Plural Machine

I'll be introducing a screening of Johnny Yes No at The Horse Hospital this Friday night from 7.30, details here . The event is to mark the release of a Mute DVD/CD box set containing both the original and new versions of the film and soundtrack plus extensive sleeve notes. There's a timeless quality to CV material and I still find the scratchy, grimy bleakness of the early works strangely uplifting, even if so much has changed over three decades. After all, back then Britain was in the midst of a recession and was governed by an authoritarian clique of free market fundamentalists...

Thanks to all who attended the event, to the Horse Hospital and to my co-presenters Avi Pitchon and Alexander Nym. There were many new faces, some completely new to NSK and some very interesting discussions. We also premiered the latest edition of NSK State News . All photos courtesy of Vera Bremerton. Reading from State Of Emergence The audience Discussions at the information point. Alexander Nym  Avi Pitchon, Alexei Monroe, Alexander Nym, Ursula Avi Pitchon

Ploettner Verlag and Poison Cabinet Press will shortly release the book “State of Emergence” which explores what did happen, what could have happened and what may happen following the Congress. The book comprises 250 pages and includes images from the Congress as well as the accompanying NSK Folk Art and Congress Poster Competition exhibition, as well as documentation of the first post-Congress citizen-organised events. Also included are a range of eye-witness accounts from delegates, facilitators, observers and others, giving multiple perspectives on the events. In addition, there are essays on the Congress and the NSK State from a range of theorists including Eda Cufer (NSK founding member & international curator), Regina Roemhild (Institute for European Anthropology, Humboldt University Berlin), Yannis Stavrakakis and Kostis Stafylakis.
 As is the case with many of NSK’s works, the true meanings and significances of the Congress may not be clear for some time, but “...

A year ago the Red Districs, Black Cross event ended memorably in Trbovlje. One of the highlights was the visit to Termoelektrarna Trbovlje, iconic site of the tallest chimney in Europe. Here are a few souvenir shots taken on my mobile phone when the camera battery died...

This deluxe box of rare archive audio and video is available now from Vinyl on Demand . Besides the five LPs, DVD and deluxe artwork there is an extensive booklet which I edited. Besides my own text there are exclusive texts from Donald Campbell, Igor Vidmar, Michael Goddard and  Aleš Leko Gulič.

Laibach and NSK: “Industrial Diagnoses of Post-Socialism”, M’ARS Ljubljana VIII/3-4, 1996. “ Činiti nepopularno vidljivim: nominalizacija v popularnoj muzici” (Making Visible the Unpopular: Nominalization in Popular Music) in Dimitrejević, B. (Ed.), “Pop Vision”, Vršac/Belgrade 1996. “ Art & Strategy: Laibach versus Turbo”, New Moment No. 9/10, 1998. “ Thinking About Mutation: Genres in 1990s Electronica” in Blake, A. (Ed.) “Living Through Pop”, Routledge 1999. “ Balkan Hardcore: Paramilitarism and Pop Culture”, Central Europe Review (http://www.ce-review.org), June 2000. “ 20 Years of Laibach, 20 Years of?…”, Central Europe Review, September 2000. “ Deleuzoguattarian Praxis and Electronic Music”, British Postgraduate Musicology (www.bpmonline.org.uk) Vol. 4, 2001. “ Critical Frequency”, (review of “This is Serbia Calling”, by Mathew Collin) Central Europe Review, May 2001. “ Office Politics”, (interview with Slovene NGO) C...

My reaction to the London disturbances, which I witnessed first hand, is online at Trebuchet Magazine . To some on the left it will be heretical, yet I don't believe this is the time for self-censorship or keeping diplomatically silent about what you see happening in front of you. The fact that England's public institutions are rotten, corrupt and violent doesn't mean that what happened wasn't at its heart an ultra-Thatcherite kleptocratic insurgency rather than the liberating revolution some would like it to be...

My review of this year's Sonar festival is now online. Although there were some great performances they were stranded in a sea of mediocrity and complacent regression. See Trebuchet for the full story.

I'll be giving a talk on the strategies of Laibach Kunst in the context of the exhibition at UGM Maribor, April 7th at 18.00. Entrance is free, more details here .

At 15.30 on March 18th I'll be giving a talk on the work of Autopsia and at 20.00 taking part in a panel on 'the dark scene' in relation to the German publication Schillerndes Dunkel. Full venue and other details here .

The first post-Congress citizen-organised event took place in Lyon last night. RDV#1 went very well. The crowd was engaged and responsive and there were some interesting discussions. This was followed by an impromptu passport-stamping session. The event augurs well for future NSK-related events in Lyon. Congratulations to Bertrand Thibert for his hard work and for taking this initiative.

NSK Congress delegate Bertrand Thibert has organised the first in a series of planned NSK events in Lyon. This will be the first self-organised NSK event following the Congress. I'll be opening the event and giving a presentation. This will be followed by discussion and a screening of Predictions of Fire. The event takes place at 19.00 on January 25th at Cafe de La Cloche, Lyon.