Research Town

Statements, calls to action, intentions, however you want to understand them, the word Slogan is “derived from Gaelic sluagh-ghairm, which means ‘war cry’” (Collins, 2006, p.828). The connotations of this derivation connect wonderfully to the sense-making of the example slogans (fig. 1-3 below) and to the context of do-it-yourself (DIY) publishing of zines and the self-publisher motivations and standpoints.

Slogans are commonly used in marketing and politics, which you will be more than readily aware of, the short catchphrase that is designed to be memorable and compelling for the reader/receiver of these communications. The subversion of the use of slogans, closely associated with mass consumerism and capitalism is held in tension to the motivations of the zine-maker and self-publisher who are often less motivated by profit, but equally need to engage with profit making entities one way or another in the production and distribution of the publications.

These slogans above were written as a result of an experience or situation I had and just felt that it needed saying, “Pick up your dog’s poo”, I think most people can relate to! “Distill Life Do Work” came up while making the zine that it’s written on, out of cut outs from other publications, one of which I think was marketing materials of Downpour Gin. This slogan is intentionally ambiguous around the idea that life should be distilled, concentrated, brewed and bottled against the doing of work or that doing work is the way to distill life–I think the reader should make of it as they will. “Art Galleries are a Sanctum” was written in the café of the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester. I had spent a frenetic time, travelling to get there from Scotland. I had spent a further frenetic morning chatting with zine fair stall holders and browsing through so many different publications. Then I wandered around the gallery spaces, soaked in their relative quite atmosphere and pondered over some of the artworks on display. “Art Galleries are a Sanctum”, both conveyed how I felt in that moment but also will have connotations with the idea of the sacred space. Whether you agree or not, I will leave that to you, but nonetheless given the financial environment just now and the cost of living crisis the importance of an art gallery and the value that it provides for communities in a host of ways can not be taken for granted.