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Variant 31 Spring 2008
http://www.variant.org.uk
...the free, independent, arts magazine. In-depth coverage
in the context of broader social, political & cultural issues.
text : full issue
http://www.variant.org.uk/31texts/issue31.html
pdf : full issue
http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/Variant31.pdf
Front cover
Hrafnhildur (Rafla) Halldorsdottir
pdf :
http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/31cover.pdf
http://www.myspace.com/hrafnhildur_rafle_rafla
Content
* Express Yourself!
Anna Dezeuze
...reviews Keri Smith's 'The Guerilla Art Kit' and 'Learning to Love You More' by Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July, publications that "share two crucial characteristics: a focus on small interventions within the fabric of everyday life and an emphasis on self-_expression_", with Dezeuze addressing "a problematic cuteness and sentimentality".
text :
http://www.variant.org.uk/31texts/31dezeuze.html
pdf :
http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/31Dezeuze.pdf
* Miraculous Mass-communication: Radioballet by LIGNA
Exercises on Adhocracy participants in a workshop on 'Collectives, Actions, Re-enactments', held in Estonia, discuss the Radioballet action - a co-ordinated performative action responding to the privatisation of public space - and consider its impact. Apprehensive of the ethics of collective action after the traumas of Communism, the speakers reveal the limits of expressing solidarity in the absence of material and reciprocal relationships.
text :
http://www.variant.org.uk/31texts/31masscom.html
pdf :
http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/31MassCom.pdf
http://www.publicpreparation.org
* Radical Popular?
Stefan Szczelkun
A highly personal review of Duncan Reekie's book 'Subversion: the definitive history of underground cinema' bringing into question an institutional framework that is "'fundamentally resistant to cultural democracy".
text :
http://www.variant.org.uk/31texts/31radicalpop.html
pdf :
http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/31RadicalPop.pdf
* Faceless: Chasing the Data Shadow
Manu Luksch & Mukul Patel
"With an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras in place, [the UK's] inhabitants are the most watched in the world." Insights into the process of making 'Faceless', a sci-fi film utilising Data Protection requests from CCTV systems. Exposing first-hand experiences, the makers detail the many different types of replies they received to their subject access requests made under the Data Protection Act; explaining the general confusion of many data controllers, how so many CCTV systems are not functional and why the process of obtaining images became much more difficult from 2004...
text :
http://www.variant.org.uk/31texts/31faceless.html
pdf :
http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/313Faceless.pdf
* CSI: The Big Sleazy
Tom Jennings
A truly seminal review of James Lee Burke's noir thriller 'The Tin Roof Blowdown': "The first major work of popular fiction dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans on 29th August 2005, Blowdown demonstrates both the possibilities and problems of attempting to tell the truth through drama - from a writer who does "not trust people who seek authority and control over other people..."
text :
http://www.variant.org.uk/31texts/31CSI.html
pdf :
http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/31bigSleazy.pdf
http://www.tomjennings.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
* Back to the Future of the Creative City: An Archaeological Approach to Amsterdam's Creative Redevelopment
Merijn Oudenampsen
"The dominance of entrepreneurial approaches to city politics is the feature of a new urban regime, labelled the 'Entrepreneurial City'. With origins in the reality of neoliberal state withdrawal from urban plight ... the claims of the new creative city as being a 'great equalizer' actually appear as the opposite; it is based on functional inequality. Now let's take a closer look at the city..."
text :
http://www.variant.org.uk/31texts/31FutureCity.html
pdf :
http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/31CreativeCity.pdf
* Reclaiming the Economy
Owen Logan
An intense, critical review of 'Reclaiming the Economy, Alternatives to Market Fundamentalism in Scotland and beyond'. "The market's abstraction of power, which has the effect of smothering needs with frivolous wants, leaves anyone interested in real transparency or in the co-determination of the economy with the difficult question of where to begin?" Logan's depth of interest helps unpick it, analysing the book's contributors' critical grasp of the state and their alternatives...
text :
http://www.variant.org.uk/31texts/31RecEcon.html
pdf :
http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/31ReclaimEcon.pdf
* Lenin Reloaded... and engaged in friendly fire?
Benjamin Franks
'Lenin Reloaded: Towards a Politics of Truth' "... is Lenin a sufficient counter to the postmodern malaise regretted by the editors? The eloquent essay by Terry Eagleton suggests that rather than being a counterpoint to postmodernity, Lenin embraces some of its key features..."
text :
http://www.variant.org.uk/31texts/31Lenin.html
pdf :
http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/31LeninRe.pdf
* Resisting New Labour's 'hard labour' : Work and 'Wreckers' in the Welfare Industry
Alex Law & Gerry Mooney
Drawing on the detailed research of their book 'New Labour/Hard Labour? Restructuring and Resistance Inside the Welfare Industry', the writers draw "attention to some of the many ways in which welfare workers are being adversely affected by the restructuring of the welfare state and, more importantly, how they are resisting New Labour in new and significant ways."
text :
http://www.variant.org.uk/31texts/31HardLabour.html
pdf :
http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/31HardLabour.pdf
* Of bread and caviar
Colin Gavaghan
... reviews 'From the Womb to the Tomb: Issues in Medical Ethics' . "It is part of the ethicist's role to challenge sacred cows and shibboleths, and egalitarianism should receive no exemption from that treatment. Even the most progressive advocate of distributive justice would do well to revisit his/her first principles from time to time, to ask what equality means ... and why it is valuable."
text :
http://www.variant.org.uk/31texts/31Caviar.html
pdf :
http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/31OfCaviar.pdf
* Artist's Page by Stuart Murray
http://www.stuartmurray.co.uk
pdf :
http://www.variant.org.uk/pdfs/issue31/31SMurray.pdf
supported by Glasgow International
-----------------------------
Associated / Participating Events:
* Document 6 : International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival
Call for Submissions:
http://www.docfilmfest.org.uk
* Radical Independent Book fair project - Glasgow
http://www.ribproject.org
* Capital, Culture, Power - and Resistance?
2-4 July, 2008, Liverpool
-----------------------------
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15,000 free copies per issue distributed throughout the UK & Ireland at over 420 locations
Variant, issue 32 - Summer 2008
Advertising Copy Date: Monday 12th May
Publication Date: Monday 26th May
Covers: June to & including September
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Advertising Copy Date: Monday 8th September
Publication Date: Wednesday 24th September
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