The Undergrowth Digital Library is pleased to host a number of emergent and established Australian writers in e-Book form.
e-Books offer an alternative to print publishing, which is especially important when considering environmental impact in the information age. Alternatively, by opening access to global audiences and establishing relationships with readers, electronic versions of books offer a publishing testbed that can flow through to increased sales for print copies.
We extend full copyright control to the owners and creators of the e-Books under the new Creative Commons licenses which encourage online readership and marketing through viral distribution (word of mouth and email) whilst protecting legal rights.
To download an e-book, simply click on a title in the library menu below. To be advised of further titles join our subscriber list. If you would like to host your e-Book with Undergrowth please contact the Editors.
The Man Who Never Sleeps is Levin A. Diatschenko’s first novel, a blend of metaphysics, mystery and science fiction. It is the result of years of study into occultism. Since its launch in the Darwin Fringe Festival, followed with its nation-wide distribution, it has attracted an underground following of readers as diverse and individual as the characters in the book.
During the months of August and September, The Man Who Never Sleeps will be released in a serialised form on www.undergrowth.org, featuring new illustrations by the author throughout. Readers will be able to subscribe to a special email list to receive updates when new chapters are uploaded weekly at .
"Terror-Razing the Forest" is an investigation by independent journalist and human rights activist Nick Chesterfield into cross-border issues in West Papua/Papua New Guinea involving corruption, clear felling, gun smuggling and much more.
"This preliminary investigation is based on field interviews conducted in Papua New Guinea
throughout November 2005. Information was gathered through interviews and conversations that
were conducted with West Papuan refugees, guerrillas, priests, bishops, grassroots activists, aid
workers, ex-premiers, members of Parliament, NIO agents, PNGDF personnel, ADF personnel, ex-police,
pilots, fishermen, villagers, journalists, bookmakers, vanilla growers, marijuana growers, gun smugglers and even a pimp."
In 1943, Dr. Albert Hoffmann, a chemist based in Switzerland accidentally discovered LSD-25, the most powerful synthesised hallucinogenic known to man at the time. This little molecule went on to become famous and then infamous as it swept through the intelligentsia, artists, writers and cultural elite across the world and was seen as an essential 'ingredient' in the consciousness uprisings of the 1960's and 70's. Over 60 years later Albert Hoffmann celebrated his 100th birthday in Basel, Switzerland by holding a symposium titled 'LSD: Problem Child or Wonder Drug' to discuss the effects and possible future of his discovery.
"REBIRTH: The Psychedelic Movement Comes of Age" is a fully illustrated, downloadable PDF booklet reprinting the gonzo journal of Dr. Rak Razam co-editor of Undergrowth as he explores the explosive history and contemporary state of psychedelic culture. (13,000 words).
'30 years of Creative Resistance' is a compilation of writing and art celebrating the work of Friends of the Earth Australia over the last thirty years. With contributions from leading activists in the organisation over that time, it chronicles the contribution which this incredible grasroots organisation has made to the political landscape of Australia, through campaigns against deforestation, climate change, uranium mining, whilst promoting alternative energy, indigenous rights and trade justice.
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This e-book is an edited transcript of the virtual think tank held in conjunction with the Straight Out Of Brisbane Festival Ideas Program in November, 2004. Bringing together media activists, artists and academics, the think tank explored three themes: You Can't Govern a nation by Google: The Future of Ideas Online; Copyright - Copywrong; What's On the Cards: Long Term agendas for Change.
FreeNRG is a collection of frontline communiques on technotribes, contemporary musical practices and events transpiring on the fringes of Australian dance culture throughout the nineties. The anthology's 13 essays are written by specialists and affiliates of a spectrum of youth phenomena found at the edge of the dance floor.
Edited by the radical anthropologist Graham St John, FreeNRG describes a series of Australian subcultures who subscribe to an economy of mutual-aid and co-operation, are committed to the non-commodification of art and embrace freedoms of experience and expression. Artists and activists, their cultural output is a product of novel mixtures of pleasure and politics. technicians and esotericists, they pirate technologies in the pursuit of re-enchantment and liberated space.
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State of Emergency was a conference/festival/insurrection held in a reclaimed inner-city Melbourne warehouse, squatted and made public for four days over 21 - 24 May, 2004. It was a search for escape routes to galaxies where the word capitalism is untranslatable and to which people only respond with puzzled looks. It was a meeting-place, bar, cafe, cinema, music hall, accommodation and playspace.
This e-book is a collection of essays and articles relating to issues of globalisation, war on terror and fear politics, civil disobedience, squatting and contemporary organising models amongst disenfrachised communities which was distributed as part of the conference.
From the foreword by Nick Chesterfield, author of 'Secret History of Australia'
'After many years of actively fighting for justice in many struggles, I kept on coming up against the same bunch of very powerful people, time after time. I started to doubt the story of the heroic settlement of our Land, and started to think that maybe the wish to take over went back a long way. To think that the British managed to colonise a country only eighteen years after it's discovery dug at me. I started finding out about the foundations of the particular people in control and started to look into the historical events that I suspected were manipulated by these people.
One day a Sufi man started talking to me about the legend of Ophir, the legendary Islands of King Solomon, the lands full of gold, and something clicked into place.
This then, is the full story of the hidden facts and power brokers, the Secret History of Australia, laid bare for all to see and understand.'
'99 monkeys can share an idea - but when the 100th monkey tunes in a critical consciousness is achieved that tips the scales for all. That critical mass for change depends on YOU! You could be the 100th monkey!'
-Ken Keyes Jnr, the 100th Monkey
The Tribal POW-WOW was an exercise in group-mind and non-hierarchical community discussion. It hoped to raise issues and stimulate ideas and connect people together.
This is the transcript of the first 100th Monkey Pow-Wow held in Jan, 2005 at the Opoeia Arts Community in Victoria.
The future has arrived, but there's something distinctly wrong with it. Robots that were meant to abolish human labour are creating mass unemployment because political systems aren't evolving as fast as our technology. Virtual gaming economies are outstripping the GDP of some small nations, telecommunications breakthroughs have brought us porn on our video phones, and Flash-Mobs roam the urban jungles, manifesting the sublime and shaking consumers from their retail addictions.
Psyence Fiction is a collection of fourteen short stories by Rak Razam that capture the spirit of the decade and the psychedelic, hi-tech future we live in. Illustrated by some of Australia's best underground artists and photographers, the e-Book is a glimpse at the brave nu world around us and the bold characters that struggle to survive it.
GUNS, CORRUPTION, ILLEGAL LOGGING, JI & THE INDONESIAN MILITARY IN PAPUA NIUGINI A PNG INVESTIGATION INTO CROSS-BORDER ISSUES; CORRUPTION, RIMBUNAN-HIJAU, GUN SMUGGLING, AND MUCH MORE.... (OR “TASMANIA ISN’T THE ONLY PLACE WHERE GUNS AND TIMBER GO TOGETHER”) This preliminary investigation is based on field interviews conducted in Papua New Guinea throughout November 2005. Information was gathered through interviews and conversations that were conducted with West Papuan refugees, guerrillas, priests, bishops, grassroots activists, aid workers, ex-premiers, members of Parliament, NIO agents, PNGDF personnel, ADF personnel, ex-police, pilots, fishermen, villagers, journalists, bookmakers, vanilla growers, marijuana growers and even gun smugglers and a pimp. Over twelve formal interviews were conducted in total, and the majority of those interviewed asked not to be identified in any preliminary investigations (in the hope of ensuring a full scale investigation would be conducted).
'30 years of Creative Resistance' is a compilation of writing and art celebrating the work of Friends of the Earth Australia over the last thirty years. With contributions from leading activists in the organisation over that time, it chronicles the contribution which this incredible grasroots organisation has made to the political landscape of Australia, through campaigns against deforestation, climate change, uranium mining, whilst promoting alternative energy, indigenous rights and trade justice.
Visit the websites of
Friends of the Earth Australia and Friends of the Earth International
for more information on campaigns and how to get involved.
To download the PDF issue simply click on the attachment below.
.
State of Emergency was a conference/festival/insurrection held in a reclaimed inner-city Melbourne warehouse, squatted and made public for four days over 21 - 24 May, 2004. It was a search for escape routes to galaxies where the word capitalism is untranslatable and to which people only respond with puzzled looks. It was a meeting-place, bar, cafe, cinema, music hall, accommodation and playspace.
This e-book is a collection of essays and articles relating to issues of globalisation, war on terror and fear politics, civil disobedience, squatting and contemporary organising models amongst disenfrachised communities which was distributed as part of the conference.
Excerpt from the State of Emergency Reader:
-------------------------------------- RED ALERT
Armed guards patrol 'civilian' aircraft. Travellers from suspicious states entering the USA are fingerprinted and photographed. Anti-terror laws allow anyone to be arrested without warrants or legal representation. Arms budgets inflate. The US runs a police state in Iraq while Australia becomes the 'sheriff' of the Asia-Pacific: interning its unwanted visitors here, providing military intervention there. Fear of the 'invading hordes' is the law. For the rulers of the global empire, the time since 9/11/2001 has been a 'state of emergency'.
But for the exploited, the poor, the different, the disenfranchised, nothing much has changed. Capitalism has always manufactured panics. It has always exploited our bodies, our minds, our time, our creativity, the planet on which we live. It has always forced us to move or given us no choice but to flee, reclassified us as illegal to suit its needs, barricaded itself against our strength and life and designed ever more spurious 'threats' to the state in order to shut down its people. Our daily lives are just as difficult as before. The state of emergency is not the exception, but the rule.
--------------------------------------- For full transcripts of the conference check out the State of Emergency website.
To download the PDF issue simply click on the attachment below.
From the foreword by Nick Chesterfield, author of 'Secret History of Australia'
'After many years of actively fighting for justice in many struggles, I kept on coming up against the same bunch of very powerful people, time after time. I started to doubt the story of the heroic settlement of our Land, and started to think that maybe the wish to take over went back a long way. To think that the British managed to colonise a country only eighteen years after it's discovery dug at me. I started finding out about the foundations of the particular people in control and started to look into the historical events that I suspected were manipulated by these people.
One day a Sufi man started talking to me about the legend of Ophir, the legendary Islands of King Solomon, the lands full of gold, and something clicked into place.
This then, is the full story of the hidden facts and power brokers, the Secret History of Australia, laid bare for all to see and understand.'
To download the PDF issue simply click on the attachment below.
'99 monkeys can share an idea - but when the 100th monkey tunes in a critical consciousness is achieved that tips the scales for all. That critical mass for change depends on YOU! You could be the 100th monkey!' -Ken Keyes Jnr, the 100th Monkey
The Tribal POW-WOW was an exercise in group-mind and non-hierarchical community discussion. It hoped to raise issues and stimulate ideas and connect people together. This is the transcript of the first 100th Monkey Pow-Wow held in Jan, 2005 at the Opoeia Arts Community in Victoria.
To download the PDF issue simply click on the attachment below.
The future has arrived, but there's something distinctly wrong with it. Robots that were meant to abolish human labour are creating mass unemployment because political systems aren't evolving as fast as our technology. Virtual gaming economies are outstripping the GDP of some small nations, telecommunications breakthroughs have brought us porn on our video phones, and Flash-Mobs roam the urban jungles, manifesting the sublime and shaking consumers from their retail addictions.
Psyence Fiction is a collection of fourteen short stories by Rak Razam that capture the spirit of the decade and the psychedelic, hi-tech future we live in. Illustrated by some of Australia's best underground artists and photographers, the e-Book is a glimpse at the brave nu world around us and the bold characters that struggle to survive it.
:::Contents:::
10/ Surfing the Novelty Wave
15/ Fraud
22/ Leisure is Pleasure
28/ Play
35/ Under the Skin
42/ Ambient Head
48/ Telefuck
54/ Mantra
60/ WW3 is a Party
68/ Freedom
75/ Rainbow Dreaming
96/ Global Eyes
114/ Ravenarok
120/ Monkey Tales
Written by Rak_Razam
Art Ruby Wu, Tim Parish, Doug Hall, Tush Gun, Emmy Boudry, Paul Abad, Halska Serefine Masash, Hans Hendriksen, Christian Walker, Blaine Machan, Warwick Johnston, Robin Cooke, Saskia Folk, Alex Courtney, Andrea Blundell, Oliver Dunlop, Andre & Lisa Ismael.
More about Rak Razam
http://www.rakrazam.com/
To download the PDF issue simply click on the attachment below. To browse sample jpegs of the issue click on the jpegs in the box below.