grapefruits fanzine, issue #01: imaginary sound - vergriffen

featuring: Maryanne Amacher, Alessandra Leone, Zoë McPherson, Pauline Oliveros, Daphne Oram, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith The first edition of grapefruits combines six artists under the topic Imaginary Sound. It refers to image, sound and the connection of both, as well as imagination. How to transform an idea into a medium? How to turn mental images into sound and vice versa? Maryanne Amacher’s work imposes the question of how we imagine sound moving through space by experimenting with acoustic illusions such as the third ear. For their project String Figures on Inuit culture Alessandra Leone and Zoë McPherson intertwine image and sound. Pauline Oliveros found a way to transform inner sounds she was listening to by means of electronic music. Daphne Oram invented a machine to translate visual drawings into sound. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith always composes for an image in her mind or in her surroundings. grapefruits is a fanzine about female* composers and sound artists, originating from students of the master programme Klang und Realität at the Institute for Music and Media at the RSH Düsseldorf. The title refers to Grapefruit, a book by Yoko Ono published in 1964, who saw grapefruits as a hybrid of lemons and oranges, a metaphor for her own identity — always being in-between. Appearing twice a year, the first issue was released in summer 2019. The authors, varying from issue to issue, choose the artists they are going to interview and write about by personal interest, always having in mind different genres in the art and pop context as well as a broad international spectrum, including contemporary artists as well as early pioneers. For each issue the authors define a topic which combines the diverse characters, in the same time emphasizing the different understanding each one has on that specific topic. grapefruits focuses on women*, or people who identify as female*, because we, the authors of grapefruits, feel that they are affected by a lack of visibility – historically and at present. Using the gender asterisk, we want to make other genders and gender identities visible and include them typographically, representing inter-, non-binary and trans people.