Accidental Discharge examines art and culture through the lens of female identifying and gender-fluid folk. Maintaining its core values, Accidental Discharge holds a presence in the world of art, culture, human rights and environmentalism. Founded in 2014 as a high school project, Accidental Discharge has now grown to become a widely loved publication and collective by many. Each issue printed works with and devlops ideas around a spefic theme.
Issue 4 focuses on connections with cultural identity and environmentalism. Writers examine personal relationships with cultural identity, cultural appropriation, the colonization of beauty and the impacts of globalization.
Accidental Discharge aims to provide a safe space for discussions to take place, for artists and writers to be given the platform to speak where they otherwise may not have had the opportunity. As well as that, Accidental Discharge currently operates on a non-profit basis and aims to contribute funds to community organizations, provide jobs and payment for everyone who contributes and to allow discussions to take place on a large scale that would often be ignored or shut down. We aim to be an alternative to the magazines and platforms that profit off the degradation of women and people of minority.
“….An exploration of culture, of loss, of identity. An exploration of love for our earth and hate for what we are doing to her. It is not possible to be separated from the earth. This is for the statistics that are never shared, the deaths that are never honoured, the lands that were stolen and never returned, for the land that is dying and for the ones that are trying to survive and thrive once more. “
Photography: Anne Barlinckhoff
Stylist: Ngadi Smart
Model: Mado in Côte d’Ivoire
THE TEAM
Maile Shanti is the founding editor-in-chief of Accidental Discharge. She works free-lance as a writer and is currently undertaking a degree in International Studies. She is passionate about enviromental issues, Hawaiian soveritnty, gender equality and sustainability.
Gemma Mahoney is the creative director and graphic designer of Accidental Discharge. She works as a free-lance graphic designer and is currently undertaking her bachelor in Graphic Design. She is passionate about, art, design, gender equailty and supporting local designers. Her work can be found here.
We would also like to thank Sapodia Lindley for her assistance with Accidental Discharge and with this issue.
We would like to thank Felicity Downie for the photograph.
We need to raise $7000 in order to print this issue, pay everyone involved and continue on with this project.
Printing cost: $3459-$5000
Paying Contributors: $700
Advertising and Sponsorship cost (promotion): $300
Online and Admin Costs: $350
Future expansion projects: $1500
In the past we have put our own money in to keep the magazine going and have decided, this time round, to ask the wider community for help. Your money will be going to good use, allowing this magazine to be stocked Australia wide, more copies printed, all artists paid and continue the spread of our message. As well as, giving us the chance to expand in ways we have not yet been able.
Since commencement we have been working on zero profit and 100% volunteer based. However, we want to expand from this. We’re hoping to pay all the contributors involved in this issue (excluding ourselves Maile and Gemma) and raise enough funds to also not be out of pocket by the end of the process. The print industry is a hard one to crack, but we’re hoping with your help we may be able to make our ambitions a reality. This issue is very important to us for many reasons. We are so happy to announce that we will be donating 10% of the proceeds from every issue sold to Seed Mob, an Indigenous Climate Change Network, following the success of our pozible campaign.
The contributors in this issue are all strong, powerful people who we have personally been inspired by, and feel their knowledge and work needs to be shared. Which is why we are so excited we are able to do just that!.