Reflection on possible re-articulations of the concept of dread in our times.

Associated with the “dizziness of freedom” by Søren Kierkegaard, and with “the ecstasy of nihilism” by China Miéville, the experience of dread is a defining characteristic of the contemporary human condition, and—according to the contributors to this volume—an essential and potentially productive emotion.

However dark and fatalistic its connotations, through its dialectical coupling of caution and transgression, of paralysis and overdrive, dread allows us to imagine the world differently.

Through conversations with and essays by some of today’s foremost cultural commentators, this book explores the creative agency of dread—an agency that is created by the very forces wishing to suppress or even destroy it—as well as its politics and related conceptions of fear and anxiety.

With texts by Timo Arnall, James Bridle, Simon Critchley, Adam Greenfield, Johan Grimonprez, Vinay Gupta, Ben Hammersley, Thomas Hirschhorn, Xander Karskens, Metahaven, China Miéville, Kevin Slavin, and Superflux

Designed by Metahaven

Edited by Juha van ’t Zelfde

Published by Valiz, 2014

Softcover, 240 pages, 20 b&w images, 5.5 × 8.25 inches

ISBN: 978-9-07-808881-3