Callum Crumlish travels to Old Street to address the question of printed matter. Answer: yes, print still does and here’s why.
On Saturday 6th February, amidst unbearable train delays and gale-force winds, just off Old Street, down a back alley, and under a rock, lay Albert House—the one-day-venue for a pop-up indie magazine shop—hosted by Amy Freeborn and Alex Carr, founders of The Institute of Other.
Covering the surface area of every table, beautifully crafted indie magazines of every genre sat awaiting my perusal. These printed objets addressed topics from cocktails to BMX biker gangs; there were photo-focused fashion magazines, home furnishings and more. Hell, they even covered the farmers of Maharashtra (it’s somewhere in India).
During my visit to the shop, I also had the chance to sit down with Amy to discuss the shop, her magazine, The Institute of Other, and why indie magazines are important to the world.
Moving from the hectic hustle and bustle of Old Street roundabout to the quiet insides of this free-flowing art-space was jarring. The pop-up’s venue can only be described as a pristine, relaxed, chilled-out, art-fuelled set of rooms that had been meticulously designed, and designed again, to encourage creative people to sit down, grab an indie mag, and delve into the creativity between the pages.
Art pieces plastered every wall, and were accented by a variety of plant decor, angle poise lamps, and scribbles on the white walls—resembling a film-noir writer’s office, minus the self-loathing. Bolted onto the main shop floor rests the Reading Room—a quiet room where guests were encouraged to take a load off, read their one-of-a-kind magazines, or pick up one of the many donated books, and chow down on some complimentary brain-food. Although the RR was empty on my arrival, it was essentially at capacity as I made my exit—complete with strangers mingling and diving headfirst into guilty pleasures.
Amy Freeborn is the co-founder of the Institute of Other, an organisation that strives to ‘bring together like-minded, motivated people to discuss what they do, what they dream of doing, and what has yet to be dreamed; with the aim of generating new ideas, experiments, other’. The IoO offers networking salons throughout London where creative people have the opportunity to get together, talk and think creatively together, and potentially improve themselves, their work, and become inspired.
Along with plans for exhibitions, film screenings, and more—the IoO is looking at a busy year. On talking to Amy, it was clear that the calm and collected atmosphere that engulfed the room reflected her own disposition. She stated that the pop-up is one of Institute of Other’s ‘kind of, bespoke kind of events that we do.
‘Today is about putting together a creative platform for indie publishers, and a way to get indie publishers together, have their magazines on sale, and, potentially, attract people who are interested in indie magazines’.
And, later, whilst I pressed her on the topic of money, she simply smiled through my spiel (typical ex-journo) and confided that ‘the reason why I did this, and I’m kind of able to do it is because we’ve got—we have access to this space today for free. Which meant I could, kind of, say to the publishers, you know—bring your magazines down, I’ll sell them and I’m not going to take any commission on them because we don’t have any overheads to pay, which is unique’.
Amy is also the founder and editor of feature title Phox Pop, a magazine aimed at ‘Thinkers Seekers Makers Doers’ that features the thinkers, seekers, makers and doers of Generation X, Y, Z – or have we gone back to A by now? People who have thought provoking, ideas, photography, or even just tidbits and ramblings on the lineage of the word ‘petrichor’ (look it up).
The 27 independent magazines that were featured at The Institute of Other’s pop-up shop displayed the versatility and simple ingenuity of some of the underground indie mags that we might not see without events such as these.
The whole gig seemed like a genuinely heartfelt attempt at dragging the creative underground into the realm of success. And, the fact that Amy and Alex put the whole event together without commission proves their worth—in my opinion.
You would be doing yourself a disservice by not checking out the links below.
Stay creative.
The Institute of Other
@instituteother
instituteofother.com
Phox Pop Magazine
@phoxpopmagazine
www.phoxpopmagazine.com