Sunday, July 22, 2012


THE GREAT MEDIA EXPERIMENT:  ASPEN, THE MEDIA’S FIRST 3D MAGAZINE




Source: ASPEN'S BRANDING: LOOK FAMILIAR?


Here I go out on the limb.  Its seems no small irony that I’ve chosen entertainment and media as my chosen field while I write the sort of things you are about to read.  The thing is I just see such an amazing potential in modern times.  I see room for all sorts of art and entertainment.  It is in many ways one of the purest forms of ancient democratic philosophy.  Yeah, that’s what I said.  Back in those days many cultures attempted democracy but found it to be too chaotic and—more often than not—invited their dictators back to once again take charge.  In my opinion a small number of so-called ‘gurus’ have been at the helm of the entertainment business.  So perhaps we as an audience have forsaken our rights and our ‘democracy’ for the sake of order.  But at what price?  That sort of thinking is what inspires this blog.

I have done many blogs on many different areas most of which influenced by my present training and research in business entertainment with Full Sail University.   I’ve enjoyed creating all these blogs and the various posts attached to them.  But this one is of particular interest to me.  It is the story what was considered the first three dimensional magazine called Aspen.  I ran across this magazine while reading a text for a class.  I could have passed right by it as yet another ‘fact’ to store away for business purposes.  But as it happened I didn’t.  Instead I performed a keyword search in Google and discovered that this magazine had been archived in digital form.  What I discovered is two-fold.  A virtual treasure trove for the researcher interested in the 60s.  It is also a telling look into how our present love of technology has developed hand in hand with science and art.  

Before I share these treasures with you I want to give you some background on the conception of the magazine, what it included, and how it distributed that content.  That alone is an amazing story.  

SOURCE:  ASPEN, TENTH AND FINAL EDITION

This is a web version of Aspen, a multimedia magazine of the arts published by Phyllis Johnson from 1965 to 1971. Each issue came in a customized box filled with booklets, phonograph recordings, posters, postcards — one issue even included a spool of Super-8 movie film. It's all here.
Aspen was conceived by Phyllis Johnson, a former editor for Women's Wear Daily and Advertising Age. While wintering in Aspen, Colorado, she got the idea for a multimedia magazine, designed by artists, that would showcase “culture along with play.” So in the winter of 1965, she published her first issue. “We wanted to get away from the bound magazine format, which is really quite restrictive,” said Johnson. (Source:  http://www.ubu.com/aspen/#about)

In other words two individuals involved in two major magazines already recognized that the world of media was undergoing changes.  The technology simply had not yet caught up the.  Equally important, this was a project that included an aspect of the artistic world that was and is to this day is frequently overlooked: experimental art in any number of media and genres.  


Frankly, this is what drew me into researching this project at first.  I have longed believed that today’s mainstream media has ignored the higher end of artistic endeavor.  Call this being a snob or elitist.  Perhaps it is true and perhaps it is not.  But the fact remains much of the media has simply provided its audience with predictable entertainments that lack a certain amount of genuine content.  Television has certainly been one of the biggest violators of good taste.  The movies seems to be running out of ideas for scripts and so opts for reiterations of old characters and plots dressed up in a spectacle of new technology.



Let me say that I understand that my observations and opinions are just that—my observations and opinions.  What is important here is that this magazine made a valiant attempt to broaden the horizons of its audience using what was then an innovative notion of marketing, promotion, and distribution that all of those involved in the business of entertainment can take a lesson from no matter what sort of observations and opinions we may share or disagree on regarding the subject of content and context within our chosen field.

In fact, I would genuinely like to hear those who disagree with my stance in order to better understand my position in what is the most exciting form of business I know:  art and entertainment.  

Here is a bit more about how Aspen did business and executed its staffing along with editorial choices regarding content:

Each issue had a new designer and editor. “Aspen,” Johnson said, “should be a time capsule of a certain period, point of view, or person.” The subject matter of issue number 1 and issue number 2 stayed close to the magazine's namesake ski spa, with features on Aspen's film and music festivals, skiing, mountain wildlife, and local architecture. Andy Warhol and David Dalton broke that mold with issue number 3, the superb Pop Art issue, devoted to New York art and counterculture scenes. Quentin Fiore designed issue number 4, a McLuhanesque look at our media-made society. The next issue, a double issue number 5+6, was an imaginative, wide-ranging look at conceptual art, minimalist art, and postmodern critical theory. Issue number 6A, a freebie sent to ever-patient subscribers, was a review of the performance art scene centered at New York's Judson Gallery. Next came issue number 7, exploring new voices in British arts and culture. Issue number 8, designed by George Maciunas and edited by Dan Graham, was dominated by artists of the Fluxus group. Issue number 9 plumbed the art and literature of the psychedelic drug movement. The last Aspen, issue number 10, was devoted to Asian art and philosophy.  (Source:  http://www.ubu.com/aspen/#about)

Note in this passage the notion of postmodern critical theory, conceptual, and minimalist art.  Clearly such an effort was not released without a certain amount of concerns about it higher-end content.   Note also hthat it had a mere ten issues.  Like a stock on the market that reaches its point of resistance so does the more adventurous efforts in the world of media I suppose.


There is no way that one blog will cover all the various thoughts and observations that I have experienced while searching this page.  It is to me something like a archeological dig with its grid map measured in bits and bytes.  It is also a relevant commentary on what can be accomplished when human intellectual thought meets new technology.  And this is what interests me.  Why not explore areas of our culture in its entirety rather than small areas that promoted the advertising dollar?  Isn’t there room for both?  I don’t believe that this is the case.  I know that this is the case.  It is really up to the audience to step up and demand more of this amazing technology and let those gurus running the show know that the audience does in fact still have a mind.  Sound radical?  Seems a bit off the beaten path?  Gets you a bit curious?  Maybe even a bit angry?  Good.  Rage on.  Run with it.

But most importantly enjoy the following blogs that will feature various materials from what I consider to be my greatest find in a long history of internet research.




Other resources you might enjoy.




HELLO AND GOODBYE AND HELLO AGAIN




NEXT WEEKS BLOG:  THE GREAT MEDIA EXPERIMENT:  ASPEN, ROLAND BARTHES’ THE DEATH OF THE AUTHOR:  MEANWHILE CHECKOUT MY BLOG ON THE LEGAL SIDE OF THE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS 










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