Episode #3: “Who’s Pulling Your Strings?” w/ Amy Ireland

This week, we continue our exploration of the work of Mark Fisher with an extensive interview with his friend and collaborator Robin Mackay.

Last week, we dipped our collective toe into the blogosphere of the mid-2000s, discussing hyperstition, 70s pulp sci-fi and some of Fisher’s most enduring weird and eerie interests. Lurking in the background was Fisher’s role as a member of the Ccru, and who better to discuss this period of activity with than Robin Mackay.

Mackay is a philosopher, translator and director of the hugely influential publishing house Urbanomic. He also posts his own writings over at readthis.wtf. He has, since Fisher’s death in 2017, reignited interest in the work of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (Ccru) through the publication of their writings.

This week, we talk about the Ccru, Robin’s own work and interests, and also his more recent return to his collaborations with Fisher in the form of a newly haunted audio-work, By The North Sea.

You can listen in all of the usual places, including Spotify, iTunes and Podbean. You’ll also find the episode on YouTube here.

For Zer0 Books patrons, there is also a bonus conversation available here, in which Mackay discusses the hauntological significance of time travel in twentieth-century British sci-fi, riffing on our previous conversation about Children of the Stones, a TV series that Mackay shares our perverted love for.

The K Files logo, theme tune and accompanying video introduction were created by Sereptie.