error log v1.3
Zine, Hei Lam Ng, 44 pgs, heilamng.com
This zine is some seriously weird syntax-type coding shit. And it’s very interesting! Spoiler alert: I don’t really know what this zine is about, and I kind of like that. Online, Ng describes it as “what happened when an artist decided to go into web design.” The presentation is key: text messages, error code, fragments of HTML. It appears super chaotic, but is also clean in presentation, a short, sharp, glossy mess. Hei Lam Ng is in charge, and shows an uncanny ability to combine the artistry of stark reality with the binary nerdiness of a digital wasteland. On paper, storytelling through webs of code perhaps shouldn’t work, but it totally does.
From what I can interpret, this is a story rooted in matriarchy and smushed onto paper via a series of words and screen caps. Somebody named the Queen of Divs needs a bunch of stuff. She has two servants (Echo and Scribe). Somethings happen in a different kingdom. Some items get built, or maybe break. I don’t know for certain, I’m just spittballin’. However, I can at least be sure that the prose in error log v1.3 is pretty abstract, but the flow of the zine is pretty linear based on formatting. It’s a short zine, but it sets a strong tone and sticks to it, which is not that easy to do even when you’re to go beyond straight forward narratives.