CENSORSHIP NOW!! is Ian F. Svenonius’s new collection of sixteen essays and stories. It ’s reorganizing people’s ideas about censorship, Ikea,documentary filmmaking, the Berlin Wall, the film Heathers, the twist, the frug, the mashed potato, shaving one’s body, Apple, Inc., Nordic functionalism, the supposed benevolence of the Wikipedia, hoarding, college rock, the origins of the Internet, and more. It’s an underground smash which has been met with a horrified gasp in all respectable quarters and gog-eyed enthusiasm in artist garrets the world over.
Performance:
ESCAPE-ISM is a found-sound dream-drama starring Ian Svenonius, singer (Chain & the Gang, The Make-Up, Weird War, etc), author (‘The Psychic Soviet,’ ‘Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ’n’ Roll Group,’ ‘Censorship Now!!’), talk show host (Soft Focus), experimental filmmaker (‘Launching of the Dream Weapon,’ ‘What is a Group?,’ ‘The Seduction of Paolo Hewitt’), and public speaker.
ESCAPE-ISM is “live collage” with a beat box, a ritual offering to the fractured landscape of AM radio. It features original performances of songs, game-time sportcasts, eye-in-the-sky traffic reports, doppler radar weather forecasts, live interviews, sermons, world news and opinion, guest appearances, electric guitars, drum machine, electro-magnetic tapes, fuzz box, sickening sounds, and stolen samples. Critics have been unanimous in saying “I didn’t see anything; I mind my own business. Listen, I don’t want any trouble.”
ESCAPE-ISM originally was designed as a live performance to accompany the book tour promoting Svenonius’ “Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ’n’ Roll Group”(2013 Akashic) but has since mutated, devolved, and is now sought out to play rock ’n’ roll gigs, art openings, shindigs, conventions, and the like.
