Exploding Appendix Avant-Garde Art Practice & Research Group: July, August and September Schedule

The Exploding Appendix Avant-garde Art Practice and Research Group meets upstairs at The Marwood, 52 Ship Street Brighton, England, BN1 1AF. The meet ups start at 7.30pm regularly on a Tuesday.

Our aim is to create a space where artists, intellectuals and others can meet to discuss ideas, issues and creative projects. Evenings tend to comprise of relaxed informal discussions about art, art projects and ideas, as well as a focal point. This might be a film screening, a live performance, an improvisation/creative session, a work in progress session, a reading group, a guest talk, an interview, a panel discussion, a debate, a workshop, an exhibition, live music or a party. This is all very flexible and can be built around the interests of the group.

The meetup runs alongside the Exploding Appendix website (www.explodingappendix.com), a multimedia online magazine that produces videos, podcasts, articles, interviews and visual essays exploring ideas and culture generally, and can be used as a platform for presenting projects related to the group.

Whilst drawing upon the history of avant-gardist and counter-cultural ideas we aim to explore a wide range of issues beyond the narrow purview of conventional art discussion. We welcome people working within different disciplines, different artistic mediums and coming from very different perspectives.

Below is the schedule for July, August and September:

9th July – Introduction to Exploding Appendix and a Discussion of Future Projects  (Plus EAAAPRG’s 1 year Anniversary celebration)

In this session the Exploding Appendix Avant-garde Art Practice and Research Group turns one year old. We will be have a bit of a celebration, plus a discussion and reflection on the project. Bradley Tuck will give a presentation introducing the overall project of Exploding Appendix, this will be followed by a general discussion of potential projects and collaborations that we would like to see emerging out of the Exploding Appendix meetings. The aim of this meeting will be to build new collaborations and discuss what projects we can do in the future. In doing this we hope to strengthen the practical wing of the Exploding Appendix meetups in general.

23rd July – Screening and Discussion: A New Studio Diary Film by Daniel & Clara

The Studio Diaries began as a series of 100 short films created by Daniel & Clara throughout 2018, each film was shot, edited and released online on the same day. Over the course of seven months, these short films capture the workings of the artists’ daily creative practice, but more than simply documenting, the Studio Diaries are creative thought in action. Each film is an investigation into the language of moving images, exploring how narrative and meaning are constructed through the relationship between sound and image.

For this screening Daniel & Clara will be presenting a selection of shorts taken from the first 100 films followed by the latest instalment SD103: Snakes & Ladders which is a 30 mins experimental video essay responding to the films and writing of Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen.

13th August- Projects session

Building on July’s discussion of future projects, this session will be dedicated to developing and continuing projects and building new collaborations.

27th August – Utopianism and Science Fiction during the Russian Revolution (Presented by Bradley Tuck)

In this session Bradley Tuck will be presenting on ‘Utopianism and Science Fiction in the Russian Revolution’. Drawing on Richard Stites’ conception of revolutionary dreams, we explore how utopian dreaming and science fiction permeated the lead up and aftermath of the Russian Revolution. Focusing on Alexander Bogdanov’s Utopian novel Red Star (1908), and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s distopian novel We (1920-1), we explore the role science fiction played in terms of literature, science and revolution. Join us for a journey into space travel, Martian communism, blood transfusions, proletkultists, machine worshipers, utopian dreams, dystopian nightmares, and the war on death itself.

10th September – Nick Hudson on The Quiet Earth Hypersigil Project

Last year we had the pleasure of being joined by artist and composer Nick Hudson to discuss the beginning of his Quiet Earth Project. Over the year the project has developed in leaps and bounds. This week we will be joined by Nick Hudson as he explores how the project has developed.

The Quiet Earth Hypersigil Project multifaceted psychogeographical investigation into landscape, ecology, environmentalism, trauma, geopolitics and ritual, manifest as a global hypersigil, an album of songs, a 12-part video series, a 3D-video-mapping installation, and a volume of prose.

24th September – Reading Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Psychomagic   (CANCELLED)

(Due to circumstances out of our control we have had to cancel this event. We will re-organise this one for some time in the new year)

This week we will explore the work of renowned filmmaker, poet, theatre director, graphic novelist, tarot reader and psychotherapist Alejandro Jodorowsky. We will look especially at his 2004 book Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy, exploring how his ideas and methods presented within this book manifest throughout his films, graphic novels and other creative works. Films to be explored will include Fando y Lis (1968), El Topo (1970), The Holy Mountain (1973), Santa Sangre (1989), The Dance of Reality (2013), Endless Poetry (2016) and more.