Part of this project was coming up with an end ‘product’ that captured and expressed the journey as well as collaborative experience of the project. For some other World Learning project participants this meant creating a short video, an art exhibit showcasing artist work or another event. Over a series of student project proposals designed to accurately represent the collective experience of participants the idea of a website and zine emerged as a concept that appealed to most.
A zine (/ z iː n / ZEEN; short for magazine or fanzine) is a grassroots, subversive self publication. Zines have a long history with myriad purposes from religious to political. They started out as bindings and in some cases pamphlets. In 1699 the pamphlet became the most effective means of persuasion and communication creating moral and political communities of readers which formed a ‘public sphere’ of popular, political opinion specifically in Britain. Through various technological and social progressions the zine became pivotal in communicating with the folk important messages including those of political, radical, religious, revolutionary, sub / counter culture, anti-structure leanings stressing liberation, equity and creative expression. We wanted to attempt something similar.
The idea of an interactive “cultural self-care cultural zine” came into formation with the explosion of trending self-care routines in conjunction with the project assignment prompts. Over the 6-month project students were given various assignment prompts which related directly back to personal ICH. We have shared these prompts and our contributions to each prompt with the hope that it will inspire you to do the same.
The Bindery, an organization that produces the annual Milwaukee Zine Fest says the following about zines: “Culturally and historically, zines have served as a powerful outlet for content considered to be too niche, risqué, or outside of the mainstream, in terms of more traditional/commercial forms of publication. A zine can be produced with the simplest of tools, and easily distributed low-to-the ground, outside capitalistic or potentially oppressive systems: amongst friends; in local gathering places or homes; at fests designed to celebrate them!”
References:
Bricklin, D. (2002). Pamphleteers and websites. URL http:// www.bricklin.com
Cambridge University Press. (2002). Pamphlets and pamphleteering in early modern
Britain by Joan Raymond. (2002). Diysearch. URL http://www.diysearch.com/addurlfaq.cfm
Duncombe, S. (1997). Notes from the underground: Zines and the politics of alternative culture. New York: Verso.
Friedman, R. S. (2002) A brief history of zines. URL http://www.zinebook.com/directory/zine-history.html
Perkins, S. (2002). Approaching the 80s zine scene. URL http://www.zinebook.com/resource/perkins.html
UMI Research Collections. (2002). Pamphlets in American history. URL http://www.umi.com/hp/Support/Research/Files/308.html
