Arts Feature: The Emergence of Zines on Tezos | NFT CULTURE | NFTs and crypto art

Born out of the Harlem Renaissance in 1920s New York City, zine creation is synonymous with a variety of subcultures, art movements, and literature over the decades. To the unknown, a zine is broadly a self-published work of writing, art, photography, comics, or a mixture of all the former, and is usually created by creators whose mainstream publications tend to reject or vice versa. With its roots in free speech and play, individual autonomy, community support and underground communication, zines find a new important place in society on Tezo’s blockchain by highlighting artists and writers globally from a traditionally underrepresented background.

Usually, these Web3 zins are simply .pdfs embossed. Each edition is available for viewing to anyone who wants to search digitally by promoting accessibility in information, while collectors can purchase the limited amount of editions available to support the creators of zines. Some zines – such as The Tickle – even have subscription symbols where avid collectors get new editions automatically dropped into their wallets with extra surprises, such as special edition art from artists featured in the zine. As culture and society grow, more innovation presents itself in distribution models, formats and benefits of fundraising.

While this is not a comprehensive list of available zines on Tezos, here are highlights from some of the publications that are exceptional when it comes to curating artists and writers with their respective niche topics.

THE SOURCE

At the forefront of Tezo’s zine movement is The Tickle – @inwarhol – which recently celebrated its 1st anniversary with 52 editions now released by hundreds of Tezos-based artists and writers from around the world. The Tickle, which is released every Friday and Twitter rooms, is a congruent host for talking to the featured artists, and is a love letter to the myriad of artists who have worked within the Tezos ecosystem. Personally, I love wandering through the kaleidoscope of works and artists featured on these pages to discover new artists.

The Tickle was founded by @GuysWilyco-made for 3 months with @MaiaMellier and various co-editors included @THorsmeier @JoncolaRush. The team is currently @GuysWily and @monochromatic with the co-editor of Tickle Lit. @heyghostshoes

CRYPTOFAGO

Cryptophage is a recent publication that stands out to highlight specifically Brazilian artists. Made of @acatfishartist with help from @_vcntt_ it is published in English and Portuguese to reach both international and Brazilian markets. With thought-provoking content to provide cultural context and history for non-Brazilians or audiences unfamiliar with the background, this zin provides a deeper understanding of artists from the global art market in the global south. The name Cryptofago is a tribute to the anthropophagic manifesto of Oswald de Andrade, a document that was the reference to Brazilian modernism in the 1920s.

SLOTH ZINE

Made of @burkabayramart and @weird_realm, Sloth Zine is a cartoon focused zine that encourages us to slow down and take a break. With 30-50 artists one edition with each drawing a one-page black and white cartoon, the creators highlight all the fantastic illustrative artists on Tezos internationally. While comics tend to be seen as a quick digest in the format, each page of this zin feels like a meditation on a Sunday morning cartoon.

HELIX ZINE

Helix Zine founded by @arditty & @damlasahinbas_ – is a photography zine designed to be a source of inspiration for each other and to discover new ways of thinking creatively. The unique thing about this zin is that it is a chain structure – where the first image of the zin inspires the next image that inspires the next without each artist knowing who the previous artist is. This creates an overall visual narrative that is a collective stream of consciousness.

MY ART MAG

Mina Art Mag is digital arts magazine of brazilian women focused on helping build female artists and voices to equalize the representation of women in art globally. Made of @silviahmariah and @Art_GiovannaF, the name Mina means “a girl, a woman” in Portuguese to indicate the contents of this zine in a simple way. This publication is exceptional when it comes to exploring not only female artists, but the issues surrounding women navigating the art world.

RIGHT CLICK SAVE

Right-click Save Although not an onchain zine, it deserves more than a mention for its work in preserving the narrative and legacy of the early crypto-art movement and digital outsider artists on Tezos and beyond. Drive past @alexestorick under the umbrella to @clubnft – an Artnome project – but editorially independent, this publication is worth a dive for those seeking critical discourse on art on the blockchain.

The author of this article is a collector and avid reader of these zines at the time of publication.