'Do it Yourself' Girl Revolution: LadyFest, Performance and Fanzine Culture

Riot grrrl began as an independent music and political movement in the early 1990s emerging initially in the USA and few years later in the UK. From the beginning riot grrrl embraced a 'do-it-yourself' ethos operating outside the mainstream music business organising independent music festivals, workshop events and encouraging self-published fanzines (fan magazines which were distributed primarily through word of mouth, music gigs, artists and zine book fairs or by post). These zines became recognisable forms of personal expression and made visible a specific DIY approach alongside the development of a coherent style of graphic language in the producer's use of the photocopier, handwritten and graffiti texts, cut-n-paste and ransom note lettering style, collage and the co-option of mainstream media imagery. These production techniques made fanzine publishing accessible and played a central role in the development of a non-hierarchical community.

The main intent of this talk is to explore the idea of 'event as performance' using as a case study the specific activities of riot grrrl and focussing on a series of international events called 'LadyFests' and the graphic language of self-published riot grrrl fanzines. This will be achieved by examining the origins of today's riot grrrl performances (e.g. theatre, spoken word, music events) in 1970s feminist art, as well as locating the activities within the specific context of their counter-cultural predecesors including punk and punk performance.

As the University continues to maintain and develop its profile as a global leader in arts research, a series of Professorial Platform lectures was launched in 2008.

The Platforms are an opportunity for University colleagues and associates, as well as invited members of the public, to learn more about the research undertaken in the University. The Platforms enable Professors to highlight their field of interest and the University, in turn, to recognise and commemorate their successes to date.

Research Profile

Professor Teal Triggs, BFA (Hons), MA, MA, PhD, FiSTD

Teal Triggs is Professor of Graphic Design, co-Director of the research unit for Information Environments (IE) and Head of Research, School of Graphic Design, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. She is also Course Director for MA Design Writing Criticism, LCC. As a graphic design historian, critic and educator she has lectured internationally and her writings have appeared in numerous international design publications. She is co-editor of the academic interdisciplinary journal Visual Communication (Sage Publications) and has edited three special issues: The New Typography (June 2005) and Screens and the Social Landscape (with Dr Carey Jewitt, June 2006) and a forthcoming issue Information Environments (June 2009). She is author of The Typographic Experiment: Radical Innovations in Contemporary Type Design (2003); co-editor with Dr Roger Sabin of 'Below Critical Radar': Fanzines and Alternative Comics From 1976 to Now (2000); and editor of Communicating Design: Essays in Visual Communication (1995). She is currently working on a book about the graphic language of fanzines (Thames & Hudson).

Under the remit of the research unit for Information Environments (IE), Triggs is managing a two-year project that traces the life histories of the residents and the regeneration of the Aylesbury Estate, Elephant & Castle, London. She is also completing a research project on responsive environments and design studios at the University of the Arts London - the first part of which has resulted in the curation, with Professor Phil Baines, of an exhibition and short film on innovative learning spaces (July 2008). She is founder of the New Views series and co-organiser with Dr Laurene Vaughan (RMIT, Australia) of New Views 2: Conversations and Dialogues in Graphic Design, an international symposium (July 2008) and co-curator of an accompanying poster exhibition which recently opened at the Melbourne Museum (November 2008). She is currently involved as co-Principle Investigator with six other academic partners on an 18 month EPSRC scoping study on communication design and public spaces. Triggs is a Fellow of the Society of Typographic Designers.

• http://issuu.com/ualresearch/docs/tealtr...