The Learning Zone

UPDATE: Submission deadline pushed to May 7th!

The OCADU Zine Collective is producing a collaborative zine about fandom, and they want your submissions!

Submit your tributes to your favourite artists, stories about your experience as a fan of something, histories of different types of fandom, fan art, reflections on the “fanzine” or your own interpretation of the theme “fandom.”

We will accept images, fiction and non-fiction writing, comics, poems and more!

Submission guidelines:

Each page of the zine will be 8.5 inches x 11 inches in size. Please format your submission to fit this size. Each page of your submission should be submitted as a separate file. Please leave at least a 1/2 inch border on every page, meaning images and text should be centered on the page and no larger than 7.5″ x 10.” Please provide us with high quality files, with at least 300dpi/ppi resolution.

The zine will be printed in two colours on the risograph. This means that each colour will need to be printed separately, one after the other with time to dry in between. If you would like to use both colours in your submissions, you can do one of the following: 1) submit each page as a Photoshop file, with each colour on a separate layer (max. two colours/layers). 2) Submit each colour as a separate PDF file. All of your files should be submitted in grayscale. Please title your files/layers as “lighter colour” and “darker colour” so that we know how you would like the contrast of the image to work.

Feel free to email us with any questions you may have about formatting your submission(s) before the deadline.

Deadline: Feb 17 (NOW MAY 7th)

Send submissions to: ocadzinelibrary@gmail.com

The OCADU Zine Collective thanks the OCADU Student Union for funding for this project.

Next month the walls of the Learning Zone will be covered in creative writing by students. TEXThibit (which has an open call for submissions until January 31st!) will be a visual display of large format creative writing.

To accompany this exhibit, and maybe inspire some last minute submissions, the OCAD Zine Library is displaying an array of creative writing zines.

The Zine Library features sections such as “Stories” and “Poetry” and even “Perzines” where visitors can find creative writing, and we’ve pulled out a few samples to show the breadth of writing styles available throughout the collection. Here’s a sampling of the zines we’re highlighting:

Oscillation by Ben Larson takes its inspiration from the movie Face/Off. It’s a series of romantic poems detailing a love story between Nicolas Cage and John Travolta.

Switchblade Queens: Chapter 0, The Train Job by Chris Eng is the first zine in a series about a girl gang called the Shield Maidens who are the only hope for a city corrupted by police and criminals alike.

“Seven girls against the city. It’s a fair fight.”

28 Food Haikus by Emily Churco is a fun illustrated mini-zine revealing the author’s favourite, and least favourite, things about food.

“Smoked salmon again/counted fifteen bones inside/fifteen bones too much.”

“I have the power/to make ramen taste proper/instead of like debt”

Forty-four Ways to Write: Creative methods for making text by OCADU’s Writing and Learning Centre may be the most practically helpful zine in the display for anyone looking for help with their creative writing. The zine is full of tips for writing including prompts to get you started, breaking barriers to writing by comparing writing to other creative practices, and exercises to get the creative juices flowing.

What’s new at the Learning Zone for 2017?

The Learning Zone will be hosting upcoming exhibitions including a reading event, and awesome zine workshops exploring creative DIY approaches to zine-making. Career Development Résumé/CV, Portfolio and Interview Skills Drop-In Clinics returns this year, offering professional skill sets that will contribute to your long-term success. Writing Learning Centre (WLC) Drop-in Tutoring Sessions will also be available, providing useful skills for thesis writing, brainstorming, studying for essays to name a few.

Please, join us at the Learning Zone — we always look forward to your visits.

A call of submissions for TEXThibit : An Exhibition of Creative Writing by OCAD U Students has been extended to January 30. This exhibition will consist of an visual selection of writings by students at OCAD U, displayed as large format installations on the walls of the Learning Zone Gallery February 2017.  All writing styles are welcomed — submissions of short stories, poetry, non-fiction and anything in between.

grOCAD is having a plant sale. Join them Friday January 20, in the lobby of the Main Building. Baby spider plants, aloe and more from the plant propagation workshop held last November in the Learning Zone will be on sale.

 grOCAD is a community of OCAD U students, faculty and staff working together to integrate plant life into our everyday experience by cultivating areas in and around OCAD U’s campus.

Interested in seeing some of grOCAD’s on-going projects? Visit us at the Learning Zone and have a look at grOCAD’s Windowfarm and Aquafarm installations.

Connect with grOCAD’s at grOCAD Public Group | Facebook or email ocadgrows@gmail.com.

Are you looking for space to meet, host workshops or events? Contact us to discuss. The Learning Zone also accepts proposals for solo or group exhibitions. To learn more about our submissions guidelines contact Marta Chudolinska, Learning Zone Librarian, mchudolinska@ocadu.ca or visit http://bit.ly/2joAd3Y for more details.