HG: COULD YOU TELL US YOUR NAME PLEASE?

LB: LUTHER BLISETT

HG: WHAT EXACTLY IS THE TEMPORARY SCHOOL OF THOUGHT?

LB: A SCHOOL BASED ON THE IDEAL OF THE EXCHANGE OF FREE KNOWLEDGE, LETTING PEOPLE COME IN, ATTEND VARIOUS WORKSHOPS. IF YOU FEEL THERE IS SOMETHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE THEN THIS IS THE PLACE TO VOICE THAT. ORIGINALLY IT WAS AN ARTISTIC SPACE TO EXHIBIT WORK, IT HAS EVOLVED THOUGH, THERE IS NO ARTISTIC DISCRIMINATION HERE.

HG: HOW DID YOU COME ACROSS THE HOUSE AND FIND YOUR WAY INSIDE?

LB: WELL I WONT DELVE TOO HEAVILY INTO DETAIL, BASICALLY WE WALKED AROUND THE AREA AND THEN WE NOTICED WHAT WE THOUGHT WERE OPEN WINDOWS, THEY WEREN’T! WE FOUND ANOTHER WAY…WHICH INVOLVED A LOT OF CLIMBING. BUT NO CRIMINAL DAMAGE!

HG: YOU LIVE HERE RIGHT? HOW MANY OF THEM ARE YOU?

LB: WE LIVE IN THE STABLES HERE, THE OTHER BUILDING IS WHERE WE DO THE LECTURES. THERE’S ROUGHLY 15 PEOPLE LIVING HERE RIGHT NOW. WE MET AT THE LAST PLACE WE LIVED. WE’RE LIKE A JIGSAW PIECE WITHOUT ANY SIDES, PEOPLE COME AND GO, ITS ALWAYS EVOLVING.

HG: YOU STUDY?

LB: YES BUT NOT VERY WELL AT THE MOMENT, THIS HOUSE IS LIKE A VORTEX, DEVOURING TIME AND SPACE. IN FACT I HAVEN’T BEEN IN, IN A WHILE!

HG: WHAT HAPPENS IN THE OTHER BUILDING?

LB: LOADS OF STUFF! REALLY PHYSICAL THINGS, DANCE WORKSHOPS, JUGGLING WORKSHOPS. THEN WE HAD A LAUGHTER WORKSHOP, A SLEEPING AND DREAMING WORKSHOP. WE HAD A TREE-HOUSE WORKSHOP. NUMEROUS LECTURES…DE-SCHOOLING SOCIETY, ECONOMIC CHEMOTHERAPY, ART SCHOOL FAILINGS! RELEVANT! TALKS ON ARCHITECTURE, PUPPET MAKING!

HG: YOU GUYS ARE ALSO IN THE MIDDLE OF COURT PROCEEDINGS, IS IT ALL OVER?

LB: NOT NECESSARILY, WE’LL MOVE ON TO ANOTHER BUILDING. WE HAVE LOADS OF DIFFERENT PROJECTS IN MIND.

HG: WHY LUCKY JIMM?

LJ: WELL IT CONNECTS ME WITH MY BLOG..

HG: YOU WRITE?

LJ: I STUDIED ENGLISH LITERATURE FOR DEGREE, MASTERS AND HALF A PHD, AND I DIDN’T HAVE ANY FUNDING. JOURNALISM IS WHAT I’D LIKE TO GET INTO.

HG: HOW DID YOU END UP LIVING HERE?

LJ: FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS ID BEEN MOVING TOWARDS SQUATTING, I WAS FED UP WITH FLAT SHARING. I WAS STAYING ON FRIENDS SOFAS, I HAD A JOB AS A COURIER, THEN AFTER THAT ID BEEN READING INTO IT. I WENT AND OPENED UP THE SQUAT ON PARK LANE WITH THE GUYS FROM THE SQUATTERS ADVISORY SERVICE. WE FOUND A BASEMENT DOOR OPEN AND I MOVED IN A COUPLE OF DAYS LATER, THAT’S HOW I MET THESE GUYS.

HG: WHAT’S THE PLAN AFTER TUESDAY?

LJ: STAY WITH THE GROUP. I FEEL MORE SECURE IN THIS COMMUNITY THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IVE EVER LIVED. THE SPIRIT OF THE GROUP MOVES ON, THERE’S NO SHORTAGE OF EMPTY BUILDINGS.

HG: YOU’LL STAY IN CENTRAL LONDON?

LJ: WE WONT STAY IN MAYFAIR, ITS TOO HOT RIGHT NOW. I DO LOVE THE BUILDING THOUGH, IT ALLOWS US TO DO WHATEVER WE WANT WITH THE SPACE WE HAVE.

HG: WHO RUNS THE CLASSES HERE?

LJ: VARIOUS PEOPLE, MOST OF THE CLASSES ARE DONE BY OUTSIDERS, WE DO PUT SOME ON OURSELVES.

HG: IS MONEY SOMETHING THAT WORRIES YOU HERE?

LJ: YEAH DEFINITELY, I THINK THE WAY WE AVOID ARGUING ABOUT IT HERE IS BY LIVING WITHOUT IT, WHICH IS ACTUALLY A LOT MORE FEASIBLE THAN YOU WOULD THINK IN CENTRAL LONDON. THE FOOD WE DONT PAY FOR, WE GO SKIPPING, TAKING SUPERMARKET FOOD THAT WOULD OTHERWISE GO TO WASTE. THE ONLY THING WE SPEND MONEY ON IS BOOZE, CIGARETTES, TEA, MILK AND SUGAR.

HG: CAN YOU IMAGINE YOURSELF LIVING BACK IN A FLAT SHARE?

LJ: WELL ITS DIFFICULT, I ALWAYS FELT LIKE I WAS MISSING SOMETHING IN FLAT SHARE. LIVING WITH 2 MISERABLE FLAT MATES WORKING 9-5, IGNORING EACH OTHER IN-FRONT OF THE TV IN THE EVENING. THE SOCIAL EXPERIENCE OF SQUATTING IS SOMETHING I WOULD MISS, BUT AM I GOING TO BE DOING THIS IN 10 YEARS TIME? I DOUBT IT. I WANT TO HAVE MADE IT IN SOME WAY.

HG: TELL US ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE YOU’VE HAD LIVING HERE.

LJ: TEMPORARY SCHOOL OF THOUGHT IS A WAY WE CAN ENGAGE WITH A COMMUNITY, ITS A POSITIVE WAY OF USING THIS SPACE, THEY CAN GET INVOLVED AND PUT STUFF ON THEMSELVES. YESTERDAY WAS THE BEST DAY I THINK WEVE HAD HERE AT THE TEMPORARY SCHOOL. I WALKED INTO THE BUILDING AND IT WAS JUST REALLY NICE YOU KNOW, PEOPLE PLAYING THE PIANO DOWNSTAIRS, THERE WAS A SELF DEFENCE CLASS UPSTAIRS, A LOVELY ENVIROMENT. I SOUND LIKE SUCH A FUCKING HIPPY!

HG: HELLO, WOULD YOU MIND TELLING US YOUR NAME?

V: VINAY GUPTA

HG: COULD YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE THE TEMPORARY SCHOOL OF THOUGHT AND WHAT YOUR ROLE HERE IS?

V: SURE. BASICALLY I CAME DOWN HERE TO MEET SOME FRIENDS, I HAD NO IDEA WHAT IT WAS BEFORE HAND. THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT SETTING UP THE CLASSES FOR PEOPLE TO TEACH AND I HAD ALL KINDS OF CRAZY IDEAS I LOVE TO TALK ABOUT, WHICH THEY THOUGHT SOUNDED COOL.

HG: ARE YOU A SQUATTER YOURSELF?

V: NO, I’M A NGO INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEER, BUT I DO ALL KINDS OF WORK.

HG: ARE YOU GOING TO MOVE ON WITH THE GROUP COME TUESDAY?

V: FROM MY PERSPECTIVE, ILL GO ANYWHERE PEOPLE WANT ME TO TEACH. THIS IS A PARTICULARLY SAVY GROUP OF PEOPLE. THEY’RE HAVING A GOOD TIME, BUT THERE ALSO GETTING A TON OF WORK DONE.THEY HAVE VERY GOOD OPERATIONAL MANNERS, THEY DONT GIVE EACH OTHER A HARD TIME. THERES A GOOD VIBE HERE, ITS BEEN VERY EASY FOR ME TO COME AND COLLABORATE WITH THEM.

??: THE THING THAT STRIKES ME, HAVING BEEN INVOLVED IN SEVERAL SQUATTING CENTRES ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, IS THERES A REAL PRAGMATISM AND OUTWARD DESIRE TO WORK TOGETHER AND DO REALLY INTERESTING STUFF HERE. WERE AS IN A FEW OF THE THINGS IVE BEEN INVOLVED IN HAVE TURNED TO INWARD LOOKING AND TURNED TO FIGHTING OVER THE MICRO POLICITCS OF THE HOUSE. THIS IS WHY ITS GENERATED A LOT OF ENERGY AND BOUGHT TOGETHER ALL THESE PEOPLE.

HG: WHO ARE YOU?

DH: DOUGALD HINE, I HAVE A BLOG CALLED CHANGING THE WORLD AND OTHER EXCUSES FOR NOT GETTING A PROPER JOB AND I RUN A COMPANY CALLED SCHOOL OF EVERYTHING WHICH IS BUILDING ALTERNATE EDUCATION SYSTEMS, I’M CURRENTLY TRYING TO GET PEOPLE TO INVEST IN THAT. I’VE DONE A COUPLE OF TALKS HERE OVER THE PAST FEW WEEKS, I DID ONE OF DE-SCHOOLING SOCIETY.

HG: IS THE LACK OF DRUGS A FACTOR HERE?

DH: YOU GET DIFFERENT SCENES, LIKE THE GUYS ON THE FRONT OF THE SUN THE OTHER DAY FROM PARK LANE I THINK YOU’D FIND THAT WAS QUITE A DIFFERENT ATMOSPHERE. I MEAN THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT KIND OF SQUATS I WOULDN’T LIKE TO GENERALISE BUT WHAT YOU HAVE HERE IS THEY’RE YOUNGER THAN YOUR AVERAGE SOCIAL CENTRE OR POLITICAL SQUAT, THERE’S ENOUGH PEOPLE WHO ARE POLITICAL, HOWEVER, THERE ARE ALSO PEOPLE HERE FOR CREATIVE REASONS. ART SCHOOL KIDS AND RECENT GRADUATES DOING DECENT STUFF, THAT’S WHY THERE’S SUCH A RANGE OF PRACTICAL WORKSHOPS. I MEAN FIRST TIME I CAME DOWN HERE THEY WERE ALL TEACHING EACH OTHER WELDING! I THOUGHT THIS IS INTERESTING.

HG: THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

By Holy Ghost Zine

Photography by Matthew Ritson and Alexander McLuckie

I.
Dubai is a city designed by, for better or for worse, money hungry autocrats and their architects. It is the truly modern city; the first city of the 21st Century. The buildings are more important, and more amazing, than the humans who inhabit them; the ideology behind the city still more incredible than the buildings that have been built because of it, because when the money runs out and the city finally sinks back into the sea, what we will be left with is a giant metallic monument to the first ten years of the new millennium. The place is an architect’s wet dream. Giant towers in which every floor is able to revolve independently. The Atlantis Hotel with a whale shark in its swimming pool. This is the ideal of the inorganic supermodern city that exists outside of the narratives of history.

There are more computer-generated images of Dubai than there are real images, more ideas than there are applications from them, more transitory people than there are natives: a city of prospectors, developers and architectural agencies and everyone is out to make a quick dollar. Dubai doesn’t exist as anything above the ideals of the imagination and as the representation of the possibilities and failures of the condition of supermodernity.

II.
Dubai is the definitive exemplar of the application of the supermodern, of the new city as non-place; like the airport, the train station, the shopping centre, the motorway, the hotel; wholly artificial places of transition and journey, that subjugates nature to the power and spectacle of humanity. Dubai is a city made up of these artificial, functional non-places, with the Media City, the Business City, the Culture City, all artifice and only representative of Man’s ability to understand, to control, to direct every single aspect of modern life.

For example, the airport. Every airport is reassuringly similar, the baggage check, the security check, the duty-free lounge, the food courts, the gates, the people. Nothing happens in these non-places, it is only the transience of the moment that the non-place foregrounds – the air-conditioned atmosphere that separates you from the world, the frightening similarity of everything, no ontological questions are posed by the non-place, there is only the juxtaposition of static and transient moments.

III.
In Dubai we have a city set apart from reality, beautiful because of the sheer inhuman scale of it, not in the same sense of scale as the miles of Indian shanty-towns or of Los Angeles’ sprawling suburbs, but inhuman in its inorganic nature. It will end up like South East London’s own Elephant & Castle, organic half-alive matter growing in the cracks of inorganic half-dead buildings.

Modernism focused upon the creation of great truths, using narrative to explain the world; postmodernity was a deconstruction of those truths through the fracturing of memory, of narrative, in which truth becomes an impossibility; but supermodernity is a new historical imperative, set apart from the old historical narrative of cause and effect, of narrative as a way of explaining, supermodernity happens too fast for narrative to act as a method of explanation. With supermodernity there is only an abundance of meaningless information and construction that when added together equals zero. The new city and the new life are part of this, twenty-four hour news that tells you everything but then nothing; the infinity of information available on the internet that relegates actual information to a low digital background noise of ones and zeros; the blogosphere of information on peoples individual lives that creates only a fraction of a constructed identity that interrelates only to other fractured and constructed identities.

Dubai could be the great Promised Land for those suffering from the condition of supermodernity, in which the fractured and constructed can find an outlet through the ridiculous architectural landscapes that fully relegates the human to what it has become, a fragment of an identity inside a bigger, created false identity that only alludes to individuality.

IV.
Inside Dubai’s massive skyscrapers, laid out carefully in grids by town planners, humanity becomes an ant, part of a giant and anonymous collective supermodern conscious waiting only for the sand dunes to reclaim it.

[CLICK TO WATCH]

Hello Everyone,

We’ve put all the photos up on the website from OM#4 and we’re starting to get through the backlog of photos from previous nights. Hopefully we’ll be getting a few more bits done too; artists pages should be up soon(ish) and we will be getting all the old flyers up and the posters we’ve been submitted should be online at some point too. We now have a music section too, you can currently listen to and download an exclusive mp3 by K+U+R+T+Z who played at the OM#2 way back in December.

In magazine news we’re currently planning on releasing one full issue late March/early April as well as a literature anthology issue and a photography issue too. If you’d like to contribute and get involved send us an email.

We’ve recently got confirmation on an exciting new exhibition project for the summer. We don’t want to announce anything yet, but we’ll fill you all in on the details asap. We’re also working on another big event that’ll be happening towards the end of summer, again we’ll keep you updated with details as soon as we have the dates/bands/artists confirmed. Watch this space.

Off Modern #5 is happening on the 26th at Corsica Studios, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs + Jon Jones are playing live, Jumeaux, Lixo (Get Me) are djing with our residents Nasty Macquaid and Tomfoolery. Pascale Avital, Eleanor Dunk, Tom Harrad, Johnny Pinchard, Suren Seneviratne + Meg Woof will all be exhibiting artwork. For Off Modern #6 we’re planning on showcasing some of our new, favourite bands, we’ve got Gyratory System and Radiant Dragon confirmed so far, we’ll let you know the rest of the details once they’re confirmed, but stick April 30th in your diaries.

We’ve got a few DJ dates for March/April lined up, you should especially check out the Lucky .PDF Warehouse Party on the 20th, unless of course you’re coming to see us host Push. The No Pain In Pop guys are putting out their second compilation on the 3rd of April at a secret warehouse in Whitechapel, Banjo or Freakout, Trailer Trash Tracey’s and A Grave With No Name are all playing live. Kids Love Lies are releasing a single and are having a launch party on the 8th of April at 93 Ft East, we’re djing so you should come say hello. OOXXOO are also putting on an event at the Albany in Deptford on the 23rd of April with Pete And The Pirates, Let’s Wrestle and Your Twenties playing live, us and No Pain In Pop will be djing too.

Felix, Johnny, Tom, Will + Yuri

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The First Part of the Divine Revelation of St. John

When the Lamb opened the first of the seals I heard the noise of thunder, and one of the four beasts was saying, come and see, and I saw. Beholding a white horse and a man with a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth to conquer.

And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, come and see, and I saw. Beholding a red horse and its rider, power was given to him to take peace from the earth, that man should kill man: and there was given unto him a great sword.

And when the lamb had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see, and I saw. Beholding a black horse and a rider with a pair of balances in his hand.

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see, and I saw. Beholding a pale horse and the name of the rider sitting upon him was Death. Hell followed with him, power was given unto him, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony that they held: they cried with a loud voice - ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?’ - white robes were given unto every one of them.

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake, the sun became dead and the moon became blood. The stars of heaven fell to the earth as a dying man casts away his love. The heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together. Every mountain and island was moved out of place.

The kings of the earth, the great men and the rich men, the chief captains, the mighty men, every serf and every free man, they all fled to the dens and hid in the rocks of the mountains. They cried out to the mountains and rocks - ‘fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,’

For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to withstand Him?

The Second Part of the Divine Revelation of St. John

After these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth so that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

I saw another angel ascending from the east, bearing the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, - ‘hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have marked the servants of our God on their foreheads.’

And I heard the number of them that were marked: one hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Of the tribe of Juda and of Reuben. Of the tribe of Gad, Aser and Nepthalim. Of Manasses and of Simeon. Levi, Issachar and Zabulon. Of the tribe of Joseph and of Benjamin, one hundred and forty four thousand.

After this I beheld a great multitude, which no man could number; of all nations, peoples, tongues and kindred’s, clothed with white robes, they all stood before the throne and before the Lamb. Crying with a loud voice, saying, - ‘salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and salvation unto the Lamb.’

And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, all fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped God.
Crying - ‘Amen: Blessing and glory, wisdom, and thanksgiving, honour, power and might be unto our God for ever and ever.’
And one of the elders said unto me – ‘What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?’
And I said unto him – ‘Sir, thou knowest.

And he said unto me – ‘These are they that came out of great tribulation, they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They are before the throne of God because they serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, thirst no more.’

For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

The seventh seal is opened. There was silence in heaven. Only seven angels standing in the presence of God.

And the angels cast the fire of the altar upon the earth, there were thunders and voices, there was lightning and a great earthquake. Hail and fire mingled with blood was cast on the earth. And the third part of the earth was burnt up: and the third part of the trees was burnt up: and all green grass was burnt up.
A great mountain, burning with fire was cast into the sea. And the third part of the sea became blood. A great star fell from heaven, burning as it were a torch.

And I beheld – the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound the trumpet.

And I heard – the voice of one eagle flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice: ‘Woe, Woe, Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason of the voices of the angels, who are to sound the trumpet!’

And he that sat on the throne, said – ‘Behold, I make all things new. I am Alpha and Omega: the Beginning and the End. To him that thirsteth, I will give of the fountain of the water of life. Write. For these words are most faithful and true.’

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By Suren Seneviratne