This week's in depth look at Zines and the accompanying culture really made me take a closer look at what I knew. Memorizing and learning the theory is one thing, but to put it into use through popular culture, to me, was quite another. How could we squeeze Baudrillard and Fiske into our Zines, for aren't they already depicting a politicization of aesthetics as Benjamin would say? How would we sneek snipits of theory into our Zine without sounding redundant?
I think I will leave these questions to be answered within my group setting...
However...
Upon learning all of the creative and political things we could do using Zines, I began to feel more empowered. Even though that woman in the documentary assured us that Zines would not change the world, I'm not so sure. What if something radical and thought provoking was planted in someones mind and eventually became action provoking. Maybe an idea (stemming from the well integrated theory) would force someone into refunctioning the raw material around them into something completely wonderful and political all at the same time. Wouldn't Kipnis be proud... I felt that this Zine production not only made me feel a bit of empowerment, but a deposit so to speak in my Pour Soi (as Sartre would describe it). I have been more questioning of myself, what categories I fall into, and hence challenging my very being in order to question it. Probably not all at once though (its been a stressful few weeks). Nevertheless I hope that the production of these Zines helps all of us to question who we are as individuals, and forces us to constantly "become", avoiding reification and growing as the "enlightened individuals" that we are.