Quoted in Moten & Harney's All Incomplete and I loved the quote so have added this.
Reviews and Comments
I arrange things into artworks, including paint, wood, plastic, raspberry pi, people, words, dialogues, arduino, sensors, web tech, light and code.
I use words other people have written to help guide these projects, so I read as often as I can. Most of what I read is literature (fiction) or nonfiction on philosophy, art theory, ethics and technology.
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Fionnáin wants to read The revolt of the cockroach people. by Oscar Zeta Acosta
Fionnáin reviewed Livestreaming by El Putnam
Concise yet broad review of livestreamed performance art
4 stars
This short book covers more ground than it ought to. In six chapters, Putnam draws connections between photographic media, camgirls, streamed acts of political resistance and COVID-19 performance artworks through online media. It is a breadth of information and interesting connections, underpinned by the socio-technological philosophy of Gilbert Simondon.
Putnam is a thoughtful author, and leaves scope for different readings and space for different bodies to understand this book. The relationship between artist->camera->transfer infrastructure->screen->audience as it has unfolded over the past 30 years is taken into consideration and leaves lots of room for thought. As a research project, it is comprehensive and clear, and an enjoyable read.
Fionnáin started reading This Plague of Souls by Mike McCormack
Fionnáin reviewed North by Seamus Heaney
The best is hidden
3 stars
Heaney's most famous collection is split into two parts, written when he was young. The second is the one he is often best known for: poems of the Troubles in Northern Ireland that reveal the harsh realities of trying to live in those times. Most of these, and some more nationalist moments in the first part, haven't aged particularly well.
The ones that do work very well are the poems about nature, or those many about the lives of the humans that became bog bodies. These are amazing works that thrum with the voice of a poet who deserved every accolade.
Fionnáin reviewed Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy
A Dialogue as a Parting Gift
5 stars
Cormac McCarthy concluded his life with two books about two siblings, brother Bobby (the protagonist of the excellent The Passenger) and sister Alicia of Stella Maris. The former is a physics whiz, the latter a maths genius. The trouble (or karma) of their family, including their father's involvement with the Manhattan Project, haunt them.
Both books are philosophical musings on meaning and structure in a strange life. This one is a real gift. The entire story is a dialogue between Alicia and a counsellor in the Stella Maris institute. Alicia muses on life and maths. The dialogues are like Plato's, with different big ideas being drawn out and then punctuated with a touching story of family, hallucinatory friendship, longing and heartache. The dialogue evolves over the 'sessions' so seamlessly that it is impossible not to get lost on the journey with the duo. The questioner often pulls back …
Cormac McCarthy concluded his life with two books about two siblings, brother Bobby (the protagonist of the excellent The Passenger) and sister Alicia of Stella Maris. The former is a physics whiz, the latter a maths genius. The trouble (or karma) of their family, including their father's involvement with the Manhattan Project, haunt them.
Both books are philosophical musings on meaning and structure in a strange life. This one is a real gift. The entire story is a dialogue between Alicia and a counsellor in the Stella Maris institute. Alicia muses on life and maths. The dialogues are like Plato's, with different big ideas being drawn out and then punctuated with a touching story of family, hallucinatory friendship, longing and heartache. The dialogue evolves over the 'sessions' so seamlessly that it is impossible not to get lost on the journey with the duo. The questioner often pulls back just when we (the reader) want to know more, and later as familiarity grows the relationship changes between them, and between reader and characters. The achievement that this book is is hard to describe, but it is a worthy parting gift from a master craftsperson of the written word.
Fionnáin started reading All Incomplete by Stefano Harney
Moten and Harney always bring me to new places with their writing. A friend told me this had come out a couple of years ago, and I put it on a list. I boight it last year so am finally giving it some time.
Fionnáin started reading Livestreaming by El Putnam
Fionnáin reviewed The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlöf
Environmental Empathy a Century Old
5 stars
The Wonderful Adventures of Nils is written about as a children's book, and in essence it is. Nils is a young mischief-making boy who likes to pick on animals until he is transformed into miniature by an imp. After learning a little humility, Nils goes on to ride with a crew of geese across Sweden, and has many adventures with crows, foxes, ducks, a cow, a dog and other animals, and even some mythical beings and places.
But deeper than this, Lagerlöf has written an environmental call to action that is 100 years ahead of its time. Nils learns to love his world and those in it by becoming part of it. His transformation is gradual but complete, made richer by the wonderful prose and incredible descriptions of Sweden from a goose-eye-view (Lagerlöf must have hired a hot air balloon for research, surely). Myth and story blend with compassion, humour …
The Wonderful Adventures of Nils is written about as a children's book, and in essence it is. Nils is a young mischief-making boy who likes to pick on animals until he is transformed into miniature by an imp. After learning a little humility, Nils goes on to ride with a crew of geese across Sweden, and has many adventures with crows, foxes, ducks, a cow, a dog and other animals, and even some mythical beings and places.
But deeper than this, Lagerlöf has written an environmental call to action that is 100 years ahead of its time. Nils learns to love his world and those in it by becoming part of it. His transformation is gradual but complete, made richer by the wonderful prose and incredible descriptions of Sweden from a goose-eye-view (Lagerlöf must have hired a hot air balloon for research, surely). Myth and story blend with compassion, humour and empathy in short chapters, so many that are wonderful even taken alone. An unforgettable book, for children of mind or body.
Fionnáin started reading Cacophony of Bone by Kerri ní Dochartaigh
Fionnáin reviewed Shame by Annie Ernaux
An event that lived
2 stars
Annie Ernaux explains how shame has influenced her life in a short memoir. It begins with the climax: 'My father tried to kill my mother one Sunday in June, in the early afternoon'. From there, Ernaux explores her rural childhood in a post-war French village, and how this event and the fear of community shame stayed with her even nearly 50 years later.
It's hard to criticise something so personal, but the language is a little mechanical, perhaps because of the numbness created over time. It is also hard to understand the motivation for the book being published (I often feel this with memoirs so it may be my bias), but it did paint an interesting picture of a community that lived on gossip and thus hid their lives, something I have seen in my own life.
Fionnáin started reading Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy
Fionnáin started reading Voice of the fire by Alan Moore
Fionnáin reviewed Tokens by Rachel O'Dwyer
Value reimagined
5 stars
In Tokens, Rachel O'Dwyer tells a story of value through tokens, alternative objects of payment that operate outside of legal currencies. The book blends years of in-depth research with clever use of anecdote and a well considered structure of 9 chapters, each telling a different part of the story.
While the overarching theme of the book deals with contemporary digital technologies such as NFT artworks or video game trading currencies, there is plenty of room given to histories and cultures of tokens than just these recent phenomena. O'Dwyer blends art history, economics, feminist theory and technology to present tokens in everything from subversive economies to hyper-capitalist systems. Brilliantly written throughout, and overloaded with information that is a testament to a long and thoughtful research practice.
Fionnáin wants to read Rats, Lice and History by Hans Zinsser
Added after reading this quote.