think differently. Now that’s what I call time well spent.

Video: War photographer James Nachtway – a long term favourite for mono.kultur – at his acceptance speech for the Ted Prize in 2007.

WORLD OF GIVING

scg — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:42:50 +0000

This is ostensibly the season of giving, so it is worth mentioning Jeffrey Inaba’s new book World of Giving, dedicated to exploring this cornerstone of human sociality. An architect and professor, Inaba researched, edited, and wrote the book with C-Lab, an ‘experimental research unit’ he directs, as an extension of their current Donor Hall exhibition at the New Musuem in New York. An ‘immersive graphic environment,’ the diagrams, maps, and illustrations that make up Donor Hall attempt to shed light on the opaque movements of large-scale philanthropic giving. World of Giving expands on this project, widening to the focus to encompass the entire convoluted infrastructure of international aid, including NGOs, corporate investment, and micro-lending. By virtue of his profession, Inaba translates a well-worn sociological subject into architectural terms, and at times this limits his focus. He discusses the ‘fluid matrix of limitations’ that affect gift-giving, likening the cultural, social, and economic blockades faced by aid to restrictions imposed on a site, but gives little mention to those forms of patronage used to overcome claustrophobic state control in places like China or Russia.

But Inaba’s visual acuity and research acumen is undeniable. He connects disparate chunks of large- and small-scale data, making legible a little-explored financial jungle through arresting diagrams and indexes. Beautifully designed, World of Giving is also refreshing take on a basic building block of our society, and is well worth a look.