WHAT IT MEANS TO LOVE TODAY

The contemporary 24-hour news cycle is a swirling gyre of political and economic intrigue, a rolling wave that surges ceaselessly, always building power but never forming a crest. To surf the slipstream of the news is to be forever on the brink of BREAKING.

Against all the uncertainty and fear, nothing seems more eternal, more universal and (unlike our political leaders) quite so strong and stable as love. Summer 2017 is therefore dedicated to what it means to love today. Leap into our fervid arms.

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MAGAZINE is the inaugural issue of Blank Forms’ journal, bringing together a combination of never-before published, lost, and new materials that supplement our live programs. It is envisioned as a platform for critical reflection and extended dialogue between scholars, artists, and other figures working within the world of experimental music and art.

Following “Let Freedom Fry”—a short statement by Joe McPhee drawing out the contemporary political climate in relation to his practice as a creative improviser—the magazine is bookended by four texts surrounding the practice of pioneering sound artist Maryanne Amacher; an essay by Bill Dietz on his collaborations with Amacher and his work with her archive; an unpublished 1988 interview highlighting Amacher’s ideas around her Long Distance Music and Mini Sound Series; a conversation between Marianne Schroeder, Stefan Tcherepnin, and Lawrence Kumpf revealing the archival questions raised by Amacher’s work; and science fiction writer Greg Bear’s short story Petra, a tale of gargoyles coming to life and breeding with humans in a post-apocalyptic Notre Dame, from which Amacher’s 1991 piece got its name.

This issue also includes Branden Joseph’s interview with The Dead C’s Bruce Russell, accompanied by Russell’s essay exploring the Situationist tradition of ‘mis-competence’ in New Zealand electronic music. Charles Curtis contributed notes on the interpretive challenges posed by a posthumous performance of Terry Jennings’ minimalist classic Piece For Cello And Saxophone. Shelley Hirsch, Richard Skidmore, and Dennis Hermanson provide a series of writings on and remembrances of the late Ralston Farina, whose scarcely documented “visual poetry” was an important precursor to what we now call “performance.” And from her own 2016 performances at the Emily Harvey Foundation, Dawn Kasper supplies her original proposal document and score notes for an improvisational interpretation.

MAGAZINE features two new French-translations: an excerpt from François Bonnet’s book of phenomenology, The Infra-World, translated by Robin Mackay, and a Christophe Broqua interview with enigmatic huntress of sounds Anne Gillis, translated by Adrian Rew. Ian Nagoski’s rare 1998 conversation with Éliane Radigue, conducted and largely ignored at a time when there was little interest in her music, provides one of the clearest overviews of the visionary composer’s early work and life. Supplementing the texts are numerous archival photos and documents, plus “Dark Matters,” a poem by Joe McPhee.

Edited by Lawrence Kumpf and Joe Bucciero with contributions by Greg Bear, François Bonnet, Bill Dietz, Dennis Hermanson, Shelley Hirsch, Branden W. Joseph, Dawn Kasper, Joe McPhee, Ian Nagoski, Adrian Rew, Bruce Russell, and Richard C. Skidmore

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“… This book is a testament against the immaculately quaffed cunts who live their lives on social media networks hoping to score big points because they manipulated the perfect lie via filters and apps, that ape artifice and exaggeration. It is a much needed example of the down and dirty, the all to real, the in your face – fuck you – to false standards of an unattainable beauty that is based on bullshit and deceit that dominates Western culture and acts as just another consumer con, preaching conformity and product placement as it tries desperately to erase the individual.” — Lydia Lunch

Risograph + slipcase silk-screen printed
500 copies (Numbered)

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This small publication is an edited reprint of the essay ‘The Book in Intermediary Form’ written by Kasper Andreasen. It was originally published by Wintertuin, Nijmegen as part of a compilation about the future of the book. Turning the Page also contains a script for the audiovisual book Tomorrow, which is a collaborative work between Hanne Lippard and Kasper Andreasen reflecting on the status of the (photography) book in audiovisual form.

Designed by Toni Uroda. First edition of 140 copies. © The authors, Motto Books 2011/2017.

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In Autumn and Winter 2013/2014, Christa Blümlinger and Harun Farocki worked on the dialogical “ABCs of the Essay Film,” which is published here for the first time in its original German version. In 26 short paragraphs, reacting to key terms suggested by Christa Blümlinger (from “A for Adorno” to “Z for Zidane”), Farocki explores his proximity, but also his distance to filmmakers like Chris Marker, Jean-Luc Godard, Artavazd Peleshian, or Alexander Kluge and speaks about specific operations in his films, TV programs, and installations.

The text is complemented by a short text by Farocki which was published in 1987 to accompany a film program at the Berlin Akademie der Künste, where the essay film is described as a film “that is useful without being subservient and without standing to attention.”

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‘An essay about every copy of S,M,L,XL I’ve ever seen, featuring plastic foil salesmen, first jobs, the letter ‘K’, books, bookshelves and details of where a family’s passports are hidden. ‘Every copy of S,M,L,XL I’ve ever seen’ is published as a series of bumper stickers, each one depicting the spine of a different S,M,L,XL edition.’

The publication is part of “Catalog”, an ongoing series of publications about cataloging, written by Lieven Lahaye and designed by Ott Metusala. This is issue #8. Previous issues have dealt with vertical organization (with a strong preference for ‘the stack’, as opposed to ‘the pile’) , functional rocks in Amsterdam, desperate measures (by way of the metric system), etc.

The making of this publication is supported by the AFK (Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst)

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Minna Henriksson’s artist book Works on Paper is a graphic story with forty linocuts on the political history of paper industry in Finland. The book has two chapters; one of which focuses on the role of the paper industrialist’s support of the right-wing movements in Finland, and the other on controversial paper trade with the South African apartheid regime, and the boycott initiated by the worker’s unions. Designed by New Collectivism, the book is printed in the edition of 300.

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A hybrid attempt at coming to terms with a particular amnesia of the West German left in the late 1970s/early 1980s, Harun Farocki’s 1982 feature film BEFORE YOUR EYES – VIETNAM combines ideas about the distant, image-guided participation in the war in Vietnam with speculations on Vietnam as a laboratory of advanced modes of capitalist production, whilst reflecting intensely on the dyad of love and work.
This publication assembles selected material produced in 1982 to promote the film and make it accessible discursively. It includes the facsimile of a promotional leafleat that provided not only factual information but also directions for reading, a selection of unseen photos from the set and from a tiny piece of film (excavated in the archives of the Harun Farocki Institut), documenting a performative trailer put on an improvised stage by Farocki and actor Ronny Tanner during the Berlin Film Festival in 1982. The brochure is introduced by a commentary penned by the Harun Farocki Institut.

Harun Farockis spielfilmlanger Film ETWAS WIRD SICHTBAR von 1982 ist der hybride Versuch, mit dem in den späten 1970er/frühen 1980er Jahren spürbar schwindenden Gedächtnis der westdeutschen Linken umzugehen. Der Film verbindet Überlegungen zur bildgeleiteten Teilnahme am Krieg in Vietnam aus der geografischen Distanz mit Spekulationen über Vietnam als einem Forschungslabor für neue Methoden kapitalistischer Produktionsweise, während er gleichermaßen kontinuierlich über das Verhältnis von Liebe und Arbeit reflektiert.

Die Publikation versammelt ausgewählte Materialien, die 1982 entstanden sind, um den Film zu bewerben und ihn zudem diskursiv zugänglich zu machen. Sie enthält das Faksimile einer Werbebroschüre, die nicht nur Fotos oder Besetzungsliste, sondern auch Lektürehinweise und ein Interview (das Farocki mit sich selbst geführt hat) bereitstellte, sowie eine Reihe von bislang kaum bekannten Fotos vom Dreh und einer performativen Werbeaktion, die Farocki während der Berlinale 1982 gemeinsam mit dem Schauspieler Ronny Tanner zur Aufführung brachte (und die in einem kurzen Film, der 2016 im Archiv des Harun Farocki Instituts aufgetaucht ist, dokumentiert wurde). Das Heft wird eingeleitet durch einen Kommentar des Harun Farocki Instituts.

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The Complete Plays – Guy de Cointet

First publication to gathers all theatrical works by artist Guy de Cointet, written between 1973 and 1983. 25 plays, published with an explanatory apparatus and numerous documents from the de Cointet Estate at the Centre Pompidou’s Kandinsky Library.
This publication constitutes the first complete publication of de Cointet’s theatrical plays—both in the original language and in translation. Richly illustrated, the book showcases documents relating to the design and the staging of these works: notebooks, drawings, photographs, posters, and invitation cards, coming from the archives of Guy de Cointet Estate at the Centre Pompidou’s Kandinsky Library. The Complete Plays also features comments, interviews, and work notes, to help contextualize and analyze the artist’s theatrical plays.

De Cointet is recognized as one of the major figures in the Conceptual art movement that emerged in Los Angeles in the 1970s, having strongly influenced a number of prominent artists working in southern California today, including Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley, for whom both drawing and performance figure significantly in their artistic practices.

Edited by Hugues Decointet, François Piron, Marilou Thiébault.

Graphic design: Laure Giletti & Gregory Dapra.

French version also available.

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The writings found in this anthology for landscape and garden design amateurs relate to the image of the yew tree as an instant hideout.

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