Timo Andres
Publicists, Manifesto Pushers, Propagandists | What Happened to the Avant-Garde?
Alphonse Pierre, Becca Rothfeld, Dean Kissick, Eugene Lim, Frank Guan, Gabriel Kuri, hannah baer, Jamie Hood, Liza Batkin, Lucy Sante, Marta Figlerowicz, Melissa Anderson, Timo Andres
It’s commonplace to note that sociopolitical upheaval and artistic experimentation often flourish side by side. But today — despite an alleged “polycrisis” — new modes of cultural production don’t seem to be emerging. Three years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent George Floyd rebellion, the arts seem stagnant and stubbornly centralized: franchise fare dominates at the box office; literary output is hampered by monopolized publishers; even...
A Gradually Expanding Surface
Timo Andres
One of the least popular credits to my name on Apple Music is a track called “Prelude to ‘The Mystery Cheese-Ball,’” which was composed by the American experimental musician Joseph Byrd. By “composed,” I mean Byrd devised the simple instructions that constitute the piece: an unspecified ensemble blows up balloons, then releases the air from them as slowly as possible, in a chorus of squeaks and whines. The piece concludes...
