[Eldon Garnett, editor]
Impulse Interviews
Toronto, Canada: Impulse[b], 2018
264 pp., 10.5 x 10.5", softcover
Edition size unknown
The Toronto-based Impulse Magazine ran from 1971 to 1990, focusing on primary texts from cultural creators, and on presenting the visual arts as interconnected with architecture, literature, cinema, music, politics, and philosophy. It featured contributions by Patti Smith, Kathy Acker, John Waters, Joyce Wieland, Andy Warhol, Vito Acconci, Dennis Oppenheim and Michael Snow.
Mimicking the format of original magazine, Impulse Interviews consists of over 60 interviews, including artists (Andy Warhol), philosophers (Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault), musicians (Blondie, Kraftwerk, Iggy Pop, Nina Hagen), filmmakers (David Cronenberg, Wim Wenders, Alain Robbe-Grillet), authors (William Burroughs, J.G.Ballard), and many others. It seems unlikely there is another collection to feature an interview with both Devo and Buckminster Fuller.
"When I took over Impulse in 1975, I was inspired by the Evergreen Review and was reading Aspen and Avant Garde. I was familiar with the artist’s journal Avalanche and its cofounder Willoughby Sharp, who later became Impulse’s New York editor. With Impulse, I wanted to experiment with what the word magazine could mean. We did an LP record. In 1978, we made an issue that was essentially a microfiche and a Super-8 movie."
"We were only interested in publishing primary expression by artists, and that’s how we ended up focusing on interviews. How do you deal with a certain kind of artist and make their voice primary? Chris Burden would submit a piece, and it would be a creation for the magazine. But let’s say you’re a dancer—you can’t create for the magazine, so we would do an interview to get as close to the voice of the practitioner as possible."
"I should also add that Toronto in the ’80s was a hot spot for publishing. There was an amazing energy going on—which you can see with File and with C Magazine. When I did Impulse, it was very much as an auteur project. It was based on the artist controlling the means of production and dissemination of information."
"When I interviewed Warhol, I said I wanted to do an in-depth interview. He said, “Sorry, I don’t do depth.”"
- Eldon Garnet, interviewed by Tatum Dooley, for Artforum
The book is being launched tonight at Printed Matter, featuring a conversation between Nick Haramis (editor-in-chief, Interview Magazine) and Eldon Garnet (publisher, Impulse-b), alongside a screening of Ross McLaren’s WINNING, a Super 8 documentary of Impulse Magazine’s 1979 International Dance Contest
Printed Matter / St Marks
38 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003
Tue May 14 / 6 pm
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