Plural Machine

Title slide of my presentation. Image of the doomed Birmingham Central Library, June 2015. Photo by A.M. Last week I spoke at the Nonument Symposium in Ljubljana, focussing on the way that 'Brutalism' is used and abused in contemporary culture. The renewed cult popularity of Brutalism is a phenomenon I've been observing with a mixture of fascination, enjoyment, ambivalence and disgust for some time and the lecture had a packed agenda. It was an attempt to try and decode the various agendas and interests circling around Brutalism and to track them. I analysed a range of examples, from internet culture to contemporary design to industrial music to science-fiction.  Brutalism as a (life)style or even an attitude is arguably more 'sexy' and, for some, virtuous than ever, yet many of its most iconic structures are now being demolished or de-brutalised through cladding - a term now synonymous with the horror of the Grenfell Tower fire. Image of the doomed Birmi...

18th November saw the opening of the first ever British exhibition by Autopsia. It also marked the publication of my 2nd book,  Autopsia: Thanatopolis , the first extended study on the work of the group. I devised the Thanatopolis (city of death) concept while working on the book. It seemed highly appropriate, given Autopsia's artistic focus on death and the destructive, if not fatal, social and economic forces that roam freely in Neofeudal London. The conclusion of the book speculates on the technologically-driven future of art and culture in a Thanatotic city and culture. Autopsia had its roots in the Punk and industrial scenes of late 1970s London and so it was natural (and long overdue) the project should symbolically return to the city that helped inspire it. The exhibition featured several new works and worked well in the cold, gloomy interior of the Horse Hospital. Early 1980s works were featured ... Alongside Autopsia's latest sardon...

For the past few years I've been working intensively with Test Dept and Peter Webb on a comprehensive archival book documenting their work and its impact. I've contributed an introductory text and two shorter texts on the group's work. Full details of the book and where to buy it will be available soon. Total State Machine will be published by PC-Press on April 23rd and this will be marked by a special event at The Ritzy in Brixton . A premiere screening of DS30 , documenting Test Dept's monumental 2014 installation and video project on the River Tyne will be accompanied by a selection of Test Dept archive material on film and video. This will be followed by a Q & A with founding members Graham Cunnington, Angus Farquhar and Paul Jamrozy. Special DJ sets will be provided by Scanner and Shelley Parker. www.testdept.org.uk
 www.pc-press.co.uk

I have a major new text, in this excellent collection edited by Marc James Léger. ' Sponsored by Self-Management? Re-Constructing the Context and Consequences of Laibach’s Monumental Retro- Avant-Garde ' looks at the subject through the prism of pre- and post-war Yugoslav architecture and features rare Laibach illustrations. Full details on the book can be found on the Manchester University Press website .

I've been working intensively on the publication of Total State Machine a book on the history of Test Dept, which I've co-edited with the group and Peter Webb. I've also written the introduction to the book, which contains a wealth of archival photos and documents plus tour diaries, new texts and exclusive interviews. More information on the  P.C. Press  website.

Pluralni Monolit/WAT launch event, Vila Bled, 07.09.2003 The first edition of my book on Laibach and NSK was launched exactly 10 years ago to the day at Vila Bled, Slovenia, in a hall used by Tito for diplomatic receptions. This is an edited version of my presentation at the launch events in Bled and Ljubljana... This all began twenty-three years ago in Trbovlje when posters briefly appeared with a black cross and the word “Laibach”. No-one then could have imagined we would be here today, presenting this , but in the end time always catches up with itself. What would the former resident of this place have made of this gathering and his place on the cover of the book? Perhaps the situation seems even stranger because this book is not by a Slovene author. What right does a foreign author have to come here and present your history? The same right that Laibach and NSK had to respond to the cultures and symbols that intruded on their space. These artists took for themselves a rig...

I'l be giving a talk entitled From Electronic Terror to Electronic Terrorism: Dr. Who Soundtracks and Industrial Music as Sonic Dystopianism . This is a sequel to the Doctor Who and The Death Factory talk from last year and will include new audiovisual examples and other material. You can view the programme of the conference here . There are papers on preserving electronic music, classic equipment, the work of Daphne Oram and more. The event will conclude with a concert marking the 80th birthday of EMS pioneer Peter Zinovieff. Doctor Who and The Death Factory is an evolving project and I've created a youtube playlist to demonstrate its arguments. More news on this work will follow...

Pri zeleni zajec, Ljubljana. Photo by A.M. After a long hiatus I've re-activated my Stag research blog , images and leads are welcome...

Kraftwerk in Tate Modern. Photo by A.M. I've seen Kraftwerk four times. Firstly in 1991 on The Mix Tour at Brixton Academy. Next in 1992 at a “secret” warm-up gig at Norwich University before the Greenpeace show in Manchester. Then at the epic midnight show at Brixton in 2004 and (possibly but not necessarily) finally at Tate Modern.   In the aftermath of David Cameron's speech on the European question and open discussion of a British exit from the E.U., the high-profile arrival of an explicitly European German group with a futuristic vision couldn't have been more timely. The Robots . Photo by A.M. All the Tate Modern shows opened with The Robots , possibly because the 3D effects are amongst the most impressive (at least on this particular night). The figures looked colossal and the monstrous, slowly rotating robot hands were both ridiculous and threatening. I had never imagined I would see the majority of the Radio-Acti...

Istanbul Brutalism. Photo by Alexei Monroe. Architectures against Strategy is a new base for my expanding work around architecture. The page will initially be more focused on architectural photographs and links but I'll also be developing some of the concepts presented at my recent talk in Maribor dealing with monumental London architecture as an ambivalent setting for the unfolding of cultural and political forces. This in turn was a sequel to my Tate Modern presentation discussing monumentalism and the work of the NSK architecture section Graditelji (The Builders).

The revised and expanded German translation of  Interrogation Machine will be published by Ventil Verlag this Spring. It contains much new material on the activities of NSK groups and citizens in the last decade as well as exclusive new photos. Further information on the release date and special events in March and May will follow, to keep up to date following the book's German language tumblr page .

Demolition of  the Island Block, October 2006. Photo c. Alexei Monroe On December 1 st I'll be taking part in an event in Maribor entitled A conversation about the formation of national iconographies and their framing . This is a closing event for a complex and challenging exhibition by the artist Jasmina Cibic.   My talk, Unacceptable Faces of Monumentalism?, is an interpretation of competing utopian and dystopian tendencies in London architecture, culture and politics. It's an experimental approach to analysing architecture, a subject I'm increasingly interested in. It's also a conceptual sequel to my Tate Modern presentation in April. Here's a sonic cue, Shockwork by Test Dept...

I will be moderating the Sonica Symposium in ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana on the evenings of the 28th and 29th November. We'll be trying to assess and interrogate the idea of the Third Culture with a series of artist and curator presentations and screenings. The event is free and you can find details here

On November 14th I'll take part in an NSK seminar/Folk Art exhibition and club night taking place in Manchester. I'll be analysing NSK Folk Art and presenting key examples of the form. Speakers: Alexei Monroe – author of Interrogation Machine: Laibach and NSK Stevphen Shukaitis (University of Essex) – author of Imaginal Machines Ian Parker (MMU) – author of Slavoj Zizek, a critical introduction Michael Goddard (University of Salford) editor of Mark E Smith and the Fall: Art, Music and Politics Chair: John Robb (Membranes/Goldblade/Louderthanwar) Seminar in Lecture Theatre 5. Folk Art Exhibition in Geoffrey Manton atrium. Please arrive early to view the exhibition and receive passport authentication or temporary papers. This event is free, open to all and does not require pre-registration. For further information email Mike Tyldesley: M.Tyldesley[at]mmu.ac.uk The event will be followed by an evening club night 'Vade Retro' featuring a s...

A campaign to reinstate Ian Parker, co-director of Manchester Metropolitan University's Discourse Unit, which promotes "radical theory and practice" in psychology, has been launched by students and staff outraged at his exclusion from campus.  Ian participated in the NSK State Dublin event in 2004 and was a key facilitator at the First NSK Citizens' Congress in 2010. His suspension seems to have followed on from his raising legitimate concerns about workload and other issues. It seems horribly like an attempt to silence a radical, critical voice. You can read the THES report on the story here . Please sign the petition!   Messages of protest can be sent to the Vice-Chancellor John Brooks (j.brooks@mmu.ac.uk) and the Head of the Department of Psychology Christine Horrocks (c.horrocks@mmu.ac.uk). These messages can be copied as messages of solidarity to the MMU UCU chair Pura Ariza (p.ariza@mmu.ac.uk). Update: Ian has now returned to work at M...

You can now hear my recent appearance on the Resonance FM programme A Colder Consciousness via the show's mixcloud page . The show began with Nico's controversial version of Das Lied der Deutsche as played by Igor Vidmar on Radio Student in 1983. We discuss the Slovene and Yugoslav underground scenes and the associated political questions.

I feature on today's episode of A Colder on Resonance 104.4 FM in London and online elsewhere at resonancefm.com . This is a special editin of the show dedicated to Slovenia and ex-Yugoslavia. The show features Nico, 300 000 V.K., Abbildungen Variete, Electric Fish, Autopsia, Borghesia and Laibach and I discuss with ACC host Flora Pitrolo the musical and cultural history of the period between 1983 and 1987.

The excellent Bio-Mechanics site invited Codex Europa to produce their latest podcast and the result is available now here . This is a harsh experiemental sequence taking a range of harsh and radical electronics that parallel or negate techno "proper."

I'll be giving a presentation entitled The NSK State in Time: Beyond Micrnational? at this event at Chelsea Old Town Hall. Registration is free via the Pollinations website ...

Montage by Vera Bremerton.  Next Friday I'll give an experimental presentation at Noise=Noise on the strange parallels between the sonic and conceptual dystopianism of Doctor Who and first generation British industrial music. Dr. Who exposed mass audiences (often very young) to a combination of experimental electronic sound and dystopian themes, a combination that could also summarise industrial music. Dr. Who frequently presented post-apocalyptic scenarios of mutation, mind control and para-militarised societies and, in the process, at least implicitly criticised actual political and technological developments of the time, particularly those associated with the Cold War arms race. Due to budgetary constraints these visionary scenarios were often realised in a rudimentary ad hoc fashion; an approach that also applies to industrial. The early industrial groups highlighted the most serious social and political themes using very primitive electronic equipment, creating a kind of...