Ceci N'est Pas Un Magazine

Mute on 'prosumers', collaborative production and the future of the magazine - a Mute infomercial

Towards a 'Participatory Publishing Model', Part I: Over the last six months, Mute magazine has been in a suspended state of publication. During this time, we’ve been contemplating the implications of our magazine’s content – the digital ‘revolution’ and its discontents – for its form and self-sustainability. When Mute published its pilot issue, in 1994, the Net was anything but ubiquitous. Mute’s original ‘Financial Times’ newspaper format was a deliberate attempt to debunk the information revolution’s much vaunted inclusivity – hence our decision to make a printed object and our motto ‘Proud to be Flesh’. Six and a half years later, we face a very different picture: the many-to-many publishing environment is now far more than a theory spouted by inspired techno-lotus eaters and our publishing gesture is dwarfed by the reality of today’s Net.

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