Video Art Zine // Open Call for Submissions
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#1 — jevergreen · 2020-08-14
Hey Everyone!
I wandered into this weird, wonderful world of video synthesis from a background in print media, through a fascination with various input and output processes that can be used to transform textures, movements, and photographs into something new, hybrid, and surprising. Sound familiar?
I run a Risograph print ship called Cache Printing Services, which produces posters, fliers, zines and whatnot for artists & designers around Detroit, MI, USA. I sometimes initiate publishing projects of my own under the name Print Cache, set up tables at book fairs, and that kind of thing. A few years ago I got into modular audio as a hobby, and while I was trying to link that back to visual art, I stumbled across all this and decided it was the next logical step to dive and give it a try.
Now, I’m looking to connect the circle by producing a zine that highlights what people are doing in the video art community. I’m thinking mainly image based, or text within the image, if that’s your thing. The approximate specs would be: 24-36 pages, size A5/half-letter (A4/letter spreads), 1-4 Riso colors per page, full bleed, staple binding, in edition of around 100 copies. To kick things off, I’m sending out this open call for submissions with the hopes of making a pilot issue, linked below.
VIDEO ART ZINE // OPEN CALL // REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
The final timeline, page count, and edition size of the pilot issue are dependent on interest and submissions. If you are interested in participating, please don’t hesitate to respond! You would not be committing to anything by sending in images &/or ideas, and nothing will be published or publicized without your expressed consent, which I will contact people about later. I’m happy to answer all general questions in the LZX Community Forum, but if you have a specific question, about this or some other tangent, please feel free to reach out personally.
Shout out to @meudiademorte for posting some fabulous Riso work(!) on the LZX Facebook group page that helped me break the ice and reach out to y’all about this idea that I’ve been daydreaming about for far too long now.
Thanks for checking it out!
Jeff
UPDATE: I’m happy to say that enough submissions came in so there is now enough for two issues of the zine! I’m going to start playing around with things and reach back out to everyone for feedback before anything goes to print. Thanks to everyone who took a moment to send something in! I’ll be in touch soon. Cheers!
#2 — reverselandfill · 2020-08-14
wow! sounds very interesting.
I’ll look at the open call tomorrow
#3 — mattsmalley · 2020-08-14
Definitely will be submitting some things. This is a wonderful idea and is exactly what the community needs!
#4 — meudiademorte · 2020-08-14
Nice to see you are doing a zine! Will send you something!
You can find the mentioned prints here
https://elfenbeinturm666.bandcamp.com/merchMerch from Elfenbeinturm
Link: Merch from Elfenbeinturm
#5 — jevergreen · 2020-08-14
@meudiademorte your prints from Drucken3000 are tight, I just bought one!
#6 — jevergreen · 2020-08-15
Oh! I forgot to mention, no special image preparation is required. I’m planning on doing the color separations myself, so unless you want to do them, you don’t have to!
If you’re capturing in SD, that’s perfect for now. I want it to be as easy to send stuff in as possible. That’s also because, if I get a bunch of hi-res files, my Google Drive is going to fill up quick!
#7 — meudiademorte · 2020-08-15
@jevergreen i have unlimites space on Google drive can. If it Helps you i can do a groupfolder for the project
#8 — wednesdayayay · 2020-08-15
I will for sure get some stuff put together for this
I know where my still zones are at
I’d like to make new ones but it was a pretty specific patch that was getting me
instagram.comhttps://www.instagram.com/p/B2ANRSwh0_H
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2ANRSwh0_H#lzxindustries #lzxmemorypalace #lzxvisualcortex #lzxpassage #lzxmapperLink: @nicholepichon
these kinds of stills this is such a cool idea
#9 — jevergreen · 2020-08-15
I love playing off the inherent format of books, and am totally into how this still already looks like facing pages. That’s my first thought–YES!
This is going off on a bit of a tangent, but I’d like to share some of my thought process here. My second thought is about the inherent format of video, and how it relates to that of books, notably aspect ratio and sync. I’m going to have to settle on some physical dimensions that make sense in relation to both the video world (aspect ratio) and the print world (common paper and envelope sizes, postal categories, etc). I added a question on the submission form asking folks if cropping or letterbox is preferred, as needed.
With a little more thought this morning, a very likely final size will be 6" x 8" (3:2 spreads), because it fits between 16:9 and 4:3. Pages that are 8" x 9" (16:9 spreads) is another possibility, which would be super cool, though it would require twice as much paper, larger envelopes, and a higher shipping cost. It can start to add up quick.
#11 — jevergreen · 2020-08-15
Quick note about copyright, all submissions need to be composed of fully original content, use material that is copyright free, or have explicit permission to use copyrighted content. It’s just a liability thing that I need to watch out for as a publisher. Yeah, ‘fair use’ is a thing, but if there is any gray area, I’m probably going to play it on the safe side. Thanks for understanding!
#12 — reverselandfill · 2020-08-15
So that would be
15,24 x 20,32 CM (6’ x 8’)
or
20,32 X 22,86 CM (8’ x 9’)
right? I guess I can scale it to inch too, in PS. I’m just not so fluent in that measuring type
I mostly work with 4:3 .
#13 — jevergreen · 2020-08-15
Oh, right, and PAL standards. We could just talk in pixels instead of inches or metric.
#16 — reverselandfill · 2020-08-20
cool. My submission is send!
here is one of the frames:
#17 — reverselandfill · 2020-08-20
ps: did you post your Open Call at https://scanlines.xyz/ too?
if not, it is a good place to post it!
#18 — Fuzzy_Pause · 2020-08-20
Would you be interested in (abstract-ish) comics that incorporate or maybe are processed through video synthesizers? Or are you hoping for 100% synthesized images?
I’m fairly new to video synthesis but I’m particularly interested in figuring out how to integrate synthesized images with more narrative stuff. It hadn’t occurred to me to try and play with still images but this could be exactly the motivation to figure out how to integrate synthesizers into my goofy workflows/come to terms with the possibilities/limitations, etc…
At the risk of being too self indulgent, I was thinking something like this comic but with synthesized images? Or reprocessing line work and trying to colorize it with a synth? Brain gears are turning
instagram.comhttps://www.instagram.com/p/CCl6zhnH7Sq
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCl6zhnH7SqBut what are the computers, REALLY? Finally got around to scanning my 50% of...Link: @fuzzy_pause
#19 — jevergreen · 2020-08-20
@reverselandfill Good suggestion, done!
There are some really great video textures in the work you sent in. (Printer thoughts: I’m excited by the challenge–some unusual rasterization may be in order to keep the subtle details. Also, thinking about how to get some of those colors which are typically out of gamut for subtractive color mixture.)
#20 — jevergreen · 2020-08-20
@Fuzzy_Pause I have to admit, I am aiming for mainly electrically generated images. Hard to know where to draw the line, though, since there are many people who use hybrid approaches. I dig mixed media illustration stuff, though.
#21 — Fuzzy_Pause · 2020-08-20
@jevergreen Makes sense! The thought of an entirely abstract synthesized zine is an awesome one (especially in a riso print). Not sure if I’m coming up with interesting enough purely electronic images just yet to submit anything but I’ll certainly keep following this project with great interest.
#22 — SPIKE · 2020-08-21
Hi!
I tried uploading pics on your form but they would not upload.
I sent you an email with frames and info.
Thanks!
#23 — jevergreen · 2020-08-21
@SPIKE You’re right, I see your info, but no images. I did get your e-mail, though, so that works. Someone else uploaded a few hours after you, so it’s hard to know what the issue was. Anyway, it’s all good!
#24 — jevergreen · 2020-08-22
Quick Update: Thank you to everyone who has sent in work so far! I’ve gotten lots of good stuff to work with, and the number of contributors is approaching the minimum number that I’m aiming for. (10 so far, aiming for 12-16.) The response has been super encouraging, please keep 'em coming!
#25 — wednesdayayay · 2020-08-23
I should be getting in the studio in the next couple days I’ll get something sent along for sure
I need to re read about criteria for sending things in before that
#27 — jevergreen · 2020-08-30
Last Call!
It’s about time to start getting into the next phase of things. If you’d still like to send in some work, please send it in this week or at least let me know it’s on the way. We reached the minimum number of contributors that I was hoping for, yet there is still room for a few more!
Thanks!
Jeff
#28 — Agawell · 2020-08-30
Hi jevergreen
I’ve just dumped the contents of my phone to the computer - I’ll grab a few stills this week and send them over - but I will be busy with other things too!
Jim
#29 — wednesdayayay · 2020-08-30
jevergreen wrote:
out time to start getting into the next phase of things. If you’d still like to send in some work, please send it in this week
will do sorry about the lateness
#30 — Agawell · 2020-08-30
OK I managed to do this and uploaded 5 images
It’ll be interesting to see how they come out - if they are selected
Here’s a few examples:
#31 — jevergreen · 2020-08-30
@wednesdayayay No sweat! Anytime this week is cool.
#32 — jevergreen · 2020-09-08
UPDATE: I’m happy to say that enough submissions came in so there is now enough for two issues of the zine! I’m going to start playing around with things and reach back out to everyone for feedback before anything goes to print. Thanks to everyone who took a moment to send something in! I’ll be in touch soon. Cheers! /Jeff
#33 — pixelflowers · 2020-11-01
Fuzzy_Pause wrote:
Would you be interested in (abstract-ish) comics that incorporate or maybe are processed through video synthesizers?
hey @Fuzzy_Pause, it turned out to be somehow off topic here but I think it’s a great idea…why don’t you start a whole new topic so that it gets more attention and we talk about it? You could just recycle the same text or maybe a moderator could even split your post from this topic.
#34 — Fuzzy_Pause · 2020-11-05
Thanks for the encouragement @pixelflowers
If there are enough other people interested in some kind of collaborative-ominbus of “narrative” video synthesizer art It’d be a lot of fun to spin this off into another topic, though unlike @jevergreen I don’t have much of (really any) background in print media so I’m not sure how good I’d be at spearheading a zine or something similar, but it certainly sounds like a fun challenge.
I’ve got a few other in-progress little projects combining animation/illustration and video synthesis and will definitely share them here (if they turn out worth sharing). Though maybe they’ll fit better into the community video gallery.
#35 — jevergreen · 2020-11-06
Project Update:
Two months on, I’ve made moderate progress in sorting and processing the images. More content was submitted than I knew what to do with, which was both awesome and daunting, given that it was so much more than expected. While weighing the options and experimenting with various separations and layouts, I ended up getting off track and running low on creative energy at the same time, and I had to put it on hold while turning my attention toward work/life things. In short, I just got overwhelmed, and I apologize for going silent for a bit.
Formally speaking, given the wide range of colors, I came to the conclusion that it will make the most sense to print the majority of images in a variation of 4 process colors, something close to CMYK, while representing a few pages with 1-4 spot colors. This will make it easier as it will standardize the format and allow for greater flexibility in the layout.
I hope to make a big push just after Thanksgiving (US holiday, end of the Nov), when the university I work at goes all online for the remainder of the semester. Best Wishes to everyone out there!
#36 — reverselandfill · 2020-11-06
It is a strange time we live in, so don’t worry about taking longer.
I really love your idea of making printed media out of video synth output. especially with riso print!
I do have to say, I’m super curious on how it is going to look like
#37 — sean · 2020-11-07
On so many levels, just about the worst possible time to accomplish anything that requires active problem-solving.
#38 — jevergreen · 2020-11-07
reverselandfill wrote:
It is a strange time we live in…
sean wrote:
On so many levels…
This year, even the most the day-to-day routines have often felt surreal. : )
#39 — jevergreen · 2023-10-01
Hey Y’all,
I’m ready to make another issue of Video Art Zine! VAZ 2.0 will be the second annual release of a zine focusing on experimental video artwork being produced currently, with a special interest in hardware, DIY, coding, and modular synthesis techniques. The stencil-printed booklet will retain the formatting of issues 1.1+1.2, with each pair of facing pages focused on each artist contribution, printed on a Riso duplicator in a range of spot colors to get a vibrant approximation of the source images. Same as previous issues, my hope that both content and thematic character will emerge from a community minded approach, allowing for a spontaneous organization of material.
For this issue, in addition to being exclusively image stills, I’m hoping to include page submissions that offer content like patch explanations, circuit diagrams, related studio photography (along the lines of DIY workbench pics and not ‘check out my monster case’ pics), and likewise. I’m happy to help with layouts of info/text pages if you can help provide the content.
The final timeline, page count, and edition size is somewhat dependent on interest and submissions, but I am aiming to publish something before the end of 2023. Approximate specs would be: 24-36 pages, 6x8 inches, 2-4 colors, all pages full bleed, bound with saddle staples, in run of around 150 copies. Here is a video of what last year’s booklets looked like.
I don’t have a great distribution plan, but I go to book fairs once or twice per year and otherwise have them available online. Some highlights for the pilot issue include an online purchase by the Museum of Modern Art, and having them stocked by New York independent bookstore Printed Matter, and the experimental video studio, Phase Space.
In exchange for participating, I can offer a couple of copies of the zine, and as many additional copies as you’d like at the cost to produce them (probably around $10 per booklet). If you have any questions regarding formatting, or whatever, please email me: jeffrey.evergreen@gmail.com.
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#40 — Fox · 2023-10-01
I want in this time!
#41 — rempesm · 2023-10-01
Glad to see this happening again–count me in, too!
#42 — Agawell · 2023-10-01
I’m up for doing this again!
#43 — 337is · 2023-10-01
jevergreen wrote:
include an online purchase by the Museum of Modern Art, and having them stocked by New York independent bookstore
W007!! The first round was delightful and I’m all in again if there’s room. Would totally stand down to give space for new voices if need be. Either way I’m stoked and will pick up copes no matter what! Thank you for starting this up again.
#44 — pbalj · 2023-10-01
I submitted this time
#45 — Agawell · 2023-10-02
Hi
just out of curiosity, which Museum of Modern Art? MoMA in NY? there are a lot of Museums of Modern Art!
Jim
#46 — jevergreen · 2023-10-02
I sent it to MoMA NY, addressed to someone in the Education Department.
#47 — FoundUnsound · 2023-10-02
I would be down to submit something.
#48 — meudiademorte · 2023-10-04
count me in!
#49 — Tundra_Tides · 2023-10-06
I would love to contribute. I’m also sure there’s at least one place in the UK where these could be distributed from in-shop, I’d be happy to help facilitate that as well!
#50 — wjo1443 · 2023-10-16
just sent you some stuff, hopefully I’m not too late to the party! This looks really cool