Ark Audio

In this episode of ark books talks, Frida invites Tomek, Clara and Arshia to discuss the Greenlandic book Crimson by Niviaq Korneliussen ! Tune in for a conversation about sexuality, gender identity, and Tomeks refusal to construct long sentences! Ark Books Talks is conducted by Frida Hammershøy and María González. Thanks to Tais Abrahamson for the music!

First Ark Books Talks of the year, where Anabel, Emma, Frida and María discuss Dogs of Summer, written by Andrea Abreu, translated from Spanish by Julia Sanches. Ark Books Talks is conducted by Frida Hammershøy and María González. Sound edit by Macon Holt. Thanks to Tais Abrahamson for the music!

It took us a while but Ark Books Talks is here again discussing The Bricks that Built the Houses by Kae Tempest. Paul, Will, Frida and María have a nice conversation about it. Listen listen! Ark Books Talks is conducted by Frida Hammershøy and María González. Thanks to Tais Abrahamson for the music!

Ark Books Talks is back after the summer break and this time Ayla, Tom, Frida and María discuss After the Sun, written by Jonas Eika, translated from Danish by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg and published by Lolli Editions. Ark Books Talks is conducted by Frida Hammershøy and María González. Thanks to Tais Abrahamson for the music!

In this new episode of Ark Books Talks Will, Kajsa, Frida and María discuss Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters and with it many topics as gender, motherhood, adulthood and life. Ark Books Talks is conducted by Frida Hammershøy and María González. Thanks to Tais Abrahamson for the music!

Ark podcast is back. Frida, Franek and Maria discuss Delta of Venus, a collection of 15 erotica short stories written by Anaïs Nin in 1940 and published in 1977.

On this episode, the final episode of the ark audiobooks club, for now, the gang talk about “Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl”, by Andrea Lawlor. The novel follows the story of Paul/Polly Polydoris, a queer film student in Iowa in the early 1990s, who just so happens to be able to entirely change his physical gender expression by force of will alone. The story follows Paul through his sexual escapade, through a romance in a lesbian collective in Provincetown and trying to work out what exactly his deal is in San Francisco. All the while, the rolling tragedy of the AIDS crisis looms, alt-rock on the radio and Gender Trouble on the syllabus. Here to about the book this time are Jimmy Guariento, Cecilie Louise Kjølholt and one final time Macon Holt and your host Giovanna Alesandro. Thanks for listening to us chat about books for the last four and a half years!

On this podcast, you will a recording of an event we held back in August to celebrate the release of the English translation of Johanna Bille’s Novel, Elastic, from Lolli Editions. You will hear readings from both the Danish and English versions of the novel and a conversation between the author her translator Sheri Hellberg. Enjoy!

On this podcast, you will hear a reading/performance by New York-based writer and performer J. P. Slote of extracts from three plays from the recently published collection "Loretta Auditorium Presents The Body of Loretta" from Fly by night press The performance contains graphic depictions and descriptions of sexual violence throughout. For a full discussion of the themes explored in this work, you can find an interview with J. P. Slote at arkbooks.dk

On this podcast, you will hear a recording of an event to celebrate the release of Danish literary critic and cultural theorist Mikkel Krase Frantzen’s first book in English, "Going Nowhere, Slow: The Aesthetics and Politics of Depression", from Zero Books. Joining Frantzen for the discussion were the Artist and activist Jakob Jakobsen and Ida Bencke from the curatorial collective, The Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology. Hosted by Macon Holt

This month on the ark audio book club, we are revisiting an old flame with the new novel "The Topeka School" by Ben Lerner. Lerner’s first novel, "Leaving the Atocha Station", was the book started this crazy show so in many ways this is something of special occasion. In The Topeka School, Adam Gordan of the Atocha stations is back and this time we are learning about his upbringing with his Psychologist parents at the eponymous research and treatment facility in the small Kansas city. Told from the perspectives of Adam, his father Jonathan and his Mother Jane, the novel is exploration both of the formation of this character and the complex historical entanglements that an upbring entails, from youthful hijinks to developmental psychology, from New york subversives to midwestern values, from the fringes of the Westboro Baptist church to the exclusive debating clubs for future politicians. The novel explores the complexities of living in our world in classic Lerner style by excavating the disjunctions of language and action the stories we produce to square the circles. Talking about the book are long-time friend of the pod, Franek Korbanski, returning champ and Lerner scholar, Charlie Cassarino and of course, the people started the podcast all those years ago, Giovanna Alessandro and Macon Holt. From Granta Books.

This month on the ark audio book club, the gang talk about A. M. Homes controversial novel, The End of Alice. The novel is a character study of a convicted pedophile and child murderer as he reflects over his life in prison. When he starts receiving letters from a bored college student who dreams of seducing the young boy who lives next door to her parent's house, he seizes the opportunity to bring some else into his world. However, all may not be as it seems. Not a great book. This episode features Macon Holt, Frida Hammershøy, Charlie Cassarino and your host Giovanna Alesandro.

This month on the ark audio book club, we discussed the mid-20th Century, Japanese surreal folk horror novel, "The Woman in the Dunes" by Kobo Abe. It is the story of an amateur entomologist, who is tricked by some villagers into becoming their prisoner in a giant sandpit where he must shovel sand with the eponymous woman. On the podcast this month are Macon Holt, Josephine Leviné, Emma Aggersbo, and your host is Carlie Cassarino.

This month on the ark audio book club, we discussed the debut novel from Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong, “On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous”. The novel is narrated by Little Dog, a Vietnamese refugee who grew up in the United States as a letter to his mother, who’s English comprehension is pretty limited. In the letter, he excavates his childhood, adolescent and emerging sexuality while exploring the communicative limitations of formal experimentation and beautiful writing. Discussing the novel this month are Charlie Cassarino, Sheri Helberg and Emilie Bang-Jensen with host, Macon Holt.

This month on the ark audio book club, we discuss the unhappy lives of the Grimes sisters in Richard Yates modern classic of American aspirational despair, "The Easter Parade". Featuring Emma Aggersbo Tomel Chwałek, Macon Holt and your host, Giovanna Alesandro.

In this Podcast, you will hear a wonderfully concise talk from philosopher, Todd May, the former philosophical advisor to the sitcom The Good Place, on the tricky and alluring topic of the ontology of Gillies Deleuze in his work Difference and repetition. And the illuminating Q&A that followed I screwed up pressing the record button so it kind of starts in media res but all you really missed is some biting political satire from me and Professor May outlining just how tricky Deleuze can be to understand. The rest is intact. If you like the podcast, please consider leaving us a rating or review on iTunes and subscribing so other people can find us more easily.

In this podcast, you will hear a presentation from the plant philosopher, Michael Marder on what plants can teach us about political organization and resistance. And a presentation from the Danish art/philosophy and activist group, Mycelium on how they use similar but different principles in their work and the lively Q&A that followed If you like the podcast, please consider leaving us a rating or review on iTunes and subscribing so other people can find us more easily.

This month on the ark audio book club, we dive into a work experimental affect theory fictocriticism with "The Hundreds" by the literary scholar, Lauren Berlant, and anthropologist, Kathleen Stewart. Talking about the book this month are Tomel Chwałek, Sheri Helberg and Giovanna Alesandro and your host is Macon Holt.

This month we have read “Convenience Store Woman” by Sayaka Murata, her 10th book and her first novel to be translated into English and now Danish too. The Novel to the story of Keiko, a woman out of sorts from the world who has learned not to trust her instincts. Thus she has found sanctuary from the adult world by working in a convenience story store, a place in which your every utterance come from a rule book. For 18 years this has gone fine but its starting to wear thin with the rest of her network, which she only really has to keep up appearances and pass the time while not at work. To fix this she resolves to get together with another social misfit, Shiraha, to appear more normal to the outside world. But this threatens to take her away from her beloved convenience store. Talking about the book this month are Jiri Chabera, Frida Hammershøy and of course Giovanna Alesandro. Hosted by Macon Holt.

This month on the ark audio book club the gang discuss the debut short story collection by the author of the viral hit story "Cat Person", Kristen Roupenian, "You Know You Want This". The collection is an exploration of the miscommunicated, frustrated and perverse desires the American middle class. It's funny and uncomfortable reading but does it have something new to say about this well-trodden ground? On the panel this month are Macon Holt, Charlie Cassarino, Frida Hammershøy and host Giovanna Alesandro.

This Month, the Ark Audio Book Club discuss Ottessa Moshfegh's second novel, "My Year of Rest and Relaxation". The novel is the story of an attractive, wealthy young woman whose feelings of disaffection, alienation and nihilism, not to mention old fashioned familial trauma, are so overwhelming she decides she needs to sleep for a year. It's the end of the year 2000 in New York and unbeknownst to everyone, the world in which this makes sense is coming to an end. This month on the panel are Ebba Wester and Giovanna Alesandro with your host Macon Holt. They are spoiling from the start.

In the final ark audio book club of 2018, the Ark Audio Book Club Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard's advice on how to get out of a relationship without dumping anyone, "Repetition". But this short philosophical novella has so much more to say about the (im)possibility of consistency and identity in a world that is too interesting to stay the same. This month on the panel are Charlie Cassarino, Sheri Helberg, Macon Holt, and your host is Giovanna Alessandro

This month, the ark audio book club discuss Virginia Woolf's classic modernist novel of gender shifting, genre defying, identity questioning, time warping, language inventing and form defining, "Orlando: A Biography". Featuring Frederikke Nøhr Hemmingsen Josephine Lund Leviné and hosted by Macon Holt.

Here is the audio from our evening of conversation with art historian and cultural critic Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen to mark the release of his new collection of essays, "After the Great Refusal". "After the Great Refusal" offers a Western-Marxist reading of contemporary art focusing on the continued presence (or absence) of the avant-garde’s transgressive impulse. Taking art’s ability to contribute to a potential radical social transformation as its point of departure, Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen analyses the relationship between the current neoliberal hegemony and contemporary art, including relational aesthetics and interventionist art, new institutionalism and post-modern architecture. Mikkel Bolt Rassmusen is an art historian and cultural critic. He is Associate Professor at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, and is co-editor of the journals K&K and Mr. Antipyrine. He is the author of many books in Danish and two previous books in English: Playmates and Playboys at a Higher Level: J.V. Martin and the Situationist International (Sternberg Press S.À.R.L., 2014) and Crisis to Insurrection (Minor Compositions, 2015). He has two forthcoming books in English from Zero Books: "After the Great Refusal" and "Trump's Counter-Revolution". He has published articles about anti-capitalist activism, the revolutionary tradition, and the Situationist International, in journals such as e-flux journal, Multitudes, Rethinking Marxism, Texte zur Kunst, and Third Text. He has co-edited Totalitarian Art and Modernity (Aarhus University Press, 2010, co-edited with Jacob Wamberg), Expect Everything Fear Nothing: The Situationist Movement in Scandinavia and Elsewhere (Autonomedia, 2011, co-edited with Jakob Jakobsen), and Cosmonauts of the Future: Texts from the Situationist Movement in Scandinavia and Elsewhere (Autonomedia, 2015, co-edited with Jakob Jakobsen). Other recent activities include the exhibition “This World We Must Leave” (made in collaboration with Jakob Jakobsen) at Kunsthall Oslo, Dec. 2016-Jan-2017).

This month on the Ark Audio Book Club, we discuss the first novel in Rachel Cusk's Outline Trilogy, "Outline". This is a novel in 10 conversations between out narrator Faye, a recently divorced 50-something writer and those she meets on her trip to Greece to teach creative writing. Faye is almost absent from that narrative, the only real sense we have of her is how she assesses the narratives of those she speaks with, which may be more revealing than she intends it to be. This month features Charlie Cassarino, Sheri Helberg and Macon Holt with host Giovanna Alesandro.

This month on the Ark Audio Book Club we discussed the Nobel Prize-winning author Elfriede Jelinek’s disturbing 1983 novel of repression desire and violence, The Piano Teacher. The novel tells the story of Erika Kohut, a talented one-time concert pianist in Vienna who, due to a couple of key performance failures (although arguably the cause of these run deeper), has been relegated to a career as a piano teacher for elite students. Erika is in a codependent abusive relationship with her Mother, with whom she lives and shares a bed. Her Mother tries to control as much of Erika’s life as possible; from the clothes she buys and the hours she is allowed to be out of the house, to the complete prohibition on romantic relationships with men. But Erika sneaks out behind her mothers back to engage in acts of pornographic voyeurism, secretly harbouring sadomasochistic desires that, while they wouldn’t make the Marquis de Sade blush, are certainly enough for him to give Erika the time of day. Things begin to escalate as Erika becomes infatuated with one her students, the reasonably talented but ultimately basic (to use contemporary parlance) fuckboy Walter Klemmer. Walters own warped sexuality, albeit warped by patriarchal normativity, suddenly presents Erika with the possibility of making her fantasies part of the all too horrendous reality she had always thought herself above. In the end though, Erika has to deal with the actual pain of the pain she has, until now, only desired. And here to discuss the book are And here to talk about the book scholar of female despair in Literature, Sheri Hellberg, brand new ark volunteer Charlie Cassarino, and as always, the inimitable, Giovanna Alesandro, and your host is Macon Holt You can read Macon's review of the book here http://arkbooks.dk/the-piano-teacher-by-elfriede-jelinek-ark-audio-book-club-review/

On this episode of the Ark Audio book club, we talk about Gio's new favorite book: The Necrophiliac by Gabrielle Wittkop. Written in 1972 but not translated into English until 2011, it's a very short book about a necrophiliac in Paris. Only in France, right? By day he deals antiques and by night he digs up dead folks and does what necrophiliacs do…Around the table is Macon Holt, Ebba Wester, Neus Casanova Vico and, your host, Giovanna Alesandro

This month on the ark attempt to talk about Yoko Tawada's novel "Memoirs of a Polar Bear" but have real trouble doing so. And while none of them can recommend this books there are a bunch they'd like to recommend instead. Sarah would suggest "Lincoln on the Bardo" by George Saunders, Nina would recommend "Aristotle on Female Animals: A Study of the Generation of Animals" Sophia M. Connell Macon is reading the collected writings of Nick Land, "Fanged Numena" and Giovanna recommends "The Necrophiliac" by Gabrielle Wittkop, which is the book for next month.

Intro: Hello and welcome to the Ark Audio Review – the podcast where we talk about the Ark Book’s online literary and cultural journal. I am your co-host Nina Bang and in this mini episode we hope to wet your appetite ahead of the first installment of the upcoming street party Lyse Nætter a.k.a BRIGHT NIGHTS! Ebba Wester and I have interviewed Ditte Nesdam Madsen who is the co-founder of the new literary platform Terrapolis. Stay tuned for a weird and wonderful discussion about a new Donna Haraway inspired exhibition space for text-based art …

This month's theme on the Ark Audio Review is migration. Nina and Stine talk to Franek Korbanski about his interview with Polish co-founders and longtime director of The Borderland Foundation, Krzysztof Czyżewski. And Nina talks with Şilan Deniz Teyhani about her book recommendations ahead of the launch of Trampoline House's new journal, The T House Times.

Completing a run of three years, this month the Ark Audio Book Club crew have read "Torpor" by Chris Kraus, the final part of the "I Love Dick" Trilogy. Set in 1991, three years before the events of I Love Dick, Torpor follows Sylvie and Jarome, characters with names borrowed from Georges Perec’s Things: A Story of the 60s, which cannot be read as anything but pseudonyms for Chris and Sylvère, on an ill-fated journey to Romania in the vain hope that they can somehow adopt a baby, despite the fact that post-revolution, Romania has banned all adoption. The journey actually takes them to the heart of the compromises and traumas upon which their relationship is built, leaving them with no hope of a simple happily-ever-after together but maybe a stronger sense of how to go on living. Featuring Macon Holt, Sarah Ommannney, Neus Casanova Vico and Giovanna Alesandro. You can read Macon's review here http://arkbooks.dk/book-review-torpor-by-chris-kraus/

ark books is proud to present a conversation on sensing, listening and sound, based on the new book from, University of Copenhagen professor of musicology and sound studies, Holger Schulze, The Sonic Persona: An Anthropology of Sound. In The Sonic Persona, Holger Schulze undertakes a critical study of some of the most influential studies in sound since the 19th century in the natural sciences, the engineering sciences, and in media theory, confronting them with contemporary artistic practices, with experimental critique, and with disturbing sonic experiences. From Hermann von Helmholtz to Miley Cyrus, from FLUXUS to the Arab Spring, from Wavefield Synthesis to otoacoustic emissions, from premillennial clubculture to postdemocratic authoritarianism, from signal processing to human echolocation: This book presents a fundamental critique concerning recent sound theories and their anthropological concepts – and proposes an alternate, a more plastic, a visceral framework for research in the field of a cultural anthropology of sounding and listening. This anthropology of sound takes its readers and listeners on a research expedition to the multitude of alien humanoids and their surprising sonic personae: in dynamic and generative tension between predetermined auditory dispositives, miniscule and not seldomly ignored sound practices, and idiosyncratic sensory corpuses: a critique of the senses. Holger Schulze (*1970) is full professor in musicology at the University of Copenhagen and principal investigator at the Sound Studies Lab. He serves as curator for the Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin and as founding editor of the book series Sound Studies. He is the author of a Theorie der Werkgenese, a generative theory of artefacts in three volumes: Das aleatorische Spiel (2000) − Heuristik (2005) − Intimität und Medialität (2012). He is associated investigator at the cluster of excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung: an interdisciplinary laboratory at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and founding member of the European Sound Studies Association. Since 2011 he is co-editor of the international journal for historical anthropology Paragrana, in 2008 he founded the international research network Sound in Media Culture, 2000-2009 he was a co-founder and the first head of department of the new MA-programme in Sound Studies at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He was invited visiting professor at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo, at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, at the Leuphana Universität Lüneburg as well as lecturer at the Leopold-Franzens-Universität in Innsbruck. He writes for Texte zur Kunst, Seismograf, Merkur, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Positionen, Deutschlandradio Kultur, der freitag. The Sonic Persona is his first monograph in English.

This month on the Ark Audio Review, the team talk to Simon Fern about pigeons, Ebba talks about the new documentary "Dreaming Murakami", and Neus Casanova Vico talks about the new Ark Review column "Translation Tuesday", in which she and Sheri Helberg translate new Nordic literature into Spanish and English.

This month on the Ark Audio Review, the team talk to Simon Fern about pigeons, Ebba talks about the new documentary "Dreaming Murakami", and Neus Casanova Vico talks about the new Ark Review column "Translation Tuesday", in which she and Sheri Helberg translate new Nordic literature into Spanish and English.

Inherent Vice (2009) is a shaggy dog story about a hippy private investigator, Lawrence “Doc” Sportello, living in L.A. at the tail end of the 1960s (which I think could really mean up until 1974ish). One night, his “ex-old-lady”, Shasta Fay Hepworth, comes around looking for help to stop the kidnapping of the billionaire land developer she’s been having an affair with, Mickey Wolfmann. This sends Doc into a world of drug-fuelled conspiracies involving a cartel/dental syndicate/schooner called “The Golden Fang”, FBI and police corruption, Neo-Nazis and reactionary anti-hippy conservatives, junkies, prostitutes, mystics and an undead saxophonist. By the end of the novel, we are still left wondering what has transpired. Some characters are a little better off, others are worse… or worse. And we are uncomfortably left to ponder the remark of one character that “in the end, nothing really ends”. Featuring Franek Korbanski, Emilie Bang- Jensen, Sheri Helberg and hosted and produced by Macon Holt. Macon's "review" http://arkbooks.dk/the-libidinal-economy-of-inherent-vice/

Xenofeminism in Copenhagen thanks to the team from kbh læser. Also a big thanks to all our collaborators, Diann Bauer, Martin Hauberg-Lund, Rebecca W. B. Lund, Eksistensfilosofisk Akademi, Passive/Aggressive, Sorte Firkant for the venue and for the financial support from Nørrebro Lokaludvalg. For more info on XF and the video Diann plays in her presentation click this http://arkbooks.dk/what-is-xenofeminism/

In this bonus episode of the Ark Audio Review, Macon Holt interviews literary scholar Mikkel Frantzen about his thesis, "Going nowhere, slow­‐ scenes of depression in contemporary literature and culture". This was recroded back in December.

The Ark Audio Review returns with a brand new team, Nina Band, Anne Kristin Kristiansen and Ebba Wester. This month we are looking at the theme of this year's KBH Læser festival, Manifesto. With guests Simon Fern, Franek Korbanski, Macon Holt and Sheikha Gross.

If you think you are disqualified from listening to this tape, you are. Such is the nature of suspicion. You are judged by your words, and your words are themselves judged. Turn on, tune in and drop dead as Senyora Psicosi and her two callers (is she hearing double?) play a game that Jonathan Franzen is not invited to join.

Sheila Heti's intentionally "ugly" novel of creative anxiety and ethical quandary, "How Should a Person Be?" If this wets your whistle, you can hear more about the book tomorrow on the Ark Audio Book Club podcast, or just swing by the store and pick up a copy.

While Sarah and Gio are away, Macon has gathered together some of the volunteers at ark who have read David Foster Wallace's long thing, "Infinite Jest" for a chat about the month's they spent with this crazy book. Featuring Neus Casanova Vico, Franek Korbanski, Macon Holt and, for the last time for the foreseeable future on Ark Audio, Snorri Rafn Hallsson

In the Snorri's final episode of the Ark Audio Review we present to you the Christmas Special.

The final Ark Audio Book Club of 2017 on Paul Beatty's award-winning novel "The Sellout". Featuring Frederikke Nøhr Hemmingsen, Giovanna Alesandro, Sarah Ommanney and Macon Holt. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

This month on the Ark Audio​ Book Club, Macon Holt​, Sarah Ommanney​ and Giovanna Alesandro​ are joined by ark books​ co-founder now of kbh læser​, Ditte Nesdam-Madsen​ to discuss the reissue of Kathy Acker's transgressive, highly literary anti-novel, "Blood and Guts and High School".

Swastikas, explosions, destruction. The Owl of Athens lets us drink from her fountain of wisdom. Senyora Psicosi gets stuck between two worlds, two languages, almost in lockstep with each other, yet slightly out of sync. Pull at the threads and unravel yourself with this episode of Senyora Psicosi, More or Less.

Ark Audio Review #06 Relics by Ark Audio

Senyora Psicosi knows why you keep coming back for more. It's the drugs. It's the terrorism. It's the childhood stories. Like the Lord's people you shall not be ashamed you Little Psicosis. Also, Herr Caller talks about his unrealized dreams and Lord Edmund returns to the controls. The Big Blue by Sea of Aland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

This month the Ark Audio Book Club is talking about the satirical novel "Blackass" by A. Igoni Barrett, the story of a Nigerian man who wakes one morning to find he has undergone a Kafkaesque metamorphosis and transformed into a white man. The transformation is not complete, however, as his ass is still black. Featuring Tim Spangsberg, Macon Holt, Giovanna Alesandro and hosted by Sarah Ommanney.

Senyora Psicosi revves up her engine and races through the world of LSD and childhood memories. The lights of the city shine bright and Herr Caller wants to play a game.

Herr Caller continues to ponder the call of the void as Senyora Psicosi falls back into her own phenomenal self. Will he swerve into oncoming traffic? Will she become nothing? Jonathan Franzen doesn't know. Lord Edmund has stumbled into the control booth once again, twiddling the knobs like a man possessed...

This month on the Ark Audio Book Club it’s Macon’s pick and we have read Tom Mccarthy’s novel “Satin Island” (2015), a Kafkaesque tale narrated by a corporate anthropologist named U, tasked to produce the Great Anthropological Report of our times. Instead, or perhaps because of his task, he becomes enamoured with the aesthetics of oil spills, the possibility of a serial killer of skydivers and the buffering of video streaming. This month Podcast features Giovanna Alesandro, Sarah Ommanney, the enfant terrible of Nordic podcasting Snorri Rafn Hallsson and is toasted by Macon Holt. Satin Island is published by Vintage Books Check out Macon's review of the book here http://arkbooks.dk/review-satin-island-by-tom-mccarthy/