Zineswap Ventures

The Zineswap project run by Gordon Armstrong and Rob Pearts out of a bedroom in Hackney aims to provide a worldwide zine swapping resource, and a vast contemporary archive of zines. However, Zineswap isn’t paying the bills just yet. “We get nothing out of it," says Armstrong. "In fact, we pay for the postage – unless people actually follow the instructions and send a self-addressed envelope, which they mostly don’t. But we don’t mind.” The entire ethos behind Zineswap seems to be one far removed from money. “Rob gave a friend of ours a bike frame and he offered us some money," says Gordon. "We said we’d actually prefer a filing cabinet, so now we’re officially zineophiles!”

So far their second-hand filing cabinet holds about 200 zines, which the boys began collecting officially in November 2008. In September this year they held their first event at the Tate Britain. “The Tate was a weird one," says Gordon. "There were all these people, kids and families, teenagers and visitors to the museum, just making zines in the middle of all this art ­– it was great.”

It’s certainly a far cry from their launch party at The Rag Factory in east London, a BYOB affair where you could read zines, chill out and watch some bands. “People actually came!” exclaims Gordon, as though it was a vaccine clinic. But zines are fast shedding the dissident tag associated with fanzines of decades past. “Everyone’s reverting back to DIY because there’s this complete excess of digital media," says Gordon. I point out that half of Zineswap’s aim is to become a giant online archive. “Print works well in a small area, but if you want to go bigger and get a better mix, and show contemporaries in other places... we’re not about just showing London, or England.”

One of Zineswap’s recent ventures was alongside independent subscription service Stack; they collated zines and popped them in an envelope alongside a magazine. “Suddenly we needed 300 zines for Zinestack, so we called ten reliable people we knew and asked them to make 30 each!” There’s a good community spirit, then? “Absolutely! We’re like a giant zine squid with tentacles everywhere.” Those tentacles have reached as far as submissions from Japan, and an invitation to join an exhibition in Korea next year. World domination aside, what’s next on the zinesters’ list? “We might make an Zineswap annual, or run a pop-up swap shop – that’d be fun!”