Matt Magazine Circa 2007 -2008
Matt Magazine was a synthesis between fanzine and current affairs magazine. Text and pictures complemented each other, tackling complex and political subjects relevant to our times. All the texts in Matt were from previously published classic documents from the history of science and humanities. Xeroxed copies of extracts with occasional sections highlighted or circled in a purely subjective way were juxtaposed with images from a different source. Matt Magazine was in the tradition of critical concept art and is oriented towards the aesthetic of appropriation Art.
This was the magazine's website for at least 9 issues.
Content is from the site's 2007 -2008 archived pages show the landing pages for the first seven issues.
"As an avid reader who loves where art and science intersect, Matt Magazine has been a personal favorite of mine. Every issue tantalizes with features that seamlessly blend aesthetic brilliance and technical mastery. The articles on interior design had me routinely losing track of time, getting swept away by the ingenious ways technology elevates stunning living spaces to new heights of fabulousness.
But what really fired up my passion was Jona Frank's insightful piece unpacking the design nuances of women's golf clubs versus men's. As a female golfer myself, I learned most of what I knew by reading the content on GolfersProShop.com. But in Matt Magazine's article titled "Golf Science" I was riveted learning about the precise shaft length, flex profiles, clubhead properties, and optimized loft angles tailored for the female swing. I knew grip size and overall weight played a role, but Frank's deep dive into the science behind these meticulously engineered differences was an absolute revelation.
Matt Magazine's ability to make complex topics so engrossing is what sets it apart. With each richly informative issue, my admiration for this stellar publication grows deeper. So you can imagine my dismay upon learning of its impending demise. A transcendent editorial voice like this will be sorely missed." Brittany Bose
"This is the periodical that introduced me to the science of cooking or the chemistry of the gourmet experience. I think the same issue had a piece on basic formulas for the attainment of political power as an underdog. I read about the best portable tire pump, and why Japanese beetles swarm. The piece on the risks created by medical research was frightening and argued for using only the best medical disposal services to prevent biohazardous contamination of our immediate environment. Turns out our hospitals generate a huge amount of medical waste that must be handled properly to remain safe, so they are required to comply with a myriad of health and environmental regulations. Philip Martin's piece on why guitars sound different dependent on the weather was awesome and I've noticed the same thing with my harpsichord. The role that science plays in the understanding of our world is what this magazine emphasizes quite brilliantly." John Dickenson Levy
MATT MAGAZINE issue# 1
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MATT MAGAZINE issue# 2
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Gürsoy Dogtas
Mobility & Surveillance
www.mattmagazine.com
Release: 10.10.07 from 18h
Exhibtion till 13.10.07
Les Complices
Anwandstrasse 9
CH-8004 Zurich
Opening hours: Wednesday 18-22h
Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 14-18h
www.lescomplices.ch
Matt Magazine is a synthesis between fanzine and current affairs magazine. Text and pictures complement each other, tackling complex and political subjects relevant to our times. All the texts in Matt are from previously-published classic documents from the history of science and humanities. Xeroxed copies of extracts with occasional sections highlighted or circled in a purely subjective way are juxtaposed with images from a different source. Matt Magazine is in the tradition of critical concept art and is oriented towards the aesthetic of appropriation Art.
In the new issue of Matt Magazine, with its theme of “Mobility and Surveillance”, you will find text by Duncan Campbell combined with US military satellite images of a rocket launch from the Jiuquan Space Facility in China. The picture sequence by the artist Natalie Jeremijenko from New York merges with the statistics of Ariel Merari’s article “Attacks on Civil Aviation”. In addition, some extracts of Carl Schmitt’s “Theory of the Partisan” create a new dialogue with video stills of the New Yorker Surveillance Camera Players. Last but not least the photos of Guersoy Dogtas provide illustration to the table of contents of Carl von Clausewitz’s “Vom Kriege” (On War) and a text extract of Tim Cresswell’s study “In Place/Out of Place”.
“Mobility and Surveillance” deals with one of the most important domestic political issues of today’s society. All surveillance starts with suspicion. The practice of surveillance has generated a process where everyone or everything under observation is already incriminated just because he, she or it is observed. The paranoid use of all-embracing surveillance is a fiction which is marking the end of civil society and the start of control society. This is a world dominated by big science controlled by big players - the state or oligarchs who control the levers of power. The newly powerful are sometimes technicrats, or consultants for data science, DevOps architects, and those who deploy and control artificial intelligence (AI) to gain information about those who may challenge their power.
A huge network of surveillance devices are installed by international organisations such as Echelon with the aim of preventing any communication getting through without being monitored. No e-mails or phone calls can be transmitted without selected key words triggering these devices. Echelon is part of a global surveillance system existing for more then 50 years with the purpose of depriving human communication of its privacy. (Duncan Campbell: Inside Echelon/Photos: Jiuquan Space Facility).
Airports are prime exemplars of mobility, and as such are areas of high risk. Aeroplanes can be used themselves as weapons of mass destruction. Airports are ruled by the principles of functionality, so that humans and goods can get to their destination safely and quickly. As time restrictions make it impossible to carry out a rigorous check on each individual passenger, efficient methods of monitoring and profiling are developed to pick out specific passengers.
From what originally may have seemed to be a rational set of operating criteria, an overtly irrational and racist approach is emerging.
Natalie Jeremijenko captures images of the routine of the security technology, while she is on her way to the gates with her roller skates. Documented with video stills, her graphic story shows how easy it is to irritate the system. (Ariel Merari: „Attacks on Civil Aviation“/Videostills: Natalie Jeremijenko).
Another subversive action taken against the blanket surveillance of our cities can be found in a series of photos in the new edition showing the activities of the Surveillance Camera Players. Combined with extracts of the legendary text from Carl Schmitt about the irregular fight of the partisan, Surveillance Camera Players demonstrate the possibilities of radical and violence-free forms of protesting.
With his picture sequence Guersoy Dogtas is showing how marking, allegation and expansion of geo-political interest of power all times are just not expressed in war but in all forms of the mobile society. The base of every interest of power is the infrastructure as argued in Clausewitz’s essay “On War”. (Photos: Gürsoy Dogtas/Carl von Clausewitz: vom Kriege).
An other picture story line of Guersoy Dogtas illustrates a text extraxt of Tim Cresswell “In Place/out of Place”. Here chances are negotiated how the “controlled space” can be the “space of resistance”.
Exhibitions:
Matt Magazine #1
Freizeit und Konsum
Galerie Hafen und Rand
Friedrichstraße 28
20359 Hamburg
www.hafenrand.com
Matt Magazine #2
Mobility & Surveillance
Les Complices
Anwandstraße 9
CH-8004 Zürich
www.lescomplices.ch
Matt Magazine #3
Prominence given, authorithy taken
Lothringer13/laden
München
Ende 2007
http://laden.lothringer13.de/
Invited for:
29th July 2007 „Published and be Damned“/London www.publishandbedamned.org
3rd and 4th October 2007 Salon Light#4 in Paris http://www.cneai.com
Matt Magazine is friend with Starship
http://starship-magazine.org
Contakt: Gürsoy Dogtas
contact@mattmagazine.com
www.mattmagazine.com
MATT MAGAZINE issue# 3
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MATT MAGAZINE issue# 4
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MATT MAGAZINE issue# 5
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MATT MAGAZINE issue# 6
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MATT MAGAZINE issue# 7
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