Metacine - introduction

[daniel]

For a while now, I have felt the desire to create a new magazine that would develop the various ideas we have been exploring on this forum, as well as the more practical ideas for transforming society that can be found on the Bioneers website and elsewhere. The magazine, ideally, will have both a print component and an on-line component. I have a friend who is willing to invest in a prototype, but would also be looking for more funders. I am also in the process of developing a business model for this project - not usually my strong point. I would like to find some way to have the content available for free, perhaps as a downloadable pdf file, as well as ways to generate income. I am interested in thoughts people might have about this.

One component of Metacine would be Utne Reader-style, compiling and re-presenting material from other publications that are following similar lines of thought.

Here are some of the slightly grandiose thoughts I have had about Metacine:

Among the thinkers, scientists, poets, activists, and visionaries who inspire this new paradigm, whose ideas will be discussed and advanced in Metacine’s articles: Rudolf Steiner, Carl Jung, Herbert Marcuse, PD Ouspensky, Gregory Bateson, Julius Evola, Rainer Maria Rilke, Candace Pert, Lynn Margulis, Antonin Artaud, Larry Harvey, Walter Benjamin, James Baldwin, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Sri Auribindo, e e cummings, Rachel Carson, Chogyam Trungpa, William Irwin Thompson, Marshall McLuhan, Jose Arguelles, Buckminster Fuller, Michael Harner, Emily Dickinson, Paul Goodman, Alesteir Crowley, William Burroughs, Grant Morrison, Terence McKenna, Jyoti, Saul Williams, Speed Levitch, Paul Stamets, John Todd, Frances Lappe, Kenny Ausubel, James Joyce, Deleuze and Guattari, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Starhawk, John Zerzan, David Spangler, Brian Greene, Benoit Mandelbrot, Robert Lawlor, Arundhati Roy, Paul Hawken, Willhelm Reich, Karl Marx, Charles Fourier, Michel Foucault, Peter Matthiesson, Dion Fortune, Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Lao Tzu, Namkai Norbu, His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Rumi, Carlos Castaneda, Joseph Chilton Pierce, Don Miguel Ruiz, Bob Dylan, Jesus Christ, Salvador Dali, Groucho Marx, and etcetera.

Subjects to be covered in Metacine include:

Revisioning Society
new models for a transformed world

Esoteric Techniques and Practices of Self-Transformation
yoga, tantra, meditation, the chakras, Gurdjieff’s self-remembering, Dzogchen, etc.

Psychedelics, Shamanism, Dreamwork
exploring other levels of the psyche through non-ordinary states

Western and Taoist Alchemy

Bioremediation, Permaculture, Sustainable Agriculture, Nutrition

New Models for Alternative Economies, Alternative Energy Systems
stressing local solutions, looking at various experiments

Personal Essays, Poems, Stories
focus on personal and societal transformation

Mythology, Cosmology, Gnosticism, Jungian Archetypes
practical tips for dealing with archetypal material, essays on myths

Working with Elementals, Exorcizing Demons, Understanding the "Other"
"Others" as hidden or disguised aspects of the self or psyche

Relationships, Sexuality, Childraising
beyond the constraints of proscribed monogamy and the nuclear family

Augmented Social Networks
and other possible uses of new communication technologies

Reconnecting with Indigenous Cultures and Traditions

Cultural Criticism – film, books, music, video games, art

Climate Change – the Current Planetary Transition

Time and the Calendar
fixing the timing problem

The Biology of Transcendence

Burning Man and Festival Culture
reviews and previews

New Concepts in Education
preserving the original heart of the child

Health and Medicine: Towards a New Paradigm
realizing the mind and the emotions as keys to healing

New Scientific Thought – Beyond the Gaia Hypothesis

New Models of Community

Art and Aesthetics
in the service of global transformation

Practical Methods for Disarming a Culture of Violence

Creating an Imprint for Transition to a Harmonic Post-History

I am also, now, looking for contributions for the first issue. There would be no fee for this, at this time, but I hope as the project develops we will be able to compensate contributors. I also would like to find a web designer, a text editor, a graphic designer, a programmer, some illustrators, etc., who are willing to volunteer their time to this, at least at first.

People with ideas and potential contributions for the first issue should email me off-line. More general thoughts about this proposed project would be welcome here.

[Buzz]

Great idea, Daniel. Look forward to the first issue.
Don't forget John Trudell!!!

[Lowlight]

I like this a lot...if i had any money Daniel i would be sending a cheque right now.

[fungus44]

It seems like a very good idea. Certain questions around funding do come up -- would there be advertising? Of what sort? These are both practical and pricipled issues.

What does it mean to follow an Utne Reader model? The publicatio is a curse & a blessing, and maybe not the way to go.

The most interesting magazines I've seen in recent years have been Bust and Bitch. I'd think thee could be some crossover there. I wonder too about Erowid's potential interest Or is there a thought of doing a more art-lit kind of thing?

Are you familiar with Paperrad or Paper Rodeo? Could Fantagraphics have an interest?

[okster]

"I would like to find some way to have the content available for free, perhaps as a downloadable pdf file, as well as ways to generate income. I am interested in thoughts people might have about this. "

I have always been very impressed with magazines that provide their content free on their website. Wired, for instance, has the complete contents (minus advertising) of every issue online. I doubt that this impacts their print sales through subscriptions or newstands. Some magazines provide only selected content online. Sometimes because they think only certain articles are worth putting up, sometimes due to lack of resources, sometimes just because they don't want to give it all away. (all bad reasons).

Of course anything printed these days is in a computer file of some kind, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal to put the stuff online. I haven't looked at Wired for years but they used to have everything in text files. A PDF of the whole mag could be a good way to do it. Or just kind of an HTML version of each issue (maybe could even have online ads).

Sounds like a great idea anyway.....

[jezebelle]

or maybe paste in only art as a pdf or jpeg but keep the text fluid (I guess some sort of unix mix) for the various platforms that people may be contributing from.

[jalien]

yeah a free pdf
psychedelic magazine
would be sweeeeet

no way i would pay for it
thats so 20th century

heres a nice PDF mag
to inspire:
techzine


nanokiwi.com

[Snoe]

I think it's a cool idea to have it available for free online. But if you're concerned about the revenue, one obvious solution is Ads. I mean, banners and things on the website or exclusively on the online magazine. Obviously not loads, but nonetheless. Maybe you're anti advertisement or something, I don't know. But it really works out like arbitrage. If more people look at it online than are buying the magazine, your sponsors pay out more for the website hits, and you're still making a little bit of money from the magazine. If more people buy the magazine, you're hopefully at a profit, and your sponsors are still paying out a little bit of money. Well, maybe I overestimate the amount of money gained by solid advertisement. Just a thought.

Wishes,
Theo

[Fats]

Well the second coincidence since I've been on the website. I wrote Daniel earlier and asked if he knew of any zines or journals that dealt in this area. I'm a journalism student in North Carolina, and I would also love to see this.
Its A Celebration,
Fats

[Fats]

Oh and I'd love to help however I can.