'The Independent #Intellectual vs #PostingZero and the #deadinternet' my short, ten minute introduction to SCREENSHOT BABEL, a workshop I ran with Ester Freider as part of The Cyberbaroque: A Neologism-Based Symposium, is now available on my Media Gifts blog:

http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2025/12/2/the-independent-intellectual-vs-posting-zero-and-the-dead-in.html

Organised by Everyone is a Girl (EIAG) (https://everyoneisagirl.cargo.site/), and held at Anomalous in #London on November 20, 2025, the symposium explored the idea of the cyberbaroque allegory (https://everyoneisagirl.substack.com/p/i-lost-track-of-what-is-real-personas) through presentations, a reading, a workshop, and a film screening.

Some images from the #Radiohead show at the O2 in #London on Monday. It was very good - but definitely not your usual #concert experience. More arty, more oblique. The band spent most of the night in the gloom, performing in the round, with no talking or song introductions. Even the screens were blurry and glitchy, like they are keeping the audience at a distance on purpose - which they presumably are. They know their modernism, don't they?

So there were only one or two moments when the lights came up and it felt like band and audience were sharing the same space and experience.

Although from a different night, this review captures it really well - right down to the sound issues (sludgy at times, missing the mid-range, although things improved after No Surprises), and the Radiohead audience lacking identity, which is funny but true:

https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/radiohead-live-in-london-review/

Nice to see my colleagues in The Freee Art Collective get a mention in Poor Artists, the book by The White Pube duo, Zarina Muhammad and Gabrielle de la Puente. Otherwise, the #book's take on #art is… considerably tamer than the #brand.

#artists #book #books

Highly recommend ROHTKO by Łukasz Twarkowski / Anka Herbut / Dailes Theatre — at the Barbican, final day Sunday.

https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2025/event/lukasz-twarkowski-dailes-theatre-anka-herbut-rohtko

At its core: one of the biggest scandals in the #art world. In 2004 a couple paid $8.3m for a Rothko. Years later it turned out to be by… a Chinese maths teacher from Queens, who also forged Pollocks.

Can a #fake #painting evoke real feelings? What counts as 'real art — and what’s it worth?

Is it as good as The Employees?
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/lukasz-twarkowski-the-employees/#venue

Hard to say. It’s longer (4 hours!). And anyone who is up with the latest reading around AI, originality, copyright, remix etc. won't find the treatment of the relation between and the real and fake particularly sophsticated. But the satirising of 'care' as a hot topic for art exhibitions is funny. The whole piece is extremely atmospheric. Indeed, the blend of #theatre, #music, #technology, #film + #choreography is genuinely unique.

Continuing on the #Metalabel tip…

My copy of Chance Would Be a Fine Thing arrived at the weekend.

https://metalabel-ktav.metalabel.com/chance-would-be-a-fine-thing-book?retryCount=1&variantId=1

It’s a design-forward, twenty-first-century contribution to the tradition of Mallarmé’s Un Coup de Dés (A Throw of the Dice). Created by the Bangkok-based collective for potential #design, Copode.

I especially like their refusal to either uncritically celebrate #AI or lapse into fatalism about it. I also appreciate their emphasis on creating something unexpected, something that even takes them by surprise, as well as the way the #book looks toward exploring alternative models for collaboration between humans and #technologies.

The Keifer/ Van Gogh #exhibition at the Royal Academy of #Art is worth seeing. It features some classics. But also some surprises, such as this #sketch of a market garden.

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/kiefer-van-gogh

Went to the launch of Themerson & Themerson: Gaberbochus Press 1948-1979 #exhibition last night. I understand it's been extended to January 2026 now. So plenty of time to catch it.

It's worth going just to check out the London Centre for #Book #Arts and its fabulous #book shop.

#books #art #modernism #polish

Just a reminder about this online event tomorrow on my new book Masked Media: What It Means to be Human in the Age of Artificial Creative Intelligence (London: Open Humanities Press, 2025):

http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/masked-media/

Co-organised by Culture Machine (https://culturemachine.net/) and 17, Instituto de Estudios Críticos, Mexico City (https://diecisiete.org/masked-media/), the event is hosted by the Laboratory of Contemporary Writings / Laboratorio de Escrituras Contemporáneas, which is being launched with this discussion of Masked Media.

To join this event online, email: enlace@17edu.org

Please find attached details of an upcoming online 12 September event on my new book Masked Media: What It Means to be Human in the Age of Artificial Creative Intelligence (London: Open Humanities Press, 2025):

http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/masked-media/

Co-organised by Culture Machine and 17, Instituto de Estudios Críticos (https://diecisiete.org/masked-media/), the event is hosted by the Laboratory of Contemporary Writings / Laboratorio de Escrituras Contemporáneas, which is being launching with this discussion of Masked Media.

The idea for the Laboratory of Contemporary Writings emerged from a recent ACLA Seminar titled ‘Displacing Academic Practices in the Ruins of the Neoliberal University’. While linked to conversations around infrapolitics (e.g., https://culturemachine.net/vol-22-anthropocene-infrapolitics/), its focus is broader: on writing, subjectivity, students, ourselves, and how to respond to the conditions we’re living through today.

To join this event online, email: enlace@17edu.org