‘art by noise’: radiofreemidwich presents ‘the barrel nut’ microzine

July 26, 2013 at 7:32 am | Posted in art, no audience underground, not bloody music | 5 Comments
Tags: dex wright, joined by wire, midwich, no audience underground, shameless self-congratulation, stephen woolley, tapenoise, the barrel nut, visual art, yol, zines

Hey people!  Radio Free Midwich is proud to present the first issue of The Barrel Nut microzine.

Having been inspired by various small press, ‘artist book’ and zine(ish) activities, I have decided to create a little something on paper myself.  Keeping it as simple as possible, each issue will be one single sided sheet of A4 paper folded into an A7, 8-panel microzine (picture above is way larger than life).  The six internal pages will be filled with contributions invited from stalwarts of the no-audience underground and other affiliated parties, hence the clever tag-line: ‘art by noise’.  Cool, eh?  The intention is to produce issues on a monthly(ish) basis but we’ll see how that goes.  Physical copies will be created to pass on to contributors, leave in gig venues and give to distros/zines to send out with their orders/correspondence.  Subscriptions available.  I will also put up a pdf and jpeg of each issue on RFM so anyone can print out their own (see below for Blue-Peter-style assembly instructions).

Why am I doing this?  Well, this kind of thing is a lot of fun to put together and reminds me of happy hours spent making small-press comics in my teens.  I’m also into the idea of showcasing the graphic talents of this pool of artists – perhaps an underrated aspect of our endeavour.  Links will be given on the back page, so picking this up might encourage the curious to check out a Bandcamp site or whatnot too.

The first issue starts strong with artwork from Stephen Woolley of Joined By Wire, Dex Wright of Tape Noise, Yol of, err…, Yol and, *ahem*, Rob Hayler of midwich.  More line drawings and typewriten text (intended as scores for performance – ‘like La Monte Young with ADHD’) to come from Yol.  Some great upset typography from RFM staffer and dictaphonic maestro Joe Murray to look forward to in future issues.

Subscriptions

A UK subscription can be had in return for stamps or trade – enquiries welcome.  Due to silly postal prices I suggest overseas readers follow the instructions for creating their own copies.

Submissions

Contributions of artwork welcome.  It can be anything you like but should a) reproduce OK as a black and white photocopy and b) be 7cm by 10cm (which ain’t big).  Anyone can submit as many pages as they like – I’ll juggle ’em up.  Originals posted to Midwich Mansions preferred but good quality scans attached to an email also fine.

Issues in digital format

The Barrel Nut issue #1 as a pdf file

The Barrel Nut Issue #1 as a jpeg file

Assembly instructions

Should you wish to construct your own copy of The Barrel Nut you will need the following: a print out of one of the files above and a craft knife or pair of scissors.

Don’t be intimidated by the incredible fanzine creator kit in the photo above – I’m a professional.  First fold in half like this:

Then in half lengthways too:

Then open out and fold the ends in to meet the middle like this:

Open it out again and use your sharp instrument to cut along the long fold in-between where the two middle segments of each side meet (indicated by ruler, blade point placement):

Fold over along the long fold with the artwork facing outwards:

This is the spatial awareness stretching bit.  Fiddle with it and refold a couple of lines until it looks like this:

Then squash into booklet form thus:

…and you are done.  Peruse, enjoy then get to work on your contribution or, now you know how it is done, rival publication.