Cabinet is a quarterly, Brooklyn, NY-based, non-profit art & culture periodical launched in 2000. Cabinet also operates an event and exhibition space in Brooklyn.

Section 1: Columns

Each issue begins with four of Cabinet's recurring columns. Some columns have (or have had) recurring writers. Some columns appear more frequently than others:

• "The Clean Room" is David Serlin's column on science and technology. (First appearance: issue 1.)
• "Colors", which appears in every issue, presents a writer or artist's response to a specific color assigned by the editors. (First appearance: issue 1.)
• "Ingestion", a column originated by Allen S. Weiss, explores food within a framework informed by aesthetics
  Aesthetics
  Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
  
  , history
  History
  History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
  
  , and philosophy
  Philosophy
  Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
  
  . (First appearance: issue 1.)
• "Leftovers" examines the cultural significance of detritus. (First appearance: issue 1.)
• "Thing" invites writers in various fields to take a shot at identifying a single found object not recognizable to the Cabinet editors. (First appearance: issue 12.)
• "Inventory" is an occasional column that features and sometimes examines a list, catalogue, or register. (First appearance: issue 13.)
• "Black Pyramid" is Peter Lamborn Wilson
  Peter Lamborn Wilson
  Peter Lamborn Wilson , is an American political writer, essayist, and poet, known for first proposing the concept of the Temporary Autonomous Zone , based, in part, on a historical review of pirate utopias...
  
  's column on the poetics
  Poetics
  Aristotle's Poetics is the earliest-surviving work of dramatic theory and the first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory...
  
   of esoterica. (First appearance: issue 18.)
• "Object Lesson", a column by Celeste Olalquiaga, "reads culture against the grain to identify striking illustrations of historical process or principle." (First appearance: issue 20.)
• "A Minor History of," a column by Joshua Foer
  Joshua Foer
  Joshua Foer is a freelance journalist living in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, with a primary focus on science. He was the 2006 U.S.A...
  
  , examines an overlooked cultural phenomenon using a timeline. (First appearance: issue 25.)

Section 2: Main

The Main section features miscellaneous essays, interviews, and artist projects.

Section 3: Theme

The third, themed section features essays, interviews, and artist projects related to a specific theme. A theme-based CD is included in issues 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13.

Issues and Themes

• Issue 1: Invented Languages
• Issue 2: Mapping Conversations
• Issue 3: Weather
• Issue 4: Animals
• Issue 5: Evil
• Issue 6: Horticulture
• Issue 7: Failure
• Issue 8: Pharmacopia
• Issue 9: Childhood
• Issue 10: Property
• Issue 11: Flight
• Issue 12: The Enemy
• Issue 13: Futures
• Issue 14: Doubles
• Issue 15: The Average
• Issue 16: The Sea
• Issue 17: Laughter
• Issue 18: Fictional States
• Issue 19: Chance
• Issue 20: Ruins
• Issue 21: Electricity
• Issue 22: Insecurity
• Issue 23: Fruits
• Issue 24: Shadows
• Issue 25: Insects
• Issue 26: Magic
• Issue 27: Mountains
• Issue 28: Bones
• Issue 29: Sloth
• Issue 30: Underground
• Issue 31: Shame
• Issue 32: Fire
• Issue 33: Deception
• Issue 34: Testing
• Issue 35: Dust
• Issue 36: Friendship
• Issue 37: Bubbles
• Issue 38: Islands
• Issue 39: Learning
• Issue 40: Hair

Magazine and Book

Though Cabinet is commonly called "Cabinet magazine" and is distributed to newsstands as a magazine (with ISSN), individual Cabinet issues are also distributed as books (with ISBN). Each issue is printed in two editions: one with a magazine barcode on the front cover and the other with a book barcode on the back cover.

The Cabinet logo

The logo was designed by Richard Massey, and is derived from the fragmented elements and ligatures of an early twentieth century stencil often used in Le Corbusier’s architectural drawing

Architectural drawing

An architectural drawing or architect's drawing is a technical drawing of a building that falls within the definition of architecture...

s and manifestos.

Other projects

In addition to publishing the quarterly, Cabinet also publishes books, curates art-related exhibitions, and stages conferences and live events. In October 2008, Cabinet opened a public venue in Brooklyn, where it operates an exhibition area, reading lounge and a 64-seat screening room and lecture space.

Books

• The Book of Stamps, a book of 15 artist-designed stamps by Walead Beshty
  Walead Beshty
  Walead Beshty is a Los Angeles-based photographer.Beshty earned a Bachelor of Arts from Bard College in 1999, and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University School of Art in 2002...
  
  , Melissa Brown, Melissa Dubbin & Aaron S. Davidson, Spencer Finch, Carl Michael von Hausswolff & Leif Elggren, Jonathan Herder, Mikhail Iliatov, Emily Jacir, Julia Jacquette, Vandana Jain, Sandra Eula Lee, Line Up, Frank Magnotta, Michael Oatman and David Shrigley. With text by George Pendle
  George Pendle
  George Pendle is a British author and journalist. He was educated at Stowe School and St Peter's College, Oxford.After working at The Times from 1997 to 2001, Pendle wrote his first book, Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist Jack Parsons .Pendle’s second book – The Remarkable...
  
  . (Cabinet Books, 2008)
• Ilf & Petrov's American Road Trip: The 1935 Travelogue of Two Soviet Writers, by Yevgeni Petrov and Ilya Ilf
  Ilya Ilf
  Ilya Ilf was an extremely popular Soviet author of the 1920s and 1930s, who worked in collaboration with Yevgeni Petrov. See Ilf and Petrov for more info....
  
  , edited by Erika Wolf, translated by Anne O. Fisher (Cabinet Books and Princeton Architectural Press
  Princeton Architectural Press
  Princeton Architectural Press is a leading publisher of architecture and design books, with over 500 titles on its backlist. It was founded in 1981 by Kevin Lippert in Princeton, NJ and moved to New York City in 1985. Since 1996, Princeton Architectural Press has been distributed in the...
  
  , 2006) ISBN 1568986009
• Letters From Mayhem, by Roger Andersson, with poems by Albert Mobilio
  Albert Mobilio
  Albert Mobilio is an American poet and critic.He teaches at Eugene Lang College, liberal arts college of The New School university.His work appears in Bomb, Salon, Postmodern Culture, Harper's.He is co-editor of Bookforum.-Awards:...
  
   (Cabinet Books, 2004) ISBN 1932698256
• Odd Lots: Revisiting Gordon Matta-Clark's Fake Estates (Cabinet Books, The Queens Museum of Art
  Queens Museum of Art
  The Queens Museum of Art is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, United States.-Overview:...
  
  , White Columns), ISBN 1932698264
• The Paper Sculpture Book (Cabinet Books, Independent Curators International, and SculptureCenter
  SculptureCenter
  SculptureCenter is a contemporary art museum that is located in Long Island City in the borough of Queens in New York City.-Mission:Founded by artists in 1928, SculptureCenter is a not-for-profit arts institution dedicated to experimental and innovative developments in contemporary sculpture...
  
  , 2003) ISBN 0916365697
• Presidential Doodles: Two Centuries of Scribbles, Scratches, Squiggles & Scrawls from the Oval Office, by Cabinet Magazine and David Greenberg (Basic Books, 2006) ISBN 0-46503266-4

Exhibitions

• Cabinet's 2005 exhibition "Odd Lots: Revisiting Gordon Matta-Clark
  Gordon Matta-Clark
  Gordon Matta-Clark was an American artist best known for his site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He is famous for his "building cuts," a series of works in abandoned buildings in which he variously removed sections of floors, ceilings, and walls.-Life and work:Both of Gordon Matta-Clark's...
  
  's Fake Estates," at The Queens Museum of Art and at the White Columns gallery was chosen by The New York Times's Michael Kimmelman
  Michael Kimmelman
  Michael Kimmelman is an author, critic, columnist and pianist. He is the chief architecture critic for The New York Times and written on issues of public housing, community development and social responsibility. He was the paper's longtime chief art critic and, in 2007, created the Abroad column,...
  
   as one of the ten best shows of the year.
• In 2003, Cabinet co-produced "The Paper Sculpture Show," a traveling exhibition of 29 paper sculptures, each one devised by a different artist. The sculptures themselves are collected as tear-out, do-it-yourself projects in The Paper Sculpture Book.

Conferences and Live Events

• In 2006, Cabinet presented Iron Artist, a live artist-versus-artist competition modeled after Iron Chef
  Iron Chef
  is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1992, is a stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle built around a specific theme ingredient. The series ended...
  
  , at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center
  P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center
  MoMA PS1 is one of the largest and oldest institutions in the United States dedicated solely to contemporary art. It is located in the Long Island City neighborhood of New York City...
  
   in Queens, NY.
• In March 2010, Cabinet presented Not Knots, a workshop on "knots, knitting, and string figures" at the magazine's art space in Brooklyn, where LAS Magazine
  LAS Magazine
  LAS Magazine, also known as Lost At Sea or LostAtSea.net, is a daily online magazine founded in 1998 by Eric J Herboth. An online social group for the magazine list it in the "Entertainment & Arts - Online Media" category with a description of "Art. Bike. Music. Media. Literature. Photography....
  
   said "actual experts, not just some Bryn Mawr dropouts that the manager of Yarn Tree met outside of an Animal Collective show" would guide aspiring craft makers through "a hands-on exploration of knots, knitting, and string figures" that sounded somewhat mesmerizing..

Praise

Philosopher Slavoj Žižek

Slavoj Žižek

Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher, critical theorist working in the traditions of Hegelianism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He has made contributions to political theory, film theory, and theoretical psychoanalysis....

has written, "Cabinet is my kind of magazine; ferociously intelligent, ridiculously funny, absurdly innovative, rapaciously curious. Cabinet's mission is to breathe life back into non-academic intellectual life. Compared to it, every other magazine is a walking zombie."

External links

• Cabinet website