FLYER SOZIOTOPE Topography of a Media Phenomenon

If posters were rock and roll's early, defining visual hallmark, thenflyers, which range from the size of a business card to larger than agreeting card, never too large to be distributed by hand, are theequivalent for contemporary club music. The cheerful, home-cooked visualparody and appropriation enabled by electronic media--"Come to where theflavor is," reads one Berlin handout reproduced here--have spawned a wholenew genre, akin to the electronic music it often advertises. These flyers,examples of which range over 20 years on more than 600 pages, are at onceart, advertising, branding and community building, and they reflect thefashion, music, art, politics, news, graphics and literature of theireras. FlyerSoziotope is the world's largest catalogue of them, and itillustrates the entire spectrum of a new media culture with work fromEurope and around the world. Editor Mike Riemel, who studied economics,planning and urban sociology, put his education to use by foundingBerlin's Foto-Shop gallery and the Internet radio station, Klubradio,which webcasts from clubs in Berlin. He has marshaled more than a dozenwriters whose essays take closer looks, both academic and entertaining, ataspects of the medium's development, its success and its future.