Don’t miss this summer’s hottest documentary films. Here’s our pick as seen at Sheffield Doc/Fest, including all the trailers.

Fuck For Forest
Gives direct action a whole new meaning

How far would you go to save the planet? Fuck For Forest is a green non-profit which raises money online through home-made blue movies and photos. The content can only be seen by participation or donation. So far, so hippy porn site. But as you find out why the group do it, and how they’re handling the money, the film becomes eye-opening in unexpected ways. Watch to challenge your ideas of charity, pornography, the body, and how we find our place in the world.
Available for download now, on DVD from 17th June
www.fuckforforestmovie.com

The Act of Killing
Movies, morals and mass murder

With Werner Herzog involved, you know this film could go anywhere. A group of men at the heart of one of the worst genocides of the 20th century are given the opportunity to recreate their killings on film, in the style of popular movies. Making movies about the murders means addressing their actions, and the result is an award-winning clash of fact and fiction.
In UK cinemas from 28th June
www.theactofkilling.com

The Man Whose Mind Exploded
The surreal world of a man without memory

Salvador Dali once worked with him, but since the 1980s Drako Zarharzar’s life has taken a turn for the surreal. A string of accidents, breakdowns and comas have left his memory ‘not recording’. Film-maker Toby Amies documents Drako’s world, including the inside of the flat that functions as his mind. Imagine Memento and 50 First Dates rewritten as a Brighton bromance, and you’re halfway to this unforgettable film.
Next screening on 30th June
www.themanwhosemindexploded.com

Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
Extreme courtroom drama

The story of Russian female punk activists Pussy Riot, complete with rehearsal room footage, childhood photos, performances, court appearances, family interviews, and all the media mayhem that followed their performance in Moscow’s biggest cathedral. Three members were arrested and two are still serving time in a penal colony. Nadia, Katia and Masha’s court statements alone are worth seeing on a big screen to remind yourself why they became feminist superheroes, and why Pussy Riot matters.
In UK cinemas from 5th July
www.hbo.com/documentaries/pussy-riot-a-punk-prayer

Blackfish
Mommy don’t take me to Seaworld

Blackfish is something of an accidental save-the-animals film. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite started by investigating the death of a whale trainer at Seaworld, and uncovered a long history of ‘accidents’. The horror stories and footage pile up, heaping shame on Seaworld without tipping over into viewer voyeurism. By tracing the story of a whale called Tilikum from capture in 1983, through multiple incidents, up to his sad situation today, the whole bloody mess is laid out as clear as water.
In UK cinemas from 26th July
www.blackfishmovie.com

Project Wild Thing
An unusual nature trail

Self-deprecating dad David Bond is on a mission to save nature. His children’s attention spans will become as tiny as their underused wellies unless he does something serious. David appoints himself Marketing Director for nature and sets out on a rebranding mission, which at first seems like a joke, until he starts pulling in advice and favours from the world of marketing. The result is a hip and funny film you can’t help liking, about the oddness of branding and our often awkward relationship with nature.
Released in late July
www.projectwildthing.com

Particle Fever
See scientists swearing

If you still don’t understand the Hadron Collider or the Higgs boson – so that’s most of us – then this film will help you get your head around the most stunning human discovery of the century so far. It’s beautifully shot, very funny, brings out the real personalities of scientists, and includes women in key positions who make links between science and art. The physics is explained so well that it sticks with you.
Release date tbc
www.particlefever.com

The Great Hip Hop Hoax
Beastly boys

This isn’t a hip hop film. It’s the story of two boys from Scotland who thought they’d make it in the music industry if they pretended to be from California. So they move to London, change their accents, and pop begins to eats itself. It’s a richly ridiculous tale which takes in record company bosses, James from Busted, and a funny incident with Daniel Bedingfield. Will ultimately make you squeamish about the thirst for fame.
Released in early autumn
www.hiphophoax.com

The Big Melt
Steel gets Pulped

River of Steel, 1951 – one of the archive films used in The Big Melt

Sheffield Doc/Fest persuaded Jarvis Cocker to soundtrack an amazing mash-up of archive films from the city’s steel industry past. Footage of hot furnaces and smelting, female steel workers, city pub boozing and dancing, and vintage animation, are all skilfully woven together by Martin Wallace, a long-time collaborator with Jarvis. Musicians who took part in a one-time live performance included Pulp, Richard Hawley, Serafina Steer, and the City of Sheffield Brass Band, who pump out a classic 90s house track. The whole thing was recorded for later broadcast. Heavy metal, man.
On BBC4 this autumn

These rings and bracelet by Katrine Standahl are made out of repurposed coloured pencils. She works by bonding together different materials such as wood, cork and metals, then segmenting the results into different pieces which the viewer is encouraged to visualise in their original form.

Crochet & recycled plastic kitchen utensil necklaces by Kirke Raava were inspired by her childhood in Estonia, and in particular her memories of traditional crochet, macrame and knit.

This knitted elastic and porcelain piece by Sabina Johal reminds me of a curious jellyfish. She has a particular interest in using unconventional materials in jewellery and her work is inspired by a fascination with tribal jewellery and medical supports such as bandages and splints.

Finger porcelain jewellery by Ellie Lee was showcased with leather on chains, and inside miniature bowls. Her work toys with an old Chinese tradition that says breaking ceramic is very bad luck: yet to access the personal porcelain body parts the bowls must be broken. Gruesome or cool?

Clever jewellery by Emma Aitchison is designed to interact with the weather, be it sun, wind or rain. The boldness and wearability of this sculptural collection could perhaps be traced back to a placement year when she interned with Scott Wilson, for she she has clearly been influenced by his large and playful dynamic. She then worked with milliner Piers Atkinson, after which she was offered a job making leather and metal work for his collections. Her professional website is well worth a look: Emma Aitchison is definitely a name to watch.

Lots of people make an effort to be outrageous: how about this dashing cartoon character made real (above) or an amazing floral headdress to make an impact on the crowd?

Peter Blake had already packed up and gone home by the time we arrived shortly after lunch. Sadly (maybe?) I don’t think fellow famous artist Gavin Turk sold too many balloons. An Avante Garde step too far perhaps?

Chris’ Balls made a delightful pattern laid out on a rug.

Portraits by Boo Saville swung artfully in the breeze.

One of my favourite stalls every year is that of Cliff Pearcey, who has a real eye for creating up cycled products out of old tat. Above you can see Snarfle surveying my piece, Booking (Geddit?) I loves it.

The Whitechapel Gallery were trying to persuade people to slap the jelly arse by artist Justine Pearsall, and I must say it did have a rather fabulous wobble.

Felt Beatles by John Gathercole got the thumbs up from craft lovers on my instagram feed.

Pure Evil did ridiculous business, with a queue snaking around half the market thanks to his appearance in The Apprentice and subsequent fame.

Not sure who created these bizarre sock monsters, maybe good for a doorstop?!

Bespoke collages on vintage vinyl at the PIZZARTERIA by artists KEELERTORNERO.

I love this ace silk scarf by Mark Titchner. Feel Good Now: fine sentiments.

The Binnie Sisters were in residence inside a gazebo hung with their artwork, including this spooky girls embroidered portrait of two girls. Out front a painted car was for sale ‘contents included‘ – those contents including an old television heavily encrusted with paint. I’ve been trying to find out more about these intriguing artists, who together with Wilma Johnson were founders of the Neo-Naturist body painting cabaret in the early 80s.

Wilma herself had travelled over from her home in France to take part: I love her loose style of painting in black ink, then colouring in with bright colours… so much so that I commissioned her to draw our family portrait for a mere £20. Wilma Johnson is another fascinating character, having left Ireland with her three children to pursue her dream of learning how to surf when she was well past the age of 40. Her biography, Surf Mama (published by Beautiful Books), has received unanimously glowing reviews on amazon and I’d love to read it, once I find the time.

I wonder what next year will bring… in the meantime find the Art Car Boot Fair at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on 27-28th July.

Combining unusual materials (embroidery on a traditional yellow duster) and a unique outlook on the world (A Step-to-Step Guide on How to Make a Bonsai Kitten), Katie Glover-Price had put together a very strong display of beautiful illustrations.

An installation featuring super clever papercut artwork with backlit animation had been put together by Amber Cooper-Davies, but sadly the website given on her business cards doesn’t work (frequent readers of these graduate show reports will know that this is a major bug bear) – instead hunt her down on her blog.

Greta Mikalauskaite’s neon building interior gives a taste of her (often cheeky) brightly coloured style, showcased on her simple but effective tumblr here.

These intricate landscapes from Alex Foster remind one of my instagram followers of Lowry, which is no bad thing. I love intricate artworks such as these, full of buildings and figures to discover, and I imagine he could make some brilliant children’s books. Alex also runs an illustrated t-shirt brand called Get Better Clothing.

Fernanda Alonso’s narrative wall mural was an eye-catching feature piece to showcase her textured print work in simple black on white.

I’m always a sucker for good wall displays, and I love these evocative mono prints for a book titled The Quincunx by Genevieve Melaugh.

I also really liked this curious illustrated creature – if he’s your responsibility let me know!

Finally, work by graphic designer Jennifer Schauerte stood out by miles. I got the impression that she’s been working professionally for some time, and the theme of her degree work is obviously close to her heart: snowboarding. On display were copies of multiple magazines, including Plank: a mountain guide for skibums, and Shred Magazine for snowboarders. I love her simple but effective use of collage, geometry, photography, still lives and typography, merging different techniques seamlessly across pages to create a pleasing flow to the design. This is what a really good graphic designer does well.

If you are a recent creative graduate don’t forget to check out Amelia’s Award here, with a prize worth £495 to set you up in business selling your products this summer.

I’ve always wondered about the phrase ‘the sun has put his hat on’. What does it mean exactly? What kind of hat is it? Is it a sombrero or a sunhat, a beret or a beanie? Maybe even a boater tipped stylishly to one side? And why does everyone assume the sun is a ‘he’? Even the French language, with its masculine and feminine nouns describes it as ‘le soleil’, but, I’ve always thought of it as a bit more femme. With CC Kuo around, this is a question (and philosophical debate) that doesn’t need to be answered (or explored in a neverending cycle of questions). Forget the sun putting his headgear on, you can get your sun on.

CC Kuo’s latest collection is a range of clothes patterned with skylines and sunsets. The pieces feature cloud-cover on dresses, sunlight peeking out of coat shoulders, and even beams bursting out of busts. What more could a gal want than to have something as beautiful as dawn and dusk right there on her lapel?! Just looking at these togs makes me think of the imagery in the (ever overused but still undeniably wonderful) Auden poem Funeral Blues that they read on Four Weddings and a Funeral all that time ago. Maybe even a hint of the sun in Wordsworth’s Composed Upon Westminster Bridge and Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 thrown in for luck.

Ok, I know you’re probably a bit dubious now, ‘who compares clothes to poetry?’ you ask? Well, the sky is probably one of the most beautiful things that there is, and we, (or at least, I) with our heads in our laptops and our fingers on our keypads, don’t often take notice of those funny, fluffy white things up there or the beautiful yellow gassy lightblub that gives our daylight. Unless of course you’re a big Instagrammer, or it’s about to rain.

CC Kuo brings our attention back to nature. Born in Taiwan CC graduated from Central St Martins. Her signature digital prints and both beautiful and wearable, and her clothes have graced the catwalk at Vauxhall Fashion Scout which is swiftly becoming part of the initiation for young designers. She launched her namesake label in 2010 and since then she’s been featured by a whole army of mags and the like, including Elle, Pop and The Independent.

Whether it’s in the form of a handbag, a heel, a dress or a coat, what could be better than having your very own chunk of the world’s ceiling? With her S/S 2014 collection on the horizon I spoke to CC Kuo about her sunset patterned collection White Lovers, the recently released video to accompany it and what inspires her to make these pretty pieces.

Can you describe CC Kuo in just three words?
Modernism, simplicity and fantasy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

CC Kuo by Maya Beus

Your new A/W 2013 collection is named ‘White Lovers’ and lists swans as one of the inspirations, is this to do with the fact that swans mate for life?
Not in particular as I was more focusing on the contrasting elements within the collection. I didn’t know that swans mate for life but now I know, I love the fact they do.

When did you go on the trip to Lake Balaton in Hungary that inspired this collection?
I went to Hungary last winter. I am inspired by my trips abroad and often use this as an inspiration.

Water and trees are the backdrop of this collection, do you feel that nature and fashion can coexist?
Of course it does! Nature is so important to us as human beings and I hope to use fashion to better illustrate how beautiful nature is.

CC Kuo by Laura Hickman

Your print designs are really distinctive, where do you get your inspiration?
I am inspired by everything I see, everything around me.

Is it important to you for your clothes to be wearable?
Yes, extremely important. I think clothing only makes its biggest impact when it’s wearable.

You’ve learnt from the likes of Alexander McQueen and Michiko Koshino, how do you feel this helped you develop as a designer?
My experiences working with these designers has taught me that discipline and passion are essential. Determination and a great work ethic is also a necessity.

CC Kuo by Jordan Andrew Carter

Your graduate collection was featured in Pop magazine, how does it feel to see your clothes featured in magazines?
Proud.

What draws you to opulent fabrics like silk and velvet?
For me, clothing should make women feel good about themselves, so I always use the best materials in a collection.

What projects do you have lined up for the next few months?
I am working on my next collection at the moment but also looking for a good collaborator to develop a diffusion line.

Do you feel like there’s a lot of pressure for each collection to be better than the last?
No, because I put in everything I can into each collection.

What’s your personal style?
I wear a lot of my own designs. I am very comfortable in my own skin.

Don’t be a chicken little, afraid that the sky is falling, grab a piece of it yourself by checking out the CC Kuo website www.cckuo.com

Dirty White Gold is Leah Borromeo’s film about cotton. It exposes a whole crop of problems with our clothes by unspooling high street supply chains right back to cotton seeds. Even what you think is a sweatshop-free t-shirt unravels to reveal a thread supplier using child labour, or a farmer in such heavy debt he’s killed himself. These cotton-to-coffin suicides are destroying Indian farming families.

Blood on the maps: film poster design by Peter Kennard @at_earth

Dirty White Gold “goes right the way back to seeds,” says Leah. “It’s a Saturday night date film.” Ha ha.

We’re here on a sunny Sunday afternoon as part of the Stoke Newington Literary Festival, and Leah’s been invited by new magazine Stir to talk about her film. It’s not unusual now to promote and campaign around a film while you’re still making it, and after a successful round of crowdfunding, filming in India is complete and Dirty White Gold is now on its London leg.

Until a few years ago, Leah was deputy foreign editor at Sky News. That job ended when she made the news herself while protesting in her bra at the G20 summit. She was arrested for impersonating a police officer (there was also a truncheon and a tank involved).

Leah Borromeo filming Dirty White Gold

Leah comes across as both fun and formidable. On second hand clothing, she says. “No, it doesn’t smell of death. New clothes smell of death. You know that ‘new clothes’ smell you get when you walk into a shopping centre? That’s formaldehyde. On clothes marked 100% cotton, often they’re only 73% cotton. The rest is chemicals.”

I knew that ‘new clothes’ smell was too good to be true.

Dot questions where her cardigan was made: poster by Dr.D

It all comes back down to our old friend, capitalism. As the trailer says, “what you are witnessing is the death throes of smallholder agriculture, under the onslaught of corporations”. Farmers are tempted away from subsistence farming by cash crops, produced for their commercial value rather than for use by the farmer. So the farmer buys a box of cotton seeds, plus licenses, pesticides and insecticides (the Indian government has a 15% holding in one of the largest insecticide companies). He pays for labour to spray all those chemicals, and the money he gets back isn’t enough to make up what was spent. Plus, he’s competing on unlevel fields against US and EU farmers who get subsidies.

Trailer: watch the cotton industry unravel

So what can be done about rotten cotton?

“You can’t wander in with a colonial attitude,” says Leah. “It has to be organic. There are resistances in India, there needs to be education. There are collectives which support farmers switching to organic, and then make sure they get a fair price. But the market has to be there. At the moment farmers aren’t going for it because they’re scared.”

There are stats and facts, and then we’re onto actions we can take when we’re shopping.

“Ask yourself: do I need to buy it?” says Leah. “It’s not so much what you buy, as whether you should be buying in the first place.”

Secondly, “pick up a needle. There are lots of people who can repair clothes for you. The Denim Doctor is a guy in Salford who repairs jeans like new.”

Lastly, “think about where you buy.” Leah recommends shopping second hand or from Traid, and Claire from Traid who is in the audience explains that Traid supports the Pesticide Action Network and other projects to help improve the global textile supply chain. This makes me like their TRAIDremade label (available online) even more.

The clothing supply chain was an issue I thought I had all sewn up, especially with articles after the Savar building collapse about which high street stores are supposedly okay to shop from. But this film looks set to unpick the way we shop, and hopefully the way our clothes are made. Right back to the seed.

Follow the progress of the film: @dirtywhitegold and Dirty White Gold on Facebook

Firstly, Amberwood, the astonishing work of Polish jewellery designer Marta Wlodarska, who had travelled over from Poland specifically to take part in the show. Marta’s passion for her materials is evident in the way she describes her creations. To find the baltic amber that is the core of her creations she heads down to the beach and sifts through piles of floating driftwood, some of which becomes a part of her earrings and pendants. She also sources beautiful woods from further afield, searching high and low for unusual colours to include in her conical shapes and chequered patterns which are all individually glued and sanded, so that no two pieces are the same.

Nestled inside bands of wood the strips of amber glow enticingly like lamps, and I found it very hard to decide which big (but very light) earrings I liked best. Marta told me she is super pleased with the response she has so far received on her trip to the UK, so here’s hoping she’ll return as her pieces are not currently available online.

Helen Bailey is the brains behind Decadorn, utilising raw gemstones such as druzy quartz and crystal encrusted geodes to create unique pendants encased in luscious layers of gold plate. Her previous career as a buyer for the high street might explain why she was not keen for me to take photos of her beautiful display, but I’m a firm believer that if someone is going to nick your ideas they will find a way to do it, so designer makers should always welcome photographic attention. Anyway, long story short, I couldn’t resist those amethyst stalactites…

For those more keen on delicate jewellery I was taken by a coral inspired collection by Michelle Oh, particularly a bespoke ring featuring an upside down green sapphire. Love those coloured sapphires.

I hope to discover many more exciting jewellery designers over Jewellery Week and at the graduate shows.

As Northumbria University alumni, I haven’t missed one of their Graduate Fashion Week shows in the last eight years. Sadly, I broke this record this time around due to a rather tedious, but completely incapacitating 30th birthday hangover.

On top of this, I’ve had a holiday on the brink of collapse and a molar having a disco in my mouth. My chances of having any fun at GFW this year, thus, were minimal, but I couldn’t resist hot-footing along to Ravensbourne’s outing on Monday. I had to get my fix of the latest fashion talent somewhere.

The A/W 2013 womenswear shows feel like only days ago and London Collections: Men kicks off in a couple of weeks. I always forget that it’s bloody hard work with the graduates: Ravensbourne presented no less than 25 collections, covering womenswear, menswear and textiles; all capable of catwalk conquering away from Earl’s Court. What I’m trying to say is that it’s like viewing 25 on-schedule shows at once – pretty exhausting.

Do you care? Probably not, so here’s a fruity rundown of some of my favourite graduates:

Graduate illustration by Phiney Pet

Josephine Pettman, aka Phiney Pet, opened the show with a stunning display of vibrant, illustrated textiles, sporty cuts and badge-emblazoned jackets.

Sofie Malmgren swiftly followed with a collection that couldn’t have been more different: a futuristic set of white, linear pieces with contrasting panels in varying materials and rectangular transparent clutch bags:

Tabitha Williamson’s ethereal collection followed. Floor-sweeping numbers with balaclava hoods and masses of thick fabrics enveloped her models:

Illustration by Jack Bebbington

Menswear was abundant, with as much emphasis on radical fashion as well as commercial viability. William Baxter was the first to bring menswear to this show, presenting a selection of sharply tailored suits with an enlarged herringbone pattern, styled with a Great Gatsby influence:

Jane Swansbury’s men were covered in tropical prints, featuring gorilla faces, hibiscus leaves and fruit and vegetables:

Illustration by Jane Swansbury

Sarah Frances Ratcliffe’s expedition aesthetic proved popular, particularly metallic overcoats with hoods:

Jack Bebbington’s oversized faux fur jackets and shorts also favoured the A/W season – I liked this a lot:

Illustration by Leanne Warren

Leanne Warren’s capes featured intricate illustrations in vibrant colours:

Illustration by Chen-Yu Wang

…whilst Chen-Yu Wang drew inspiration from childhood, with this playful collection mastering oversized silhouettes. Knitted eyeballs and doll-like frayed hems featured:

Clio Peppiatt’s collection was one of my favourites. Plastics, acid prints, chavvy styling, ridiculous blingy heels, burger handbags on chains and graffiti-esque burger patterns – what’s not to love?

In stark contrast, Madeleine Ayers‘ sleek collection drew comparisons to Japanese couturiers, with straight lines, unfinished hems and a monochrome colour palette:

Illustration by Anne Lina Dingsor Uudelepp

Anne Lina Dingsor Uudelepp’s street fashion featured lots of striking prints and textures, styled with gold hoops and ghetto-gold jewellery:

Francesca Valorsa’s ethereal veils, decorated with obscure faces, created drama and complimented her collection of intricate, haphazard fabrics:

Illustration by Charlotte Harris

…but it was to Charlotte Harris to close the show, whose collection of chunky knitwear, vibrant colours and metallic jackets brought whoops and cheers.

Fashion students from Coventry University had created an innovative display out of cardboard boxes, with exciting over-sized ceramic jewellery by Suzanne Kugler taking pole position in the window.

Next door University of Greenwich was showcasing the best of it’s new designers in multiple disciplines – I liked huge creative typography by Ben of Perverted Penguins.

In a dark corner an intriguing laser cut description of African beads had been made by the brilliantly named King’s Edogiawerie.

Goldsmiths had taken over the largest area in the basement to display a plethora of different design ideas under the This is War moniker. I was attracted to stunning beaded accessories inspired by history by Sophia Denny Design.

With children and friends aplenty frolicking around her stand Fanny Bissa’s clever and colourful tools to build emotional intelligence warranted a closer look: I can imagine small people in particular would love to play around with her chalkboard shapes, but their usage could also be adapted to adult situations – find out more on her elegantly designed blog, Learn to Solve, here.

Finally, I was drawn to Emily Sutcliffe’s 80s tastic fashion alphabet at Southampton Solent University, which runs a course specialising in Fashion Graphics.

If you have just graduated and are wondering what to do with the rest of your life, why not check out our inaugural Amelia’s Award, the winner of which will receive a sponsored place to sell creative goods with the Secret Emporium at the Wilderness Festival this summer.

I look forward to discovering much more talent in the weeks to come – don’t forget to follow me on instagram (where all the above images appeared first) if you want to discover it in real time with me. My listing for Free Range can be found here.

New magazine STIR carries the strap line ANGER. ANALYSIS. ACTION. For anyone disillusioned with the current state of affairs it’s a must read collection of articles, interviews and radio shows which question the direction in which our supposedly ‘civilised’ world is going. This weekend they take part in the Stoke Newington Literary Festival, chairing a discussion about ethical fashion at 12.30 on Sunday 9th June at the Town Hall.

STIR to Action book illustration by German Gullon.

Find STIR to Action online and now in print, as a volume of collected writings and interviews about co-operative and community-orientated alternatives, all accompanied by imaginative illustrations (many of which have been created by artists that will be familiar to Amelia’s Magazine readers). I spoke with founding editor Jonny Gordon-Farleigh.

Food Justice, illustration by Sarah Jayne-Morris.

Stir has made the leap from online to printed publication: first as the book, STIR Vol.1 and now as a print version of the magazine. What prompted the move and what has the journey to print been like? A steep learning curve?
I think all platforms – both online and offline – are really important and we are still publishing online but also as a quarterly print magazine. I think we need to use different platforms strategically and so I’m not going to say one is more important than the other. It’s obviously very difficult to publish time-sensitive articles in a quarterly magazine that only appears every three months. I like to think of our quarterly magazine as slow news – issues that need time to be properly analysed and understood and to also give space to develop potential alternatives. On the other hand, if a campaign group wants to publish a piece about an event or mobilisation next week then I will publish on the online blog and distribute via social media. We are also looking into publishing a small free paper with selected content from the online blog and print issue so it can reach places that don’t sell magazines, such as social enterprise co-working spaces. It has actually been a well-paced launch into print from building an online readership to building an offline community through events. I needed to know and felt we had the support before launching into print.

STIR illustration by Alex Charnley.

Was crowd funding easy to do? What have been the highs and lows of taking this route to publication? 
Crowdfunding was an interesting process for so many reasons. Firstly, crowdfunding allows us to fund projects without appealing to wealthly individuals – philanthropists – and also avoids the restrictions and conditions of grant-making bodies. Also, it creates an international community of co-creators and contributors for your project: Those who couldn’t contribute financially, offered their skills as graphic designers and artists. We even launched the book at The Firebox because a campaign group (Counterfire) couldn’t give us money as they were fundraising themselves, but did have an amazing event space in Kings Cross. Crowdfunding also allows you to self-publish and this gives you control over the creative process. The biggest problem with self-publishing is distribution and this is something we need to seriously address. The publishing industry had a monopoly on this before the emergence of the internet but anyone will tell you that it’s still really difficult to distribute your own work. (Hell yeah! – Amelia) So finding ways of distributing the funded book was certainly challenging.

Wizard of Oz, STIR illustration by Edd Baldry.

How did you find the contributing illustrators, and what was the process of their contribution?
I had worked with a few of the contributing illustrators before – Edd Baldry and India Rose Harvey — and also knew a few from other publications like the Occupied Times (Alex Charnley). However, Twitter was very helpful in finding new illustrators (thanks for the tweet Amelia!!) and I would have to say most of them enthusiastically responded to a call-out on Twitter. The creative process was largely asking them to respond to the an article. We would then talk about the ideas and see what could work to represent the piece. Every artist is different and that’s what makes it so interesting.

STIR illustration by India Rose Harvey.

How did you decide on the content of STIR Vol.1? Who contributed and what have they written about?
The content for STIR Vol.1 was selected from two years’ worth of online publishing at www.stirtoaction.com and we chose the articles and interviews that really showcased the emerging community-led and co-operative alternatives in our food and finance systems. We then invited 10 artists to contribute original pieces of art for the printed publication (see above).

We had a whole range of contributors including an economist, David Boyle, from the New Economics Foundation who wrote about the disconnect between wealth and money and how we need to design and scale-up alternative forms of exchange such as local currencies. The philosopher and Defend the Right to Protest activist Nina Power analysed the London Riots of 2011 with a review of a new book that was published on the events. I also published a piece by Guppi Bola and Bethan Graham about food justice, why the food system is broken and what creative communities around London are doing to change it for the better. We also featured the story of the Real Food store in Exeter that came out of Transition Exeter and was funded through a community share scheme, as a look at the rise of new social enterprises. The founders of Co-opoly – the boardgame of co-operatives – wrote about their new creation and how Monopoly was originally created during the New Deal era in America to teach tenants how to deal with bad landlords.

STIR illustration by Alicja Falgowska.

Anger is a cornerstone of your creation, which is somewhat at odds with the positivity of the Transition Network, of which you are part. Why do you think it’s important to find an outlet for anger?
It’s an interesting question and I definitely think there is a case for anger. There is something almost admirable about the Transition Network’s early decision not to engage with what might be called antagonistic campaigns, but there has definitely been a significant shift recently — the ‘No’ campaign to Costa Coffee in Totnes was fully supported by Transition Town Totnes. Also, I think it’s important to say that ‘No’ campaigns are far more effective and likely to succeed if they are part of a positive effort – like the initiatives that make up the Transition Network.

Also, insisting on always being positive is problematic as it can become as counterproductive as being the constant bearer of bad news, an argument that Smartmeme – a creative campaign agency – make in STIR Vol.1. So I think it’s philosophically shallow to see anger as a deformative emotion, if it’s part of a campaign for change it can have a reformative effect. Anger without new political options can be dangerous and that’s why the positive work of the Transition Network is really important. It’s worth saying that anger only transforms into cynicism when we accept the false political choices we are given and give up on alternatives.

STIR magazine issue 01 2013.

Another point to make is that as the Transition Network scales-up and mainstreams itself, it will have to challenge the current distribution of resources and space. It is not good enough to say that you won’t shop at a multinational supermarket, when they are draining resources and space from the communities, distorting business rates, and making it far more difficult for community-owned shops to establish themselves.

This can also be explained by an interview with George Monbiot about land inequality and how UK land prices have gone up 10-12% in the last few years. The land buyers, in this instance, are city bankers who are using their bonuses to invest in land. This has made it ten times more difficult to use the land for alternative purposes, such as land co-operatives and community farms. We need to be angry about this and find ways of challenging land inequality and access if we going to be able to do the positive work that the Transition Network promotes.

On top of this, while the aspiration to generate your own energy is something we all should be pursuing, we also need to insist – through protest, direct action and lobbying — that the fossil fuel industries keep it in the ground. All of that positivity will be irrelevant if these industries are not disrupted by public action. Lastly, I’m very suspicious of categorising activists. It suggests that there is one kind of person who will do the negative work, such as lying on airport runways or occupying power stations, and then on the other side you have the people who do all the positive activity like community gardens and upcycling workshops. I think we have the capacity to do both but should always remember to do it for the fun of it!

Will there be a STIR Vol.2? If so what can we expect from it?
As we’ve launched a quarterly magazine, the STIR volumes will most likely be bi-annual. We publish so many unpredictable stories I couldn’t really say!

Where can people get hold of the publication?
We sell STIR Vol.1 in our online shop here, and readers can sign up for a subscription for the quarterly magazine here. Our quarterly magazine – STIR – is being sold in 30 shops across the UK (find stockists here) and we have just started working with an ethical distributor – INK – so potentially lots more in the near future. You can buy the first issue of our new magazine with this Amelia’s Magazine Special Discount offer: click here for 25% off cover price and free P&P (£2.95).

What are your hopes for 2013?
It would have to be to continue to collaborate with more social enterprises and co-ops in working towards bringing the ideas in the magazine into our communities.