Formerly a music journalist and label owner, Bob Cluness is now a PhD candidate and researcher in the cultural studies programme at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. His undergraduate thesis centred on accelerationist aesthetics and action cinema, while in 2020 he received a master’s degree in cultural studies with a thesis on the weird and eerie in contemporary and digital cultures.

His current PhD project deals with the relationship between and esotericism and acceleration in UK subcultures in the late 20th century, through a discursive analysis of chaos magick and the Cybernetic Cultures Research Unit or CCRU.

As part of his Academic research, Bob’s interests look at the myriad intersections between esotericism and contemporary subcultures, from cyberpunk, cyberspace and technology, to the counterculture and the New Age, comics, zine culture, and underground art and music. He has also published papers centred on Icelandic occulture and spiritual currents such as Ásatrú, spiritualism, and wellness.