11: CHARISMATIC SPIRALS by WILL ALEXANDER

For an America circa 2024, where poetry—the art of developing new means of speaking—has never been of such artistic, technological, and political consequence. Operating at the visionary edge of language, Alexander deploys words in a way that feels prophetic—human psyches synthesize with technological artifacts; atoms and archetypes collide; bodies are vacated; voices take new incarnations. Alexander is man, as @elementalthing Eliot Weinberger once wrote, in a state of “imaginal hyperdrive”: Los Angeles’ great living surrealist.

“The two basic topics which fascinate me are ‘What is reality?’ and ‘What constitutes the authentic human being?’”

Philip K. Dick on the craft of science-fiction, technology as politics, and the Old Testament.

Introduced by David C. Krakauer, president and William H. Miller Professor of Complex Systems at @sfiscience

Isolarii, stylized as ISOLARII, is an avant-garde media company founded by Sebastian Clark. Launched in September 2020, the company is known for its multimedia projects, international activity and unique palm-sized book format.

Dominick Ammirati wrote in Artforum that “the press has succeeded at imbuing the book form with the psychophysical qualities of a mala, a rosary, kombolói, a smartphone—objects that you pick up and feel almost anxious letting go of.”

Isolarii has been described by curator Hans Ulrich Obrist as an “ingenious book club.”