Irked Magazine

IrkedMagazine.com is a multimedia website that publishes all kinds of socially-conscious art relating to the emerging “culture of disability.”

History

Irked was founded by Sacha Vais in early May 2005. Judith Kovalski and Paul Aflalo came onboard very soon thereafter, and they launched a rough coming soon page by the end of that month. A few months later, they were approached by a media studies professor at McGill University (Anita Nowak), who was interested in Irked, and on Friday, October 28, 2005, Professor Nowak’s class “went live” to the Irked website (her students were given an in-class Irked assignment to complete). That same month, Irked’s URL and mission statement were added to Psych Central, which is one of the Internet’s largest psychology sites. On May 1, 2006, "The Montreal Gazette" profiled Irked Magazine on the front page of its Arts & Life section, and the Irked website was flooded with hits and with submissions. The first issue of Irked Magazine was published on September 12, 2006. On November 30, 2006, Irked was featured in Halifax, Nova Scotia’s popular newspaper "The Coast". Irked’s second issue was published on February 9, 2007 and on February 12 Irked was profiled in the official blog for the National Film Board’s Citizen Shift initiative. Irked released its third issue in June 2007.

Present day

Irked’s main offices are in Montreal, Quebec and Halifax, Nova Scotia. The current editor is Sacha Vais; the current multimedia coordinator is Paul Aflalo; the current in-house counselor is Judith Kovalski.

Irked also has a growing list of ongoing contributors. These include, but are not limited to:

* David Roche — DavidRoche.com

* Joci Caven — Irked’s deaf music critic

* Stuart Baker-Brown — Onemansmountain.com

* Debbie RedWine — ReachingUpForAir.com

* Lewis Schofield — Thisislewis.net

* Brian Segal — Irked staff writer

* Mara McWilliams — MaraMcWilliams.com

* Donna Williams — DonnaWilliams.net

* Elyse Bruce — ElyseBruce.com

Typical Content

Irked’s website does not follow the typical e-magazine format. In addition to essays and articles, audio documentaries, video clips, photo galleries, animations, songs/music videos, radio broadcasts, slideshows, poetry, and paintings, some of the sections on IrkedMagazine.com include:

* Borrow a Press Pass — a unique media experiment designed to provide passionate people with a chance to “play journalist” for a day.

* Interv…you? — a constantly growing database that aims to “match wannabe journalists with people who wanna be interviewed.”

* Irked Street Vendor Program — a print version of Irked Magazine that is available to anyone who wants to be a vendor, no strings attached. Vendors aren’t charged for their papers, and they get to keep 100% of the profits of their sales.

* QuirkedForKids.com — an embryonic spin-off website that will be run entirely by children.

Themes

One of the cornerstones of the Irked website is the “Themes” section. Currently, there are 15 Themes, which are:

* Wheelchairman of the Board

* The Attention Defistress

* Bard of the Benzodiazepines

* The UpDown Report

* Bum Deal

* Shoutout From The Cutting Edge

* Potanical Garden

* The Skinny on Fat

* The Wandering Agoraphobe

* Standard Insomniatic Fare

* Tumour Humour

* Lymphomaniac

* Bully me, uh?

* Slysdexia

* mePod

External links

* [http://www.irkedmagazine.com Irked Magazine's official site]
* [http://www.quirkedforkids.com Quirked for Kids official site]