About

About the Author

My name is Matia Guardabascio. I'm a writer. I'm also a photographer, zine maker, and multidisciplinary media artist. I am based in Durham, North Carolina.

After moving to NC from MA (Boston) in 2015, I founded Durham Beat, a Gonzo-style local arts & culture zine, where I served as editor, community organizer, and curator of fun for about six years. I retired this project when my creative life had grown beyond what the Beat was capable of doing. My current endeavor, Secret Astronomer, is an experimental zine, visual writing, and collaborative performance project where I am evolving my writing practice into forms that live beyond the page. What does that mean? Well, let's just say I've been exploring my artistic multitudes, seeing how they can interact with each other.

Here's some examples...

Prose

Non-fiction, narrative essay, subjective media, the episotlary, etc… these are my jams. Always writing in and around and within and without of this expansive genre. I also write short stories (fiction) and am currently at work on my first collection(s). (Yes, there’s two.)

Photography

Always taking pictures. Though I'm not especially interested in people. I prefer details, overlooked or temporary or both, framed in the right way to become art, even for just a minute. I only use natural light. Got my start in black and white film. Will be reincorporating that into my life. Stay tuned.

I spend a lot of time with my camera(s). Lately, I've been experimenting with textures and light, and capturing depth inside of flatness. I'm also transitioning from still photography into movement (film/video) and am exploring short film/documentary projects/experiments.

Photobooks

I've been making books out of my photos. Zines really, but we'll call them photobooks. Each one is dedicated to exploring and experimenting with different elements such as LIGHT or TEXTURE or CONTRAST. I take the photographs, design the books, and bind them all myself. Each one comes in an individually typewritten sleeve (on a typewriter!) and has a typewritten and handnumbered tag in the back. These photobooks are limited runs and are only made once.

Prints and Cards

I transform several photographs into prints and make some into blank greeting cards. Always interested in exploring ways to use and reuse paper materials and expand how I present my visual work.

Notebooks

Speaking of paper, I do a lot of bookbinding and have been growing this skill area, which evolved out of years of making zines and working at magazines. I love working with my hands and wanted to make my own notebooks, bind my own work. Now I make notebooks for everyday use, perfect-bound, hand-stitched, made with love and acid-free paper. (You can even buy one! Or get one automatically as a supporter on Patreon! Amazing!)

Visual Poetry

An experiment in visual writing and imagining writing as a visual as well as textual art form. I rely entirely on intuition to compose original poems using scrap magazines and catalogs as source material.

Words On Demand Zine Series

Words On Demand is an ongoing serial collection of interactive live writing. Using random words given to me by members of the public in a live setting, I compose improvised stories and poems on the spot, each piece taking no more than a few minutes to write. Every so often I compile the ramblings of this practice and publish them as limited run handmade zines.

Astronomer Tapes Series

Collaborative multi-media live performances incorporating dramatic writing, music and a VHS video collage.

Events and Parties

I am, in fact, a professional event organizer, among other useful practices, developed both in creative contexts and "on the job" for "employers". My interest is in creating collaborative and immersive art-related experiences, with a little bit of something for a wide ranging audience from varied backgrounds, to bring people from disparate worlds together into one artistic adventure that incites and inspires the creativity that lives within all of us. And if nothing else, a swell time with some good food, good conversation, and memorable performances.