Andri Snær Magnason's Blog, page 8
September 29, 2015
Grist writing about the Powerstation (Toppstöðin)
Incongruously placed at the center of the Elliðaárdalur valley in Reykjavík, Iceland, is a large, gloomy structure tucked between a crowding of trees along the banks of the Elliðaár River. I’m waiting by the building’s brick-lined door, under a large red sign with its name emblazoned across it — TOPPSTÖÐIN — when a tall, spectacled man glides up to me on his bicycle.
Upon meeting Andri Snær Magnason, writer, activist, and co-founder of Toppstöðin, one quickly gets the impression that he could talk anyone into embarking on an adventure with him. – Read more here on Grist.
September 28, 2015
In Aarhus, with Kaspar Colling Nielsen. Tuesday the 28th of Sept!
I have been reading this marvelous book Mt Copenhagen by Kaspar Colling Nielsen. The stories in this book all circulate around a huge 3500 meter high mountain that is built in the outskirts of Copenhagen, one of the greatest monuments and investments that mankind has made. Mr Copenhagen is already one of my favourite books, have not found anything like it since I was immersed in Calvino and the short stories of Primo Levi.
We have an event together Tuesday the 28th of September in Aarhus. I am currently the guest author in the Aarhus Godsbanen art center for a week as a part of the Fresh Eyes Series.
September 24, 2015
Litterär standup på isländskt manér
I am taking part in the Göteborg Bookfair. A wise man said – “Yes is More” – so when asked to do a 45 minute literary standup about my work in Swedish – of course I said yes.
So here is the information in Svenska:
Andri Snær Magnason är den ende författaren som fått Isländska litteraturpriset i alla tre kategorier: skönlitteratur, facklitteratur och barnlitteratur. Han har blivit känd för sitt stora engagemang för att bevara den isländska naturen och sin starka kritik mot etableringen av utländska industrier på Island, vilket han gav uttryck för i Draumalandið [Drömland]. I sina populära föreläsningar väver Magnason samman olika delar av sina böcker och visar hur konstnärerna är viktiga aktörer i samhället. Välkomna till en litterär standup-show om hur science fiction kan bli fakta och om hur idéer sprids – och dör.
Medverkande:
Andri Snær Magnason
Plats:
H1, H05:20
Arrangör:
Icelandic Literature Center
Typ:
Seminarium
Kod:
Fr1700.11
Språk:
skandinaviska
– See more at: http://www.bokmassan.se/en/programme/...
September 9, 2015
Reykjavík Literary Festival 2015 – Meet me September 11th.
The Reykjavík Literary Festival is starting, one of my favourite festivals. The festival is a real “stranded whale” for all literary lovers, tons of meat and blubber to survive, because winter is coming. Here I have seen Saramago, Atwood, Coupland, Grass and Murakami just to name a few and have participated twice myself and again this year.
In the 2015 festival we have great authors like David Mitchell, Teju Cole and Dave Eggers to name a few again. My program is on friday at 12:00 with Kim Stanley Robinson. So if you are in Reykjavík – come and see us.
Science fiction is a genre that enjoys huge cult popularity, and its power as a political tool should not be underestimated. Renowned science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson (USA), named ‘Hero of the Environment’ by Time Magazine, depicts the colonization of Mars in the face of ecological disaster on Earth in his Mars trilogy. Icelandic author and environmental activist Andri Snær Magnason’s award-winning Dreamland examines the effects of heavy industry in Iceland. This panel will consider the role of literature in relation to the environmental issues that face all humans in current and future generations.
When: 12:00 – 12:45
Location: Norræna Húsið/Nordic House Reykjavík
May 8, 2015
BLUE PLANET paperback in the UK
The Blue Planet is now available as a paperback in English. It is a good book to read for your children, or your grandmother, or yourself. Published now in almost 30 languages.
Here is a review from The New York Times.
The Story of the Blue Planet has won the UKLA Award in the UK, A honor award from the Green Earth Book Award, The West Nordic Children’s Book Award and the Icelandic Literary Award.
You can find it here on Amazon but if you really want to make your town or city a great place to live in – go and buy it from a local bookstore. Here is a bookstore:
and here is a list of them:
May 6, 2015
Philip Glass and Dreamland in New York
Here is a musical trailer from Dreamland by Valgeir Sigurðsson. The music and visuals from the film will be performed in New York the 8th of May. More information here:
The NYU Symphony, the premier orchestral ensemble at NYU Steinhardt, will present a concert featuring Philip Glass’s Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra, Valgeir Sigurðsson’s Dreamland, and works by the 2015 NYU Steinhardt Composition Competition Winners Brian Haller and Brian Paul. The concert will be conducted by Andrew Cyr and will take place at the Peter Norton Symphony Space on Friday, May 8 at 8 p.m.
The event also features a 7:15 p.m. pre-concert panel discussion with Sigurðsson, Haller, and Paul.
Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra was written by Glass for Jonathan Haas, director of the NYU Steinhardt Percussion Program, who premiered it with the American Symphony Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in 2000. The performance will feature the 2015 NYU Steinhardt Percussion Competition winners Alex Appel and Zac Robason and will incorporate a total of 13 timpani.
Sigurðsson is an Icelandic composer, producer, and musician, most famous for his work as recording-artist Björk’s programmer and engineer. Dreamland is the score to Þorfinnur Guðnason and Andri Snær Magnason’s 2009 Icelandic documentary of the same name about politics, environmentalism and damming. While the score is being performed, the film will be projected above the orchestra.
Andrew Cyr is a Grammy-nominated conductor and leader in the contemporary music scene. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the lauded Metropolis Ensemble, which has commissioned over ninety new works since its inception in 2006 by a roster of composers whose awards include the Pulitzer Price, the Juno Award, the Rome Prize, and the Guggenheim Fellowship.
The Peter Norton Symphony Space located at 2537 Broadway at 95th St. The concert is free and open to the public. For additional show information call 212-864-5400 or visit here.
February 4, 2015
Two Blue Planet premiers in February: Chicago and Aalborg
I am happy to announce that two Blue Planet premiers are taking place in February. The US premier of the Blue Planet by Akvavit Theater in Chicago Friday the 13th of February and the Danish premier in Aalborg teater a week later – the 20th of February. Click the links or images for tickets and more information about the directors, actors and the theatre companies.
January 24, 2015
LoveStar published in France – by Zulma
I am happy to announce that LoveStar has now been published in France by Zulma in translation by Eric Boury. Here is some information in French and below some press and blog links.
LoveStar: Roman traduit de l’islandais par Éric Boury
« Peu de temps après que les mouches à miel eurent colonisé Chicago, les papillons monarques furent saisis d’un étrange comportement. […] Au lieu d’aller vers le sud rejoindre leurs quartiers d’hiver, ils se dirigèrent vers le nord. » C’est ainsi que s’ouvre le roman, fable imaginative et pourtant étrangement familière, tenant à la fois de Calvino et des Monty Python.
Face à la soudaine déroute de toutes sortes d’espèces volantes, le génial LoveStar, vibrionnant et énigmatique fondateur de l’entreprise du même nom, invente un mode de transmission des données inspiré des ondes des oiseaux, libérant d’un coup l’humanité, pour son plus grand bonheur, de l’universelle emprise de l’électronique. Et développant au passage quelques applications aussi consuméristes que liberticides… Avec des hommes et des femmes ultra connectés payés pour brailler des publicités à des passants ciblés, le système ReGret, qui permet « d’apurer le passé », ou le rembobinage des enfants qui filent un mauvais coton. Autre innovation, et pas des moindres, en faveur du bonheur humain : les âmes sœurs sont désormais identifiées en toute objectivité par simple calcul de leurs ondes respectives.
Quand Indriði et Sigríður, jeunes gens par trop naïfs et sûrs de leur amour, se retrouvent « calculés », ils tombent des nues : leur moitié est ailleurs. Les voilà partis, Roméo et Juliette postmodernes contrariés par la fatalité, pour une série de mésaventures cocasses et pathétiques, jusqu’à ce que leur route croise celle de LoveStar lui-même, en quête de son ultime invention…
Here is some recent press:
Article about Andri in La Vie.
Article about LoveStar in Le Monde.
A blog here: Blogs Mollat.
A blog here: Small Things:
November 30, 2014
October 24, 2014
Meet me in Munchen, November 4th.
Interdisciplinary Lecture Series of the cx centre for interdisciplinary studies
Academy of Fine Arts Munich
winter term 2014/15
The times of utopias seems to have passed. Already since the 1980s we constantly hear of the end of the ‘grand narratives’. The subsequent enthusiasm for heterogeneity and plurality meanwhile devolved into a condition of fatigue, which in all its repetitions and nostalgias blocks the view of the future. But what is the „present of the future“ today?
The third annual theme oft he cx centre for interdisciplinary studies asks, which means and strategies artists and scholars pursue today, to gain a radius of operation which rises from the conditions we are faced with – without falling into nostalgic utopianisms or apocalyptic sensationalisms. How do different disciplines create potentials for change, for the imagination of possible futures beyond modernistic idealisms and romanticist projections? How can they contend for new freedoms within the configuration of our tomorrows, beyond the present routines and determinations? Contemporary answers to those questions range from the openness of experimental systems and the inclusion of contingency into scientific proceedings to speculative and fictive approaches in philosophy, art and design.
Tuesday 4 November 2014, 7:00 pm, auditorium in the annex building
Bad Prospects ?
Wolfgang Lucht, Chair in Sustainability Science and Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Humboldt University Berlin
Andri Snær Magnason, writer, Reykjavík
Wednesday 19 November 2014, 7:00 pm, Historical auditorium in the old building
Techniques of Survival
Claudia Aradau, Reader in International Politics, King’s College London
Metahaven (Daniel van der Velden), studio for design and research, Amsterdam
Tuesday 2 December 2014, 7:00 pm, Historical auditorium in the old building
Experimenting the Future
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Director emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and honorary professor at the Institute for Philosophy and History of Science of the Technical University Berlin
Jan St. Werner, composer and musician, Berlin
Tuesday 16 December 2014, 7:00 pm, Historical auditorium in the old building
Occupying the Future
Frédéric Neyrat, Lecturer in Comparative Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Tuesday 13 January 2015, 7:00 pm, auditorium in the annex building
Calculating with contingency
Elena Esposito, Professor for Sociology of Communication, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Nora Schultz, artist, New York / Berlin
Tuesday 20 January 2015, 7:00 pm, Historical auditorium in the old building
Fictions of the Future
Liam Young, speculative architect, Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today/Unknown Fields Division, London
Wednesday 28. January 2015, 7:00 pm, auditorium in the annex building
Futur(e) Human
Karin Harrasser, Professor for Cultural Studies, Kunstuniversität Linz
Johannes Paul Raether, artist, Berlin
A moderated discussion will take place subsequent to each lecture. The lectures will be held in German or English. A publication with all contributions to the lecture series is being planned.
The lecture series has been organized by Susanne Witzgall, head of programme, and Kerstin Stakemeier, Juniorprofessor for media theory and visual studies, in cooperation with Karianne Fogelberg research fellow for design and architecture theory.
The programme of the cx centre for interdisciplinary studies is financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
