Materiality is a themed journal about our physical world, featuring fiction, essay, verse and images. The theme of this issue is SURFACE. (Previous issues have included BOOK, TIME and PRECIOUS). In this issue you will find stories about a cement monster and a man whose molecules fell apart, articles about asphalt, chenille and books bound in human skin, interviews with electroplater Tim Lynch and Melbourne artist Theo Strasser, pictures of insect spiracles and tattoos, and many more things besides.

Some surfaces are designed to keep things in, others to keep things out; some cover and shield, others are canvases for display. There's also a remote possibility that all that we see and touch are just illusions. (Physics alert!). But as we shape and mould various surfaces, so do they shape and mould us. Materiality is perfect for a Sunday read, or to keep you occupied during your commute! (It also makes an excellent present).

Materiality is published by pinknantucket press, a small press based in Melbourne, Australia. Our contributors include art conservators, curators, bakers, authors, authors, scientists, artists, craftspeople, photographers and others.

The cover illustration for SURFACE (a detail appears in the header above) is by Melbourne artist Rod Gray.


Wasp spiracle (magnified x a lot) - image by Ken Walker, Museum Victoria

At present we plan to print 300 copies - final numbers will depend on orders, of course!. The exact budget amounts will vary a little depending on the amount raised, but as a general guide we expect about 50% to go towards printing costs (we print locally in Melbourne), 20% on contributor fees for our authors and artists, 18% on postage and 12% on fees, editing and other production costs. If we raise more than our target, the extra will go towards increasing our contributor payments, which (it must be said) are very small at present. If we raise an extra $600 we should be able to double our contributor fees. We might also be able to include a bit of colour.

As you've probably heard, print is dead, nobody reads anything anymore, we all have the attention spans of gnats etc etc. So we're really hoping we manage to meet our target budget, because it will mean there are a lot of keen minds and curious readers out there, who don't mind slightly abrading their skin surfaces on the paper surface of a good magazine every now and then. 

Production-wise we don't expect too many hiccups, as we've published three issues of Materiality already, except it's likely everything will take a bit longer than we expect (it always does). At the moment we are intending to publish SURFACE in late September.