GEN3_”In the contemporary context, where we live under the dominance of an incessant, global flow of digital images, THE-ICONOMIST© appropriates, reconfigures, and presents this visual universe, creating a space for pause, reflection, and critique.”

POINT OF NO RETURN_”Every-little-thing that brought us here. At first glance, nothing makes sense. A whirlwind of shapes, materials, and disconnected functions. It’s necessary to stop. Look. Listen. It’s necessary to see with attention. Is this everything we’ve produced so far?”

VOL.II — ISSUE Nº6

Nº 6 — To consume/To waste. The ICONOMIST Issue 6 presents itself as a visual and textual essay examining the scars of a society sickened by late capitalism. Inspired by the seminal texts Junkspace by Rem Koolhaas and Infraordinary by Georges Perec, this edition not only observes but dissects neglected spaces, accumulated waste, and the traces of a world collapsing under the weight of its own excesses. Through a curated selection of images oscillating between the documentary and the interpretative, readers are led through scenarios ranging from the dazzling and hyper-artificial universe of fast food, or “junk food,” to landfills and waste dumps, where the shine of consumption is replaced by neglect. Abandoned commercial spaces and vacant lots emerge as silent symbols of the failure of an infinite progress promise. The pages also portray human vulnerability: houses destroyed by natural disasters, waste pickers scavenging for what remains, and devastated landscapes that denounce systemic indifference to the environment and marginalized populations. Among the selected texts, authors such as Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Jean-Paul Fargier, Stanley Brouwn, Byung-Chul Han, Walter de Maria, Siri Hustvedt and others, help build the conceptual framework of this edition. In the interplay of combinations proposed by the edition, the concept of “still life” is subverted. Here, it is not about representing the silent order of inanimate objects but revealing urban chaos and the desacralization of the everyday. It is a still life that lives—and decays—in territories contaminated by ambition, inequality, and neglect. This edition is a call to see what is invisible or too uncomfortable to be noticed. It is a portrait not only of a world in decline but of a civilization that insists on ignoring the signs of collapse while indulging in excess—even of images.

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“DOCUMENTS”

ACCIDENT & EMERGENCY_This zine presents a visual essay on the aesthetics of ruin and the relentless force of collapse, bringing together appropriated images of crashes, fires, and rollovers—where twisted metal and flames dance in the wake of destruction. Amid charred wreckage and distorted forms, a landscape of chaos and beauty emerges, a vestige of the moment when everything fell apart.

13x20cm, 48 pages, saddle stitched binding. Shipping worldwide.

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EYES OF NEPTUNE_This zine explores the iconography of the god of the seas, Neptune/Poseidon, in his duality between creation and destruction. Lord of the waters, storms and earthquakes, Neptune rules the uncontrollable flow of nature, symbolizing both the abundance of the oceans and their devastating wrath. Between tides, floods and changes, this zine investigates the mythological force that shapes lands, myths and destiny.

13x20cm, 48 pages, saddle stitched binding. Shipping worldwide.

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B IS BATHROOM_This zine is a continuation of our series started with the publication “Kitchen 9×9” and presents a narrative of images related to the most intimate place in a house and all its peculiarities.

KITCHEN 9X9. This zine takes as its starting point a collection of images of kitchens found on the internet; a kitchen set in a television studio, people with kitchen as their surname, kitchens throughout history, works of art depicting kitchens and other representations.

13x20cm, 48 pages, saddle stitched binding. Shipping worldwide.

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25TH NOVEMBER_This zine is part of the 365 series, made from images related to or taken on a specific day of the year. The only restriction is that images taken or related to the current year are forbidden.

“EXTRAS”

They say that the face is the mirror of the soul. They say that images generated by artificial intelligence have no soul, they are like mirages. MIRROR:MIRAGES presents forty-three mysterious artificially generated faces accompanied by excerpts from the short story “The Mirror”, written by Guimarães Rosa, one of the greatest authors of Brazilian literature. In this short story, Rosa explores the relationship between the reflected image and the true essence of the individual, between the visible exterior and the hidden interior. Her narrative invites us to reflect on the human soul, identity and self-perception at a time when technology is constantly redefining these concepts. These faces, although without a soul of their own, evoke a range of emotions and reflections, provoking us to look beyond superficiality.

STAYNONSTOP is a photobook consisting of a selection of 130 images generated by artificial intelligence. The images are accompanied by fragments of artists’ texts from different sources. The name of the book comes from a reflection on how addictive these image production processes through artificial intelligence can be, like everything these days. By placing these images in confrontation with the text fragments, we try to force new readings and the creation of new contexts different from the ones used to generate the images.

138 pages, 19×19 cm, softcover and perfect-bound. Shipping worldwide.

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“Taking its name from economist Gilson Schwartz’s 2006 neologism ‘Iconomy’ while also nodding to longstanding news weekly The Economist, THE-ICONOMIST questions our relationship with images in this era of image saturation with each issue using verbs as its themes.” — MAGCULTURE

“THE-ICONOMIST’s latest issue is hectic and “suffocating” in its use of online image banks. The magazine has never really operated within the requirements of a conventional magazine. This isn’t just because the issues don’t have any advertisements or an ISBN number, or even that it doesn’t have a website that can be indexed by Google. The magazine defies a traditional editorial approach at every turn.After its first four issues’ focus on AI-generated visuals, the magazine has returned with its fifth edition — a printed exploration of surveillance in the digital age.” — ELLIS TREE, It’s Nice That

THE-ICONOMIST is a third generation research project, an artist’s magazine and observatory founded in 2021.

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