The Learning Zone

circa 1980

The Learning Zone celebrated Freedom to Read Week, February 22-28 with a special zine display that presented content that might challenge popular norms.

Freedom to Read Week, is an annual event marked with celebrations across Canada, inviting Canadians to exercise their rights to intellectual freedom as protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedom.

Free Expression remains as important today as ever, there is a perpetual struggle to protect the right to freedom of speech and free access to material. It’s a freedom that you can’t take for granted.

The OCAD Zine Library collection reflects a large diversity of content and freedom of expression—drop by for a visit and express your right to read!

To learn more about Freedom to Read Week visit their website: http://www.freedomtoread.ca

Ask Me About My Tubal Ligation by Sarah Lawrence; Land of Make Believe and Dress Up: Some of My Experiences Doing Sex work in NYC as a Queer Anarchist by Rachel; Whorelicious: Premier Issue: Coming Out; Little Cockroach Press 18, Untitled by AA Bronson & Matthias Herrman; A Beautiful Storm has Come by Kara Sieve Wright & David Cunningham; Maille à Part: mailleapart.blogspot.ca; Little Cockroach Press 13, 12 Assholes and a Dirty Foot by John Waters, Untitled: paperkillstreees.blogspot.com; I’ll Piss In That Rubber Boot For Five Bucks!: The Family Suckass Issue 3

LZ: Can you tell us a bit about yourself? And the art you create?

AN: My name is Aicha Niazy, I am from Egypt and this is my first year at OCAD, I’m transferring from UTM, University of Toronto Mississauga. My program is Graphic Design; and so far it’s very interesting.

What influenced your decision to major in Graphic Design?

It’s really weird to be honest. When I was in grade 11 and 12, I was not thinking about graphic design at all, it didn’t even cross my mind. I was going to go into economics and then changed my mind to anthropology, criminology, or marine biology and then I kept on going through lists of programs. I was also interested in psychology. But in my last year, grade 12, I decided that I really wanted to be a designer. It’s because I look around me and find some awful designs and then I would find the urge to fix them but then I also wanted to know how people design all these things because when I think about it graphic design is in every single aspect of our lives. Everyone needs a graphics designer, be it firms and corporations, schools, doctors’ offices and hospitals and the list goes on, this is when I decided to major in graphic design.

What is your creative process?

Observing, I really like to observe, and see a lot of details around me, it’s what informs me

Where are you most productive, tell us about your creative space?

During the summer, I would say the beach or the sea when I’m floating on the water. Otherwise it would be in my room or when showering. When I get an idea, I try to develop it to a certain extent before I Google it because I want to see where my thinking will take me and without being influenced by the Internet.

What two graphic design tools could you not live without?

Sketchbook and a pencil, to write down my thoughts or illustrate them in some way also Adobe software programs like Illustrator, Photoshop and inDesign, these are the programs I mostly use at this point.

Is there another medium you would like to work in?

I would like to experiment with painting, I’m not a painter myself, I’ve never painted but lately I’ve been feeling the urge to paint. So, I would like to experiment and see what I get, just practice and do some sketches.

I’ve noticed on your online portfolio, Format, you were working in photography was that something that you were always interested in or have worked on?

Photography has always been interesting as an approach where I can capture things. For example if you have seen my series City Lights? It’s of water bottles with lights reflected on them, this is something that I would not see without the lens of the camera, with the camera lens zoomed in, it makes the lights really stand out, that’s the one thing I would like to experiment with, see what the camera captures what you don’t see with your eyes.

Do you have a preference of analogue over digital cameras?

I don’t have preference, yet. I have only been taking pictures for a year. However, I loved analogue in terms of how I get to develop my own film and print out the photographs, it just reminds me of the old times with pictures in albums, and as a kid I would always wonder how it worked, now I know. I’ve worked in darkrooms and also created photograms which was so much fun. And I did my own pinhole and took a few pictures with it. It was cool to experiment with the primary method of how the camera came to be.

Would you like to keep the photographic aspect of your work separate from graphic design or would you integrate them together?

If I worked with photography I would integrate into my graphic designs.

You wrote a paper on the comparisons of calligraphy with architecture?

The paper was basically discussing the calligraphy we see inscribed on architecture, and how these are designs (typographic designs), and their beautiful impact on architecture. In Islamic tradition there is no use of images or pictures representing prophets, and calligraphy is used as a form to transmit the words of god, written beautifully, to glorify it.

The most splendid mosques that I have come acrossed are Taj mahal, Hagia Sophia Mosque in Turkey, Sultan Hassan, Al-Refai and Muhammad Ali mosques in Egypt. I learned that there are different calligraphic scripts such as Kufic, Naskhi, and more. They are displayed in square forms, linear and sometimes even combined with designs like floral designs, mosaics, arabesques and of course it depends on the medium.

What do you enjoy most about studying graphic design?

It’s totally up to me to create the design from scratch but also the professors direct you, they give you the basics, even when you ask, they try to navigate you without telling you what to do so, it’s your own creative design.

What do you do to relax?

I read, workout and if the sea is there, I swim.

What is your dream job?

I don’t have a dream job right now. but I have standards for a job; it has to be a space that fosters creativity that ‘s very important to me.

What is your favourite thing about studying in Toronto?

Toronto is full of artists, designers, film festivals, different art related venues and events, and I live downtown so I don’t have to commute.

Last week (Thursday, March 12) was the 7th annual OCADU Zine Fair. A mixture of students and Toronto-based zine makers gathered to share their work with the OCADU community.

For the uninitiated, zines are self published creations that take many different forms: small magazines, art books, comics, journals, how-to guides… the list continues to infinity. The Learning Zone houses a zine collection and is the meeting place for OCADU’s Zine Collective. The annual zine fair is but one of the Learning Zone’s zine initiatives, and it is the best opportunity to meet other creators face-to-face.

Meet some of the vendors at this year’s zine fair:

Jay Chau is a photography student at OCADU.

Jay (who was sharing a table with fellow student Grace Brooks) was displaying work such as these embroidered genitalia journals, and some prints. Grace was showing t-shirts (featuring Billy Balogna from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse!) and sculptures of two-headed animals.

Worn and The Wheelhouse were neighbours this year. The aim of The Wheelhouse (left) is to bring together a community of people who are facing barriers to accessibility. Through intersectional activities — including a zine distro — The Wheelhouse provides resources, learning opportunities and safe spaces for marginalized people.

Before it closed up shop at the end of 2014, Worn was a progressive fashion journal that looked deeper into fashion, covering questions like what is behind our relationship with accessories, what is the relationship between religious identity and underwear and what connections are there between clothing and activism. Though there will be no more new issues of Worn, back issues from its 10 years of feminist fashion insight are still available online.

Whitney French is a Toronto-based zine maker and one of the editors behind the zine series From The Root. The series documents stories, images and testimonies from women of colour in Canada. The first issue’s focus was hair, and the newest issue — which had its Toronto debut at the zine fair — focuses on stories and experiences around the theme of the body. The body issue has its official launch March 22 at Beit Zatoun on Markham Street (4-6pm).

Kimberley Dewing was representing the work of a group of 4th year illustration students. Much of the work was themed around goblins. They have plans for a next venture which will focus on witches.

OCADU alumna Emily Waknine was here representing the artist collective Carrier. To raise funds for future exhibitions, Carrier was selling work such as collage zines, prints, jewellery and cassette tapes.

If you missed the zine fair, you may yet have a chance to see the work of these artists. Many of these zines will be added to the OCAD Zine Library so stop by the Learning Zone to check out our collection. And follow the links above to find some of these zines for sale online.

A multidisciplinary exhibition about narratives featuring artwork from Narrative Strategies: Contemporary Indigenous Sculpture/Installation along with black & white analogue photographs from Professor Ron Wood’s Introductory Photography class, “A Personal Photo Narrative”—a photo documentation of a single day of the student’s life.

Including artworks from Echo Railton’s drawing class.

On until March 12th

Run by Faraz Anoushehpour, a Toronto based filmmaker and graduate from OCAD U Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art, Media and Design, is a black & white one shot performative video depicting the artist running in the empty streets of a residential neighbourhood, to exhaustion.

A major component of the work is the soundtrack, which creates a rhythmic pattern from the sound of the runner’s footsteps.

On until March 30th at the External Space gallery in the Learning Zone