FCJ Mesh has been launched of a desire to foster a more agile space of speculation, provocation, and mobilisation of the kind of deep transdisciplinary theory and analysis published here in The Fibreculture Journal, in like Journals, and increasingly…well… everywhere online.
What we might have once called ‘grey’ or ‘precarious’ literature – the always vital academic work published beyond the veil of institutional gatekeeping and auditing is increasingly moving to the visible foreground of academic knowledge production and research creation. Moreover, the constraints on its dispersal and its precarity of form have been largely overcome. These ‘post-institutional’ modes of publishing and of discussing ideas and their implications tend to be more agile, iterative and reticular, they tend to be shorter and more accessible, speculative and exploratory.
Whether traditional and convergent forms of academic publishing will survive or can adapt to this shift is yet to be determined. We still see much value in the carefully curated and edited thematic explorations afforded by the edited journal issue and the deep research and analysis afforded by the long form academic paper and monograph. At the same time we’d like to see that work mobilised more effectively, and more frequently to engage with the immediate concerns of contemporary culture and society and with others doing like work.
In the age of ubiquitous content curation becomes increasingly important. With that in mind we’d like to offer ‘Mesh’ as space for reblogging relevant academic material and publishing new material that builds and explores connections (links) between journals, events, blogs and so on; which collates and engages with perspectives from across our extended networks whatever form they may take.
With all that in mind we invite submissions of 1500 words or less that engage with, mobilise, or explore connections between contemporary cultural, philosophical and media theory and its implications and applications. We encourage (active) links between open access journals, blogs, and other sites (on- or off-line) of research creation. We are particularly interested in work that engages, mobilises, or otherwise connects with the issues and research published in the Fibreculture Journal. We also welcome accounts and reviews of relevant events or works in the wide variety of fields and forms relevant to the the Journal and the community of which it is part (Critical and transdisciplinary theory, media and art theory and practice, theories of technology, cultural theory, media & politics, network culture etc.)
FCJ-Mesh will be tightly curated and edited for quality of scholarship, writing and interest. Submissions will not be peer reviewed and works published will be identified as FCJ-Mesh Publications accordingly. We welcome unsolicited work but reserve the right to refuse publication for any reason. We hope to publish or re-publish submissions promptly and continuously without the delays associated with Journal publication.
Work should be submitted in attached RTF with the author’s contact details, affiliations, and the works publication history clearly stated in both the document and the email body sent to fcjmesh@gmail.com. If the submission has been published elsewhere online (a personal blog for example) a link to the existing content included with author information and permission to republish is sufficient. All works republished from other sources will (of course) be provide a prominent link between the journal and the source.
All submissions should be properly formatted according to FCJ style guidelines (where applicable): https://fibreculturejournal.org/policy-and-style/#style
ok, so I might be on the FCJ ed c’tee but I am so delighted that this is here! Well done Mat and Andrew, of course, for speculating enough to actualise something like this. I’m really excited to see what comes up here. And I’m hoping that platforms like these might shift us out of the sheer crap and pollution of the micro-blog, the latent narcissism and occasional brilliant incisiveness of the old-fashioned blog to something that is a form of ‘collective’ writing…molecular blogging?
Thanks Anna…’collective writing and ‘molecular blogging’ – I wish I’d put it that way. Lets hope it plays that way….
A very interesting discussion critiquing my use of the term ‘grey literature’ has played out amongst some members of the editorial board offline. It was argued that ‘grey’ referred to a form that was far from vital – and represented the worst of managerial, bureaucratic, or contracted writing. The preferred descriptor, it was proposed, was ‘precarious’. I’m not convinced about either term. However I am convinced that, having amended the call, both terms (‘grey’ and ‘precarious’) provide for interesting inflections on the relation between a history of experimental and extra-instutional writing and contemporary developments in humanities publishing. Certainly all involved in the discussion were talking about the potential for, and commitment to, a more speculative mode of knowledge production and exchange.