Issue 2.1—RIFF, STEAL, COLLABORATE
Dear OF ZOOS contributors (past and future),
Issue 2.1 is trying something new for its April 2013 publication. We’ve always been fascinated with riffing (hitting different chords inspired by a single note), stealing (taking ownership of something not initially ours), and collaborating (combining different heads and seeing how they explode). The tentative theme of this issue will be RIFF, STEAL, COLLABORATE, and we want art that is generated by any of these processes (or the combination of all three), and across multiple mediums. Contributors may work solo, as long as they produce serial work (multiple pieces in a single, cohesive collection). Alternatively, two or more contributors may collaborate and produce either a single piece of work, or a serial collection.
Collaboration is not something most artists instinctively gravitate towards. If you are interested to get involved with this issue but have no clue how or what to do, here are some ideas. If you prefer to work solo, consider collaborating with yourself—riffing off your own past work to create new ones; taking an old essay from secondary school and writing a poem off it; ‘collaborating’ with famous poets by using an image they use, stealing their poem titles, translating their works, or doing erasure. Etc. If you want to bounce off someone else, grab a friend who shares your artistic sensibility and collaborate on a project eg. write alternating poems to create a larger narrative; the last line of one’s poem will be the other’s first; both write poems with the same titles; one writes a poem and the other illustrates or puts together visuals etc.
If you’re courageous and up to the challenge to work with a random stranger on the internet (perhaps it’s easier not knowing your collaborator; that way, all inhibitions can go out the window), we can help. We have created a Google spreadsheet to help make connections (kind of like an online dating site, but to match artists). First, drop us an email at ofzooseditor@gmail.com and we will share the spreadsheet with you. The sheet will list all persons interested in collaboration and their names, email addresses, the type of art each one does, and everyone’s ideas/inspirations/sensibilities/project suggestions. Get in touch with the people that suit your aesthetic best, and work out a project. How you collaborate from there is up to you.
(Note: you are not bound to deliver anything until you submit a proposal to us and we reply with a guarantee. Even then, we do not expect projects to be fixed, and will gladly entertain changes/tweaks/overhauls during development.)
Here’s how we’re hoping this will all work:
1. All contributors, whether working solo or together, propose projects by dropping us an email at ofzooseditor@gmail.com (the same applies if you have a body of work that is already completed and ready for submission). This is so we can create a working list.
2. We decide which projects to ‘guarantee.’ This means we will pretty much guarantee publication, as long as contributors work with us towards the end of development to ensure that the work is up to our standards. We hope that our involvement on this part will be minimal; ideally finished work will be accepted as it is. Guaranteed projects will usually be bigger in scale (i.e. multiple contributors, use of materials other than a laptop or a pen and paper). Note: this is not a commission; we will not fund any work created.
3. Some other projects we will consider through the usual submission process. This will (most probably) apply to projects created by solo contributors, or simple text-based projects. However, if we are convinced that your text-based work is just as ambitious and promising as any other project, anything goes!
4. Preliminary submissions should reach us by early March, giving us a month to look over works. That gives newly proposed projects, from now, at least three months to be completed.
Currently, this is only an idea and a dream. As always, issue 2.1 will only be possible with your contribution. Get cracking and have fun!
