Zweikommasieben
Hyperreality 2025
A new editorial approach led zweikommasieben to Hyperreality Festival in Vienna, in May 2025. The core team brought together a group of contributors, chosen for their perspectives and expertise, to create a publication with, for, about, around, during, after, and in relation to the festival for experimental and electronic music. The content of this magazine, from the texts to the photography, was produced on-site over the course of two days or, in some instances, as a reflection on the event. The festival marked a moment in time, a shared reality, and a point of departure for their endeavor. The magazine brings together conversations with artists conducted before or after their performances at the festival, from rapper and producer Cities Aviv to Mamba Negra-affiliated performance collective Teto Preto to Vienna-based painter and performer Evelyn Plaschg. Alongside these conversations, the magazine gathers personal memories of the festival area of the Otto-Wagner-Areal shared by staff members and visitors, photographic portraits, and on-the-ground impressions captured by various local photographers. It also features a visual essay by artist Marina Sula who looked closely at the festival site and an essay by academic researcher and interdisciplinary artist David J. Cross that explores the philosophical idea of hyperreality and its role in contemporary music culture. The magazine follows the rhythm of the team's own experience of the festival: it opens with the graphics created ahead of the event and closes with an editorial, which was written at the very end of the process, thus serving as an epilogue. The resulting publication is an original and a copy alike. It represents the festival, but isn't the festival. It follows the chronology of the festival, but not its immediacy. By providing a printed account, this edition of zweikommasieben searches for ways to capture the reality of chance encounters, profound feelings, sensorial awareness, and formed memories, which yet remain inevitably subjective and unique to everyone involved. In this, zweikommasieben and Hyperreality share a kinship in their interests and modes of operation. The two projects found each other in their ambition to highlight culture and create impact from the fringes. Hyperreality 2025, documented by zweikommasieben includes -interviews with Valentina Magaletti, Teto Preto, Cities Aviv, Bobby Beethoven, and Evelyn Plaster -an essay on hyperreality, affect, and excess -a collective oral history of Otto-Wagner-Areal -photography Elsa Okazaki, Flavio Karrer, and Fritz Enzo Kargl -a visual essay by Marina Sula All content in English zweikommasieben is a magazine that has been devoted to the documentation of contemporary music and sound since the summer of 2011. The magazine features artist interviews, essays, and columns as well as photography, illustration, and graphics. Quotes (previous editions): Dekmantel "So well worth getting your hands on a copy!" Where To Now? "zweikommasieben is the best mag out." abcdinamo "A beautifully designed must read on electronic music." Thomas Lennon "zweikommasieben is automatic purchase every issue." Tom Mouna "() probably the best magazine for anyone interested in the key figures in contemporary electronic music." Rubadub "One of our fav mags for sure." Sara Berts (Gang of Ducks) "Every issue of the magazine is a typographic gem." &mags "A journey of discovery through contemporary music." A s h (Do Hits, Taiwan Beats) "Underground community's DIY spirit never fails." Magculture "From its 2011 beginnings, the magazine has had an inherent confidence. It's a magazine that takes good design and rigorous journalism just as seriously as the music. The interviews themselves are pacy and interesting, the antithesis of basic promotional content." Rob Booth (Houndstooth) "Another essential magazine" Rewind Forward "Now in its 18th edition, [zweikommasieben] is a testament to this rather solid DIY venture from a group of friends []. Each zine packs a masterclass in designeach one has a different look and feelwhether it's a curious mix of page sizings, colour photos offset on newsprint, foil sleeves etc etc. They're always a pleasure to unfold"