Ken Hollings
PB 336pp, £14.99
210mm x 148mm, Illustrated
ISBN: 978-1-907222-184
Ken Hollings is a master at connecting the dots between avant garde art history, outré culture and weird science. DAVID PESCOVITZ, BOING BOING
The path to the real 21st century is here somewhere, if only we can find the thread. MARK FISHER
Reality is now a videogame that runs itself… not even the Minotaur is safe inside his Labyrinth.
The Bright Labyrinth is a subtle and sometimes disturbing account of how technology has impacted upon human culture. Offering a theoretical map for the future develop- ment of communication design, The Bright Labyrinth draws upon architecture and film, avant-garde art and critical theory, military strategy and machine intelligence to guide the reader through the Digital Regime that has shaped a century of human creativity and thought.
Inside The Bright Labyrinth you will encounter Edison’s talking dolls, the dream archi- tecture of world fairs and movie sets, Japanese comic books, early super- computers, sex researchers, zombies, assassins, monsters and ghosts.
Ken Hollings reveals how our relationship with media and machines is far more dynamic, unstable and stimulating than we have previously allowed ourselves to believe. The Digital Regime throws long shadows over our past; and it is only by look- ing deeply into these shadows that we can begin to understand the rapid changes taking place all around us.
In this deftly weaved dreamwork, Ken Hollings shows that the 21st century has yet to really begin. Our contemporary malls and emporia are but pale shadows of the palaces of desire dreamt up in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the best guides to what Hollings calls the ‘digital regime’ turn out to be old prophets and provocateurs. Yet The Bright Labyrinth makes us hear these old voices with new ears… MARK FISHER
One of the most thought-provoking, out-there thinkers on technology and the human condition I have ever come across. Ken Hollings makes Clay Shirky look like a broken automaton. BECKY HOGGE
