The Centre Cannot Hold

A collection of textual fragments in the style of the Jena Romantics’ “Fragmente aus der Zukunft” is framed by two essays that trace the history of twentieth-century military Early Warning Systems. Dr. David Murakimi Wood, Canada Research Chair in Surveillance Studies and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Surveillance & Society, writes a detailed history of British wireless telegraphy outposts from his research in the National Archives. Charles Stankievech, through his fieldwork, outlines the architectural shifts in Early Warning Systems starting with WWI sound paraboloids, through WWII cement bunkers, into Cold War geodesic radar domes. The bricolage of literary and theoretic fragments form a ruinous textual landscape for the flaneur to wander through, encountering fields as various as military documents, modernist poetry, science fiction, critical theory and scientific papers.

The design of the publication plays with Harald Szeeman’s original catalogue for the Science Fiction exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bern from 1967. Printing includes a unique metallic and black overprinting on newsprint.

Co-published by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University and K. Verlag for the exhibition Monument as Ruin by Charles Stankievech, which won an OAAG Best Exhibition of the Year 2015.