After some important life changes I rather not get into I found myself wondering if the new responsibilities would replace my ability to continue creating. I spent six months pondering the idea and at the start of October I took the plunge with a new zine titled AETAS//ONE.
AETAS, which means the period of a life; in art, writing and photography in Latin, is just that the output of creativity over 2024. It took about a month to get together and for the first time I was able to pitch the zine to a local gallery for in-store sale.
THE AETAS//ONE IS A 60-PAGE EXPLORATION OF LIFE’S MOMENTS CAPTURED THROUGH ART, WRITING, AND PHOTOGRAPHY. INSPIRED BY THE LATIN PHRASE Tuum tantum est opus, non fructus laboris (YOURS IS THE WORK ALONE, NOT THE FRUIT OF LABOR), THIS ZINE OFFERS A UNIQUE BLEND OF CREATIVITY AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING CONTENT.
Inside you’ll find:
- Music of S280F
- UAP/UFO/Alien interviews / short stories
- Podcasts worth checking out
- 8 High Quality photographs of SF, NC, OK
- Quake Modding
- Article: “Missing Culture in America” – sports
- Article: “Theo Town” – video games
- Short Story: “Motel 5”
- Alt-history: “The legend of El Gigante”
- Music of Darwin Deez
- Cryptography search
- Music of the Revolución Cubana
- Article: “Bop Spotter”
- and so much more in this 60 page zine
I made the zine more to remind myself what I was into during this period and how I was writing and thinking. Everything I wanted the reader to know should be found in the zine but there’s still a little behind the curtain I wanted to share.
I still can’t believe an artist like S280F exists. Not only do they create this cinematic sound that is beyond what I know how to do in Ableton they’re also working with artists to create this physical imagery. Their mind is a work of art in itself. Someone I highly admire for the massive amount of creative control and output they’re adding to this age. They’re probably a passed around name in the NYC/LA underground scenes but it still baffles me no-one outside of small niche music blogs are talking about their artist.
The UAP/UFO interview section is what started the zine and also is the what inspired the cover. I was sharing a few of my own childhood UFO experiences with a friend and I was wishing I could just pick up a book of UFO experiences, nothing professional written just raw experiences. Which lead to the idea that Craigslist would be a great way to get non-fictional or fictional accounts of UFO sightings. Sadly, it just lead to a lot of one sentence responses or people not following the outline I gave. So it was pulling a lot of teeth to get fleshed out answers. This turned the project into a hybrid of creative liberties of using CIA/FBI name REDACTIONS and fictitious agents asking questions in various parts of the USA. All the content is real, everything was obtained via Craigslist but the formatting is where the creativity kicked in.
The Motel 5 short story was written in about an hour while traveling from SF to somewhere in the Bay Area on a BART in 2022. I had just returned from a trip to Montana and the landscapes out there were really inspiring me. I hadn’t looked at it since then but after reading it once and wanting to edit it to perfection it’s one of the favorite non-2024 additions of the zine.
The cover is also one of my favorite aspects of this zine. The waterscape is from the film Beowulf and Grendel (2005) and the triangle UFO is an highly edited and inspired take on patent US20060145019A1 – Triangular spacecraft using Arabic characters spelling out UFO along the body. The words Tuum tantum est opus, non fructus laboris which loosely translates to Yours is the work alone, not the fruit of labor is not actually inspired by Latin at all; it’s from the Bhagavad Gita. It’s spoken by Lord Krishna to Arjuna as part of his guidance on the philosophy of Karma Yoga, the path of selfless action.
I thought the quote fit my personal standings in life as I enter my mid 30s with a lot of personal changes. I no longer have the drive to stake it all on an idea and cross my fingers it’ll finally fill my ego. AETAS is the output of actual creativity with no purpose of reaching viral hopes. I released it on Bandcamp without any build up or marketing; It sold as a limited edition of 10 (which only seven sold before I gave away the other three to Free Little Libraries in my area). Yet, AETAS is probably my favorite zine I’ve made. Visual Signals is great but AETAS was for me.
AETAS can be found in the follow places: