Mark Fisher’s The Weird and the Eerie (Online Group Video Session)

On 21st April 2020, the Exploding Appendix Avant-garde Art Practice and Research Group will be holding another interactive video chat (via Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84468775170) from 19:30 – 22:30. This will involve the opportunity to share random thoughts, ideas and any projects we are working on. This night will be on Mark Fisher’s The Weird and the Eerie (See below). If you would like to get involved please message me at explodingappendix@gmail.com.

What the weird and the eerie have in common is the preoccupation with the strange. The strange not the horrific. The allure that the weird and the eerie possess is not captured by the idea that we “enjoy what scares us”. It has, rather, to do with a fascination for the outside, for that which lies beyond standard perception, cognition and experience. This fascination usually involves a certain apprehension, perhaps even dread ―but it would be wrong to say that the weird and the eerie are necessarily terrifying. I am not claiming that the outside is always beneficent. There are more than enough terrors to be found there, but such terrors are not all there is to the outside.

– Mark Fisher, The Weird and the Eerie, p.8-9

Mark Fisher’s book The Weird and The Eerie, published in 2016 by Repeater Books, deepens our understanding of the concepts of ‘the weird’ and ‘the eerie’ through a myriad of references: H.P. Lovecraft, H.G. Wells, The Fall, Tim Powers, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Philip K. Dick, David Lynch, Daphne Du Maurier, Christopher Priest, M.R. James, Eno, Nigel Kneale, Alan Garner, Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Glazer, Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky, Christopher Nolan and Joan Lindsay. Join us as we explore the book, its references and themes. This session will be a discussion led by Bradley Tuck using a collection of video and audio clips. Whilst acquaintance with the book may be helpful, it is not necessary.