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Cut and Paste: How post-digital print and zines ressurected paper media

Publication at Faculty of Social Sciences |
2022

Abstract

The traffic is busier than ever, festivals are organized, extensive archives are built, and they are printed by black metal fans and students of art schools, while their death was predicted long ago. First fanzines were published in the 1930s within the circles of science fiction fans, but later they spread all around.

At the same time, zine publishers of all sorts made do with scissors, glue and a cheap printer. Media scholar Miloš Hroch in the original Czech study for the #POPs edition series, examines the functioning of these low-cost publications and unofficial magazines in the post-digital era when we return, saturated with digital delirium, to analogue media.

His work brings radical concepts to media studies and analyses the new materiality of media for which a touch is as important as information. The book shows a determination of the zine scene and reevaluates the consequences of the digital revolution and cyberpunk dreams.

While earlier, the cut-and-paste method was a necessity, today, it is a strategy and choice that holds promise for unpredictable experiences in an algorithm-driven culture.