Join us for an exciting evening of readings, music and more to celebrate the launch of The Posthumanist Issue 2 “Rhythms / Rhythmen".
The Posthumanist is a bi-annual, bi-lingual (English and German) interdisciplinary magazine featuring art, design, technology and writing.
Anna Nagele (founding editor) will introduce the magazine; this will be followed by a performance by Frank Wasser (editor), a musical reading of "Bach's Chaconne: a study for violin and voice" by Gertrude Gibbons with live violin by Robert Bates, a reading by Helene Schulze and a film-screening of the short film “A Sanctuary in Our Mind” by Asako Ujita, Bella Howard and Lena Rissmann.
The Posthumanist explores alternatives to understanding the human as separate from nature. Each issue invites its readers to imagine what the future of living together on planet earth could be when human exceptionalism is called into question. The theme “Rhythms" emerged from concerns around how technological rhythms are interfering with ‘natural’ rhythms, and how this is reinforcing nature-culture divides. Contributions from internationally renowned artists, researchers and writers explore sound as world-building, circadian rhythms for interspecies translation and the inherent exploitation of mechanical modes of production.
Anna Nagele is founding-editor of The Posthumanist magazine. She is currently completing her PhD in computer science at Queen Mary University of London and is an associate lecturer in design management at the London College of Communication. Anna's research is concerned with smart wearable devices as social agents, specifically wearable sleep-trackers. She is exploring alternatives to human-centred design paradigms in the development of end-user devices.
Frank Wasser is an artist and writer from Dublin, Ireland based in London. He is currently completing his DPhil at the University of Oxford. Wasser's research regularly concerns the co-option of artistic research and forms into wider societal frameworks. His research takes the forms of performance, text, moving image and sculpture. Wasser has exhibited internationally and he is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland. Wasser is an associate lecturer in Fine art and critical Studies at London Metropolitan University.
Gertrude Gibbons is a writer based in London. Recent work appears in The Theatre Times, NERO Magazine and Fortnightly Review. She privately teaches violin and in 2021 released her second novel, The Silent Violinist. She co-edits and designs Soanyway online magazine. Robert Bates is a violinist currently studying at the Royal Northern College of Music. He plays in various orchestras and chamber ensembles and has performed at venues including The National Theatre, The Royal Albert Hall and the Bridgewater Hall. Robert has recently launched a local community music festival, Lymm Chamber Music.
Helene Schulze is a researcher exploring the contributions of seed savers, particularly of migrant heritage, to urban crop diversity and the more just, resilient and joyful urban food futures these practices might open up. She is part of the collective behind the London Freedom Seed Bank and is interested in the ways that attention to seed and their keepers might transform our relationships to ourselves, each other and more-than-human others.
“A Sanctuary in Our Mind” is the first collaboration of the three artists Asako Ujita, Bella Howard and Lena Rissmann. Asako is a Japanese filmmaker with a practice centred around history and archive work – of her personal family and of East Asia. Bella is a British visual artist who primarily works with text and film. She currently pursues the MA Art Theory at Central Saint Martins. Lena is a writer from Germany with a passion for film – she is currently studying the MA Innovation Management at Central Saint Martins.
