RF25
Poster proposition for the Research Festival 2025 (RF25), own work.
a physical zine and a participatory workshop. The workshop, Scattering and Gathering: Collecting Chance Encounters, will invite participants to engage with the South London Gallery as a site of observation, interaction, and response. Through walking, collecting, and documenting, participants will produce individual contributions that reflect their encounter with the gallery and its surrounding environment. These responses will be assembled into a collaboratively produced zine, situating the practice of zine-making within a framework of collective authorship and spatial exploration. The completed zine will be scanned and shared digitally with all participants, while the physical copy will remain on display for the duration of the festival, extending the collaborative process into a public context.
A (very) brief zine history
Zines (or fanzines, as they were originally known) first emerged in the 1930s. At the time, they were “ (...) self-published, short magazines by science-fiction fans to discuss the content that they loved.” (Amon Carter Museum of American Art, 2023) The first known zine, a publication called ‘The Comet’ was created by the ‘Science Correspondence Club’ in Chicago, during this period.
With the invention of the photocopier in the 1970s, zines became more accessible, inexpensive, and easy to reproduce, expanding the potential of the medium. The term fanzine was shortened to zine, and the range of topics broadened to include almost any subject (Arnold 2016). During the 1970s and 1980s,
zine-making shifted from science fiction communities to the punk scenes of London, New York, and Los Angeles. “Compared to the earlier sci-fi zines, punk zines had a grungier, DIY aesthetic that reflected the subjects being covered.” (Arnold, 2016). Zines such as Slash or Sniffing Glue featured and interviewed bands like The Clash, The Ramones or Joy Division.
In the 1990s, zines culture resurfaced through the Riotgrrrl scene. The band Bikini Kill published a zine
by the same name. Tobi Vail, a member of the band, even published her own title, Jigsaw. “Whatever riot grrrl became - a political movement, an avant-garde, or an ethos - it began as a zine.” (Fateman, 2016).
Today, zines are both diverse and widely accessible. The internet has created space to plethora of online zines, available in libraries such as the LCC Zine Collection. You can find zines about anything, even zines about zines (Broken Pencil, to name one). Even Camberwell College’s library has a collection of zines, as do most universities.
Why the zine?
Zines and workshops, in my mind, work hand in hand. Both bring communities together, and champion collaboration. They provide spaces where people can freely share their work, express their ideas, and experiment without constraint.
Within the context of the South London Gallery, the zine becomes a tool for collective authorship and spatial engagement, allowing participants to respond directly to their surroundings and to each other. Making a zine is an act of embracing the unknown, shaped by chance encounters with both people and material. In this sense, the zine serves not only as a record of participation but also as a site where research, process, and community intersect.
Below,
I have included the zine created during the workshop: ‘Glasses of Rain’,
as well as the digital version of the zine I published, Scattering & Gathering : Collecting Chance Encounters
Amon Carter Museum of American Art. (2023). A Short History of Zines. Available at: https://www.cartermuseum.org/blog/short-history-zines#:~:text=Zines%20(pronounced%20%E2%80%9CZEENS%E2%80%9D),)%2C%20printmaking%2C%20and%20photography. (Accessed 6 November 2025).
Arnold, C. (2016) A Brief History of Zines. Available at: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/88911/brief-history-zines (Accessed 6 November 2025)
Fateman, J. (2016). The riot grrrl collection. New York: Feminist, October.