Zines, Memes, PAR&D
Participatory Action Research & Design
Curated by Jon McKenzie, Owen Madigan, and StudioLab S24
14BC Gallery, 626 E 14 St, New York, NY 10009
EXHIBITION April 5th-6th, April 11th-13th, 3PM-7PM
OPENING April 5th 5PM-9PM
ZINE WORKSHOPS: Friday, April 5th and 12th, 3PM-5PM
Support provided by Mellon Rural Humanities/Society for the Humanities, Einhorn Center for Community Engagement, and Department of Literatures in English.
Real stories about real issues for real people. “Zines, Memes, PAR&D” showcases collaborative design projects with nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations in the US, Africa, and Middle East. Connecting communities, designers, and researchers, StudioLab teams at Cornell co-design transmedia campaigns addressing issues of social justice, healthcare, the environment, and public infrastructure, working across forms and platforms both digital and analog. For those interested in making media, NYC artist Owen Madigan will run two zine workshops on consecutive Friday afternoons based on workshops at Columbia U, Cornell U, and Newfield Central School, Newfield, NY.
Owen Madigan is an artist and graphic designer based in Brooklyn NY, whose work mixes pop culture images from past and present to generate social, political, and cultural satire. Together, McKenzie and Madigan organized zine workshops with StudioLab’s Spring ‘24 design teams at Cornell and with Newfield High School students in rural Tompkins County, New York.
Zines and memes are more than self-published collages of images and words: both are platforms for social, economic and cultural expression within and between communities. Cut-and-paste zines emerged in the 1970s with copy machines to give voice and visibility to underground communities, while digital memes arose in the 1990s in the margins of the Internet. Today zines, memes, and other media contribute to participatory forms of action, research and design. ZINES, MEMES, PAR& D is an exhibition that celebrates this convergence of media, community, and activism.
ZINES, MEMES, PAR&D showcases StudioLab’s recent work with Madigan and Newfield School and over a dozen other community partners. Visitors can explore zines, posters, videos, and a Great Wall of Projects whose QR codes reveal four years of participatory action research and design. In addition to exhibiting oversized images of his own design work, Madigan will offer a zine workshop for those seeking hands-on experience making media.
