PROJECT OPTION #2

Make a 12 Page "Zine"

cartoon by artist - Ad Reinhardt

What's a zine?
"A zine is a handmade magazine or mini-comic about anything you can imagine: favorite bands, personal stories, subcultures, or collections. They contain diary entries, rants, interviews, and stories. They can be by one person or many, found in stores, traded at comic conventions, exchanged with friends, or given away for free. Zines are not a new idea: they’ve been around for years under various names (chapbooks, flyer's, pamphlets). People with independent ideas have been getting their word out since before there were printing presses."
-from the description of the book Whatcha Mean, What's a Zine? The Art of Making Zines and Mini-Comics

"A zine (pronounced “zeen,” like “magazine”) is a self-published, small circulation, non-commercial booklet or magazine, usually produced by one person or a few individuals. Zines come in all shapes, sizes, topics, and formats. Most zines are photocopied, but they can also be printed offset, like a magazine or newspaper. Zines range from handwritten and sloppy to cut-and-paste (text pasted on top of background images) to artsy with handmade touches to produced on a computer with a professional looking layout. Zines may incorporate screen printing, linoleum cuts, and hand-stitched bindings. Most zines have print runs of a couple dozen to a few hundred copies. 

In a zine, you might find typos, improper grammar, and brilliant or radical or just plain honest ideas that you don’t normally see in Time, Newsweek, or People. A zine can be about whatever subject its creator decides upon, or it may contain a variety of subjects and writing styles within the same issue. Zines can include personal essays, political discussions, fiction, craft or do-it-yourself advice, articles about music or movies, comics, poetry, reviews – anything under the sun, really. Zines are personal and idiosyncratic. The best thing about zines is this: There are no rules."
-from Undergroundpress.org


ZINE PROJECT DETAILS

You are to create a 12 page zine of your own design. The idea is to use this medium as a means of self expression. Your zine can be about anything you desire. Text and Images can be used in combination you may desire. It may even be devoid of text all together. You should consider the layout of your zine, how the narrative or action of turning its pages progresses from start to finish. Feel free to appropriate images and/or text if need be. Experiment with composition and materials. Perhaps print on colored papers, or use a heavier card stock for the cover page. Printing may be done fully in black and white, full color of a combination of the two. The creative choices are all up to you. This zine should express something about you. You will not be graded on the quality of your writing or even your artistic ability. Zine's tend to each have their own unique character, the character of its creator. Let your style come through. Have fun with it. Feel free to take chances.

[Note: The zines to be completed should be from 8.5" x 11" paper folded in half. A single, half folded sheet of paper makes 4 pages. In booklet and zine making, pages are always in denominations of 4. So, two sheets of paper folded and bound together would be 8 pages, three sheets folded and bound together makes 12 pages. We are making 12 page zines, so we are talking about three sheets of 8.5" x 11" paper, folded in half, creating a booklet that measures 8.5" x 5.5". Each sheet printed double sided These could be smaller in size as long as they maintain being a minimum of 12 pages.]

1- Come up with a concept, an idea for what your zine will be or about.
2- Collect any text and/or images, art you may need for the layout of the zine. 
3- Begin the layout of the zine pages and the cover. This may be done with a physical master copy or if you are more comfortable mocking it up digitally (Photoshop and InDesign are both great options and available on library computers). If manually mocking up your layouts with a master copy, you will most likely be using glue sticks and tape to secure your images and text to the paper. 
4- Scan your master copy if you are using one and print out your designs. Remember to print double sided and keep in mind the collating of the pages. The video directly below will explain the double sided page layout for a 12 page zine. Pay Attention or your pages will be out of order. If you did digital layouts in InDesign you should be able to print double sided prints and the program will have figured out the page order automatically. There is another video link below explaining the use of InDesign for booklet layout. You may need to adjust for number of pages.
5- Print your zine. You are welcome to print this on a large photo copier or even your home inkjet printer. There are numerous online tutorial videos available explaining how to print double sided on your home printer. If that is your choice, you may want to look up the model of your printer and search for double sided printing options or what they also call duplex printing. You also have the option to take your zine or your files to the campus copy center or even to a FedEx Office for printing. Feel free to have someone assist you if you are uncertain how to print in booklet form. 
6- You MUST print at least 3 COPIES of your whole zine. Feel free to print as many more as you may like. Perhaps you print enough for everyone in the class. Or you may want to pass some out to your friends. Its up to you, but you need at least 3 copies for this project.
7- Once you have all your pages printed and you put them in the proper order, you may now fold the booklets and bind them. If having your booklets printed professionally, they may very well be able to staple bind them automatically. If not, you have two options. You may use a booklet stapler or a long arm stapler for stapling directly on the fold of the zine. I will provide a booklet stapler at the beginning of our second class, the day the zines are due. If you wanted to try another binding option, you may attempt a saddle stitch. Using a needle and thread. A link below will show you how. 

DUE DATE: 
Do to the very short nature of this class, the project is due a week from our first meeting. That means it is due at the beginning of our second class session.


Video Tutorials


how to make a zine from nicki sabalu on Vimeo.





Cut & Paste from Melissa Campbell on Vimeo.










Article on the History of Artist Books of the 60's and 70's:
Artists Books As Alternative Space by Martha Wilson, 1978

Great Books on Zines:
Stolen Sharpie Revolution 2 
Whatcha Mean, What's a Zine - The Art of Making Zines and Mini-Comics

Online Community for Zine Makers and Zine Readers:
We Make Zines

Local Zine Library:
Inside Emergency Arts Center on Fremont

PROJECT OPTION #1

Make a 1 Minute Art Video

What is Video Art?

"Using the concept of moving pictures, video art is a medium that can either accent other forms of art or stand by itself in installations at galleries. The designs use video presentations that can be combined with audio if that artist so desires. Although the concept of video art generally takes a similar form as television presentations or experimental film making, it is considered a distinct art form more aligned with painting and photography.

The first instances of video art came from developments into video technology during the 1960s and 1970s. As video production methods became more prominent and cost-effective, modern artists of the era began to utilize the medium in conjunction with other art exhibits. With the advancements in digital technology during the late 20th and early 21st century, video became much more prominent within galleries alongside traditional artworks. The medium moved from primarily using video tape to formats such as digital video disk and solid state hard drives.

The primary distinction between video art and cinema is the fact that it does not have to utilize the traditional aspects of film making such as a concrete narrative or plot line. Oftentimes, this art style simply uses imagery that does not contain any dialogue or actors whatsoever. Sometimes, it may include a repeated motion image used to represent a facet of the overall artistic piece. The largest distinction between video art and film is the concept of entertainment. Movies are generally designed to give the viewer some sort of emotional satisfaction, while video art may employ characteristics that widely vary depending on the intent of the artist."  - from WiseGeek

PROJECT:

Andy Warhol, Nam June Paik and a number of artists in the 60's not only took cinema, movies and the use of the latest video technologies as a form of inspiration, but also pursued the medium as means in which to experiment and play with new ways of making art. In the spirit of such experimental films and videos, you are to make a short, one minute long video. One Minute. No shorter. No longer. You, the artist, the director, are give full creative control. The video may be in black and white or in color, perhaps even both. With sound or completely silent. Scripted or improvised. Fictional or documentary. Narrative or abstract. Whatever style of movie you decide to make is completely up to you, it can even be animated if you so choose. You may shoot your video with any means you have access to whether that is an actual video camera, your cell phone, tablet, or even the webcam on your computer. Experiment and try new things. Make the video completely on your own or collaborate with others. The point being, that in the end, the final video must be YOUR concept that we are seeing. You must be able to express, explain and defend your artistic choices be it in technique, style and most importantly concept and content.

THINGS TO CONSIDER:

Be original. Attempt to show us something that has some conceptual meaning. The world doesn't need another video of your dog or cat doing weird things. I do not need to see your walk/drive to school or class. Also, we do not need to see your morning -waking up ritual. Put some creative thought into your concept creation. Consider the medium and how you can use it in an interesting way. Think, will other people want to watch this and/or find it interesting visually, conceptually, etc.

You will not be graded on the quality of your camera work, editing ability, acting ability or any of these things. Your grade is dependent on showing the actual effort, thought and sincerity that went into the project.

If shooting video with a tablet or phone, take into consideration the orientation in which you are holding the camera. We are accustomed to watching videos in a horizontal/landscape format rather than a vertical/portrait format. Of course, altering this can be used as a conceptual means but be sure to know why you film the way you do.

[Note: If using music in your video, it may be wise to steer away from using copyrighted material; consider ambient sounds and/or music recorded by yourself or friends (with their permission of course). Look up "royalty free music" for possible options. Either way, in the end, the choice is yours.]

MATERIALS:

-Video Camera (this could even include the video option on your cell phone or even the webcam on your laptop of tablet)

-Editing Software (there are numerous free video editing software packages available these days for download. Most recent computers and laptops already have some form of video editing software, like Windows Live Movie Maker (for PC's) and iMovie (for MAC). A simple Google search will bring up many options and a simple tutorial search on YouTube will offer you basic instruction on how to use these programs. IF you need help with editing, feel free to work with a friend who knows how to do so, just as long as you oversee the actual process and make the final decisions.

PROCESS:

1- Come up with an idea. If it helps, write it down, draw a storyboard, make a script if need be. 

2- Shoot your video (and audio if adding audio). Videos may be shot in a single take or compiled and edited together from multiple shots. Do as many takes as you need to get the shot you desire. Video is cheap to record and easy to edit. 

3- Edit your video. If need be, work with a friend who knows how to edit. Edit your video to length. Create the story/image you want to present. Need help with a particular editing software, you can often find a vast array of video tutorials on Youtube. 

4- Bring in your video on a USB drive to class. Make sure you test that it will play from the USB drive before coming to class.

COLLABORATION:

Collaboration if perfectly fine. Feel free to work with friends or other classmates to help you create YOUR vision. Perhaps they help you film, edit or act in the project. All of that is fine as long as the project leader and concept it yours. BUT when collaborating with other classmates, everyone is REQUIRED to create their own UNIQUE project.

DUE DATE: The project is DUE exactly one week from the date it is assigned. That would mean that it is due at the beginning of our second class together.  

Videos Viewed in Class:

Martin Scorscese, The Big Shave, 1967

Chantal Akerman, Saute ma ville, 1968

Bas Jan Ader, Broken Fall (Organic), 1971

Christian Marclay, Telephones, 1995

Pipilotti Rist, Sip My Oceanl, 1996

Pipilotti Rist, Ever Is Over All, 1997

Bill Viola, The Quintet of the Astonished, 2000

Guy Ben-Ner, Mody Dick, 2000

Omer Fast, 5,000 Feet Is Best, 2011