Spinning Vol. II: De-Centering the Self

Simon Morris & Nick Thurston

Price £5
ISBN 9780955309274
Year 2008
Edition 400
Pages 24
Binding softback; stapled
Illustrations text only
Dimensions 115 x 175 mm

Extending the Spinning series of collaborations – whose beginning is marked by the iam publication Spinning Volume I – this new book presents itself as a script for a performance for two cyclists, in two acts, after Paul McCarthy, and about art education.

Act One, ‘Sense’, sets the two performers off on stationary exercise bicycles. Whilst constantly cycling as hard as possible the two performers alternately speak in an exchange of quotations about art and education. Cycling to fatigue whilst reading aloud, Act Two, ‘Nonsense’, removes the etiquette of speaking one after the other and instead the cyclists overlay one another’s speech, one quoatation at a time, following a loose rhythm set by whichever performer reads the longer quotation. This shifting enunciatory texture is represented typographically through the book, and is followed by a full set of end notes that reference all the cited sources.

Fuller information about the Spinning series can read in our post for Spinning Vol. I. Vol. II was originally published in conjunction with a performance at the Instal Noise Festival, Glasgow, in 2008, organised by Arika.