Ken Hollings CV

Lectures 2010

2010-09-08T16:19:00.009+01:00

September 10
ALIEN TRANSMISSIONS: Sputnik, McLuhan and the Voices of Space
Lecture given as part of an all-day live radio event curated by Inheritance Projects as part of Charlie Woolley’s ‘Mysterious Cults’ exhibition at SPACE Studios, London, September 11

May 10
THE PURPLE DEATH: Or Further Notes on Camp and the Heroic Rise of the Lowbrow
Lecture given at Siegen Museum for Contemporary Art as part of a four-day symposium, ‘Heroes, Ubermenschen, Superheroes: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Aesthetics and Politicization of Extraordinary Humans’ organized by Kritische Berichte, May 8

April 10
THE IMAGE DEMANDS TO BE HEARD:
Lecture given at a screening of Johnny YesNo at Sensoria 10, Sheffield, April 23

March 10
COGNITION
Lecture # 8 in a series given to MA Communication Design students at Central St Martins, Back Hill site March 17

TRASH
Lecture # 7 in a series given to MA Communication Design students at Central St Martins, Back Hill site March 10

EVENTS
Lecture # 6 in a series given to MA Communication Design students at Central St Martins, Back Hill site March 3

February 10
SPACES
Lecture # 5 in a series given to MA Communication Design students at Central St Martins, Back Hill site February 24

MARSHALL MCLUHAN AND MEDIA THEORY
A lecture to BA History of Art and Design students at Middlesex University, Cat Hill Campus, February 19

DREAMS
Lecture # 4 in a series given to MA Communication Design students at Central St Martins, Back Hill site February 17

NETWORKS
Lecture # 3 in a series given to MA Communication Design students at Central St Martins, Back Hill site February 10

MACHINES
Lecture # 2 in a series given to MA Communication Design students at Central St Martins, Back Hill site February 3

January 10
MEDIA
Lecture # 1 in a series given to MA Communication Design students at Central St Martins, Back Hill site January 27

Print Media 2010

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Audiovisual 2010

2010-09-08T16:18:00.014+01:00

September 10
‘From Gameboy to Armageddon’
Repeat broadcast of this Radio 3 feature, written and presented by KH and produced by Mark Burman, September 7.
Related posts:
From Gameboy to Armageddon Online
From Gameboy to Armageddon
Full Spectrum Dominator

‘Film – the Music of the Future: the Cinema of Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’
‘Hollingsville’ special – Ken Hollings and his guests Tai Shani and Chris Bohn discuss the films of this controversial German filmmaker in advance of an all-day screening of his seven-hour masterwork, ‘Hitler: A Film from Germany’. Engineered by Richard Thomas for Resonance 104.4 FM – first broadcast September 2.
Related posts:
Hollingsville Update

August 10
‘Welcome to Mars’
Marathon repeat of the entire ‘Welcome to Mars’ radio series in two 3-hour sequences as part of Resonance FM’ summer schedule. For more information of this 12-part series, on the evenings of August 28 and August 29.
Related posts:
Welcome to Mars

‘An Overloaded Transmission from a Quasi-Personal Stellar Source’
In a live transmission from John Latham’s Flat Time House KH talks about Tristram Shandy, the aphorism and the digression as literary forms. Engineered by Richard Thomas and first broadcast August 2 by Resonance 104.4 FM in association with Sound Threshold and Flat Time House.

‘SpaceBaby: Guinea Pigs Don’t Dream’
London Fieldworks put their film SpaceBaby: Guinea Pigs Don’t Dream up, scripted by Ken Hollings on Vimeo. ‘This video work incorporates SpaceBaby performance documentation and choreographed laboratory procedure with CG elements in collaboration with the composer Dugal McKinnon and writer Ken Hollings with narration by Roddy Maude-Roxby.’ – from the London Fieldworks post.
Related posts:
Spacebaby Screening at Less Remote

‘Read This: You Need Us’
Short film featuring an early Biting Tongues performance with spoken-word by Ken Hollings, posted on YouTube.
Related posts:
Biting Tongues

July 10
‘Spaceship UK’
A ‘Hollingsville’ special, a brief history of British electronic music, illustrated by selected readings from the 1951 Festival of Britain exhibition guide, first broadcast July 1 by Resonance 104.4 FM . This is to coincide with the publication of my essay Spaceship UK: The British Space Programme as Musical Exploration – The Untold Story, commissioned by Sound and Music for Sonar 10, and a shorter online version being available from June 2010 issue of INTO magazine.

June 10
‘Monsters’
Fair Warning: Hollingsville TX 10/12, featuring contributions from Laurie Lipton, Mark Pilkington, with musical interludes by the McCarricks, first broadcast on Resonance FM, June 17.
Available as a podcast.
Related posts:
TX 10/12

‘Wounds’
Blood on The Streets: Hollingsville TX9/12, featuring contributions from Cathi Unsworth and Ross MacFarlane, with musical interludes by Unicazürn, first broadcast by Resonance 104.4 FM, June 10.
Available as a podcast.
Related posts:
TX 9/12

‘Trash’
The Gasp between Clichés: Hollingsville TX8/12, featuring contributions from Roger K Burton and Edwin Pouncey, with musical interludes by Savage Pencil, first broadcast by Resonance 104.4 FM, June 3.
Available as a podcast.
Related posts:
TX 8/12

May 10
‘Events’
The Birth of Chance: Hollingsville TX 7/12 , featuring contributions from Richard Strange and Tai Shani, with musical interludes by Graham Massey, first broadcast by Resonance 104.4 FM, May 27.
Available as a podcast.
Related posts:
TX 7/12

‘Spaces’
Buildings Dream Too: Hollingsville TX 6/12, featuring contributions from Mark Fisher and Andy Sharp, with musical interludes by English Heretic, first broadcast by Resonance 104.4 FM, May 20.
Available as a podcast.
Related posts:
TX 6/12

‘Dreams’
While the City Sleeps: Hollingsville TX 5/12, featuring contributions from Julian House, with musical interludes by David Knight, first broadcast by Resonance 104.4 FM, May 13.
Available as a podcast.
Related posts:
TX 5/12

‘Networks’
Welcome to the Labyrinth: Hollingsville TX4/12, featuring contributions from Becky Hogge, with musical interludes by Richard H Kirk, first broadcast by Resonance 104.4 FM, May 6.
Available as a podcast.
Related posts:
TX 4/12

‘Imreadyformycloseup’
Special extended edition of this programme featuring Ken Hollings in conversation with experimental filmmaker Craig Baldwin, first broadcast May 7 on Resonance 104.4 FM.
Related posts:
With Craig Baldwin at the Resonance FM studios

April 10
‘Machines’
History and Hardware: Hollingsville TX3/12, featuring contributions from Bruce Woolley and James Bridle, with musical interludes by Radiophonic, first broadcast by Resonance 104.4 FM, April 29.
Available as a podcast.
Related posts:
TX 3/12

‘Media’
The Extensions of God: Hollingsville TX2/12, featuring contributions from Russell Dabies and Richard Thomas, with musical interludes by Graham Massey, first broadcast by Resonance 104.4 FM, April 22.
Available as a podcast.
Related posts:
TX 2/12

‘The Future’
‘Suddenly it’s 1960!’: Hollingsville TX1/12, , featuring contributions from Matt Jones and Steve Beard, with musical interludes by Graham Massey, first broadcast by Resonance 104.4 FM, April 15.
Available as a podcast.
Related posts:
TX 1/12

‘Varese in Five Locations’
A talked on the musical experiments of Edgard Varese based on the Ken Hollings essay of the same name, published in the April issue of The Wire, first broadcast April 13 on Resonance 104.4 FM.

‘Imreadyformycloseup’
Two-part edition featuring Ken Hollings in conversation with experimental filmmaker Craig Baldwin first broadcast April 16 and 23 7 on Resonance 104.4 FM.
Related posts:
With Craig Baldwin at the Resonance FM studios

February 10
‘From Gameboy to Armageddon’
Special feature on military use of videogames, combat simulations and special effects, written and presented by KH on Radio 3, produced by Mark Burman. The programme includes in-depth interviews with SIMNET founder Jack Thorpe, military games expert Jim Dunnigen and Tim Lenoir. First broadcast February 21. An MP3 of the programme is available from speechification.The feature was repeated on BBC Radio 3, Septemeber 7, 2010.
Related posts:
From Gameboy to Armageddon
From Gameboy to Armageddon Online
Full Spectrum Dominator

‘Pathological Oversharing’
Broadcast of public panel discussion featuring Ken Hollings, Becky Hogge and Paul May as part of 2009 Media Playground, first broadcast February 8 on Resonance 104.4 FM.
Related posts:
Media Playground Appearance
Pathological Oversharing Panel on Vimeo

Events and Performances 2010

2010-09-08T16:18:00.010+01:00

September 10
‘Hitler: A Film From Germany’
Introductory remarks given at the start of an all-day screening of this remarkable seven-hour film by Hans Hans-Jürgen Syberberg at the Horse Hospital, London, September 4.
Related posts:
Hollingsville: ‘Film – the Music of the Future’ - the Cinema of Hans Hans-Jürgen Syberberg

May 10
‘Sonic Warfare: The Politics of Frequency’
Panel discussion with Steve Goodman and Derek Walmsley on the military-entertainment complex, network strategies, dangerous wavelengths, media battlefields and war porn, as part of the Wire Salon at Café Oto, London, May 6 – the discussion was recorded and later broadcast by Resonance FM.
Related posts:
From Gameboy to Armageddon Available Online
Rand: All Your Tomorrows Today Online
Embedded Art
Welcome to Mars

January 10
‘Welcome to Mars’
Reading with screening and live electronic accompaniment by Bruce Woolley and Mark Pilkington as part of the Strange Attractor Salon at Viktor Wind Fine Art, London, January 22. The performance was recorded and subsequently made available online via Archive.Org.
Related posts:
Strange Attractor Salon
Welcome to Mars on Archive.Org
Welcome to Mars

Print Media 2009

2009-03-29T12:46:00.005+01:00

December 09
‘And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Kings: At the End Once Again with Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson’
Essay commissioned by Mark Fisher on behalf of Zer0 Books to appear in their anthology The Resistible Rise of Michael Jackson.
Related Posts:
Michael Jackson: A New Face in Hell for 2010
‘Utter Trash’: The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson Denounced by Fan
Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley
Michael Jackson Was Always Good To Me

November 09
‘Background Radiation: The West German Republic Tunes In To The Cosmos’
Essay commissioned by Black Dog Press to appear in their anthology Krautrock: Cosmic Rock and its Legacy, edited by Nikos Kotsopoulos.
Related posts:
Krautrock Kristmas Broadcast Details
Recording Resonance FM’s Krautrock Kristmas Special
Black Dog Krautrock Launch: Systems AOK

October 09
The Wire 308
New Soundscapes exhibition review.

September 09
The Transactional Dharma of Roj
Ken Hollings commissioned by Ghost Box to write a set of special texts to go with Julian House’s booklet design to accompany this extraordinary CD release.
Related posts:
Late Mentions and Top-Ten Listings For 2009

How Not To Cook Book
Invited to contribute a short text to Aleksandra Mir’s international catalogue of disaster in the kitchen, officially published in September in a limited edition hardback but also as an unlimited free download.

The Wire 307
Selected book and CD reviews in the September 09 issue The Wire – subjects covered include Susan Strenger, Brian Eno and Olivier Messiaen.

April 09
‘First Love’
Short story commissioned for the anthology Love Hotel City: Twelve Authors, Twelve Visions of Japan, edited by Andrew Stevens of 3:AM Magazine and published by Future Fiction. Publication in the US only: details available from Amazon.com.

January 09
‘Requiem for the Network: Six Degrees of Devastation’
Essay for the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Embedded Art: Art in the Name of Security, published by Argo Books. Design: Gunter Rambow, English, 184 Pages, 2 colors, 21 x 26,5 cm, soft-cover with flaps, EUR 30,00, ISBN 978-3-941560-09-3. Includes a DVD with contributions by the participating artists.
Related posts:
Olaf Arndt: Labyrinth and Camp
Embedded Art: Photo Op at the Brandenburg Tor
Ken Hollings ‘Embedded Art’ Lecture at the Berlin Akademie der Kunste
Requiem for the Network: Warhead
Requiem for the Network: Fifth Stage
Embedded Art: Below Ground
Embedded Art: Above Ground
Embedded Art: The Eyes That Never Close
Embedded Art: Press Quotes
Embedded Art on CNN
Requiem for the Network: Fourth Stage
Requiem for the Network: Third Stage
Embedded Art: First Response
Requiem for the Network: Second Stage
Requiem for the Network: First Stage
Embedded Art

Lectures 2009

2009-03-29T12:41:00.009+01:00

November 09
HISTORY AND HARDWARE: A Lecture on the Mechanical Reproduction of Sound and Vision
Lecture to BA Graphic Design students at Central St Martins.
Related posts:
BAGD Lecture Gallery

THE FUTURE IS BACK: A Lecture on Marshall McLuhan
Lecture to BA Graphic Design students at Central St Martins.
Related posts
‘The Future is Back’ Resources

March 09
WELCOME TO THE LABYRINTH: Some Further Thoughts on Requiem for the Network’Lecture given at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, March 21, as part of the exhibition programme for Embedded Art: Art in the Name of Security.
Related posts:
Olaf Arndt: Labyrinth and Camp
Embedded Art: Photo Op at the Brandenburg Tor
Ken Hollings ‘Embedded Art’ Lecture at the Berlin Akademie der Kunste
Requiem for the Network: Warhead
Requiem for the Network: Fifth Stage
Embedded Art: Below Ground
Embedded Art: Above Ground
Embedded Art: The Eyes That Never Close
Embedded Art: Press Quotes
Embedded Art on CNN
Requiem for the Network: Fourth Stage
Requiem for the Network: Third Stage
Embedded Art: First Response
Requiem for the Network: Second Stage
Requiem for the Network: First Stage
Embedded Art

INVADING PRESENT TIME: The Politics of Simulation, The Bright Labyrinth, Lecture Nine

February 09
FROM THE DREAM OF VENUS TO ATLANTIS IN HI-FI, The Bright Labyrinth, Lecture Eight

DURATION Or the Birth of Chance Out of the Spirit of Music, The Bright Labyrinth, Lecture Seven

January 09
GODZILLA HAS LEFT THE BUILDING - And How He Got There, The Bright Labyrinth, Lecture Six

Events and Performances 2009

2009-03-29T12:35:00.009+01:00

December 09
Pathological Over-Sharing
Ken Hollings participates in a panel discussion with Becky Hogge and Paul May at Resonance FM’s Media Playground event at the Foundry in London – the panel is recorded for future broadcast in 2010.
Related Posts:
Pathological Over-Sharing Panel On Vimeo

A Factory Night (and then again)
Ken Hollings performs with Biting Tongues at Plan K in Brussels as part of a special night dedicated to the legacy of Factory Records.
Related Posts:
Biting Tongues Live Gallery # 5
Biting Tongues Live Gallery # 4
Biting Tongues Live Gallery # 3
Biting Tongues Live Gallery # 2
Biting Tongues Live Gallery # 1
Biting Tongues: Live Footage from Plan K
Biting Tongues at Plan K: A Site Report

Midnight Cowboy Screen Talk at Barbican
For the third and concluding part of Barbican’s Stranger in Town season of screenings and lectures, Ken Hollings joins Eddi Fiegel in a discussion of the 1968 movie Midnight Cowboy.

September 09
Modern History
Special event at the Horse Hospital, screening of Mark Boswell's feature film ‘The Subversion Agency’ plus Ken Hollings reading from Welcome to Mars and a Q&A with the audience.
Related Posts:
Mark Boswell: Le Weekend

Nova Kino at the Cambridge Film Festival
Ken Hollings joins Mark Boswell onstage at Arts Picture House as part of this year’s Cambridge Film Festival to discuss the radical US filmmaker’s approach to using found footage to alter its ideological content.

Interesting 2009
Ken Hollings comperes the final quarter of Interesting 09, an all-day conference organized by Russell Davies and held at the Conway Hall.
Related Posts:
Interesting 2009: Site Report
Interesting 2009 Running Order

July 09
Moon Landing Party
Held at Islington Mill a fringe event for this year’s Manchester Festival in honour of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo XI mission, the Moon Landing Party featured a reading by Ken Hollings from Welcome to Mars, plus a performance with Biting Tongues.
Related Posts:
Biting Tongues Onstage Gallery
Biting Tongues Live at the Moon Landing
Biting Tongues: New Live Recordings on MySpace
Moon Landing Party Enjoyed by All
Text for the Lunar Module Ceremony

June 09
Lonely Creatures at the Green Room
A multimedia performance at the Green Room in Manchester, based on texts written and present by Ken Hollings – featuring films by Howard Walmsley, music by Hot Bone, Howard Walmsley and Graham Massey.
Related Posts:
Rehearsing Lonely Creatures
Hot Bone: Heroes of Speed Metal
Lonely Creatures at the Green Room in Manchester

MA-tters: Reflections on Postgraduate Design Education.
Ken Hollings moderates a panel discussion among students on their experiences of postgraduate design education. Hosted by Central St Martins.

April 09
The Other Other Cinema
Ken Hollings introduces an evening of films by Craig Baldwin, Damon Packard and Mark Boswell at the Horse Hospital.

Dressing the Assassin
Ken Hollings presents a set of introductory remarks at a screening of the David Ellis film about Roger K Burton of the Contemporary Wardrobe Collection held in the Insititute of Contemporary Arts, London.

Welcome to Mars reading at Spectra 09
A presentation of material from Welcome to Mars at the annual international conspiracy culture conference held in Valencia.
Related posts:
Welcome to Mars on Spectra TV
Spectra 09 Site Report
Spectra 09 Mind clash

January 09
Requiem for the Network: Six Degrees of Devastation
Installation of four panels created in collaboration with designer Rathna Ramanathan for the exhibition Embedded Art: Art in the Name of Security, curated by Olaf Ardnt and Janneke Schönenbach of BBM in association with Moritz von Rappard and Cecilia Wee and shown at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin from January 21 – March 22 2009.
Related posts:
Requiem for the Network: Warhead
Requiem for the Network: Fifth Stage
Embedded Art: Below Ground
Embedded Art: Above Ground
Embedded Art: The Eyes That Never Close
Embedded Art: Press Quotes
Embedded Art on CNN
Requiem for the Network: Fourth Stage
Requiem for the Network: Third Stage
Embedded Art: First Response
Requiem for the Network: Second Stage
Requiem for the Network: First Stage
Embedded Art

Audiovisual 2009

2009-03-29T12:31:00.008+01:00

December 09
Imreadyformycloseup
Ken Hollings in conversation with Renee Glynn about her life and times working in cinema and TV both in the UK and abroad – films discussed included One Plus One, Performance, The Quatermass Xperiment and Fire Maidens from Outer Space, show broadcast by Resonance FM as a two-part feature over the holiday period at 4.00 pm on December 28 and 29 with an extended version repeated on December 30 at 10.00pm.

Krautrock Kristmas Special
A special show compered by Ken Hollings and featuring Dave Stubbs, David Knight, Mark Pilkington, Frances Morgan and Nikos Kotsopoulos to tie in with the publication of Krautock: Cosmic Rock and its Legacy from Black Dog Press: broadcast by Resonance FM as two separate one-hour shows on December 23 and December 24 at 8.30 pm on both occasions, and then as a special two-hour extended version December 26, once again at 8.30 pm.
Related Posts:
Black Dog Krautrock Launch: Systems AOK
Black Dog Krautrock Launch

August 09
Lonely Creatures screening at Burst Couch
The complete cycle of six short movies with texts by Ken Hollings screened at a Burst Couch evening in the Britons Protection Hotel, Manchester. Music by Triclops.
Related Posts:
Big Vaudeville Presents Lonely Creatures at the Green Room

May 09
The Dragman
Text and reading supplied for the short Biting Tongues film, The Dragman, posted on YouTube and the Biting Tongues MySpace page.

January 09
Mondo Exotica
Ken Hollings in conversation with Francesco Adinoli about his book Mondo Exotica, recorded live at the Barbican and broadcast by Resonance FM as part of their New Year’s Day programming.

Print Media 2008

2009-01-25T11:08:00.006Z

November 08
Welcome to Mars: Fantasies of Science in the American Century 1947-1959
293pp, illustrated, published by Strange Attractor Press.
Available from Amazon.

‘Welcome to Mars is a map of the post-war Zone, a non-fiction Gravity’s Rainbow that follows the arc of Germany’s V2 rocket to the end of the rainbow – to America’ Erik Davis, author of Techgnosis

‘Ken Hollings shows brilliantly how the extraordinary web of technologies that drove the cold war have shaped not just our culture but the very way we think of ourselves as human beings. Welcome To Mars offers a rare and fascinating glimpse of the roots of the strange humanoid culture we live in today’ Adam Curtis, director of The Power of Nightmares and Century of the Self

‘Ken Hollings has placed his critical focus at the precise point where the high technologies of information control and social manipulation intersect the passionate search for scientific ways to probe the human mind. Welcome to Mars is a searingly accurate and deeply disturbing exposé of the fantasies of American modernism that have inspired the many nightmares and the few hopeful visions of our new Millennium’ Dr Jacques Vallee, author of The Network Revolution and Passport to Magonia

‘Ken Hollings is brilliant as always’ – Aleksandra Mir

To read a press release for this book, click here.

April 08
‘Real English Tea Made Here’
Publication of a short critical essay on William S Burroughs’ early tape-recorder experiments in the April issue of The Wire.

March 08
‘Other Channels’
Specially commissioned text for the Ghost Box album release Other Channels by the Advisory Council as part of a booklet designed by Julian House.

Lectures 2008

2009-01-25T11:01:00.005Z

December 08
THE PURPLE DEATH: Further Notes on Camp and the Rise of the Lowbrow, The Bright Labyrinth, Lecture Five

MORPHOLOGY OF THE WOUND: Bodily Images of Ecstasy and Excess, The Bright Labyrinth, Lecture Four

November 08
‘No Retreat, No Surrender: Images of Ecstasy and Excess in Sport’ Joint lecture presentation with Dr Axel Vogelsang at University of Applied Sciences and Art, Institute of Design in Lucerne – containing preparatory material from ‘Morphology of the Wound’

‘Information as Art Form’ A lecture at Bern University of the Arts on the role of research and interdisciplinary practice in the use of text, music and film: an expanded version of the Walsall College lecture, including a screening of ‘SpaceBaby’, plus a presentation on the themes of ‘Welcome to Mars’ and a reading from the book. This was followed by an afternoon workshop with the students and Dr Axel Vogelsang

‘Welcome to the Labyrinth’ An informal talk given at the University of Applied Sciences and Art, Institute of Design in Lucerne, based on the first lecture in the Bright Labyrinth series exploring the digital regime, ‘assemblage critique’ and the concept of design as thought.

TOWARDS A SOCIAL HISTORY OF MACHINES: History and Hardware, The Bright Labyrinth, Lecture Three

THE FUTURE IS WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOU’RE DEAD: We Connect Marshall McLuhan with Herbert Marcuse, The Bright Labyrinth, Lecture Two

October 08
WELCOME TO THE LABYRINTH: Travels in the Digital Regime, The Bright Labyrinth, Lecture One

January 08
‘Information as Art Form’ Lecture on the use of text, music and video to Fine Art students at Walsall College

Events and Performances 2008

2009-01-24T16:54:00.010Z

December 08
‘Welcome to Mars’
Reading from Welcome to Mars with screening and electronic soundtrack at Phlight before an invited audience

November 08
‘Mondo Mancunia’
A series of performances and events curated by Graham Massey of 808 State at the Shunt Vault from November 20-23
Night #4 Biting Tongues
Night #3 Biting Tongues
Night #2 Welcome to Mars and Dr X
Night #1 Ego In Exotica Sum

‘Welcome to Mars’
Live presentation and reading at a reception at the Horse Hospital to celebrate the publication of Welcome to Mars by Strange Attractor Press
Related posts: Video of Ken Hollings reading from his book Welcome to Mars

October 08
‘The Net’
Introducing Lutz Dammbeck’s feature film The Net at the Roxy Bar and Screen, event organized by Electric Sheep magazine
‘Mambo Italiano’
Live dialogue with Francesco Adinolfi, author of Mondo Exotica at Barbican 2 Cinema, with a screening of Mario Bava’s Danger: Diabolik. Event recorded by Resonance FM for broadcast in 2009.

September 08
‘Welcome to Mars’
Reading from Welcome to Mars with screening and electronic soundtrack held at the Other Cinema in San Francisco.
‘First Love’
Reading at the Horse Hospital as part of an evening of events to celebrate its fifteenth birthday. A slightly expanded version of this story is published in early 2009.

June 08
‘Welcome to Mars’
Reading from Welcome to Mars, live electronic music by Simon James, with tape loop manipulation by Curtis James, at the Conway Hall as part of Interesting 08. This event was recorded and subsequently released on the Welcome to Mars CD given away with the first 250 copies of the book.

May 08
‘Unnatural Histories’ Curated the ‘Unnatural Histories’ event at the Bethnal Green Workingman’s Club with Mark Pilkington to complete the Rational Rec 08 season. Contributors included London Fieldworks with Steve Beard, Gary Lachman a Ghost Box and a performance of ‘Prayer to Gojira’ with KH, Oort and Bruce Woolley.

April 08
‘Memories of the Future’/‘Born Under Sputnik’
Reading and performances with the Radio Science Orchestra at the Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts, University of Bath: part one featured extracts from Welcome to Mars and the second was a revised version of the ICA Sputnik show from October 07.
‘Betamax’
Reading and presentation from London Noir with Cathiu Unsworth and Martyn Waites at Foyles Book Shop in Charing X Cross to help promote ‘Get London Reading’ week. To hear a recording of the readings, click here.

Audiovisual 2008

2009-01-24T16:29:00.009Z

December 08
‘Welcome to Mars’
Programmes 9 -12 repeated on Resonance FM
Episode 12: Teenagers from Outer Space
Episode 11: Battle for the Mind
Episode 10: Contact with Space
Episode 9: Greetings, My Friend!

November 08
‘Welcome to Mars’
Programmes 5-8 repeated on Resonance FM
Episode 8: Popular Mechanics
Episode 7: Meet the Monsters
Episode 6: Other Tongues, Other Flesh
Episode 5: Red Planet

October 08
‘Welcome to Mars’
Programmes 1-4 repeated on Resonance FM
Episode 4: Absolute Elsewhere
Episode 3: Cheapness and Splendour
Episode 2: Flying Saucers over America
Episode 1: Rebuilding Lemuria

The complete Welcome to Mars is available as a series of podcasts. To download them for free, click here.

July 08
‘All Your Tomorrows Today’
KH’s extended feature on the history of the RAND Corporation gets a repeat airing on BBC Radio 3. To hear an MP3 of programme, click here.

‘Dr X: A Version of Events’
A short film documenting various performances of this text, at the Royal Institution, the Green Room Theatre and the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester is posted on YouTube. For further information on the posting click here.
To view the ‘Skeleton Dance’ interlude from Dr X, click here.

‘Speed Data Radio’
Participated in Resonance FM’s Speed Data Radio event as part of this year’s LIFT on the South Bank.

June 08
Space Baby
First screening of the London Fieldworks short film Space Baby, scripted by KH held at the Whitechapel gallery. The film was produced by Arts Catalyst and subsequently shown at Less Remote: a conference on space and space exploration held in Glasgow in September 08. For more information on Space Baby, click on my blog post for September 4 2008
Related post: SpaceBaby Online

‘Denture Beach’/‘Heart Disease’
Two tracks by Biting Tongues are featured on the latest CD release from LTM’s Auteur Labels series, ‘New Hormones 1977-1982’ (LTMCD 2492). Alongside Buzzcocks, The Tiller Boys and Eric Random, Biting Tongues are represented by ‘Denture Beach’ from their ‘Live It’ release, plus a version of ‘Heart Disease’, recorded at the ICA on May 24, 2003. To watch footage from the ICA show click here.

Publications 2007

2009-01-24T16:00:00.007Z

March 07
‘Staring at the Sun’
Publication of a specially commissioned essay on the use of digital animation, 3D CGI and the real-time processing of sound and image in the work of Semiconductor; the text is reproduced in the booklet insert for Worlds in Flux: a retrospective collection of their work released commercially on DVD by Fatcat Records.

May 07
‘Letter from Bergen’
Report on the 2007 Borealis Festival. Held in Bergen, Norway is published in The Wire. This international festival connects film, art installations and performances together in the form of a critical narrative, including installations from Banks Violet, work by Luigi Nono and Kaija Saariaho and performances by Single Unit and Sun O)))).

‘Babylon by the Sea: A Postcard from Coney Island’
Published in the Spring 07 edition of Nude magazine, this is a first-person account of a visit to Coney Island’s legendary Boardwalk in the company of American underground filmmaker Mark Boswell and his wife Susanne.

June 07
‘Letter from San Francisco’
Report from San Francisco is published in The Wire, including an account of Morton Subotnik’s performance at the Recombinant Media Lab, the Bldgblog conference at the California College of the Arts and an encounter with experimental filmmaker Craig Baldwin at the Artists’ Television Access.

November 07
‘Everything Is Going Extremely Well’
A new, specially commissioned text appears in the Autumn/Winter 07/08 edition of Succour magazine. An experimental narrative, it retells the story of Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey from the perspective of those people immediately outside the camera’s range. The issue, themed around the future, is launched at the Whitechapel Gallery on November 8.

December 07
‘Gravity: The Eternal Countdown’
Commission from Arts Catalyst to supply a text made up of 120 entries, each of which is connected to some a disaster, mishap or policy reversal that has set back the human exploration of space. The entries, together with their specific dates, accompany documentation of Aleksandra Mir’s ‘Gravity’ installation at the Roundhouse, published by Arts Catalyst as a calendar for 2008 and launched at the ICA.

Lectures 2007

2009-01-24T15:44:00.004Z

April 07
‘Conquest of the Universe’
A specially commissioned lecture/presentation on underground film and music in New York during the early years of the 1960s at Kill Your Timid Notion, an annual three-day festival of experimental film and music performances taking place at Dundee Contemporary Arts in Scotland. Lecture held on April 15. A recording of this talk is also broadcast by Resonance FM and is currently also available as a download: to access it click here.

January 07
Lecture Eleven: CAN YOU PASS THE TURING TEST? Gender and Identity in the Digital Age, January 23

Lecture Ten: THE BRIGHT LABYRINTH: Urban Experience in the Real-Time Regime, January 17

Lecture Nine: REQUIEM FOR THE NETWORKS, January 10
(Central St Martins Lecture MACD Critical Context 06-07 series continued)

Events and Performances 2007

2009-01-24T15:38:00.005Z

October 07
‘Sputnik and Beyond’
First of two events to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Sputnik: a special screening at the ICA of archive footage, taken from David Hoffman’s feature-length documentary The Fever of 57, with a narrative written and read by Ken Hollings, together with an accompanying soundtrack performed live by Thomas Dolby, The Radio Science Orchestra and Lydia Kavina. The ICA, October 3. To watch a complete video of this performance, click here.

July 07
‘Tales of the Ratfink’
As part of the first UK screening of Ron Mann’s Tales of the Ratfink, a feature-length documentary on the life of graphic artist and custom car designer Ed Roth, KH and illustrator Savage Pencil hold a public discussion of Roth’s influence on underground culture and design. The Horse Hospital, July 27. Their conversation is later broadcast on Resonance FM.

May 07
‘The Secret Public’
To coincide with The Secret Public, a retrospective show featuring underground art made in the UK during the 1980s, KH chairs a panel discussion at the ICA with Christine Binnie of the Neo Naturists, David Dawson of the B2 Gallery and video artist Akiko Hada. May 9.

‘Dashiel Hammett Night’
KH, along with fellow contributors to the Serpents Tail anthology London Noir, presents a night of readings from the work of US crime fiction writer Dashiel Hammett. Also taking part are Cathi Unsworth, Martyn Waites, Max Decharné and the Sandy Dillon Band. The Horse Hospital, May 19

February 07
Biting Tongues Performance
The first performance with members of the original Biting Tongues since their reunion at the ICA in 2003, takes place at Islington Mill, a new gallery and performance space in Salford, near Manchester. ‘Effortless ferocity…the Tongues are back as exhilarating and urgent as ever’ The Wire.

January 07
‘Dr X’
Ken Hollings presents a reading at the Permanent Gallery, Brighton, on January 26 of ‘Dr X’: a text originally commissioned as part of a mixed-media presentation for the Royal Institution in London. The event is organized by the Hammett Story Agency with Arts Council funding; and the reading is recorded for a future download.

Rational Rec Presents ‘Rational Review of 2006’
Funded by the Arts Council, Rational Rec’s ‘Rational Review of 2006’ takes place on January 9: an annual look back at the best film, talk and music from the previous year. Taking part in the review panel are: Jason E Bowman - artist, curator, arts consultant: Ken Hollings – writer, broadcaster, lecturer Gillian Moore – head of Contemporary Culture, South Bank Centre Sally O’Reilly – art writer, critic and event organiser. Chaired by Cecilia Wee (Salon or Seminar, Resonance FM) at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, London.

Audiovisual 2007

2009-01-24T15:33:00.006Z

December 07
‘All Your Tomorrows Today’
Special feature on the history of the RAND Corporation written and presented by KH on Radio 3, produced by Mark Burman. The programme includes in-depth interviews with Paul Baran and Daniel Ellsberg and RAND’s leading expert on international terrorism Brian Jenkins. First broadcast December 21. To hear an MP3 of the programme click here.
For a post on the programme from Boing Boing, click here.
See also my blog post for Wednesday July 30, 2008 ‘RAND Corporation on Radio Three, by clicking here.

October 07
‘Born Under Sputnik’
A Strange Attractor Special broadcast on Resonance FM on the fiftieth anniversary of Sputnik’s launch, Born Under Sputnik features Ken Hollings and Thomas Dolby in conversation, discussing the influence of the world’s first artificial satellite on contemporary culture and society. Recorded at Unit X in August 07, broadcast on October 4.

February 07
‘You Can Choke Like That’
Early Biting Tongues recording, featuring cutup text and tapes by KH, is reissued on D-I-Y 80: an anthology from Soul Jazz Records, featuring contributions from Fire Engines, Buzzcocks, Thomas Leer and Throbbing Gristle.

Print Media 2006

2009-01-10T10:41:00.011Z

December 06
‘Ego In Exotica Sum: In memoriam Martin Denny 1911-2005’
Text for spoken word/audiovisual piece, performed with Graham Massey at the Green Room Theatre in Manchester on June 24, 2005, appears in Strange Attractor Journal Three from Strange Attractor Press. ‘We rob ourselves of paradise by our very presence there: to see it with our own eyes is to see it vanish before our eyes.’ A studio recording of the oration is available from SoundMuseum FM.
‘One of the most weirdly beautiful, beautifully weird magazines of the past hundred-odd years’ - The Independent on Sunday

September 06
‘Countdown Suspended: Space Soon and What Comes After’
Key note essay published as part of the programme to Space Soon: Art and Human Spaceflight, conference organized by Arts Catalyst at the Round House 9-13 September.

‘Where Are We Going? And What Are We Listening To? Merce Cunningham in Conversation, NYC July 2006’
Profile of Merce Cunningham, based on a visit to Westbeth in New York in July 2006, published in issue 271 of The Wire for September 2006

August 06
‘An Inventory of Other Islands’
Catalogue copy for Aleksandra Mir’s exhibition, Switzerland and Other Islands , at the Kunsthaus, Zurich. The text, in forty parts, is reproduced in English and German on a special foldout map, taking up over 18 A4 sides.

London Noir: Capital Crime Fiction
First UK publication by Serpents Tail of the London Noir anthology, edited by Cathi Unsworth, which includes the KH story ‘Betamax’. To order the book from Amazon click here.

April 06
‘London Noir’
First US publication by Akashic of the London Noir anthology, edited by Cathi Unsworth, which includes the KH story ‘Betamax’.

Lectures 2006

2009-01-10T10:41:00.008Z

December 06
Lecture Eight: MOVIES WON’T MATTER ANYMORE, December 6
(Central St Martins Lecture MACD Critical Context 06-07 series continued)

November 06
Lecture Seven: GODZILLA HAS LEFT THE BUILDING, November 29

Lecture Six: PRO MOD CULTURE: IN SEARCH OF VON DUTCH, November 22

Lecture Five: WELCOME TO DISTURBIA, November 15

Lecture Four: DURATION, November 8

Lecture Three: ELECTRONIC REVOLUTION, November 1
(Central St Martins Lecture MACD Critical Context 06-07 series continued)

October 06
Lecture Two: TOWARDS A SOCIAL HISTORY OF MACHINES, October 25

Lecture One: THE FUTURE IS BACK, October 18
(Central St Martins Lecture MACD Critical Context 06-07 series)

Events and Performances 2006

2009-01-10T10:40:00.007Z

September 06
‘We Are All Depraved’
Live reading of an edited version of the text ‘We Are All Depraved’
back by Oort as part of a Resonance FM live broadcast from the central hall of the Camden Roundhouse, during Arts Catalyst’s Space Soon event. September 12.

‘Tintin and the Secret of Literature’
KH in conversation with Tom McCarthy at the French Institute on the subject of Hergé's Tintin. September 13.

August 06
London Noir launch event
Contributors to London Noir, including KH, Martyn Waites, Cathi Unsworth and Max DeCharné, present readings from their work to a live electronic soundtrack provided by Dave Knight.

‘Switzerland and Other Islands’
Aleksandra Mir’s exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zurich, featuring specially commissioned set of 40 texts by KH: ‘An Inventory of Other Islands for Aleksandra Mir’. August 18 – October 8

June 06
‘2D Exegesis: Magazine publishing and the legacy of George Bataille's Documents’
As part of the exhibition ‘Undercover Surrealism’, Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor Journal, Adam Scrivener of Inventory Journal and KH discuss the legacy of Georges Bataille’s Documents in their work. ‘There is no collective consciousness - only acts of communication that acknowledge a condition of absolute isolation have any chance of survival. In a media-saturated culture, 2-D magazines maintain and create offline communities of the mind.’ Gallery 4, Hayward Gallery, June, 30.

Print Media 2005

2009-01-10T10:38:00.016Z

‘Activate Only When Absolutely Necessary: Utopian Memories in the Documentary Films of Mika Taanila’
Essay for the exhibition catalogue, Mika Taanila, Human Engineering, published by the Migros Museum Für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich.

‘Robot Power, Robot Pride: A Vindication of the Rights of Machines’ Essay for Strange Attractor Journal Two, published by Strange Attractor Press, London.
‘Entertaining, informative, evocatively scripted’ – Time Out

‘A Muscular Joy: Tod Dockstader in Conversation, Westport Connecticut April 2005’
Late-night radio mystique and the science of tape manipulation, cartoon soundtracks and computer software with one of the pioneers of electronic music in the US, originally published in The Wire, issue 256 for June 2005. To read this essay online click here.

‘King Kong Appears in Edo: A Literal Translation’
Specially commissioned essay, published in the critical anthology King Kong Cometh! edited by Paul A. Woods and published by Plexus Books, London.

‘Godzilla Has Left The Building – A Personal Reflection’
Issue 7 of Nude magazine for Winter 2005. ‘Godzilla has always been good to me over the years, the way only a bad dream can be.’

Audiovisual 2006

2009-01-10T10:38:00.012Z

Lectures 2005

2009-01-10T10:38:00.001Z

Events and Performances 2005

2009-01-10T10:37:00.005Z

June 05
‘Ego In Exotica Sum: In memoriam Martin Denny 1911-2005’
Spoken word/audiovisual piece written by Ken Hollings and Graham Massey in 2005. Oration and performance with Graham Massey and an all-star combo honouring the creator of the Exotica sound. Green Room Theatre, Manchester June 24. ‘We rob ourselves of paradise by our very presence there: to see it with our own eyes is to see it vanish before our eyes.’ To see images of ‘Ego in Exotica Sum’ at the Green Room Theatre, click here. Full text reprinted in Strange Attractor Journal Three from Strange Attractor Press. A studio recording of the oration is now available from SoundMuseum FM.

February 05
‘Welcome To Mars (Version 0.3)’
A reading based on the chronological structure of Welcome to Mars: Fantasies of Science in the American Century 1947-1959 with pre-recorded electronic score by Simon James at the Gage Festival, Hull Time Based Arts, Hull, February 1.
‘Almost halfway into the final century of the Second Millennium, United States Congress votes heavily in favour of including the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.’

Audiovisual 2005

2009-01-10T10:37:00.001Z

Events and Performances 2004

2009-01-10T10:36:00.006Z

Print Media 2004

2009-01-10T10:36:00.004Z

Lectures 2004

2009-01-10T10:36:00.003Z

Audiovisual 2004

2009-01-10T10:35:00.002Z

Print Media 2003

2009-01-10T10:35:00.001Z

Lectures 2003

2009-01-10T10:34:00.003Z

Events and Performances 2003

2009-01-10T10:34:00.001Z

Print Media 2002

2009-01-10T10:33:00.004Z

October
'Video in Arcadia Sum' - an essay on videogames and their soundtracks, published in issue #224 of The Wire

NB - this section is currently in progress

Audiovisual 2003

2009-01-10T10:33:00.002Z

Lectures 2002

2009-01-10T10:32:00.004Z

Events and Performances 2002

2009-01-10T10:32:00.003Z

Audiovisual 2002

2009-01-10T10:32:00.001Z

Print Media 2001

2009-01-10T10:30:00.021Z

Destroy All Monsters
316pp, illustrated, published by Marion Boyars.
Available from Amazon.

‘Ken Hollings’ Destroy All Monsters is a hallucinogenic spiral into future nightmare. The bastard son of Harlan Ellison, Orwell and Otomo’s Akira, it explodes with paranoia, desperation and the search for what little might be left of the human psyche after the soul has been sucked dry by technology, surveillance and hyper-violence. As visual as a graphic novel, the visions detonate the base of the brain pan, forcing the reader to fear not only the present, but the doom inducing possibilities that the immediate future will no doubt bring, as the evil of stealth technology becomes part and parcel of our day to day existence. Frightful, gruesome, much too real.’
Lydia Lunch

‘In the dusty aftermath of September 11th, writers have shown themselves to be some of the worst victims of taking-it-all-too-personally syndrome. Ken Hollings, as a rarity among them, would have a genuine right to say he saw it - or some of it - coming. Published the very week of the ‘attacks on America, Destroy All Monsters is genuinely, spookily prescient. As a novel, it is haunted by a host of literary ghosts – Gibson, Burroughs, Delillo, Ballard; as a progress report on Planet Earth, it seems to have timeslipped onto the front pages.The world has acquired quite a few new monsters, recently - and at least some of the world is set on destroying them all.
In many ways, Destroy All Monsters is a conservative, synoptic novel. A great many ‘cult’ signifiers are present and correct: Gojira movies, serial killers, Elvis Presley (in reanimated form), the President of the USA.
Yet here they are run through – one on top of the other, one becoming the other – with incredible confidence and speed: we bat around the planet, each section rarely longer than two pages – we are in Burger King in Washington, a Tokyo night-club, a theatre in Memphis, in something approximating to cyberspace. Occasionally we are bemused, but most of the time we know only too well where we are and what’s going on there.
The writing style is clean and clear. Clip after clip of 80s/90s riffs are shot off: ‘The Chanel bag was already sending out all the right signals: disposable income coupled with an uncompromising flair for the obvious.’
We read with techno-nostalgia, once again together in electric dreams: ‘A jet fighter takes off from the rolling deck of an American aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. The pilot’s face is hidden beneath a dark visor that reflects nothing but the glowing instrument panel in front of him. Lights flash, reading out the contours of enemy air space, as the plane skims low over the pollution-crowded sea...’
The novel opens, ‘It is Day 500 of Operation Desert Storm, and everything is going according to plan.’
Hollings’ thesis, explicit throughout, is that the 21st century started here: the smart bombs wised us up. ‘Desert Storm gave shape and impetus to a whole new decade.’Much of the writing feels, now, this week, historical. ‘The military were first attracted to the aesthetics of destruction without casualties as a result of watching old monster movies... Whole city blocks were demolished by no one ever died in them. Urban space itself was so carefully vectored and controlled in these films that it was possible to buy a newspaper in one part of Tokyo and read front-page accounts of the terrible destruction being wrought by giant reptiles in another without giving it a second thought.’ But Godzilla has left the building; Godzilla will not be welcome back.The monsters of the title provide the engine of the plot. On Earthquake Island a man known to us only as The Scientist has been keeping Micronosaur (the Molecule Monster), Eiga (the Dream Monster), Manta (the Giant Reptile Wing) and Gravaton (the Deep Monster) under control. But The President wants to harness their powers, to turn them into something useful, to use them militarily...‘The balance of terror. That just about summed the whole thing up. Time to move on, he thought. Just like it was the fifties all over again.’ Back to the future, indeed.’
Toby Litt

For more reviews of Destroy All Monsters, click here.

‘You Will Not Be Friendly: In the End Zone with Cabaret Voltaire from Crackdown to Code’
The forgotten future of Industrial Dance, uncensored video releases, electronic voices and The Haçienda resurgans, published in The Wire.

‘Even Their Cloud-Piercing Towers of Glass and Porcelain and Adamantine Steel…’
Echoes of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis in mass culture and pop technology from Taylorism to the last days of the Robot Disco, published in The Wire.

‘Go to Commercial’
Music in advertising from John Cage and Raymond Scott to Michael Jackson and Pepsi, published in The Wire.

‘Repetition Has A Great Annoyance Factor’
Sleeve notes for Cabaret Voltaire, The Original Sound of Sheffield ‘83-’87, Virgin CD release CD/CV5

‘Only Connect’
A specially commissioned series of conspiracy maps, linking together a sequence of thirty names to a particular historical incident, that appeared in Bizarre magazine throughout 2001.
Only Connect #1 The Kennedy Assassination
Bizarre 41, January 2001
Only Connect # 2 The Manson Murders
Bizarre 42, February 2001
Only Connect # 3 Watergate
Bizarre 43, March 2001
Only Connect #4 The Illuminati
Bizarre 44, April 2001
Only Connect # 5 The Space Brothers
Bizarre 45, May 2001
Only Connect # 6 God’s Bankers
Bizarre 46, Summer Special 2001
Only Connect #7 The Springfield Connection
Bizarre 47, June 2001

‘Toying With Happiness: An Introduction to Hjalmar Söderberg’s The Serious Game’
Essay by Elena Balzamo, translated from the French by KH and published in the English-language edition of the novel, Marion Boyars, London and New York, 2001.

Countless reviews, short features and columns appeared throughout 2001 in The Wire, Sight and Sound, Manga Max and Bizarre.

Lectures 2001

2009-01-10T10:30:00.018Z

‘But Then I’d Have To Kill You…’
A series of lectures and screenings on the strange connections behind modern conspiracies at The Lux Cinema, London, April-May 2001

Lecture One: King Kill: Kennedy and Beyond
With screenings of Bruce Connor’s Report and John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate

Lecture Two: Who Killed the Sick, Sick Sixties?
With screenings of Kenneth Anger’s Invocation of my Demon Brother and Jean-Luc Goddard’s One Plus One (Sympathy For The Devil)

Lecture Three: Secret Chiefs and Perfect Masters
With screenings of Anthony Balch’s Towers Open Fire and Robert Altman’s Secret Honor.

Lecture Four: Space Aliens Run Everything!
With screenings of Craig Baldwin’s Tribulation 99 and Cameron Menzies’ Invaders from Mars.

Note: all four of these lectures were vidoed but the current whereabouts of the discs are unknown.

Audiovisual 2001

2009-01-10T10:29:00.012Z

‘Destroy all monsters: Part One’
Written and read by Ken Hollings, produced by Simon James, for totallyradio online broadcasting.

‘Destroy all monsters: Part Two’
Written and read by Ken Hollings, produced by Simon James, for totallyradio online broadcasting.

‘The Luther Blisset Enigma’
Radio interview with presenter Brent Clough, Radio Eye, ABC Radio, Australia, broadcast March 11 2001. A video hack of KH’s remarks has been posted on YouTube as ‘Excerpts from the LB Enigma (3): Ken Hollings’ and can be found here.

Events and Performances 2001

2009-01-10T10:29:00.011Z

Night of 1000 Monsters
A special kinoKULTURE film screening, programmed and introduced by Ken Hollings Godzilla vs Destoroyah (1995), Uh-oh…Dynamo, a half-hour Powerpuff Girls adventure, Dead Duck, a screening of performance by Savage Pencil and Billy Chainsaw, filmed by Nick Abrahams, plus a reading from Destroy All Monsters,The Horse Hospital, London, September 29, 2001

‘Seriously…Vox n Roll, November 9 2001’
Reading from Destroy All Monsters with electronic effects by Simon JamesFilthy McNasty’s Bar & Whisky Café, London,

Strange Atractor: Event Number No. 1
Panel discussion on conspiracy theories and whether a little paranoia might be good for you with Jon Ronson, David V Barrett and Ken Hollings, the Horse Hospital, July 10, 2001

‘Copyright Control’
Music theatre performance for mezzo-soprano, instrumental ensemble, live electronics and video projection by Huib Emmer, libretto by KH
Libretto in six parts: ‘The Talker’, ‘No Hooks No Wires’, ‘The Trance’, ‘A Hand of Light is Reaching Out’, ‘The Voice of Stealth’, ‘Heaven Has Changed’, ‘The Talker (Reprise)’
Performed by Jannie Pranger with Ken Hollings as the voice of stealth,Touring show, the Netherlands November-December 2001

Print Media 2000

2009-01-10T10:27:00.012Z

‘Bring Me the Head of Yuri Gagarin: The Expanding Cosmologies of the Live Space Ritual’
Greatly expanded and revised version of an essay first published in the programme to the Space Music Festival held at the Korzo Theatre in Den Haag in 1999

‘Any Disease on Earth: Richard H. Kirk in conversation, January 2000’
Politics and BPMs at the dawn of the new millennium, from Cabaret Voltaire to Electronic Eye, algorithmic surveillance and covert culture. Published in the first issue of The Wire to appear in 2000.

‘Dawn of the Replicants: Luther Blisset, World Domination and the Virtual Pop Star’
Multiple personality disorders, fragmenting identities and the collapse of political power in Italy, published in The Wire.

Countless reviews, short features and columns appeared throughout 2000 in The Wire, Sight and Sound, Manga Max and Bizarre.

Events and Performances 2000

2009-01-10T10:27:00.009Z

Oedipus Rex
‘Mickey and Walt: One Sick Motherfucker’, a text in thirteen divisions and a Chorus commissioned by Mangina for video projection as part of their production of the Stravinksy/Cocteau opera Oedipus Rex, staged at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, in London, October 31.

Lectures 2000

2009-01-10T10:27:00.008Z

‘The Cosmic Interference Lecture’
A talk on Sun Ra, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Werner Von Braun, presented at the Lux Cinema in London. With screenings of Space is the Place and Derek Jarman’s In The Shadow of the Sun.

Print Media 1999

2009-01-10T10:26:00.008Z

‘The Timeless Power of the Divine: Karlheinz Stockhausen in Conversation, March 1999’
Profile of Karlheinz Stockhausen, based on a visit to the composer’s home in Kurten, outside Cologne, first published in issue of 184 of The Wire. The full text of the interview is available on the official Stockhausen Verlag website. A personal account of the visit can be found by clicking here. A full transcript of the original recorded conversation between KH and Stockhausen has also been posted on the Wire website – to access it, click here.

‘Death From Above: A Brief History of Helicopters and Modern Music’
Rotor blades, electronic music and the regime of noise: connecting Abba to Apocalypse Now the hard way. Published in The Wire, December 1999. In 2002 this is piece was made available in a broadcast version from Totallyword Radio, read by KH with production and sound design by Simon James.

‘The Future from Yesterday: A Cosmic Encounter with Peter Thomas’
Veteran German film and TV composer Peter Thomas reflects on his life and career: from big band swing in Berlin’s American sector to deep space and beyond. Published in the The Wire.

‘On Having Nothing To Say About Akira’
How themes of power and control in Katsuhiro Otomo’s 2000-page manga epic were cut to fit the movie screen. Published in Manga Max magazine.

‘The Final Programme: Carl Craig in Conversation’
Detroit Techno, abandoned architecture, radical design and the strange fate of Afro-American horror movie characters. Published in The Wire.

‘Welcome To the Live Space Ritual: The Secret Cosmologies of Sun Ra and Karlheinz Stockhausen’
Key note essay published in the catalogue for the Space Music Festival at the Korzo Theatre in Den Haag, The Netherlands.

Countless reviews, short features and columns appeared throughout 1999 in The Wire, Sight and Sound, Manga Max and Bizarre.

Audiovisual 2000

2009-01-10T10:26:00.003Z

Events and Performances 1999

2009-01-10T10:25:00.004Z

‘Glorious Stranger (Female Version)’
Text by Ken Hollings, music by Huib Emmer, vocal performance by Doug Wimbish.First performed at the Paradiso, Amsterdam, broadcast on national radio and TV by VPRO.

‘Glorious Strange (Male Version)’
Text by Ken Hollings, music by Huib Emmer, vocal performance by Jannie Pranger.Touring stage show, the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa and North America.

Lectures 1999

2009-01-10T10:25:00.003Z

Print Media 1998

2009-01-10T10:24:00.014Z

‘I am Singing’
Extract from the unpublished novel The Songs of Yma Sumac in Issue 41 of Gargoyle Magazine. This is the opening sequence from the work and is one of only two extracts currently in print.

‘Welcome to Earthquake Island’
Edited version of ‘Tokyo Must Be Destroyed’ published to accompany a season of disaster movies organized by Aleksandra at the Oslo film festival, Norway, 1998.

‘We Are All Depraved’'
Wij Allen Zijn Verdorven: Criswell Voorspelt, Deel Twee: Een naschrift voor detoekomst. Dead Men in Cars Mix. Complete text of the touring show translated into Dutch by Attention Translation Agency, Den Haag and published in an illustrated booklet by Huis A/D Werf in association with the Stichtung Gaudemus to accompany the live tour of Holland with Huib Emmer, 1998. This and other texts are still available from the CTHEORY website , click here for more details.

‘Apocalypse Hawaiian Style’
John Cage plays South Pacific for the US armed forces, Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman at Bikini Atoll, Les Baxter, Nelson Riddle and Offshore America, the rise of global Elvis. Published in the August issue of The Wire.

‘Godzilla: Mon Amour: in loving memory, 1954-1998’
The origins, film career and death of Godzilla, plus a brief guide to his entire movie appearances to date. Published in the May issue of Sight and Sound.

‘Babylon Regained’
New York, ‘city of orgies’: Jack Smith, Tony Conrad, LaMonte Young, Kenneth Anger, Mick Jagger, Angus MacLise, Andy Warhol. Published in the November issue of The Wire.

‘Space People’
An extract from We Are All Depraved, reproduced in Fringecore issue 4 to accompany the touring version of the essay as a live show featuring spoken word, live electronics and video projections.

Numerous reviews and short articles were also published by Sight and Sound, The Wire and Neon magazine during 1998.

Audiovisual 1999

2009-01-10T10:24:00.013Z

‘Glorious Stranger (Female Version)’
Live recording featured on VPRO’s Moondive: Musicians On A Mission 1 CD release, VPRO EW9954, recorded live at the Paradiso, Amsterdam. Text delivered in the recording by Doug Wimbish. A studio of recording of ‘Glorious Stranger (Male Version)’ was later released on the CD Modern Compositions (IZKI 001) in 2006.

Lectures 1998

2009-01-10T10:24:00.011Z

‘Mad City Monster Love: Japanese Manga from Ground Zero to Total Dispersal’
Lecture delivered at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton as part of a London Film Festival screening of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Spriggan.

Events and Performances 1998

2009-01-10T10:23:00.007Z

‘We Are All Depraved’'
Spoken word show with live electronic music and video projections, organized by Huis A/D Werf in association with Stichtung Gaudemus. Electronic music by Huib Emmer. We Are All Depraved toured February and March of 1998 with performances in Utrecht, Nijmegen, Rotterdam, Maastricht, Den Haag, Groningen, Amsterdam and Delft.
‘Zap culture for the initiated...hilarious’ De Volkstrant

‘I am Singing’
Reading at the Cobden Club of an extract from the unpublished novel The Songs of Yma Sumac to luanch Issue 41 of Gargoyle Magazine.

‘The Dogma Oath of Chastity’
Panel discussion with members of the Dogma 95 group at the National Film Theatre before the first UK screening of Lars Von Trier’s The Idiots at the London Film Festival.

Audiovisual 1998

2009-01-10T10:23:00.006Z

‘The Devil’s Juke Box’
Worked as consultant on this documentary about satanic influences in western music, commissioned by ZDF and Antenne 2 for a special ‘Night of Devils’, broadcast in the summer of 1998.

Print Media 1997

2009-01-10T10:22:00.005Z

‘Tokyo Must Be Destroyed: Dreams of Tall Buildings and Monsters, Images of Cities and Monuments’
Essay published in Digital Delirium, edited by Arthur and Marilouise Kroker (St Martins Press, London, New York 1997)
‘One of the few examples of the theory of deconstruction brought lightly into play in an elegant discursive manner’ Toronto Globe and Mail
This and other texts are still available from the CTHEORY website, click here for more details.

Lectures 1997

2009-01-10T10:22:00.001Z

Audiovisual 1997

2009-01-10T10:21:00.004Z

‘J is for Japan’
Worked as consultant for the sequence on Godzilla in the ‘Broken Homes’ episode of Clive Barker’s A-Z of Horror for BBC2 television.

Events and Performances 1997

2009-01-10T10:21:00.002Z

Print Media 1996

2009-01-10T10:20:00.002Z

Lectures 1996

2009-01-10T10:20:00.001Z

Events and Performances 1996

2009-01-10T10:19:00.003Z

Alessandro Jodorowsky in Conversation
In memory of Dr Tim Leary, who had died the previous night, KH and Jodorowsky discuss film, theatre and madness at the ICA cinema as part of a weekend of events devoted to the work of Antonin Artaud and Jean Genet. A video of this encounter exists in the ICA archives.

Audiovisual 1996

2009-01-10T10:19:00.001Z

Print Media 1995

2009-01-10T10:18:00.006Z

‘We Are All Depraved: Criswell Predicts Your Next Ten Years 1995-2005’
Essay commissioned for the CTHEORY website. For the complete text click here.

‘Criswell Predicts: Lost Voices from A Forgotten Future 1956-1959’
Essay published in Tijdkring, a volume accompanying the CIM Festival, Den Haag, The Netherlands, 1995. For the complete text, click here.

‘Tokyo Must Be Destroyed: Dreams of Tall Buildings and Monsters, Images of Cities and Monuments’
Full text of essay published in Volume 18, Numbers 1-3 of the Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

‘Dreams of Tall Buildings and Monsters’
An edited version of ‘Tokyo Must Be Destroyed’, published in Anime FX Magazine New Series 5. For the complete text, click here.

‘In the Slaughterhouse of Love’
Published in the collection My Mother, Madame Edwarda and The Dead Man by Georges Bataille, Marion Boyars, London and New York, reprinted 1995, 1996, 2000, 2003 and 2006

‘Georges Bataille and Divinus Deus’ by Yukio Misihima
Translated from the Japanese by KH with Akiko Hada, published in the collection My Mother, Madame Edwarda and The Dead Man by Georges Bataille, Marion Boyars, London and New York, reprinted 1995, 1996, 2000, 2003 and 2006

Lectures 1995

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‘Criswell Predicts’
Lecture/reading delivered at the CIM Festival, Den Haag, The Netherlands, 1995. For the complete text, click here.

Events and Performances 1995

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Audiovisual 1995

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