Brett Bloom

Extensive interview about Dan Peterman's building at 6100 S. Blackstone in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The enormous building was gutted in a suspicious fire and eventually rebuilt and reorganized under the name The Experimental Station. Peterman describes the character and cultural life of the original building and the endless political and bureaucratic challenges that he faced in the struggle to rebuild. A good window into Chicago city politics and the difficulty in maintaining an autonomous cultural practice in Chicago. The Baffler and magazine and the initiative Blackstone Bicycle Works - tenants of 6100 S. Blackstone - are also discussed.

"Our project Refuse, Refuse, doesn't sit all that comfortably with...ideas...that insist that the mechanisms that created global warming and other ecological disasters are the ones to solve them. We think that our engineering practices have brought us to our current environmental and cultural situation and that there is no better way to deal with the constant stream of waste running out of our factories than to stop, to refuse refuse. We are both attracted and repelled to the idea of creating a solution out of the problem. Being able to create a new home out of recycled materials, or to inject the atmosphere with tiny reflectors to redirect heat away from the planet are both beautiful and Sisyphean. In this book, you will find experiments with trash in Chicago and Aberdeen." (abstract is taken from the first page of the zine.)

Select Magazine No. 4 is a collection of interviews and documentation of media arts in Chicago

Select v3 was created to compliment the Version>02 show in 2002. This book and the show are about the digital commons, "intellectual property, the balance between civil liberties and security, freedom of speech and privacy, issues of access, and the creative use of tools. *

Amid the neoliberal transformation of Chicago--which extends capitalist market domination into every sphere, and substitutes competition and consumption for solidarity and social justice--the editors felt an urgent need to reclaim, rebuild, and redefine public space. The publication documents a period of cultural activism in Chicago stretching from 2000 to 2005, and covers various projects and organizations that responded to neoliberal restructuring. Topics include collective infrastructures, protest experiments, gentrification, public housing, and urban planning. (Adapted from introduction.)

Proximity is a Journal of writing, art and photography. This issue focuses on imaginary cities.

Continuing stereotypes of art and artists in mainstream media reveal to us the real impact (or lack thereof) that artists have on the world around them. The minimal presence of living, working, visual artists in these media spheres contributes to the kinds of generalizations and misunderstandings that many people seem to have about the power and function of the visual arts. It is our contention that by continually watching, cataloging,and analyzing these portrayals, artists can also gain a better understanding of their own responsibilities to their viewers and how the stereotypes hurt their ability to effectively communicate their ideas. *

A collection of writing, posters and documentation relating to four exhibitions and seminars since 2006 -- two held in Chicago's Mess Hall, two in Copenhagen, Denmark. The events were a collaboration between the Ydre Norrebro Kultur Bureau (YNKB) and The Library of Radiant Optimism for Let's Re-make the World "as a way to question and react to political, emotional, and social apathy in the face of world wide environmental and economic crisis and war." The Chicago events were held at the Mess Hall in June 2007 and from Jan. 18 to 20, 2008.

A collection of articles on grassroots urban greening and renewal projects.

Self-published zine of color and black and white photos and drawings containing more than 17 ideas about uses of public space