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"Has popular music been completely consumed by melancholy, anxiety and hopelessness?" Karel Veselý and Miloš Hroch ask in their 2020 book named after a song by The Cure, and today we delve into their compelling narrative.

When famous animals quote Baudrillard, Borges and McLuhan to discuss their cultural representations, you know it is time to listen. This excerpt from Georgie Brinkman’s eclectic treatise showcases the author’s playful search for new ways of telling stories that involve our kin.

In an insightful and poignant essay, art theorist Tereza Špinková takes a fascinating plunge into the perceived Anthropocentric border on which liminal animals, othereness, monsters, and non-human-centred art currently exist. Ethereal, primordial-like digital fuzziness provided by illustrator Juliana Höschlová accompanies the written piece.

Floryan Varennes’ suspended assemblages of medical plastic, stainless steel and jewelry explore a history of violence as a means to strengthen the soul. Their abstract shapes and motions are accompanied by a curatorial text that swirls in tune with the creations, all for you to immerse yourself in today’s SWARM MAG installment.

It's 2022. We are tired, you are tired. Let's get comfy and look at animals videos on YouTube. For the opening theme of this year, we have chosen to find joy in the patterns, softness, lives and brilliance of non-human animals. The article is accompanied by tailor-made animation and art by Roberta Curcă. So, we are asking: WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?

It is with great pleasure that we are introducing the next theme for the upcoming three months. FUTURE FORECASTING will delve into fringe notions on the outskirts of our reality, which are bound to become mainstream. The incredible accompanying animation was custom-made for SWARM Mag by French artist Guillaume Legoux.

Text by Alexander Lepianka captures the essence of Alexander Fahima’s audiovisual piece, The Rules of Attraction, which is a free-flowing series of real-time interactions, improvised snippets, and bodies. The use of a party as a medium sets the stage for opéra concrète – an amalgam of performance, livestream and excerpts from the libretto of Wagner's opera.

Czech poet Jan Jindřích Karásek and Finnish digital artist Lauri Renvall come together for an exclusive collaboration in this SWARM MAG entry. Delve into this unique intermedial play where text and digital art touch on the complex topics of today’s intimacy.

Who counts sheep and who the freckles on your imaginary body before they go to sleep? Writer Zuzana Trachtová portrays how our fantasies claim and appropriate strangers' bodies for our own amusement and arousal – and vice versa. The essay is accompanied by illustrations and animations by Lucie Frýdlová.

Enter Pavla Malinová, the Moravian artist of eclectic influences and deep, saturated colors whose works remind us of ancient and non-European art, but which could only have been created in the second decade of the 21st century.

After dealing with the oftentimes fantastical, spiritual and ephemeral topics of the preceding neo-medievalism-focused theme, we're now shifting gears to something very real, personal, non-abstract and tangible. Make room for HEAVENLY BODIES. In this article, you'll find a summary of what's to come.

Ever since its inception, Dungeon Synth has been both an amalgamation of many different genres and an influential dynamo whose reverberations are still felt today. Join us on a journey into the depths, but keep your ears peeled: there lurks a different evil in the dungeons than just the demons and peculiar nostalgias.

An expansive and imaginative essay by Dr Denisa Kera, 'Uncanny Microelectronics: Intaglio and the Aesthetics of Circuit Boards', explores an unlikely link regarding the Renaissance technique of intaglio, Albrech Dürer, military tactics, and the microelectronics industry.

Where does one draw the line between magical thinking and debilitating fixations? Accompanied by illustrative collages, Viktoriia Tymonova meditates on the connections between OCD, ritualism and the middle ages on a search for a “common ground between reality and fiction.”

For some time now, our brains have been floating in the shallow waters of the Understimulation Sea. With bread, salt and hair clippers, we welcomed the era of staying safe and sane between the four walls, still. The third exclusive video by SWARM Mag awaits you.

“I suppose the way humans think is naturally gothic in a sense. The desire to simplify the perceived world, to abstract everything we cannot reasonably grasp and, at the same time, be a part of it all,” says artist Dominik Adamec. Which way do the Middle Ages penetrate into his works, how does the contemporary chimera look, and what does repetition lead to?

We got flooded with breathtaking art in the wake of our open call for the first SWARM Mag theme of 2021, NEO-MEDIEVALISM, and that's why we are changing the theme's duration for the first time. Get the rundown of what you can look forward to in the course of the upcoming not three but six months.

This space wouldn't thrive as much without a semi-regular supply of poetry so we've called upon the first Poet Laureate of Plymouth, one of the earliest loyal fans of SWARM Mag and our friend Stephan Delbos to deliver us from this specific medium shortage. Accompanied by illustrations by Czech artist Mikoláš Zika. Enjoy a piece tailored to and inspired by our current umbrella topic – FRONT RUNNER

Is masturbation a race? A contest? And if it is – with whom? Czech writer and anthropologist Zuzana Trachtová shuffles and deals out the playcards of the game of self-discovery and self-pleasure. The text is accompanied by delicate and symbolic illustrations by Czech artist Julie Daňhelová, which were custom made for SWARM Mag.

In her essay, Czech writer Bára Čápová gives us an intricate look into the heyday and present state of a once-popular online world-building game still suspended “out there”. This piece was composed exclusively for SWARM Mag.