Wu Ming Foundation Podcast

How to Tell a Revolution from Everything Else / Wu Ming 2

wu_ming@wumingfoundation.com (Wu Ming) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:41:58 +0200

Audio recording of the double talk WM1 and WM2 gave at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, on April 5, 2011.
The “colored revolutions” – 1989 – What is a “toxic” narrative of the revolution? – Retrospective illusion of fatality – The first regime to fall down was our regime of discourse on the Arab world – Orientalism and revolution: T.E. Lawrence – Looking for the “Original Sin” – Chronological myopia – The Synecdoche Effect – A timeline in the Guardian website – The meme of the “Twitter Revolution” – Partial intentionality and the Ceausescu Effect - “Divide and conquer” stories – The Main Event and the Wind-Down – The Result and post-coital tiredness – Conclusions.

We're all February of 1917 / Wu Ming 1

wu_ming@wumingfoundation.com (Wu Ming) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:34:02 +0200

Audio recording of the double talk WM1 and WM2 gave at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, on April 5, 2011.
An article by Hardt & Negri in The Guardian – Are the North-African uprisings revolutions? – Are 20th century references really that useless? – Looking for a “healthily schizophrenic” narrative of the revolution – Picture yourself in a trench by a river – How the Italian working class instantly grasped the anti-war nature of the 1917 February Revolution – What did the revolution look like in their eyes? – Forked tongues and resonances – Jacques Rancière on In the shadow of young girls in flower – What is “haecceity”? And can a sense of haecceity be conveyed through a narrative? – Enter Vladimir Mayakovsky – Lev Trotsky on Mayakovsky – The 150 Million – Conclusions.

Italian Fireworks. Live at the British Library, London

wu_ming@wumingfoundation.com (Wu Ming) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:21:40 +0200

Here’s the recording of the talk Wu Ming 1 and Wu Ming 4 gave at the British Library Conference Centre, London, on 13 October 2010. Thanks to Joshua Eichen for sending the mp3. He warned us: “It’s not a clean edit at the front nor the back.” In fact, it stops abruptly. No ending. If we remember correctly, what was left out was a more political question on Italy etc., and our answer(s). Anyway, here you’ve got more than 1 hour of stuff. Enjoy! (As your Superego commands).

Talking about Manituana on The Strand, BBC World Service

wu_ming@wumingfoundation.com (Wu Ming) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:25:11 +0200

In October 2009, during our London mini-tour to promote Manituana, WM1, WM4 and Shaun Whiteside (who translates our books into English) were featured on the daily radio programme The Strand, on the BBC World Service (we're talking about 188 millions of potential listeners!).
WM1 spoke in English, WM4 spoke in Italian and Shaun translated (and masterfully read an excerpt from the novel).
The bit of conversation lasts 7 minutes, the interviewer is Bidisha (who is a writer herself).

Stewart Home reads from Manituana

wu_ming@wumingfoundation.com (Wu Ming) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:21:47 +0200

British novelist Stewart Home reads the open letter the London Mohocks address to chief Joseph Brant in our novel Manituana. Pre-recorded and then played out at the ICA, London October 17th, 2009, with Stewart (badly) lip-synching.

New Italian Epic: We're Going To Have To Be The Parents

wu_ming@wumingfoundation.com (Wu Ming) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:14:06 +0200

Wu Ming 1, The London Speech, Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, University of London, UK, October 2nd, 2008. The "Uncanny Valley" of the new Italian literature and the necessity to imagine the future, beyond the emotional blocks that obstruct our view. The epic tale of two books, the obscure iMedium/i by Giuseppe Genna and the triumphant iGomorrah/i by Roberto Saviano. Unidentified Narrative Objects. "Dead zones" in the sea. Pain Asymbolia, the syndrome that makes you laugh when you feel pain. Italy as the laboratory of our extinction, Italy as the place where the rain falls harder. Going beyond our condition of being "post"-something, toward new foundational moments. We're going to have to be the parents. Dedicated to the late David Foster Wallace.

Live at MIT: Slightly More Than Expected From A Band Of Novelists

wu_ming@wumingfoundation.com (Wu Ming) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:15:09 +0200

POn How and Why a Group of Writers Called Wu Ming Set to Disrupt Italian (nay, European) Literature and Popular Culture (and then Came to Boston to Brag About It). Wu Ming 1's speech at the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program, Cambridge, MA, April 2, 2008. Introduction by A href="http://www.henryjenkins.org/aboutme.html" target=_blankHenry Jenkins/A./P

Italian Allegorithms. Live At Middlebury College

wu_ming@wumingfoundation.com (Wu Ming) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:22:17 +0200

On March 31st, 2008, Wu Ming 1 spoke at Middlebury College, Vermont. He explained such concepts as 'New Italian Epic' and 'Unidentified Narrative Objects', and used the term 'allegorithm' - which he borrowed from videogame theory - to crack the code of the latest Italian genre/literary epic fiction. Fifty minutes of uncompromising, visionary narrative. A few days later, WM1 used this very speech as a starting point, did some shifting of focus and gave another talk, this time at the MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The two talks are brothers, they resemble each other but they are not identical twins.

The Luther Blissett Enigma

wu_ming@wumingfoundation.com (Wu Ming) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:26:17 +0200

From Radio-Eye, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 11 March 2001
B: Music/fx F.W. 27'' "It was dusk..." E: L.W. 25'38 "...yours whenever, Luther Blissett"
Music / FX out D: 26'34" Luther Blissett: Norman Kaye Sound Engineer: Andrel Shabunov
Producer: Luther Blissett