Queer Mags: Reading ephemeral histories

A workshop with Laura Guy & Ian Giles

Queer Mags: Reading ephemeral histories is a one-day workshop exploring the form and function of queer magazines before the internet. The day will encompass a range of activities that prompt discussion around the potential uses of periodicals for anyone interested in engaging with recent histories of queer culture. 

From the journals of the U.S. homophile movement to the glossy erotic mags of the '90s, print periodicals have been central to the fragmented networks, myriad desires and divergent styles of twentieth century queer culture. Publishing editorial content alongside advertisements, personals and letters pages, magazines prefigure online platforms by inviting participatory forms of readership. Unlike the almanac or the anthology, they are turned toward the here and now. Read out of time, magazines show us a slice through a particular moment including the writers and image makers, distributors and readers who shaped it.

The workshop has been developed by writer and researcher Laura Guy with Ian Giles in response to his film After BUTT, which is currently on display at Chelsea Space and explores the social and cultural legacy of BUTT Magazine, a publication made for and by gay men between 2001-2011.

http://events.arts.ac.uk/event/2018/3/2/Queer-Mags-Reading-ephemeral-histories/