Activity Guides

Activity Guides are community-created zines (see “What is a Zine?”) that you can use to facilitate or take part in an activity at your Processing Community Day. They are designed to be taken “off the shelf,” so you do not need to be an expert on the topic to use one.

How to Create an Activity Guide

An Activity Guide should be practical, self-contained, and easy to follow. It might contain instructions for a hands-on workshop, creative exercise, discussion, collaborative experiment, or another kind of group or individual activity.

Each guide should be designed for a session lasting between one and three hours. The goal is to make it easy for someone to pick up the guide and use it successfully, either as a facilitator or as a participant.

Your guide should include:

• the purpose of the activity and what participants will learn or experience
• who the activity is for (beginners, intermediate, or advanced participants)
• the recommended duration (between one and three hours)
• any tools, materials, or preparation needed
• additional resources for further exploration

For a tutorial-style activity, you may also want to include:

• step-by-step instructions
• example sketches or short code snippets
• suggested exercises or challenges

For a discussion or collaborative activity, you may also want to include:

• a list of discussion questions or prompts
• suggested group exercises or collaborative tasks

There is no required visual format. Make it your own, but include enough information for someone unfamiliar with the activity or subject to facilitate it or complete it independently.

What is a Zine?

A zine (pronounced “zeen,” short for magazine or fanzine) is a small, independent publication usually created by one person or a small group. It usually explores a specific or unconventional subject and is often made by hand, photocopied, or published online. Usually, a zine is a small booklet or pamphlet, often with a limited number of pages. Many zines can be printed and folded from a single sheet of paper.

Zine making resources

This wikiHow article is an illustrated step-by-step guide to making a zine. It’s a great starting point for creating your first zine.

This YouTube video, How to Make a Zine by Austin Kleon, is a short and fun introduction to zine-making.

The US Library of Congress has a Zine Making Guide (PDF) and a list of zine making resources.

Tools

• p5.(gen)zine by Munus Shih and Iley Cao is an open-sourced and friendly p5.js library for zine-making.

• The Electric Zine Maker by alienmelon is a printshop and art tool for easily making and printing zines.

• Zine Arranger by Nash Hight, arranges multi-page PDF files into a printable zine layout.

Examples

• Tiny Tech Zines

Submit Your Zine

Go to the Activity Guide Library to submit your zine and explore the full collection. By submitting an Activity Guide, you agree to publish your original contribution under the CC BY-SA 4.0 License.

Theme adapted from Just the Docs, used under the MIT License.