alt.youth.media The New Museum of Contemporary Art 1996 invitation alt.youth.media The New Museum of Contemporary Art alt.youth.media The New Museum of Contemporary Art 1996 Adrienne Salinger Donna D. from Teenagers in their Bedrooms, 1990-93 Gordon Gordon Teen Fag zine cover Debbie Stoller Bust zine cover Matt Sunborn Angry Youth Comix zine cover

alt.youth.media at the new museum by Paul H-O Th.Kds.R.Alrgt. When the United States weren't but a British colony a rabble- rouser named Thomas Paine wrote and published a pamphlet entitled Common Sense that denounced the King of England and ruthlessly questioned the arcane political jurisdiction of the monarchy. The people didn't have magazines or TV but anyone that could string sentences could publish pissed-off prose and eventually be a big part in kicking ass on the nancyboy British. And do it with no money. It was a garage laboratory and a start-up deal that resonates with "the only way to do something right is to do it yourself." The impulse to speak out against the king lives on today. More or less what the New Museum has done here is identify a cultural happening and dutifully collect a surfeit of evidence testifying to it. The exhibition entitled "alt.youth.media" is a superabundance of home-made audio-visual output. Every kind of recognizable media created by pre-teens up into the 20s is manifested in the form of music, video, CD ROMs, installations, Web sites, e-zines, and the rulers of the show, zines--homemade xeroxed collaged and self-published underground magazines. The video component of the show is heavy on the social conscience as are the (non-music) audiotapes, like a blend of NPR radio meets Rikki Lake. If anything in the show looks slick (like the installation, which is very multimedia and participatory and has the vapor trail of artist Judith Barry all over it though she says she just provided suggestions) or expensive there is probably an adult behind it so don't be fooled. The media art phenomena known as zines dominates the exhibition because they're clearly the most complete method of expression at it's wildest. Anything goes. Teen feminists, werewolves, gayphernalia, Africana, diarrhea, whatever! If you have any doubt then read these titles: Adversaria, published by a 14-year-old from Canada. Ain't Nothin' Like Fuckin' Moonshine and Soft Smooth Brain, both from San Francisco. Bowel Movement Quarterly, a Pennsylvania zine. Borelando, a highschooler adventure from New York. Crap Hound, thematic clip-art from Oregon. Farm Pulp, anti-christianity kids from Seattle. Fierce Vagina, a personal female rant, Brooklyn. Frank Jasper and Me, refrigerator poetry, Palo Alto, Ca. Hello My Name Is..., specializing in tagged panel trucks, San Francisco. Plus, Hungry Freaks, I'm Over Being Dead, J Cruelty Catalog, Jesus, Jism and Spaghetti, Moon Fuzz, My Last Nerve, Pretty in Punk, R.I.P., Speed Co., Temp Slave, Urinal Cornea, and this is just 20 percent of the featured zines. Nothing escapes the zine freaks and that includes politics. In all fairness the task of subjecting the artistic and documentary output is beyond my journalistic interest. Its too much. Really, you could overdose and die if you tried to absorb thousands of these mediabotics. Not me, uh uh. On overview this exhibition of youth culture can be grasped as a physical idea or social phenomena, yet actually diving into this jello pool of media is a broad and insanely jiggly undertaking. Grasp is the key word. If you are over 30 you can only peer into the mirror these artists hold up. If you want to know who is going to put you into the euthanasium, here they are. From Baby Boomer to the Uncontrollable Brain By-products Ubiquity Brigade! Pure raucous graffiti potential could have put this exhibition over the top, but a calmer museum mentality prevails. While one can sympathize with the intent and the ambitious effort involved with curatorial design of overwhelming material glut, the show is a bit unnaturally mature and overly organized, with zines lined up on the wall instead of in racks and the DJs lodged in a room behind glass. It's got what you could call academitus syndrome, a public service announcement that lacks true grit. The zine art, the vids, the music, is frankly beyond critique. It is simply astounding. It's disgusting and putrid. It's intelligent and hilarious. It oozes with visceral life and twisted beauty. The art is a rave. These are the children of the new century and they are adults within the temporal present. alt.youth.media at The New Museum 583 Broadway, New York, NY 10012 September 6 - November 5, 1996 PAUL H-O is a New York artist and producer of Art TV Gallery Beat. LIST OF E-ZINES: 10 Things Jesus Wants You to Know is the online version of the popular Seattle music zine. all.ages.show is produced by a U. of Ga. student and offers two main topics: Rant (cereal commercials, Scooby Doo, the Atlanta Olympics) and music reviews. b-grrrl is a skateboardin', feminist, hip- hop zine from Melbourne, featuring women bodybuilders, articles on graffiti and notes on shopping with parents. BlOOdY WanKEr is a fantastic resource for info on the New York punk scene with extensive indexes on comics, music venues, bands and more. Bunnyhop is the cyberversion of a print zine; the current issue, Soft and Fluffy, is number 7. Catnip Dreams features a section on snowboarding and articles like "Fun at K- Mart," "No More Baggy Pants in School" and "Stoned Idiots." Emily's Nest, an endearing homepage from a 14-year-old deaf girl, includes an introduction to her dog, Mac, who knows sign language. Exile Webzine includes the politically minded article "Voting in Self Defense," a punk view in "You're not punk and I'm telling everyone" and a happy-go-lucky attitude in "Keeping Yourself Amused." geekgirl is a tech-filled e-zine from Australia, exploring everything from Kathy Acker to cryptography to Las Vegas. It's also published on paper. GrrlZine #1 explores grrl fashion with articles on Calvin Klein ads, Doc Martins and girl designers while #2 gives the scoop on UFOs. Jonas is an impressive high-school e-zine that offers a teen's journal entries, an article about behaving badly at an eighth- grade overnight party, wacky mail excursions and news from around the world. the lizard king's lair is a Web page from the lizard king, a sophomore at Nauset Regional High School on Cape Cod, including music pics, a rant on the death of punk and ramblings on technology. l Mimi's Page, one of the best comic displays online, is beautifully rendered, well written and gives an insightful look at personal experiences from high school. She also produces Borelando, a paper zine. NrrdGrrl!, a site for "women from around the world who think, talk and act for themselves," includes an e-zine, Grrowl!, that includes the articles "I Hate Pink," "Watching Miss America" and a fan-mail section called "Toothmarks." Oasis is produced by Youth Action Online and features sections for and by gay youth, including profiles in courage, coming-out stories, fiction, poetry and a series of paintings chronicling the life of a gay teen. Ooze, a well-designed, easy to navigate and very readable e-zine, includes articles like "Fashion Tips for the Very Poor" and "So You Think You're a Vampire." Rant features silly stories and personal rants on Chia pets, speeding tickets, car air fresheners and more. Ratgrrl's Hideout offers a mix of feminist viewpoints, references to classical children's books and quotes from rock lyrics, plus "The Academy," which includes well-researched papers on topics like copyright in cyberspace. Spank!, which originates in Canada, has fantastic graphics and "DogFest 96," a celebration of the world's worst video. Speedmeter is a "zine about River Falls, Wisc., and the phreaks who live there." y0lk, "an open zine for everyone," has stories of the youth experience in a slang- filled, stream-of-consciousness style. A Year in the Life of a Nerd has journal entries with a humorous bent from the senior year of a self-proclaimed nerd. gURL, the collaborative effort of nine women in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, is an intelligent, playful Web site for girls.