December 6-8, 2023
For our final projects in Integrative Studio I: Memory and Integrative Seminar I: Memory, we had to make a zine and essay, respectively. The zine was based on the theme of our essay. The requirements for our essays were essentially to write an academic research paper based on memory or other topics that we covered in class that we wanted to explore further. I decided to write about how memory and attachment to memory can affect artists, with a focus on how that impacts those on a path to moksha. I wanted to bring in moksha as I’m slowly learning more and more about my religion and culture, and as someone who creates, this essay helped me reflect on my art practice. The essay is below:
My zine had to reflect on this topic. I decided to keep it minimal, emphasizing the process of letting go. I incorporated excerpts of my essay in the zine. I didn’t bring moksha into the zine, however, because the essay is a research paper meant for learning about the intersection of moksha and creation, I wanted the zine to be more relatable, acknowledging that many people might not understand moksha or be on the same path as me. My brainstorming process for my contributions to this zine is below:
I made three spreads using Lightroom to edit the photographs of my hands and Adobe InDesign to format the spreads and add text. Below are before and after pictures, and process pictures:
Overall, I enjoyed the process of researching and writing for the essay, as well as creating the zine spreads. As I mentioned before, the essay helped me reflect on myself and my practice, and during my presentation of my topic, it felt good to voice my thoughts and get feedback from my peers and professor. As for the zine, it was more of a fun process. I’m very interested in photo editing and this project enabled me to jump into it. It was my first time using Lightroom which was exciting; throughout my studio class, I’ve enjoyed exploring different software. Figuring out how to spiral text in InDesign was also complicated, but satisfying in the end. Below are my final spreads: