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Futuristika

Futuristika

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See. Think. Feel. Art.

Futuristika is a Khalkedon-Istanbul based magazine dedicated to art in all of its various forms. We try to promote work from established and emerging artists together. Although we draw no lines and make no distinctions, we prefer the work to be unique, interesting. We simply love art, in a way of non-snob, but minimal aspect.

Istanbul, Turkey

Email: info@futuristika.org

Category: Art
Periodicity: Quarterly
Language: English / Turkish
Format: 179.96 x 219.84 mm
Web: http://www.futuristikamag.com

Futuristika (in Turkish) - January 2008

Futuristika (in English) - September 2008

Exclusive Interview

Published by Magazine Lovers

What is your magazine about?
Our magazines are collectives of articles on any subject that is "unique", "pleasurable", "interesting" and "extraordinary" on a wide variety of themes such as fine arts, music, literature, cinema, culture, politics, etc. We do also give chance to amateur artists publishing their short stories, poems, projects, etc.

Who's behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
We are a couple behind the whole Futuristika project. I and my wife, Ipek Yarsel. In short, I am working as a senior editor, maintaining a website on steel market and preparing monthly magazines specifically on this sector. I write articles to daily newspapers on similar subjects as in Futuristika magazines and keep preparing articles specifically on football for my fan-club magazine and fanzine. I do also continue my masters degree on Communication-IT. And I actively participate with my writings in some community blogs daily feeds. Ipek is an architect/interior designer. She owns her own company, keeps on working full time. These days she is also working on her travel book. She is a long-term blogger, a free-lance teacher and a translator. Besides the articles she prepares for Futuristika magazines, she is also mainly behind the design of both magazines. Our motivation is simply the pleasure of writing. Being read comes as a cherry on top of the cake :).

How do you produce one issue? How much time do you spend on it? How big is your team?
After the daily working hours we spend most of our time and weekends preparing articles; researching, reading, choosing subjects, making contacts, interviewing, writing, editing, enriching using images, videos, etc. For Futuristika in Turkish, we try to keep a frequently updated e-magazine, we will soon have a downloadable version. For Futuristika in English, when we agree that the material is enough for an issue, we get in touch with our Art Director/Graphic Designer and send him the latest version. We gather to discuss on problems, wishes, possibilities, etc. And then, he prepares the issue in pdf format and one version for printing. We try to plan and execute the process as regular as a magazine should be. So we make 3 mainly! We have friends, colleagues, associates ranging in number from 5 to 15 sending in articles, interviews, images, projects, etc. We love that! We do also have contacts with some artists, musicians, etc., local or foreign, who contribute or will contribute to next issues.

What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
When we decided to decrease the attention to blogging and seek for other means of e-communication -thus other ways of expressing ourselves, we simply decided to go on-line with a home-made magazine. We didn't know how hard this would be; there were so many things to learn. We still do learn and now think this was one of the best decisions we have ever made in our lives :) The most important steps were these first for us and then for our magazines. After feeling more confident and more eager, we started to inform people; making a group on Facebook, a fan page, making contacts within the art world here and there and we were extremely surprised with the positive response by all. We do have now proposals from sponsors, publishing/printing houses, etc. We ponder and smile, for now.

Which are the key ingredients for the success of your magazine?
Futuristika in Turkish: It is basically something new and it is different, it is fresh. It is out there for almost a year now, it is still sincere, keeping a distance to standards and reflecting that it is published on the desire of personal pleasure of some people, "magazine lovers" one might say. Futuristika in English: It is basically nothing new but it is simple, it is fresh. It is still taking baby steps but it is sincere, it keeps a distance to standards and reflects that it is published on the desire of personal pleasures of some people, "magazine lovers" one might say.

What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be the thing to help the magazine to improve? Time or better to say lack of time is the biggest problem for us. We, our team members and probably the contributors too, have to work 5-6 days a week on strict working hours. Futuristika is managed and prepared during the left-over times of the week days/ weekends. We could do much better if we could be fully concentrated on solely publishing business which means profiting out of what we do to keep our life standards and we don't have that. The expenses are another difficulty we have to deal with. We are not supported financially by any sponsors and we still consider whether adding Google ads is a good idea or not, if ever that would help! We also think to sell on-line printed issues for symbolic prices to cover at least the domain name, hosting and printing payments. "The" thing to help the magazines to improve would be mainly more time, more contribution and support by all means.

Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
I hope both would be up and running, regularly e-published and printed with more pages to offer more to our readers holding on to their concepts. I would like to see Futuristika magazines joining projects and enriching their venue. I hope to see our magazines having a considerably authentic place, a well established name in our country as well as in the international arena. I believe everybody behind and in front of the screen would love that!

Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
Photographers, artists, musicians, art lovers, students, scholars, people interested in details, people interested in people, any kind of people, every kind of people and people... We love them all! We appreciate them all!

Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy?
Well, remaining independent is important to us and we do not have a strategy of any kind or any hidden agenda which would mean in other words we would consider any kind of suggestion or opportunity coming from open-minds and free spirits.

What's your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
Our relationship with advertisement is for now quite weak I might say. We are still testing Google Adsense with our Turkish magazine and we haven't had any use of it yet, both financially and spiritually. To speak for future, we might publish other advertisements, as maybe an easy way of income, but we would do it to the least disturbing both for us and for our readers. We don't care about advertising-driven-editorials. We enjoy advertising news bands, books, projects, happenings, etc. We don't (and won't) like trading information that would lead our readers to senseless consuming.

What do you think of your issue 01, when you look back at it?
I still remember every stage of them and I am still proud! (We have a background of almost a year for Futuristika in Turkish and we have just published the first issue of Futuristika Magazine in English :).

Magazine favorite(s) that inspired you in your career.
Local: Roll, Bant, Calinti (RIP). Foreign: NewYorker, Monocle, Harp, Swindle, NME, Wired, Uncut, Cabinet and lots of fanzines in Turkish and in other languages (too many to name them all here).

Do you keep old copies of magazines? If so, what is your favorite in your collection?
Yes, I try to keep most of them. Favorites are Roll, Bant, Uncut, Monocle, hmm, most of the above mentioned.

How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself a maniac?
I do qualify myself as a maniac, I buy / get / read a lot of local and foreign magazines, even magazines for specific markets like steel, chemicals, hunting, etc. I keep my dentist's very old magazines for my own, too. Thank to him not to blame me!

We are compiling answers from some of the most innovative magazine makers around the world today. Who else should we ask?
They might have been asked already but here are a few names of the many :) Jeremy Leslie, Marcus Piper, Dan Hill, Derek Powazek.

Answered by Baris Yarsel (Owner / Founder / Editor in Chief) Fatih Gul (Art Director/Graphic Designer) Magazine: Futuristika - In Turkish (http://www.futuristika.org/) and Futuristika Magazine - In English (http://www.futuristikamag.com/) Email: edit@futuristika.org, info@futuristika.org Date: 13-09-2008