This is another reason I did the tinkering and am trying to read fewer feeds - so I can return to the odd spot of browsing and happen upon people like Lisa, a friend of George Dunford's who is studying journalism in Paris.
Her views on the difference between zines and blogs are news to me, and fascinating - she says in an earlier post, "Among the ex-pats here, zines are a rarity, with blogs the main way of keeping touch with people back home. And yet, most blogs do not have the same kind of sincerity or passion that's found in a zine. There's a real love for the zine making process which gets lost when sharing your thoughts becomes as easy as clicking the "Publish" button. "
One of my Facebook friends uploaded photos of his favourite zine front covers. Oddly, I was thankful that none of my zines were among the list. Every now and then there are discussions about digitising zines – but to do so would to lose its meaning. I love reading back on my old zines because it reminds me of who I was at a particular time in my life, and how much I’ve changed (or haven’t changed) since that zine was made. There is an honesty in these early zines, an intimacy between myself and the 50 other people who managed to get a copy. Many things shared in the zines are things that I would not tell an online audience, where strangers from all over the world could find and read it without its original context. Rather than trying to get as many web hits as possible or having an eternal presence on the World Wide Web, I want my personal zines to remain ephemeral. Perhaps the same could be said about squats.
Posted at her blog, Colours of Bohemia, and also published in the Sticky newsletter early this year.
Via the Sticky Institute, someone else discusses these issues at Barnard, Columbia, no less - Jenna
Freedman. Lovely.
Lisa Pham is awesome! I've worked with her a few times and it's always a pleasure.
Posted by: lisa | September 15, 2009 at 04:20 PM