Bøger af Paul Chan

How an 18th-century maverick philosopher anticipated cryptocurrency: the first English collection of aphorisms from Tominaga NakamotoThis book introduces English readers to the life and ideas of Tominaga Nakamoto (1715-46), an 18th-century maverick Japanese philosopher who is rumored to have been an inspiration for the inventor of Bitcoin, known only by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. In January 2009, Satoshi released Bitcoin, a decentralized digital cash currency that allows anyone to use and develop its software. The rest is history. The identity of Satoshi remains a mystery to this day. But rumors during the early days of Bitcoin suggest Satoshi was inspired in part by Tominaga Nakamoto, an obscure and largely forgotten "merchant" philosopher from the Edo period in Japan. Tominaga's philosophical and aesthetic ideas are radical even by today's standards. And it is not hard to see how his most vital insights--the need to decentralize authority among them--echo in how Bitcoin functions as a cryptocurrency. Newly translated by the noted translator Yuzo Sakuramoto, Above All Waves distills Tominaga's most audacious writings into a set of quotes and passages that captures the forwarding-thinking quality of his thought. A critical introduction by Paul Chan tells the story of Tominaga's remarkable life and speculates on the rumored relationship between Satoshi and Tominaga, as well as how Tominaga's outlook may have influenced how Bitcoin exists as a technology and cultural phenomenon. Artwork by Chan captures the spirit of Tominaga's world and recasts the philosopher in compositions that express his enduring influence.

One family, two very differerent worlds.When same sex marriage is approved in Australia, Sydney lawyer Justin Wong calls home and turns his mother Madeline''s world upside down. Madeline is a respected society matron and a church elder in her hometown, Tenangan. Born into poverty, she is a Malaysian success story. Meanwhile, Justin has fought his own battles as a gay Asian man to rise to the top of his profession and finally find love. When Madeline sets off on an urgent mission to save her son''s soul and her family''s reputation, Justin must stand up to the mother whom he had grown up idolising.In this highly entertaining yet deeply touching novel, the stories of Madeline and Justin illuminate the lives of families who must navigate vast cultural differences in order to stay together.

What makes Odysseus such a contemporary character even after 2,000 years? Why is the quality that Homer attributes to him (polytropos, which loosely translates as "cunning" or "many-sided") so evocative of questions that bind art and reason, creativity and ethics, freedom and conformity? Odysseus and the Bathers documents the 2018 eponymous exhibition by the internationally acclaimed artist Paul Chan (born 1973) at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, Greece. Inspired by the "polytropic" nature of Odysseus, Chan has created a body of work he calls "breathers" kinetic sculptures that are unlike anything else in contemporary art. An essay by Chan explores the concept and history of polytropos and its relationship to what Marcel Duchamp called "the creative act." This book also features an essay by curator Sam Thorne, a conversation between Nikolaos Stampolidis, Director of the Museum of Cycladic Art, and Elina Kountouri, Director of NEON, on the notion of "polytropism," and fragments by the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides, newly translated by classicist Alexandra Pappas, which illuminate how Odysseus' "cunning" echoes traditions of thinking in ancient philosophy.

Think Like Clouds collects for the first time the drawings, notes and diagrams of curator, writer and Serpentine Gallery co-director Hans Ulrich Obrist. For the past 22 years, Obrist has curated exhibitions around the world and has interviewed major and minor personalities in nearly every field of endeavor; from architect Rem Koolhaas to painter Gerhard Richter; from astronomer Dimitar Sasselov to journalist and activist Studs Turkel. Obrist draws obsessively during his work in order to help him remember and expand the conversation at hand. But these drawings are more than mere memory aids. Beautiful and enigmatic, they reveal, upon closer scrutiny, constellations of names, ideas, dates, quotes and loose bits of information entangled in wavering lines and undulating scribbles. Each drawing is a conceptual portrait of a conversation or an event. Taken as a whole, they map in visual form the intellectual and historical terrain of one of the most active and curious minds in contemporary art today. Think Like Clouds includes an introduction by scholar and archivist Michael Diers and an interview with Obrist conducted by artist Paul Chan.