Magazine Stand :: Superpresent – Spring 2023

Superpresent’s submission theme for the Spring 2023 Issue was Speculation and Spectacle. Contributors were up for the challenge of speculating, in all its splendors. Thinkers and artists have understood the value of speculation. “When I express my opinions it is so as to reveal the measure of my sight not the measure of the thing,” says Montaigne. Sometimes we need to consider and sometimes we need to know. “Questions for Titian,” by Duncan Forbes, like several other entries, revels in the questions. Sometimes the speculation is darker. What happens when a family member … disappears? Robert Lunday’s “Disequilibria: Meditations on Missingness” provides one person’s clues. What thoughts are in a man’s head who has lived decades on the street? Miao Jiaxin answers with selections from his ongoing monumental series Albert Bushwick. The ‘Spectacle’ reduces reality to an endless supply of commodifiable fragments, while encouraging us to focus on appearances. In this issue, works like “Perception: A Curse,” by Lindsey-Ann Chilcott, offers a reminder of Debord’s idea that “[t]he reigning economic system is a vicious circle of isolation.” Similarly, Daniel Bauer’s photographs of brutalist architecture, with their undulating curves and dramatic light, may reveal “the nightmare of imprisoned modern society…” Visit Superpresent‘s website to download a free PDF of the issue as well as order a print copy.