From Glasgow to Saturn is a Literary Journal at the University of Glasgow.

Any present or past student or staff member of the University of Glasgow or the Glasgow School of Art may submit to From Glasgow to Saturn. We welcome prose, poetry, creative nonfiction, hybrid forms and visual art.

SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN FOR ISSUE 54: SOMATIC SIMULACRA! 🍓🪐

Somatic - from soma - the body distinct of mind, soul and psyche.

Simulacra - copies, representations or imitations, without an original. The image or simulation replaces the reality it was supposed to represent.

In Simulacra and Simulation, Jean Baudrillard argued that contemporary society has replaced reality with symbols and signs, creating a ‘hyperreal’ where the distinction between true and false collapses. Imagine Andy Warhol’s famous Campbell Soup Cans painting. When we see that image, we don’t think of the soup inside, the taste of it. You have seen that image repurposed endlessly, you think of consumer culture, pop art, maybe you think of the shooting of Andy Warhol, or Marilyn Monroe, or maybe you think of cheap posters you bought from the rack at HMV as a teenager, Campbell soup in between Oasis and Blur. The ‘reality’ of the object collapses, thus creating the ‘hyperreal’.

What does this mean in relation to the body itself? Bodies endlessly commodified, images ceaselessly distributed, a whirl of simulated forms consumed through a screen, a reflection, a camera lens. The body online, the body as data, the body pixellated, warped, never observed in its purest form, always with a shadow of perspective, depth, lens, the cruelly cool overhead lighting of retail changing rooms. We want your work that explores this collapse.

We encourage any and all interpretations or uses of our theme - as inspiration, a provocation, a framework, or simply a place to begin. We’re accepting all forms of creative writing and visual art. Our submissions for Issue 54 are now open with this link here: https://forms.gle/jdqJoyVNCXGMbnnP8

If you have any questions, please contact us at fromglasgowtosaturnjournal@gmail.com

Before submitting please ensure you have read and adhered to our submission guidelines.

Submission gates close on 1st March at midnight.

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