I’ve been meaning to post for a while that Magma 35 is now available, and very good it is too. Tim Robertson has done a terrific job of selecting poems on the theme of ‘London’, including some excellent writing about the difficult subject of the bombings last year.
Laurie Smith has complemented the new poems with a thought-provoking article about the poetry of London – among other things, it has made me see Blake in a new light. His assertion that there is currently a poetic ‘School of London’ has provoked some heated debate on the Magma forums.
Of course I’m delighted that Tim has included one of my poems, but there are many more reasons to buy the issue than that! – such as new poems by Wendy Cope, Don Paterson and Adrian Mitchell, and Jo Brand writing about her favourite poem.
A distinctive feature of Magma is our rotating editorship, which means that each issue has a different character. So Tim’s issue is completely different in tone to Magma 34, which I edited.
If you’re not yet convinced that you should rush out and buy a copy (or order one here), then you can sample some of the contents for free on the Magma website.
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I do think it’s about time that someone recognised the importance of aesthetics and so on in the articles that are most functional to us in this age (computers tend to look rather ugly to me). At the same time, I feel a little as if it’s trying to make certain other things – like the real suzuribako, for instance – obsolete.
Interesting, though. It would be nice if we could usher in an age in which technology was not only aesthetically pleasing, but also had a more humane set of values behind its design and creation. I mean, this might be an extreme example, but look at this snuff bottle:
http://www.snuffbottle.org/snuffbottle.aspx?id=1326
Imagine a world in which even the simplest objects were the result of such love and care.
Hi Mark,
Great post: thanks for the info. I especially liked this comment by you:
“Maybe the emergence of these physically-based creativity tools is a reaction against the increasing digitization of just about everything these days, a way of reminding us that although computers offer enormous creative potential, we should beware of getting sucked into the magic mirror of the screen.”
When I was designing and creating the Ball of Whacks, that was one of my prime motives. Not everything that stimulates us has to be digital. It’s important to use “good old fashioned” non digital objects to “get our neurons firing.” Indeed, a large part of the brain is given over to hand functions.
Best wishes,
Roger von Oech
Quentin – I’d like to think it was a complement to the traditional suzuribako, rather than its nemesis. If we’re going to have computers, it’s nice to see someone trying to make them beautiful – and tactile. I like the snuff bottle!
Roger – glad to hear I divined some of your intentions! Have you seen Russell’s blog? He’s using a Polaroid pinhole camera as a reaction against being too digital: http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2006/11/meeting_in_a_pi.html