This talk explores the role zines play as sites of creative dissent. As self-produced, independent publications, zines are part of a historical trajectory of printed forms of communication that thrive outside the mainstream. The zine can operate as a community newsletter, a political samizdat and a counter-cultural magazine. Zines operate as ‘small-scale democracies’ and as graphic ephemera they inform a history of graphic design. For researchers, the zine provides an invaluable resource for the study of cultural, political and social documentation. For individual zine producers and activists, they are catalysts for conversations and give rise to communities of interest. This talk spotlights a handful of zine examples ranging from punk to #dumpingTrump.
Teal Triggs is Professor of Graphic Design, School of Communication, Royal College of Art. As an educator, historian, and writer, Teal’s research focuses on graphic design history, criticism, and research methods. She is author of Fanzines, co-editor of Below Critical Radar: Fanzines and Alternative Comics From 1976 to Now and more recently, The Graphic Design Reader. Her current collaboration ‘Graphic Design Histories for Creative Dissent: Archiving and Ethical Challenges’ (with partners in Brazil, South Africa and the UK) is a three-year funded Trans-Atlantic Platform project. Teal is co-editor of Design Issues (MIT Press).
This event takes place at Homerton College, Mary Allan Building, Room 104.
Whilst this event is free, we encourage donations in order that we can continue running opportunities such as these.