Articles

Wang Fujui is one of the pioneers of Taiwanese noise music and sound art. Wang emerged in the 1990s during the explosion of Taiwanese experimental music following the lifting of martial law. In 1993, he founded NOISE, Taiwan's first zine and record label dedicated to experimental music. Wang's own work ranges from ecstatic extreme noise to sublime sound and light installations. Alistair Noble wrote about Wang's unique body of work for White Fungus.

Do animals create and enjoy music on a similar level to humans? Or are their magnificent displays of sound merely functional? Tobias Fischer, co-editor of the book Animal Music, lays out the arguments for and against, drawing upon a trove of research and creative works by artists and scientists alike.

David Frazier charts the growth of inter-Asian dialogue and networks in the art world amidst the fissures of globalization and a still-dominant Western paradigm for viewing art.

Nicholas Thoburn's "Anti-Book" is a 'book' that interrogates the book-form. In his critique of this beloved commodity, Thoburn challenges our understanding of books as transcendent moral and aesthetic objects unsullied by commerce. Rather, he says, books are pulsing with capitalist relations. Thoburn proposes instead a "communism of textual matter". White Fungus editor Ron Hanson has been corresponding with Thoburn and, in the first of a series of articles based on this communication, introduces Thoburn's concept of the anti-book and its historical precedents.

Kurt Gottschalk attended Max Richter’s SLEEP in New York—an overnight concert where audiences are invited to sleep through the performance. Reflecting on the experience, he considers what it means to listen to music while unconscious, revisits historic works inspired by sleep, and speaks with other composers about sleeping through concerts.

Kyra Kordoski revisits the pantheon-building art theory of Clement Greenberg and its connection to modernity through the prism of the matsutake mushroom.