My obsession with walking began one day when I walked out my apartment door and did not stop. It was not until I hit the heart of downtown Chicago, five hours and thirteen miles later, that my trance was broken and I stopped to give my weary legs a rest. I had been completely mesmerized by the experience and it changed the way I saw myself as a citizen and inhabitant of this urban landscape.
Being on foot allowed me to explore the far and in between spaces in the architecture of the city, respond to its structures, and contemplate the neighborhoods I was passing through. In a lot of ways, I would love this publication on mobile and public art to mimic that experience. The Urban Backyard will focus on primarily art that takes place in the public sphere, is interactive, and mobile. Project-based works and art that travels is what we at this publication see as gaining importance in contemporary art today. Our magazine is a way to facilitate relationships, to mobilize, and to engage one another while serving as a platform to critique and reflect the art trends of today and tomorrow.
By concentrating on the local artists, events, and cityscape we aim to create an intimate relationship between the reader and the shifting art landscape. This is not a magazine exclusively for the art sphere; it is for the citizen to gain accessibility to understanding these movements and we believe starting small and close can help foster that connection. It is as much for the urban wanderer as for the cubicle prisoner. We also strive to surpass functioning solely as a magazine about contemporary art happenings. The lines that separate activism, the political, social work and art are being challenged as we speak and our expanded content reflects these blurred boundaries. What separates what happens in our meat-packing district from political policy, and politics from art?
I am fascinated with this idea, or maybe it is just a hope, that the city is our urban backyard and we can invite one another in. Therefore our contributors, special features, and stories will be from all backgrounds and resources. Hopefully, The Urban Backyard will discover ways to make its readers feel more grounded in their surroundings, whether it is through articles teaching them to forage and grow their own gardens so they know where their food comes from, or to come together every once in awhile to share a meal. Look forward to projects on wheels, performances, and works that call for participation. We cannot move without grasping an understanding of our environment and by providing a variety or resources and opportunities to start that journey, we hope our readers will mobilize and start investigating for themselves.
We challenge you to grab a magazine and start walking.
-Tracy Chou
Editor-in-Chief
What a beautiful idea - a publication that serves as a catalyst to create a more unified, person-to-person focused community.
ReplyDeleteIn making this publication, it seems like you will be offering many answers. Share. Engage. Stand Up. Walk. At some point, these ideas become more and more tangible and become more and more politically charged. Spread, Revolutionize, Stand Against, March. While not everything will evolve into the execution of a large political agenda, I am sure artists' projects will be very political in nature. All of this being said, how will you decide who gets to share information in this publication? Will TUB eventually become anti-establishment propaganda? Will the magazine, at its core, be interested in asserting itself as the forum for a certain group or mindset? Would you also choose your advertisers selectively, making sure to only work with companies who share the same ideals as TUB? Where will the magazine be positioned at a bookstore? In the Art section? News? Politics?
I am really into this idea of having something that is focused on the local. There is a lot of talk now about "sustainable" and "local" in terms of food, clothes, goods, etc, but rarely do we think about art that way. And it is ever so appropriate to, especially in a political context, to look to our neighbors for issues that inspire activism. i can picture a young crowd reading TUB at farmers markets and I can see it on the newsstands of alternative bookstores.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a geographical limitation on your readership, though. Would you only distribute the magazine to stores in Chicago (and suburbs)? After a fantastic success in this area would you consider expanding to, say, the TUB-NY and TUB-LA editions? I think there is something innate about Chicago that is more likely to embrace this magazine than New York (but maybe that's my midwestern naivite). If you choose to expand, what would you look for in a city to ensure that you had a readership there?