Trends: The Magazine as an Object

However creative their content may be, most magazines still essentially amount to a pretty standard booklet of paper. Not so The Thing, which delivers an objet d'art instead. Its founders call it a magazine because incorporated into each object is some text. For example: The inaugural issue, shipped in August, was a plain brown window shade with one of two sentences silk-screened on it in black handwriting: "If this shade is down, I'm not who you think I am" or "If this shade is down, I'm begging your forgiveness on bended knee with tears streaming down my face."

That project was conceived by performance artist, writer and filmmaker Miranda July, who won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival for her film “Me and You and Everyone We Know” (2005). The next three issues of The Thing’s first subscription year will be by visual artists Anne Walsh, Kota Ezawa and Trisha Donnelly. Beyond that? There’s no telling yet which artists, writers, musicians or filmmakers editors Jonn Herschend and Will Rogan will invite.
Subscriptions cost USD 120 plus USD 10 shipping for each issue domestically or USD 30 per issue to ship internationally. Budding artists are lining up at The Thing’s door, and anyone else looking to create buzz could learn from its expectations-altering example. By breaking with convention, you gain the power to surprise and delight!

Original source link: Springwise
Interview with the founders