The University Libraries recently collaborated with the ART 344 class as they created zines for their classroom project. At the end of the project, the students were able to place their work on display in the lobby of the Jackson Library.
The zines on this site were created by ART 344 students as part of a project that asked them to engage with a range of physical library spaces, material objects, and analog technologies, in order to break out from the comfortable familiarity of the algorithm-mediated virtual environment. In research workshops, hands-on visits to the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, and class sessions, ART 344 students were guided through new techniques for searching, browsing, interacting with print materials, using scanners and photocopiers, and folding paper booklets. The resulting zines, each of which unfolds to reveal a full-page 11×17 color version of its cover collage, critically respond to the following questions with both written responses and visual imagery synthesized from selected readings and found images from the Libraries’ collection:
How do images sway public opinion?
Does the artist have a duty to tell the truth?
Can a manipulated image tell more truths than unedited photos?
