A science fiction set in the back of beyond, along a stretch of Interstate 80 in Northern Utah’s desolate Great Salt Lake Desert, where for decades the United States military has clandestinely tested its most volatile chemical, biological, and explosive weapons. Here, amidst blinding salt flats and far-flung mountain ranges, one local gig worker unwittingly crosses a top secret threshold, stumbling upon an alarming experiment that upsets the very foundations of our temporal reality.

Originally published by Do Not Research: 
https://donotresearch.net/

Pre-Order the physical book, scheduled May 2022, with original drawings by Thomas J Gamble:
https://humorandtheabject.com/store/backslasher

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New York writer Elvia Wilk joins to discuss her recent collection of essays on ecologies, “Death By Landscape” (Soft Skull Press, 2022). Using an accessible approach she calls “fan-nonfiction,” Wilk’s latest book catalouges and considers a diverse group of writers, while ruminating on plant-becoming, slow apocalypses, mysticism, LARPing, trauma, the New Weird, consent, and black holes. The outro music is “Planta” by Soda Stereo. 

Purchase “Death By Landscape,” as well as Wilk’s 2019 debut novel “Oval,” through Soft Skull Press:

https://softskull.com/authors/elvia-wilk/

Humor and the Abject Podcasts

110: Elvia Wilk

Filmmaker and artist Adam Khalil joins the podcast to talk collaboration, nonlinear time, irony’s extant potential, and the aesthetics of Indigenous cinema. Among Khalil’s many film projects are Nosferasta: First Bite (2021), Empty Metal (2018), and INAATE/SE/ (2016). Khalil is a co-founder of the public secret society New Red Order, which you can get involved with by dialing 1 (888) NEW-RED1. If you’re in Michigan, Khalil will be screening films and speaking at a variety of events as part of GVSU’s Arts Celebration this month. See the full calendar here: https://tinyurl.com/khalilgvsu

HA Podcasts

111: Adam Khalil

It’s slime time. In 2022, artists Christopher Michlig and Oliver Payne released, respectively, the book File Under: Slime and the film A Brief History of Slime. At the time, each was completely unaware of the other’s slime-related research. On this episode, they join to discuss peak slime culture of the 1980s and 90s, the recent resurgence of slime through YouTube and TikTok, California as a cultural funnel and filter, and the Goop lifestyle. The outro music is “Mind Fulla Slime” by Mean Jeans. /// 

Purchase Michlig’s book through Hat & Beard Press here: 
https://hatandbeard.com/products/file-under-slime-by-christopher-michlig /// 

View Payne’s video here: 
https://vimeo.com/684376655 ///

112: Christopher Michlig and Oliver Payne

As part of performance artist Louise Ashcroft's unofficial shopping centre residency in Westfield Stratford (London)with Arebyte Gallery, she worked with grime rapper Maxsta to make a music track using words cut out of the Argos shopping catalogue as lyrics. The grime genre originates from this part of London, and the mall is said to be built on top of a former grime venue. Unlike some commercial rap, grime is often anarchic and political- more likely to question consumerism and power than glorify it. In this track, grime is used to reinterpret product descriptions to create a playfully subversive nonsense narrative.

I'd Rather Be Shopping

Louise

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