Originally published on Tuesday, 30th March 2010

Flip Through

Magazines get Super Virtual

A-Ha’s seminal music video for ‘Take On Me’, which saw a young girl find love by getting sucked into the sketchy world of her magazine, may have been considered ahead of its time back in 1985 – but in 2010, shouldn’t we be a little further along with virtual reality? Avatar may be as close as we’re going to get, and having 3D flowers come at me still isn’t the same as walking through the field.  

Magazine’s digital efforts have seen Pop launch an iphone app for its Spring edition which allows you to place model Abbey Lee Kershaw against various backdrops, like some kind of latter day paper-doll. Volt have recently made their online debut with Volt Cafe, as has A Magazine Curated By, which sees a different industry tastemaker take the curatorial reigns each edition – the latest being Proenza Schouler. Glass Magazine (launched during Fashion Week), looks at everything from high fashion and art to architecture and design whilst highlighting sustainability, and has already got a fantastic website up and running.

But what about being IN the magazine? If you still want to be grabbed by a virtual hand and dragged through the pages, we may actually have the next-gen answer. Kind of. Artists The Girls are taking up a month long residency at Selfridges, where they’ll be editing three editions of self-style magazine ‘The Paper Eaters’ , making customers and staff the stars of the photo stories within. The Ultralounge will be turned into an pop video-style set (and its even got an 80s theme), with makeovers, a dance floor and of course, plenty of participating opportunities, from helping to write it up on manual typewriters, to taking part in editorial meetings and photoshoots.

So, though we can’t guarantee a monochrome partner-for-life (or an overbearing diner waitress), at least now you can be the orchestrator of your own headlines.

INFO
The Paper Eaters, Selfridges Ultralounge, 1st-29th April.

by MaM