Graphic and Media Design - Assignment Example

Graphic and media design A Zine is usually a minute circulation of self-published art work of appropriated or original texts and images normally reproduced via photocopier. A famous definition includes that the circulation should be not more than 1000 (Vervliet, Vervliet, & Estor, 2000). Though in practice, a large number are produced in versions of not more than 100, and the profit is not publication’s primary intent. They are usually informed by DIY and anarcho-punk ethos. Zines are normally written in several formats, from desktop distributed script to comics to handwritten scripts such as the intransigent punk zine Comet-bus. Print remains the most famous zine format, normally photocopied with circulation of small portions. The topics that are covered are very robust, including politics, fanfiction, intersectional feminism, art and design, personal journals, ephemera, riot grrrls, and social theory among others. The material and time needed to come up with a zine are rarely matched by revenue from the sale of zines. Minute circulation zines are often inexplicitly copyrighted, and a firm belief exists among most zine architects that the material used should be distributed freely. Recently, a number of duplicated zines have increased to professional or prominence status and have established a wide online and bookstore distribution. Prominent among these are Dazed and confused, Giant Robot, Bust, Bitch, Cometbus, Brainscan, Doris, and Maximum RocknRoll (Stewart, 2005). Since the discovery of the photogravure press if not earlier, marginalized and dissidents citizens have managed to publish their take in pamphlet and leaflet form. A popular pamphlet was published by Thomas Paine titled “Common Sense”; it led to an insurrectionary revolution. Thomas is regarded as one of the significant ancient autonomous publisher as well as a zinester in his personal right, but during then, the “mass media” as is known currently, never existed. A myriad number of obscure and eminent legendary figures would at some point self-publish, or another, at times as kids or as adults. The real origin of the term “zine” is indeterminate, but it was greatly used initially in 1970s, and most probably is a condensed version of the name “Magazine”, with one zine lamenting the acronym. The earliest reference known is since 1946, in the startling tales. During 18th century, a person called Benjamin F as well began a fictitious magazine for psychiatric patients in a Pennsylvania hospital, which was disbursed amongst patients and the hospital workers. This was regarded as the first zine because it captured philosophy essence and zines’ meaning (Benedettelli, 2010). The notion of zines purely possessed an ancestor in the amateur media movement, which in turn would cross pollinate with the science fiction fandom subculture around 1930’s. It was through zine revolution that brought the birth of Lego that some called young zine in real world. A Lego mini figure, usually denoted as a “mini fig” or purely just a “fig”, is a minute plastic enunciated figure existing as part of the construction toy Lego, manufactured by Danish toy industry the Lego Group. Lego were first manufactured in 1978, and have greatly become successful, having over three billion produced, and the character appearing in several media, including, books, movies and video games such as Lego Star Wars. The images are normally found within Lego groupings, though they are always vended separately as magnets and key chains. In as much some are called with the names of specific characters, either authorized from film franchises or of Lego’s individual creation, most of them are unnamed and are simply designed to fit within a certain theme such as pirates, astronauts, and police officers (Cobb, 2014). Minifigures are usually collected by both adults and children. They are greatly customizable, and fragments from various figures can be assorted and matched, giving a large number of combinations. Similar mini figures are manufactured by other companies like the Kronos from construction toy Kre-O by a Korean company called Oxford; a subsidiary of Hasbro. Minifigures basically features six segments; widely known as tools in the toy world: torso, head, hips, hands, legs and arms; these six segments enable seven articulation points: twirl head, twirl arms, twirl wrists, and twirl legs. They are normally embalmed as three distinct parts in Lego groups: torso, legs and head. The plastic is usually an acrylonitrile butadiene styrene abbreviated as “ABS”; a tough material that enable durability of Lego. The plastic is liquefied into specifically designed molds that enable the production of different segments of the mini figure. Some parts of the molds are also accouterments such as weapons (guns, swords, and lightsabers among others) or daily accessories (tools, food, and cups among others). Torsos and heads normally require further decoration, and at times the legs and arms do as well. This tedious process is the reason as to why the objects are more expensive than any other product from Lego. After printing, the head is positioned and placed on top of the torso, the arms are snapped on and the legs attached. The figures are then packaged and availed for sale. Minifigures are always cylindrical, and fasten to a long, slender cylinder molded on top of the torso, which enables the rotation of the head. This aspect as well allows item to be connected to the figures over the torso, like capes, breastplates, and air tanks. The heads contain a stud over them which have the same size as the studs on ordinary Lego bricks which could enable one to be placed on top of it. Minifigure’s head is the only component which may be used for other applications: blank heads of mini figure have usually been used in Lego sets to imitate other objects such as electrical appliances and lampshades. Accessories of the head do vary robustly and include helmet, hats, and hair. The legs are capable of rotating independently to an angle of 90 degrees forward and almost 45 degrees backward. Minifigures as well connect to standard Lego bricks in both a upright and a sitting location. Hands resemble the letter C, which enables them to hold most of Lego accessories. There are several accessories and the tops of the hands are nearly the same size as that of the studs on typical Lego bricks, which enables Lego pieces to be positioned on top of them; these variations enable mini figures to be customized, maintaining the modular design of Lego elements. Legos have depicted real world scenarios where artists use them to design various models. The Zine represents the miniature universe and there exists a photographer named Andrew Whyte who managed to take several photos with his Lego mini figure around the world and those photos inspires one to imagine how Minifig is related with reality. The photographer has documented the adventures of a brave lone Lego in his “The Legographer” photo series and he revealed that he had some fun; submerging personally in the occasional mishaps and adventures of a mini figure photographer. He claims that he felt as if it simulates with the world realities and which is an interesting idea, he never thought. He wanted to his audiences to understand that his zine represented the angle of mini figure’s view of real life and the way mini figs relates to normal life. Meanwhile, he expected the audiences to have a different point of view whenever they looked at his zine. One may think the way a little object may hurt mini fig, for instance, a falling nut would become a super huge rock according to their view. I put a series of photographs, which represent the miniature things, and set down a range of scene that represents mini figure’s adventure. Additionally, as Andrew Whyte said is a courageous of immersing himself in the occasional place. Nonetheless, mini figure could be such a great model in our daily lives. Even when a mini fig goes to the Dog Park, this may turn to be an adventure for them since the young puppy is so big as compared to the Lego. According to some books, especially the miniature book, illustrates the connection between the material and abstract nature of the sign, stressing that the reduced physical dimensions of the book will have only peripheral bearing upon the text meaning (Stewart, 1984). Thus the miniature book always calls for attention to the book as a total object. The mutual exteriority of “real” and textual world’s results in part from the problem that language can imitate only language: depiction and representation of the physical world in language are matters of concealed suture, matters of a mutuality of procedures by which the community maintains the fiction of linguistic representation. Thus, speaking of miniaturization in narrative is to engage in this fiction, for the manners in which the physical biosphere can be shrunk are not carried over into objects for the linguistic depiction of the miniature (Kortsch, 2009). The depiction of the miniature functions through establishing a referential field, a field where signs are displayed in relation to one another and relation to concrete objects in the sensual world. According to Solomon Grildrig’s introductory statement: “I consider myself to be one who takes a picture from real being, who tries to catch the resemblance, or portray the features of existing objects, so that the representation may impartially, and exactly describe the perfections or the defects, deformities or the beauties of the original. ” The miniature does not attach itself to the lived historical time. Unlike the metonymic world of realism, which tries to expunge the break amongst the time of daily life and the time of narrative mapping one perfectly upon the other, the metaphoric universe of the miniature makes daily life absolutely interior and exterior to itself (Streat, 2012). The reduction in scale in which the minuscule presents twists the space and time relations of daily life world, and as an object spent, the minuscule finds its “use value” transmuted into the inestimable time of trance. This capability of the miniature to create an “other” time, a kind of unequalled time which contradicts change and the flux of survived reality, may be seen in action in such projects as the Museum of Art in Miniature. Bibliography BENEDETTELLI, D. (2010). Lego Mindstorms NXT thinking robots: build a Rubiks cube solver and a tic-tac-toe playing robot! San Francisco, No Starch Press. COBB, R. (2014). The paradox of authenticity in a globalized world.  KORTSCH, C. B. (2009). Dress culture in late Victorian womens fiction: literacy, textiles, and activism. Farnham, Ashgate. STEWART, S. (1984). On longing: narratives of the miniature, the gigantic, the souvenir, the collection. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press. STREAT, J. (2012). LEGO heavy weapons: build working replicas of four of the worlds most impressive guns. San Francisco, No Starch Press. VERVLIET, R., VERVLIET, R., & ESTOR, A. (2000). Methods for the Study of Literature as Cultural Memory: Volume 6 of the Proceedings of the XVth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, Leiden 16-22 August 1997. Read More