DIRECT PERCEPTION
We spend almost a third of our lives connected to the internet, in a space-time of total internal reflection. Online lacks any randomness or chance; and this illusion of fate and order is at odds with the actual structure of the universe. Online we are not social beings but commodified identities; immersed in diluted ideas, weak connections and fleeting emotional states that neither originate within us, nor belong to us. We are possessed by the internet, and so dispossessed of life.
What is after the digital? We interview critical theorist Jonathan Crary on the internet complex. Artist Christine Sun Kim reviews contemporary society. Tanya and Zhenya Posternak review graffiti written by soldiers in Ukraine, while Sirkhaine Darkroom reviews the role of play on the Turkey-Syria border. Rhea Dillon performs an opera of the street, Emily Barker reviews accessible bathrooms and Kazeem Kuteyi goes outside. Seth Wheeler and Jamila Squire review shoplifting. Jack Self reviews object persistence, Maddy Weavers reviews comfort and Sahima Meem reviews the Adobe Suite. Jerry Gogosian reviews Instagram, Lucy Roeber reviews the Milf and Jackie Wang reviews Tiqqun. Plus much more.
Real Review is a contemporary culture magazine based in London and is "what it means to live today".
Each issue tracks our ever-changing zeitgeist through a "current mood". Using the review format, Real Review explores power relations through a close analysis of the material world. Real Review is a perpetual attempt at describing reality as it might actually exist, and reality as we experience it.
Previous contributors include Chelsea Manning, His Holiness Pope Francis, Virgil Abloh, Olafur Eliasson, Hito Steyerl, Wolfgang Tillmans, Slavoj Žižek, Extinction Rebellion, Bifo Berardi, Cao Fei, Carlo Rovelli, Robin Givhan, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and many others.
Real Review is dedicated to the promotion of democracy, inclusivity and equalities of many kinds. It is a non-commercial publication and contains no advertising. It is funded by sales and its Members, and is editorially independent.
