good nic

The Festival of the Photocopier is an annual zine fair run by Sticky Institute, an ARI based in Naarm/Melbourne dedicated to zines.

I’ve been to the Festival of the Photocopier a bunch of times but I’ve never had a booth before (which makes sense, because this is my first time making zines 😬).

I haven’t finished any of my zines yet but in an aspirational splurge I purchased a long-arm stapler for $45, so you know I’m committed.

My first zine looks at how different chair configurations can prescribe power relationships. As a teacher and events manager, I’ve noticed the way you lay out a set of chairs can affect the way people interact with each other. This zine is a set of diagrams describing how space affects social behaviour.

My second zine is very different. It will be a printed version of a conventional comic I made in 2023 for a YA audience. A teenager grapples with the first time they’ve felt like a wind-up doll – a person programmed to spit out social scripts – and reflects on how language and memory shape identity. Agent Dana Scully makes an appearance too 🕵️‍♀️.

And I think my third zine will be about bowline knots… I once made an instructional animation on how to tie a bowline knot, without knowing how to tie a bowline knot. The animation reflects on the limits of theory without practice and lends itself to being a zine.

A big Sticky thank you 💙

Thank you to the team at Sticky for coordinating the Festival of the Photocopier. It’s free to have a booth and free to visit the festival, and the whole thing is run by volunteers. This keeps zines accessible to everyone, but it’s a huge effort – so thank you!

Time, date and location

Kensington Town Hall
30-34 Bellair Street
Kensington VIC 3031

Sat 8 Feb and Sun 9 Feb
12pm to 5pm
Free entry
(I’ll just be there on the Saturday though. Come and say hi 👋)