This book is a book of the dark arts

because 99% of the universe is dark

The next (first) installment of Blood Work: The Apocalypse of Dan Hoy is now available in a limited edition. You can purchase one of 33 copies of CENTURIES & PROPHECIES (Blood Work, Book 1) from Solar Luxuriance here:

http://solarluxuriance.com/bloodwork/

Architectural Theories of the environment: Posthuman Territory is the brand new book edited by Sang Bleu friend and future collaborator Ariane Louise Harrison. Through a collection of essays about  architects, theorists, and sustainable designers the book provides a framework for a posthuman understanding of the design environment. Harrison explains and shows examples of how as designers and architects, we struggle to reconcile our ever increasing environmental, humanitarian, and technological demands placed on our projects.

Nine fully illustrated case studies of buildings from around the globe demonstrate how issues raised in posthuman theory provide rich terrain for contemporary architecture, making theory concrete. By assembling a range of voices across different fields, from urban geography to critical theory to design practitioners, this anthology offers a resource for design professionals, educators, and students seeking to grapple the ecological mandate of our current period.

Case studies include work by Arakawa and Gins, Arons en Gelauff, Casagrande, The Living, Minifie van Schaik, R & Sie (n), SCAPE, Studio Gang, and xDesign.

Essayists include Gilles Clément, Matthew Gandy, Francesco Gonzáles de Canales, Elizabeth Grosz, Simon Guy, Seth Harrison, N. Katherine Hayles, Ursula Heise, Catherine Ingraham, Bruno Latour, William J. Mitchell, Matteo Pasquinelli, Erik Swyngedouw, Sarah Whatmore, Jennifer Wolch, Cary Wolfe, and Albena Yaneva

Buy the book here on Routlegde or on Amazon

In Your Home is a self-portrait series started in 2008, in which I have intuitively and secretly appropriated other people’s private spaces with my own nude body. When I have been left alone in someone’s house, even if for a few fleeting minutes, I have whipped out my compact 35mm camera, and with the use of the self-timer, shot myself in the domestic space, without the host’s knowledge. I have used bedside tables, piles of books, or wardrobes as makeshift tripods, and placed myself in the space through an intuitive and spontaneous choice of composition.

Rasha’s photographs have been published into a hand-numbered limited edition publication (150 copies) comprising the complete series of the In Your Home series of photographs. Each book cover is different: a random tipped-in photograph of one the 36 In Your Home photographs… With a foreword by our very own Jeanne-Salomé Rochat and designed by Julia.

and to read more about the project visit Rasha’s website here

And to buy the book please visit this blog

A few days ago I found this exceptional book in the library. I was initially drawn to the cover and back image but after flicking through it, it threw out a some fantastic surprises. Written by a Fleet Street journalist during the hey day of Punk in Britain in 1978, Hennesy naively (and quiet honestly offensively) tries to compare the adornments of the punk style to tribal body modifications. These base comparisons are shown quite graphically side by side on most pages by having on one page a London punk being suitably insulting and on the other page a person from Africa, Asia or South America (i.e pretty much the entire world) wearing a vaguely similar nose ring or make-up, behaving in a very normal way. Although the book is beyond being dated, it’s layout is really rather attractive and the utter fear the journalist radiates out of the book in its comparisons reminds the reader of how terrified people really were of punk at the time. Other than the patronising content on behalf of both the punks and the people of the world exhibited in the book, it does have some great documentation of young punks which can be seen here.

To celebrate the publication of Forever: The New Tattoo, the publishing house Gestalten have not only made this short but film but have also arranged a very exciting talk which will include Alex Binnie, Duncan X, Matt Lodder, and Rafel Delalande.

Matt Lodder the tattoo historian will give a brief talk looking at different media perceptions of tattooing in recent decades and in return present a new way of looking at and thinking about the tattoo.

Duncan X and Alex Binnie will give a talk exploring the history of modern tattooing since 1980 and how the legendary shops Into You in London and Brighton have influenced and changed contemporary tattooing.

Alex Binnie’s fantastic book The Woodcut Portraits will also be available to buy as well as special edition prints by Rafel Delalande.

The event will take place this Saturday (the 22nd) in Berlin at  Gestalten Space, Sophie-Gips-Höfe, Sophienstraße 21, 10178 Berlin from 6.30- 9.30.

Forever: The New Tattoo explores modern tattooing and its phenomenal growth over the last couple of years. Not only does the book look at some of the best and most varied tattooers currently working but also other areas of contemporary tattoo culture. The book dedicates pages to the likes of Jondix, Guy Le Tattooer, Scott Campbell, Curly, Cris Cleen, Mark Cross, Liam Sparkes, Thomas Hooper, Fergadelic, Xed LeHead, Robert Ryan and many, many more…

Information about purchasing this new book can be found here

Deanna Templeton’s new book Scratch My Name On Your Arm explores Californian youth culture through beautiful black and white photographs. Coming out of Templeton’s exhibition at the Schunck art institute in Herleen in the Netherlands and taken over five years Templeton has recorded the strange new phenomenon of body autographs. Baring their bodies temporary dedications at skateboarding and surfboarding events, this trend of letting athletes autograph their bodies turned into sports brands spraying their logos on to willing bodies, acting as free walking bill boards for the companies. With many of the subjects unaware of the complications of their semi permanent markings and not necessarily that interested in the sporting event its self these photographs provide a striking yet strange insight into the youth of California. But the photographs none the less are really quite impressive.

Check out Deanna’s blog here : http://deannatempleton.blogspot.co.uk/

Yesterday, while in the library I came across this rather incredible book. Not only are the photographs amazing but the descriptions with each image are out of this world! Although the book reads as being utterly sensational it still holds some important historical references to tattooing and rare images.

(Sorry for the bad quality photos)