Contents

News UK arts news

5

New works Michelle de Kretser

Excerpt of new her book The Lost Dog

16

Features Sean O’Brien

Social, cultural & political

10

The Vienna Lit Festival 2008

When we teamed up with Vienna Lit

Stella Duffy

Diversity, creativity & charisma

Strangely Familiar

Journeys through Leeds: 1969 - 2008

Double Agent

Exploring ethics, performance & authenticity

The Design Awards

Design in the 21st Century

13

14

22

26

28

Nigel Hall

Sculpture + drawings 1965 - 2008

32

Jerwood Contemporary Painters 34 Twenty artists with great futures

Jamie Lidell

Funk, soul and rhythm Tall Firs

The spectre of the second album

Merz

On the go, moving with the times

36

38

40

Surrounded

More than harmless beauty My Brother Is An Only Child

Family crisis, revolution and conflict

XXY

Gender, identity and inequality

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42

45

Hull International Short Film Festival 46 Exposing the talent of the short film Belarus Free Theatre 49 Performing for freedom of speech

Live On Stage Spring 2008

Theatre round-up

Reviews Books

Music

Aesthetica 

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17

37

14 Stella Duffy

28

The Design Awards

46

Glimmer: Hull Short Film Festival

The Aesthetica team are:

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Interns Samantha Noakes, Rachel Nardiello, Beth Underdown, Rachel Booth, Neale Long, Belle Crawford, Pauline Bache.

With thanks to Deborah Ellis: Former Development Officer

Advertisement enquiries contact Chloéé Doyle 0844 568 2001 chloe@aestheticamagazine.com

Distributed by Post Scriptum Distribution and Marketing Service. Tel 020 8526 7779.

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Double Agent

36

Jamie Lidell

49 Belarus Free Theatre

Aesthetica Magazine is trade marked worldwide. © Aesthetica Magazine Ltd 2008. All work is copyrighted to the author or artist. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without permission from the publisher. Published by Aesthetica.

ISSN 1743-2715.

Aesthetica Magazine PO Box 371 York YO23 1WL, UK 01904 527560 info@aestheticamagazine.com www.aestheticamagazine.com

Cover image: A collage of press photography from articles in this issue of Aesthetica Magazine. Please see individual articles for image credits. news

Futuresonic 2008

A festival of art, music and ideas

Futuresonic provides a cutting edge showcase for the arts

Returning for its 12th year, Futuresonic, Manchester’s acclaimed festival of art, music and ideas, occupying the orbits of both music and digital culture, announces its boldest and most extensive programme to date. Futuresonic 2008 will transform the city of Manchester into a space of experimentation. Futuresonic 2008 continues to challenge expectations about what a festival can be. The unique formula of art, music and ideas has won Futuresonic international acclaim; 2008’s cutting-edge line-up will place the festival at the forefront of cultural innovation worldwide. The events will have a lively open and participatory form, and will feature leading figures developing the next generation of social software. Making rare UK appearances will be Richard Stallman founder of the Free Software Movement, and music and media futurist Gerd Leonhard. Plus, leading artists from the music and art strands will talk exclusively about their work. Futuresonic ART will be the first major exhibition to present a comprehensive and creative exploration of social networking. It will unveil many world firsts and new works

by leading artists including Thompson and Craighead — whose digital installations and animations (recently shown on Channel 4) question how live networks like the web change the way we understand the world — and Grennan & Sperandio’s Rubbing Shoulders, which is the winner of the £5,000 Futuresonic 2008 Art Award Commission, supported by Piccadilly Partnership, at various venues and unexpected spaces across the city. The world-renowned music strand is proud to present The RZA as Bobby Digital — the genius behind Wu-Tang Clan and producer of soundtracks for Kill Bill and Ghost Dog — headlining a celebration of the creative spirit and experimentation in hip-hop today. Plus a showcase of crossover sounds mixing countless genres and a multitude of influences in an overview of international mavericks, risk-takers, boundary-breakers and radical music-makers at over 30 venues citywide. Continuing with “The Social” theme, Futuresonic will be “freeing” up a space in the city and creating new interesting places for social interaction over the festival period. Located on the city’s Oxford Road corridor, festival-goers will find open air stages and

Jan & Emily Dixon, Futuresonic.

unique projects such as a sound-system that would rival any major club, in a family caravan. Futuresonic will again this year encourage musicians, artist groups, promoters and event organisers to stage autonomous events, forming the Futuresonic’s strand, which creates more interesting ways to socialise. For more details please visit www.futuresonic.com.

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