Drone Vision: Warfare, Surveillance, Protest brings the perfidious character of drones to the fore. Namely, seeing without being seen - and the associated insecurity and vulnerability, but also the usage for resistance and protest. The book presents three projects that move between art and politics - from migrant protests to colonial surveillance and the aesthetics of drone photography. The latter shows the geological scars and war remnants of five abandoned military sites in Israel - army strongholds, shooting ranges and urban warfare training facilities - and juxtaposes them with the personal and political scars engraved and marked on the private human body. Buy

We all know that you can’t judge a book by its cover. A book’s design, though, is an entirely different matter. Everything that goes into the physical creation of a book reflects its contents to a certain degree: romance novels are printed on trashy paper with even trashier imagery for good reason; and it is by no means arbitrary that gilded pages are found in Bibles or that lush paper and fine ink are used for the exhibition catalogues one finds at museums like the Louvre. The medium is the message, or at least a key part of it. This is certainly the case with isolarii–our November Surprise Subscription pick. More

"In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions."⁠ ⁠ This is a trailblazing collection of writings by rule-breaker Binyavanga Wainaina. Full of sharp satire and piercing wisdom, it contains many of Binyavanga's critically acclaimed works, including the satirical sensation How to Write About Africa, quoted above, which plays with the way Western media have reinforced stereotypes and pre-existing notions about Africa. Buy

One of our very favourite things about contemporary print culture is that there really is a magazine for everything. From bathing culture to modern witchcraft, the creativity, breadth and diversity of the magazine world never fails to amaze us.  That’s why we’ve chosen to bring you SICK magazine for your October Surprise. SICK began life as a zine-style pamphlet, produced by editor-in-chief Olivia Spring, and since its first issue, it has been a unique presence in the magazine world, dedicated to elevating the voices and experiences of chronically ill and disabled people. More

In South Korea, you can go to "prison" to relax. Sounds strange? Well, it is. You can get locked up in solitary confinement in a wellness centre designed like a prison. You lock out responsibilities, work, stress and emails and focus on your inner self. At least that's the concept. "The true prison is the world outside," says the founder of the jail-themed retreat.⁠ ⁠ For this weirdly fantastic book we want to present here, artist Tyler Coburn commissioned ten creatives to spend time in five square metres of solitude in this wellness centre - and write. They handed in their phones, exchanged their clothes for a uniform, took their rice porridge meals through a door slot and slept on the floor. ⁠ ⁠ During their time in this mock prison, they were guided in their writing by certain questions: How can the relaxation promised by Happitory be reconciled with the way solitary confinement works in real prisons? What kinds of thinking and writing are made possible by the restrictions - no books, no internet, only writing materials? How might the writing here relate to other texts produced in prison, such as those by Oscar Wilde, Antonio Gramsci, Kim Dae-jung, Shin Young-bok?⁠ ⁠ In its entirety, 'Solitary' is unique in that it is both a collection of texts and a collective artwork: an experiment in site-specific writing.⁠ Buy

The world today faces overwhelming environmental and social problems. To combat, change and overcome these challenges, collective action is necessary and inevitable. This has led to new forms of collective art and design practices: Artists collaborate with non-artists, make products for their local environment and take on multiple identities such as researcher, community activist, computer hacker or business consultant.⁠ ⁠ The book "Making Matters" by the fantastic publisher Onomatopee looks at art practices on all continents where the boundaries between art, design, research and activism are blurring or dissolving. ⁠ Buy

Utopia Ending is an impressive new addition to our architecture shelf.⁠ ⁠ The utopia in this case is the city of London while the ending was created by the change in the housing market over the years - from the post-World War II expansion based on social housing to today's finance-driven development of the city. The investigation through photographs and essays makes it clear: investment in social housing has been almost completely scrapped and the new buildings are financial assets for global investors rather than housing for Londoners. Buy

From the beginnings of colonial photography in the 19th century to contemporary images of 'white saviours' on social media, photography continues to play an essential role in the maintenance of white sovereignty. As various scholars have shown, the technology of the camera is not innocent either, nor are the images it produces.⁠ ⁠ Thus, the invention and perpetuation of the "white race" is not only a political, social and legal phenomenon, but also a complex visual one. In a time of revived fascism, we must seek to re-locate the image of whiteness in order to better understand its nonsensical construction. What does whiteness look like, and how might we begin to trace an anti-racist history of artistic resistance that works against this image?⁠ ⁠ The Image of Whiteness presents the visual history of whiteness - its falsehoods, its paradoxes and its part in manifesting power. It also presents works by photographic artists who subvert and critique this image. Buy

Here at do you read me?!, we are blessed with all sorts of interesting customers. Tourists from all over the world in search of unusual publications (and lots of tote bags); awkward couples on obvious first dates searching our shelves for books as well as a basic thread of conversation; the occasional gigantic dog roaming in with its owner and promptly sprawling over a sizable section of our little shop. But in the end, nothing tops the simple pleasure of seeing a customer derive visible, almost tactile joy, when they finally hold the latest issue of their favourite magazine in their hands. This month’s installment of our Surprise Subscription is a prime example of this particular phenomenon. We are excited to share with you… Real Review! More

On 10 June 2020, the scholar James Nwoye Adichie died suddenly in Nigeria. In this tender and powerful essay, expanded from the original New Yorker text, his daughter, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the bestselling author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun and a self-confessed daddy’s girl, remembers her beloved father. Notes on Grief is at once a tribute to a long life of grace and wisdom, the story of a daughter’s fierce love for a parent, and a revealing examination of the layers of loss and the nature of grief. ⁠ ⁠ ‘Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger. You learn how glib condolences can feel. You learn how much grief is about language, the failure of language and the grasping for language’ Buy

Among the many disturbing aspects of our time, the most shocking may be our passivity, our willingness to become spectators in a disaster from which we ourselves will be unable to escape. In response, philosopher Frédéric Gros examines the roots of disobedience. He draws on sources from Socrates to Thoreau, uncovering evidence from events as diverse as the Eichmann trial and the experiments of Stanley Milgram. Gros claims that philosophy itself is inherently disobedient. It asks us never to give in to the obvious or the commonplace, and forces us to rediscover a sense of political responsibility. Disobey is a call for critical democracy and ethical resistance. Buy

The Berlin magazine mono.kultur has been one of our favourite titles from the start. Don't let its small format mislead you – this magazine has what it takes! The compact zine dedicates each issue entirely to one creative mind at a time. In a long and intense interview, the reader dives into their world – from the creative process to inspiration to persistence and experience. But it's not just this profound focus that sets mono.kultur apart. It is above all the fantastic way in which these interviews are conducted, which go into depth and awaken a fascination for a person and their work – even if you have never heard of them before. But mono.kultur #49 hits even deeper. More