Plural Machine

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.

On Saturday evening there was a tense, dramatic, fascinating and finally celebratory closing ceremony at which the delegates' conclusions were announced. These are the main points. There is a supporting document and third opposing document was also read. Following the debate delegates and facilitators were presented with a commemorative object and were congratulated by members of Laibach, IRWIN, Novi Kolektivizem and Noordung. Active discussions continue amongst the delegates and individual responses will appear on timesnskstate.com . There were some really interesting ideas and discussions and as one delegate said for such a varied group of people to produce a defined result in three days was impressive. Many of the delegates were extremely conscientious, motivated and perceptive and it was a pleasure to meet them. I am still assessing the results and will comment in more detail shortly, for now here is the final statement agreed to by a majority of delegates: FINDINGS The NSK St...

Congress delegates, Photo c. A. Monroe Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 18.10.2010, Photo c. A. Monroe Full text of my speech at the exhibition opening last night... Firstly, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to Herr Scherer and the team at Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt for agreeing to host this unique and complex event. This has been a very intensive process and the venue have made a sincere effort to help us realise our vision. I am also very grateful to my colleague Haris Hararis for his tireless and visionary work. I must also mention the entire team at the buro fur kulturelle angelegenheiten, without whom none of this would have been possible. There are many others who have played some role in realising the project and I am grateful to all of them. The NSK Folk Art display that you see presented here represents a crystallisation of a process we have been aware of for some years now. The Citizens and followers of NSK have begun to create their own spontaneous and organic folk ...

Over the summer I had a long and interesting discussion with Thomas Bey William Bailey about Tech-Nostalgia, covering issues such as the fetishisation of analogue technology, the romance of Cold War Poetics and the current fashionability of EBM and other 1980s electronic and industrial variants. These exchanges can now be read on Vague Terrain .

Haus der Kulturen der Welt, September 2010. Photo c. A. Monroe The Congress is approaching rapidly and final preparations are being made. The website has been updated and now features full information on the public programme .

Congress month opens with my lecture on NSK and the Congress at the workshop Andere Europas (Other Europes). The event is free and will take place in both English and German. Workshop zum Start des Studienprojekts Andere Europas: Soziale Imagination in transnationalen Bewegungen und urbanen Öffentlichkeiten Das Projekt stellt die Frage nach Anderen Europas in doppelter Hinsicht: einmal als Frage danach, ob, wo und durch wen andere als die herrschenden Visionen Europas vorstellbar und öffentlich kommunizierbar werden; zum anderen die Frage danach, ob und wie in solchen alternativen Imaginationen die Anderen Europas - im Sinne der in den herrschenden Visionen Ausgeschlossenen oder jedenfalls Marginalisierten (Migrant/innen, soziale/kulturelle Minoritäten, Kritiker/innen des Neuen Europas) - eine besondere Rolle als Adressat/innen, als Produzent/innen spielen. Damit wird zugleich die Frage neu aufgeworfen, inwieweit Europa als Raum sozialer, politischer Utopien und für die Mobilis...

View from the Red Districts, September 2010 I'm in Trbovlje on the eve of the Red Districts, Black Cross events to mark Laibach's 30th anniversary. Tomorrow evening at 20.00 former Slovene President Milan Kučan will open the Laibach exhibition and this will be followed by a short performance. On the morning of the 24th my work begins, moderating the three-day symposium with a unique combination of speakers, panellists, guests and friends. In the evenings there are Laibach concerts and DJ sessions plus the inevitable parties, this is going to be interesting... All the information you need is here

On the 2nd of September at 19.00 there will be a special event to accompany Laibach's MONUMENTAL RETRO-AVANT-GARDE installation at Wonderloch-Kellerland. I will read from Interrogation Machine , discuss Laibach and take questions. This will be followed by a rare screening of the Laibach documentary film Bravo (a.k.a. Laibach - A Film From Slovenia). Copies of the book will be available. Wonderloch-Kellerland Biesentaler Str. 6 D-13359 Berlin contact@wonderloch-kellerl and.org ENTRY: 5 EURO.

This autumn is dominated by the two major NSK-related events I'm involved in that take place within four weeks of each other: Firstly THE RED DISTRICT SYMPOSIUM (Past Perfect – Future Tense), co-organised by myself and Naomi Hennig as part of Laibach's 30th anniversary events in Trbovlje, Slovenia. September 23rd-26th. Secondly the first NSK Citizens' Congress taking place at the House of World Cultures in Berlin. October 21st-23rd. Further information soon...

The Organising Committee of the First NSK Citizens’ Congress is pleased to announce the line-up for the public closing party. This will take place on the evening of October 23rd at the House of World Cultures. Anat Ben-David Lillevan & Codex Europa Patenbrigade Wolff Plus DJ support. Information on tickets and other details will be published shortly. For the latest information check: http://times.nskstate.com/ http://nskstate.com/congress/

I will give a short talk at this event taking place in the courtyard of Absintherie Sixtina, Leipzig from 11.00. If you're attending Wave Gotik Treffen or in the area then come along. I will discuss the notion of a "dark scene", which is explored in this publication: www.ploettner-verlag.de/shop/Buecher/-Shop/Sachbuch/Schillerndes-Dunkel::126.html I have two texts in this major collection, one on Gerechtigkeits Liga and one on Laibach, both appearing in German for the first time.

I will be giving a guided tour of the Laibach Kunst exhibition at MGLC, Ljubljana on May 9th at midday. Entrance is free. Further details here .