The Childlike Life of the Black Tarantula: A 20th-Century Fable – Chris Kraus

Wednesday 14 January 2015, 6.30pm

Chris Kraus on her in-progress critical biography of Kathy Acker (1947–97) and her approach to biography as a literary form that exists in the friction between writer and subject.

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Chris Kraus is a Los Angeles-based writer and critic. She is the author of four novels, most recently Summer of Hate (Semiotext(e)/Native Agents, 2012).

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Event as part of Plastic Words at Raven Row - a series of public events that mined the contested space between contemporary literature and art.

Seminar and open discussion about Letterism and its discontents with Iain Boal, Eric Fabre, Catherine Goldstein and Donald Nicholson-Smith.

Event as part of Plastic Words at Raven Row -

a series of public events that mined the contested space between contemporary literature and art.

Iain Boal is a social historian, co-founder of the Retort Collective and founding member of MayDay Rooms, London.

Eric Fabre is a Brussels-based collector, whose gallery, Garage Cosmos, frequently holds exhibitions featuring work from his collection.

Catherine Goldstein is Director of Research, History of Mathematics, at the CNRS, Paris.

Donald Nicholson-Smith joined the English section of the Situationist International in 1965 and

was expelled in 1967. He was a member of King Mob, and is a preeminent translator of Situationist writings.

Event as part of Plastic Words at Raven Row -

a series of public events that mined the contested space between contemporary literature and art.

Conversation between Peter Osborne and David Cunningham, on the relation between contemporary artistic and literary practices in both historical and theoretical context. Chaired by Luke Skrebowski.

David Cunningham is a London-based writer, lecturer and member of the editorial collective for Radical Philosophy.

Peter Osborne is a London-based philosopher, lecturer and member of the editorial collective for Radical Philosophy. His book Anywhere or Not at All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art was published by Verso in 2013.

Luke Skrebowski is a London-based art historian and lecturer who co-edited Aesthetics and Contemporary Art (Sternberg, 2011).

Saturday 4 August, 5pm

The Murderous Idolatry of the Future: Anarcho-Primitivism and the end of Technology

John Zerzan was active in the Sixties in San Francisco and Berkeley. A leading participant in the contemporary anarchist resurgence, Zerzan's political project calls for the destruction of technology. He draws the distinction between tools that stay under the control of the user, and technological systems that draw the user into their control. His critical ideas have challenged symbolic thought, mathematics, art and the concept of time. Zerzan has published in the Detroit magazine Fifth Estate and his books include Elements of Refusal (1988, 1999), Against Civilization (1999) and Future Primitive Revisited (2012).

This event was part of the exhibition:

The Real Truth. A World’s Fair

28 July to 19 August 2012

For more information go to: http://www.ravenrow.org/exhibition/the_real_truth/

Saturday 11 August

4pm, Recital from Memory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Monica Ross

5pm, Jim Channon

Go Planet! A Strategic Visionary Story and Art for the next Military Century!

Jim Channon, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army, is a futurologist and military theorist. As a professional soldier, he commanded five combat units, with two years in Vietnam, and in 1978 created the First Earth Battalion Field Manual for non-lethal warfare. In his work as social architect, philosopher, and futurist he remains a key adviser to military think tanks and specialises in ‘Natural Security’ and ‘Global Reconstruction’. He has created designs for a global village, a district, several bioregions and the planet connected with a webocracy, ‘imagining the Army's full potential as an instrument for the future.’ Jim Channon’s history was explored in Jon Ronson’s book, The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004).

This event was part of the exhibition:

The Real Truth. A World’s Fair

28 July to 19 August 2012

For more information go to: http://www.ravenrow.org/exhibition/the_real_truth/

The Real Truth. A World’s Fair

28 July to 19 August 2012

A project by Suzanne Treister at Raven Row over four weekends featuring four keynote speeches within a specially designed theatre

Saturday 18 August, 5pm

A Wilderness of Mirrors: Conspiracy Theories and the Necessary Counter-Intelligence of Everyday Life

Richard Thieme speaks professionally about the challenges posed by new technologies and the future, and how we might reinvent ourselves to meet them. Clients range from GE and Microsoft to the National Security Agency, FBI, U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of the Treasury. Formerly an Episcopalian minister, Thieme has also spoken for sixteen years at the Black Hat Briefings on intelligence and corporate security, and at Def Con, an annual computer hacker convention. Thieme’s books include: Islands in the Clickstream (2004) and Mind Games, A Collection of Nineteen Stories of Brave New Worlds and Alternate Realities (2010).

This event was part of the exhibition:

The Real Truth. A World’s Fair

28 July to 19 August 2012

For more information go to: http://www.ravenrow.org/exhibition/the_real_truth/

The Real Truth. A World’s Fair

28 July to 19 August 2012

A project by Suzanne Treister at Raven Row over four weekends featuring four keynote speeches within a specially designed theatre

Saturday 4 August, 5pm

The Murderous Idolatry of the Future: Anarcho-Primitivism and the end of Technology

John Zerzan was active in the Sixties in San Francisco and Berkeley. A leading participant in the contemporary anarchist resurgence, Zerzan's political project calls for the destruction of technology. He draws the distinction between tools that stay under the control of the user, and technological systems that draw the user into their control. His critical ideas have challenged symbolic thought, mathematics, art and the concept of time. Zerzan has published in the Detroit magazine Fifth Estate and his books include Elements of Refusal (1988, 1999), Against Civilization (1999) and Future Primitive Revisited (2012).

Thursday 20 June 2013, 6.30pm

Pádraig Timoney led a tour of his exhibition Fontwell Helix Feely in conversation with Alex Sainsbury.

For more about the exhibition go to http://www.ravenrow.org/exhibition/padraig_timoney_fontwell_helix_feely/

Christophe Domino (critic and art historian), Fabien Pinaroli (curator of BAXTER&'s exhibition at Raven Row) and Alex Sainsbury in discussion with IAIN BAXTER&. The conversation takes as its starting point the artist's approach to bagging in the context of works in the exhibition –Pneumatic Judd (1965), 1/4 Mile Landscape (1969), vacuum forms and light boxes.

This event coincided with the launch of a special issue of the magazine E IL TOPO featuring a commissioned photographic project by IAIN BAXTER&.

For more about the exhibition go to:

www.ravenrow.org/exhibition/iain_…_adam_chodzko__/

Thursday 31 October 2013, 6.30pm

A discussion with Lars Bang Larsen, curator of 'Reflections from Damaged Life. An exhibition on psychedelia' and Alex Sainsbury, Director of Raven Row.