Remember that pesky Icelandic ash cloud?
You know, the one that grounded thousands of European flights for weeks?
Backpackers and businesspeople were all stuck in a collective volcation, stranded and left to bum couch space and beg for hotel rooms.
So what do you do if you suddenly have a few weeks to spare? If you’re a magazine junkie like Andrew Losowsky, it’s quite simple: you make a magazine, of course.
Stuck in Dublin, inspired and Internet-enabled, Losowsky sent out a call to designers, writers, illustrators and other creative types to volunteer their talents. Matt McArthur agreed to design it, and the duo (who have still never met, by the way) set to work.
Losowsky doled out assignments via email: Ask a bartender to mix you a cocktail themed around the volcano. Take a photograph of “the other ash cloud” in the nearest nightclub. Think, what if it’s not a volcano causing all this disruption? Examine some of the other possibilities in an essay.
The result is “Stranded,” a 90-page glossy filled with all sorts of random delights. Fully supporting bizarre, impromptu magazines, I ordered myself a copy as soon as it was for sale. It’s charming …
There are photo essays of empty airports and air mattresses where the stranded spent their nights. There are short stories of what might have happened if they were to have made it to their destination on time. There are illustrations, poems, and playlists. There are hand-drawn maps of attempts to get home. There are even the makings of a first-aid kit for ash cloud emergencies.
In a nice touch, Losowsky prints his email conversations with his contributors, and notes when he lost contact and assignments fell through. He gets content from a pilot for a European airline, a teacher, an editor at the Tate, and a vulcanologist, among others.
The best part? All proceeds go to The International Rescue Committee, a charity that aids those who are permanently stranded in war-torn countries.
Says Losowsky: “This was fun. Same thing next volcano?”
