Free Zine(s) Friday!
The Zine-O-Sphere #011: On Weird, Wandering Research & Teaching with Tape Zines
This week has been a zine come true for me.
For one, the Zine Library is truly hopping for the first time. We’re teaching up a storm these days, from ENG/Comp classes to Peace and Justice Studies…even first year seminars! Zines have never been a larger part of my life than they are right now, and it’s a welcome feeling as I welcome a new year of life on this strange planet.
I turn 28 in three days and cannot believe it. I have some special, nerdy music essays to post next week to honor the occasion, so stay tuned in for those!
Onto the main event—
Along with an incredible colleague of mine, I designed a full-blown meta-zine about zinesters and all the wild, wandering research rabbit holes they fall into as they make zines. We were asked by some super cool faculty to create this zine for a Research Symposium the university is hosting this weekend. I think it turned out really cool and wanted to share it here with anyone who wants to see it!
A very special s/o goes to Brigitte, Stix Art, Sarah Shotts (they/them), Sam Pocker, and paranormal x queer for their enlightening answers to a series of questions I asked about their research processes and philosophies. All of that is included in this zine, along with some really great quotes, resources, and critical reflection questions from scholars, designers, and librarians.
I wanted to make it digitally accessible for those who can’t access a print copy at this time, so here’s a Heyzine flipbook version! If you want the PDF file version to print, fold, and staple together, let me know! I can email it to you.
I also got the teach the coolest class I’ll probably ever teach this past week.
I was invited to give a guest lecture about tape and music zines in a first year seminar class about the history and evolution of physical media. It was honestly incredible. Students were entranced by the tapes, photo-zines, and tape player I brought along with me. One student even said something that will make the Boomers and Gen X’ers out there want to cry.
“I think my grandpa has a cassette collection.” LOL
It was such a joy to teach, and I am hopeful for more opportunities like it.
Anyway, you all know I had to make a minizine highlighting the Best Of our Tape Zine collection at the Zine Library. This gave me the golden opportunity to wax poetic about one of my favorite zinesters and Substackers, Josh Datko and his bitpunk.fm tape zine series. By the way—Josh, I played “Turn On, Tune in, Opt out” for the students, and they were honestly hooked. I think I may have to donate my entire collection of your tapes to the Zine Library for future generations of tape enthusiasts to enjoy.
I also featured bitpunk.fm in the minizine I made, along with several other favorite tape zines and w$sh li$t items found on Reddit and Bandcamp. This zine is easily the best and nerdiest zine I have ever put my design brain to, so I hope the tape enthusiasts of Substack enjoy it. Here it is, ready for you to print, cut, fold, and read.
P.S. I ordered a few select cassette tape cases to hold this minizine and give out to the students as a take-away. I am sending one to Josh, but if anyone else wants one, let me know. I know I’ve been bad at mail lately, so this will give me an excuse to learn how to ship things efficiently through the USPS!
‘Til Next Time!
Hi zine friends! I hope you all had a good week. Stay safe out there.
Upcoming Events in the Land of Zines (THIS WEEKEND):
The New York Queer Zine Fest (October 11th) (I am going to this and cannot freaking wait!)
A couple of housekeeping things—
To those who signed up for the Gen X/Gen Z collaborative zine, please be patient with me! I really dropped the ball on this project and want to get it back up and running when I can. I haven’t given up!
I liked interviewing zinesters for this research zine. Would you all want to see more formalized “Interviews with a Zinester?”
If anyone has any resources, thoughts, or zines to share with me, please leave ‘em in the comments below. Do you have a weird research rabbit hole you’ve fallen down? I would love to hear from you :)
Happy Zine Making!
i am amazed, delighted, and inspired to know that academia is embracing zines. i would attach a zine that i made last year, as i turned 77 (obviously a latecomer to zine making and completely hooked now after retiring from a career as an object maker in ceramic and mosaic) but no way in this box to do that, unfortunately. Thanks for a great article,
cece
Abby! Hello! Yes, I'd love a PDF version of this zine please. Thank you so much for sharing!