We don’t think it’s odd to be celebrating an in-between issue as HOLO is all about interstices: first between disciplines, now between mediums. Welcome to HOLO 2.5 (beta), the brand-new online edition of HOLO magazine. How this site works—what it will do—emerges out of our work in print as well as our reading of the ever-shifting landscape of internet culture and web publishing. While we relish the thought of our magazine pages yellowing and aging like fine wine, we are thrilled to open ourselves up to bit rot and join the ephemeral, online fray.

What makes us think we have something to offer the web? Well, for starters, between the straitjacket of standard-issue behaviour on corporate social platforms and the homogeneity of most web-based media outlets, we see a lot of room for anything outside those prescriptive routines. We got our bearing in the digital art and creative coding milieu online more than a decade ago, and HOLO was launched as a companion publication to complement CreativeApplications.net and foster surrounding communities; we still cherish the vital international networks that our peers at We Make Money Not Art, Prosthetic Knowledge, and Beyond the Beyond, foregrounded, and the personalities and practices they surfaced. We miss the synergies that happened across those networks during that era.

That said, one can’t subsist on blogosphere nostalgia—and there is no point in doing anything in 2020 without radical optimism. We’ve put a lot of thought into HOLO 2.5 as a platform, a major goal for its design was to fuse our collaborations with cultural producers into Dossiers, web-based research publications that run in parallel with event and exhibition programming, they happen here in real-time and are then archived for posterity (e.g. take a look at our Digital Economies Reader). We are also excited to pull Stream, our fold-out art, science, and technology news ticker out of the magazine and into infinite scroll; other sections from the magazine including our in-depth artist features (from both our archives and a slate of forthcoming new profiles) will join it online soon. By late next year, where the magazine begins and this website ends will be a little blurry.

So, what do these changes for existing or prospective HOLO readers?

Existing HOLO 3 pre-orders: You don’t have to do anything! We’ll transfer your reader account to grant you full access to this site, and you’ll get a copy of HOLO 3 when it is published next year. Keep your eyes peeled on your inbox for further details.

Everyone Else: In the coming months we’ll roll out a reader system, and signing up will pre-order the copy of our magazine and grant you access to reader-only content here on the site; It’ll renew yearly, and cost the same as ordering a copy of HOLO did in the past.

This launch is just the first step, 2021 will see us ramp up our online publishing activities—we hope you’ll bookmark us and make us part of your regular media diet.

• Front Page: Encounter section added
• Front Page: Dossier section updated
• Encounters: Launched
• Stream:  Passed 350-news item mark
• All Content: New gallery block added

• Accounts: Launched
• Accounts: HOLO 3 preorders imported
• Accounts: Retrieve Account page created
• Accounts: Save Stream items feature added
• Notification: Coming Soon section added
• Notification: Reader account info added

• The Annual: Now available
• Item: 1 XXL Primordial Soup HOLO T-Shirt left, get it while you can

• Menu: Simplified
• Front Page/Stream: Pinned posts feature added
• Front Page: Better shop items and Dossier implementation

• Dossier: Left sidebar ‘imprint runneth over’ float issues curtailed
• Stream: ‘All bunged up’ WYSIWYG-induced blockages cleared

Three months into our launch, it’s hard to imagine that HOLO never had its own online home; a place where we can share, collaborate, and expand on what we do in print. The numbers speak for themselves: as of today, this website includes 476 pieces of content—75 entries in our first pair of Dossiers, 380 news items on Stream, and the first Encounter, our new monthly series of archival and newly commissioned artist profiles. Meanwhile, the production of our next print edition—the HOLO Annual (aka HOLO 3)—is well underway. Head over the production diary for updates; we’ll share a slate of exciting announcements there soon.

Today, we’re excited to introduce Reader Accounts. As a Reader, you’ll get a lot more out of HOLO—from access to exclusive online content to a boxed edition of The Annual hot off the press:

• The Annual: receive a boxed edition of the Annual (due this summer), free shipping worldwide
• Encounters: access our monthly series of in-depth artist profiles (new and from our archives)
• Updates: access Reader-only production notes and work-in-progress documentation from our (extended) team
• Stream: access daily log of cultural commentary, emerging tech, and multidisciplinary art and design
• Archive: access articles and features from past print editions, reimagined in a new online format (coming soon)
• Special Offers: enjoy discounts for products available in the HOLO Shop and through our collaborators and partners
• Karma: support independent publishing, help us pay great contributors equitably, and ensure we remain ad-free

Thank you for your continued support!

Become a HOLO Reader

Already preordered HOLO 3? Please click here to activate your Reader Account. You’ll get full access to exclusive Reader content and The Annual mailed to you later this summer.