Click on the links below the individual articles to download / view as either a PDF or text file.
Variant
7 Winter 1998/99
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Editorial
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Tales of the Great Unwashed - Ian
Brotherhood
A masterful satire on the pomposity and plagiarism of a particular Scottish
writer - here as 'Bill Mantovani'. This episode spirals inward
until the entire pub is stolen - on the way throwing out metaphors damning
the attempts to portray members of Scottish culture as if they were specimens.
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Politics of Friendship - Ewan
Morrison
Morrison reviews the latest writings of Jaques Derrida.
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Creative Music in a Plain Brown Box -
David Thompson
A short review of an underground music outlet which seeks to by-pass the
hype and marketing all too redolent of the mass-market music companies.
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Good News: The Glasgow University Media Group
- William Clark & IanBrotherhood
This takes the form of an introduction and short history of the Glasgow
Media Group followed by an interview with Greg Philo, one of the main
instigators of the research group since the mid-seventies. The interview
touched on the 'cultural compliance' of sociology and its failure
to address social realities.
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Siting Belfast: Context, Audience & the Symbolic
Economy of the City - Maeve Connolly
Taking redevelopment as an attempt to promote an idealised version of
a city - and something of a hidden agenda - Connolly assesses a site specific
art project.
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Comic & Zine Reviews - Mark
Pawson
Pawson reviews a number of hard to get comics somewhat in the tradition/genre
of the American Underground of the sixties - most of which chart
new territory in graphic art with great humour and energy.
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Another Story of Art Development -
Marhsall Anderson
Anderson presents a detailed history of the development of Dundee Contemporary
Arts. He traces the origins of the proposal as an artists resource and
its 'highjacking' as an adjunct to corporate inward investment
and self interest.
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EV+A - Orla
Ryan
Ryan reviews one of Ireland's more adventurous and on-going
public art projects, giving detailed analysis of several exhibits and
an insight into the aims and objectives of the project.
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Volcano! - Stefan
Szczelkun
London's widespread and highly adventurous underground film festival.
Volcano draws together a range of smaller independent groups into a celebration
of the medium and the community.
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Photographs from an undeclared war -
Terry Delaney
This is an expanded review of Astrid Prole's book of photographs,
which document her involvement with the German political group the RAF.
Delaney delves into the period with compassion, revealing the fractures
within the society and suggesting a picture of a quasi-civil war. The
article is heavily illustrated.
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Ripples in the Vacuum: experimental electronic music
and audio arts at ISEA98 - Alice
Angus
A review of the experimental sound works of the International Symposia
on Electronic Art.
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Alternative, Mainstream, Mainstream Alternatives:
The Viability of theartist-led initiative - Round
table discussion
A widespread discussion on recent developments in the Temple Bar area
of Dublin. The discussion presents several different and contrasting
voices.
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'I was a ball of nerves and sleepless paranoia...'
- William Clark
This is a overview of the work of Hunter S. Thompson in the context of
Terry Gilliam's film of his most famous book, 'Fear and Loathing
in Las Vegas'. It touches on the American 'counter culture'
and Thompson's socio-political and investigative journalism.
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New Labour, the Media and the British Secret State
- Robin Ramsay
An in-depth and valuable insight into the relationship between the present
government and the secret state they find themselves 'masters'
of. The article re-traces the history of the infamous 'Zinoviev Letter'
of the twenties and the revisionist tendencies it has inspired in the
mainstream press.
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