The Zippies’ pick ‘n’ mix culture is characterised by a playfulness and individualism
The Zippies’ pick ‘n’ mix culture is characterised by a playfulness, individualism and a lack of self-important ‘coolness’, as these wacky characters in London’s Megatripolis club in the early ’90s demonstrate.
“White Monkey’, an artist who runs a travelling library of books that he takes to festivals around Europe.
As 500,000 anti-war protesters march peacefully behind their backs, these London Bobbies appear to be unsure what the message is .
London in the early 90s was a vibrant, heady mix of fashion, cyber culture, techno-house music, design, art – and drugs. This creative explosion was crassly re-packaged as ‘Cool Britannia’ by the incoming Labour government a few years later – stripped of its anarchic, hedonistic core of course.
A Japanese buto mime performance at the Berlin Madstop cultural-artistic event for global freedom of expression
One of the first digital colour therapy programs
Performance in Potsdam at the Hindenburger Kirche where Hitler came in to power .
Extreme, anarchic and sexy. The Zippy fusion of art and science
Hacking in Progress, the regular Dutch outdoor festival, aimed at technically empowering the enthusiastic.
Certainly, not your average rave night.
Yoga at dawn, the Grand Canyon Rainbow Gathering
The Amsterdam ballon company in Paradiso
Lucy Wills demonstrates one of the looks that has brought her ideas in to the international press.
Their clear-eyed approach to getting their messages into the mainstream media includes the use of glamour – something sets the Zippies apart from more puritan ‘rejectionist’ ‘alternative’ movements. Here, London-based web designer and veteran activist Lucy Wills demonstrates one of the looks that has brought her ideas coverage in the international press.
Techno stars KLF spent some of their millions on a armoured car, strapped speakers to it and blasted music across the valley occupied by anti-road protesters at Fairmile in Devon, England, in 1996.
Extreme, anarchic and sexy. The Zippy fusion of art , science and playfulness .
New York hipsters attending a mid-90s underground cyber-rave.
Love and peace not bombs
A traditionally hippy Rainbow Gathering near the Grand Canyon marked the high point of the Zippy tour in America
A traditionally hippy Rainbow Gathering near the Grand Canyon marked the high point of the Zippy tour of America in the summer of 1994. As the US and international media looked on, a symbolic marriage between the ‘techno tribes’ and the ‘Earth tribes’ was spontaneously arranged.
Anyone can be a Zippy. Rosie Roife is still clubbing in her 80s
Anyone can be a Zippy. Still clubbing in her 80s, Rosie Roife has been an icon of the scene since the early 90s. Here, she makes a colourful ornament to Fraser Clark’s legendary monthly Megatripolis party in London.
Take that Adolf! The Amsterdam Balloon Company’s Frank performs on the ruins of the Hindenburger Kirche, scene of Hitler’s proclamation as Bondskanzeller 60 years before.
Cyber chicks at London’s Fridge night-club
Rainbow Puddle, creator of the analogue psychedelic light shows at he launch of the New Human Be-In Zippy club night in London
Performers at Robodock Amsterdam
The Elders’ tent at the Rainbow Gathering near the Grand Canyon
The Human Be-In at London’s mega club Ocean
‘Dragon art’ at the Berlin Madstop cultural-artistic event for global freedom of expression.
The original Zippy club nights at Megatripolis
Computer fantasy ?
a ‘cyber installation’ Today, a new awareness is helping bring techno-social concepts and issues to a wider public.
Zippy artists and musician Mixmaster Morris , building a new culture not based on stars, but shared ideas, co-operation and love of originality.
The hands-on Zippy approach to art and life ,electronic soundscape artists,two performers at the Robodock
US, Zippy spokesman Fraser Clark expounds his undying belief in the inevitability of global evolution.
Circus performance, updated for a zippy public, at London’s Fridge club.
Stamping Ground, a annual get together of international artists outside Amsterdam.
Contrary to their media representation, young Goths do give a damn about politics
500,000-strong anti-war march in London in October 2002.
Share the zippy moment in Megatripolis
Nearly ten years after the Zippies – Zen Inspired Professional Pagans – first kicked up a storm in a comet-like blaze of publicity with their provocative ideas, these self-proclaimed prophets of the net generation are back in the news thanks to flashmobbing. We captured the front cover of Wired magazine with a dramatic exclusive on this alternative techno-community. Now, a decade later, we went back to find out what’s been happening since the digital boom has gone bust. Welcome to the flip-side of globalisation, the fun side of the digital revolution, the post-economic economy – the alternative futuristic view of the Zippies.
Text by Jules Marshall