Failed States is a journal of new writing about place, helmed by MagCulture’s very own Jamie Atherton. Born out of frustration with borders, walls, and the UK’s departure from the EU, Failed States’ first issue, recently launched via Kickstarter, considers the notion of islands.

The compact magazine begins with a note from Jamie (above), who comments on the impact of the deteriorating environment on low-lying islands, and also speaks of the issue’s limitations, which lie in its western bias. He states that as the journal emerged organically, most of its writers have hailed from the UK and the US. It is refreshing to read a magazine that is aware of its limited perspective, and that in turn roots the reader in the fact that each of our worlds are so small; we are all, in effect, islands.

Starting with ambitions for a 64-page volume, the standard of submissions saw it grow to be a more significant 114 pages. The issue includes a carefully paced mix of poetry, photo journals, artworks, lists and personal essays. Everything is brief and to the point. Excerpts from Joseph Curran’s ‘On the subject of creating a film on a remote island’ crop up at several points; vague and intriguing diary entries about his time working on a film for the National Trust.

Elsewhere, Martin John Callanan presents a table of statistics from some of the world’s many islands, which include population size and data rate per person. More conceptually, Paul Clinton imagines islands and otherness in his essay ‘TGI Friday’, which responds to Michel Tournier’s 1967 novel Vendredi in relation to Brexit. The ‘other’ comes up as a recurring theme throughout the issue.

Failed States is presented as a scrapbook of ideas, its pacing and large text size making it easily dipped in and out of. It muses on its theme imaginatively, offering a glimmer of hope, creativity and clarity in adverse times.

Contributors to the first issue include Anh Do, Beth Bramich, Bryony Quinn, Cally Spooner, Calvin Seibert, Carrie Friese, Doris Ho-Kane, Eli Diner, Euan Macdonald, Fi Churchman, Gabriella Beckhurst, Isabel Taube, Jasleen Kaur, Jay Simpson, Jeremy Atherton Lin, Jesse Hewit, Joseph Curran, Joyce Dixon, Julie Lindow, Lucy Watson, Luke O’Sullivan, Martin John Callanan, Mary Hannity, Mary Manning, Matt Connors, Matt Wolf, Monique Mouton, Niki Ford, Nina Schack Kock, Olivia Laing, Oscar Gaynor, Paul Clinton, Richard Dodwell, Sam Ashby, Sam Williams and Thea Smith.

ISSN 2515-5997

Failed States #1, Island

Het Nieuwe Instituut presents Designing The One Minute

From 16 until 23 March 2017, Designing The One Minute, curated by Yin Aiwen will be exhibited at Het Nieuwe Instituut.

Yin Aiwen started a design investigation of The One Minutes chronicle 1998-2016. The series consists of 36 One Minutes by designers and artists revealing how technology changes aesthetics, perception and reflection; an experiment where technology becomes poetry.

In March, the series tours museums and cultural organisations with a subscription to The One Minutes Series.

Participating artists:

Joris Nouwens
Hendrik Niefeld
Antonis Pittas
Persijn Broersen
Margit Lukács
Dario Bardic
Heerko van der Kooij
Bart Stolle
Su Tomesen
Matthias Hederer
Ryan Oduber
Mitsuharu Nakagawa
Patrick Doan
Gijs van der Lelij
Thijs Geritz
Sagi Groner
Gaston Slaets
Vassilis Noulas and Manolis Tsipos
Lauren Alexander
Eng Chuen Chuah
Omar Ahmed Awad
Martin John Callanan
Arno Coenen
Alisha Frijters
Lauren Grusenmeyer
Donna Verheijden
Stëfan Schäfer
Persijn Broersen, Margit Lukács and Zahid Jaffar
Fons Schiedon
Kevin Bray
Maartje Smits
Andrea Karch
Minhong Yu
Arthur Röing Baer
Cyanne van den Houten
Agnieszka Zimolag

Yin Aiwen is a designer and researcher based in Amsterdam. She graduated from Design Department of Sandberg Instituut Amsterdam in 2013. Her work focuses on new possibilities of design practice in the ever-changing technological and political environment. Her recent research on ‘designer films’ investigates the new position of design thinking in filmmaking, resulting in a series of writings and events.

The One Minutes is a global network devoted to moving image.

Every month, a different artist is asked to put together a new series of 60-second films that investigate how we perceive and engage with moving image. Museums and cultural organisations around the world subscribe to the series.

Press Release PDF

Het Nieuwe Instituut
Overschiestraat 188
1062 XK Amsterdam NL
info@theoneminutes.org

theoneminutes.org