Academic Poetry Zine (Speculative Design + Graphic Design)
The poet or the revolutionary is there to articulate the necessity, but until the people themselves apprehend it, nothing can happen..." –James Baldwin
For this personal project an invitation was sent out to a large number of students, professors, and colleagues in various fields of study, asking contributors to (1) read an academic article of their choice, and (2) reintepret the article by way of poem. The poems received were compiled in a short zine. The zine can be purchased at chapstickprints.work.
Over 100 copies were sold and distributed.
It is suggested to first read the poems and to simply enjoy them for what they are. Afterwards, it is encouraged to read the abstracts from the academic articles, respectively. Compare the poem and the abstract, and consider the differences in your understanding, interaction with, and emotional response of the knowledge provided.
The poems were compiled and printed into a small zine and then sold.
This zine was largely inspired by a poem written by the researcher David Pye, who decided to publish academic findings in a poem format:
Here are images from the zine itself:
The poems are based on abstracts for academic papers, and researchers suggest reading the abstracts to get the most out of the poems.
In conclusion, this project pushed me to reach out and collaborate with others, write my own poetry based on research articles, and design and print a zine.