Essay Plan

Question: In the Digital Age Why are Young Creatives Returning to Zines as a means of Communication?

Introduction:

Thesis

What are zines? 

What are zines for? 

How do zines effectively communicate? 

First Section 

Historical exploration of zines 

Punk aesthetic 

Feminist Zines 

DIY Ethos

Second Section 

Zine Revival 

The return to zines 

Zine making in the modern day 

Whats changed? 

Whats the same? 

Third Section 

Case Studies 

Fourth Section 

Conclusion

Zine Taxonomy - Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture, Stephen Duncombe

Fanzines - Publications devoted to discussing the intricacies and nuances of a cultural genre

- Science Fiction

- Music

- Sports

- Television and Film

- Other

Politcal Zines

- Politics (with a big P), more or less traditional categories such as anarchist, socialist, libertarian, fascists, feminist, queer

- politics (with a little p), do not identify explicitly with traditional categories but with political/cultural critique as a major focus

Personal Zines/Perzines 

- are personal diaries open to the public; notes on day to day life, thoughts and experiences of the writer

Scene Zines

- news and views on the local music and underground scene in the writers area

Network Zines

- concentrate on reviewing and publicizing other zines, music, art, etc 

Fringe Culture Zines 

- cover assassination theories and 'proof' of secret nefarious undertakings, UFO's and serial killers. They deal with the standard fare of supermarket tabloids, but explored with more depth and intelligence.

Religious Zines

- witches, paganists, born-again christians, as well as 'joke' religions, all put out zines for the faithful and wayward

Vocational Zines

- tell the stories of life on the job 

Health Zines 

- contain recipes for healthy food, information about disease and medication etc

Sex Zines

- deal with straight, queer, bondage, black leather stories, pictures - a zine for probably every sexual proclivity

Travel Zines 

- Very often in the form of 'road trip' diaries

Comix 

- Underground comic books on themes humorous, serious and nonsensical 

Literary Zines 

- showcase original short fiction and poetry

Art Zines 

- contain print media, collages, photographs, drawings, and mail art which create a network of artists and a floating virtual gallery

The Rest 

- a large category 

Notes from Underground, Zines and the politics of Alternative Culture - Stephen Duncombe

' But there was something remarkable that bound together this new world I had stumbled upon: a radically, democratic and participatory ideal of what culture and society might be... ought to be'  (pg 2)

'Employed within the grim new economy of service, temporary, and 'flexible' work, they refine work, setting out their creative labor done on zines as a protest against the drudgery working for another's profit. And defining themselves against a society predicated on consumption, zinesters privilege the ethic of DIY, do-it-yourself: make your own culture and stop consuming that which is made for you.' (pg.2)

'zinesters consider what they do as an alternative to and strike against commercial culture and consumer capitalism' (pg.3)

'more disturbing was that zines and underground culture didn't seem to be any sort of threat to this above-ground world. Quite the opposite: "alternative" culture was being celebrated in the mainstream media and used to create new styles and profits for the commercial culture industry' (pg.5)

'the underground is discovered and cannibalised almost before it exists' (pg.6)

'That zines are a haven for misfits is not too surprising. For people who like to write and want to communicate but find it difficult to do so face to face, zines are a perfect solution: the entry price is facility with th written word and the compensation is anonymous communication.' (pg.17)

'As individuals, zinesters may be losers in the game of American meritocracy, but together they give the word 'loser' a new meaning, changing it from insult to accolade, and transforming personal failure into an indictment of the alienating aspects of our society.' (pg.21)

Girl Zines, Making Media, Doing Feminism - Alison Piepmeier

'This is the work that grrrl zines are doing. They break away from the linear models through a fluid pedagogy of process. They offer tools for awakening outrage and engaging in protest through pedagogies of active critique. And they invite readers to step into their own citizenship through pedagogies of imagination. Because of sorts of linear expectations scholars have had of alternative media and activist work more broadly, the resistance and political interventions of grrrl zines (and third wave feminists) have been hard for many scholars to recognise, but by recognising the dominator culture and reframing what it means to be political, these interventions become visible.' (pg.164)

'The word I use to describe these zines' mode of political intervention is 'process', a word which has two distinct but related meanings in the context of these zines. In one sense, process points to the fact that grrrl zines emphasise the means rather than the ends - the means of creating a zine itself, along with creating a network of sympathetic read. In addition these zines offer their creators a space to publicly process the violence done to them and to make their healing a public art. By making visible the emotional, mechanical and theoretical processes involved in creating their zines and by articulating their own healing processes, these zinesters counter consumer capitalism and make use of an embodied community for personal and social transformation' (pg.165)

'By emphasising and making visible the idea of process and processing, zines like Greenzine challenge consumer capitalism and the silencing of women's voices, and they make space for a multivalent micropolitics' (pg.171)

' As I was finishing up this project, a colleague alerted me to the fact that his college-aged daughter, Anna Eisen, was doing what she called "feminist scrapbooking", creating beautiful collages of pictures, comics and typed and handwritten text to document her everyday life. She showed me some of these pages and they struck me as akin to one-off zines and the feminist scrapbooks of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.' (pg.193)

'Furthermore, grrrl zines are sites for the articulation and illustration of third wave feminist theoretical work. Within these documents, girls and women develop conceptual apparatus to identify, make visible, and address long-standing - but shifting and innovative - social justice issues.' (pg.197)

'Because these embodied communities are sites of vulnerability and care, they are part of what makes it possible for girls and women to articulate complex, fragmented identities in their zines and to try out different modes of intervention. They are what inspires the gifting, the generous creativity and expression that keeps mining alive. These embodied grrrl zine communities are linked to feminist communities of the past; examingin these cultural productions as part of the long-term feminist efforts reveals linkages between the incarnations of feminism, even as grrrl zines make visible the innovative ways girls and women in the late twentieth century and early-twenty-first enact agency and resistance.' (pg.198)

'Grrrl zines off unsurpassed access to the stories, struggles and creativity of girls and women since the late 1980's. They are rich primary sources, sites where girls and women document and construct their lives and where they articulate and illustrate third wave feminist theory. In their negotiations with this cultural moment, their bridging of the abstract and the intensely local, their embrace of the utopian at the same time that they grapple with harsh realities, they offer a glimpse of what kinds of resistance are possible. They are, ultimately, hopeful artefacts, bringing their readers into an embodied community and encouraging them to imagine - and work for - a better world.' (pg.200)

Research Question

In the digital age, why are young creatives returning to zines as a form of communication? 

This is a kind of rough starting point for my COP work this year. I've been really interested in zines and touched a little bit upon them during my research this year, in terms of feminist publications and zines and how women were using these pamphlets as a means of communication and building up a network with other women. I wanted to explore why young creatives are returning to this DIY way of communicating in the digital age. What lures them to print, what makes them want to make zines, what do zines stand for, what do they do, how do they communicate? There's a lot of different ways this could go, I'm not entirely sure this is my final proposed question yet and feel like more research into DIY and zine culture is needed. I'm interested in looking at the idea of returning to such a simple form of communication but would also possibly like to explore how zines are creating conversation on important social and cultural issues such as gender, race, etc. 

Study Task 4 - Images and Theory

Scopophilia
. Sexual pleasure derived from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity; voyeurism
. To look or examine
. The Male Gaze - direct example of scopophilia
. Theorists include Laura Mulvey and Jon Berger

Tom Ford Advert:
Context: would be seen in magazines and online
Subject: Naked woman with suggestively placed perfume bottle on her chest
Audience: Men between 20 and 40
Purpose: To see the perfume to a male audience
Method of production: Mass printed for magazines, also placed online. Controversial subject matter

Study Task 2 - Establishing A Research Question

OUIL501 – STUDY TASK 1 – ESTABLISHING A RESEARCH QUESTION

Suggested Research Question. This can be a topic or theme, but please try to be as precise as possible.

How can Illustration change the conversation on mental health?  Body Image - How do the pressure of society affect the way we view ourselves  DIY Culture - zines and printmaking to spread ideas - how does this influence culture Feminism in zines - Why young creatives are returning to print in the digital age  How zines can influence and change the conversations on important topics (feminism, gender, race, mental health etc)

Which Theorists Related to this question? You can find these on eStudio - Try to list at least three.

John Berger - Ways Of Seeing Daniel Chandler - Notes on the Gaze David Gauntlett - Media, Gender and Identity

Which Academic Sources Are Available On The Topic? What examples of practice / practitioners / images have you discovered? Include a Harvard Referenced bibliography of at least 5 possible sources.

Existing Feminist Zines Riot Grrrl/Third Wave Feminism  Magazines  Melanie Ferris - Resisting Mainstream Media: Girls and the Act of Making Zines  Alison Piepmeier - Girl Zines: making media, doing feminism

How Could The Research Question Be Investigated Through Practice? What types of illustrations would you make in response to this, and why? Think about processes too.

Collage - cut and paste - traditional DIY imagery  Photocopied/altered imagery  Found Imagery  Drawing/type/collage Examine a specific point of feminism and how this is explored through zines  Body Image/Empowerment/Sexuality/Equality Look at how zines are used to explore these topics/how found and reused imagery is used to create a new meaning/message