Independent DIY publications and the Underground Urban Cultures

Abstract

In Chapter 2 'Showing, Telling and Selling Out', Caelli Jo Brooker and Matt Sage analyse the street press of free distribution, as a publication format that is related to recognition and urban culture, in its diverse forms. Thus, the authors intend to establish a parallel between the independent productions based on DIY and doit-yourself logics, as opposed to the commercial street press. To this end, the authors use a technique centred on autoethnography, aiming to explore the motivations, perspectives, contributions, and contradictions present in Australian independent street production. Then, in Chapter 3 'The Marginal Porto: Contributions from Hell by A.Dasilva O. in the 80's', Paula Guerra presents us with a chapter on A.DaSilva O., while introducing us to the growing openness of the city of Porto, in Portugal, in the 1980s, to the cultural and aesthetic changes that took place as a consequence of (post)modernism. A.DaSilva O. arose from the need to resist and to seek a new world, whether through radio, fanzines, music or television. Starting from the struggle for the right to be different, as the author of the chapter refers to us, a set of authors and writers stand out, namely A.DaSilva O. in the sense that it assumed itself as the key element for the publication of projects of cultural domain, based on the theme of intervention. Thus, a city is portrayed through independent publications. In Chapter 4 'Brazilian Provocations: Brazilian Counterculture through the Alternative Press -The Column Underground (1969-1971), Flor do Mal (1971) and Rolling Stone (1972-1973)', Patrícia Marcondes de Barros reflects on Brazilian counterculture from the aegis of the production, dissemination and reception of alternative press media, focusing on three demonstrative examples. Within the Brazilian context, the contents, behaviour, and the need to create alternative spaces for communication and expression are thus analysed, while at the same time binding ideological positions that consequently create a counterculture. Here counterculture takes on a different meaning since combined perspectives are presented under the study of the American underground. The main aim is to understand ideological struggles. In Chapter 5 entitled 'Boring, Unconfortable and Mutated: Chili com Carne at the Nexus of the Contemporary Portuguese Independent Comics Scene' Pedro Moura presents another type of independent publication. He gives us a glimpse of the other side, that of the production centres of the USA, France, Belgium, and Japan, with comics as the motto. As an example, the text revolves around the independent Portuguese publisher Chili Com Carne, introducing it within a scene in which multiple elements converge, such as sales markets, social structures, and messages. Furthermore, a reflection is also made around the importance of aesthetics, ethics, and politics. Still focusing on the Portuguese case, in Chapter 6 designated 'Literary Maga/zines: Poem-action and Togetherness', based on a sociology of culture, Rita Grácio addresses the con...