Chris Engman, Dust to Dust, 2010
What DRIFT? An Editorial/Curatorial Concept:
DRIFT explores the site of intersection between various modes of artistic and cultural production and the geographic and social landscape of the American west coast. We invite artists, musicians, poets, geographers, cultural critics, public historians and others who recognize their stakes in the cultures of this place to contribute. The magazine features original sound & visual art, poetry, short fiction, essays, local cultural interest stories, and a strong lean toward cross-disciplinary collaborations and experimental forms. Both established and emerging writers and artists are published in DRIFT; we are primarily interested in those who live and work on the west coast. We seek to participate in and clarify a conversation of place and production, wherein place is subject or method, and also that which is produced through cultural practices.
Why DRIFT? A Sign
Drift. It implies movement from an originary site or source, and active forces guiding that movement. Drift evokes coastal imagery, of continents and slow geological time; moving with external forces in the present; settling in, adjusting; and horizontal orientation, as in social relationships. At its most basic, drift means change over time, and is often applied to evidence of this change, too. We want to do both: provide evidence of change, and precipitate it. We are receiving, and we are transmitting.
Where DRIFT? Placing ourselves
The west coast is our place of operation. We remain impressed that it has been and continues to be a site of radical artistic explorations. But pinning down the conditions that frame these results is difficult. Is this due to geographic conditions of late and diffused urbanism, both between urban areas and within them? Is the coast far enough off the cultural map of the art economy to allow pressure-free exploration? Is it something far less tangible to articulate, like nostalgia and emotional draw? Though our gut feeling is that this is a uniquely productive space, these questions to determine more precisely ‘why here’ will be explored within the pages of DRIFT.
When DRIFT? Now
This moment is ripe for description, intervention, and invention.
How DRIFT? Experiments in Form and Method
We are interested in modes and forms that converge. Cross-disciplinary and collaborative approaches, place as subject or method of engagement, experimental forms that describe a new way or critique the dominant one. These all excite us. They each embody and represent cultural potential.
Who DRIFT? Us
DRIFT emerged from the collaborations between us, E. Maude Haak-Frendscho and Sean Collins. We live in San Francisco, and lived in Seattle for a long time previous. She is an essayist and curator, he is a writer. Together, we work to inform each others’ practices with experience gleaned from our own; DRIFT can be seen as an inclusive extension of our collaborative process. We are working to expand the ‘us.’
