Catch music academic and Dummy essayist Adam Harper lecturing on vaporwave this week
If you’re in town, be sure to catch Dummy’s resident essayist Adam Harper speaking at the CTM Festival in Berlin, which will begin its fourteenth year tonight.
On Thursday (31st January), Adam will present ‘The Pop Art of The Virtual Plaza’, a lecture building on his Vaporwave and Distroid features for Dummy last year, which explored potentially accelerationist roads forged by underground musicians such as James Ferraro, INTERNET CLUB and Fatima Al Qadiri. The lecture will be followed by discussion with former editor of The Wire, Lisa Blanning. Then on Saturday (2nd February) he’ll be part of the panel for ‘Paradise Lost and Regained II’, alongside philosopher and cultural theorist Daniel Tyradellis and journalist Katrin Rönicke. Here’s an excerpt from the event’s press release:
“The seemingly excessive simultaneity of Net cultures, the exorbitant and ever-increasing density of information, and the apparent ubiquitous availability of subject matter and knowledge all create the impression that everything is merely eclectic or consumeristic. If one puts one’s trust in the “ticklish subject” however, and in the new vectors s/he introduces, idiosyncrasy once again gains authority in the temporal mode of synchronicity. An unrestrained creative and ludic approach to ubiquity then becomes possible, for one is open to unexpected synergies. Such a Golden Age is then not a final condition, but a permanent process.”
As well as regularly gracing this site, Adam’s book Infinite Music: Imagining the Next Millennium of Human Music-Making was released by Zero last year, and he is currently completing a PhD. The events will take place at the Kuntsquartier Studio on Mariannenplatz, and will both cost €3. The CTM Festival is also set to feature performances from Lee Gamble, Kode9 and Demdike Stare – with Dean Blunt to present the world premiere of ‘ The Narcissist’ stageplay on Friday. Follow the links for additional information on the full program and tickets.
