Personal mini-zines and a photography collection (Editor's Picks — March 5, 2025)
Editor's Picks (March 5, 2025)
Aligning an Open Source Ethos
By Roopa Vasudevan
Strategic Transparency Press
This week we’re especially excited by two new releases from media artist, programmer, and scholar Roopa Vasudevan and her new label Strategic Transparency Press. Across two mini-zines, Vasudevan combines original research and explorative thinking to examine the challenges and motivations of the open source community ($15) as well as the opportunities and pitfalls of working as a creative person ($3) in eye-catching, small-run physical zines. The thoughtful framing, personal voice, and honest presentation are all so Metalabel-core it hurts. Limited numbers available.
Collect Strategic Transparency Press
Little Letter of Nonsense – Feb 2025
By The Independent Variable
This is the second in a series of super-specific, monthly personal mini-zines by Kevin Humdrum (who also runs Foofaraw Press, which releases on Metalabel) that document what’s going on in the world of news, pop culture, and online culture on a monthly basis. The tone is on-point and the style is intentionally no-fuss in a way that feels honest. Available for just $1.25 in physical or digital form.
(The latest in a series of hyper-personal, digital-physical mini-zines we’ve been seeing lately — *trend report alert*)
Collect Little Letter of Nonsense
The Fair: A Future in Love drop
By RADAR
Step into a post-capitalist fever dream where love isn't sold in heart-shaped boxes! For the RADAR virtual LoveFest experiment, strangers were brought together for an exquisite corpse writing exercise — write a single collaborative story beyond narrow commodified conceptions of love. One of the results is this collaborative gem about time, care, and magical gardens. Very happy to see this release from our longtime creative friends at RADAR.
Photographs, 1st selectionBy Jeffrey Saldinger
Jeffrey Saldinger is a New York City-based artist and photographer who is releasing a collection of archival pigment prints that freeze-frame subtle slices of NYC’s streets. This release is celebration of his 15-plus year expansion from painting to photography, and we have the inside scoop that these extremely limited prints are made at home with personal care. Love the story and work.
Lavisha_01
Catalogue spotlight
Finally we can’t end this without a look at the work of Lavisha, who wrote in for the start of this week’s newsletter. Her Metalabel catalogue includes four releases, each a carefully curated collage of images, videos, and poetic questions that feel both ephemeral and relatable. We’ve loved everything we’ve collected, and will be loyal Lavisha supporters from here on out. Explore for yourself.
FROM THE CRATES
We asked Lena Imamura, artist and head of creative and operational things at Metalabel, what she’s digging these days. Lena, what are you finding on Metalabel right now?
Love a collectible card and really anything that makes me fantasize like I’m in high school again. Imagine getting a cryptic love letter printed on a Yu-gi-oh card from an arty internet-gamer nerd you’ve had a secret crush on — the one that doesn’t say much but expresses their feelings through their art — sigh ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
If you like the Esoteric, Mysticism, AI and Zines — this ones for you! Super into the proposition of thinking about Ai as an oracle, possibly the gods of the future yesterday?! 😅
Ancient Kabbalistic wisdom translated in English through a contemporary framework with sprinkles of AI and interdimensional references. Narrated by an Indian Jewish man who jumps from autobiography to quoting God to personal philosophy without skipping a beat, confusing all sense of time and space. A genuinely unusual release that would pique the interest of any budding theosopher.
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