Making a 'Zine' for Creativity Hours

[spookypuke]

Hi, everyone! c:

 

I am thinking of making a zine (described on Wikipedia as "small circulation self-published work"; it'll essentially be a small collection of artwork and writing) in order to accumulate creativity hours, and I'm looking for some feedback! I haven't run it by my CAS coordinator yet, however I'm fairly certain that she would be alright with my doing this. I can complete it independently or (hopefully!) in a group.

 

I would like to know if you guys think that this would serve as an acceptable activity for creativity hours. I would also really, really appreciate ideas on what I could use as a theme for the publication. I was wondering what I could do to encompass the characteristics of service as well. I've considered, for example, making it about mental health and support and giving it to some local psychiatric support group or office; I've also considered making it generally reflective and positive and giving it to either an elderly care home or distributing it to a local elementary or middle school. Obviously, all of these ideas necessitate very different orientations of content, so I was wondering what you guys thought was best.

 

Oh! Also, if I choose to do this, how would I go about authenticating the amount of time spend working on this project?

 

I know I have a lot of questions~ any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Sandwich]

It would be a super easy & convenient way to fulfil creativity... nothing better than doing 'activities' from your chair!

 

It might be a bit iffy because the hours are sort-of unquantifiable, as you said. If you made a post a week and claimed it took you half an hour to write it and put in a picture or something, that might slowly rack up your hours, and weekly updates would give a re-assuring regularity that you're spending the full 30 mins, even if it's not always that long. Trying to swing service into it, I'm not sure. I mean, would those places want a random website - and one they can't even control the content of? They'd be better off making their own site.

 

You could perhaps run one for free on the behalf of a school or an old people's home/support group etc. and make the content specific to them. That would certainly count as service. However I think trying to tie it in with some random reflections and pictures would be a bit of a push. I would try contacting a local group and asking them if they want a website, and if not I would just go for the cutesy reflection/writing/artwork thing and call it creativity. The easiest 'group' to run a site for would obviously be your school's IB set. You could report on events/achievements/take photos of what people are doing and pass that off as CAS service/creativity, it would just be a bit more effort having to go to and find out about these things.

[Thrashmaster]

If you want to include service, talk to the group beforehand. That's what I'm trying to do with my animations.

 

Anyway, I think you should be fine. It does sound creative. Consider having a goal of entering it into a contest or something along those lines, and you can rest easy knowing that you have achieved the C in CAS

[flinquinnster]

I actually made a zine (or rather two, in the course of the whole IB course) with a friend and we used it as our 'Group Project' covering Creativity/Service. To make it sound CAS-y we based it around different topics appropriate for our target audience (early high school students we wanted to 'educate' in areas such as feminism and geography) and then we distributed it... Though I'm ashamed to admit I don't remember how. I think we did it either online or put something in our school library. We managed to get a supervisor and since IB doesn't officially condone hours anymore the ambiguity there wasn't really an issue as long as we could prove we fulfilled our CAS aims. To be honest I thought that our activity was a bit of a cop-out, but we ended up passing CAS so that was great!

 

So, I definitely think your idea is viable. In terms of what audience you want to target, it's hard to say. I think the most important thing is to try and establish preliminary contact with your different target groups to determine if they would be happy displaying/distributing any of your zines, so that you get some idea of how to present your ideas - as you mentioned each group requires a different approach. Then, I guess the next most important thing is to determine which target audience you personally prefer creating for - which is easiest for you? Mental health awareness does sound like an interesting theme, but be aware that it can be a potentially problematic and complex issue where if you don't treat it in sufficient depth and sophistication what you might end up creating could potentially not be that positive. However, I think this theme is definitely do-able with research and planning. The are lots of other themes you might consider - e.g. recycling and environment, youth political engagement etc. I think, again, it's about what you personally are willing to invest quite a lot of time and interest in. 

 

Ultimately though it does depend on whether you can find a supervisor who's willing to sign off on it, and whether your IBC is happy with it. In your case it seems as though it won't be too big an issue, so best of luck with your CAS idea!

[spookypuke]

It would be a super easy & convenient way to fulfil creativity... nothing better than doing 'activities' from your chair!

 

It might be a bit iffy because the hours are sort-of unquantifiable, as you said. If you made a post a week and claimed it took you half an hour to write it and put in a picture or something, that might slowly rack up your hours, and weekly updates would give a re-assuring regularity that you're spending the full 30 mins, even if it's not always that long. Trying to swing service into it, I'm not sure. I mean, would those places want a random website - and one they can't even control the content of? They'd be better off making their own site.

 

You could perhaps run one for free on the behalf of a school or an old people's home/support group etc. and make the content specific to them. That would certainly count as service. However I think trying to tie it in with some random reflections and pictures would be a bit of a push. I would try contacting a local group and asking them if they want a website, and if not I would just go for the cutesy reflection/writing/artwork thing and call it creativity. The easiest 'group' to run a site for would obviously be your school's IB set. You could report on events/achievements/take photos of what people are doing and pass that off as CAS service/creativity, it would just be a bit more effort having to go to and find out about these things.

Thanks for your input! I'm not making a website, though. It's essentially a small, artsy magazine that I intend to create. I'm sorry if I wasn't entirely clear in my original post. I would also certainly make this available for free and I intend to make the content explicitly directed to whatever group I decide to focus on.

 

The points you brought up are still valid within this context; when we consider a magazine/book, the content remains constant and unchangeable or updatable. I do intend to gather input and direction from the leaders as well as the members of whatever group I intend to direct this project at, if I choose to pursue it.

[spookypuke]

I actually made a zine (or rather two, in the course of the whole IB course) with a friend and we used it as our 'Group Project' covering Creativity/Service. To make it sound CAS-y we based it around different topics appropriate for our target audience (early high school students we wanted to 'educate' in areas such as feminism and geography) and then we distributed it... Though I'm ashamed to admit I don't remember how. I think we did it either online or put something in our school library. We managed to get a supervisor and since IB doesn't officially condone hours anymore the ambiguity there wasn't really an issue as long as we could prove we fulfilled our CAS aims. To be honest I thought that our activity was a bit of a cop-out, but we ended up passing CAS so that was great!

 

So, I definitely think your idea is viable. In terms of what audience you want to target, it's hard to say. I think the most important thing is to try and establish preliminary contact with your different target groups to determine if they would be happy displaying/distributing any of your zines, so that you get some idea of how to present your ideas - as you mentioned each group requires a different approach. Then, I guess the next most important thing is to determine which target audience you personally prefer creating for - which is easiest for you? Mental health awareness does sound like an interesting theme, but be aware that it can be a potentially problematic and complex issue where if you don't treat it in sufficient depth and sophistication what you might end up creating could potentially not be that positive. However, I think this theme is definitely do-able with research and planning. The are lots of other themes you might consider - e.g. recycling and environment, youth political engagement etc. I think, again, it's about what you personally are willing to invest quite a lot of time and interest in. 

 

Ultimately though it does depend on whether you can find a supervisor who's willing to sign off on it, and whether your IBC is happy with it. In your case it seems as though it won't be too big an issue, so best of luck with your CAS idea!

Thanks for your ideas! I didn't really intend on this project being my definitive 'CAS project'; I'm sure I could present it in some that would render it eligible as one, though.

 

There's a 'zine-fest' of sorts upcoming in my area; I thought about making a zine concerning modern feminism (As, really, that would be the easiest topic for me to focus on.), but I know that the scene will already be heavily populated with feminist publications and, hence, people interested in feminist publications. I'd simply find it more fulfilling to try to reach an audience that's not terribly familiar with feminist theory. The idea of distributing it through a library is great!

 

On for my idea for mental health awareness, I was specifically thinking about distributing the zine to a women's shelter at which I volunteer, making the publication generally about topics such body positivity and basic exercises to overcome anxiety, for example. I understand where you're coming from--it is still dangerous territory and potentially problematic as, even when operating within a space with which I am well-acquainted and familiar, one can never really gauge what can be triggering/harmful to a separate body. I didn't fully consider this. Thanks for bringing my attention to it!