[BELL MUSIC]
SPEAKER 1: Welcome, everybody.
Thank you so much for joining us for our first
in the series we call, Home Edition.
Glad to have you with us today.
Home Edition is a virtual series of curated artist talks,
workshops and discussions featuring
artists and cultural workers.
We hope this finds you and your family safe and healthy
during the pandemic.
My name is Rebecca Trawick.
I'm the director and curator of the Wignall
Museum at Chaffey College.
The Wignall Museum is a teaching museum
and interdisciplinary art space that introduces Chaffey College
students, faculty, staff and community
members to innovative contemporary art objects,
practices and ideas.
By fostering critical thinking, visual literacy, discourse
and empathy, the museum seeks to enhance
the intellectual and cultural life of our community.
We want to take a moment to recognize that we are situated
on the Rancho Cucamonga campus of Chaffey College, which
resides on the traditional and unseated lands of the Tongva
people.
We offer our respect to the elders
both past, present and future.
ROMAN STOLLENWERK: And hello my name is Roman Stollenwerk.
I'm the assistant curator at the Wignall
Museum of Contemporary Art.
I want to take a moment to share some Zoom
housekeeping with you.
Please note we are recording all sessions of Home Edition.
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All programs in Home Edition will be transcribed and caption
for those who can benefit from those accessibility measures.
Please visit us at our website, www.chaffey.edu/wignall
that's W-I-G-N-A-L-L to see the recordings.
They should be available in approximately one to two weeks
after the event dates.
A few additional reminders on Zoom.
For your questions, please write your questions
for the artist or presenter using the chat function.
We'll answer the questions at the end as time allows.
Thank you.
REBECCA TRAWICK: Thanks Roman.
I also want to give a shout out to Andy Hadle.
Andy is the Wignall Museum's preparator
and he also serves as the studio tech for the Studio Arts
Program at Chaffey College.
He will be assisting us behind the zines today, so hey Andy.
Great.
So today's presentation, Zines 101: History of Zines
and Their Rising Popularity in Academia,
will consist of some historical information,
a look at zines in academia, and some hands
on time to make a zine together.
So as Roman mentioned, feel free to ask questions
as they pop up but we probably will respond
to those after the presentation during the Q&A,
as time allowance.
So bear with us here and I'm going
to get my presentation going.
And thanks again for joining us.
I see a lot of familiar names and faces,
so it's wonderful to have you all with us today.
OK, good?
All right so Zines 101: History of Zines
and Their Rising Popularity in Academia.
This was originally developed presentation
by a former Chaffey College librarian, Annette Young,
with contributions from myself and Dr. Neil Watkins, who's
a professor in the English department and coordinator
there as well.
So what is a zine?
You know I hear zines referred to as zines, zines.
I don't care, I'm not the zine police.
But you will hear me refer to it as a zine,
like you hear in magazine.
But here on this slide, we see an example
of sort of the wide range of themes and ideas explored
in zine culture.
From La Raza, which is a really important publication
from the 1970s in Los Angeles.
You know music is a very common theme.
You see a couple examples of that here.
You know this zine cover looks like a composition book.
Teaching with Zines which directly references
the use of zines in academia, whether by professors
as a teaching tool, or students as a mechanism
to accomplish their goals in a course.
I like this zine here, "my brain is a mini garbage can,"
I think is what that says.
Obviously, it's like a sketchbook, it's an art zine.
You know there's a couple different queer zines.
Nancy is a queer zine.
And next to it we've got, When the White Man Gives You
Money, words of wisdom from queer artists of color.
So you can see a wide array of ideas.
But what is a zine?
It's generally a small circulation.
Not always, there's some exceptions.
But generally a small circulation,
self published work of original or appropriated text and/or
images, non-commercial by design.
Sometimes it's presented as a physical object
and sometimes it is a digital.
In many cases it can be both.
They're often sold on websites from artists and writers
and other creatives and advocates.
Perhaps you'll see them on platforms like Etsy
or other sites like that.
Oftentimes small retail spaces will carry them.
And also zine fests, which is exactly like it sounds.
Like any other kind of gathering,
a zine fest is a group of zinesters
who get together to sell their wares,
meet people face to face.
Obviously those aren't happening right now in this COVID era,
but I hope it's something that we'll resume in the future
someday.
They're usually a product of an independent author's ideas
but sometimes they're collaborative.
Sometimes they're very much like a journal where there's
a group or an individual who are editing submissions,
so they can--
you know there's a wide array of different examples of what
a zine can be.
I think that's one of the most interesting things about zines
is there's very few rules.
And if there are some rules, you'll
see plenty of people breaking them regularly.
And it's always about a subject that the author
is interested in.
So again it can be absolutely anything
that that author is interested in.
But let's go way back to the 1440s
and talk about the beginning of printing.
So here you see an illustration of a Gutenberg press, developed
by Johann Gutenberg in about 1440.
It's a mechanical device that applies pressure
to an ink surface, that rests on paper or cloth,
transferring the ink.
The printing press was one of the most influential events
that started the printing revolution, which
was the start of making large quantities of printed
materials, of authors sharing ideas and reducing printing
costs as well.
So accessibility-- you know, printing
started to be accessible.
Not that there aren't barriers for all kinds of people,
particularly in the 1440s, but it was the beginning
of the revolution.
The printing press was instrumental in the area
of mass communication, which allowed
information, radical ideas to be mass circulated.
And eventually allowed printing on an industrial scale,
as technology continued to evolve.
There's some really interesting videos on YouTube
where you can see these things in action.
I recommend it, if you're at all interested.
So in addition to centuries of printing improvements
and technological advances, here are
a few key technologies that directly
link to self publishing and zine making history.
So I think at the bottom, do y'all have that little hand?
You can raise your hand.
How many of you have used a typewriter in your life?
For anyone who is sharing their screen,
I know most of you aren't.
Well, William Austin Burt patent the typewriter in 1829.
And it's a small, portable, mechanical machine.
You've probably seen them in your grandmother's house
or in antiques stores, or maybe a few of you
even use them or have them.
But I know it is becoming a bit of a dinosaur
in the technological world we live in.
They're really fun though.
I mean it's kind of like your own little personal Gutenberg
press, you might say, in a way.
So if you ever see one in an antique store
and it's a decent price, and the ribbon is still working,
scoop it up and play around with it.
They're a lot of fun.
A lot of artists like to pull them apart and use them--
use the little buttons and mechanics
as fodder for their work as well.
So then 1959, I think it is, Xerox,
after many prior versions, develop the Xerox 914.
And that was the very first plain paper photocopier.
So if any of you have worked in an office anywhere, anytime,
you know since 1959, you've probably
become intimately familiar with a Xerox machine.
Whether it's a tabletop type or you
know-- there's one that I use at the college that's
like the size of a desk and has a huge number of options that
make photocopying really easy.
So it's a very common tool even today.
OK 1970, the first Kinko's opened near Santa Barbara.
I think it was near UCSB.
And does anyone know what Kinko's is called today?
Or who they emerged with?
You could put that in the chat.
Roman or Andy, did anybody get it?
Yeah, FedEx.
So it's FedEx, is it FedEx Kinko's, I
think is the official-- or maybe it's just FedEx I don't know.
Sometime in the last, I think, decade
they've merged with FedEx.
But back in the day, back in the 1970s, '80s, '90s,
and even in the 2000s, Kinko's was
an independent and nationwide business.
And it was really important to the counterculture,
particularly in the '80s and into the mid '90s.
So artists and grad students and writers and zinesters
and musicians and radicals and creatives of all types,
would use Kinko's.
Because that's the place where you could go and use the Xerox
machine often for very--
you know, it was very inexpensive.
Or you could go in the middle of the night
and maybe you could make hundreds extra copies
and you didn't have to pay for those, you know?
Or who knows.
But a lot of these places, a lot of Kinko's, at least back
in my day, were open 24 hours.
And so whether it was after bar closing,
or you didn't have a place to stay,
or you're working on a project, you might be hanging out
at Kinko's.
Which sounds, probably really strange today.
But it was kind of cool back in the day, I'll tell you.
So Kinko's was really important, I
think, in terms of accessibility,
in terms of the average person being
able to access a Xerox machine, for little to no cost,
to develop one's work.
And then, in 1981 IBM released their first PC,
giving public access to this technology like never before.
Although, I think COVID is showing us,
right, with millions of children hopping online--
or needing to hop online, to complete their education,
you know there is still an access issue, even today.
So I think that's really important to recognize.
But of course the personal computer
allowed people to do a lot of design work and research
in the comfort of their own homes.
So it's really important in terms of zine making.
So next we'll move on to just a few examples
of some historical zines.
And I think it's important to recognize that Frederick
Douglass and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union,
they didn't call these zines.
That language wasn't used at the time.
We're looking back historically and likening them
or calling them a zine because they
meet many of the criteria that makes a document a zine.
But I think it's kind of neat to look back and consider
the ways in which they have similarities with zine culture
and zine history.
So The North Star, developed by Frederick Douglass,
was an abolitionist publication.
And the title is a reference to the directions
given to runaway slaves trying to reach the North.
And so it was a newspaper.
It actually was released weekly.
And I thought this was interesting,
it's a weekly publication, subscriptions were $2 a year.
And at the height, Frederick Douglass
had over 4,000 readers.
So that's pretty significant, I think, in 1847.
So it doesn't necessarily meet the criteria
of small circulation, maybe by today's standards,
probably not in 1847.
But it's an important historical document nonetheless.
From 1930 to 1933, if we go to the center
here we see The Comet.
And this was-- I mean it actually
is very much zine-like, they probably
called it a newsletter.
But The Comet is a sci-fi zine from Chicago.
And it was the Science Correspondents Club,
they actually did all of their correspondence work
together through the USPS, and so everything
was done through the mail.
And so it was a small document, cheap and easy
to send across the country to membership.
And it actually looks very much like zines of today.
Then 1934, here's an example from the International Ladies
Garment Workers Union, or the ILGWU.
It was once one of the largest labor unions
and in the US, and the first to have
primarily female membership.
It was founded in 1900.
So here we see this, 34 years later.
And it was founded in New York City.
And this is an example of an informational and recruitment
pamphlet.
This would have been in the height of them doing
a great deal of recruiting to continue
membership and increase it.
Then here, we see the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.
This is actually a reproduction.
I couldn't find a good example of an original cover.
Some of you may have heard of the Black Panthers.
I hope most of you have.
But they're a revolutionary socialist political
organization founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton,
in 1966 in Oakland, California.
You'll see that a lot of this history
does actually come out of California.
Perhaps my research is biased but I just thought of that.
The Black Panthers challenged norms
about policing, police brutality.
They started a number of social programs--
free breakfast for children for example--
that focused around a number of really important social issues
to black liberation, including cop watching,
and many that focused on food and health access
for their community.
And so this is just one example of, again
of a brochure used informationally
and again, also to create membership and participation
in the organization.
In the center we see La Raza.
It started in 1967.
And let's see here, so la raza it translates directly
to mean the race.
It was bilingual.
It was a bilingual newspaper published by Chicano activists
in Los Angeles and East LA, from '67 to '77.
So it had a long tenure of 10 years.
And like the Panthers, they fought and documented
police brutality, protest and segregation,
to inform and educate about realities of Chicanos
and Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles.
One of their major goals was to improvements
in the educational institutions of LA.
And so in 1968, when we had the LA walkouts,
La Raza was really critical and instrumental to that movement.
And then here on the right, we move to an example
of a Riot grrrl zine.
Riot grrrl was an early 1990s underground
feminist punk movement, that started in the Pacific
Northwest of the United States.
It's often linked to third-wave feminism.
And zines were really instrumental
both in the music culture around Riot grrrl and also
the third-wave feminist movement.
And so zines were often used either to advertise a band.
Or a band was using zines to share their feminist agenda,
essentially.
And so they often addressed issues
like rape, domestic violence, racism, patriarchy, et cetera.
But I should mention, third-wave feminism definitely had
a number of intersectional--
lacked a great deal of intersectionalism.
So that's something to recognize.
But in zine-- but and in zine history,
Riot grrrl really sort of brought the zines back
to the forefront of counterculture.
So those are just a few examples.
There are many, many more of course.
It's used in a great deal of marginalized
and in other communities.
But hopefully this teaches you that zines
can be about anything and can be made by anyone.
So often they're informational, you
know sometimes used in recruitment or activism
and protest.
Oftentimes to document activism and protest.
Usually by nature, there's personal interest involved.
No one has the backing of a large publication house,
and so anything that you're going
to put your time and energy into is because you're
personally invested.
You're going to see perzine and fanzine,
those are two sort of categories of zines that you're often--
if you do look into zines, they're common categories.
Perzine, It just refers to the fact
that the zine presents the author's point of view.
And are by design, personal.
Perzine refers to zines that are about one's
own personal experiences and observations.
Fanzine, on the other hand, is often
by an enthusiast of some kind of cultural phenomenon,
be it a band or a TV series or a comic book
or you name it, anything.
And the idea is to share it with others who
also have that same interest.
And all of them are labors of love.
Again, no one has backing or funding
to complete this research, to make the art
and to create these writings.
And so, all a labor of love.
So we're going to make a zine together.
And so, I love this illustration.
It sort of tells us how to produce it.
But we're also going to watch--
I think it's a 3 minute video.
But before we do that, I'm going to give you all a couple
minutes to gather up scissors.
So find some scissors in your house, if you can--
or wherever you are.
And an 8 and 1/2 by 11 plain sheet of paper.
So if you need to grab it.
If you don't have plain paper, grab one from a spiral binder,
or you can tear a page out of a magazine.
Yeah, just see what you can find.
I'll give you all a couple of minutes to do that.
And then we'll watch a video.
I would ask that you just watch the 3 minute video.
And then we can come back and together we
can make one together.
So I'll just give you a couple of minutes here
to grab paper and scissors.
OK so we'll go to YouTube briefly, we'll watch the video.
Cross your fingers this works.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
- Zine making, it's so much fun.
All you need is one single piece of printer paper, 8 and 1/2
by 11 inches.
With this you can make an eight page zine, believe it or not.
So, how, do you ask?
It starts with folding.
Fold the paper hot dog way.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- Open it back up.
Oh that hot dog was so good but I'm really
hungry for a hamburger now.
Good thing I'm at a barbeque.
Now it gets a little trickier from here.
You got to fold in the sides to that center line
you've just created with your hamburger fold.
Open everything back up and one more time with the hamburger
fold.
Now we're going to take our friends, the scissors,
and cut a little slit on the folded edge right
to the middle.
Open it back up.
Saying hello to our friend the hot dog one more time.
Stand it up on its end and squish it together,
and fold all the pages together.
You have the skeleton of your eight page zine.
Now it's time to draw.
For drawing, you've got to open the whole thing back up again.
And make sure you have a solid idea of which pages are which.
[END PLAYBACK]
OK good.
So grab your paper, all right?
So if you looked at the video he said,
hot dog, hamburger, hamburger, hot dog,
so let's remember that.
You can also do--
I've heard taco and hamburger.
I don't know, anyway.
So first we do hot dog right?
So you fold it the long way.
Get yourself a really nice crease in the center.
The better your creases are, the better your zine will lay flat.
OK, so hot dog.
Then we open it back up and then we do hamburger.
So hopefully you can see my creases, all right.
So then, like he said, you have to fold--
so hold it like this way, long way.
And then you fold in to that center crease on both sides,
like this.
And be as precise as you can.
Again, get really nice creases, it'll help in the end.
So then you see all these different little panels
that will be your pages, OK?
So then, fold it in half, hamburger style again.
And you see I've got one side open and one side is the fold.
And so you want to cut the fold side right to the center,
so that you have a cut in the middle.
Kind of like you're creating origami.
If you open it back up, you've got this little mouth
in the center, this little opening right?
Am I going too fast, am I all right?
All right, so then we do hot dog again.
And then if you just push--
like if you hold your--
if you hold the end panels and you push together,
it creates this little--
again, a little origami shape.
And then you can just press together all those pages,
however it sort of organically comes together.
You might have to re-crease it a little bit, because things
shift a little bit.
And then you should have a little booklet.
Now there are many ways to make zines, many different shapes
and sizes.
This is just one way that is super accessible.
You know, I know zinesters who like this way
because it's easy to reproduce.
They can create their zine here, then
they fold it open, throw it on the copier.
And then it's really easy to make mass quantities--
you know 100, I say mass but you know, 50, 100, 20,
whatever they want to make.
So it's really simple.
And a zinester we've worked with often, Carolina Hicks,
she really loves this style because she
said she can throw it in her back pocket.
And while she's on mass transportation
or has a moment between classes or whatever the situation is,
she can pull it out and work on her zine.
And so it makes it super easy.
You don't need a lot of-- you don't need really
any equipment other than scissors, and some paper.
And then maybe you have your little kit,
you've got markers and maybe a UHU stick and some cutouts
that you will collage on your zine later.
So it's a really accessible easy way.
People of all ages are able to do this.
It's something you can do with children or nieces, nephews,
whoever you have in your life, grandkids, whatever.
And so that's a really cool thing too.
So it's sort of like an easy access activity.
So if you're interested in zines this can be a really great way.
Oh, I like your pink one, Roman, nice.
So that's just one way to make a zine.
Of course you can make them all different sizes and shapes.
Definitely use the internet.
There's all kinds of videos and tutorials.
And there are zines about making zines,
that you can purchase or find online and download, which
are really great.
This is just one really simple way.
I don't want to leave anyone behind.
Are there any problems or questions with your zine?
Do you see anything on the chat, Andy?
ANDY HADLE: We don't have any questions
about the zine in the chat--
REBECCA TRAWICK: Sorry--
My bad.
OK cool.
All right, so I will share my screen again
and we'll go back to the presentation.
So zines in academia, why do you think they might be helpful?
What purpose can they serve in academia?
I think the most important thing to remember
is that zines often exist as the only representation
of liminal undocumented spaces and people.
So they're really invaluable source material potentially,
depending on whatever project you're working on
or research interests that you have.
In probably the last, I don't know,
15, 10, 15 years, a growing number of institutions,
including colleges and universities, municipalities,
and others, other nonprofits and organizations
are interested in collecting and archiving zines.
And so Bernard was a really nice example
of just one university who is interested in collecting zines.
And I liked how they described what their interest is
in collecting zines.
"Bernard's zines are created by women-- cis-- and transgender--
with an emphasis on zines by women of color.
We collect zines on feminism and femme identity
by people of all genders.
The zines are personal and political publications
on activism, anarchism, body image, third-wave feminism,
gender, parenting, queer community, riot grrrl,
sexual assault, trans experience, and other topics."
And so I thought that was a nice sort of synopsis
as to why a lot of organizations and institutions
are interested in archiving zines.
And again, because zines are often
created with a very small distribution,
you could argue that it's really important that organizations
and institutions are archiving these materials that
could really easily be lost.
But that's probably up for debate, right?
Whether institutions who are not including these voices
are also archiving these voices.
So, is it a good thing, bad thing?
We can debate that in the future.
But if you're someone who has a project coming up.
If you're a student Chaffey, you know possible research topics
are endless.
So I list a bunch here but I'd love to hear
what else could they be about?
Just include those in the chat, any ideas?
Sorry Andy I can't see chat right now.
Is there--
ANDY HADLE: Yeah, something just popped up from C. Jillick.
REBECCA TRAWICK: Yes.
ANDY HADLE: Any fan base topic as an option.
REBECCA TRAWICK: Good, good.
Yeah, yeah I think voter-- you know
like thinking about the contemporary times, right?
Like anything about COVID and pandemics,
voter rights, that's a huge issue, immigration.
I think any sort of political action issues
could also be included in that.
Yeah thanks CJ.
ANDY HADLE: He also says student interests.
And from Christopher [? Allday, ?]
every blonde male, a main character in a Tim Burton
movie.
REBECCA TRAWICK: Yes, good, exactly.
I want to read that, Chris.
Yeah I think it's really interesting,
there's also a notable collections--
if you're interested in looking this up--
at the Austin Public Libraries, Texas A&M, Duke University.
The New York Public Library has a really great zine collection.
Milwaukee Queen Zine Archive and many, many, many others.
And so it's interesting to see sort of the values
around different institutions and organizations,
and why they're interested in collecting zines.
So often they're in special collections,
but here at Chaffey we actually do
have a small but growing collection of zines.
And some can be checked out just like any other book
at the library.
And some, I think, do need to stay like a special collection.
But that's something to look at if you are a student here
at Chaffey College.
And if not, definitely check out your local libraries
and other institutions that you have in your communities
as well.
So why?
Why are zines used in academia?
And I think it's important to look
at it from multiple viewpoints, right?
There's faculty are using zines in the classroom as a teaching
tool, there's students who are using it in research,
and of course there's plenty of us
who may not be part of an institution who
are using them for all kinds of different activities.
But thinking about academia, they
provide a robust and authentic alternative
to the annotated bibliography.
So definitely just talk to your professor if you are a student
and you're interested in using a zine
as a resource in your research.
Zines are a path to authorship, allowing students
the title of zinester.
And so that really refers to the fact
that anyone can be published and can be a zine author or artist.
And so you don't have to wait to publish your novel someday,
necessarily.
So it's accessible in that regard.
Zines can be on any topic and support the objective
of research as inquiry.
Zines support the personal and reflective aspects
of the information creation process.
And zines are just fun.
I would also add that they provide first person,
lived experiences to study.
So again, whether you're a professor or you're a student,
I think that's really critical.
And often-- and again often more difficult
to find in other collections, potentially.
So I mentioned Chaffey College does have a zine collection.
They have this really great lib guide online,
and I'll give you the address.
Actually, here it is on screen.
And it has a great number of resources.
It has that make a zine-- that goofy make a zine video that we
were watching.
Right here.
It has an NPR zine on coronavirus that came out,
I want to say in April, that's really interesting.
I need to revisit it.
I wonder how much of the material
is still relevant, as information changes
as we learn more about the pandemic.
I'm curious.
There's also-- whoops, excuse me.
I should go here.
Can you see it, the screen?
No, OK.
Sorry, I keep forgetting I have to move--
OK, so let me show you the lib guide.
I just want to point out Selene Pineda.
She is the librarian who has been working
with Annette Young over the years,
on the zine collection at the library.
And so she's a really great resource
and so you can find her contact information here.
There's a lot of resources on how
to make a zine, including a number of templates,
information on digital zines, resources and much more.
Ooh and this one here, Ben Passmore,
author of "Your Black Friend and Other Strangers,"
he will be a future Home Edition visitor.
So join us.
All right, let me go back.
OK, so definitely check them out.
All right, and Chaffey College is also
committed to looking at zines in academia, over the long term.
So these are examples of our three Zine Fest fliers.
So we started in 2008 and it represents a collaboration
between the museum, the library, out One Book One College
program, which is a campus reads program,
and other collaborators as well.
And so you can see over time--
I mean here we started with five outside vendors
and a few student clubs.
You know every year it's grown bit by bit.
And so, if I do say so, our March 4th, 2020 zine fest
was really amazing.
It was an opportunity to meet a huge number of zinesters
from the region, both east and west of here.
And we had food and music, there was an opportunity
to make your own zine, you could purchase zines,
talk to zinesters.
It was a lot of fun.
And so look for future activities.
I can't promise spring 2021 will bring a zine fast.
We may have to take a beat with COVID
but we will return with zine fests in the future.
And if you want to learn more, definitely
research, use the internet, use the library.
Support zine artists on social media, definitely.
Many are individual artists, again,
spending their own money, time, creativity and energy,
to develop zines in the hopes of finding
audiences who are interested in what they're exploring.
Definitely buy zines, if you can, as much as you can.
You know some zinesters are selling zines for $0.50
or a dollar.
Of course many are not a dollar, you
know the price goes up from there.
But they're often fairly affordable ways
to support local and regional and national artists,
or international artists.
And make your own and share.
So whether you're sharing it on social media,
or you open a shop online, Etsy, or you're sending them
to friends through the mail, however you
choose to share them.
They can be a really wonderful way, again,
to share common interests and explore zine making.
And again, we've talked about zine fests a few times.
Most major cities have annual zine fests that you can attend.
I mean, I love our little zine fest here at the college,
but there's some that are really spectacular, San Diego and LA
and if you're elsewhere.
I'm sure-- [? Allday, ?] I'm sure Minneapolis
has a huge array of zine fests, yes?
So definitely look that up, use the internet
to find those resources.
So here I'm sharing the lib guide address again,
so jot that down if that's something you're interested in.
And now, later, anytime, myself, Neil, and Selene, we're
all more than happy to answer any questions that you have.
So feel free to reach out to us via email,
whether it's about a local zine question or a generic zine
question.
And then we do have this survey we would love for y'all to fill
out, if you can.
We'll keep this-- we'll put this up again after Q&A.
But it'll just help us to evaluate our Home Edition
series.
And also I invite you to visit us at our website,
chaffey.edu/wignall.
This is the first in this large series of workshops and artists
talks that we are holding this semester.
So please take a look at the schedule
and feel free to join us for any future workshops.
There are two specific zine workshops coming up.
I also mentioned, Ben Passmore will be one of our guests.
And there are a number of other artists talks.
So we hope you can join us, and they do all
require pre-registration, so definitely visit the site.
And I just wanted to share some of the works cited
for your reference.
And I'm happy to share that with anybody who's interested.
So I'm going to stop sharing my screen
but I will put this up after, if we have any Q&A as well.
ANDY HADLE: So we had one question in the chat
from C.Jillick asking, may students from other colleges
attend this event?
Essentially the zine fest event.
REBECCA TRAWICK: Yes absolutely, it is a public event.
So we do try to focus on student participation.
So in addition to inviting local and regional zinesters,
we do also work really hard to try
to engage student clubs and groups who want to make zines.
But yes, it is free and open to the public.
And our hope is that attendees will
support local artists in some small way, and learn more.
ANDY HADLE: If anyone has any other questions,
please feel free to post them in the chat.
I kind of have a question for you, Rebecca.
Going back more to what defines a zine,
it seems that zines in their very nature--
you say that there are no rules and that they kind of
avoid mass publication and commercialism
and that sort of thing.
But from an artist's perspective,
I mean where does that--
is there a line, you know where something
is a zine and no longer a zine, or something is maybe
a comic book and something is not one?
Are there instances where those lines get a little blurry?
REBECCA TRAWICK: Yeah absolutely, I
mean I think like Ben Passmore, who
I mentioned, "My Black Friend."
You know he identifies as a comic book artist.
I don't know if he necessarily identifies as a "zinester,"
quote, unquote.
So yeah, the boundaries are very gray and muddy, I would say.
Yeah, where is it a zine?
Where is it a magazine?
Where is it a publication?
Where is it a comic book?
Yeah, I think a lot of it is self-identified and other times
it's people like me saying, oh that's like a zine.
You know, it's kind of like "The North
Star," Frederick Douglass' newspaper, was a newspaper.
It's not technically in zine, right?
But it fulfills some of the definition, you might say,
in that it was a small, self-published and alternative
voice.
I think a lot of times, too, it depends on the voice
or the authorship right?
I'm not answering that very eloquently, but absolutely
the lines are very blurry.
I mean I have to admit there's a lot of really gorgeous, high
production value, essentially magazines, that are art focused
or photo focused specifically.
And the quality is really fabulous.
And you know, on the face of it they're not very zine-like,
in that they're not sort of rough hewn, photocopied,
you know rough-edged.
But I've seen many of the authors and publishers
calling them zines, so--
But I think, sort of philosophically,
the zine world is very open and not interested in policing
very heavily what those definitions are
or where those parameters are.
That's been my experience anyway.
ANDY HADLE: We have a question here
from Christopher [? Allday, ?] asking
how do you feel about big companies like Nike
releasing zines with products?
REBECCA TRAWICK: Mixed, I would say.
I mean how do you feel, Chris?
I mean part of me thinks it's a little gross because it's
co-opting a tool of historically under served communities
and voices for a corporate venture.
So I mean, I think that part of it's kind of gross.
On the other hand, does it encourage young people
or consumers to question zines, to look up zines,
to find out more about them?
I mean in that regard, I think it's pretty cool.
But I don't know.
oh yeah, so Chris says--
he says, it's OK until they get resold for too much.
So Chris, are you saying like--
sort of like the after market for products, like shoes right?
So then the shoe becomes a compendium
right to the shoe-- or the zine becomes a partner to the shoes,
right?
That then are sold on the aftermarket or whatever.
Eh, yeah that's interesting.
I don't know, I have mixed feelings.
What do you think Andy?
ANDY HADLE: Yeah my feelings are also mixed on that idea.
I do think there's something really
valuable about the handmade quality of art,
just in general.
So when it starts to become part of this larger
commercial product, it seems to really lose it for me.
REBECCA TRAWICK: Yeah, it loses some--
ANDY HADLE: I don't know that I would collect the zine
that came out of a Nike shoe box but I would--
I'd take a handmade one and keep it,
if there's any value in that.
Roman has a question, do you find overlap
with zines in blogs?
What draws you to the printed piece?
I think maybe that-- back to that.
REBECCA TRAWICK: Yeah I mean I think they're similar,
like philosophically right?
In the fact that a blog--
anyone can have a blog, anyone can present their ideas
and research and writing, art, whatever.
Yeah I think they're very similar, other than the fact
it's on the internet.
Although there are digital zines.
I myself prefer-- and this goes to, Roman,
your second part, what draws you to the printed piece?
I mean, I myself, I like collecting things.
I like the-- it's like you said Andy, the handmade.
I like the handmade quality.
I like to touch and feel.
I like the tactic quality of a printed zine.
So for me, I value that over a blog or a digital zine.
It kind of bums me out when I can't print it.
Or actually, I'd rather purchase it
from the artist in printed format.
But I do notice on Etsy, there's a lot
of artists selling zines that are digital only.
And I, personally I just don't care for that.
I prefer the handmade, hand touched quality.
I like the--
I like the fact the--
it doesn't necessarily fit together properly
or it's maybe a little wonky.
I like all those little handmade,
sort of rough hewn qualities.
I don't know If anybody else wants to speak to that,
but that's my personal preference.
Anything else?
ANDY HADLE: I don't see anything else in the chat.
REBECCA TRAWICK: OK.
Well, we're getting close to time anyway,
so I think Roman's going to close us out here.
And while he does that, I will put up the screen again
with the survey link.
ROMAN STOLLENWERK: And it's a quick survey, a minute or two,
just to get us a better sense of our programming.
So thank you.
REBECCA TRAWICK: Thanks everybody.
Take care, be safe.
[BELL MUSIC]