The New Pollution a News Item by pluta (jane curtis) Jane talks cut n'paste with Sean Healy, one of the co-ordinators of LOUD's zine project, the New Pollution . New Poo (submitted by pluta.) What is the New Pollution all about? Two things - to show just how cool some of the zines are in australia and the intoxicating ideas and imagery within them, and to inspire people to produce their own media - their own zines.... - which we hope to do with a range of too easy tips, interviews with zinesters, and a range of subliminal web animations.... What are its aims? My favourite zines are the ones that show what we miss out on because of the commercial filters the mass media is fed through.. and personally i'm keen for the New Pollution to expose people to the depths of the creativity zines offer - from the stylish, witty, weird to the profound ...and inspire those who have something to say or display, to go for it and make their own zines. Is the name significant? Depends what you read into it. What inspired you and Damien (Frost) to become involved? Are there other people involved too? The chance to meet the best ziners from around the country i.e. the prospect of knowing a floor to crash on in every town, and a chance to communicate directly with some interesting, creative people. Chance to get some dollars for the Pod - allowing us to provide a printer, scanner etc for any local artists, writers etc who might want to use em... Chance to climb our creative kosiosko(?) and have a lot of fun and chaos organising and creating the whole thing... and finally - a chance to stretch ourselves too thin and poke holes in ourselves.. Kieran from krudcumber zine and Michael from Stuntrider zine are also involved to a lesser extent... What place do you see zeens having in youth and underground culture in Australia? Well, we've received about 50 zines over the last few weeks, and what they have in common are things like questioning authority, a disregard for formal magazine conventions, and a healthy zest for life in all of its current day absurdity. So i guess, their place is in connecting various likeminded people up that aren't satisfied with the the standard media dripfeed, and providing a censor free place for creative people to flourish ... What are some of your favourite zines and ezines, especially Australian ones? There's zines to suit most tastes, but these are my flavour... Headshots from syd is great, its a fairly slick zine about electronic music that has a lot of local pride and style... Syndrome from melb is a great comic... giddyup! is a way too stylish, dirty and funny cycling zine from melb.. Some underground machine - melb - industrial aesthetix, great content Spammy - north coast nsw - very extensive, funny & personal zine.. There's so many more tho ...Dazed and Swarming,Pop kong... What advice would you give to someone wanting to make a zine? Figure out why first, and if you really feel you have something to show the world.. then the rest will fall into place. Read as many different zines as you can, and don't be bound by any ideas of what a zine should be - this one is yours, go for it.. How do punters become involved in the New Pollution? Send us your zines! the pod, 3/231 king st newcastle nsw 2300, or email us your URL to evolver@loud.org.au. People who've made zines can answer our questionaire about zinemaking on the website http://evolver.loud.org.au/nupoo, which will be used to illustrate the various parts of the how to guide and anthology. And people who've never made zines - but want to - can tell us what we should include in the how to guide and then race away and get your first zine to us by mid November so we can out it online and in the anthology! Anything else you'd like to add... Look forward to soakin up your zine. And yeah, boycott shell. Related Web Site Created on Mon, 13 Oct 1997 and last modified on Tue, 21 Oct 1997.

LOUDonline - http://www.loud.net.au - Fri, 10 Apr 1998