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The Secret Life of Stuff: Zines

This guide is for Camilla Sturm's First Year Seminar class.

Follow Along

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Read and Discuss

Get Familiar with Some Zines

We'll read/skim a zine for two minutes and then another and another and another (three total).

In Twos or Threes

Why do you think the creator chose a zine as their medium?

Are there graphics in the zine? Handwriting? Collages? Do they complement or complicate the text?

What does this zine leave behind?

 

Group Discussion, Same Questions as Above

Zines Are

zine excerpt: WHAT IS A ZINE ! "FOR ME AZINE IS NOT JUST A SELF-MADE AND SELF-, PUBLISHED BOOKLET BUT IT IS ALSO SITUATED WITHIN DIY CULTURE. THIS MEANS IT IS NON-PROFIT, NON-COMMERCIAL, LOW-BUDGET, AND NON -COM- PETITIVE. TOPICS AND STYLES CAN VARY BUT IT'S IMPORTANT THAT ZINES REMAIN ACCESSIBLE, BOTH TO READERS (EVERYONE CAN AFFORD TO BUY OR I TRADE THEM AND TO WRITERS (EVERYONE CAN MAKE THEM). ZINES DONT EXIST AS LITTLE PAPER ISLANDS BUT THEY ARE CONNECTED AND BLOSSOM WITHIN A MUTUALLY SUPPORTIVE ZINE COMMUNITY."

Nijsten, Nina. Scissors & Chainsaws No. 2 : Diary Comic Zine Made in July 2020 During International Zine Month. Gent, Belgium: Nina Nijsten, 2020.