last night I went to see Žižek talk about media at the ICA. He is truly energetic, not only in his philosophy but also with his body where his gestural movements seem to lift and fall with the intensities of his feelings for things. I love him. 

There were two things in particular he spoke of that made perfect sense to me. That of thinking being painful, like an attack on the subject and attempting to find truth and meaning is an agonising process – I can relate to on having just written a big paper and my mind being worn out and sore, but sore like legs that have run to far, where you have felt the full use of them. He also spoke of jokes as being a great portal into serious thought. He told us a great joke: a Montenegro man who was so lazy he took two glasses to his bedside at night, one full with water and one empty, so if he was thirsty or not in the night all bases were covered. (Žižek explained how this was also a great example of dialectical Hegelian double negation – or something – I’m afraid I know nothing about Hegel) But what this ludicrous tale did was exemplify the power of jokes to make you laugh and make you think. I’ve been thinking about jokes and the way they access a freedom to thought, so I loved this.

I think it’s always best to wander into an art gallery or exhibition without any preconceptions of what you’re about to see, I think it’s important to be completely open, or even a little disinterested (as Kant might say). The British Art show where the coolest of the cool are selected as what’s hot in contemporary British art presented some interesting works, some I liked, some bored me and one really took my breath away; A Grammar for Listening by Luke Fowler.

A sound and film work which seems to heighten the senses to the point of empathy, where machines and nature get along, each offering their own little luminous poetry. Never did I think that junction 17 on the M60 Preston could elude to such a freedom found in art. It closes tomorrow, 17th April, catch it if you can.

Collapsing and expanding geometrics / Child follows mother / Borders penetrated let out little sighs / Freedom materialises in movement / Low frequencies inhabit indigo places

We’ll all see and feel different things but the Theo Burt release out on Entr'acte is unmissable. Buy it.

‘Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.’ Friedrich Nietzsche

Casco publishing class sounds like a fascinating programme and totally in line with my current research. Here, a quote for you on what they’re about: ‘Observations from this year’s New York Art Book Fair offer that art­istic publishing is seeing an upsurge in activity and interest in spite of the impending dematerialization of publishing, and in spite of symptoms of the crisis of dematerialized capital. 

…Could it be then that the claim that “print is dead” is exposed as merely the fading whisper of a class of mass-publishers/mass-public? What space then remains in the wake of the modern publication? What resources and relations can be mobilized to fill that space?”

Then on 14 Feb AA Bronson will make a visit there to discuss contemporary publishing. Bronson, you may know from the artist group General Idea, and the megazine he produced with the group called FILE between 1979-1982. A truly inspirational print publication that my discovery of worked as a catalyst for my introduction to the world of print media and the idea of distribution. JRP Ringier did a lovely box set that reprinted the entire series that I featured and sold in my temporary (I cannot bring myself to use the word pop-up) shop MAN-MADE. I love having it here on my shelf, I love the object and my relationship to it, as much as I enjoy its contents.

I went to the opening of Susan Hiller’s show at Tate Britain last night. It’s funny how sometimes art can level you. Yesterday was an odd day. I felt strangely absent, and was itching for the sun to go down. So with some sense of unrest I wanted to see some work that would take me out of my head, or further in, one or the other. I wasn’t disappointed. The first work I encountered was called Dedicated to the Unknown Artists (1972–1976) and is composed of more than 300 black-and-white and colour postcards each illustrating a great English seaside scene where rough seas meet the built borders of our little island. Violent yet liberating, it was like the work recognised something in me, let me play with it for a while, then returned me to terra firma. Read Susan’s Q&A she gave me back in 2008.

Okay, so to be fair, now for some digital innovation. Sidekick Studios are making some incredible social stuff happen within the digital environment. One such project, Connected Robot is super innovative dealing with democratic deficit and political disengagement. The project connects young people with politicians. The kids tell ‘Voicebot’ their concerns and the robot situated within parliament writes it out and delivers the messages. Where with publishing there seems to be this push to make the physical virtual, these guys have recognised the value of making the virtual physical. Clever shit.

This is an offering of recognition and appreciation to the following book dealers and interventionists who each seem committed to finding spaces to honour the physicality of printed matter and celebrate its cultural importance. Idea Books, Donlon Books, and @Artbook Their activities which push paper into hands feels a little like a resistance movement within a dominant post-industrial, informational age, that seems all about service and speed a less about reflection. I feel a little militant today or nostalgic, maybe both.

The more I become involved in the digital questions surrounding contemporary media, and in particular the niche of fine art and photography publishing, I see the emergence of ever more sophisticated and well produced print publications that celebrate and embrace our subjective ecology to such tactile things. Correspondencia is a new publication that features two of my favourite photographers who seduced me in the early ‘90s and continue to make sublime images to dwell in, Wolfgang Tillmans and Mark Borthwick.