About Us

Written by Administrator

Friday, 02 January 2009 13:17

What’s Up With the Brackets?

(Cult)ure Magazine is an online arts and politics magazine that speaks to the different intellectual cults within our society. These cults are small communities of individuals who have an in-depth understanding of their given interests; they are overtly passionate, and driven by their enthusiasm to apply or transmit their message to the city and to the world. Hence, “(Cult)” is placed in brackets. Empowering the multiplicity of identities within our community by giving these co-existing voices an opportunity to represent their unique culture is what makes (Cult)ure Magazine so rich in content.

What Are We Working For?

(Cult)ure was launched by An Nguyen with the help of Kevin Johns, Brendan Blom, and Kim Burnett in September 2007. Based in Ottawa, Ontario (Canada), we strive to bring readers thoughtful analysis of the latest trends in popular and alternative culture. Inside (Cult)ure, you will find original articles, in-depth features, provocative interviews, and introspective commentaries. Ultimately, the magazine is a space for people to shape and define themselves through their interests and through the many cults they belong to. Under this roof, progressive journalists, writers, activists and artists voluntarily share their ideas in a forum that represents their devotion and passion for covering local or international events and issues.

Each month, (Cult)ure brings together an interdisciplinary group of volunteers to interpret a theme from many intellectual and artistic fronts. Our staff and volunteers define our culture. Meet them in our Masthead.

What makes (Cult)ure unique? It’s our ability to unite a community of volunteers together in order to give a response to the harshness of our competitive society, and the overpowering wave of information bombarding us on a daily basis. Given the fragility of societal bonds, (Cult)ure is a stabilizing spectacle that challenges and finds humor in hierarchy, trends, and ritualized assumptions. In this newly defined space, contributors and readers are offered a reprieve from the soul-battering world, and are given creative license to organize their opinions in a meaningful way.

(Cult)ure Magazine is a community where our creative spirit is celebrated -- a space where the readers become a devout audience who have an in-depth knowledge about their particular cults. Come for the insightful articles, and stay for the community that encourages interactive dialogue.

We hope you enjoy reading (Cult)ure.

Structure of Governance:

(Cult)ure has a central editorial board. Members include: An Nguyen (Editor-at-Large), Kevin Johns (Senior Editor), and Brendan Blom (Editor). All decisions, guidelines, and editorial commitments are agreed upon not only by the editorial board but by the participants in the magazine structure.

So why the collaborative work structure?

(Cult)ure is founded on the belief that progressive writers, activists, and artists are experts in their own domain and agency should be given to them. Under this collective structure, the editorial board vets submissions for quality and accuracy. Inherent in all of our operations is a genuine desire to work with contributors at all stages of artistic expression.

(Cult)ure Manifesto

(Cult)ure magazine is a community where the creative spirit is celebrated. Central to our community is an ongoing openness to dialogue and a desire to deliver necessary outreach and support to writers, activists and artists to redefine the institutions and borders we live in. We believe in:

Developing a creative space for the multiple voices that co-exist within our cultural fabric (both contributors and readers).
Providing a forum for people to escape, expose, protest or poke fun at daily rituals.
Encouraging people to be socially engaged, aware and passionate enough to move into action on issues that affect them and the world around them.
Creating a community which recognizes that we live in a culture with power structures and hierarchies that purposefully shape our identities. Instead of ignoring this force, we choose to create a realm of free thought in which we can reinforce views contrary to mainstream indoctrination.
Arguing that the free market should not determine the value of artistic expression. Art should be accessible and free to the population regardless of the socioeconomic class of the audience.

Legal:

© 2009 (Cult)ure Magazine. The individual contributors reserve any and all rights to their particular works. Please contact each individual contributor for details. The opinions expressed by our contributors are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of (Cult)ure, its affiliates, and/or its sponsors.

Any and all comments left on this website via the public comment system express only the views of the individual commentator(s). (Cult)ure's owners and contributors will not be held responsible for the content of any such comment. (Cult)ure staff reserves the right to remove or edit any comment for any reason.

(Cult)ure contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the content of these sites.