Issue Three
APRIL 2023
Issue Three arrives in fuchsia. In its pages: medieval wind power, Forensic Architecture, Climate commentary as tragedy & farce, fashionable fascism, Ukrainian jokes, romance in Kuala Lumpur, words and worlds found in translation. Who guards the dream of Europe?
Borrowed time is borrowed money
« We’re borrowing money from Germany, and nothing with ‘borrowed’ in the name sells. »〖 Found in translation 〗
How to people a landscape
On Cyril Schäublin’s Unrueh (2022), cinema & scale. « No other film has so resized me. »
Read between the stripes
How do Swedes perceived striped shirts? Great question.〖 Found in translation 〗
The cemetery-goer
On the travels of Karl-Markus Gauß, and the unlikely guardians of the dream of Europe.
Panties of the people
The hall burst into laughter. I was left completely puzzled.〖 Found in translation 〗
Overalls & eyeglasses
The glasses looked surprisingly like the ones in my Facebook profile.〖 Found in translation 〗
The Mass of Mies
« Less is more »? The scale and shape of his body gave the architect Mies van der Rohe an unequaled weight and architectural authority.
Beamer, Dressman, Bodybag
On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish & global Englisch. « My own language, made camp. »
Judge a book by its covers
The task is to hold your attention for more than three seconds.〖 Found in translation 〗
Doom is in the details
Floods, hailstorms, plague, fire, children lost on a mountain or trapped for years in a ruined villa. On the stories of Adalbert Stifter.
« droid » ➞ « druid »
The translator had probably not been familiar with Star Wars.〖 Found in translation 〗
An axe to grind should make you sharper
Forensic Architecture charts state-organized crimes, genocide and other disasters in three dimensions. « Flat maps can’t convey the politics of water and shit. »
« Bidoon » ➞ « Bedouin »
A violent mistranslation I still find amusing was with a poem titled 1965.〖 Found in translation 〗
Perhentian Sunrise
A story about romance. « The eve of a suitor’s arrival, bigger than Christmas or birthday, I tell you. »
The pulverization of memory
Write your memoir in a hostile tongue. On Marina Jarre, from Latvia to Italy and back.
Tragedy & farce in climate commentary
« We are fucked » vs. « It’s not too late ». The Club of Rome’s Earth for All offers a burst of stubborn optimism. But when does stubborn optimism become cruel optimism?
The invention of austerity
Dramatic economic inflations have punctuated twentieth-century political history. Is austerity a class strategy?
The inborn germ
Why death? Who or what dies? Philosophers tend not to explain, but to justify. When do such questions become biological questions? Does it help?