Fourth Door Review is an annual publication that resembles a cross between a book and a magazine. In 2002 it was crowned with the Utne Reader New Paradigm/New Culture Independent press award. However, Lowenstein sees his creation more as a gap-filler than a paradigm-shifter. 'In the 90s a lot of people were writing about technology and a lot of other people were about the environment, but no one seemed to be covering the common ground between these two emerging movements.'
Fourth Door has moved prodigiously to fill that void, providing the reader with upwards of 100 pages of in-depth analyses covering an eclectic range of issues including architecture, design (new) media, music, art, philosophy, and theatre. No 6 - the Lanternsure Issue - opened with a four page article from kayak-builder and author George Dyson on artificial life ('We should be less interested in the metaphysics of whether machines are developing the ability, individually, to think, and more interested in the details of how they are developing the ability, collectively, to evolve and reproduce'). It closes with a four-page book review of Susannah Hagan's book 'Taking Shape', in which she contends that environmental architecture could be the defining movement for the new century. ('If a mere 20 years ago this was the province of a small idealistic cluster of the architecturally and design minded; today it has been taken by many conventional architectural practices into many of the redrawn new map's new contours.') in 2005, issue no 7 will look at the development of a series of new cancer treatment centres in the UK, which incorporate environmental architecture into patient treatment programmes.
The articles are weighty and words, not images, dominate the magazine's layout. But there are signs of a shift towards a more balanced composition of long and short pieces. Lowenstein, who's fascination with magazines dates back to a post-punk Fanzine he started in the late 70s, explains: 'We're aiming for a cross between an acdemic approach and studied jounalism'. But Fourth Door is meant for a younger audience than that targeted by other in-depth publications, such as Resurgence. And, like its target audience the magazine continues to grow and change both in terms of form and focus. 'I like exploring and getting people involved in new things,' says Lowenstein. 'It's not interesting to do the same thing again and again'.
Oliver Lowenstein is a busy man. But that's to be expected when your field of study is as broad as the planet and as deep as the human mind can see.
