Welcome to the Machine

There are few things more disheartening for a young do-it-yourself enthusiast than to have her posters unceremoniously torn down. I experienced this mini-war of attrition several years ago in Halifax. My friend and I had launched an all-female DJ night and I ran excitedly through the streets late one night, plastering our bright photocopied posters over streetlamp poles and on cable boxes, taping and stapling with impunity—or so I thought. A few days later I strolled through the city’s north end with a friend to point out my handiwork—and to my shock only scraps and tattered corners remained. Someone had methodically torn down our handiwork, one photocopied sheet at a time. I was aghast.

And so I was introduced—however unwillingly—to the politics of photocopied media. As long as DIY promoters, artists, writers and creators have embraced the cheap freedoms of photocopied print media...