When the Whole Earth Catalog reached the public in 1968, it argued that technology could be personal, living could be communal, and information could be free. Its pages—dense with listings for books on cybernetics, how-to guides for constructing geodesic domes, and advertisements for mail-order organic seeds—presented readers a way of life compatible with both the dawning Information Age and the unfolding ecological crisis. This vision not only inspired a cohort of back-to-the-land counterculturalists bullish about the liberatory potential of technology, but continues to color the aspirations of contemporary technofuturists and econauts alike. But even as Whole Earth’s mythical status has grown, particularly here in the San Francisco Bay Area, actual copies of the Catalog have become harder and harder to access.

In 2023, Gray Area (in collaboration with the Internet Archive and the Long Now Foundation) launched the Whole Earth Index, the publication’s first complete online archive, to make it easier to access the tools, ideas, and practices highlighted in the Catalog and its subsequent imprints. Now, we are excited to announce the Whole Earth Redux, a print publication featuring essays and short stories that take an object from the Index and excavate its deeper histories, argue its importance for understanding the present, or imagine the alternate realities it inspires. These works will generate novel insights into Whole Earth’s role in shaping contemporary technoculture, as well as what underexplored potential or cautionary tales the Index reveals for reimagining the role technology plays in constructing (counter)cultures.

Gray Area seeks proposals for essays of 2,200–5,000 words for inclusion in the Whole Earth Redux print publication. Contributors will receive editorial support and $450 in compensation. Selected writers will be notified by March 21 and will be expected to produce a draft by May 23.