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flUoresCent message in bottle from photon gnome
Leonid – A neW uW
CuLturAL MAGAZine
It all started with a seminar
paper that looked like a music
magazine, complete with CD,
song list and poster. A trip to
India and an oasis concert inspired
student of German Jan
Dobrick to put pen to paper,
but the result was too dense,
too extreme, and too literary
for his assignment. on the
other hand it would have been
a pity to dump it.
The idea grew for a magazine
that would rescue forgotten
jewels like this from their fate
in dusty files and on decaying
hard drives. Dobrick soon
found others who shared his
enthusiasm, and Leonid was
launched in February 2011. Its
remit runs from journalism,
short stories, poems and
sketches, through photography,
graphics and experimen-
tal typography, to tweets,
walkthroughs and assorted
blurb from collapsible building
instructions to deadly pharmaceutical
notes. The only
criterion is readability.
If you’re thinking: “o, I’ve
written/designed/drawn/crea-
ted something like that mys-
elf”, then just click the aster-
isk (or Facebook ‘Like’ button
– whichever) in your brain and
dig it out. Because Leonid is
open to all. If you’ve got something
here and now, just
go to the end of this text.
Every Leonid issue will have
its own topic, and the first
issue – due to hit the bookstores
with winter semester
2011-2012 – focuses on
light. The publication team
of students and staff from
the Faculty of Humanities
and (students only) from Art
and Design will rejoice collectively
with every manuscript
received.
And what might such a ma-
nuscript look like? Needless
to say, the topic can be freely
interpreted: we’re fascinated,
for instance, by the secret life
of an LED, or a haiku on personal
illumination burnt onto
the paper with a lens. A comic
from Wülfrath on the golden
photon-gnome is as much
our cup of tea as a letter throwing
light on the wide pastures
of political corruption. We
are dazzled by a photoreport
of students who glow in the
dark, and hit an all time high
with a fluorescent message
in a bottle from a recycling
machine written with a burntout
sparkler. ‘Such tricks hath
strong imagination’, and all
tricks are welcome that have
anything to do with light.
Equally welcome, of course,
are your suggestions for
future issues. Many things
must be planned in advan-
ce, and making a magazine
means organization and hard
work as well as creativity.
The production team can only
build the frame on which your
ideas are pinned, wherever
you find them and however
garish or abstruse their form
or function. The ideas themselves
must come from you.
So what does Leonid offer its
authors? Not money, we’re
afraid – that’s the hard truth.
The magazine must tread a
long and stony path before
it even covers its own outgoings,
so remuneration for
its authors, for all the value
added they produce, remains
an idle dream. It is the value
itself that counts – the wonder
of creation, contribution,
collection of your copy, concept
and layout in the state of
the designer’s art, printed on
paper of photographic quality,
and bound – bound to delight
both hand and heart. What
feedback you will get from
your fans at the release party,
what faves, what likeits …
For especially productive and
committed authors we even
reserve a starcut presentation.
And if you want to give more,
do more, get closer to the core
of this literary-and-publicist
excess, come to the editorial
meetings (time and place on
application per e-mail). Here,
organizational talent is required
above all, along with a
feeling for language and an
untiring enthusiasm for pinning
up posters, distributing
flyers, carting round piles of
magazines etc. Your reward?
– The sense, unique and unforgettable,
that you’ve saved
a cultural meteorite or two
from burning out.
Contact
http://leonid-magazin.de/ (Author
information under ‘Mehr
Licht – More Light’.)
E-mail redaktion@leonidmagazin.de
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