For a media project that demonstrated multiple genres of literacy my group decided to make a zine to reflect on moments during our practicum that were vivid and had an effect on our emotional states. The zine was a brief flash of rebel self-publishing before the online publishing world of blogs and websites went mainstream. People who had things to express that weren’t being espoused in glossy magazines of the day took to their photocopiers to tell their own stories. We felt that the moments we chose would relate to all teacher candidates and we chose to use the image of a heart to avoid becoming sarcastic. The genres of literacy we explored were that of reference texts in our table of contents and index, visual literacy in the illustrations, poetry, photocopy literacy, 90’s zine literacy and the literacy of a round table in the process of creating it. Making this project was a rich example of the potential of group work to bring virtual strangers together in a meaningful way. It gives me hope for meaningful group work in my own art class room.
Many thanks and heaps of gratitude to my partners in this project. Gunita Gupta and Johnnie Furlong are brilliant, insightful and generous collaborators. All my future ‘zine projects will be dedicated to them.
‘zine literacy
