issue eight of Otoliths is live

Issue eight of Otoliths, the southern summer 2008 issue, has just gone live.

It’s a few days early, but it’s been straining at the leash & seams so it seemed a good idea to let it loose before it ate the house up.

The issue contains, in order of appearance, work by Michele Leggott, Geof Huth, Nicholas Manning, Laurie Price, Sandy McIntosh, Reed Altemus, Alicia Dangereyes, Bill Drennan, gustave morin, Paul Hardacre, Felino Soriano, Pradip Datta, Spencer Selby, Spencer Selby & Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, David-Baptiste Chirot, Kristine Ong Muslim, Joshua A Ware, Patrick Gulke, James Sanders, Jill Chan, J. D. Nelson, Eric Burke, Philip Byron Oakes, Louie Crew, Márton Koppány, Thomas Fink & Maya Fink, Richard Kostelanetz, Paul Siegell, Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, Sheila E. Murphy & John M. Bennett, Luigino Solamito & John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett, Jeff Harrison, John Lowther, Alexander Jorgensen, Martin Edmond, Christopher Major, Elisa Gabbert & Kathleen Rooney, Caleb Puckett, Cecelia Chapman, Guy Beining, Vernon Frazer, Bobbi Lurie, harry k stammer, Andrew Topel, Thomas Fink & Andrew Riley Clark.

As usual, it’s a marvellous mix of all sorts of things. Hie thee hither & enjoy.

Mark Young

in blues ended choir

Jukka-Pekka Kervinen has published a new book of poetry in Finnish, bluesissa loppunut kuoro, through his Ankkuri press.

Cia Rinne: archives zaroum på Afsnit P

Afsnit P proudly presents archives zaroum – a new digital work by the Finland-Swedish poet and artist Cia Rinne. archives zaroum is an archive consisting of 29 animated and interactive visual poems. The project is a reworking of Rinne’s collection of visual and concrete poetry zaroum, published in 2001.

Cia Rinne, born in Gothenburg in Sweden 1973, grew up in West Germany, and lived in her parents' native Finland for 13 years before moving to Denmark in 2007. She holds a MA degree in philosophy. Cia Rinne writes visual poetry and conceptual pieces, using simple drawings and different languages, and at times incorporating the pieces into installation works with found objects, as in the installation Indices – first shown in an old synagogue in Romania in 2003.

Besides her poetic work, Cia Rinne has been working on documentary projects together with the Danish photographer Joakim Eskildsen. Rinne and Eskildsen's latest collaboration documents the life and situation of Roma in seven different countries, between India and Finland. The project has included longer stays with the Roma, and has been presented in the books The Roma Journeys and Die Romareisen (Steidl Publishers 2007). Until February 10, Nikolaj – Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, presents an exhibition of Joakim Eskildsen's photographs from the project.

archives zaroum is the third part of a Nordic trilogy of contemporary visual poetry, Ord i øjet (Words in the Eye) on the Afsnit P website. The series is curated by Christian Yde Frostholm and Karen Wagner and is supported by The Nordic Culture Fund, Fondet for Dansk-Svensk Samarbejde, and Kulturfonden for Danmark og Finland.

the dirty old teddy bear takes whomever it wants

The one and only Maailman Paskin Nalle (or Dirty Old Teddy Bear, as they a bit euphemistically have translated the name), a notorious Helsinki-based rock band of which first drummer I had a great honour to be, back when the world was still innocent, has now a MySpace profile page. Go check it out. Especially the newest piece, "Why don't we do it on the boat", is an echt dirty song, that's for sure.