The Idea of "Place" - A handy Lecture

How can it be represented?

This particular lecture was perfectly timed, since by now our "place" ideals for our zines were already decided, and gave us a bigger understanding of how place can be represented.

Gavin McDonald gave the lecture, and had some great topics of discussion that we decided to look into and discuss further:

• How we write and idenfity place in work
• Qualities a place holds
• Meanings on a personal level towards a place
• Seeing place as not a fix on a particular location, but a meaning of a particular area and how we identify that
• The place themed works of Tim Crosswell
• Is it a meaningful location?
• Place being distinct from "space" due to the former having a meaningful aspect and the latter being a measurment of volume
• A place being something we "make" by giving a spot meaning
• "A way of looking at the world. something that is essential to human experience"
• A visual resources center
• Turning a space, into place.
• Histories that our bound to our own lives
• Can a place be under threat? i.e. demolishion of that place
• Dan Graham and Christopher Hitchens works
• The ideas of a "utopian fantasy"
• Writing about somewhere you know intimatly
• "Heart of the city"
• Surrendering to place, and responding in a similar way
• The works of Ian Sinclair (his various works into phsycogeography and walking) and similar works by Will Self
• The fantastic work by Oliver East "Trains are ...mint"
• The fictional Manchester (as mentioned in the shrieking violet post)
• Maps, and how they represent place
• A brief talk about "The accidental salad"

From what we discussed, many have tried to illustrate, write, or experience "place" in a great number of ways, and the illustrative side is especially interesting.

If we refer back to Oliver East's work "trains are ...mint" he resembles place by illustrating responses to areas he visits, and conversations he has or overhears, including events that happen:

Oliver East Website Click Here 



 The simplicity of the idea and the art, including the placement of the handwritten sections still manage to give the place a very decent and involving response, that is large or immersive enough (to a smaller degree) for a zine.

I almost want to capture elements of this in my own work, and show that the images don't have to be completely ultra immersive and detailed to get a bigger point across. Normally my own work is rather figurative and literal, aiming to be bigger for that purpose, however maybe a slightly more sketchy, or abstract, or possibly even simpler approach is required for our zine submissions?

Overall, a brilliantly handy lecture and just at the right time!

Group Zine Progression - The Rules

Post discussion Zine Rules and Outcome:

After we discussed a great deal of plans and possibilities for our Zine(s), (see brainstorming posts and group session zines) we settled on these six rules.

- Image Based (as illustrators, we want to express our zine through...well...illustrations!)

- No larger than A5 (Keeping to this particular size will keep out visual responses in line with each other

- Creative Binding (Giving our zine that handmade, appriciated asthetic for a change)

- Retain a DIY ideology (As above, we want this zine to feel personal and unique, like a handmade artbook)

- Arouse Curiosity and intrigue (Something I want to personally express is a semi-literal visual asthetic. small events that were personal to us, represented in our own visual ways)

- Amgiguity (Again, not too literal)

Our Zines:

"Playscape"

We will take two trips to two similar but different locations, and record and respond to what we find there.

Playscape will be the Zine for the location of Lyme Park, owned by the national trust, with an expansive ground to explore, including a large ammount of wildlife such as Deer.

We will create four A5, ambigous yet interesting responses.

"Drifter"

As above, this location will be based around the Platt Feilds park, and respond in the same ways to the first Zine.

"Photo Book"

This possible extra will feature photographs from our trips that inspired the outcome of the works we submit to our zines.


Overall, we want to focus on the pshycogeography of the areas, and personal responses to "place". I personally agree with the others when I say that through this particular setup, we can truly appriciate smaller details, and also possibly respond in ways which tribute the past zines and modernist zines as discussed in previous posts, by giving a "modern personal response, that contains traits of zine culture elements"

Personally looking foreward to this!

Natalie Bradbury's Shrieking Violet Zine - Lecture

A return to the present day Zines:

We had a super awesome lecture from Zine editor/creator Natalie Bradbury (A university of Manchester graduate who now resides in the city).

Her Zine is about the city of Manchester itself, and most of the events or places that people may miss, or that don't normally appear in tourist guides etc

Immediatly, I was intrigued, as this is a prime example as to how Zines themselves have evolved from being the rebellious punk fanzines and that stereotype, and moving on towards a more "hipster" (in a good way) and "publically accepted" range of publications.

Bradbury told us a great deal about how her Zine was created, and we discussed a range of topics:

• 20 full issues have been published to date, since the 2009 start.
• Considered to be an "Alternative guide" to Manchester, and it's hidden interesting locations
• Contains a range of information from guides, art and short stories
• A strong use of mixed media and custom covers
• Bradbury discussed her English Literature graduation, and how she decided to remain in Manchester
• Started with Blogging, but found it a "limited space" to work in
• Takes heavy punk inspiration into consideration in the designs and distrubution stages
• A strong "Belle Vue" inspiration (est 2008)
• A strong modernist outlook, with regular contributors of different backgrounds and influence
• Art/Public interests/Music all very dominant in the zine (like the older zines)
• One topic was the once purposed Manchester Underground, a spooky yet interesting idea
• Sometimes features chapters of upcoming novels, and other topics, like food for example.
• Interveiwed a range of publishers for advice
• The Manchester Modernist Society was another handy link
• Hand folder Zine
• InDesign is used to lay the zine out
• Lino cuts are another illustration format used regularly
• The zine is distrubuted in places around the city, such as bars, cafes, galleriens, and also online for easy accessibility
• Marc Printing helps distribute
• Issuu - Click Here To Visit  Helps the process of distrubution online
• Northern Indymedia
• Created a birthday special for the Zine, giving it a new sense of being and taking it into a much more personal veiw by the contributors
• The Salford Zine Library (as seen in an early post) also features copies of the publication, and is also an influence
• The Victoria Bath Fanzine collection and the Brighton Zine fest are another great way to see what today's zines are all about, and to distribute

The way this particular zine was layed out, and also represented for what it produces for it's theme, truly show how we can "rebel" in other formats, and reach out to a whole new zine culture, that has evolved since the 70s. The range of the illustration, combined with the themes, really inspire me to think into zines as a serious publishing medium. The more I was told, the more I was intrigued.


This further confirms my interest in tributing current and old zine "rebelious nature" style, and also the random, yet inspiring art of the modernist zine, that can somehow come together to create a response visually.

Group Zines - (A brief insight into what the other group members have planned)

After another group discussion, we presented our ideas into what our zines were going to be, and what they would entail. (As stated by the groups themselves at the time)

"Beer Mat"

• Writing and drawing based publication
• A game based meet and greet type of publication
• 1 Zine colelction the "games" at the end
• Handmade

"Exhibizine"

• Handmade
• A contemporary publication for a younger audience
• Concertina format
• Links between particular themes

"Have a Nice Day"

• Mixed audience
• A6/possible square format
• Risographed
• Not too computerized
• Theme of Anxiety and how to deal with it

"Ampersand"

• Open zine to everyone
• Responses to the "&" ampersand in visual formats
• Risographed
• A5 sized
• Any form of art style acceptable

"Misty's Mum"

• Open Zine
• Paranormal based fanzine of the 70s Misty comics
• DIY Handmade
• Interactive
• Funny
• Tounge in cheek style humour, magazine style
• Ghost stories

"Journey"

• Based around the word "Journey"
• open submission
• Any form of art acceptable
• A5
• Could be a personal response, or a tribute to anything named "Journey"

Various other zines were dicussed, including oour own group idea, which we were currently still ironing out in terms of rules and guidelines.

I have decided to submit work to the Ampersand and Journey Zines. Any way I can further responses to the zine culture discussed earlier, will benefit overall. I still want to maintain a "rough" or "sketchy" asthetic however, across all the zine work, for I feel that certain quality images don't particularly get the point I want to make across.

I want to create a single submission for the two extra zines, that almost tribute the old punk style that dominated fanzines in the past, but also keeping some contemporary traits available in the work.

Zine Counter-Culture Lecture

When we were given a lecture by Simon Faulkner, he explained to us in further depth about the culture of the zine, and how it has been influenced and changed over the years.

Previously, I had always considered a Zine to be a "face book page" of the 70s/80s. It conveyed a small ammount of information, in a fanzine, or perzine format. This being true, was now not completely the case in the modern day, several decades on.

Key Topics We Discussed:

• The "do it yourself politics" of the zine creation
• Punk as an influencial genre towards Zines
• The "capitalist society" of buying and selling (how zines responded in groups)
• The ways that the produced work was for other fans
• How we percive the zine then and now
• Entrepreneurialism for Punks
• Making zines to sell
• Advertising and profits for part of the purpose of the zine
• An "escape attempt" for the fans of a particular subject or movement
• It's purpose being "progression"
• Xerox copiers being the means of mass production, using collage and mixing type to create a striking image
• The "copier technology" being used in a non "capitalist" way, like using their technology against them, etc
• "Escaping Control" through visual or text based means.
• Relations to other works and artists/ writers/scholars: Dimitri Kleiner - The Telekommunist Manifesto (for example)
• The idea of copying intelectual property
• Working against the control of ideas, influencing zine content
• The so called "politics of Production"
• The consumer becoming the producer
• The reader becoming a writer
• Taking hold of the means of production
• Inventing new modes of cultural production
• Bypassing copyright and the maker
• Punk DIY as an asthetic to creation of zines
• looking into particular zines of the era, and how they use most of the above to make a statement (like temporary hoarding in the last post)
• "Sniffin' Glue" an old zine of 76-77 as another example
• The crude style around most zines of the time, being accepted as a signature sign of creation
• Having minor commercial value, more about the statement it said.
• "Self expression" through a culturally rebelious publication format
• How self expression is tricky, and how breaking away from the cliche is a difficult thing to do, (a probably reason why the punk asthetic died down for abit)
• "Up yours" another 70s zine - notice the titles and names were to provoke a response in the reader, something normally referencing an semi illegal act, like drug use (sniffin' glue)
• Ripped and Torn - another example of a zine of the era
• The act of being passive when it comes to zine work. "you need to engage with the subject, in order to fully contribute and understand"
• Johnny Rotten's experiences with the genre (as said in temporary hoarding examples seen in the last post) and how he wanted to take part in the audience, and in the bands he watched, not sit in the distance, watching from far away
• The alienation of our life energy - making something with your own skills and sesslign yourself - the personal interaction
• How anthologies and Zines are similar
• Repurposing the societies and and cultures
• How plagerism is percived in the zine culture, and how it effects the purpose of the movement
• How DaDa infulenced the zine culture
• The idea of a "revolution of style"

Responses:

After discussing this wide range of topics, it's clearer to me that the zine culture seems to strongly be about rebelling against a particular form of generic work, or against some kind of government or genre.

This may not be the case today with the punk movement dying down, however the zines themselves, from the examples I have researched so far, tend to be still trying to emulate that in the sense of a particular subject, such as making zines of TV programmes or personal traits or outings.

"This is my story and art, this is how you will see it, it goes against the normal way of drawing or writing because I want it to"

I feel like my zine submissions should try to emulate that somehow, maybe drawing or editing differently or conveying a different message within the given theme, to try and capture of of that old zine logic of the 70s.