Progress Meeting and Creating Exhibizine 1: 07/05

This progress meeting was fairly simply. The tutors took a look at our zine progress. So far, we had made our 16 page zine but not all the pages were filled. We had some pages that were finished and some that needed work to still and some that just needed doing. 

Paper Zine from our first meeting

This is the first time the tutors had seen a tangible version of our zine, the first time it was in their hands and they could see it.  It was good to see the reaction and to see if they understood our surrealist theme which they did which was reassuring.

First attempt at consequences

Our zine coming together!

The progress meeting was also useful in regards to deadlines and how much work we need to do in order to produce artwork for the exhibition this Friday and the Zine Fair on Thursday. We realised how much we had to do if we wanted to carry forth with the handmade elements. We spent the rest of the meeting finding out what we need to photocopy and print in order to create the basis for our zines as well as finding things we need to finish.

Zine Fair poster

 I was not entirely sold on the exhibition though. Although I feel that it is good to see all the work, I felt this was the purpose of the Zine fair. I appreciate the work in booking the link gallery but I question how originally an exhibiton can be curated here. The zines are interactive and so looking at A3 versions of certain pages would not be the same as fingering several zines.

At the moment, it seems a little stressful as many of the cheap photocopiers on Oxford Rd and nearby were broken/weren't working for photocopying images which set us back quite a bit. Furthermore, the amount of time that will go into cutting/sticking and putting the Zine together. To add to this, we are a team member down and creating these zines are more expensive that we set out for it to be. We are having to pay for printing, paper and even things like glue and scissors.

Progress Meeting : 31/04

Today's progress meeting was a self-directed study morning in which we set about making our mock zines. Initially, it was very intimidating, sat at the table with piles of paper, scissors, glue and bits and bobs we had planned to put in our zine. With only ideas in our head, we set about making them real and visual. In the first hour, we did find this difficult and soon warmed to it as we saw our zine taking shape.

We worked on our own pages leaving enough space for the next person to work into each page their subject. It took us quite a few hours to do what we have done so far. But this is enough for a small booklet! It's not quite 25 pages yet but it is slowly but surely getting there. It's safe to say, we, as art historians, are feeling a little more secure and safe with our zine. Touch wood!

We simply used scissors, glue and text from our essays and research as well as images in relation our essays and exhibiton proposals. We merged the subject together by working as a group to create each page. We started independently, creating one image on one page. Once we had done that, we gave it to another person to work with. For example the above example in which a wardrobe door has a hanging man, combining the clothing and wardrobe exhibition with Olivia's death row exhibition. 

Out zine follows a very punk-esque style, in that we are simply cutting and sticking onto paper. We are not using Indesign (at least not at the moment) and it is very basic and cost effective. However, it is a little time consuming, but it should be worth it!

 

 More examples of how we worked collaboratively are seen above. We also created pages by throwing ideas around and so merging the exhibitions in this manner. For example, above the people are dressed in Tiberous Beastly wallpaper. This therefore meant Rachel and I had to work together to come created the page as it wasn't simply just working over one another. 

At the end of the session, we were quite proud to see the fact we had a booklet of images that we liked. Although in the beginning it was difficult to translate our written ideas into a visual document, we hope to think we got there and the majority of our group enjoyed creating out mock-up zine!

Progress Meeting : 16-04

Today we had our first proper progress meeting in which we relayed our condensed mind map with out 5 rules. (I'd insert an image of our mind map but we didn't get it back!) However, I was left wondering, at the end of the session, how beneficial this had been for us as a group.

Although it was good to hear other people's ideas and their approaches because that allowed us to see the different methods of creating zines and other areas we might have forgotten about otherwise.

However, the actual feedback we received from the tutors just seemed to be a misunderstanding of our intentions. As mentioned before, we found it difficult to understand zines as many of them we saw in the beginning were illustration and graphic based. We are very used to words, essays and debates we couldn't make sense of zines. We understand the content of zines can be whatever you choose and the same for the format yet we decided to follow a more visual approach in order to challenge ourselves beyond our comfort zone. When we originally discussed this the previous week, the tutors were excited that we were not going to restrict ourselves by our comfort zone.

 Therefore, we worked on a concept that would be visual yet work in our favour. So, we came up with an idea using images related to our exhibition proposals, from the previous unit,  and format it visually in our zine in a surrealist and Dadist manner.  Yet, when we explained this this week, we were told to stick to what we know and use words. We felt despite all the research we had done and the fact we had decided to come our of our comfort zones was all going to waste and was not appreciated. We left the session very confused - not a useful way to come out of a progress meeting.