Video Art Zine // Open Call for Submissions

current projects
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Hey Everyone! (first post here, but I’ve been active on the LZX forum for about a year.)

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.

Tentative deadline for things in the pilot issue is the end of August.

Thanks for checking it out!
Jeff

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this sounds very cool ! i’d be happy to submit a video still or short series of video stills. perhaps something like the beginning of this video: https://vimeo.com/321602828

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@palomakop Awesome! I’d also be interested in looking for frames in the longer livestream version of the video where there is some noise. One of the challenges of Riso printing video stuff is going to be the predominance of dark backgrounds. Just from a practical/technical standpoint I’m probably going to seek out frames that avoid large flats to color, otherwise It’s going to get really inky (&/or we’ll start to see Riso ‘noise’ instead of video noise, lol).

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yes, that makes sense. for a book i am currently working on, ive been working with the imagery inverted and vectorized. but with that in mind, i’m sure i could prepare some imagery that would work as a color separated risograph

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I’m not too worried if there is a full video field, just when it’s really dark.
Also, I’d love to hear more about the book you’re working on.

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i’m working on a book for my MFA thesis, it goes in depth about my ideas and technical processes for my thesis works. it’s black laser ink on slate gray paper with white ink silkscreen cover, perfect bound by hand, ~120 pages. most of the graphics are drawings and diagrams so the black and white printing works well, plus theres an online gallery of the video work that it goes with.

i used to have a shared live/work studio in new orleans that was also a riso printing shop. i like the look of the printing process very much, especially the subtractive layering of colors. it would be really cool if maybe you wanted to share some images here so that people can get a feel of what the printing style looks like?

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Oh dang, I want a copy of your book too! LMK if you have extras, post Kickstarter. I hope you can still present your thesis show at some point. This was a really unfortunate end to the academic year. :confused:

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i’m going to do a virtual opening / livestream type thing at some point, just want to wait until people get the books before i share the video work. it was a weird end to the year for sure but it hasn’t been too bad for me, i feel more bad for the people who still have to go back again in the fall… anyways i didnt mean to hijack this thread, really into the zine idea !

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I would also love to submit something, if there’s time I’m going to have a basic DIY Waaave_pool in the setup and I’d like to spend a bit of time with that before I chose stuff to submit.

Also, maybe consider putting some short animations along the right edge of the page in flipbook format (so depending on size, maybe 4-6 30 frame animations lined up vertically in the right margin). I think people would really respond to that, everyone loves a flipbook.

EDIT: actually, if you’re doing A5 it would probably make more sense to just put one animation in each of the outer corners of the page rather than the entire outer edge, with a thick paper stock you could still fit two animations on the right side of the spread and two more on the left side (flipping backward).

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Submitted a few stills through the link. High color stuff but it would be cool to see printed within the bounds of risograph.

Love these types of projects, especially Riso printing. Your examples of past work is very nice, it looks great.

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@robtoner Awesome! Thanks for sending something it. We just crossed the threshold for the number of contributors that I was aiming for, though there is still room/time for a few more.

@TubularCorporation I’m hoping to get started on the layout stage next week sometime, but if you can get me something reasonably soon that’s cool too.

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i also just submitted a couple of images, formatted as 2 spreads and 1 single sheet

i am open to any way you would want to print things but think it would be cool to see video stills printed in the “wrong” colors (something like a color separation but then with different colors from the expected CMYK used)

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Not a big deal, if I come up with something over the weekend when I’m trying stuff out for Tuesday’s livestream I’ll submit some still, otherwise no worries.

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just seeing your open call today. sent you a quick submission. hope it’s not too late. thanks!

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No, not too late, Thanks!
I’ll still take stuff through this week.

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i just submitted a few stills. I would be interested to make something with an understanding of the printing method, but also curious to see what artifacts come out as a result of the printing arbitrary stills with this process. does greyscale stuff work?

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Yeah, grayscale is totally cool. I’ve gotten a couple of one-color images that I’m really excited about.

There is a preference-related question I have on the submission form that is about whether artists are cool with the idea of using colored paper, which I think could make a great foundation for monochromatic images.

My only real concern with grayscale images is if they are super dark, that they would be either difficult or messy to print.

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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

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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!

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Hey there, just came across this thread. Sounds really cool! Is there an update? I’d love to do something similar for a music release I’m planning, but have absolutely no idea of printing. Can someone maybe point out some information/resources where I can read a bit and get started? Would be much appreciated!