Annie Mar reports on A Dog’s Nose View
A Dog’s Nose View
We set up the gazebo in light rain on Sunday morning, which seemed to increase in volume minute by minute. Luckily dogs still need to be walked, so we had a good number of brave souls and their canine pals turn up despite the weather. We had quite a cosy set up in the end, a plastic rug on the grass and a few chairs around two tables set up with all our supplies.
Aaron and I spent the week preparing this workshop, trying to figure out a way to incorporate the dog’s perspective through creative activities without it getting too chaotic with a potentially large dog troupe. We had planned to do a walk around the park led by our furry friends, collecting smells, sounds and some of the park’s bounty. We designed zines for the group to work with, a new activity on each page to try and capture each individual dog and dog guardian’s experience. We worked with these zines on Sunday under our gazebo, and some of the group chose to do the walk anyway. We filled out some of the sounds of the Glen, drawing some adorable dog portraits and taking rubbings from a selection of foraged flora. Each zine was completed with a photograph of the pooch, which we printed on the spot using a thermal printer. This was great fun, especially seeing the side-by-side of the dog portrait (from memory – no peeking!) next to the photo. There were lots of really lovely combinations!
Thank you everyone who came out in the rain. The event proved so popular that we hope to do a second iteration in the summer months, hopefully when we can be accompanied by some sunshine (though the Irish weather gods never like to promise anything)
If you would like to work on your own zine at your own pace, you can find the downloadable file on the website. This is an accordion zine. Here’s a short video showing how to fold:
Step 1: Fold the page in half lengthways. Press hard along the edge of each fold to make it precise.
Step 2: Fold the page in half again, this time width-ways.
Step 3: Bring the front page (with the Dog’s Nose View title) in to meet the middle fold.
Step 4: Turn the zine around and do the same with the back page.
Step 5: Press all the seams down tightly.
Voilà – your accordion zine!
