The sublime Art Magic 23 book is now published: Aside from collages and photography documentation, you’ll also find an excerpt from Vanessa’s new novel ”Things Happen” and ”Whistling in the Dark: notes for an Experimental Psychodrama” by Mara Norman. You can read an expanded essay ”The Magic of Dreams Made Even More Real” by Carl Abrahamsson, and Karin Valis’ essay on ”Divine Embeddings: Sacred Alphabets and Large Language Models.” And more! #artmagic23 #vanessasinclair #carlabrahamsson
Wow! Another one… Another intense year passed by. What the hell happened? Well, let’s see… It began in a really great way, as my book Source Magic – The Origin of Art, Science & Culture was published early on in the year. It’s a fairly logical follow-up book to both Reasonances (2014) and Occulture (2018) as it’s an anthology of essays and lectures; and, I should add, to 2024’s similar book In-between the Lines. The book was well received, and I was on so many podcasts I can definitely not recall all of them. I’m very happy that I list them as they come out! (Check’em out here.) Vanessa and I were both published in Tumzantorum no 3, and that made me happy. Rumor has it I’ll be in the forthcoming issue, too, with an essay on talismania. After that followed a monograph that also made me really happy: Chimera Obscura – Selected Exhibitions 2003-2014. I love going through my old photographs in general, and in this case it was extra fun as the included images have all been exhibited...
Getting ready for Sundance in January? Don’t miss Scott Cummings’ new film REALM OF SATAN: I like Scott’s work a lot, and it was a pleasure to have him and great cinematographer Gerald Kerkletz visit us in the summer. Now the film is done, and will have its first screenings at Sundance in January. Congratulations, Scott & co! #scottcummings #realmofsatan #sundance #churchofsatan #independentcinema
As has been stated on many occasions in these end-times, human beings no longer are ”who they are” or ”what they do,” but rather what they consume. Well then, if this is so, then this was/is me 2023: The Weird Tales Boys, by Stephen Jones This is a great introduction to a very important phenomenon: the pulp magazine Weird Tales and its three most celebrated authors: HP Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert E Howard. Basically, without these influential authors, Weird Tales wouldn’t have had the impact it has for so many generations of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fans. A hardcore cultural impact zone. Pulp fiction of the WT kind has shaped our western culture to a greater extent than most people care to admit. Not least in the arena of science fiction and its lesser offspring: science proper. How many crazy scientists have grown up with the pulps as inspirations and instigations (even though most of these stories ended in havoc and disaster!)? Almost whatever we like...