Sexy Librarian: Critical Edition of the Original Novel, Julia Weist’s first book, will be published in full this fall by design powerhouse Ellen Lupton. It was originally written as a 60-page prospectus that Weist sent to major publishers: the rejection letters she received in return were re-presented as sculptures incorporated into a larger project about […]

As a musician, when I think about sound, I almost immediately focus upon being in the city. It’s where almost every idea about sound that I’ve had recently has sprung from, solely from being out on the street, walking amongst the people and the traffic.  From the moment I emerge from my doorway and step […]

I was 16 when I first came across an image of Kembra Pfahler in a magazine that some punk friend had given me. The image hit me over the head like a glass bottle at a rock show. I was a sheltered teenager who grew up less then a mile away from George Bush Senior, […]

I am a Beautiful Monster is the first definitive edition in English of writings by the poet and consummate anti-artist Francis Picabia (1879-1953) published recently by MIT-Press. With lightning wit and, speedy contradictions and a slight of hand, Picabia created works and wrote text demonstrating that “abstractionism”; Ddada and Ssurrealism can be as powerful and […]

The marriage, or partnering, of performance and sound begins with the wails and squished faces of babes—improvised acts, attempts to draw response and be provided for. Mirror Mirror aim to indoctrinate us and our offspring. As the marketing and inspirational face of The Society for the Advancement of Inflammatory Consciousness, they beckon us to come […]

Creative Time: The Book exposes how Creative Time, the New York City–based arts organization, has changed the notion of art in the public realm over the past 33 years. Creative Time has made it possible for more than 1,300 artists to create over 300 public works that have enlivened and transformed the city. With contributions […]

Over the past nine years, Matmos (M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel) have become the darlings of sound sampling pop intelligentsia by playing live with Bjork on her Vespertine tour, composing for the Kronos Quartet, and an upcoming synthesizer album with special guests like Terry Riley and Carston Nicolai. Mixing electronic dance music, noise fetish, and […]

Before Dr. Frank-N-Furter sang, “Don’t dream it, be it,” and a British punk zine instructed, “This is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a band,” there was the Queen of Technicolor. In Jack Smith’s 1962 essay “The Perfect Film Appositeness of Maria Montez,” he declared that what made her the […]

Frank Cohen, one of the world’s top art collectors, following in the footsteps of Francois Pinault, has opened Initial Access, a 10,000–square foot exhibition space, to showcase his private collection to the public. However unlike Pinault in Venice, Cohen has chosen to display his extensive collection of modern and contemporary art hours from the art […]

The ugly duckling is also a recurring motif in the work of contemporary Danish artist Peter Callesen. Here, elements are lifted from a seemingly banal fairytale world into the realm of adulthood for scrutiny. But where Brandes’ argument was political, exposing the ideological fabric that hides behind children’s stories, Callesen’s practice is concerned with an […]