christopher stead

The wait is over… GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE : THE HAUNTOLOGY OF GRAFFITI AND RAVE CULTURE 1990 - 2010 GitM documents graffiti and rave subculture in the wake of a post-Thatcher Britain, as a disenfranchised youth finds social cohesion and identity through the act of graffiti. Meanwhile, rave’s rhetoric of social inclusion resisted the binaries of boredom, race, class and gender, making it one of its generation’s most significant youth movements. Written through the eyes of two participant observers, @christopher_stead_ and Nema, who witnessed these two movements in their infancy blossom into global sociocultural phenomena, the book contains seven chapters of imperfect histories, lucid anecdotes, and subcultural polemics to accompany 300 archival photos that capture the spirit of intervention amid an oppressive political climate, along with a foreword by the artist and activist @sportsbanger .  Continuing into the 21st Century, the book charts counterculture’s journey to an unknown future, questioning if the mass acceleration of communication has led to a freezing of time, leaving both seemingly stuck in a state of hauntological retrospection. ft: Essays / photos: @christopher_stead_ & Nema Archive: @ghostsinthemachine__ Foreword: @sportsbanger Publisher: @aliaspress Art direction / graphic design: Studio Aurèle Sack Copy editor: @simonthebooks Printer: @gutenbergbeuys Studio photos / reel edits: @louistfilm Legal team: Sean Summerfield @doughtystreetchambers Available via the link in the bio Hardcover / 32 x 24 cm 360 pages / 2 paper types ISBN: 978-90-81710-15-2

In 2020, whilst debating on the foreword writer for our Ghosts in the Machine book, we drew up a shortlist of artists who stood up and offered a voice to this generation’s societal concerns, and @sportsbanger topped that list. Historically, rave and graffiti culture has been written about by reporters, self-styled gatekeepers, clout chasers, and influencers for years, sticking their flag into the hill of history for good measure. But sometimes, you have to look from the outside in to see the bigger picture. Jonny Banger never painted graffiti in his life. Still, he’s spent the last 15 or so years raving and hustling alongside its writers, which is a life sentence in itself, meaning his lived observations of British counter-culture were vital to this document. Getting the manuscript from Jonny on time was another story, however, on the day he sent the manuscript, I opened the laptop and a pigeon landed on the screen as I started to read it, which I took as a sign from above and the words on the pages brought a little tear to my eye.  Books like these will live on way past our expiration date, and when the next generation looks back to this period, they’ll need a written reference, not digital content. This book aims to be one of those key references to our culture and the era. ‘Ghosts in the Machine : the Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave Culture 1990 - 2010’ by @christopher_stead_ & Nema is out now via @aliaspress ft: Foreword: @sportsbanger Essays / photos: @christopher_stead_ @ghostsinthemachine__ Copy Editor: @simonthebooks Art direction / graphic design: Studio AS Print / binding: @gutenbergbeuys Legal team: Sean Summerfield @doughtystreetchambers

Post-pandemic blues. After hearing the tale of how one student applied to the RCA 11 times before they got in, I was willing to break the record and go the 12. Why so desperate? Because after 20 hellish years working in kitchens, something had to give. It took four applications and two interviews in the end; and when I asked why I didn’t get in with the first interview, they told me, ‘Because we just knew you’d reapply’. Bottom line…Never ever give up, never ever think you’re not ‘good enough’ or can’t afford to study, and if the milk goes sour like in the bloody pandemic, remember, art, just like music and poetry, doesn’t always come from a place of light. Sometimes you just gotta sing the blues 🎷 The @royalcollegeofart 2023 MA2 Graduate Show opens at the @trumanbrewery next Thursday with a ticketed industry PV 6-8pm (dm for 🗝️), but we will be celebrating with a more informal friends and family evening next Friday 14th July. No RSVP. Just come through and celebrate with us. Doors close at 7:30 pm In the meantime, the online presentation is now live with a 1000 journeys like mine been told here: 2023.rca.ac.uk/students/christopher-stead/ Lockdown capers: 1: Hung Out to Dry at @pigeon__park 2, London (2022) 2: Syntax Error at New Forms @Saatchi_gallery (2022) 3: Tree of Thorns at New Forms @Saatchi_gallery (2022) 4: Entanglement at You Turn Me Inside Out @foldgallery London (2022) 5: Wasabi at @post_vandalism at @hethemnl Amsterdam (2021) 6: Odd Oasis at It Happens Sometimes, People Just Explode by @thorpstavri at @thebeamslondon London (2021) 7: Monument to Nothingness at @pigeon__park , London (2021) 8: Things Fall Apart at Five Hides by @thorpstavri London (2020) 9: 2023.rca.ac.uk/students/christopher-stead/

Pings, pangs, prangs, blocks, emulsion confusions, air bubbles bubbling, b b blocking, thwarting, cleaning, gleaning, cooking wine scheming, universal credit dreaming, mid-life crisis or mid-career intervention? Shaving your head and closing the studio to write, or growing your hair long and buying an airbrush, are both possible midlife alarm bells, but at some point, I really fell out of love with the art world and decided maybe writing books would be a better mode of survival. But @acegrams came through with a DYCP grant, which blocked all the escape routes, which is the point of the funding in the first place. To keep culture alive in the face of unpredictable times ahead. And judging by the polls, they are going to get predictably unpredictable. Many late nights of soul searching later, questioning why the hell we do this, asking ChatGPT process-led questions, calling ChatGPT a fibber, buying the same wrong parts, learning new materials, unlearning old materials, looking lost in Adobe class, failed concrete, badly weighed jesmonite, blocked airbrush all-nighters and fresh breakthrough(down) moments, I think I love it again, because like my old friend @sarahh_cunningham once told me, ‘the only time anything positive happens to you is when you’re just doing it for yourself’ and let’s face it, any time spent making art whilst the world is losing its mind is a bloody luxury in this day and age, isn’t it??? Thanks to @catrionart , @smash_hits_harrimannn & @_jack_hanson_ for the tekkers, @mattwilliams3101 for sage advice, @hcascampbell for helping steer the wobbly ship through the choppiest of choppy waters, and @samuelpadfield for vibrator advice.

Rave, graffiti, politics, art, Britain. The inimitable artist @christopher_stead_ speaks to @jacobnegushill on the themes of his incredible book ‘Ghosts in the Machine: The Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave Culture 1990 - 2010’. Co-written alongside graffiti writer Nema, both rave and graff are seen as necessary acts of youth cohesion that are shaped specifically by post-Thatcher Tory Britain. The book was released last year. But the ideas are so relevant, so brilliant, it’s a timeless capsule of Britain’s past and, importantly, an optimistic look at what could be our future. Link in bio!

Fun fact

London showed up N@zi ’s can’t dance Nothing but love ❤️❤️❤️ @togetheralliance @chooselove @gideon.works

Magical day in Manchester talking all things Ghosts in the Machine last weekend with @leerourke First time I’ve had to talk about anything graffiti or rave-related without a lawyer present, so the nerves kicked in when @boundartbookfair invited me to speak at The @whitworthart , as writing is a solitary sport and anxiety doesn’t tolerate company. Thanks, Lee, for grabbing the steering wheel as we sped through the neurodiverse universe, discussing the aesthetics of poverty and boredom, mental health as a medium, and crash-landing in the Neoliberal cul-de-sac for good measure. Big hugs to @lillianwilkie , @robert___parkinson , and Joe from @villagebooks.co , who’ve created a lovely, creative community up there, and to the local writers and friends who showed love and support (you know who you are)! Salute! Whilst writing GitM during COVID, ‘someone’ told me that ‘no one’ would actually read the book, as ‘everyone’ would be more interested in the photos 🧐🤓🤔 Books are forever. More soon.

Manchester friends and family. Join acclaimed author @leerourke and Ghosts in the Machine creator @christopher_stead_ next weekend at the @boundartbookfair in The @whitworthart , where they’ll be talking about the spectres of rave and graffiti culture. Lee’s insight as a born and bred Mancunian who witnessed the birth of Acid House and Rave Culture in clubs like the Hacienda, Thunderdome, and the infamous Blackburn illegal Warehouse Parties, whilst the first wave of graffiti arrived on these shores, makes him the ideal candidate for this conversation, as he has straddled both sides of the fence as participant and cultural observer. If you’re in town, pass through, and if you do, @villagebooks.co will be stocking copies of the book at the fair as well as their stores. Talk @ 2.30pm Sat 25th October Bound Art Book Fair 2025 The Whitworth, Manchester Doors : 11am - 5pm Sat / 10am - 4pm Sun Free to all Ghosts in the Machine : the Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave Culture 1990 - 2010 Essays / photos: @christopher_stead_ and Nema Foreword: @sportsbanger Copy editor: @simonthebooks Editor / publisher : @aliaspress Archive: @ghostsinthemachine__ ISBN: 978-90-81710-15-2

OUT NOW: CHILDREN OF THE RAVE (AN IMPERFECT HISTORY OF POST-MILLENNIAL RAVE AND REVELRY). To commemorate Jealous Gallery’s tenth Rave Classics release, the new edition celebrates the DIY spirit of the Children of the Rave, who grew up in the midst of the countercultural resistance of Acid House. Fast forward to the ‘00s, the journey continues to Curtain Road, the resting place of the seminal Shoreditch club Plastic People, which mined the melting pot of new sound waves and regional styles emerging from London’s different boroughs, moulding and influencing the landscape of electronic music for the next decade and beyond. Children of the Rave: (An Imperfect History of Post-millennial Rave and Revelry) 8 colour screenprint with varnish Overlay / Somerset satin white 410gsm paper 75 X 55 cm / signed edition of 180 Printed by Jealous Studio / £195 Available now via link in bio / csteadstudio.bigcartel.com

This weekend, our foreword writer Jonny Banger (@sportsbanger ), will have a limited number of signed Ghosts in the Machine books* available at the @icalondon ’s GLUE Book Fair, along with other Banger related press, posters and paraphernalia. As a countercultural fly-on-the-wall and habitual rule-bender, Jonny was tasked with writing the book’s foreword last year, a task he didn’t take with a pinch of salt. Being the ever-composite perfectionist, in his own words, he ‘didn’t want to f... it up.’ The first pages of any book can be the trickiest to write, because if you get it wrong, they may be the last ones read. As per the norm, multiple FINAL:FINAL edits were submitted in the lead-up to the deadline, but the one that opens up the proceedings in the book is the one that hit the ball out of the park, as the generational angst of growing up in rural England is earnestly told over three pages. Subculture as a means of escape from suburban boredom, whilst finding identity amid life’s ups and downs, are the motifs that thread the seven chapters together, telling the tale of turning life’s lemons into lemonade. If you’re in central London this weekend, pop down and say hello. 12 - 7pm / Sat 13 - Sun 14 Sept Institute of Contemporary Arts 12 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5AH Nr. tube: Piccadilly Circus / Charing Cross Ghosts in the Machine : the Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave Culture 1990 - 2010 by @christopher_stead_ & Nema Ft… Foreword: @sportsbanger Essays / photos: @christopher_stead_ @ghostsinthemachine__ Publisher: @aliaspress Copy Editor: @simonthebooks Art direction / graphic design: Studio AS Print / binding: @gutenbergbeuys *Please note, this is not a signing event, although we suspect that if you bring your own pigeon, Jonny will sign one too!

👋 London friends and family. ✍️ Next week at the launch of @icalondon ’s GLUE book fair, signed copies of the Ghosts in the Machine : the Hauntology of Graffiti and Rave culture 1990 - 2010 book, will be available from our foreword writer’s @sportsbanger table. Stock will be limited, so arrive early. 🕝 12 - 7pm / Sat 13 - Sun 14 Sept Institute of Contemporary Arts 12 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5AH 📔 The ICA’s new artist book fair GLUE, brings together over 70 publishers for a weekend of exhibitions, talks, and workshops. Alongside a vibrant book fair showcasing some of the most exciting independent and artist publishers from the UK and Europe, the programme includes an exhibition by Hot Potato (@hotpotatonews ), and new work by London-based photographer Sana Badri (@sanabadri_ ). 👂Hear talks from Verso (@versobooks ), Valiz (@valiz_books_projects ) and Montez Press (@montezpress ), or drop-in to one of the workshops: bookbinding and zine-making with Toe Press (@toepress ), queer publishing and zine-making with PRIM (@prim.black ), a self-portrait workshop with Different Gravy Studio (@differentgravy ) – plus much more. 🔗 Discover the programme at the link in the @icalondon bio. @sportsbanger @public_knowledge_books @1000words_magazine @zone6press @fourcornersbooks @guesteditions @baron_books @montezpressradio @bookworksuk @smut_press @mattsgallerylondon @strangeattractorpress @fieldnotes_london @photoworks_uk