A workshop on zine politics and aesthetics
Or, how and why the content and form of independent DIY publishing matters for community
My Recent Zine Scholarship
Discussion of zine making as a research-creation method in a 2020 article with Deborah Lupton in Qualitative Research
Online webinar on zine making as a social research method in the Vitalities Lab Breaking Methods Webinar Series
Forthcoming article on the meaning and materiality of zines in the American Journal of Cultural Sociology with Andy Bennett
Do-It-Yourself & Anti-Mainstream
DIY is an amateur and participatory mode of engagement. In zine cultures, DIY is an ethos and an aesthetic:
- Anyone can do it
- An open invitation to participate
- Critique of dominant culture
- Active making of alternatives
- Attention to so-called mundane, everyday
- Anti profit models and anti skill gatekeeping
- Stand against mainstream/professional print and online publishing
Intimacy & Intensity
DIY is an amateur and participatory mode of engagement. In zine cultures, DIY is an ethos and an aesthetic:
- Handmade elements
- Tangible textures
- Personal voice
- Content on emotional and bodily feelings
- Small physical size, can be held in hand or kept in pocket
- Simple design
- Readable focus, passion and care
Some contemporary analogue, digital and hybrid examples:
- #izm2020 — international zine month
- “Quaranzines” for resistance, mutual aid and self-care
- Our Digital Rights to the City by Meatspace Press
- Lessons Learned: mutual aid disaster relief
- (Re)building Technology Zine by Detroit Community Technology Project
- Sovereign Apocalypse, on future imaginings of total Indigenous sovereignty
- New York Tech Zine Fair
- Self-Made: Zines and Artist Books, an exhibition by the State Library of Victoria (Australia)
- Australian Student Environment Network zines
- So Fi Zine by Ash Watson (me)
I make zines using analogue, digital and hybrid methods.
I use found images and text from magazines and old illustrated books, wrapping and/or craft paper (printed and transparent), washi tape, scanned found materials like leaves and paper rubbish, CC0 digital images, digital tools like InDesign templates and platforms like Canva. My bindings use staples or paper clips, and sometimes I sew them. I photocopy my print runs myself and make most zines freely available in read online and DIY print formats.
SOME COLLAGE IDEAS THAT WILL WORK WITH PRINT, DIGITAL AND HYBRID FORMS
TIPS FOR PRINTABLE ZINES
Your total page numbers need to be divisible by four
Your page layout will be very different to read online only zines — doing this by hand can be easier
If you stick to 8 pages, you can make a zine with a single piece of paper
REFLECTIONS ON PRODUCTION
The photocopier is still king for analogue work, but some indie publishers/printers use risograph printing
Some useful InDesign tips are shared here for getting a risograph-esque style with a digital work
If you like the handmade aesthetic but need a digital publication, scanning in materials that have visual depth and a texture help create a tangible and experiential quality, and avoid that ‘flat’ screen-based feeling — e.g. torn and crumpled paper, corrugated card, string bindings
It’s these kinds of sensory qualities that give a zine that ‘from my hands to yours’ feeling, and make the content you’re trying to communicate affective and engaging
What brings the zine/indie publishing ethos and political orientation to life is how we unite content and form — there is an important level of creative unity that, even in (and because of) a DIY quality, makes visible the care and attention that went into the production. This is what matters in a material sense for how and why zines and independent publishing persists as an important vehicle for community communication and connection