Easily dispelled with a or a / or an X.
The terror of creation can be gently handled with the mantra “There is no such thing as perfect.”
This is not the last blank page in our known universe and yours is not the responsibility of bridging about the triumph of light with a pencil.
What the blank page wants is transformation – for you to throw things at it so that it can become. The founder of psychoanalysis, Carl Jung, formulated the technique of active imagination – a form of opening the floodgates of the unconscious – to allow things to flow forward without filtering, a form of communication with the many parts of the self. In the Ancient Egyptian Book of Coming Forth by Day (aka Book of the Dead) the God Thot mentions that the very first implements of magic are writing tools. Between the eye, the hand and the surface runs an invisible current of magic.
The upcoming ZINE MELA is a celebration of this magic.
PHILOSOPHICAL GUIDE TO ZINEMAKING:
Close your eyes and let your mind generate freely.
On a piece of paper of any size, using a writing tool of your choice – express what came up, don’t filter, let the hand do the thinking.
Open your eyes.
Interpret freely.
Write down what you see – things do not have to make sense immediately – it’s like singing an unwritten song.
NOTHING IS RANDOM.
MEANING IS IN THE MAKING.
Creative freedom is something that you give yourself. Valuation is something you do yourself.
Zines are born from a culture of responsible independence. As anarchistic tools they offer anonymity and resistance against authority. No permissions are given. No rules apply. No conditions are considered.
With omnipresent online surveillance, hand-made, print-shop reproduced zines escape the data crawlers. Zines offer a dimension of freedom that exists only in hand-made things. Zines are a form of preservation of human eccentricities – not everything is for the masses, not everything needs to spread. Some things remain secret, some things are meant to be small. Zines allow for all things.
THE ZINE MELA will be hosted by the Goethe-Instut from March 30-June 1. This is a natural collaboration between Anushah Alamgir of Colors Publishing and Sister Library (Dhaka). The mela will showcase independent zine, poster and book makers and visitors can make their own at the event. There is currently an open call for idea submissions – the organisers are offering themselves as sounding boards and cheerleaders to help in the creation of zine ideas. Support offered includes printing and distribution.
Co-creation is a messy, exciting, surprising process – there is no real destination, just an agreement to create judgement-free.
See you at the zine mela.