The theorist, critic and teacher Mark Fisher has died, it was announced on Saturday. Fisher was an influential voice in cultural theory and music criticism, bringing theory and philosophy into dialogue with politics, art underground and popular culture. Fisher had studied philosophy at Warwick University in the mid-1990s and was one of the key figures involved in the short-lived Cybernetic Culture Research Unit there, which drew together notable theorists, artists and writers such as Nick Land, Kodwo Eshun and Hari Kunzru. Fisher went on to lecture at Goldmiths College, where he was lecturer in the Department of Visual Studies.
Fisher wrote for many publications including The Wire and Sight & Sound, while his blog K-Punk, started in 2003, earned him a wide following. His book 2009 Capitalist Realism: is there no alternative? was a much-referenced success for Zer0 Books, the publishing house where he was also commissioning editor, and which published his later collection Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures in 2014. In late 2014, he and other editors left Zer0 to start a new imprint, Repeater. His latest book The Weird and the Eerie, was published by Repeater earlier this month.
16 January 2017
