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taotieYesterday I attended a community picnic and brought, as I usually try to do, some of my zines, as well as zine-making materials. I do it for a selfish reason -- because bringing an activity is usually a good way to talk to new people (great tip for folks with social anxiety) -- but also because I genuinely love to introduce people to this low effort method of creating art, and because I love to make a little art project alongside other people making their own little art projects. One of the zines I brought along was one I made about making art for oneself and one's own satisfaction, which I felt was an appropriate theme for the activity, and many were encouraged by this idea. I was excited and happy to see folks actually engaging with their thoughts, feelings, and ideas to make their own little zines to take home -- and it made me think of the ripple effects of this, the perhaps long-term implications of teaching folks how to harness an outlet for expression.
Zines may seem a little frivolous to the uninitiated, but as any knowledgeable zine maker or collector knows, zines cover a broad array of themes and topics, and many are even educational. They have certainly been helpful to the trans and disabled communities, whose health is often ignored and sidelined by mainstream medical establishment, and so must trade information along informal networks. Still, I thought about how any amount of text can be tough to read these days -- even for me -- in a media environment of short-form video, which is how many zines and books with important information gets left by the wayside. Is video now the best way to communicate information? I thought about the futility of zinesters trying to make COVID public health information more accessible, only to be ignored by those they're trying to educate.
What if we could think of zines in a different light -- not as information receptacle, but as a method? I've been seeing a lot more YouTube videos and tweets about how to "fix your brain" and retrain it to hold deep focus -- so that we can watch longer movies, read more difficult books, etc. There were quite a few picnic attendees who read through my text-heavy "Start Making Art For Yourself" zine right there on the spot, and completed their own zine not long after. Clearly there is interest and drive to read, and perhaps even more so, to create something with one's own hands.
If you think of zines as small, little books, then perhaps zines can be use as a retraining tool for those who wish to read (and write!) longer books but presently feel unable to. You can read a zine, even one that is text-heavy and 30 pages long, easily within an hour. Make it a goal to read one zine per day, even per week. Something is better than nothing. And maybe you can resolve to make one per week as well. I pitched zine-making to some of the picnic attendees as the perfect project for ADHD satisfaction -- you can see an entire project from beginning to end in as little as 20 minutes if you so please, but even the more complex zines take just a few hours. As I once learned from other artists long ago, training yourself to finish projects is just as important as training yourself on technical skill, maybe even more so. The effects here will be cumulative. The more you read and the more you make, the more you will be able to regain your attentiveness for the world, to reject the fast-paced and overwhelming glut of the attention economy, and the more time and energy you will have for your own life.
Zines may seem a little frivolous to the uninitiated, but as any knowledgeable zine maker or collector knows, zines cover a broad array of themes and topics, and many are even educational. They have certainly been helpful to the trans and disabled communities, whose health is often ignored and sidelined by mainstream medical establishment, and so must trade information along informal networks. Still, I thought about how any amount of text can be tough to read these days -- even for me -- in a media environment of short-form video, which is how many zines and books with important information gets left by the wayside. Is video now the best way to communicate information? I thought about the futility of zinesters trying to make COVID public health information more accessible, only to be ignored by those they're trying to educate.
What if we could think of zines in a different light -- not as information receptacle, but as a method? I've been seeing a lot more YouTube videos and tweets about how to "fix your brain" and retrain it to hold deep focus -- so that we can watch longer movies, read more difficult books, etc. There were quite a few picnic attendees who read through my text-heavy "Start Making Art For Yourself" zine right there on the spot, and completed their own zine not long after. Clearly there is interest and drive to read, and perhaps even more so, to create something with one's own hands.
If you think of zines as small, little books, then perhaps zines can be use as a retraining tool for those who wish to read (and write!) longer books but presently feel unable to. You can read a zine, even one that is text-heavy and 30 pages long, easily within an hour. Make it a goal to read one zine per day, even per week. Something is better than nothing. And maybe you can resolve to make one per week as well. I pitched zine-making to some of the picnic attendees as the perfect project for ADHD satisfaction -- you can see an entire project from beginning to end in as little as 20 minutes if you so please, but even the more complex zines take just a few hours. As I once learned from other artists long ago, training yourself to finish projects is just as important as training yourself on technical skill, maybe even more so. The effects here will be cumulative. The more you read and the more you make, the more you will be able to regain your attentiveness for the world, to reject the fast-paced and overwhelming glut of the attention economy, and the more time and energy you will have for your own life.