Datacide

The Association of Autonomous Astronauts (AAA), founded in 1995 with a symbolic balloon launch near Windsor Castle, was a radical, community-based experiment in space exploration and cultural resistance. Its 30th anniversary was marked in April 2025 at London’s MayDay Rooms, reflecting on the AAA’s legacy as an outernational network blending art, politics, music, and play. Through raves, three-sided football, and space-themed actions, the AAA critiqued corporate, military, and elite control of space—concerns that feel strikingly relevant amid today’s commercialization and militarization of space travel. Report by Neil Transpontine from the upcoming issue of Datacide:

Autonomous Astronauts at MayDay Rooms - Datacide The Association of Autonomous Astronauts celebrated 30 years since its foundation with an event at MayDay Rooms, London in April 2025.

The Situationist International and its historicisation - Art movement or part of the Communist Left? - text of a talk by Christoph Fringeli from 2018 on the exhibition at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. Previously unpublished:

The Situationist International as World Cultural Heritage? - Datacide “The Most Dangerous Game” was the title of an exhibition in 2018 about the Situationist International and it’s “way to May 68” in Berlin.

New on the Datacide website: Obituary for Ian Miley aka Blackmass Plastics, amazing DJ and musician who also ran the Thorn Industries and DIrty Needles labels and wrote many record reviews for Datacide. A friend and an inspiration. 1972-2025 RIP

Ian Miley Obituary - Datacide Ian Miley, producer, DJ and sometimes contributor to Datacide, known as Blackmass died in June 2025; Obituary by The Reverend.

New article on the datacide website: In June 2024 the Interior Minister of Germany took the unusual step to ban the far right media organisation 'Compact' Magazine & TV. A year later the highest court has decided to lift the ban. Context and background:

Compact Magazine wins in court – Ban lifted - Datacide The far right Compact Magazine was banned by the Interior Minister in Summer 2024, now the ban has been lifted - here's the background.

The complete content of Break/Flow 2 is now online at the Datacide site. Burnt Money Weekend, the closing text of the issue, is an experiment in theoretical fiction that attempts to summarise some of the themes that preceded it: namely voluntary servitude as it coincides with sado-masochism. This latter is rendered as a metaphor for capitalist social relations, their criticism and transformation. Check it out here:

Burnt Money Weekend - Datacide Burnt Money Weekend is the final article from the second print edition of Howard Slater's zine Break/Flow, originally from 1999.

This speculative text from Break/Flow 2 discusses notions of the unconscious as a dialectical dynamic to be embraced rather than as a forbidden zone to be feared. This latter, propagated in part by Freud, leads to a self-censorship that curtails the auto-theorisation that ensues from creative and political engagement. Music eventually comes to figure as that which frees-us-up.

Abreaction - Notes on the Unconscious and Music - Datacide Abreaction - Notes on the Unconscious and Music discusses notions of the unconscious as a dialectical dynamic to be embraced.

Uploads of Break/Flow 2 continue with an investigation into Marcel Proust and music: https://datacide-magazine.com/a-silver-knife-striking-a-wall-of-glass/ Well worth reading (like the rest of it!)

“A Silver Knife Striking A Wall of Glass” - Datacide Hwward Slater's article "A Silver Knife Striking A Wall of Glass" on Marcel Proust and Music from Break/Flow 2, 1999.

Now online on the Datacide site: Howard Slater's incisive article about Factory Records, Joy Division, Martin Hannett, A Certain Ratio, Royal Family & The Poor, Tony Wilson, the Situationist influence, the 'subversion of the product - and more:
https://datacide-magazine.com/graveyard-ballroom/
Originally from Break/Flow 2, 1999.

Graveyard & Ballroom - Datacide Graveyard & Ballroom - A Factory Records Scrapbook by Howard Slater from the second print edition of Break/Flow 2.

We continue uploading the content of the second issue of Howard Slater's Break/Flow magazine from 1999 with further explorations into the writings of Kafka. "Outside the Castle / Inside the Unconscious". On Franz Kafka's The Castle. And Psychoanalysis.

Outside the Castle / Inside the Unconscious - Datacide In Outside the Castle / Inside the Unconscious Howard Slater investigates aspects of The Castle by Franz Kafka.