Supra Systems Book #1
In Supra Systems #1 (October 2018), our authors - writers, artists, curators, academics, designers, and researchers - examined what it means to articulate the forces and politics underpinning networked technologies. Networked technologies are increasingly present across our lives. They manifest in many ways, yet their 'all-at-once' nature makes them difficult to parse. How can we get to grips with the power that these complex systems produce if we can't easily comprehend systems themselves?
We look to almanacs, artificial intelligence, artificial tornadoes, data aesthetics, machine learning, online sex work, parking lots, radical softness, skip diving, speed-running and more, as we explore ways to experience, articulate, and interrogate the systems surrounding us.
In addition to contributions from SSS members and LCC students, we include guest essays and interviews from Sara Hendren, Molly Wright Steenson, Natalie Kane, and Shannon Mattern.
Under design lead Marion Lagedamont, the physical book was designed to emulate systematicity through shadow shading in the creases, and shifting colour schemes over the course of the book. Illustrations are taken from Michael Sedbon’s ‘CTRL’ project.
The softcover book is available to purchase for £10 here. Individual essays are available to download below:
Georgina Voss (Editor): Introduction to Supra Systems
Shannon Mattern: Executable Spatial Scripts
Natalie Kane: It is in your self-interest to be very tender
Ewa Winiarcyzk: Wave to prove you’re real
Sara Hendren: Life in exploded view (A conversation)
Wesley Goatley: Against Transparency
Luisa Charles: Structures and the Creative Mind
Joel Karamath: Maybe Be A Lizard First (A conversation)
John Fass & Alistair McClymont: Of Machines Learning to See Lemon
David Benqué: Cosmic Spreadsheets
Paul Bailey: Information, 2018
Alistair McClymont: What If We Could Look At The Sun With X-Ray Vision
Oliver Smith: Eulogy for the Progress Bar
Tobias Revell: Playing The Game
Molly Wright Steenson: Intelligence in the Unexpected
Michael Sedbon (Illustrations): CTRL