Join us at Videofag on Wednesday, May 13 from 7 - 9 p.m. as we celebrate the launch of RM Vaughan's Bright Eyed: Insomnia and Its Cultures, the newest edition to our Exploded Views series.

The launch will feature a new, event-specific performance by beloved Toronto legend Keith Cole. The book will also be available for purchase, one month before it's in stores!

In Bright Eyed, Vaughan begins by asking the question, 'In shutting out shut-eye in favour of productivity, have we created an insomnia culture?'

Working outward from his own experience, Vaughan explores this insomnia culture weve created, predicting a cultural collision will we soon have to legislate rest, as France has done? and wondering about the cause-and-effect model of our shorter attention spans. Does the fact that we are almost universally underslept change how our world works? We know its an issue with, say, pilots and truck drivers, but what about artists does an insomnia culture change creativity? And what are the long-term cultural consequences of this increasing sacrice for the ever-elusive goal of total productivity?

RM Vaughan ... [is] easily amongst the top ve art critics working today. Ive seen Vaughan turn phrases that have the forcefulness of Christian Viveros Faune, the plainspoken insight of Dave Hickey, and the lyricism of Peter Schjeldahl. Vaughan should never have to do anything but write.

Paddy Johnson, editorial director, Art F City New York

Learn more about Bright Eyed: http://www.chbooks.com/catalogue/bright-eyed