zine making research project

[DJ Ringfinger]

My name is Peter Bryant, I am a researcher and DIY artist working on a fairly extensive project on participation in DIY arts and specifically zine making, through both the University of Technology, Sydney and Middlesex University in the UK.  The aim of the research is to look at how people come to make zines and their personal stories of their first exposure to zines and zine making. 

The main purpose of the project is to explore the zine making as an art or a media and hopefully help understand how practices such as zines, street art and community radio can survive and continue to flourish in a changing digital and artistic environment

If you would like to know more about the project, just drop me an email.  I am seeking zine makers who may be interested in answering either a short interview via email or through a very short phone interview.

djringfinger (at) gmail (dot) com

Cheers

Peter

[Jenna Freedman]

If anyone cares, I can vouch for Pete. He won't Teal Triggs you!

[Billy Da Bunny]

lol....  jenna, you're funny.  i'm gonna email him  now.

Jenna Freedman said:

If anyone cares, I can vouch for Pete. He won't Teal Triggs you!

[Stephanos]

Perhaps we can use that as a common phrase...

 

If someone rips of someones non-profit work for a for-profit publication we could say they've "Triggsed" it or that they've been "Trigging" again...

[Anastasia Weedsmith]

lol! i think thats great...."triggsed".

Stephanos said:

Perhaps we can use that as a common phrase...

 

If someone rips of someones non-profit work for a for-profit publication we could say they've "Triggsed" it or that they've been "Trigging" again...

[Alex Wrekk]

We started using the phrase "you've been trigged" around our house a few weeks ago. It's almost as funny as the person who asked taryn hipp if the zines she had at her distro table at the Richmond zine fest in 2008 were "hacked"

"ya, I totally hacked these zines!"

 

[Derek Neuland]

i fully support and use the term "you got trigged"

Alex Wrekk said:

We started using the phrase "you've been trigged" around our house a few weeks ago. It's almost as funny as the person who asked taryn hipp if the zines she had at her distro table at the Richmond zine fest in 2008 were "hacked"

"ya, I totally hacked these zines!"

 

[Anastasia Weedsmith]

these are my answers, copy and pasted from the questionairre peter sent me: (sorry the text is weird)

Can you tell me the story of how you decided to make your first zine?
-i have a longstanding interest with herbs and piercings/bodyart so i decided to combine the two topics into one great zine. i had been unemployed for about 3 or 4 months back in the spring of 2010 and instead of getting down on myself about not being able to find a job, i used the free time i had to do something creative instead. i had seen some excellent zines for sale online at various distros and knew that if i made a great zine, maybe i could get some great zines in trade.



Take me through the production cycle of your first zine (including timeframes), starting from when you decided to make the zine through to the zine being printed and distributed?

- i started writing my zine in the spring of 2010 and revised it every now and then throughout the year until i decided the information was  understandable. in the late summer of 2010, i was unemployed again and spent my time looking for graphics to add to it and not have the content seem so "dry". by fall/winter, i was employed again and one of the girls i worked with had a boyfriend who worked in a copy shop and had agreed to print my zine for a really reasonable price, upon which, i started distribution.  i am currently unemployed again which has left me alot of time to email other zinesters and distros to see if they wanted my zine, however, now that i have no money coming in, distribution may have to slow or cease temporarily.



How did you learn or acquire the skills required to make your first zine?
- the small city of my hometown was lucky enough to have an infoshop which is where i purchased my first zine, which was my first example into the world of zine making. after that, it was pretty much the internet and the few books on zinemaking that my public library carried.



Can you describe your first experience of seeing, reading or buying a zine?  In what way (if any) do you feel that this experience influenced your decision to make zines?  

- how i came to see/read/buy zines was through the infoshop in my small hometown city.  they had a very (very!) small selection of zines and the 2 that i picked up were "old wives tales" and "herbal abortion", both about diy women's health. i realized that theres more knowledge and information out there than we're normally given, but as long as we know where to find it, we can learn. i want to make zines so i can share the information and ideas that i have with other people and perhaps, create a discussion.



 How do you communicate or interact with other zine makers?  How important to your practice is your relationship with the wider zine making community?
- i use the internet to connect with other zine makers. the medium-sized city i now currently live in does not have an infoshop, zine library, or distro, unfortunately, so theres no other way of communicating such a niche "product" (for lack of a better word?) to anyone. i know alot of the "old skool" zine makers hate the presence of email and the internet within zine culture, but lets face it... the 90's are over.  my personal relationship with the wider zine making community is very important. without them, no one would read or distribute my zine which would make the whole point of creating a zine kind of moot. if it wasnt for the community, these zines would just be webpages or blogs, i suppose.





 How do you seek reader feedback on your zines?  What role (if any) does that feedback play in your practice of zine making?

- i've only recently sent out copies of my zine for review and as such, the adequate amount of time has not passed for anyone to really give me feedback.  personally, feedback plays a small role in my zine making, only because i already know what i could have done differently or better with my zine. otherwise, seeking public feedback (such as from zine reviewers or distros) plays a pretty big role in that its pretty much the only way to "advertise" your zine to a wider audience.  zine review guides such as xerography debt or broken pencil (among others) are a great way to get other people interested in your zine, especially since not everyone has the internet (which, really, is the dividing factor between rich/poor).





Why did you choose to make zines? How has that motivation changed through the course of your zine making practice?
- i chose to make zines so i could trade with other zine makers and essentially get zines for free, however, what i learned is that no one (or very few, i guess i should say) is making the kinds of zines that i want to read and that zinemaking is a very expensive hobby. my motivation has changed in that now i plan to make zines that apply to a wider group of people and their interests as opposed to just doing it for me.



 Do you participate in any other DIY forms of art or media? In what ways (if any) do they interact with your zine making practice?
- i dont participate in other diy forms of art or media. i'm a terrible artist, for one, and i'm also broke all the time which really limits my exposure to new art and media, so no, it doesnt interact with my zine making practice.





Do you feel that your zine making practice represents or contributes to the communications or story for a specific community or social movement?
- i like to think that my zine (and upcoming zines) contributes to the whole "freedom of information" movement. again, like i mentioned previously, not everyone has access to the internet and zines are a great way to get information into the hands of the people. i'm hoping that "herbal healing for piercings and tattoos" becomes part of the history of the piercing/tattoo movement and also a part of the natural healing/wisewoman movement as an example of how it can be modernized for a new generation.  does my zine or anything about it relate to the history of the zine movement? no, except for the fact that i've made a zine which makes me a part of zine culture, but other than that, not really.





For you, what is the ‘ideal’ relationship between zine makers and zine readers? 

for me, the ideal relationship between zine makers and zine readers regards communication. with all these people writing and reading all the time, you'd think they'd have the time to write "i sent a copy out to you yesterday" or "i really liked/disliked your zine for these reasons....". also, i wish that there would be  more diversity on the number of topics or styles of zines available. everyone is writing perzines right now, which is fine, but thats not really what i'm into.

[Stephanos]

Now to get it published in print media so the OED adds it to their list :D

Derek Neuland said:

i fully support and use the term "you got trigged"

Alex Wrekk said:

We started using the phrase "you've been trigged" around our house a few weeks ago. It's almost as funny as the person who asked taryn hipp if the zines she had at her distro table at the Richmond zine fest in 2008 were "hacked"

"ya, I totally hacked these zines!"

 

[Teknad]

Back to topic... I guess you can check the 5th number of Pez zine, about zine making techniques through time (it's in Spanish, but I hope you can read it / use the documentation) http://www.monmagan.com/fanzinepez/5/

 

Good luck with your project!

 

 

[DJ Ringfinger]

thanks for the link...I look forward to running it through google translate and having a read!

Cheers

Peter

Teknad said:

Back to topic... I guess you can check the 5th number of Pez zine, about zine making techniques through time (it's in Spanish, but I hope you can read it / use the documentation) http://www.monmagan.com/fanzinepez/5/

 

Good luck with your project!