У сучасному спорті стратегічне планування та аналіз показників грають ключову роль для успішного прогнозування результатів. Одним із важливих аспектів цього процесу є оцінка ставок на боксерські поєдинки, зокрема, коли мова йде про популярних спортсменів, таких як Усик. Значення коефіцієнта на усика може суттєво варіюватися в залежності від етапу бою, що робить цю інформацію ще більш цікавою для фанатів спорту.

Розуміння того, як розкладено шанси протягом бою, дозволяє не лише точніше прогнозувати можливі результати, а також надає можливість виявити вигідні пропозиції для ставок. У цій статті ми розглянемо основні аспекти, які варто враховувати, аналізуючи шанси на різні моменти поєдинку. Чи можуть розбіжності у ставках стати гарантією успішного прогнозування? Відповіді на ці питання чекають на вас попереду.

Поглиблюючи огляд статистики та параметрів, пов’язаних із ставками, важливо звернути увагу на роль, яку відіграють шанси у складанні стратегії. Це дозволяє не лише зрозуміти механізми формування ставок, але і підвищити власну обізнаність про фактори, що впливають на результати боїв. Ваші знання можуть стати ключем до досягнення успіху у виборі оптимальних варіантів для ставок.

Як розраховуються коефіцієнти на результати в спортивних подіях?

Розрахунок коефіцієнтів, які відображають вірогідність конкретних результатів у спортивних заходах, є складним процесом, що враховує безліч факторів. Перш за все, аналітики звертають увагу на історичні дані виступів спортсменів, їхні досягнення та статистику – наприклад, усик статистика може показувати частоту нокаутів або технічних нокаутів.

Метод перемоги, наприклад, чи то нокаут, чи то рішення суддів, також впливає на формування ймовірностей. Для конкретного боксера, як усик дюбуа коефіцієнт, важливо враховувати не лише його силу, а й стиль бою суперника.

Коли мова йде про ставки на унікальні результати, букмекери аналізують дані, щоб визначити ймовірні шанси. Наприклад, на перемогу Усика через технічний нокаут може бути украй вигідний коефіцієнт на усика, оскільки це може стати ймовірним фіналом поєдинку. Багато хто використовує freebet для тестування таких варіантів, що дозволяє зменшити ризики.

Таким чином, аналіз всіх цих складових забезпечує точність у визначенні коефіцієнтів на різноманітні сценарії, що дозволяє гравцям ухвалювати обґрунтовані рішення при ставках.

Вплив статистики команд на становлення коефіцієнтів у різних етапах

Аналіз успішності бійців значно впливає на варіанти ставок при матчах. Наприклад, статистика Усіка є ключовим фактором для визначення ймовірності його перемоги у протистоянні з Дюбуа. Інформація про попередні поєдинки, технічні нокаути та способи виграшу допомагає гравцям оцінити шанси кожного учасника.

Важливо враховувати, що фаворит поєдинку, як правило, має нижчий коефіцієнт. У випадку бою Усіка і Дюбуа, гравці, які вирішують поставити ставку на Усіка, можуть спостерігати, як його статистика впливає на оцінки аналітиків. Спосіб перемоги, будь то нокаут або рішення суддів, також чинить вплив на перегляд вартості ставок.

Система оцінок, яка базується на минулих результатах, дозволяє букмекерам оперативно коригувати ставки. Це особливо важливо в ході безпосередніх етапів бою, де можуть бути змінені баланси сил між командами. Статистичні дані про результати та технічні характеристики бійців формують уявлення про певні сценарії, які здатні змінити гру.

Аналіз змін коефіцієнтів під час матчу та їх значення

Слід зазначити, що зміна значень ставок під час спортивної події може мати величезний вплив на результати гравців. У випадку боксёрського поєдинку Усик Дюбуа спостерігається, як ставки на Усика коливаються в залежності від його дій в ринзі. Якщо він успішно проводить комбінації та активно атакує, коефіцієнт на Усика має тенденцію знижуватися, вказуючи на те, що гравці вважають його фаворитом поєдинку.

При аналізі коефіцієнтів, важливо враховувати різні статистичні дані, такі як кількість нокаутів, площа рингу та метод перемоги. Це можуть бути важливими факторами під час прийняття рішення, чи поставити ставку на Усика, чи обрати інші варіанти.

• Динаміка зміни: Ставки часто змінюються після кожного раунду в залежності від результатів. Наприклад, якщо Усик вражає суперника, коливання в коефіцієнті можуть бути помітними.
• Фактори впливу: Вміння спортсменів адаптуватися до ситуації в ринзі також відбивається на значеннях. Ставки на Усика можуть зростати, якщо глядачі бачать, що він контролює бій.
• Бонуси та freebet: Також не слід забувати про акційні пропозиції та бонуси файно, які можуть суттєво вплинути на рішення гравців, заохочуючи їх поставити ставки на результат поєдинку.

Поглядаючи на статистику, важливо розуміти, що ефективність кожного бійця змінюється від раунду до раунду, і це безпосередньо корелює зі ставками. Непередбачувані моменти бою можуть кардинально змінити погляд на ймовірність перемоги Усика, тому готовність адаптувати власне ставлення до ставок може зіграти вагому роль у виграші.

Дослідження стратегій ставок на раунди: що потрібно врахувати?

При виборі стратегії для ставок на раунди важливо врахувати кілька аспектів, які можуть вплинути на результат ваших інвестицій. Перше, на що слід звернути увагу, це форма спортсменів на момент бою, адже статистика може грати вирішальну роль в результаті.

У бої усик дюбуа важливо врахувати, як обидва бійці виконують свої стратегії. Наприклад, якщо один з них відомий своїм умінням закінчувати поєдинки технічним нокаутом, то на це варто звернути увагу при виборі методу перемоги для ставки. Також варто ретельно оцінити коефіцієнт на усика, оскільки фаворит поєдинку може мати суттєві переваги.

Статистика, зібрана з попередніх боїв, також може дати вам уявлення про те, як розвиваються раунди. Ставки на те, в якому раунді може бути досягнутий нокаут або технічний нокаут, потребують детального аналізу минулих виступів обох спортсменів.

Крім того, зміни в ставках під час бою можуть сигналізувати про те, як змінюється ситуація на рингу. Часто такі зміни є відображенням оцінки стану бійців глядачами та експертами. Не забувайте про можливі бонуси файно, які можуть підвищити ваші шанси при ставках.

Перед тим, як поставить ставку на усика, вивчайте статистику, раніше проведені бої, та коментарі експертів. Дослідження ринку та використання freebet можуть значно підвищити ваші шанси на успіх. Для детальнішої інформації не забудьте переглянути усик дюбуа прогноз.

Питання-відповідь:

Які фактори впливають на букмекерські коефіцієнти в раундах?

Букмекерські коефіцієнти формуються на основі різних факторів, таких як статистика команд, форма гравців, історія зустрічей, погода, травми та інші дані, що можуть вплинути на результат гри. Зокрема, в раундах важливо враховувати, як команди виступали в попередніх матчах, їхні стратегії та адаптацію до умов гри.

Чи можуть букмекери змінювати коефіцієнти під час гри?

Так, букмекери мають право коригувати коефіцієнти під час матчу в залежності від розвитку подій, травм гравців або змін у грі. Це дає змогу букмекерським конторам залишатися у збалансованому становищі та реагувати на поточні обставини, що може вплинути на ймовірність результату.

Які стратегічні підходи можна використовувати для прогнозування коефіцієнтів у раундах?

Для прогнозування коефіцієнтів у раундах варто звернути увагу на аналіз статистики команд, оцінку гравців та їхню фізичну підготовку. Також корисно досліджувати тенденції в грі, умови проведення матчу, а також психологічний стан команди. Використання поєднань різних стратегій може підвищити шанси на успіх.

Які помилки часто припускаються при аналізі букмекерських коефіцієнтів?

Серед поширених помилок можна виділити недооцінку факторів, які можуть вплинути на гру, таких як травми, зміни в складі та особисті проблеми гравців. Також часто ставлять на основі емоцій або уподобань, а не на об’єктивних даних. Важливо мати системний підхід до аналізу та уникати поверхневих оцінок.

Які ризики можуть виникнути при ставках на букмекерські коефіцієнти в раундах?

Головні ризики пов’язані з азартними іграми, зокрема можливість втрати грошей. Також ставлення до ставок може бути під впливом емоцій, що може призвести до необдуманих рішень. Рекомендується ставити лише ті суми, які ви готові втратити, та дотримуватись розумної стратегії гри.

Які фактори впливають на букмекерські коефіцієнти під час раундів гри?

Букмекерські коефіцієнти залежать від кількох важливих факторів. По-перше, статистика команд або гравців, їх останні результати і форма можуть суттєво впливати на цінність коефіцієнтів. По-друге, травми, дискваліфікації та інші обставини, які можуть змінити силу команди або спортсмена, також враховуються. Також важливими є умови проведення матчу: погода, місце проведення, а також настрій команди. Букмекери постійно аналізують ці дані, щоб визначити, як саме варто коригувати коефіцієнти в залежності від розвитку подій у грі.

Microsoft is a global technology company known for shaping the modern digital experience. From its iconic Windows operating system to the versatile Microsoft Office suite, the company has provided tools that support both personal productivity and enterprise innovation. Visit the official website at microsoft.com to explore its offerings.

Microsoft has also become a major player in cloud computing through Azure, and in business collaboration with Microsoft Teams. Its investments in artificial intelligence, gaming (via Xbox), and hardware (like Surface devices) reflect a broad vision for the future of tech.

Key Innovations by Microsoft

• Windows OS and Microsoft Office — foundational software for millions worldwide
• Azure cloud services — empowering digital transformation for businesses
• Xbox gaming platform — connecting entertainment and technology
• Surface devices — combining performance with sleek design
• AI integration and responsible innovation — shaping the future responsibly

With decades of experience and a continued focus on progress, Microsoft remains a leader in the global tech landscape.

This is a test article created for demonstration purposes in WordPress.

Microsoft is a global technology company known for shaping the modern digital experience. From its iconic Windows operating system to the versatile Microsoft Office suite, the company has provided tools that support both personal productivity and enterprise innovation. Visit the official website at microsoft.com to explore its offerings.

Microsoft has also become a major player in cloud computing through Azure, and in business collaboration with Microsoft Teams. Its investments in artificial intelligence, gaming (via Xbox), and hardware (like Surface devices) reflect a broad vision for the future of tech.

Key Innovations by Microsoft

• Windows OS and Microsoft Office — foundational software for millions worldwide
• Azure cloud services — empowering digital transformation for businesses
• Xbox gaming platform — connecting entertainment and technology
• Surface devices — combining performance with sleek design
• AI integration and responsible innovation — shaping the future responsibly

With decades of experience and a continued focus on progress, Microsoft remains a leader in the global tech landscape.

This is a test article created for demonstration purposes in WordPress.

Microsoft is a global technology company known for shaping the modern digital experience. From its iconic Windows operating system to the versatile Microsoft Office suite, the company has provided tools that support both personal productivity and enterprise innovation. Visit the official website at microsoft.com to explore its offerings.

Microsoft has also become a major player in cloud computing through Azure, and in business collaboration with Microsoft Teams. Its investments in artificial intelligence, gaming (via Xbox), and hardware (like Surface devices) reflect a broad vision for the future of tech.

Key Innovations by Microsoft

• Windows OS and Microsoft Office — foundational software for millions worldwide
• Azure cloud services — empowering digital transformation for businesses
• Xbox gaming platform — connecting entertainment and technology
• Surface devices — combining performance with sleek design
• AI integration and responsible innovation — shaping the future responsibly

With decades of experience and a continued focus on progress, Microsoft remains a leader in the global tech landscape.

This is a test article created for demonstration purposes in WordPress.

Microsoft is a global technology leader, constantly driving innovation and transforming the digital landscape. With cutting-edge mobile applications and cloud solutions, the company enables users to work, learn, and enjoy entertainment wherever they are.

Innovative Solutions for Business and Personal Use

Products such as Office 365 and the Azure platform have revolutionized the way both businesses and individuals operate. Microsoft’s mobile solutions provide seamless access to essential tools, ensuring productivity and connectivity on the go.

Security and Reliability

Security remains a top priority for Microsoft. Regular updates and advanced protection technologies guarantee that users’ data stays secure, whether they’re managing business tasks or accessing personal information.

Discover More

Committed to making technology accessible for everyone, Microsoft continues to innovate and grow. To explore the latest developments and learn more about their diverse range of products, visit the official website at Microsoft.

you are my queen and at our coronation

a hallelujah chorus I will sing

and celebrate with hymns of trepanation

the fact that you are queen and I am king

– the secret sonnets, xxiv

We live in a quotidian age. Those experiences when the thread deliriously unwinds from its bobbin, (those descents into chaos of the good and exciting kind as opposed to the screaming in fear and pain variety) have become increasingly rare delectations. Every so often, however, a thread is pulled and in unexpected fashion the metaphorical sweater thrillingly unravels and the world once more is shot through with magic and possibility. Recently, one such experience happened to me. While perusing the shelves in a thrift store I found a small hardbound book that bore the hallmarks of being self-published (somewhat crudely bound, no ISBN), and I bought it, simply because embossed in silver on its navy blue faux pigskin bindings were three words: THE SECRET SONNETS. I thought it might do as the basis for a book art project along the lines of Tom Phillips’ A Humument, which had of late been very much on my mind.

Joe Mellen, Amanda Feilding, and Rock Basil Hugo Feilding Mellen

Written by Joseph Mellen, and dedicated to ‘Amanda,’ The Secret Sonnets (Glucocracy, 1976) comprise forty sonnets that, at first glance, appear to be proper love poems, mostly traditional, if somewhat on the cosmic side. They are lovely to read, wistful and optimistic lines of absence and yearning. But strange terminology crops up with nagging frequency among the Homeric and Arthurian allusions: brainblood volume, cerebrospinal fluid, constricted veins, vitamin C sugar rule, sugarlack. Curiosity prompted me to take a closer look and I was surprised to discover that Mellen has a website on which in short order he presents the bare facts:

Born 1939. Turned on to pot 1963, mescalin 1964. 1965 met Bart Huges in Ibiza, took first acid with him and helped him with the English version of his scrolls, “Homo Sapiens Correctus” and “The Ego”. In these works he described his discoveries of the two mechanisms of blood flow inside the brain. The first explains how expanded consciousness is caused by an increase in the capillary volume of the brain and the second how the speech system controls the distribution of blood to the centres in action by repressing function in other parts.

Bart’s vision was from an evolutionary standpoint. What he saw which had never been seen before was the effect of adopting the upright position on the volume of blood in the brain and the significance of the sealing of the skull at the end of growth. The loss of a mouthful of blood from the brain at this time explains why man has always sought the means of restoring the lost paradise of childhood by various methods such as standing on the head, including taking drugs.

The realization that the sealing of the skull had the effect of suppressing the pulsation in the brain arteries, that is the expansion of the arteries on the heartbeat, led Bart to conclude that the opening of a hole in the skull would restore the expansibility of the brain membranes and allow this pulsation to reappear, bringing with it the spontaneity and playfulness of youth that was lost with the onset of adulthood. In 1965 he trepanned himself. In 1970 I followed his example. With my partner Amanda Feilding, who stood for parliament on the ticket “Trepanation for the National Health”, I later campaigned to have the operation made available for those who want to regain the brain metabolism of childhood.

Huges, who Mellen called ‘my teacher, or guru if you like,’ was perhaps the first contemporary person to practice self-trepanation. Mellon was the second:

after a few bosh shots, which are described in my book Bore Hole, I trepanned myself. Originally I used a hand trepan, something like a corkscrew but with a ring of teeth at the bottom of the shaft. It was an awkward procedure, a bit like trying to uncork a bottle from inside it, and it was unsuccessful. Subsequently I used an electric drill, which was much easier. It was comparatively simple.

I was alone in the flat – Amanda was in New York – so when it was done I busied myself with clearing up the room and then waited to see if anything happened. In the next three or four hours  the feeling I had was one of increasing lightness, literally as if a weight was being lifted from my mind. I began to notice it probably an hour after I’d finished the operation, and then it grew stronger. I hadn’t really known what to expect and it was rather exhilarating feeling this gradual lightening.  Would it last? Well, it remained with me till I went to sleep, and the next morning I was amazed to find that the feeling of lightness was still there. I hadn’t come down. And in the days that followed I realized that it was a permanent change in my consciousness that had taken place. I was in a better place, ready for anything.

I always found the worst part of the coming down from a trip was the last part, when the heaviness of the old familiar adult routine set in again. After trepanation that is the part that you don’t have – you stay just above that. I have to say that it is well worth it.

 * * *

 The high from a hole in the head is no more than a gentle lift. If you call an acid high 100 and, say, a good hash 60, then the hole would be no more than 30. What it does, however, that is extremely valuable, is relieve the Ego from the need for chronic repression. The speech system can float again, as in childhood.

 

Shortly, thereafter, Mellen filmed Feilding, performing the same procedure. The film Heartbeat in the Brain, has rarely been shown and has never been officially released, although alarming stills and snippets circulate on the web and a few choice moments are included in the 1998 documentary film A Hole in the Head.

Amanda Feilding, still from Heartbeat in the Brain (1970)

Feilding and Birdy

Mellen and Feilding opened the Pigeonhole Gallery on Langton Street in Chelsea and in 1975 Mellen self-published through his imprint Glucocracy an account of his experiences entitled Bore Hole, which contains one of the most unforgettable first lines in the history of the printed word:

This is the story of how I came to drill a hole in my skull to get permanently high.

I was fortunate to catch up with Joe Mellen who was willing to submit to an interview. It turns out that the world is also apparently catching up with Joe Mellen. After 40 years Bore Hole is being properly published and Mellen will be lecturing in July.

vf: It goes without saying that much of your notoriety is surrounding your advocacy of trepanation, and your relationship with the two other advocates and fellow self-trepanation pioneers Bart Huges (of whom you have said you were a disciple) and Amanda Feilding; the fact that you wrote a book, Bore Hole, in 1975 about your experience; and that you filmed Feilding performing her own trepanation in 1970, which became the legendary ‘lost’ film Heartbeat in the Brain. In a world where everything seems immediately available, and no book or record album is so obscure that it cannot be located online in two minutes, this film seems almost not to exist at all, although of course I have seen stills and a few snippets. Will it ever enjoy a proper release and it is ever possible to see it (I read that it was last screened in 2011)?

The film certainly does exist – the original, which was on Super 8, Amanda still has. The quality of the film was exceptional – so good that when we put on an exhibition of blown-up stills from it at PS1 in New York (I guess it must have been in the seventies, though I can’t remember for sure), the exhibition was called “Trepanation for the National Health”, the blow-ups were as large as 30” by 40” and they were still of good definition, if a bit grainy, and the colour was excellent. I’m afraid I can’t say if and/or when Amanda might show it again. I know that she once gave a film maker called Eli Kabillio permission to include an excerpt for his film A Hole in the Head on condition that he wouldn’t let it be reproduced, and, needless to say, he did. The exhibition in New York was amazing I must say. It was in a large room, 30 x 40 feet, and the blow-ups were arranged in three tiers all around the walls – it was extraordinary, something Egyptian in scale, and there were pieces of text cut in amongst the pictures explaining what was happening and why.

vf: It must be gratifying that Bore Hole is receiving proper respect by being republished later this year by Strange Attractor Press and you that will be speaking on Bart Huges at the third Breaking Convention in July. How did these two events come about for you?

I went to an event at the October Gallery a few months ago – they hold psychedelic evenings once a month – and my friend Dave Luke asked me if I could get him a copy of Bore Hole. I said I couldn’t, that I tried many times to get it published without success and he said I know someone who’ll publish it. I should say that Dave is central to all the psychedelic events that take place. He is energetic and sympathetic, just a great guy.

Here are the emails relating to this, which I like very much. First Dave’s to Mark Pilkington, the publisher, and then his reply:

Hi Mark, 

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Joey Mellen (cc-ed in) the other night and he was discussing his classic book Bore Hole which is now out of print (I know because I tried to get a copy recently). I suggested it would be ideal for a print on demand type of distribution. Is this anything that Strange Attractor would be interested in? 

All the beast,

Dave

* * *

Hi Dave! Hi Joey!

Cosmic coincidence control must be in full effect – I was quite really just thinking how great it would be to reissue Bore Hole. 

I’m actually in Los Angeles until the weekend – dahhling – but Joey it would be great to discuss this with you, and I have no doubt we could do a fantastic edition, ideally with some extra material.

Transatlantic greetings to you both

Mark

You can imagine how wonderful that was for me – for forty five years I’ve been trying and suddenly, whoof, just like that!

 At the same event that night I said to Dave that it was time I gave a talk about Bart and he put me in touch with the organisers of Breaking Convention. As Elvis would say, “Oh such a night!”

vf: What is/was Glucocracy?

Glucocracy was the name Amanda and I gave to our business, which was colouring antique prints and trying to sell them. We had a card printed with GLUCOCRACY in the middle and under it was printed “non-mistake making organization”.  On our first attempt to sell some we went to the Army and Navy Department Store in Victoria, because it was the first name that appeared in the Yellow Pages under Department Stores. We asked someone for the picture department and they said third floor. On leaving the lift we met a lady and asked her for the picture buyer. It’s me, said Mrs Grant. She bought 26 of our prints for £3 each. I gave her our business card. She looked at and said “that’s rather a sweeping statement isn’t it?” Well I said you wouldn’t want us to make any mistakes in our colouring would you? Phew!

vf: Why did you select the word and what is its significance?

Glucocracy was a word I coined. You can surmise that I had a classical education.  I thought “rule by sugar” had a comical aspect, but also described exactly what was required in expanded consciousness.

vf: Did it produce titles in addition to Bore Hole and The Secret Sonnets?

No. Both of these were published by me in editions of 500. The sonnets were spotted by a lady who wrote about shopping in The Times. She printed one just before Valentine’s Day, offering the little book for sale for £1. We sold 500. I still have a few copies from the overrun.

vf: The postscript of The Secret Sonnets reads: There is a secret message in these sonnets | the key to the code will be printed | when the illuminated version is published. Can you tell me a little bit about the illuminated version?

It remains to be seen! The original idea was that Amanda would illustrate it one day, but that day never arrived. But who knows … ?

vf: Is it in progress? Will it be published by Strange Attractor?

 Who knows?

vf: Can you give us a hint about the secret?

It was a statement of the basic facts about the mechanism of brainbloodvolume. I wrote it out and then divided it into 40 short bits of two or three words each and then wrote each sonnet around those words. I can’t remember now what the statement was, but I’ve still got a record of it somewhere.

vf: Does the Pigeonhole Gallery still exist?

No, sadly not. It was opened by Amanda and me in 1974. We had a pigeon that lived with us – we had found it as a baby when its mother died and it grew up fixated on Amanda – so the name Pigeonhole combined Birdy with the hole in the head.

vf: I understand that you read classics at Oxford. Is that an upside down copy of Kierkegaard (half blue/half black, divided by a white stripe) on the bookshelf behind you in your photo? 

My classical education was at prep school and Eton, not Oxford, where I read law. I learnt Greek and Latin from age eight. The book in question is actually The Brothers Karamazov. My favourite novel, by far, is Wuthering Heights. I read Freud deeply, 14 books, studied on acid – he is a real hero – I consider The Interpretation of Dreams the greatest book of the 20th century. I also like Nietzsche very much – particularly The Genealogy of Morals …. nowadays I read mainly factual books, especially in the field of evolutionary biology … in literature I stick mainly to the classics, since there are so many great books that have stood the test of time, all the obvious ones, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky etc – I’ve read the complete works of Shakespeare, naturally …

* * *

Joe Mellen is alive and well! On Sunday, July 12, he will present his paper Introducing Bart at Breaking Convention 2015, The 3rd International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness at University of Greenwich, Old Royal Naval College, London, July 10-12, 2015. Amanda Feilding, who ran for British Parliament twice on the platform Trepanation for the National Health, is founder and director of the Beckley Foundation for Consciousness and Drug Policy Research. Bart Huges died in 2004.

Further reading:

Bart Huges Questioned by Joe Mellen, The Transatlantic Review, No. 23 (Winter 1966-7), pp. 31-39

Eccentric Lives and Peculiar Notions (Chapter 12, The People with Holes in their Heads), 1999, John F. Michell

Like A Hole in the Head, Cabinet Magazine, Issue 28 Bones Winter 2007/08, Christopher Turner

Joe Mellen

We are pleased to finally announce the results of our latest contest. Our sole judge and juror, Tom Phillips has selected a winner, a runner-up, and a highly-commended from among the many excellent submissions. Congratulations to Alan Beattie, Jeanette Walsh, and Ali Francis Garcia.

Alan Beattie, Winner

Jeanette Walsh, Runner Up

Ali Francis Garcia, Highly Commended

There were many fantastic and intriguing entries and we are delighted to feature some of our favorites below.

Anne Hars

Lynn Skordal

Chris Westbury

Rory Walsh

Alisa Golden

Roland Vazquez Rodriguez

Ingrid Ruthig

Of special note is the work of Ana Quintas, who writes:

My work was inspired by World War I, more specifically the Battle of La Lys (known in English as Battle of the Lys) that took place on 9th April of 1918. On that day, the 2nd Portuguese Expeditionary Corps (which was incorporated on the British Army) was attacked by German troops that were trying to pierce through Allied lines. The Portuguese troops were decimated. Everyone who wasn’t killed was taken prisoner. My great-grandfather was in that battle and he was taken prisoner. After the war was over, he returned to Portugal just to die soon after due to exposure to German poison gas.

 

I used two photographs of him in my work, which tells the experience of a soldier immediately after the battle. I imagine him seeing the dead scattered around him, broken bodies, pieces of metal. I tried to convey in my work a sense of disjointedness, a progressive dehumanization of the body and the soul. I wanted also to convey a certain claustrophobia. I imagine a net of channels that criss-crossed one another like branches on a tree. Those channels would represent the trenches and also the curves of the river Lys, except those curves were not filled with water but with dirt and blood.

 

All images in the work are my own: the background texture, the photographs of the metal pieces and the photographs of my great-grandfather (these are photographs of old photos). The background texture was made by crumbling a piece of paper, burying it on a plant vase, pouring water, digging up the paper and digitalizing it. The numbers ‘19’ and ‘18’ I cut from a newspaper.

 

Ana Quintas

And Raymond Harmon provided as his entry an animated .gif “using a method of hand editing the code in the compressed jpg to reveal hidden color and form.”

Raymond Harmon

[NOTE: The submission deadline has been extended to May 10, 2015.]

the book rules ok  -A Humument

 A Humument by Tom Phillips is, in the words of Marvin Sackner, co-founder of the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry a ‘visual-poetic artist’s book,’ a found novel whose every page has been altered by the artist through painting, collage, drawing, cut-up techniques, and even burning. The result is art, but it is also poetry (concrete, found, haptic), narrative, autobiography, oracle.  This ‘strange, beguiling work,’ as Adam Smyth calls it, is all of this and more owing to the erudition and humor of its immensely gifted and indefatigable creator.  And, importantly, it is also a work in progress. Since the artist has been at it now for nearly fifty years (Phillips first procured his source material, having decided to use the first book he could find for threepence, W. H. Mallock’s A Human Document in 1966) it is arguably in contention for being the work of longest duration by a living artist (or perhaps any artist living or dead).  Initially published in 1973, the latest version and fifth edition of A Humument was published in 2012. In it the work of revision continues with second versions of most of the pages. A Humument is also available in formats for iPad and iPhone, as well as a modified audiovisual version housed in a USB device. A perennial favorite, it has collected dozens of affirming articles over the years, some quizzical, some fawning, and some particularly intelligent and discerning such as Smyth’s  from the London Review of Books and William H. Gass’ from Artforum (My own admiration for Tom Phillips is no secret. I have previously written about him and interviewed him here.).

As Mallarmé said…

que tout, au monde, existe pour aboutir à un livre (that everything in the world exists to end up in a book)  -Le Livre, instrument spirituel

Phillips clearly relishes the significant role that chance plays in this endeavor (to such an extent that he views A Humument somewhat as an oracular device), beginning with his more or less arbitrary selection of raw material. Had he chosen another volume that morning (or even another edition of the same work), the result would have been different and possibly even unsatisfying enough to compel him to abandon the project. Phillips admits that the project began ‘as idle play at the fringe of my work and preoccupations’ and that ‘virtually all the work on A Humument has been done in the evenings, so that I might not, had the thing become a folly, regret the waste of days’. But perhaps chance is simply part and parcel of the artists’ life.  In the end, he develops a strange and intimate relationship with Mallock and A Human Document, going so far as to suggest that the resulting work is ‘a curious unwitting collaboration between two ill-suited people seventy-five years apart.’

I asked Johanna Drucker , visual theorist and book artist and author of the seminal study The Century of Artists’ Books to discuss the significance of A Humument:

In some ways, A Humument is one of the most canonical and visible works in the field–perhaps the most visible. Phillips’s genius is in his graphics: the graphical imagination and inexhaustible invention of his intervention in the pages is fantastic. He plays with every trope of illustration and illusion, of textual reference and bibliographical construction, and he has a great sense of color and design. A Humument is absolutely his most compelling and public work, and for good reason. It is both a conceptual piece and a wonderfully executed work and will stand the test of time, I think, as an engaging and virtuosic exercise de style and demonstration of invention. Other artists have worked in the altered book format. Many have done more sculptural, spatial, or physical transformations. Many artists have cut, painted on, or otherwise made use of found books. So, in some ways, the elements of Phillips’s project–an excised text, altered book or pages, and painterly transformations– all connect to other strains of book art. This doesn’t take anything away from Phillips’s work, or its originality, but does situate it within a set of practices of which it is a part. 

I am truly delighted that Tom Phillips has agreed to bless our latest (and tenth!)  contest, which is to create an original visual and/or poetic work using any media or methods (You can view the entire book here! Or, better yet, why not purchase it.). He has also selected the page from A Human Document that will be the prima materia for this work. Of its particular significance, he says:

‘The first version of page 4 dates from the late sixties, with the usual minimal text for that period and the page otherwise covered with linear abstract penwork. When the time came to make the second version I was amazed to find ‘nine’ and ‘eleven’ in the appropriate order to echo that recent catastrophe. A Human Document has often turned up trumps in this way. Other words on the page will spur other people to quite different resulting pictorial and textual strategies.’

A high-resolution .tif of page 4 is here (Alternately, you can use the lower resolution .jpg here). The winner or winners selected by Tom Phillips himself will receive a limited edition Humument screenprint signed and editioned by the artist. Entries must be received by 10 May 2015 11:00PM GMT. See Humument Contest Brief for more information.

Many, many thanks to Tom Phillips and Lucy Shortis!

A Humument, p. 4, first version (late 1960s)

A Humument, p. 4, second version (2012)

A Human Document, p.4

Selected pages from A Humument:

My darling Nadia – are you alive, my dear?

-letter from Osip Mandelstam, October 1938

I have no words, my darling, to write this letter that you may never read, perhaps. I am writing in empty space.

-letter from Nadezhda Mandelstam, 22 October 1938

In all likelihood, Osip Mandelstam, considered by many to be Russia’s finest poet, perished in the final days of 1938 during an outbreak of spotted typhus shortly after arriving in the overcrowded Vtoraya Rechka transit camp outside of Vladivostok. Already in ill health after four months of presumed beatings and torture in the NKVD’s notorious Lubyanka prison, he would have arrived at the camp with unhealed injuries, starving, emaciated and barely able to walk after five grueling weeks in a stifling prison transport, a journey that covered the nearly 6000-mile length of the Trans-Siberian Railway line from Moscow to Vladivostok. There, delirious and raving, having bartered his yellow leather coat for a half kilo of sugar (as one camp survivor claimed), suffering from dysentery, exposure, malnutrition, and unable to stand, he would have died of typhus or some other disease caused by his ordeals and the inhuman conditions at the camp. Thus at least he was spared the unimaginable horrors of the dreadful two-thousand mile journey by slave-ship across the Seas of Japan and Okhotsk to the cruel Gulags of Kolyma where he was to begin serving his five-year sentence of hard labor for counter-revolutionary activities.

I hate to think that at the moment when my mind was set at rest on being told in the post office that he was dead, he may actually have been still alive and on his way to Kolyma.

Hope Against Hope, Nadezhda Mandelstam’s startlingly clear-eyed recounting of great personal tragedy amid the immeasurably greater Soviet tragedy that unfolded during the second quarter of the twentieth century would be extraordinary by any account, but it is her equanimity, her self-composure impossibly balanced between resignation and defiance that makes it such an indelible and powerful document. Self-pity, paralysis and self-righteousness are nowhere to be found, in spite of the intense persecutions suffered by her and her husband (in her memoirs always referred to simply as M.). They simply continued on together, living as best they could through more or less chronic poverty and M.’s increasingly poor health, on constant alert for informers and secret police, weathering M.’s first arrest and imprisonment, their long periods of exile, the loss of possessions and livelihood, the painful separation or alienation from friends (of which she discusses many, most notably the great poet and lifelong friend Anna Akhmatova, but also Isaac Babel, Ilya Ehrenburg, Andrei Bely, and many others), and alternately battling and accepting the false hopes, gnawing uncertainty, and growing fear, until M.’s final arrest in May 1938.

The main feature of Russian history, something that never changes, is that every road always brings disaster – and not only to heroes. Survival is a matter of pure chance. It is not this that surprises me so much  as the fact that a few people, for all their frailty, came through the whole ordeal like heroes, not only living to tell the tale, but preserving the keenness of mind that enables them to do so. I know people like this, but the time has not yet come to name them…

During all of this, and in the decades following his death, Nadezhda Mandelstam dedicated her life to protecting and preserving Osip Mandelstam’s poems, memorizing them and writing out copies to entrust to friends or to secret hiding places. As Joseph Brodsky noted, she was the wife of Osip Mandelstam for 19 years and his widow for 42.

This, then, was how the beauties of my generation ended their lives – as the widows of martyrs, consoled in prison or exile only by a secret hoard of verse stored in their memory.

Osip and Nadezhda Mandelstam by Seamus Heaney in the London Review of Books, Vol.3 No. 15 – 20 August 1981 pp. 3-6

I have invented a new genre – the genre of silence

-Isaac Babel, August 1934

In the vast, intricate tapestry of Russian history, the pattern and weave is of almost incomprehensible complexity. In particular, the events of the years 1934 – 1939 are so dense as to be nearly impenetrable. Arguably the most repressive years of the Soviet Union, these half-dozen years are bookended on the one hand by the 17th Congress of the Communist Party, the ascendance of the NKVD, and the assassination of Sergei Kirov; and on the other by the end of the Spanish Civil War with the loss of the Soviet-supported Republican forces, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany, and the Soviet invasion of Poland.

The peak years were undoubtedly 1937-1938, dominated by the Great Purge, that frenzy of repression and paranoia largely in service of Josef Stalin’s consolidation of power, in which Stalin took the opportunity to dispose, en masse, through Nikolai Yezhov‘s brutal NKVD, of ‘counter-revolutionaries’, ‘enemies of the people’ and any and all threats, real or imagined. These comprised the vast majority of Old Bolsheviks, high-ranking military personnel, and Communist Party officials, including the Central Committee and the Politburo.  This so-called Yezhovshchina was marked by mass arrests, detentions, torture, forced confessions, and show trials (more frequently, there were no trials at all) resulting in the execution of somewhere between 750,000 and 1.5 million people and probably even more, and the sending of countless millions more to the hundreds of labor camps and colonies of the vast GULAG system (all of this after collectivization and forced resettlement contributed to the famine of 1932-1933 that killed at least 3 million, but possibly as many as 8 million people).

Victor Serge’s The Case of Comrade Tulayev takes place during these peak years. Written in 1942 from Serge’s exile in Mexico, and harshly critical of the cruel repression of Stalin’s totalitarian regime, it highlights with startling clarity the madness of the time through a handful of elegantly interwoven stories of individuals ensnared by an investigation into the assassination of Tulayev, a high-level Party official. At no point is it a detective story; we know the identity of the murderer the moment Tulayev is killed at the end of the first chapter. Nor is it a satire, since the chain of events depicted are hardly outlandish given the paranoia of the time. Rather it is a beautifully nuanced experience in dreadful slow-motion of the arbitrary violence caused by an enormous out-of-control machine as it decimates everything in its path. Here are shown not only the high-level Party members, acting out of delusion, fear, and self-preservation, but also the old guard, the idealists and the disillusioned, former members of the Left Opposition, followers of Nikolai Bukharin and Leon Trotsky.

Christopher Hitchens notes in his essay in The Atlantic Monthly (December 2003):

After Dostoyevsky and slightly before Arthur Koestler, but contemporary with Orwell and Kafka and somewhat anticipating Solzhenitsyn, there was Victor Serge. His novels and poems and memoirs, most of them directed at the exposure of Stalinism, were mainly composed in jail or on the run. Some of the manuscripts were confiscated or destroyed by the Soviet secret police; in the matter of poetry Serge was able to outwit them by rewriting from memory the verses he had composed in the Orenburg camp, deep in the Ural Mountain section of the Gulag Archipelago.

For many years Serge was almost lost to view. He was one of those intellectual misfits (I intend no disrespect by the term) who were ground to powder between the upper and nether millstones of Stalin and Hitler.

The cover of the edition I own (above) is by George Giusti.