Magazine

We have published to date five issues of the Kilometer Zero magazine, each in a unique format, and according to a lawless production schedule and editorial mandate. This has been facilitated by the magazine’s fully independent status, by which neither sponsors nor advertisers are able to exert pressure. Areas covered include literary fiction, politics, art, poetry, philosophy and music. Here are a few of the pieces that we like: the Robin Hood Project was a product placement sting operation — we sourced designer goods, purportedly for advertorial content, and then redistributed them to poor neighbourhoods in Paris instead of giving them space in the “content” of the magazine. Evolution is a text-art decatych involving a chain of artists and writers responding sequentially to each others’ work. The Mechanics of Porn is a zero degree account of a three month covert coding operation inside Eastern Europe’s largest porn web-business.

Kilometer Zero magazine has been variously described as “truly impressive” (Noam Chomsky, linguist and political philosopher), “really terrific” (Dennis Cooper, novelist), and “one of the most stunningly designed and intellectually-driven magazines in the world right now. I am not exaggerating." (Stephen Marshall, Guerilla News Network). We’re distributed commercially in the US, and around the rest of the world via our wholly unique and personally forged network of some 50 independent bookstores — covering Paris, London, Istanbul, Sydney etc..

There are two aspects to the magazine which almost don’t make sense: one is that it is founded on ludicrously non-commercial principles — i.e. no sponsors or advertising, and a substantially independent distribution network which excludes chain bookstores. Two is that it really good looking. It was a very deliberate decision on our behalf to aim for extremely high-end production values — not just the quality of the design and content, but also the of the paper, the colour values, and the printing. Specifically we felt it was important to be able to produce a magazine just as glossy and high impact as a mainstream commercial, and yet fill it with alternative content of a kind that could never conceivably appear in any of the publications it might look a little like (or indeed, anywhere else at all). A wolf in sheep’s clothing. Or perhaps a lamb in place of a yawping hydra .... One of the things which made this possible was the digital revolution. Right as we were coming into our stride, it was suddenly conceivable with just a laptop, a scanner, and pirated software to make a really stunning printed object. Okok — so we used the slide scanner of a porno production company in Budapest one time ... but otherwise, we went entirely without expensive “professional” equipment. A further major factor was our involvement with the Paris art squat scene.

ISSUES OF KILOMETER ZERO MAGAZINE

Kilometer Zero 03
Arts & Literature - Music - Politics - Body

Kilometer Zero 02
Technology & Creativity

Kilometer Zero 01
New Fiction

Kilometer Zero 00
Youth in Staples

Kilometer Zero 05
Marseilles (Arab-Occident Relations)