Lithuanian fanzines

Project: An open-access database and research of self-published informal Lithuanian youth press (fanzines)

Goals

With this project we aim to collect and digitize a comprehensive archive of informal Lithuanian youth press, self-published during the Soviet occupation and in the first decade of Lithuania’s independence (1968–2000), mainly focusing on gathering a collection of fanzines (i.e. hippy, metal music, (neo) folklore, fantasy, punk, and various other). In terms of research goals, we aim to study the preconditions for the emergence and spread of this cultural phenomenon in Lithuania, also its significance to the subculture participants, the identities and values expressed in this format of the informal press, also the visual and literary representations of the alternative worldviews, often deviant and different from the mainstream culture of the time. As a result, we aim to create an open-access fanzine database, providing an easily accessible library to the general public and convenient digital tools for the researchers working in this field of cultural studies.

Significance

The self-published press has been seldom a focus of research in Lithuania. The fanzines themselves are still mostly stored in the personal archives of their authors or their readers and, being rare publications, are in danger to be lost forever. These cultural sources are significant to the research of youth cultures in the 20th century, the texts and images reveal sometimes harsh reality of that time; the experiences and the lives, the concerns, the values, and the worldviews, and, to some extent, the strife for political and personal freedom, both from soviet regime and conservatism of the Western society. These artifacts are also a valuable Youth Culture heritage source, they need to be not only collected and digitized but also opened up for a wider range of readers and researchers, so the existing pool of available subcultural research sources can be enriched with new, unique material.

Team

Team leader:

Assoc. Prof. Egidija Kiškina – conducts anthropological research of cultural groups (youth subcultures, opposition groups, new religious groups, ethnic subgroups), as well as long-term research of academic youth groups. Applies mathematical methods in qualitative research. El. p.: egidija.kiskina@knf.vu.lt

Project participants:

Assoc. Prof. Vytautas Evaldas Rudžionis – is Head of Development of Digital Technologies in Phonetics and Voice Recognition group, Institute of Social Sciences and Applied Informatics, Vilnius University. El. p.: vytautas.rudzionis@knf.vu.lt

PhD Aušra Kairaitytė-Užupė – researches the structure of Lithuanian folklore narratives, images, religious and academic youth groups, applies ethnographic, longitudinal, digital humanities research methods. El. p.: ausra.kairaityte-uzupe@knf.vu.lt

PhD Agnė Kalėdienė – researches social networks, youth groups, subcultures; the historical reconstruction clubs, modern Baltic paganism. El. p.: agnė.kalediene@knf.vu.lt

Aurelija Dagilytė-Drevel – researches alternative and virtual youth groups, user experience, online mythology. Applies ethnographic and digital research methods. El. p.: aurelija.drevel@knf.vu.lt auradagi@gmail.com

Gintaras Jaronis – creator of events, exhibitions, educational audiovisual material, website developer, database administrator. Area of ​​interest – artistic photography of the expression of the identity. El. p.: gintaras.jaronis@knf.vu.lt

Contacting us

We invite former and current fans and fanzine publishers to contribute to the project, to share their experiences and collections. We would love to hear from other researchers working in this field, to share and compare our findings. Feel free to contact us: lietuvos.zinai@gmail.com