Punk tapes that take entire generations back in time, films that raise questions about the present, and books that become part of someone’s personal memories. The new Arno.mk e-book brings together 26 original articles in which culture intertwines with everyday life.
Across 64 pages, punk tapes meet television series, memories of Skopje meet literary loves, and design and ecology sit alongside reflections on life with the media. An essayistic, at times literary approach runs through the selection: personal experience intertwines with culture, while a particular occasion opens up a wider conversation about society.
Bad Religion’s album No Control, for instance, takes us back to a generation of Skopje punks and skaters, while the encounter between Miley Cyrus and Nine Inch Nails in Black Mirror stirs memories of music and teenage rebellion. “Surfing the Margins!” is a personal journey through Margina magazine, and the article about John Keats begins with tapes, poetry and a gift remembered as part of a love story.
Alongside them are “Battery, Aziz!”, “Let’s Go to ‘Krug’!”, “A Watermelon or a Book?”, and articles about Futura, jazz, Cobra Kai and The Dirt. From culture, the conversation moves towards consumption, anxiety, social media identity and the need to understand the world we live in. Even when technology is the starting point, people remain at the centre — their habits, fears and visions of the future.
In the book’s introduction, Prlja also looks back at the beginnings of Arno.mk, which he co-founded with Vladimir Karer. The original idea was for short articles to follow an unusual recipe: 50 per cent scientific facts, 25 per cent popular culture and 25 per cent personal experience, seasoned with humour. Equally important was their wish to turn the interesting things they discovered online into articles accessible to everyone, rather than leaving them in their private messages.
The website grew out of that friendship and their long conversations about science, technology, design, culture and ecology. As the author recounts, they sometimes become so absorbed in ideas that, when asked at home how the other is doing and what he is up to, the answer is: “I don’t know!” They had forgotten to ask each other about personal matters.
Over the years, Arno.mk also moved towards longer articles and more serious analysis. This book, however, focuses on a selection from its first year: original articles marked by a personal voice, curiosity and a desire to use culture to reflect on everyday life. Reports on scientific and technological advances remain in the website’s online archive.
The edition uses different graphic motifs for the articles, each of which ends with its original publication date and a link to the original web post. In this way, the book maintains its connection to the archive it grew out of and offers a different way of reading the articles together.
“Arno.mk 2019” revisits a year and the ideas that shaped it. We see some of them differently today; others still make us play the same song, open a book or pick up a conversation begun long ago.
Read the book at this link.