ark[hive] magazine aims to help document the Australian electronic, hip hop and sound art music and communities, particularly from the period 1987-2004. Regarding the name of the magazine, “ark” suggests saving information from being lost, “hive” suggests the community and hive-mind, and ark[hive] is a play on the word “archive” as this is part of an overall archive project. There have been many archive projects documenting Australian rock, experimental, punk and post-punk music, so this project hopes to sit alongside these, and assist in providing a view of some other styles of music in Australia, along with the other publications documenting these styles. It will include long-form biographies of the artists and articles on the communities during this period, and hopefully capture some memories and feelings of what it was like to be part of the beginnings of electronic music and hip hop in Australia, and to carry on the traditions of sound art/noise/experimental music.

The magazine is being run by Kath O’Donnell [AliaK], who has been involved with various community projects over the years such as Internet radio, community compilation CDs, music writing, as well as photographic and video/audio documentation of events, and encouraging other projects to document their work. With support from the NSW Writers’ Centre’s Next Page 2012 program, it is hoped that ark[hive] magazine will reach its goals and provide useful information for music researchers in the future. Thank you for your support!

The Next Page is the Centres unique mentoring and development program which places emerging creatives (or group of creatives) working in writing within the New South Wales Writers Centre – to support them, provide them with mentoring and networking as well as provide them with development opportunities both within the NSWWC program and through our networks. More details about Next Page can be found here