The More You Know, The Better - Niskala Vol. 1

Credits Alvira Amalia / 20/457829/SP/29546 as Writer Gisela Lydia A. / 20/454622/SP/29340 as Designer Hafuza Anandio / 20/457835/SP/29552 as Editor Louisa Diandra / 20/454625/SP/29343 as Writer Nabielkhan Afandi / 20/454630/SP/29348 as Photographer 2

Table of Content

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About us

Prologue

Chapter I: Trapped in Notion

Chapter II: Uncertainties of Tomorrow

Chapter III: Determination, Illusion, and Destruction

Chapter IV: Dear Mirror, Will I Ever Be Enough

Our products

Thank you

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About us Niscaya Karsa Berkala (Niskala) is a project that aims to raise awareness and educate people regarding mental health issues during the Pandemic.

Looking at the online activities that are being conducted, we focus on how we could raise awareness of the importance of mental health in this online setting. We strive to create a platform where people can feel heard and mattered.

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Prologue The pandemic has affected everyone in so many aspects. We believe that most of us must adapt to the emergence of online activities, especially the frequent online meetings. We are aware that increasing online activities may cause tiredness or even increase the risk of other mental health-related issues.

We strive to create a platform where people can feel heard and mattered, whether they face their highs or lows. As Helen Keller said, walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light. The Niskala Project exists to accompany everyone as they grow and discover themselves in these uncertain times.

This project aims to create awareness on mental health issues such as depression, sleep deprivation, anxiety, and many more. Looking on to the online activities celebrated in the COVID-19 pandemic, we focus on raising awareness of the importance of mental health in this online setting. We propose to create a zine consisting of arts, design, and photography that is designed to help visualize our vision to connect individuals by sharing mental health awareness.

We will also design merchandise such as Zine and Tote bags to support our purpose. Hence, this project will focus on zine content, merchandising, and marketing content that we will conduct on social media.

Through this zine, we would like to raise awareness regarding some concerns related to this pandemic.

We hope this Zine can bring you warmth, assurance, and a sense of togetherness since we are all fighting and winning our battles every day.

Yours Truly, Niscaya Karsa Berkala Niskala

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“Trapped in Notion” We surveyed various people with different activities; employees, college students, and high school students. Based on our survey, 58.3% of our respondents claimed that they get anxious or fear not being productive enough once in a while.

This chapter aims to portray and emphasize how fear of being unproductive is much more common than we think it is. We assume that many people feel this way because of their guilt for not doing something productive. Especially during this pandemic, people compete to showcase their achievements and new skills they learned online. Hence, even when people should be sleeping/resting, they still do their work because of guilt.

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“Uncertainties of Tomorrow” This chapter highlights how a person who watches the news about the current Covid-19 situation may feel anxious about it. We chose Covid-19 related news because Niskala was established due to our concern about people’s mental health stability in the Covid-19 pandemic. As we all know, the Covid-19 pandemic has changed human activities from physical activities into activities conducted remotely from their home.

The photo and poster depict the anxiety felt by almost everyone due to the high Covid-19 positivity rate in Indonesia back during the second wave of Covid-19. There are a lot of uncertainties in this situation. We could be worried about our health conditions, mental state, or job, which are affected by the pandemic.

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“Determination, Illusion, and Destruction” The concept behind this chapter is academic pressure. Today, it is prevalent to find people who face academic pressure. As our society progresses, our life becomes more complex. For us to keep developing, we must compete with a lot of things, one of which is in the academic sector.

According to our survey, academic pressure is most commonly found in high school and college students. We often compare ourselves to other people who are better than us in every way, living with the pressure and burden of expectations from other people, which is why our group depicts academic pressure by highlighting the score and expression of disappointment.

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“Dear Mirror, Will I Ever Be Enough?”

As for this chapter, we chose the concept of insecurity and self-doubt.

According to our survey, 50% of our respondents said they often underestimate their capabilities and often lead to insecurity. Moreover, insecurity can also lead to a lack of motivation which is also felt by our respondents as 33.3% sometimes lose motivation in doing their hobby or things they used to be passionate about.

As social media usage increases significantly throughout this pandemic, we may consciously or unconsciously compare ourselves with someone on the internet. Hence, this chapter highlights that if we continue to compare ourselves, we will never feel content and comfortable in our skin.

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Thank you for trusting, and choosing Niskala project. We are grateful for your support and encouragement. We appreciate your enthusiasm, see you next time in our next volume of Niskala Zine!

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