Cool Pastoral Splendor is the first Center Pivot publication the Last Chance Press of M12 Studio. It is published as a special limited edition, in a print run of 250 copies. Co-publishers: M12 Collective and the Last Chance Press.Through interdisciplinary approaches, this series explores and connects the changing realities of rural landscapes and communities around the world."Cool Pastoral Splendor includes a selection of pictures from Richard Saxton's Rural Research Archive and accompanying ...

'This Road Leads to Nowhere: Pierre Punk' brings together archives and reflections from a music scene that flourished in small-town South Dakota from the early 90's through 2010. Merging the tradition of DIY punk publications and regional travel guides, the book sings an unsung hymn of American underground culture. This Road Leads to Nowhere includes writings and images from Pierre community members, musicians who traveled through and played in the town, and kindred spirits from similar scene...

Thinking together aloud.

Talking uninhibitedly.

Holding a non-polemic conversation.

How can you receive an idea hospitably?

You don't know what the other person is going to say.

You don't always know what you yourself are going to say.

This book provides a picture of the 'thinking aloud' that went on during several gatherings initiated by Erik Hagoort. In a series of essays, he builds on ideas on closeness that originate from Ilse Bulhof, Emmanuel Levinas and Cornelis Verhoeven.

'I don't kno...

Footprint #28 examines the relation between cybernetics and architecture by focusing on a problem they both share: the production, consumption and flow of information, or, in other terms, of meaning. Therefore, cyberneticisation can set the foundations for a relational account that examines how signs are communicated and how meaning is produced and experienced within systems. This third-order cybernetics extends beyond the original scope of living organisms and their environments in order to ...

RAABJERG by Danish artist Rune Peitersen (1971) explores the changing landscape of northern Jutland (DK) from the last Ice Age until today.

During the 16th-19th centuries, climate change and human extraction of natural resources led to violent sand drift, which transformed the once fertile landscape into a barren wasteland. Different governments – from kings to elected parliaments – enacted laws to try to reverse it. After 200 years, they ‘succeeded’ and started reintroducing plants i...

"Stitch Your Brain" is a long-term study into the intelligence of the hand by artist and former medical doctor Monika Auch. The book reflects the results of the empirical study Auch worked on for the past decade about the importance of creating with your hands in our digital age and the effects of slow creation on neuro cognitive learning, health, and well-being.

The detailed images of a collection of 100+ stitched brains created by participants and their personal comments illustrate the infl...

Visual artist Diana Scherer is one of the pioneers in biotech art. At the core of her botanical installations and textiles lies a great curiosity about what neurobiologists call ‘the brain of plants’. Scherer studies plants and root systems and applies the intelligence of plants in her work. She employs a unique technique with which, using natural growth processes, she creates mesmerising and seemingly fragile tissues of plant roots with various structures. Scherer’s work is thought-pro...

The Taiwan Strait is a liminal space, and a natural incubator. These two conditions create a unique opportunity for implementing a future city-making process.

The Conscious City concept brings together all the challenges facing contemporary city-making. It is a concept for the urban curation processes required for future cities; for adapting to the impacts of climate change, emerging intelligences, a growing population, affordable housing, the need for a new pact with nature, as well as navi...