Go digital! The new edition of "Ultra", a grafitti magazine made in Dortmund, is available in the real and the virtual world

This time, the new issue of the graffiti magazine „Ultra“ (which has its home base in Dortmund), is a little piece of art – it's available printed and in an iPad version. With its high-resolution photos and digital animations, it sets new standards.


The relevance of Dortmund for the early phase of graffiti art is not to be underestimated: in the early 90s, the „Iron City“ was a Mekka for the international scene – mostly because you couldn't find so many industrial backdrops and shiny train waggons elsewhere. These requisites even attracted spray can tourists from New York City, a clientele otherwise rarely found in the Ruhr.

Today, almost all the heroes of those times have vanished. Every now and then, you find a new pice at a pier, as a rare sign of life. But now, the colourful oevre of the subversive spray artists is revived again: Markus Wiese, hailing from Dortmund and among the first chroniclers and time witnesses of the scene, is the publisher of „Ultra – Magazine for Urban Art and Global Subculture“ which keeps tabs on the latest developments. At the same time, „Ultra“ is the first graffiti magazine for iPad and iPhone – the „Digital Issue“ is available in iTunes- and Appstores as of Juli 2. Parallel to that, the printed issue is presented in the real world – in Wiese's gallery mattschwarz in Dortmund.
1999, Wiese compiled the material he had collected for years and published the debut issue of "Ultra". And, similar to the real wall paintings, the magazine also influenced the scene: the minimalistic lay-out with much room for the large-size pictures, serves as a model for many other genre publications until today. Now, eleven years later, issue #5 is published.

Digital distribution

„We want to set a new standard with the current issue, too“, Wiese announces: optimised for the iPad, „Ultra“ is available as a 300 MB download file. A lot of data, since the high-resolution photos are embedded in a dynamic lay-out, and are also complemented by additional animations. The chapters illustrate a wide panorama of the international graffiti culture from 1986 to 2011: Starting with „Dortmund Trains“, the trip goes via „Amsterdam“ to „New York City“.



„With the digital distribution we hope to reattract the overseas fans of the Ruhr scene“, Wiese hopes - due to the bankruptcy of his former print distribution partner (theonce huge US record dealer Tower Records), the worldwide sale had become very difficult. „Sometimes, the postage was higher than the profit“, the publisher remembers. In peak times, about 5.000 "Ultra" magazines were sold. Wiese wants to replicate that success and has therefore made his peace with the high distribution fee of 30% Apple charges in its stores, and the much-disputed distribution policy of the Californians. „Last but not least, the profit is effectively higher when using digital distribution“, he says. And the magazine will never be sold out - even in the small Australian towns which were served by snail mail so far!