This festival opens this weekend in Osaka. Jona is showing a number of my videos in the screening program. Check it out if you’re in the neighborhood.

http://www.feavs.org

Ken Hollings has an essay on MJ in the new Zero books publication ‘The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson’, edited by Mark Fisher of Kpunk blog.

Providing an antidote to the mixture of unthinking sentimentality and scurrilous prurience that Jackson usually attracts, this book offers impassioned and informed answers to the urgent questions that Jackson’s death has posed. What was it about Jackson’s music and dancing that appealed to so many people? What does his death mean for popular culture in the era of Web 2.0? And just how resistible was his demise? Was another world ever possible, something perhaps utopian instead of the consensual sentimentality of a world hooked on debt, consumerism and images? The essays in The Resistible Demise Of Michael Jackson consummately demonstrate that writing on popular culture can be both thoughtful and heartfelt. The contributors, who include accomplished music critics as well as renowned theorists, are some of the most astute and eloquent writers on pop today. The collection is made up of new essays written in the wake of Jackson’s death, but also includes Barney Hoskyns’ classicNME piece written at the time of Thriller.

Contributors: Marcello Carlin, Robin Carmody, Joshua Clover, Sam Davies, Geeta Dayal, Tom Ewing, Dominic Fox, Jeremy Gilbert, Owen Hatherley, Charles Holland, Ken Hollings, Barney Hoskyns, Reid Kane, Paul Lester, Suhail Malik, Ian Penman, Chris Roberts, Steven Shaviro, Mark Sinker, David Stubbs, Alex Williams, Evan Calder Williams

http://www.o-books.com/obookssite/book/detail/928

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QAfTV97vdfU

http://www.steim.org/STEIMBLOG/?p=871

the brutal immediacy of the voice, the ability it has to inspire fleeting recollections of forgotten characters

it’s animalistic sonic attack, the elemental nature of a cry

inherently humorous and intimate

both performers began their solo sets with renditions of dada and futurist sound poems from their respective countries, the transportation of voices through epochs… return to the voice, to the first and last gasp, the formless expulsion of air and communication

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=95349500794

Wednesday night in Amsterdam, a selection of videos that inspire. Including Biggie Small’s funeral procession, Corey Delaney’s A Current Affair interview, Aum Shinrikyo Anime and John Kilduff’s Let’s Paint TV.

Coming Wednesday (the 27th) it’s time for the second Beam club hosted by De Verdieping. 

This time Special guest Ben Cerveny (one of the inspirational fathers of www.flickr.com) Coralie Vogelaar and Emile Zile will show what truly inspires them in terms of movies, internet, YouTube, documentary fragments or otherwise. 

Doors open at 20:30. Film starts at 21:00. Entrance is free. 

http://www.parachutartists.com

http://www.deservicegarage.nl

Documentation of the live video and orchestra performance, March 21 at World Music and Dance Center in Rotterdam.

http://www.wmdc.nl/engels/program/content/Archive/2009/1809.php

https://youtube.com/watch?v=spWsixjmKXo

A giant of the Japanese impro scene, Otomo Yoshihide is performing at Steim Amsterdam this Sunday afternoon. The man behind a plethora of solo releases and the phenomenal collaborations I.S.O. and Ground-Zero. Performing solo and duo with Dj Sniff. Tip: get there early it will be packed.

http://www.steim.org

A very meta group show organised by Constant Dullaart, opening Friday 13th February. I’m playing some digital music files through fx units at midnight – hyped party mix for the kunst lovers and culture mongers…

Contemporary Semantics Beta delicious show
Friday, February 13, 2009 at 8:00pm

Arti et Amicitiae
Street:
Rokin 112

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Rokin+112%2C+Amsterdam%2C+Netherlands

Lets do a show in which, like is possible on del.icio.us, the inspiration that leads up to an art work is visable, but now physical, not only existing as a jpeg or url (it can be a poster reproduction of a Malevich, a remake of a sculpture, a print out etc etc). And show this together with the final work that this inspiration led to. A show in which it is clear that del.icio.us influences the participating artists by sharing their references, thereby aiding their research. A show that discusses the development of contemperary semantics in net-art 2 point oooh, by showing different aproaches of artists dealing with the vast information flow of the internet, its dialectics and developing anthropological values. The fact that these mostly young artists are dealing with an abundance of visual representations of previous non net art, and the flirtation with kitch, trash and popculture which dominates the internets will play a big part in the show.

participating artists:

Ola Vasiljeva
Harm van Den dorpel
Pascual Sisto
Martijn Hendriks
Ryan Barone
Guthrie Lonergan
Jan Robert Leegte
Constant Dullaart
Frank Koolen
Jon Rafman
Chris Coy
Ellis McDonald

Opening Friday the thirteenth of Februari from 8 pm till 00.00 am, with automated d.j.-ing.
EMILE ZILE WILL PERFORM FROM 00:00 TILL 01:00

Beginning life as a radio series on London’s ResonanceFM, Welcome to Mars is an extensive and deep analysis of post-war American myth-science, science-fact and science-fiction. Ken Hollings and composer Simon James created a dense weave of alien synth drones and prickly social history. The mixing of reality and fiction, hopes and fact in this era is so chaotic and euphoric. The American post-War desire for the ‘Future’ is palpable in Hollings’ delivery, a desire to extend all limits of human consciousness, behaviour and thinking. A truly thrilling and perverse period of mutant growth for humankind. Soaking in the wealth of Hollings’ research can be overwhelming in the radio series mode; the flow of names, affiliations and institutes often requires a rewind to gain a thorough understanding, so I am very happy Strange Attractor Press will be publishing the book of Welcome to Mars in mid-November…

Welcome To Mars draws upon newspaper accounts, advertising campaigns, declassified government archives, old movies and newsreels from this unique period when the future first took on a tangible presence. Ken Hollings depicts an unsettled time in which the layout of Suburbia reflected atomic bombing strategies, bankers and movie stars experimented with hallucinogens, brainwashing was just another form of interior decoration and strange lights in the sky were taken very seriously indeed.

“Ken Hollings shows brilliantly how the extraordinary web of technologies that drove the Cold War have shaped not just our culture but the very way we think of ourselves as human beings. Welcome to Mars offers a rare and fascinating glimpse of the roots of the strange humanoid culture we live in today.” – Adam Curtis