Thursday, 3:27pm
20 November 2025
To be seen to be seen
The New Space
By Scott King. Service Industries, £20. Designed by Scott King and Francisca Monteiro. Reviewed by Paul DavisPaul Davis reviews Scott King’s The New Space
We all know what professional jealousy feels like and how peer envy can be emotionally ruinous, writes Paul Davis. Many of us recognise the desperate need to be seen in the visual and creative world. Since the introduction of digital platforms the majority of ’spaces’ live on apps in our phones. It used to be about the physical space: galleries, books, places, IRL everything. Now apps make up the new space. These days people at IRL events are on their phones recording the event so they can post it to show they were there, degrading the point of the experience in the first place.
We need these digital spaces to be seen to be seen. People who inhabit these spaces range from Powerful Space Control Operatives (famous culture workers, institutions etc) down to Invisibles (the rest of us). All our ‘likes’ are likely to be from the latter but hearts from the former is what we’re all after. A DM from a museum director is the ultimate prestige.
This is the subject of the new book by the designer and artist Scott King. It’s the first person voice of a bewildered and embittered man who feels beaten by the system and himself. It could be seen as a tenuous sequel to his 2021 book The Debrist Manifesto (see Critique in Eye 103). This one has a lurid green cover with centred, black, all-caps sans serif type asserting the title: The New Space.
Spread and cover (top) from The New Space. Designed by Scott King and Francisca Monteiro.
It’s a story in three parts narrated by ‘a creative’ who identifies as a Maverick-Outsider whose goal is to be positively recognised by his peers. He’s terrified of being downgraded to an Actual-Outsider, and then to an Invisible. The first part introduces the set up where the author describes his feelings of failure, his confusion with how to alleviate his despair and what he could do to succeed in ‘their space’.
Second, he describes what happens on his fixated journey attempting this. He has a plan of action: he’s moved from London to a ‘cheap and silent’ caravan in a field to rethink his lot. He starts to write a hubristic rant: a ‘letter of resignation’ that we don’t even get to hear. All we get is his feverish idea of it. He plans to record it and post it. Events occur that accelerate and curdle into a hopeless, hilarious frenzy.
The third part is a calm review of what happened and how the author feels about everything now. A much-needed exhale.
Spread from The New Space. Designed by Scott King and Francisca Monteiro.
It’s the funniest book I’ll read this year. I convulsed often during the 45 minutes it takes to read. The story is about obsession, fear, authenticity and envy. It’s satire, too, and King’s writing bravely and meticulously self-deprecates. I really wanted him to be OK as the narrative lurched from stinging regret to unreliable eureka declarations.
In his adopted ‘countryside’ village (near the dual-carriageway bridge over the motorway) seemingly everyday events unfold: he meets a dull, lead-count-in-the-water-obsessed window cleaner. He remembers an unwanted boy at a ninth birthday party. He marvels at a shopkeeper always staring out of a window. These metaphors are elegant and ring true.
It all makes terrible sense. Highly recommended.
Paul Davis, illustrator, Hastings
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