‣ I am desperately trying to find something.
My search in the black foam and the fog of my psyche.
I see no other way to that place/emotion/world, oh I don’t know.
I saw it in a dream recently. I knew instantly I would be there again.
I hope I am there again.
I need to find that place, to right the wrongs, it is the punishment that I need, perhaps?
I can feel a reality slipping away from me, with this drive replacing it, this quest.
Where my problems are worked out and my worries are confirmed and made corporeal, real worries walking and seeing, they are deformed and contorted ideas in the flesh (and in the fog), where in there/here even your taunts will leave me smiling.
I think I will get there, perhaps I will see some of you there. -Ellen Rogers

‣ Zinez

Too many personal projects have been distracting Groundwork Zine from getting off the ground.  Currently night-dreamin about Knoxville having a Zine Fair after seeing this flickr set of the San Francisco Zine Fest back in September.  The photos are from one of my favorite blogs to get lost in thought and sketch to, My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses.

‣ \ “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to. Jim Jarmusch

‣ DESIGNERS AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE.

Founded by RISHI SODHA in the summer of 2008, a non-profit organization, DAHRA exists to promote and raise awareness amongst those involved in the creative industry of their social, political and ethical responsibilities as well as to raise awareness of different instances of human rights abuse.

‣ Love a good artist’s collective.

Currently hanging out with the dudes and gals of The Soundry in Vienna, VA - they’re wedged in a dreamy pleasantville-esque location right on the outskirts of D.C. in a converted auto-body shop.  I was here earlier in the week and definitely wanted to stop back by to sketch, hang out with the eclectic crowd, take photos and drink one too many lattes again.  Sadly this cannot be my local hangout, I gotta skip town and head back to Knoxville tomorrow.  The environment here is rad, entirely creative and laid back.  Just all sorts of people doing their thing and collaborating away from the boxes they live in.  The Soundry has a ridiculously supreme set-up for artists, musicians, gallery shows, cafe nom noms, events and classes galore - accessible to members and the public early in the day until late at night.  Check ‘em out and see what they are about, especially if you’re nearby or curious of what a good artist’s collective is all about.

(image via Allison M. Brown)

‣ Absorbing the Text Within Itself.

[give a voice to the explosions in yer head]

Whether you have many outlets already or just want another, we want you involved in our projects.  For the purpose of most if not all of our zine exchanges, editorial control is shifted away from a central authority and onto the participants themselves.  Community presses engage and mobilize around issues that affect their immediate community, within a broader web of national and oppositional media. A central concept in the spurring of our idea for a regular zine exchange is in the element of diversity.  Zines can be characterized as much by their irreverence and eclecticism as they can be by their specific content. They have facilitated the transmission of new and expanded ideas about art and art-making, (1965-75 are seminal years for artist produced magazines) leading to an increased awareness of the social role that art and the artist played within a mass mediated culture.   Music too has played a vital part in delineating the territory of the counter culture and indeed might be defined as one of the rallying points of the broader cultural opposition. 

Our goal is to make links in the transmission and exchange of new ideas across geographic and ideological distances, establishing networks of artists with similar interests and concerns.

 

‣ The years 1956-63 were however characterized by the dialectic between hot ‘informel’ and cool ‘informel’ when attention was transferred from the human and material elements to the relationship between man and his media. This change in emphasis coincided with the use of all existing media, not as means but as ends in themselves. Germano Celant

‣ Open System Exchange

We have begun efforts towards organizing a zine exchange!

A few initial thoughts on concepts behind zines:

‘Non-commercial, self-published in small editions and very often photocopied, zines arise out of particular subcultural milieus united by their common needs and interests.

…

Self-publishing is one way in which a variety of marginalized, special interest, sub-cultural, or other underrepresented minority groups can give an affirmative voice to their interests and concerns. Whether generated by the established media’s lack of coverage, biased coverage, total exclusion, or generated in direct opposition to the established media, self-publishing offers one viable alternative to communicating a groups’ ideas within and beyond their immediate milieu.

…

Finally, and in one very fundamental respect, self-publishing rests upon a system of exchange and mutual trust. With the profit motive not an issue, and no pay-offs for those with spurious motives, self-publishing becomes a collaborative activity, the site of an accessible, unmediated and independent voice. The publications that are generated and exchanged amongst these groups, act simultaneously as the link and the expression of this trust.’

((Taken from an essay by Stephen Perkins.  Originally published in 1992 by Plagiarist Press as a “Works-In-Progress Pamphlet.”))

‣