Irvine, California, October 19, 2016 – The University of California, Irvine (UCI) Libraries will host its second Zinefest, during International Open Access Week October 26, 2016 on the Orange County campus. In partnership with UCI Illuminations: The Chancellor’s Arts and Culture Initiative, Cross-Cultural Center and LGBT Resource Center, the Zinefest will encourage students, faculty, staff and community members to engage in creative expression through magazine making.
During the event, from noon to 4 p.m., Orange County zinester duo, ZebraPizza will be on-site to help guests create zines. Completed zines can be contributed to the UCI Libraries Special Collections and Archives or kept for personal use. “Irvine is a college/business town that could really use some more zine flavor. As a former KUCI DJ (#DJZibaZ 2000-13) I see a real need to document music and student culture,” states Ziba of ZebraPizza Zine.
Special presentations will also be given by Emilee Mathews, Research Librarian for Visual Arts and Jeanne Scheper, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies. “I love to use Zine and “DIY” [do-it-yourself] practices in the classroom - students are savvy consumers in our image-driven ‘society of the spectacle,’ but zine-making allows them to also be inventive cultural critics. They make their own images and project new ideas into a world they invent — one that is often driven by social justice, community-building, and the playful imagination of possibility, and not just profit,” says Professor Scheper.
Additionally, library curators will highlight zines from the growing collection in Special Collection and Archives. This display will include newly created zines donated to the UCI Libraries from the annual Orange County Zinefest held this past August in Santa Ana, California.
A zine is defined as a small circulation of self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images usually reproduced via photocopier. The primary intent of publication is usually not for profit and instead serves as a communication vehicle for various subcultures or social justice movements, which draw inspiration from a "do-it-yourself" philosophy.