How to Know What’s Really Happening

“You get to your hotel room after a long journey. You drop your bag, turn out the lights, and lie down. A few hours later you wake up in total darkness. For a good minute you have no sense of who you are—though once you turn on the television, or more likely, log on to the Internet, then information floods your mind. You may ask: How do I know what’s really happening? This book offers a simple route through the morass of information. It will outline the things you need to know to answer this question. What’s more, the techniques revealed here can be adapted for many circumstances you will encounter in life.”
–Francis McKee

In this post-truth era, how does one navigate the endless information available and choose a viable narrative of reality? In How to Know What’s Really Happening Glasgow-based writer and curator Francis McKee looks at various techniques for determining verity, from those of spy agencies and whistle-blowers to mystics and scientists.

Francis McKee is an Irish writer, medical historian, and curator working in Glasgow where since 2006 he has been the director of the Centre for Contemporary Arts, and is a lecturer and research fellow at Glasgow School of Art. McKee has worked on the development of open-source ideologies and their practical application to art spaces.

Editors: Maha Maamoun and Ala Younis with Mai Abu ElDahab
Design: Julie Peeters and Valerie Arif