writing

Figured Stones: Exploring the Lithic Imaginary

Paul Prudence's book Figured Stones: Exploring the Lithic Imaginary is a perfect ode to stones, an essay brimming with quiet ideas and research, written with a poetic feel — just the right balance. In a lovely small format book size too, slightly more than a chapbook, but with the same charm and grace

Basically the kind of landscape flavoured book I wish I'd written myself (on other topics, I don't know much of geology / stones). It's perfect

Published by Xylem Books (2022)

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Birds of Firle by Tanya Shadrick

"I once had a winter that was wordless. A time of complicated grief: the kind that can’t be shared. A loss that was private, pained. Not really known to those around me. The sort that had me hold my throat where sound should come, but would not." Beautiful words leading you into the Birds of Firle story and project by @tanyashadrick, founder of Selkie Press and featured on The Clearing.

A single edition book
by TANYA SHADRICK
being shared in sequence with 100 collaborators
GRIEF IS THE THING NO HOPE IS THE THING
21 IMAGES (6CM X 6CM) TO PROMPT
A CUMULATIVE, COMMUNAL RESPONSE

On New Year’s Day 2020, Birds of Firle – a single edition, handmade book – was placed in the post to the first of 100 recipients in the UK and overseas who have committed to respond to it with words, sound, images and artefacts. It is an exercise in slow art – and a cumulative, communal creative practice – initiated by Tanya Shadrick, founder of The Selkie Press.

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https://www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing/birds-of-firle-by-tanya-shadrick

the tangled threads between text and textiles

Twisted yarns - AS Byatt follows the tangled threads between text and textiles..

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/21/saturdayreviewsfeatres.guardianreview9

 

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Real Talk: Aboriginal Rappers Talk About Their Music And Country book

via https://sites.google.com/site/realtalkthebook

When industry magazine The Music Network asked Australian hip-hop pioneer Urthboy to write about the state of the country's rap scene, his answer took some by surprise. Instead, the Herd member and Elefant Traks boss wrote this: “I was asked to write about the state of hip-hop in Australia. I’d prefer to shine a light on what may be the future of it: Indigenous Hip-Hop. Indigenous artists carry a profoundly engrossing and intriguing story for international audiences, yet it’s barely understood by many Australians.”

This book aims to be an introduction to some of the Aboriginal hip-hop artists out there. All have stories that demand to be heard, from the better-known players like The Last Kinection, Jimblah and Sky’high, to those who are probably too radical for the establishment to handle - such as Provocalz, whose interview ends with the interviewer and interviewee both being questioned by police.

The book is by no means comprehensive - there are about 50 Aboriginal hip-hop artists pumping out quality tracks at the moment, and it speaks to only half of them. But it aims to be a live document, updated at the start of each year. Hopefully it will become more comprehensive as the years tick by. At any rate, readers are encouraged to seek out the artists and follow them in their own, unedited, words.

Reviews:
"A must-read." - I Am Hip-Hop magazine, UK. "A hell of a read - with rappers holding forth on everything from politics to family, books, poetry, activism, homophobia, police brutality... and just about anything else you can think of." - The Koori Mail. "Incredible read." - Jimblah, on the Impossible Odds interview. "Want to read all about me and my thoughts? This is the one right now!" - Briggs. "Amazing interview with Impossible Odds. Everyone should read that interview." - Ozi Batla. "The most articulate and well-researched article on the band I've ever read." - Fred Leone, Impossible Odds. "Probably the most awesome article on Desert Pea Media I have ever seen." - Toby Finlayson, Desert Pea Media. "Of all the interviews we've done - and we've done a hell of a lot - this was, without a doubt, by far the the best." - Kings Konekted. "Best interview I've done. Props." - Provocalz. "Mat always does a good job with the interviews." - Indij hip-hop show founder Munk.

The author, Mat Ward, is a journalist who lives in Sydney. He is not Indigenous. Read more about why he wrote the book here. For more information contact RealTalkTheBook@gmail.com.

The book is available on Amazon (kindle) and all proceeds go to Koori Radio. Visit the book's website to read sample chapters and for more information

For another article on MonkeyMarc and his work with the Barkly community of beat makers and to listen to some of their music, take a look at Boom Bap in the Barkly – Check Australia’s Freshest Desert Beats

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CFP: Fans, Videogames and History

CFP: Fans, Videogames and History
via http://blogs.flinders.edu.au/play-it-again/2015/01/20/cfp-fans-videogame...

Over the last two decades, a substantial amount of research has addressed the fan culture phenomenon, particularly in relation to film and television; the focus has centred on the impact that fan communities can and have had on the ‘official’ creative works that are released by film and television studios. More recently, researchers have examined the impact that the internet has played in empowering and expanding the fan network and fan communication structures, and in affecting the production, marketing and audience engagement with the fan object.

Games are now central objects of study within Fan Studies, yet to date there has been only isolated consideration of gaming’s long history of fandom, and fans’ important roles in game history and preservation. Little academic writing has focused on the impact and centrality that fan communities play — as a collective intelligence, as a pool of individual creators of games, and as interested and engaged parties in the collecting and remembering of game history.

For this anthology we seek essays that address issues that come out of the various possible configurations of the terms: fans, games, and history. We invite proposals for chapters addressing one of three broad axes:

• Historicising game fandom
• Fan contributions to game history
• Methodological reflections on studying historic game fandom

We invite abstracts of 500 words that address the relationship between game fans and history. Possible themes and issues may include but are not limited to:

• Fan communities and the preservation of games • Online communities and gamer memories • Digital fandom before the internet • Nostalgia and history • Historicising fans’ creative output • Magazines and fanzines as sources • how to ‘do’ fan history • Fans as authors of game history

Please send an abstract and brief bio to the editors by 30th April, 2015. Full papers to be submitted by 30th August 2015.

Email: playitagain@flinders.edu.au

Editors – Melanie Swalwell, Angela Ndalianis, Helen Stuckey
- See more at: http://blogs.flinders.edu.au/play-it-again/2015/01/20/cfp-fans-videogame...

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Engage Media : Videomakers For Change

Engage Media has done incredible work in documenting some of the stories of people & communities in Asia. Some of my favs are the Punks who use their music to do activism and help their communities, and the amazing work Andrew Garton has done with Sarawak, documenting how their traditional lives in forest communities has been changed & is at risk of being lost.

They are crowdfunding via pozible to help more video journalists attend Camp Sambel this year, for training.

It's just over half way funded, pls help it get through, & spread the word to your friends. I think the world needs to hear more of these Voices - they're doing important work

http://www.pozible.com/index.php/archive/index/4673/description/0/0

visit the pozible page for more details, or read more.

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Mez' book of Mezangelle - human readable messages

Mez has been writing mezangelle / code poetry / netwurks on mail lists and the web since the 1990s. Trauma Wien Art Club has released a new book of Mez' mezangelles from 2003-2011 called "human readable messages - mezangelle 2003-2011" The book will be available at the Trauma Wien site, and also be on amazon in January 2012 (technically December 31st, but with the time difference in Australia, check in January) For those who can't wait (like me), it's also available from Lulu. There's a preview of the book on the Lulu page, including the table of contents. There are mezangelles with titles such as, "_Sub.Mission[s]_", "_Squashed Tele.biology_", "_Dream Fullscreen_" and many more.

Florian Cramer has described mezangelle as (from netwurker.de) :

[quote]As florian cramer says: “The beauty of "mezangelle" is that it uses elements of programming language syntax as material, i.e. reflecting formal programming language without being one. For the reader of mez's "netwurks", it remains all the more an open question whether the "mezangelle" para-code of parentheses and wildcard characters only mimics programming languages or is, at least partially, the product of programmed text filtering.”. Jim Andrews asserts that: “The term 'code poetry' has been used in connection with Mez's writing…as in using the devices often found in computer languages (like deep bracketing) and applying them meaningfully to natural language. These devices, in computer languages, are often used to represent data structures in code (like trees or other 'graphs') and also manage processes on these data structures (like insertion/deletion/tree balancing). Mez takes these ways of representing often non-linear structures and introducing/managing process in these structures and applies/deranges them in natural language--there is little computer language in her work. Like the text contains its own neath text.” les schaffer’s take on mezangelle is “mez's style is just the most delightful play on coding. I think of her as a cross between James Joyce and... Larry Wall – author of the Perl programming language and a linguist by training.....". [/quote]

Call for Entries: Aesthetica Creative Works Competition

Aesthetica is looking for entries to the 2009 International Aesthetica Creative Works Competition. The 2008 Competition was a successful springboard for artists’ careers around the globe.

The Aesthetica Creative Works Competition: Artwork, Photography & Sculpture, Fiction and Poetry
Three winners will be awarded £500 each
All finalists will be published in the Aesthetica Creative Works Annual, in stores December 2009
Entry to the 2009 Aesthetica Creative Works Competition is £10
This allows you to submit up to 5 images, 5 poems or 2 short stClosing date to receive Creative Works is 31 August 2009

The winners and finalists from last year, went on to secure further exhibitions, commissions and publications. The winners and finalists were published in the Aesthetica Annual. It's a great opportunity to bring your work to a wider audience.

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City Library Street Press workshops

City Library Street Press is back after a short Summer break with a new program of free workshops starting on March 11th 2009.

City Library Street Press is an opportunity for all of those interested in the many aspects of street press to gather and discuss ideas, techniques and projects. Our last season of Workshops were a roaring success with every session fully booked, covering many topics from zines to creative writing, page layout and cartooning. This season is no exception and the details of the first half of the program can be found below :

11/03/08 : Clem Bastow and friends discusses Blogging
25/03/08 : Al Cossar of the Portable Film festival ponders the role of film in Street Press
08/04/08 : Geoff Lemon talks poetry
22/04/08 : Bernard Caleo from Cardigan Comics encourages everyone to draw, draw and draw some more
06/05/08 : The National Young Writers Festival (TBC)
20/05/08 : The Craft Cartel demonstrate how to spread a message through handmade goodies
03/06/08 : SYN Community radio shows the simple creation of podcasts

The workshops are generally practical in nature and run from 6 - 7.45 at the City Library, 253 Flinders Lane. Contact (03) 9658 9500 for more details and to book a space.

http://www.stickyinstitute.com for more details

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We Make Zines - NING group

the guys at Sticky sent an invitation to join the We Make Zines NING group today. We Make Zines is a online community for zine makers and zine readers. the discussions are all about the zines and issues involved with making them & distributing them. this year I want to try this - maybe take some thoughts / notes from my little notebooks and make a zine. or some thoughts from this blog - though even the blog is mostly project listings, not my own thoughts. maybe time for a shift.. am I too old to make a zine?? hopefully not.. I want to (if I ever get round to it) put some of the info & interviews from brisbane dance parties archive site into a zine (hopefully a collection of them) too - then possibly a book later on. I like reading the zines from the Sticky subscription - they seem to be from a range of people - different ages & backgrounds. I like the letter ones - reminds me of the letter writing I used to do whilst growing up. these days I manage a few postcards to friends whilst overseas - it's nice getting messages in the mail, and I think the kids love them. I wondered about a video zine too - maybe stored on USB memory sticks or dvds.

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Philip K Dick - his 2 basic topics

Philip K Dick said in his paper "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" that "two certain matters absolutely fascinate me, and that I write about them all the time. The two basic topics that fascinate me are "What is reality?" and "What constitutes the authentic human being?" Over the twenty-seven years in which I have published novels and stories I have investigated those two interrelated topics over and over again. I consider them important topics. What are we? What is it that surrounds us, that we call the not-me, or the empirical or phenomenal world?"

great questions and ones which I'm sure many people have wondered.

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Parsons Art Books - Auckland

Parsons Bookshop located in central Auckland stocks International Art books, Exhibition Catalogues, Art Theory, Design, Photography, Architecture and Fashion books, as well as a large stock of New Zealand, Maori & Pacific books including Fiction, Poetry, Art, Small Press and Limited Edition Titles, Politics, History, Biography and Natural History. http://www.parsons.co.nz for more details

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VloMo08 : day21 - street stories

I think there's at least a couple of hundred stories & characters to be written from any street scene.

this one's zoomed in on my Nokia N95 - the video quality isn't that good when you zoom in to record video, but it's good enough for a reminder for me. I'm playing it at 1/2 speed - not sure if that saves or not.

I didn't capture the women in black unfortunately - will try again next week.

21/11/2008
mumbai / bombay
india

blog entry :
http://www.aliak.com/content/vlomo08-day21-street-stories

http://blip.tv/file/1493696

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VloMo08 : day17 - book purchases whilst in India

I actually recorded this video on 09/11/2008 but it was a large file and my computer's been playing up during exporting so I've only had time to compress it tonight.

these are the books I purchased at Mid Land Book store whilst in Delhi. I always buy the annual Sarai Reader - a collection of research papers & project documentation from India and around the world. they always have something that I'm not familiar with - different issues are covered - urban issues, social issues, resettlements, voices of local people, keeping or documenting traditional methods in art & social / community circles + more. the books are available online as pdfs so I've read some of the chapters but I like to have a paper copy as I find them easier to read.

the bookstore owner recommended other books for me to try - mostly feminist books & topics! there were so many that looked really interesting & informative, but I chose one from each publishing house so I can buy more later. some were part of a series on varying topics.

I have a blog post on my site about (some) women in india links + details on the books in case anyone would like to find out more or read them too :
http://www.aliak.com/content/women-india-book-related-links

I'm not speaking very clearly in the video - I'm not used to talking & filming at the same time and I should have collected my thoughts a bit more before I started, but I don't have the energy to redo it so it is what it is :) & pulp fiction is different to the graphic novels (both were talked about at sarai i-fellows conference - but it's not clear from what I said in the video). the book "Delhi" is written by Khushwant Singh - sorry! I forgot his name whilst recording the video :(

I'm part way reading through the interviews with women writers & the short stories & the tamil pulp fiction books. yet to start the others - it might take me a while to finish. so far they're all great purchase choices! the interview book is especially interesting as it seems there were many topics that women were 'not meant to write about' in india up until, say the 1990s. I might have to find a collection of younger writers to compare with - though I note there's been quite a few younger Indian writers winning or being nominated for various international writing prizes.

VloMo08 : day17 - book purchases whilst in India

17/11/2008

http://blip.tv/file/1477706

blog entry :
http://www.aliak.com/content/vlomo08-day17-book-purchases-whilst-india

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VloMo08 : day16 - Patta Chitra Katha - traditional folk art of storytelling using visual language

today I watched a video Senthil Kumar posted a video on WADI facebook group called "Arjuna the Archer : AD 2008" - it was based on the techniques of Patta Chitra Katha

I wanted to find out more about this artform and technique, so I googled (without much luck, due to googling the wrong things) and asked the Sarai reader list and received lots of helpful information from many people. after reading about it, it reminds me a bit of the multi-media of a few hundred years ago. multiple paintings / panels on scrolls are read and music played whilst they're read, so there's a mixture of images, music, text, written / spoken word. the artists travel to different villages - equivalent to the communication methods / networks of today transmitting the multimedia messages & works. originally the works were made on cloth using vegetable based paints but these days modern paints are used and most works are done on paper. I hope the traditional methods are not lost completely! the style of painting comes from Orissa and West Bengal. modern artists use both traditional, classical topics as well as current topics & stories - they are trying out new variations of the art too, to keep the method alive and to learn new techniques & skills.

I wrote a blog post (ongoing) about Patta Chitra Katha @ http://www.aliak.com/content/patta-chitra-katha-traditional-folk-art-sto...

VloMo08 - day16

http://vimeo.com/2260235

VloMo08 : day16 - Patta Chitra Katha - traditional folk art of storytelling using visual language from kath on Vimeo.

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