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VWLS (VOWELS) is an independent multimedia creative studio creating accessible and agitative printed and digital ephemera. At its core, VWLS looks to embrace the idea that nothing is original; all art is derivative, built on existing culture. Though projects published by VWLS may explore any themes, tools of appropriation, remixing, sampling, bootlegging and piracy are a throughline. Art and design, agriculture, medicine, urban planning, media distribution and production, and computing and data are just a few of many sectors that restrict access and agency based on ideas of property (intellectual or otherwise), owner/authorship, and reproduction (copy)rights. VWLS looks to create ephemeral and short form art and media in collaboration with creatives who (in process or concept) challenge the status quo of privatized ideas/images, innovations, and resources.

The name VWLS represents the need to cut the “middlemen” out of current systems of production/distribution of resources, art, and information. Vwls rn’t lwys ncssry t ndrstnd sntnc. Dependence on structures full of fat has led to a skewed baseline understanding of creativity, innovation, and collaboration. This informs legal and cultural perceptions of authorship, ownership, and private property; causing a homogenization and neutralization of human creativity.

VWLS TV, and the accompanying VWLS MGZN print publication, compiles submitted, bootlegged, and original art, media, and thought that squarely or tangentially addresses the themes VWLS explores.