Šum has always existed between a journal, an archive of ideas and a space for ongoing conversation. Starting with #26, we are extending that space to Substack.
The format feels natural to us; much of what we publish—essays, theoretical fragments, speculative writing, conversations between art, philosophy and fiction—already asks to be read outside the rhythm of a conventional issue. And there is already a community of you gathered around these kinds of texts. Substack offers us a way to make that community more participatory, and to keep the conversation moving between texts, authors and readers.
The Slovenian editions will continue to take physical form: printed, available to order, and rooted in our local community and the Slovenian cultural context.
The English editions are taking a more restless route. From #27 onwards, they will begin their journey on Substack, unfolding text by text, before eventually arriving on sum.si.
Joining Šum on Substack will be free. It is where you can follow the journal and stay close to the conversations we are building around each issue. For all of you who would like to enter the new issue as soon as it launches, paid subscription will offer early access. Four months later, the texts will become freely available to everyone. A paid subscription is, in this sense, a way to support the work of keeping Šum alive and publishing exciting writing and exciting writers, while being closer to the moment when those texts enter the world.
Alongside the texts, we’ll use Substack to let the issues spill over their edges: excerpts and new writing, recordings of presentations and lectures, conversations, podcasts, and other material that opens up, extends or occasionally derails the questions raised in each issue. Think of it less as a digital archive and more as a place where Šum can keep moving between texts, voices, images and ideas—and where you can join along as they appear.
And because we’re only just beginning to build this community, the first issue of our expanded web, ŠUM #26, will be open to everyone on Substack from the moment it launches.
The journal stays the journal, the website remains its home, and Substack comes as an extension: a place to keep the thinking going. See you there?