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imomus
MomusThe Book of Scotlands
(Sternberg Press, Berlin, 2009)
The Book of Scotlands will outline, in a numbered sequence, one thousand Scotlands which don't currently exist anywhere, even in the most visionary speeches of politicians. At a time when functional independence seems to be a real possibility for Scotland -- and yet nobody is quite sure what that will mean -- a delirium of visions, realistic and absurd, seems called for.
The Book of Scotlands, published by Sternberg Press under the editorship of Ingo Niermann, will provide one answer to this requirement for focused dreaming about possible and parallel world Scotlands. Its author, Momus, is a Scottish artist who's been in voluntary exile from his homeland for over twenty years, living in Paris, New York, Tokyo and now Berlin. Paradoxically, of course, there's nothing more Scottish than leaving Scotland. Typically too, the further a Scot travels from Scotland, the more clear and powerful his "inner Scotland" becomes; in Tokyo, for instance, Momus found himself composing songs about 20th century Scottish vaudevillians, and in Berlin he made an album inspired by the parallel pagan Scotland depicted in cult horror film The Wicker Man.
In the spirit of Italo Calvino, Bruno Schulz and French animation series Les Shadoks (using any language, that is, except the "wooden tongue" of official discourse), The Book of Scotlands will brainstorm a thousand "possible Scotlands" and lay out the quiet frenzy of its imaginings in carefully-polished paragraphs. Did you hear about the Scotland that spent fifty years at war with Austria, perfecting its weaponry by sending spies to the Tyrolian republic? Or about the Scotland covered in equatorial rainforest and populated by cloned lemurs? Did you hear about the futuristic Shinto Scotland which models itself on the Japan of the Heian period? Or about Nova Caledonia, a lifeship suspended in geostationary orbit exactly 35,786 kilometers above Perth?
You probably didn't, but they'll all be in The Book of Scotlands.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 07:03 am (UTC)I'll dream of a Scotland where Ivor Cutler finally gets his due and he, Robbie Burns and perhaps some other nameless scrivener form a new holy trinity, with sacraments of oatmeal and sour mash.
Och aye (as I've never once said)
Date: 2008-04-09 07:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 07:38 am (UTC)I'd also like to curate an exhibition, to be held during the 2009 Edinburgh Festival, in which artists (not necessarily just Scottish ones) show 1000 visual glimpses of parallel and possible Scotlands. So if there are any arts organisations or venues reading this who'd find that an interesting event to fund or house, please contact me (mailto:momasu@gmail.com)!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 08:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 08:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 08:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 08:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 08:41 am (UTC)I did this version in orange (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/imomus/more/scotlandsweborange.jpg), amongst others, but thought it was too 70s in conjunction with that typeface (Massive Hero via Fonstruct). After I'd chosen the red and yellow one, it struck me that it looks quite like the very first record sleeve I made, the Happy Family EP:
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 08:59 am (UTC)Oh, and the map of Scotland is upside-down, too. Good job I'm here, isn't it.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 09:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 09:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 09:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 09:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 09:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 09:25 am (UTC)Here, I have to give credit to my editor, Ingo Niermann -- this is really his idea (the idea in his book Umbauland (http://imomus.livejournal.com/358616.html) and his manifesto, co-written with Rafael Horzon, REDESIGNDEUTSCHLAND (http://imomus.livejournal.com/105277.html)) applied to Scotland. But the contents of the book, the visions themselves, will be mine.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 09:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 09:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 10:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 10:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 10:34 am (UTC)This interests me as i am in the middle of deciding whether or not to go work in scotland, s a journalist.
edinburgh to be exact
Thoughts? or should i wait for the book. It may not be in time.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 10:37 am (UTC)What's the alternative?
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 10:40 am (UTC)or
travel the world
or
move to france and surf
or
go to be with a girl in America
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 10:59 am (UTC)It's the most remote island in Scotland, it still has all its old architecture made of stone too. Unfortunately the native population has now all but gone. It full of ancient monuments too -- some as old as 5000 years old.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 11:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-09 11:33 am (UTC)I'd vote for that.
Less fawningly, though, surely self-referentiality and symmetry and literary precedent and whatnot demand 1001 Scotlands?