Classic Cafes | Psychogeography

'Before his current Walworth Road sojourns, 'Mad' Frank Fraser was an Alfredo's regular (Frank was tight with the guy who set up Alfredo's 90 years ago; the caff Cosa Nostra.) Always dressed in full Long Firm funeral clobber, Fraser sits quietly, alone in a back corner, his immaculate black Gangster No. 1 tonsure (sculpted at an old 50s throwback barbers cold-shouldered behind Sadlers Wells) clashes with Alfredo's breezy ivory-and-blue tile interior.' The psychogeography of cafes. No, really, serious, promise. Link

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The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception

'Interested parties explain the culture industry in technological terms. It is alleged that because millions participate in it, certain reproduction processes are necessary that inevitably require identical needs in innumerable places to be satisfied with identical goods. The technical contrast between the few production centers and the large number of widely dispersed consumption points is said to demand organisation and planning by management. Furthermore, it is claimed that standards were based in the first place on consumers’ needs, and for that reason were accepted with so little resistance. The result is the circle of manipulation and retroactive need in which the unity of the system grows ever stronger. No mention is made of the fact that the basis on which technology acquires power over society is the power of those whose economic hold over society is greatest. A technological rationale is the rationale of domination itself. It is the coercive nature of society alienated from itself. Automobiles, bombs, and movies keep the whole thing together until their leveling element shows its strength in the very wrong which it furthered. It has made the technology of the culture industry no more than the achievement of standardisation and mass production, sacrificing whatever involved a distinction between the logic of the work and that of the social system.' Link

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Free Range 2007 Art & Design Shows

'Welcome to the seventh annual Free Range at The Old Truman Brewery, London. This is Europe's largest graduate art and design show with free admission. Free Range was set up to showcase the works of budding designers and artists to both public and potential employers alike, giving students the best opportunity to promote their work. Each year the show has increased in size and popularity, making it a destination point for thousands of Londoners and lovers of visual arts. Over 100,000 people visited this free-entry show last year.' This is a (unrequested) plug for the designer of Openned.com who is showcasing his work on Atlantis 2nd Floor. I went last night. There's a few interesting psychogeographical pieces, and a book attempting to amalgamate the works of Beatrix Potter and Hunter S Thompson, which doesn't work, but is fun nonetheless. Check out the Black Books advertising campaign someone put together too. Oh, and Openned's designer is the guy with the cool stuff. Lots of lights, you move your arms, you make sounds.

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Damien Hirst: For the Love of Wow

Relentless pontificating Kirsty Wark talks to Damien Hirst I was going to quote this, but the BBC no longer bothers with transcripts, preferring deathly slow-loading abhorrent archive video where everyone looks like they've come straight from the video for Money For Nothing. There's a moment in this Newsnight Review (recently voted the show most likely to turn you into a steamed ham) interview where, to paraphrase, Hirst says something along the lines of 'maybe "wow" is enough, I think that's one of the best reactions you can have to a piece of art'. Or somesuch like that, only in his elegant cheeky chappie soundbitealover way. For the Love of God is a vanitas work that seems to go for broke with the whole "wow" thing: it's expensive, it's shiny, it's a skull and it's by Damien Hirst. So, the question is, regardless of what you think of his work, do you reckon "wow" is enough? Can you start with "wow" and work your way to something else? Does "wow" come from that something else you've been working from? Is provoking a visceral reaction enough for poetry, or is its remit an entirely diffident kettle of diamond-encrusted skulls? I'm on the fence with this one, help me out peeps. - Alex

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ICA: Michael Hardt and Simon Critchley

'With radical politics in retreat, what is the best way to conceive of and theorise rebellion? Philosophers Michael Hardt and Simon Critchley offer some original ideas about how to renew radical theory.' £10 / £9 Concessions / £8 ICA Members 7.00pm ICA, The Mall, London, SW1, United Kingdom, Nash Room Wednesday 20th June Link

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Openned anthology teaser flyer

Distribute the flyer on the nights page to those you love.

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Chris Burden

'Burden’s most trenchantly significant work was “Doomed,” performed in April, 1975, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. He set a clock on a wall at midnight, and lay down on the floor under a leaning sheet of glass. Viewers came and went. Burden didn’t move. Inevitably, he soiled his pants. (“It was awful,” he recalled.) Forty-five hours and ten minutes passed. Then a young museum employee named Dennis O’Shea took it upon himself to place a container of water within Burden’s reach. The artist got up, smashed the clock with a hammer, and left. He never again undertook a public action that imperilled himself. It wouldn’t have made sense. “Doomed” unmasked the absurdity of the conventions by which, through assuming the role of viewers, we are both blocked and immunized from ethical responsibility. In O’Shea’s case, the situation was complicated by his duty to maintain the inviolability of art works.' Link

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Issue update

A new poem by James Harvey can be seen in the Poetics of The Foundry issue.

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Openned anthology reading

The Openned anthology reading will take place on Wednesday 1st August at The Foundry. More details soon.

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2readings

Tuesday, June 5 Bill Berkson Ernesto Prieto Michael Glover 6:30 p.m. Parasol Unit 14 Wharf Road, London N1, near the Old Street and Angel tube stations. ****** Wednesday, June 6 Bill Berkson Clark Coolidge Bill Corbett 8 p.m. The Room 33 Holcombe Road Tottenham Hale London N17 9AS info-theroom@fsmail.net www.theroom.org.uk [Thanks to AJ]

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