Plastik is a Dundee based art collective which produces a publication with content generated by an open submissions process. It is published bi-monthly with the next issue due out at the end of August.

Originally a bedroom zine project initiated by Kieran, the members of the collective have had a couple of different iterations but currently consist of Aylson Stewart, Emma McCarthy and Kieran Milne who all study at Duncan of Jordanstone.

I started Plastik in the winter of 2013 as a solo project to pass the time during the winter holidays. I had recently started my undergraduate degree at Duncan of Jordanstone and had a number of 35mm photographs which I wanted to use for a project. The original intention for the zine was going to be a monthly publication of my own work but after finishing the production of the first zine I realised it would be too much work on top of my studio practice. I started a Facebook page and opened the next issue up to submissions relating to the theme of “Animals”. I got a pretty good response but was still having to add my own work into the zine anonymously to bulk out the issues. It was around this time that the Dundee based zine collective Yuck n’ Yum were holding a “Zine Idol” event and one of the requirements was that there had to be three or more members to apply. I ended up enlisting the help of other Dundee based artists to assist in the production of the publication. We didn’t end up winning the competition but the guys at Yuck n’ Yum have become sort of “Dundee Zine Scene” mentors to us. With the other people on board the work load became easier to deal with and we hosted our official launch party at Generator Projects. We had two issues and the event would act as the launch of both the 3rd issue and the collective as a whole. The Plastik launch party consisted of a group show at Generator Projects and included the work of past contributors – if you had sent work for the zine, then you could put anything you wanted in the show, no questions asked. It was a great success and placed us firmly on the radar of the Dundee creative scene.

After our success at the Generator event we became good friends with the Committee of the artist-led space and have used it for pop-up events such as the Scumbag Filmclub and also collaborated with them with a film screening for the BFI Days of Fear and Wonder Science Fiction festival. We have also collaborated with Yuck n’ Yum for the Dundee based NEON festival closing party where we produced a series of publications made during the party which were filled with content from the night and printed on site.

We plan on continuing to produce Plastik bi-monthly and still engage with the arts scene in Dundee, facilitating discussion and engagement with a variety of cultural and artistic practices.

We are currently taking submissions for our 9th issue, the theme is The Body/Bodies and submissions can be sent to plastikzine@outlook.com. You can read past issues of Plastik on Issuu here.

For more from Kieran, have a look at his recent DJCAD Degree Show review on Central Station here.

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Gregor Muir is a freelance graphic designer, based in Glasgow. Here he talks about his new travel zine, anecdote.

anecdote is a travel zine about journeys and trips taken all around the world, long or short, big or small, far and wide. Primarily anecdote is classed as a travel/photo zine with some written content throughout.

Every issue is about a journey I, the creator, has taken or about a trip another fellow traveler has been on. The design of each issue circulates around the nature of the trip taken. Issue one was a very personal trip which encompassed many different cultures and countries therefore many different design styles, paper choices and treatments are included within the same issue, whereas issue 2 circulated around a quick trip taken over the course of 4 days on the Isle of Arran. It has more of a consistent style and was produced as an easy read, something relaxing and fun, much like the trip, so it was printed on newsprint to gave that “Sunday newspaper” feel.

While I’m away on any journey I write postcards to myself of what I’ve done each day or at each location. This is the basis and foundation of each issue and is used to keep each issue consistent and give a true account of what I’ve done each place. An authentic anecdote.

It is solely produced by myself (the first two issues anyway). I do the design, production, art direction, photography (occasional contribution via people I may have traveled with) and writing. I do it on the side of my main job.

Overall you could describe anecdote as an experimental zine as the design, format and production of each issue should change dependent on the location and journey. It should evoke a reflection of the content and represent the journey taken and the unique experiences or adventures witnessed by the traveler/s.

It’s not a travel guide or ‘how to travel’ document but an insight into someone else’s journey, with notes and quotes from experiences they have had. It’s more a personal reflection.

Only two issue have been released so far. Issue one, which has sold out, was based on a three week trip inter-railing around Central Europe. Issue two is based on a long weekend away on the Isle of Arran.

In future issues, I’m hoping to collaborate with more people and feature more journeys and trips taken by other people who love travel and adventures.

You can buy anecdote via its website here or on Etsy. For more from Gregor, see his showcased work here.

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Ghostmodern is a webzine created by Seattle-based writer, Mischa Downing. Founded earlier this year with the philosophy of keeping it “real, weird, and beautiful,” the zine functions on an open submissions policy looking for essays, poems, short films, and art that explore the darker side of humanity.

Mischa Downing – Pheelings: Spring 2014

Downing describes Ghostmodernism as the place where culture goes after it dies, an intellectual intuition as mysterious as death itself. It’s a place for a wide range of photos and essays, which in no particular order, tackle gender politics, queer history and explore newer ideas such as ARTivism.

Mischa Downing – Green,  How I Love You Green: Summer 2014

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Dane Sutherland is a curator, writer and pessimist from Scotland. A skeuomorphic malware interface and co-director of Embassy Gallery.

Here, he talks about his zine…

“The solitons of the music tell a story.”
- 0(rphand(rift>

Exploit.zzxjoanw.Gen is an audio zine, curated by Satellites Programme Intern, Dane Sutherland which is now available both as a limited edition USB flash drive designed by Plastique Fantastique, and as a free download, from Collective Gallery and Punctum Records.

Exploit.zzxjoanw.Gen includes contributions from: AAS, The Confraternity of Neoflagellants, Plastique Fantastique, Head Gallery, Jillian Mayer, WE, English Heretic, Michelle Hannah, Benedict Drew, POLLYFIBRE, The Cult of RAMM:ΣLL:ZΣΣ, Xempeer and Kornelia Remø Klokk

Along with the mp3 files, there is also a PDF publication (see below), containing essays and written fiction.

Exploit.zzxjoanw.Gen contains music and sound-works, sonic fictions by artists who in various ways, and to differing degrees generate worlds and narratives consonant with the genre of speculative writing, science-fiction.

This project is concerned with the virulent possibilities of sonic fiction, the political valence of science fiction, and with speculation as a method of probing and mutating the present through (re)imagining the future (as noise).

The mp3 tracks act as indexes of such futurities, cargo-cult objectiles washed up on the shore of the present.

+/- +/-+/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/-

The rubbled architecture of the semantic apocalypse is a jambient meshwork of infectious crypto-fictions, arche-hymns, cargo cult objectiles and the untethered futurities of permanent collapse. A tentacular-empire-machine.
Swarming visions, speculations and transmissions are hereby retro-clothed in vapourware, to be neurocast for further maladaptation by these memechanics of the salvaged future.

+/- +/-+/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/- +/-

Dane has developed this project as part of Collective’s Satellites Programme, and is working in partnership with Punctum Records to publish and distribute it.

More: SoundCloud | Issuu

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Goose Flesh is a photography zine featuring artists from, living in or otherwise linked to Glasgow. The zine aims to showcase the work of emerging and established artists in a compact, accessible, affordable form.

Goose Flesh favours the observational and incidental over the conceptual. Sarah Amy Fishlock started the zine in summer 2013 with a small grant from arts charity IdeasTap, and has nearly produced three quarterly issues since then:

“Photographers are so used to seeing our work on-screen, but the opportunities for emerging photographers to see their work in print after graduation are few and far between. There’s something wonderful about looking at a printed photograph – it holds your attention far longer than an image on a screen. Unfortunately, it’s also an expensive way of realising your work that can seem like an extravagance if it’s not absolutely necessary, especially to cash-strapped graduates! I wanted to gather together some of the amazing work that I see from Glasgow-based and Glasgow-linked photographers, and distribute it in an accessible way.

I design and produce Goose Flesh as well as curating the content of each issue. I don’t have an open submissions process because each volume is about finding artists whose work fits well together, and not all of the great work out there is suitable for the zine. That being said, I do try to keep abreast of what’s going on in Glasgow, and am always interested to hear from anyone who is interested in contributing. The first issue’s contributors were myself, Ross Finnie, Jenny Wicks, Sandy Carson and Michael Jones. I planned a small launch event and exhibition in Coffee Chocolate & Tea to stimulate interest in the zine and introduce Goose Flesh to Glasgow’s photographic community – it ended up being really, really busy, which was encouraging! Our second volume featured Kotryna Ula Kiliulyte, Robert Ormerod, Emily Macinnes, Tristan Hutchinson and Marco Scerri, with an accompanying event and show in the Arches. The response to the second zine was brilliant and I’m sure this will continue with GF3.

The zine contains little text – just credits and a short introduction, each volume by a different writer. So far, introductions have been by Glasgow-based or -linked writers Cayleigh-May Forbes, Sean Welsh and Kirsty Logan. I usually approach writers from outside the world of art criticism, and ask them to respond to the images in an intuitive way rather than attempting to critique the work. Goose Flesh’s ethos is that photographs are different things to different people – looking at a photograph can conjure up thoughts, ideas, memories, joys, griefs – so I wanted the introduction to be subjective too, a non-photographer’s view of each selection. In this way, I hope to celebrate what I think is great about photography – it’s an immediate, subjective, democratic way of capturing the weird beauty of the world around us.

In the future, I’d like to explore funding options for further issues of the zine, and for associated events like pop-up exhibitions and artist talks. There is still a small amount of the original funding left, as well as proceeds from zine sales so far, but it would be great to be able to dedicate more time to it in the future. As anyone working in the creative industries knows, it can be an uphill struggle at times, but the positive response from contributors, stockists and members of the public has been amazing. I’m really proud that Goose Flesh has been so warmly adopted by such a unique and vibrant photography community!”

Goose Flesh Volume 3 launches on 15 May at Street Level Photoworks (Gallery 103), featuring work by Alan Knox, Claire Maxwell, Kirsty Mackay, Veronica Melendez, and Kate Oldham. 

The zine was recently highlighted by Dazed Magazine as one of May’s ‘Ten zines to look out for.’

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The Burning Sand is a bi-annual prose, poetry and art magazine, featuring creative and critical writings and drawings from artists, musicians and writers involved in the unique and largely self-initiated arts infrastructure in Glasgow. Edited by Glasgow-based writer and curator Sarah Lowndes and designed by Sophie Dyer and Maeve Redmond, the magazine means to plough the furrow of Critical Regionalism.

Kathryn Elkin, Performance Dame, 1975, 03.08.13, Photo: Francis Mckee

Volume 3 of the magazine will be launched as part of Glasgow International 2014, and includes distinctive voices including a new image-text work from artist Kathryn Elkin, a collaborative contribution by Wolf (musician and composer Kim Moore and artist Fergus Dunnet), Jenny Brownrigg’s story, Five art curators consider transforming an interior, three Untitled acrylic paintings composed on pieced newspaper by Tony Swain, Nerea Bello’s eloquent analysis of the controversial annual ritual Alarde parade, Lauren Gault’s evocative composition Such Lush Detail and Luke Fowler’s researches into the live electronic work of maverick Canadian composer Martin Bartlett.

Lauren Gault, Here Bianca! installation detail, glazed ceramic, salt (coloured), sheepskin nosebands, eucalyptus, 2013, Photo: Ruth Clark.

The launch party for Volume 3 of The Burning Sand will be held on the closing weekend of the festival, at The Poetry Club, Glasgow (Friday 18 April, 9pm – 2am). This free event includes include DJs and live performances by Glasgow-based artists Kathryn Elkin and Lauren Gault.

Photo: Tian Khee Siong

The Burning Sand Vol 3 was commissioned by Glasgow International 2014, with support from Outset Scotland.

The Burning Sand is distributed by Good Press and Motto ISSN 2052-5699

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The second issue of Physical Impossibility #2: Popcorn Droppers, Glasgow’s only cult movie zine launches on 25 February at the Saramago Bar during the Glasgow Film Festival. Popcorn Droppers explores the world of the too-weird-to-live movie, from Nick Cave’s Gladiator 2 to Salvador Dali’s script for the Marx Brothers, with contributions from an international array of writers and artists. The issue features new writing by Ryan Balmer, Craig McClure, Paul McGarvey & Harriet Warman, original illustrations by Laura Aitchison, Ciara Dunne, Stephen Kelly, Jack Somerville & ID Stewart and special guest contributions from Matt Carman and Kseniya Yarosh, creators of the Brooklyn-based I Love Bad Movies zine. Here, founder Sean Welsh tells a bit more about the creation of the zine:

I started the zine last year as a new outlet for my writing about movies and for the work of local artists, partly to promote those things and partly as an end in itself. Primarily, the writing was a continuation of my blog, which has a tendency towards cult cinema, but generally has a pretty wide remit. Writing for the blog, I try to find things or at least angles on things that haven’t been picked up and covered to death elsewhere.That tallies quite well with being a film geek with a collector’s mentality – I like to discover awesome new films, directors, genres and then just gorge on them. I also tend towards longer articles as opposed to reviews, top fives or opinion pieces, and that form isn’t necessarily a great fit for the blog format. So, in lieu of a book deal or permanent contract with a major print publication, it seemed like a productive idea to explore a different medium.

The illustrators (incredibly talented folks like Laura Aitchison, Ryan Bharaj, Ciara Veronica Dunne, Russell Elder, Victoria Firth, Sarah Amy Fishlock, Stephen Kelly, Jon Paul Milne, Erin McGrath, Claudia Nova, Jack Somerville and ID Stewart), generally have a connection to Glasgow or Scotland, whether they live here or have lived here, though the content is international. From #2, I’ve also invited other writers to contribute (including Craig McClure, Paul McGarvey and Harriet Warman), and we now have a few amazing international contributors (Ryan Balmer in Berlin, Matt Carman and Kseniya Yarosh, creators of the I Love Bad Movies zine, in Brooklyn). The zine’s available online here and has been stocked across Glasgow and New York. The second issue is going to be more widely available across the UK and Germany too. The response has been amazing so far, from contributors, stockists and readers, so that’s been really heartening.

The zine is curated/edited by me – I pick a theme (#1 was The Films of Larry Cohen, #2 is Popcorn Droppers) and then invite people to contribute based on that – basically they choose films from a list until the list is exhausted. Contributors have the option to pitch different ideas though, and once they’ve made their selection, I’m not prescriptive about the content. That means the artists and writers have free range to interpret the brief within the technical restrictions. Practically that means we have a mix of styles and media on one side and a range of creative, academic and journalistic writing on the other. It’s going to remain curated, because I think open submissions are sometimes a bit unfair not to say exploitative, but I’m always interested to hear from anyone that’s interested in contributing.

Coming up, issues 3 and 4 are in the pre-production phase – one will focus on a single director and the other will be a general theme along the lines of Popcorn Droppers. We had a screening at the launch for number one that was really well received, and though we’re not doing that for the latest issue (because none of the films in question were ever actually made), I’d definitely like to do that again, potentially even more regularly. I’d also like to explore partnerships with venues and institutions for more screenings and events locally, and try to make sure the zine is as widely available as possible. I’d also like to explore funding, because, like lots of similar endeavours, the zine is currently not-for-profit (though all proceeds from print sales go directly to the individual artists). However, if anyone would like to sponsor it (or an eccentric millionaire wishes to make a substantial cash donation), all offers will be considered!

Physical Impossibility #2: Popcorn Droppers launches during the Glasgow Film Festival on 25 February at the Saramago Bar at the CCA.

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This collection showcases a selection of the talent Yuck ‘n Yum have had the pleasure to distribute through their zines and projects.

Yuck ‘n Yum produce a quarterly art zine and hold events that are aimed at distributing art outwith the gallery setting.

To find out more about Yuck ‘n Yum go to www.yucknyum.com.

See the collection here.

(originally published on Central Station V1)

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Twigs & Apples zine started in 2009, in the rainy northern city of Preston. It came about as a collective of four friends, Sarah Riddel, Stuart Saint, Benedict Rutherford and Steph Fletcher, each with different creative backgrounds but a shared interest in writing, art and activism. Here, Steph Fletcher tells us more…

The first few issues were produced as basic, hand cut ‘n pasted photocopied zines, filled with drawings, rants, reviews, poetry, photography, and more. As we continued it as a biannual publication, we refined the design and now make it as a digital, quality print on recycled paper.

It was really important to us that, from the start, we had an ‘open submission’ policy – that anyone could submit anything (within reason) and we’d print and distribute it. We really enjoy offering an open, non-commerical, non-profit platform for alternative views and creative output.

In the past few years we’ve expanded to design, publish and distribute other titles, from solo photography zines to event guides, and we also produce lino and screen prints. We’re excited to be launching screenprinted t-shirts later in the year, as well as two new regular titles – focusing on photography and arts/activism.

We really enjoy the sense of community around the zine scene, whether receiving submissions, orders and comments from around the world, or travelling to zine fairs.

You can find us online at: twigsandapples.tumblr.com, @twigsandapples, and ‘Twigs and Apples Publishing‘ on Facebook. We have an Etsy as well as being stocked in shops across the North (see our blog for a list of stockists) – and we’re always looking for new stockists!

If you’d like to contribute, take a look at our site for more of an idea of our content. Topics regularly include: film, music, philosophy, poetry, vegan recipes, anarchism, fiction, environment, politics, travel, art, craft, and more.

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Conjunction is run by Nick Wood, a Fine Art graduate and Steven Paul Hedley, a Design Graduate. It was created from a combined interested in printed matter and a want to set up a collaborative platform for artists and writers.

The magazine is run as an open submission project, so we set a theme and people respond to it. We get a lot of very different work, from illustration to more factually driven essays so the theme helps to tie everything together and create a loose thread through the issue.

Conjunction takes its name from the astrological happening where two celestial bodies appear near each other in the night sky when in reality they are still light-years away. We liked the idea that Conjunctions are based on perspective rather than physically being that way – they are a human invention which feels like they are trying to break down huge distances into a basic idea or something relatable.

We thought it was a good metaphor for how people engage in and with creative practices. With this idea as the title, the publication aims to curate new artists’ and writers’ work with minimal intervention. We look at the pages much like a gallery wall; each page or spread has one image, which leads onto the next. It’s these basic and subtle narratives that we look for through the pages – a subtle glance between images or something in the background we can reveal by just placing one image next to another.

This idea leaks into an inclusion of printed ephemera with each issue. We like this as an extension of a bound issue. I think we were quite fascinated with the idea that most ephemera isn’t meant to be kept or preserved but somehow feels incredibly precious for that.

The next issue is on the theme of ‘Grief’ which is released in early October preceded by and event called ‘A Prelude to Grief’. This will be held in Oxford at The Keen Bean and there will be a presentation of readings on the theme.

The best place to pick up conjunction is from our online shop. We are also stocked in places in London and Oxford which are all listed on our website. Currently, we are sending out our Disco issues in foiled purple shiny jiffy bags, which pleases us greatly.

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