'Casco Issues XI: An Ambiguous Case'
Book launch Wednesday 5 November 2008 19:00 hrs.

Casco, Office for Art, Design and Theory and episodes publishers are pleased to announce the publication of Casco Issues XI, which will be launched on Wednesday 5 November at 7 pm at Casco, with a screening of the film 'Why Do Things Get in a Muddle? (Come on Petunia)' (1984) by Gary Hill. The editors will be present to give an introduction about the book. Casco Issues is an annual publication that highlights strands of thought that lead out of Casco's programme.

Titled An Ambiguous Case, Casco Issues XI has been edited by Emily Pethick, Marina Vishmidt and Tanja Widmann, and was developed through the process of a conversation on the subject of openness. This inquiry led into a discussion around a number of related terms – criticality, fractures, ambivalence, ambiguity, undecidability and conflict, to name a few – as well as distinctions between recognising openness as a condition, and practising, or doing, openness. The editors opened this question out to a number of artists and designers, including Babak Afrassiabi and Nasrin Tabatabai (Pages), Gregory Bateson, Gregg Bordowitz, Judith Hopf, Jutta Koether, Runo Lagomarsino, Kobe Matthys, Metahaven, and The Otolith Group, whose responses are in the book. The publication also includes a conversation between the editors, and two 'Metalogues' by British anthropologist & sociologist Gregory Bateson; conversational speech acts that could be seen as creating a form of openness, producing moments of conflict, suspension and indeterminacy.

Casco Issues XI: An Ambiguous Case Contributions by Babak Afrassiabi and Nasrin Tabatabai (Pages), Gregory Bateson, Gregg Bordowitz, Judith Hopf, Jutta Koether, Runo Lagomarsino, Kobe Matthys, Metahaven, The Otolith Group, Emily Pethick, Marina Vishmidt, Tanja Widmann

Edited by Emily Pethick, Marina Vishmidt and Tanja Widmann

Designed by Julia Born & Laurenz Brunner

Published by Casco, Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht and episode publishers, Rotterdam

Language: English

Orders: info@cascoprojects.org or info@episode-publishers.nl

ISBN: 978-90-5973-108-0