21C Magazine
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| 21C 2010 Logo | |
| Format | Print/Digital |
|---|---|
| Editor | Ashley Crawford |
| Publisher | Gordon & Breach |
| Origin | Melbourne / New York |
| Language | English |
| Frequency | ? |
| Active | 1994-1999 (print) |
| Topics | Cyberpunk, Technology, culture |
| Number of Issues | ? |
| Follows | NA |
| Precedes | NA |
| Associated Publications | Artbyte, World Art |
| Website | 21cmagazine.com |
21C Magazine was a magazine originally run by The Commission for the Future, a government body in Australia, and the magazine was funded accordingly. Ashley Crawford worked under the government structure editing the magazine from 1990-93 in that version and even then, although it had a strong Australian flavour, under Crawford it was beginning to tackle cyberspace, information overload, virtual reality and associated issues.
In 1994 Crawford was approached by a Swiss-based international company, Gordon & Breach, who wanted to start an international art magazine – World Art. Crawford accepted but didn’t really want to let go of 21•C and so organized an amendable take-over of the magazine. Accordingly he ended up editing and publishing a revised version of the title from 1994 to 1999. Given 21•C was suddenly international in scope, Crawford made the most of it and approached folk he had been a fan of for some time, amongst them such people as J.G. Ballard, William Gibson, Mark Dery, Kathy Acker, Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, Margaret Werthiem, Andrew Ross, R.U. Sirius, Claudia Springer, McKenzie Wark, Darren Tofts, Erik Davis and others.
Under Crawford the magazine steered a balance between a strong socio-political flavour, covering such figures as Noam Chomsky, Jose Ramos Horta and Mike Davis, the creative philosophical speculations of such figures as Donna Harraway and Sandy Stone, the 'futuristic barbarism' of Mark Pauline and Survival Research Laboratories. It embraced and dissected such historical visionaries as Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, William Burroughs, Marshall McLuhan, Terence McKenna and Guy Debord. It encompassed the posthuman, cyberpunk, artificial intelligence and popular culture alike.
J.G. Ballard described the magazines’ contents as "A brilliant collection of articles that read like news bulletins from the future." William Gibson stated that: "21•C is, flat out, the best looking and most determinedly eclectic pop-futurological publication in the world.... An editorial gestalt willing to fearlessly consider any futurological possibility whatever, to interrogate anything at all for its potential as fast feed into some possible future."
The funding company collapsed in 1999. Sporadic attempts have been made to reinvigorate the magazine online, but to date with little success.
Downloads
| Issue | User | Link | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Issue 1995.3 | Acquired | ||
| Issue 1996.1 | Acquired | ||
| Issue #23 (1996) | Acquired | ||
| Issue 1997.1 | Acquired | ||
| Issue #24 (1997) | Acquired | ||
| Issue #25 (1997) | Acquired |
