WOR(L)DS
THE ZINE THAT ALMOST WASN’T
Dear reader,
WOR(L)DS (Words that became worlds) is a one-off digital publication that talks about itself; the energy, the creative passion and the struggles that it took to make this happen. It’s a piece of work that almost didn’t make it. It’s a deep dive into what a digital zine can truly become. It showcases art made by a group of 20 inspiring creatives exploring co-creation together. It captures the energy of a specific time in a shared space. An energy that is impossible to create if you are not physically present.
It was late 2021. A post-pandemic world in which a complex interplay of geopolitical, social, and economic developments were taking shape. The arts and culture landscape felt like it was being reset too. With Nick and my friend Luke, we were building a community of artists focused on art practice and co-creation. We called it Voyager. It was an exploration of creative channels, new ways for artists to release and monetize their work in the emerging web3 space. It was a chaotic, exciting time, when blockchain tech and a bullish market seemed to suggest that anything was possible. We saw many artists, like ourselves, break through and make waves. It could be our turn soon.
Drawn by the promise of something new and exciting, we managed to bring together a few hundred artists from all over the world into our Discord channel, a step that seemed mandatory at the time. We wanted to succeed as a group, not as individuals, that meant online meetings or discord calls becoming the norm. But we were missing something. We longed for the creative spark that comes from making art together. Why not try a different approach and do an IRL experiment?
I invited artists to my studio in Amsterdam Noord for a two-day workshop. Luke drove down from Germany and we co-designed the framework. We weren’t just running this workshop but actively collaborating with everyone. We set aside our egos and got involved with each other's work to create something special, together. The result was stunning; art made by a group, made for a higher purpose. And we had to share this, we wanted to show everyone this project that challenged the norms of approaching the creative process. We started compiling all of this beautiful work wanting to publish them. No one was doing zines back then, and we sensed we were onto something. Looking back, I feel stoked about how we were ahead of the curve with our zine. Soon, zines, especially those related to web3 were everywhere.
In the meantime, Voyager hit some bumps. It demanded more and more of our time. We burned countless hours on finding ways to make our collective voice heard in an NFT market that felt unpredictable and, at times, unfair. It was hard not to wonder why we weren’t finding the same overnight success as others. To be clear this was never about monetizing our efforts. We did it because we believed in it—a labor of love, almost vocational. Unfortunately, after six long months, it became evident that our model wasn’t sustainable. The hours we put in without pay took its toll on us, and eventually, Voyager crashed.
When Voyager fell apart, so did the zine. The nearly complete version sat unfinished, and though I was responsible for pulling it together, I couldn’t bring myself to finish. At the time, it felt like the zine lacked a true story, a deeper purpose to hold it all together. And every hour I had spent on it became a reminder of how much we had invested—time, energy, belief. It felt too raw to keep going.
But now, two years on, I’m finally closing the chapter. I’m glad to have found the right amount of motivation, space and a meaningful environment to finally release this zine.
Like some things, the right set and setting make all the difference.
Enjoy it,
Ivano Salonia
WOR(L)DS zine is open for everyone and released on Metalabel. If you feel, you can support the zine starting from $1. Proceeds are split among all contributors.
THE WORKSHOP
In the spring of 2022, Luke and I set out to create something real—an IRL workshop in my studio at NDSM in Amsterdam Noord. The idea was simple: gather a group of artists and experiment with co-creation, without overthinking or chasing perfection. We started finding words that resonate with us and have the power to create entire worlds. To discover these words, we employed few meditation techniques that served as a self-prompting exercise. Once the artists identified their chosen word, they began translating it into their artwork.
The workshop was rooted in exploration. We wanted to see what happens when you drop your ego and let different styles collide. No carefully planned outcomes, just pure, unfiltered creation. As someone who’d spent over 15 years in the creative industry, I was feeling disillusioned. The creative process in advertising has become a game of safe bets, where bold ideas are sanitized by marketing teams and decisions are driven by algorithms. Rarely do brands take risks; most are content to stick to what worked before in a loop of sameness.
Creatives, meanwhile, had become hunters of what’s cool rather than creators of something new. Moodboards filled with other people’s work, endless decks polished to perfection—yet little room for true artistic expression. The bold decisions, the breakthroughs, the raw, untamed ideas were often lost in the process, smoothed out until they were indistinguishable from everything else.
Our workshop was a rebellion against that. We wanted to tap into intuition, not trends. We designed exercises that encouraged participants to look within for inspiration, to create quickly and iteratively, leaving no room for hesitation or perfectionism. We wanted to break the mold, to get artists out of their comfort zones.
Over the course of two nights, participants worked with everything from watercolor to VR, from code to performance, creating in ways they hadn’t before. It wasn’t always polished, but that was the point. The work was raw, mystical, weird, and utterly beautiful—a snapshot of a moment shared by a group of artists exploring what’s possible when we let go of the need to control the outcome.
This zine is a window into that experiment. It’s not just a collection of art; it’s a reflection of those spring nights—an expression of the untapped creative force we found together. I’m proud to share this work, and even prouder to call these artists my friends.
CONTRIBUTORS
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