Matt Colquhoun's Blog, page 26

House Sparrow

As the sun rises over my garden perch, I watch a juvenile house sparrow flit among bean stalks and the slats of the fence. It chatters frantically against plastic planters and hops this way and that, capable of flight but for some reason appearing anxious to do so. Birds in fuller plumage chirp around it, […]

Incursions (23/05/22)

Untitled (Three Days of Calm)

Excerpts from three days spent reading and writing in Newcastle city centre. Wednesday […] I booked a train ticket to London to have lunch with my publisher — so much more than that; a deep friendship, formed through an affinity with language and expression. My anticipation for the trip began expanding my world again. I […]

Late May

A few photos from late May, taken just before and after my head fell out.

Cause and Affect: On Spinoza and Mark Fisher

I have been reading a lot of Spinoza of late. Crisis teams come to visit me every few days now to teach me skills of distress tolerance and emotional regulation, all as a lead into dialectical behavioural therapy. In each instance, as they share their somewhat infantilising metaphors and mindfulness techniques, I think of the […]

Mark Fisher in Translation — Video Now Online

If you missed the recent event on the work of Mark Fisher in translation — organised by the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), moderated by Brigid Lynch, Mauro Greco and Ariadna Álvarez Gavela, and featuring Alejandro Galliano and myself — you can now watch it back on CLACS’s YouTube channel here.

Meatspace 2

I’ve received a lot of messages over the last week, many of which I’ve not replied to, but I just want to say thank you to everyone who reached out. I’m doing well, I’m setting plans in motion to try and access the support I’ve been seeking for years, and I have a lot of […]

In memoriam Mark Fisher (1968-2017) — Radio Tribute on Österreich 1

Für den britischen Kulturwissenschaftler Mark Fisher war Theorie eine Waffe im Kampf gegen die endlose Wiederholung des Immergleichen. In seinen Texten sezierte er die Widersprüche des britischen Neoliberalismus und durchstreifte die nostalgische Popkultur der Gegenwart auf der Suche nach den Überresten eines besseren Morgens. Immer im Hinterkopf: die Frage, wieso der euphorische Kapitalismus der Gegenwart […]

Meatspace

On Friday night, an attempt on my own life was interrupted by friends. I’ll spare you the details but the terror was agonising from all sides. It was an uncomfortably close call. The night was spent in A&E again and, the next evening, I had my third face-to-face encounter with the local crisis team in […]

Negative Participation

Foucault writes: “No technique, no professional skill can be acquired without exercise; nor can the art of living, the technē tou biou, be learned without an askēsis that should be understood as a training of the self by oneself.” There are many forms of self-examination and medication that can make up this exercise of living, […]