The Autonomous Zine Atlas

Zines have always moved through informal infrastructures. A zine library might exist in the back room of a bookshop or a community centre. A distro might operate out of someone’s living room or a café. An archive may be managed by volunteers and a festival might happen once a year but be quietly distributing zines in between events. These places are everywhere, but they are rarely mapped and on the radar of projects who might be potential partners and collaborators.

The Autonomous Zine Atlas is the first project that aims to make the invisible infrastructure of the global zine culture a little more accessible. The atlas is interested in the places where zines live and move; the ecosystem of zine libraries, zine depositories, venues, festivals, distros, radical bookshops, archives and collectives that care for zine publications.

Much of the existing documentation of zine culture focuses on North America, but they are only a small part of the global story. There are powerful cultures of grassroots publishing across the world that are under-mapped within the wider ecology of autonomous publishing.

This work will happen slowly. The atlas is an open source resource and will grow through community submissions, conversations with organisers, research into existing networks and quiet listening to the people who already care for these spaces. It will not be perfect, and it will never be finished but it will be handled with care. Like zine culture itself, it will remain open, incomplete and constantly evolving.

The word “autonomous” matters here. Zines have always been connected to autonomous media, autonomous organising, autonomous cultural production. They emerge from a desire to create spaces of expression that are not dependent on institutions, markets or gatekeepers. Autonomy should not mean isolation. It means building collective networks of care that allow people to create and circulate ideas on their own terms. The Autonomous Zine Atlas is simply one small contribution to that ecosystem. 

If you run a zine library, organise a festival, maintain an archive, distribute independent publications, or know about a small corner of the world where zines are quietly thriving, this project is an invitation. You can email posthumanauntie@tutamail.com.

Thanks to https://www.migrantzinecollective.com/zines for the images.

If you would like a copy of the current Autonomous Zine Atlas please write to info at imaginarylife dot net.