Unit X : Face of Chemistry, TRISAIDEKAPHOBIA and Somewhere : 15/05

As Unit X is a collaborative unit, I went to see some of the other things going on around Manchester from other Manchester School of Art students. Most of the goings on were within the Northern Quarter. Unfortunately I didn't manage to photograph all the things I went to see and I couldn't see a lot as I was unable to get out of work. But I did go see two other exhibitions on at the time. This included first year fashion exhibitions. I went to the basement of Incognito in Stevenson Square.

First was a collaborative exhibition between fashion,textiles and media. I really enjoyed the body of work shown here. It used photography and collage methods to create the 'Faces of Chemistry'.

 I really enjoyed the mix of materials and the way different images were rearranged to recreate the images produced. The use of space was efficient and interactive as it allowed you to walk around and see the images from different perspectives.

 The use of materials was also interesting. The printed images on acetate and hung from the ceiling worked well within the dark space. The lighting was well used as it emphasised the faces in these hangings. It was a very interesting space.

In the next room was Triskaidekaphobia, also by first year fashion students as part of Unit x. This was a collaboration between film and fashion. it explored the phobia of the number 13. I enjoyed this installation as it used the space very well. It took advantage of the basement and the lack of lighting which emphaises the ideas of phobias. Additionally, the television as well placed within the small space and the entanglement of material.The film upon the television was only short but was well made and was creepy, the music only furthered this. A very successful exhibition!

I also went to see 'Somewhere', also by first year fashion and film that explored 'black'. When I went to see it, it was a work in the making but it had some interesting things strung from the pillars. From the work that I did see, it was an interesting and various exhibition of interpreting the word 'black'.

I think this element of Unit X is one of the best things about it. It allows people, not only members of MMU but the wider public too, to visit and see the work from the past 8 weeks. It's really nice to be able to see work from other courses too and courses working together.

X Small Press Zine and Print Fair : 16/05

So today the day had finally arrived...the Zine fair has descended upon us. 

We arrived early in order to prep our table. We share a table with Beer Mat thus in order to make our zine stand out from their, we put a red table runner down.

As we hadn't produced many other 'extra' and only had half a table, we kept it simple. We laid out our zines together with our postcards parallel to keep it simple and compact. 

We made clear signs for the prices of the zines and postcards. We tried to keep the prices to a minimum but that does leave us at a financial disadvantage as we had spent so much on materials and printing.

 We also included an artists' statement but this was really a small explanation of why we chose the subjects we chose for our essays and therefore why these subjects were in our zine. People did ask and we just explained verbally instead of referring to our statement. I felt it was much nicer to talk to people instead and strike up a chat.

 Many people asked which course we came from and when we replied Contemporary Art History, lots of them were a little surprised we had managed to make such a visual zine.

As mentioned earlier, we were seated next to Beer Mat, also a CAH zine. So it was nice when it was quieter to chat about how we found the process of creating zines coming from a written and not practice background. This also allowed to see their work and involved swapping of zines, postcards and beer mats!

The zine fair and the setting up process also allowed us to see other people's work. I was very impressed with the body of work people had produced. There was such a variety of work and such an array of things to see. It was an really nice opportunity to see what people had been working on the last 8 weeks and to see it all together was a really nice way to end Unit X.

Vikki and Zoss' Food Zine with cocktails!

Paula stressing!

Olivia W and Amy C's zine helping freshers find their way! A personal favourite.

When evaluating the zine fair, it was a success and, not failure as such, but not a success in many way. For example, we only sold 5 our of 15 which could be seen as a failure but it's more than I anticipated. As the fair was a zine and print fair, I anticipated the audience to be illustration/image based and therefore be more interested in the print side of things rather than the really handmade element Exhibition held. We had quite a lot of lookers and lots of people fingered through the zine but not many actually converted to a sale. However, we sold quite a few postcards which were a nice, cheap little addition. With our remaining zines, we gave them away to other zine makers for free and/or swapped them for something of theirs.

Neverthesless, I would say we were successful with Exhibizine. When thinking about how we were very uncomfortable about this at the beginning and comparing that to the 15 zines we have produced and are very proud of. We never thought we'd managed to produce something like this. The fact we have has made us very happy even if we didn't sell many. It was nice to be able to showcase a zine that is a bit different to those already there and be involved in an event like this.

EXHIBIZINE : The End Product

This is our finished zine, Exhibizine. We had to change something from our original ideas and plan as they were very time consuming and we wouldn't have had enough time or it was too expensive for us. As a group, we are very proud of what we  have been able to produce and all our hard work and despite the difficulties in printing/costs/having all the group members present, this has been worth it. However, if we had to do it again, I would perhaps go towards a slightly different route where it is a little more polished (perhaps using the risograph printer or simply having it printed) but with elements of the handmade, just perhaps not so much fiddly gluing and cutting!

All the pages did, as we planned, contain elements of the other subjects, if not all of them at least another one. I think this worked successfully as a little zine. However, I am dubious at how it will sell at a Zine and Print fair. Although it is a zine, it is not a 'print' nor a print-eque zine so I am not sure how many people will be that interested.

Completing Exhibizine! 15/05

 Today was our last day of making Exhibizine. It was a very satisfying feeling finishing off all 15 of these! We coloured in the anchors by hand and checked the zines for bits that needing re-gluing and to check them to see if anything was missing.

 We also decided that we needed extra things to sell/present at the Print and Zine fair. We chose the pages in our zine that translated best into little A6 postcards. I printed them on 250 gsm cartridge paper after scanning the page in and reducing its size. We're aiming to sell these between 50p and £1.

 

We were very proud to have managed to created the zines! We were uncomfortable and not entirely hopeful at the start as it was outside our comfort zone. But I am quite proud of ourselves in the fact we managed to create a visual, surrealist take on our exhibition proposals.

15 finished Exhibizines and the original mock up!

We also decided that we wanted to have a written document discussing why we chose the subjects we wrote about for our hypothetical exhibition proposals. We made a simple 4 page booklet with A6 print off written individually. Hopefully, this is will explain to people why Exhibizine contains the subjects it does.

 After we finished all our zines by hand, we treated ourselves to a well earned cuppa and relaxed whist having a discussion over how to set up our table and things we'd need.

Creating Exhibizine 4: 14/05

Today we had another day of creating Exhibizine which was much more chilled out. We finished remaining pages and filled in the blank ones. It seemed a lot easier as we had already cut out everything so we were more or less prepared. (As well as stocked up with sugary goodies!) We also had our homework from the day before so we could do things more smoothly today. I had to finish all the Tiberous Beastie dressed people and have my essay sentences done.

We also set about a new consequences but in a much more light hearted manner. We decided to create a fictional consequences story using our hypothetical exhibition subjects. I really enjoyed this one as it came together well and made an interesting read, not to mention funny. We have decided we are putting these in the envelopes on the anchor page to make reading the zine more interactive.

Rachel loving gluing!

We began to finish things off in a logical manner. One of us started a page and the rest of us would take an element of it and finish it leaving us with 15 finished pages in no time! This methodical method made it all the much easier . 

By the end of today, we felt like we had got a lot done and made a list of things we needed to do by our next meeting, tomorrow! We all went home yet again with homework so we are prepared and make it easier for ourselves tomorrow.

Creating Exhibizine 3 : Reunion (13/05)

Ready to go for Zine making day 2!

With all four members present, we could set about really getting our zine together today. And although it was stressful, cramped and made our brains melt, we managed to get a lot done. We completed more pages, started the rest of the pages. It really feels like our zine is starting to take place.

Zine 5....

 In my opinion, it was laborious having to do everything 15 times and make sure all the finer details were correct. Hopefully it should be worth it when we have 15 entirely handmade zines. Even lots of the writing is hand written for each zine. We have kept photocopying pages to a minimum except for where it is impossible to recreate. For example, our front cover, the background paper was from a flyer envelope from Font last year and we were unable to find it again. We tried other options but we felt this paper worked the best so we photocopied it.

Taking a break with mind-blowing photos!

 The one thing we didn't except when creating these zines was the cost. I'm not entirely sure if the tutors took this into account. As students, we have to spent all the money we do have on fees, bills, food and get left with little else. Therefore, spending £20+ each on printing is not ideal, nor is having to buy all the materials and things required for the zine fair. For example, printing an A4 side of colour costs 20p each therefore if we need 15 of each image, it could cost £3 for just page. (That's a whopping £48 a zine if we print out 15 A4 sides!) This meant we had to a lot of handwriting etc just to save on money which took an unbelievable amount of time. I understand that the zines are to be sold at a price to cover this but I do not feel that all the money we have spent on materials can be covered by this. It would have been useful if, perhaps the faculty could have given us a discount for materials or perhaps even a little bit of money.

Kate loving her zine!

Hopefully, if we keep working at this rate, we should finish these zines in time! We all went home with prep to do for the next session (tomorrow) thus things should go smoothly. Fingers crossed!