Visualising Dementia Research Through Zines
1. Hello!
Hello and welcome to this zine making workshop! I’m Hana Ayoob, a freelance illustrator and science communicator. This workshop has been funded by the Alzheimer’s Research UK Inspire Fund grant as part of a broader project looking at ways to explore dementia research visually.
How does this work?
There are a series of videos and materials for you to work through below. The important information in the videos is duplicated in the text. Feel free to work through them at your own pace and to stop and start as suits you best. You should be able to complete everything within an hour and a half but you might also want to spend more time on some of the communication exercises or on making your zine.
A zine with the title ‘Rhinologists don’t study rhinos’ in front of a messy background of materials and tools
What’s a zine
Zines are simple, self-published magazines or leaflets which can be used to communicate complex and emotive issues, and to facilitate discussion. I like using them to explore science, personal issues or completely random things like my favourite fruit in Singapore. We’ll work through some different prompts to get you thinking about your area of dementia research before learning how to make a simple zine.
Staying in Touch
When you registered for the workshop, you should have also received a link to a Slack channel for ongoing discussion and questions, and two informal discussion sessions which will be held on Zoom on:
Thursday 19th November at 10-11am GMT
Wednesday 9th December at 6-7pm GMT
Both of these will be very informal, do feel free to drop in at any point during the hour to ask any questions or share your zines.
If you have not received these links or are having any issues, please drop me a line at hello(at)hanaayoob.co.uk. If you were sent the details of this page but did not register for the workshop, please do so here. It’s free and should only take a few minutes, but it’s really important I know who is taking part for the grant reporting.
Materials
The essential materials you will need are:
A sheet of paper. A4 or A3 would be best. Plain paper is ideal but if you only have lined or grid paper, this is also fine.
A pen or pencil
A pair of scissors - although you might be able to get away without them
Other materials you could use:
Tape/glue
Coloured pens, pencils, markers
Other art materials such as paint, ink or pastels
Stickers, or coloured tape
Old leaflets or magazines you can cut up - things related to your area of work would be particularly good
Digital materials you’re able to print in order to cut up and use
Anything else which you can use to make a mark on paper or which you can stick flat on to paper - let your imagination run wild!
2. Working on your content
Before we find out more about zines and create some, I’d like you to think about the following questions to get you thinking about how you communicate your work to different audiences. If there is a particular group of people you often find yourself talking to or needing to talk to about your work (e.g. patients, policy makers, healthcare workers etc.) you might want to keep them in mind as you work through these questions.
The Questions
How would you explain what you do to a colleague in 50 words?
What about to someone with little or no knowledge of dementia research, also in 50 words?
How about in 30 words?
Can you manage 20 words?
What part of your work excites you the most? Why?
What part of your work do you wish more people knew about? Why?
Are there any myths or misconceptions around your research which bother you? These could be from the general public, policy makers, colleagues or others. Why do they bother you? Why is it important people have accurate information?
If you have the time, I’d suggest chatting through your answers with someone who isn’t in your area of work.
There’s no right or wrong answers to these. They’re to get you thinking, and to come up with some material that you can use in your zine later.
If you’d like an added challenge, you could run your answers through a readability or plain English checker like these
3. More About Zines
I hope you found answering the questions interesting! As mentioned earlier, zines are simple, self-published magazines or leaflets which can be used to explore different issues and topics, and to facilitate discussion.
Zines usually have small circulation compared to typical magazines and are self-published. Traditionally, they’re sold cheaply or given away. The definition of a zine is loose but we think the term ‘zine’ came out of a sci-fi group in the 1930s. In the 1970s, access to copy shops made it easier to create them. Very similar self-published pamphlets and leaflets existed long before the term ‘zine’ was coined.
They’re increasingly being recognised as historical documents and outlets of expression with zine libraries appearing to collect them. For example, the Wellcome Trust has a brilliant collection on health and related topics.
My Zine Collection
The zines featured are:
Weird Animal Club by Sophie Heywood
A Pocketful of Science zines by Cutie and the Feast
Mental Health zines by Zulaikha
Equity, Exclusion and Everyday Science Learning by Emily Dawson
Zines by Two Photon Art
Bird zines by Katie Whittle
Foxy Feb and Bunny Behaviour zines by Lyndsey Green
Not featured in the video but available online:
The Small Science Collective has an amazing collection of zines
4. Making a Simple Zine
Follow along with the instructions on how to make a simple zine in the video or using the image below. Feel free to work through the rest of the instructions with anyone you live with (including children), making zines together can be great fun.
Now you have your blank zine ready, it's time to fill it with your answers to the questions earlier. You can handwrite, collage, draw, whatever takes your fancy. You could answer one question per page, work on a one question through the whole zine or use other ideas which were sparked by the prompts.
It’s up to you whether you wing it or plan out your pages. You could number your pages and plan the content or you can just dive in. You could begin with a title page or leave that till the end. There’s no right or wrong way to do it!
Fill the pages with text and images exploring your answers to the earlier questions. Write, draw, paint and collage your way through the pages. If you have access to a printer, you might want to print out some text or images to stick into your zine.
You can also unfold the zine to create a poster or larger page on the other side of the paper.
5. Sharing Your Zine
I hope you’ve enjoyed creating your zine! Please share progress photos or your finished zine (or zines!) in the Slack channel or in the discussion sessions. Otherwise you can also email zines to me at hello(at)hanaayoob.co.uk. If you’d rather keep your zine private, that’s absolutely fine.
Please also complete this feedback form when you have finished the workshop. It’ll help with evaluating this project and will also shape future projects and workshops I run.
Photocopying or printing your zine
The zine format we’ve used can easily be unfolded to be photographed, scanned or photocopied - and then easily replicated and shared.
If you have access to a scanner, then a scan of the two unfolded sides of your zine would be the best way to share it with us. If not, you can get great photos with most mobile phones.
A few tips on getting a clear image with your phone or a camera
Check the lens for fingerprints or other smudges
Keep your device as steady as possible - bracing your hand against a solid surface might help
Set up your zine so it’s flat and you can position your lens parallel to the surface
Sometimes taking a photo further away and cropping it can get you a better image
Check for any shadows cast on your zine from objects nearby
Use natural light if you can but avoid direct sunlight
Sharing your zine online
Taking a photo of the full unfolded pages is ideal for printing or photocopying your zine but might not work for sharing online. There are a few different ways you can easily share your zine online
Take a video of you flicking through the pages of your zine
Crop and rotate your photos of the unfolded zine or take individual photos of the pages. This allows you to share your zines as in the example below.
If you have the time and access to the right software, you could turn your images into a pdf version of the zine
Using zines in outreach and engagement
As well as sharing your finished zines online or at events, there are a few other ways you could use zines and zine making. You could create a zine with questions or prompts and gaps for people to add their own responses. Or you could use zine making with patients, schoolchildren or other groups to get them making their own zines exploring dementia or another topic.
More Info
If you’d like to explore other zine formats, here are some links you might want to try:
Other links
‘Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine?’ is a great book on zines
If you have used collage in your zine and are planning to share it, I would recommend reading the DACS fact sheet on collage and copyright.
Check out artist and writer Austin Kleon’s posts about zines
Do a web search for zines, or have a look at zine related hashtags on social media platforms. #QuaranZine has been used a lot recently.
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