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A Genius Planet – Publication Announced

30/6/2017

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A Genius Planet – a collaboration between Ludger Hovestadt, Vera Bühlmann and Sebastian Michael, which offers 'a radical pathway from energy scarcity to abundance', is due to be published on 24th July 2017 as part of the Applied Virtuality Book Series, by Birkhäuser.

"Rooted in sound theory and based on technology that is available now, A Genius Planet offers an accessible but detailed and insightful perspective on how we can free ourselves from our dependency on natural resources and generate, trade, and use energy in ways that open up the genuine potential that we have at our disposal today."

Applied Virtuality Book Series
Birkhäuser, 2017 ISBN 978-3-0356-1421-3

ORDER NOW
​
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ETH Zürich Summer School

26/1/2017

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The CAAD Department at ETH Zürich has announced its first ever Summer School, where the faculty includes: Ludger Hovestadt, architect and computer scientist, professor for CAAD at ETH Zürich; Vera Bühlmann, philosopher and media theorist, professor for architectural theory at TU Vienna; Elias Zafiris, quantum physicist and mathematician, professor at Eötvös University, Budapest; and Sebastian Michael who will be doing work on 'serious story telling'.

This is "aimed at creative open-minded people who would like to challenge traditional architectural education. Current students, bachelors, masters and PhDs, recent graduates, architects, designers, career changers and individuals interested in technology and culture at large are all welcome to explore and cultivate their thinking", and it promises to be a genuinely stimulating couple of weeks in a lovely château in France. Some scholarship places available.

Full info and application form here
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The Snowflake Collector – A Poetic Picture Story Book

11/12/2016

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The Snowflake Collector, alone but not lonely, lives at the end of the valley, the far end, where in the multiple dimensions of snowflakes he discovers a purpose to his life and finds a way to share this with the world through the encompassing power of love.

The Snowflake Collector first appeared as part of EDEN by FREI and now, beautifully illustrated by Diego Cassia, becomes a hardcover print and ebook.

Available now from all major book vendors, both brick and online. 

​If you want to support your local bookstore, you can order it there, quoting ISBN 978-1-68418-180-3.

Or order it here from Amazon.


​
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 A Sentiment Utopia for Sentiment Architectures

30/11/2016

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In 2015, architect Moritz Behrens and digital lighting specialist Konstantinos Mavromichalis won the No 8 at ARUP competition with their Sentiment Cocoon – a 20 metre tall installation at ARUP's London Headquarters. 

From this came book about Sentiment Architectures, edited by Moritz Behrens and publishers Christian Berkes & Sophie Wohlgemuth, and Sebastian, having been at the opening of the Sentiment Cocoon, was asked to contribute a Sentiment Utopia for this book: a fictionalised, maybe Utopian, certainly very personal 'review' of the piece as he experienced it. 

The resulting Earth Portal Report 513118-000816 now forms the opening piece in this fascinating volume of writings and pictures by various contributors.
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Saturday's Sonnet

1/5/2016

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To mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, I will be recording all 154 Sonnets and posting them to YouTube as individual videos with the text so anyone who's interested can listen and read them.

Each Saturday, I will then pick one Sonnet from the week's posts and introduce it in a video blog. 

It will be a very personal introduction, taking the same approach as I did with The Sonneteer: assume we know nothing to start with and accept that everything is conjecture, except the words. 

Because the words themselves have a riveting story to tell..

​You can follow Saturday's Sonnet on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, or if you prefer a simple audio podcast, simply follow the podcast.
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ICON - American Premiere at New York Musical Festival

8/3/2016

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ICON, the musical that I wrote the book for, with Jonathan Kaldor providing the music and lyrics, is set to make its Stateside premiere at the 2016 New York Musical Festival (NYMF).

Considered one of the most significant events of its kind, NYMF takes place over three weeks between 18th July and 7th August in Manhattan's Theater District and features about two dozen fully staged productions. 

Dates and venue for ICON will be announced in May.

1928. The world is enthralled as American debutante, Constance Nielsen, marries into one of Europe’s ancient Royal Families. But when an impassioned affair with her music teacher sparks uproar, news of her tragic death turns her from living legend into timeless icon. 40 years later, a young man in search of his grandfather's past finds more than he's bargained for…
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EDEN by FREI 

3/8/2015

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EDEN is a 'concept narrative' in the here & now about the where, the wherefore and forever. Published under the metanym FREI, it has just started life as a blog (on 1st August 2015) and is now live.

EDEN sets out from the simple and oft-posed question: what do you do or say if you should happen to bump into your younger self, halfway through your life.

From there it goes on a fairly, and deliberately, tangential meander on meanings, imagined and actual encounters, reflections, observations, before reaching some sort of conclusion. (Although it does reach some sort of a conclusion.)

It's an experiment, really; stay tuned to see how it pans out.

You can follow EDEN here (to receive notifications of new posts, click on the menu button to reveal the side bar and enter your email there)

or
on Facebook
on Twitter
on Ello
on Tumblr
on Google+
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A Quantum City - Mastering the Generic

8/4/2015

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Publication date announced: 12th June 2015:

"This is not a book as you might expect. It doesn't offer a theory about cities, rather it speaks of any theory. It is not engaged in solving problems, but it is outraged at stupidity, at the oppressive and anonymous demand that any solid formulation of a problem should be simple. And above all it takes you onto a journey to (re-)discover The City."

Featuring Orlando in the Cities – a playful literary odyssey through 2,500 years of Western civilisation by Sebastian Michael.

Ludger Hovestadt, Vera Bühlmann, Diana Alvarez-Marin, Miro Roman, Sebastian Michael 

Applied Virtuality Book Series
Birkhäuser, June 2015 ISBN 978-3-0356-0626-3
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Website Overhaul

17/3/2015

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This website has just undergone a major overhaul.

There's a completely new design, some obsolete content has been weeded out and everything else has been updated. And there's a new media page, which contains video and audio clips with interviews and trailers that had previously been dispersed across several different project sites, where of course they also remain available.

Have a look around and if you find anything amiss, never hesitate to get in touch.


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Everything is Conjecture. Except the Words... 

22/3/2014

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Sebastian returns to the stage as a performer with his new piece The Sonneteer - a play on passion, power and possession, which features the sonnets of William Shakespeare.

Alongside him on stage will be young Actor Tom Medcalf as the two delve into some of the most glorious poetry ever written in search of a possible truth about love. 

The Sonneteer will preview in London at the Landor Theatre for two nights on 18th and 19th July 2014, before starting its world premiere run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, from 1st to 23rd August 2014.

Full details and tickets now at thesonneteer.info
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