<div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">... but zines are [made of paper]<a4|.</p>
(click:?a4)[[Yes]<a5|.]
(click:?a5)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">And websites [are not]<a6|. </p>]
(click:?a6)[That's true. There is an embodied nature to zines that cannot be translated into a digital format. But I guess I am thinking less about less about that, and more [about the — ]<a7|
[(click:?a7)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">Don't say [vibes]<a8|.</p>]
(click:?a8)[... I was going to say feeling. The feeling I get when I make a (cycling-link:'zine', 'website') is [the same]<a9| as I get when I make a (cycling-link:'website','zine').
(click:?a9)[
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">Okay, [[now we're getting somewhere...|getting somewhere 1]]</p>]]
]]
</div><div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw=""><div style="padding-left: 5%;">"In all their many and varied forms, (cycling-link:'zines','websites ') present the subversive power of personal expression.
Some (cycling-link:'zines','websites ') are carefully written over years, others are put together in an afternoon. Some are filled with text, others <a href="https://iamaplasticcamera.neocities.org/" target="_blank">contain only images</a>. They can be made up of stories from life, sketchbook pages, collages or comics, can include <a href="https://heyjupiter.neocities.org/posts/2025-11-10-alone-at-the-Evanescence-show" target="_blank">observations and obsessions,</a> be intense and personal, <a href="https://heyjupiter.neocities.org/square_dance/" target="_blank">brief or light-hearted</a>. All carry a strong sense of their creators, and it often feels as if their makers are communicating directly to you as you read them."
<em>Vanessa Berry, <a href="https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/zine-power" target="_blank">Zine Power</a>, Openbook. </a></em>
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right">[[I see...]]</p></div>
</div><div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
Each time I make a (cycling-link:'website', 'zine'), it feels like I am reaching out.
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">To where?</p>
To [[grip onto the world around me]]
To [[the unified compost pile]]
To [[no one in particular|no one in particular]]
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">[[Okay, I think I get it now...|conclusion]]</p>
</div>
<div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">...but how are zines like websites?</p>
[Well...]<a1|
(click:?a1)[<div style="padding-left: 5%">"My favorite aspect of (cycling-link:'websites','zines') is their duality: they’re both subject and object at once. In other words, a (cycling-link:'website','zine') creator becomes both author and architect simultaneously. There are endless possibilities as to what a (cycling-link:'website','zine') could be. What kind of room is a (cycling-link:'website','zine')? Or is a (cycling-link:'website','zine') more like a house? A boat? A cloud? A garden? A puddle? Whatever it is, there’s potential for a self-reflexive feedback loop: when you put energy into a (cycling-link:'website','zine') in turn the (cycling-link:'website','zine') helps form your own identity."
<em>Laurel Schwulst, "<a href="https://thecreativeindependent.com/essays/laurel-schwulst-my-website-is-a-shifting-house-next-to-a-river-of-knowledge-what-could-yours-be/" target="_blank">My website is a shifting house next to a river of knowledge. What could yours be?"<a/>, The Creative Independent.</div>
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">[[Okay...]]</p>
]
</div>
<div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
Recently, I have been thinking about how a (cycling-link:'website','zine') can be a lot like (cycling-link:'zine','website').
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">Oh yeah? [How so?]<a1|</p>
(click:?a1)[Well. To me, a digital zine isn't a zine that's been scanned into a computer and then uploaded to a website. The zine IS [the website]<a2|.
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">[(click:?a2)[You mean a website [like this]<a3|? <a href="https://teganewebb.neocities.org/" target="_blank"> https://teganewebb.neocities.org/</a>]]</p>]
(click:?a3)[No, not really. [[A zine is ]]not a resume, or a business card.]
</div>
<div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">So you're making them [for yourself]<a1|?</p>
(click:?a1)[[Yes]<a3|.]
(click:?a3)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">...but you also want to share them with [other people]<a2|.</p> ]
(click:?a2)[[Yes]<a4|!]
(click:?a4)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">Don't you want to know [who is reading your work?]<a7| </p> ]
(click:?a7)[Well... [[yes]] and [[no]]. Sometimes I need to just hurl my thoughts into the void, and then wait and see what, if anything, comes back. Not to hover over them like some [deranged helicopter parent]<a8|.]
(click:?a8)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">Haha well, [[when you put it like that...|okay 2]]</p>]
</div>
<div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
I first learned how to build my own (cycling-link:,'websites','zines') by taking other people's (cycling-link:,'websites', 'zines') apart. (cycling-link: 'Inspecting','Unfolding'), (cycling-link:'copying','pasting'), (cycling-link:'arranging','rearranging') until my own style started to take root.
I used to feel bad about taking this approach, like I should be [[doing things properly|there is no scratch]] by starting from scratch. Until I realised that that there is no scratch, and that we are, in one way or another, all pulling from the same (cycling-link:'code base', 'compost pile').
</div><div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
Making a (cycling-link:'website', 'zine') allows me to grip onto the world around me. I mean this in the sense that it gives me a space to sink my teeth into a topic, but also in the sense that I am building something with my hands. I am typing, but I am also (cycling-link:'cutting','pasting'), (cycling-link:'folding', 'linking'), (cycling-link:'arranging','rearranging'), again and again until something [starts to take shape]<a1|.
(click:?a1)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">Could you give me [an example]<a2|?</p>]
(click:?a2)[Sure! In fact, [[I can give you two]].]
</div><div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
I [write]<a1| and (click:?a1)[[cut]<a2| and] (click:?a2)[[paste]<a3| and] (click:?a3)[[write]<a4| and] (click:?a4)[[cut]<a5| and] (click:?a5)[[paste]<a6| and] (click:?a6)[[write]<a7| and] (click:?a7)[[cry]<a8| and] (click:?a8)[[empty]<a9| the Recycle Bin and] (click:?a9)[[cut ]<a10| and] (click:?a10)[paste and] then somewhere in there, it all comes together. Never as I first imagined, but oftentimes much, much better. My (cycling-link:'zine','website') is a (cycling-link:'zine', 'website','object') with [colour and texture and shape]<a12|.
(click:?a12)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">So, something that [you can grip onto]<a13|?</p>]
(click:?a13)[[Yes! Something I can grip onto, and that I can see my own fingerprints on. My (cycling-link:'zine','website') comes together, and it is a thrill that [cannot be replicated]<a14|.]
]
(click:?a14)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align:right;"> Hmmm... okay. Maybe I am starting to see [[some similarities...|getting somewhere]]</p>]
</div><div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">...but it can't all be sunshine and roses, can it?</p>
Well... no. [Sometimes]<a3| making a (cycling-link:'zine','website') is actually (cycling-link:'sunshine','garbage') and (cycling-link:'roses','shit').
(click:?a3)[[Sometimes]<a4| the text (cycling-link:'just will not stay centred', 'gets cut off at the edge of the photocopier').]
(click:?a4)[[Sometimes]<a5| an image (cycling-link: 'just will not load','will look much better before you copy it').]
(click:?a5)[[Sometimes]<a6| you'll (cycling-link: 'break a link without realising','lose a page of your master copy').]
(click:?a6)[[Sometimes]<a7| you will get so frustrated you'll want to (cycling-link: 'throw your computer across the room','start crying in the middle of the Officeworks').]
(click:?a7)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">Wait, have you actually [thrown your computer across a room?</p>]<a1|]
(click:?a1)[No, but I have [I have definitely cried]<a8| in the middle of an Officeworks.
]
(click:?a8)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">[[Nice.]]]</p>
</div>
<div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
At a zine fair in Wagga Wagga I met a person called Zachary. He bought the zine I wrote about finding a 2007 MacBook in the e-waste bin at work, and we got to talking about it, and our feelings about digital culture more generally. He mentioned that he had been building <a href="https://zacharykai.net/" target="_blank">a personal website</a>, and I asked him for the address, which I wrote down in the back of my diary, on the page I was only half using to keep track of my zine sales. We exchanged emails, me being delighted by the opportunity to use the new email address I had just set up for exactly this purpose. I still owe Zachary a reply to the last email he sent me a year ago (sorry Zachary), but I still visit his website from time to time, tucked inside my bookmarks bar like a precious zine in my zine collection.
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">So your favourite way to find websites... [is at a zine fair]<a1|?</p>(click:?a1)[Haha, [yeah I guess so]<a2|.]
(click:?a2)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">Haha! That sounds kind of deranged too, you know...<br>although not as deranged as the [[helicopter bean counting...|getting somewhere]]</p>]
</div><div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">You're trying to get me to make a (cycling-link:'zine','website'), [aren't you]<a1|?</p>
(click:?a1)[[Who me?]<a2|
(click:?a2)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">You are! [You sneaky little bitch. </p>]<a3|]
(click:?a3)[Rude! Also I don't know what you are [talking about]<a4|.
(click:?a4)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">You know this is an [extremely convoluted way]<a5| to go about it.</p>]
(click:?a5)[I've just been trying to work through some of my thoughts, and answer your questions! If you've reached the end of this with a burning desire sink your teeth into some (cycling-link:'code','craft supplies'), that's on you, [not me.]<a7|
(click:?a7)[Although if you do end up making a (cycling-link:'zine','website') ... [please send it to me]<a6|! I would love to see it.]
(click:?a6)[<a href="mailto:heyjupiterzine@gmail.com">heyjupiterzine@gmail.com</a> :)]]]]
</div>
<div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
Last year I decided that I wanted to try writing a Substack. I'd started reading a few newsletters that friends or authors I liked had written, and I'd enjoyed them. I thought it would be fun to try writing my own.
I think I lasted maybe a month on the platform. I wasn't particularly inspired by how it felt to use or what it looked like, but the thing that really killed me was the emails. Emails flooding in about my weekly statistics, about how to grow my readership, about other, more successful newsletters I could be reading and thus try to emulate. Sometimes I opened these emails, and saw my small numbers, and it made me want to shrink away from writing anything altogether. Constantly counting my beans meant giving nothing the chance to take root and grow.
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align:right;">Also sounds like less of a community, and more like [[a competition...|no1 2]]</p>
</div>
<div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
[Two months ago]<a2| (click:?a2)[I received an email from someone who said that they found a zine of mine at a Photo Lab in Sydney—neither of us had any idea how it had ended up there. He told me a story of how he had recently started collecting CDs again, to play in the car for his daughter.]
[Six months ago]<a1| (click:?a1)[I received an email from someone, who said she'd found my website through <a href="https://thenewriverjournal.org/untitled-document-by-tegan-webb/" target="_blank"> a piece of interactive fiction</a> I'd had published last year. She said she guessed that I was Australian because I'd used the word 'bin' instead of 'trash can' in the piece, and seeing as she'd recently moved to Sydney, wanted to know if I'd be up for meeting up if she were in town. Two months ago she came to Melbourne for a conference, and we went out for a drink, talked a lot about art and computers and ate some really good tacos.]
[Every year]<a3| (click:?a3)[after the Festival of the Photocopier zine fair, I post a picture on my Instagram of all the zines I bought/traded for that day. I tag as many of their creators that I can find, to let them know I have it, and I'm excited to read it. Then I click through my own notifications, to see who has my zine, and what other zines they bought. It's become a nice ritual, I guess, a way to hold on to some of the energy of the fair for just a little bit longer.]
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">That sounds slow... [[but nice.|no1 2]]</p>
</div>
<div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
I decide I want to [write a zine]<a10| (click:?a10)[ about how much I hate cooking. [I write]<a1| (click:?a1)[pages and pages of text on my computer, and then realise that this zine is not just about how much I hate cooking, [but also]<a9| (click:?a9)[ the weird value judgements that get placed on cooking and who can do it. [I start copying out the text by hand]<a2| (click:?a2)[ onto individual recipe cards, because I need a visual element and I think that'll look nice, and [might also work]<a8| (click:?a8)[ as a subtle reference to the way recipes used to be collected and handed down through families for generations. [And if I'm using recipe cards]<a3|, (click:?a3)[ why not include a recipe of my own? [And if I'm including a recipe]<a4|, (click:?a4)[I'll need to add an extra page to fit it, which means I'll need to [write more text to the fill the spaces]<a5|, (click:?a5)[except that my hand is already getting a cramp from copying out the words I have written, so maybe [I'll just include a photo]<a6| (click:?a6)[of the spaghetti bolognaise I cooked the other night, which doesn't look particularly appetising, but actually tasted pretty good, [which I guess ties back into]<a7| (click:?a7)[the purpose of this zine, which is to disrupt the idea that home cooked food should look like it came straight out of an <em>Australian Women's Weekly</em> magazine.]]]]]]]]]]
I am [messing around with the CSS]<a11| (click:?a11)[of a website I am making for my <a href="https://sfpc.study/" target="_blank"><em>School for Poetic Computation</em></a> class. We are learning about animations, and [I am trying to understand]<a12| (click:?a12)[how keyframes work. After a lot of time and trial and error, [I manage to code]<a13| (click:?a13)[a single line of text to move across the webpage in what, to me, looks like a box step. ["Hey, it looks like they're square dancing!"]<a14| (click:?a14)[I say to my cat, who stares back at me sleepily, because I am attending this US-based program at 4am AEST. [I set out to give]<a15| (click:?a15)[my dancing line of text a partner, and then another partner for them to switch with, until I have four lines of <a href="https://heyjupiter.neocities.org/square_dance/" target="_blank">a poem, doing an infinite box step</a>. ]]]]]
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">Okay that does sound [[pretty satisfying...|sunshine and roses]]</p>
</div>
<div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">—but how do you [go about finding ]<a1| other people's (cycling-link:'zines','websites') then?</p>
(click:?a1)[Mostly at [zine fairs]<a7|, or at places <a href="https://stickyinstitute.com/" target="_blank">like this<a/>. ]
(click:?a7)[<img src="images/zine_fair.jpg" width="350px">]
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;"> And what about [for websites]<a5|?</p>
(click:?a5)[Oh! [Well... ]<a6|]
(click:?a6)[I could visit places <a href="https://neocities.org/browse">like this</a>.
Or I could <a href="https://hypertext.tv/" target="_blank"> surf the channels on tv</a>.
Or even <a href="https://internetphonebook.net/#dial-a-site" target="_blank">consult the phone book</a>.
[[This is my favourite]] way that I have found a website, though.]
</div><div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
<div style="padding-left: 5%">"These days, I've gotten super into (cycling-link:'website building', 'zine making'). I am teaching myself (cycling-link:'HTML','paper folding techniques') so that I can make (cycling-link:'websites','zines') about ghost stories or comedy shows or things I ate that day. I am not sure why I was drawn to this. I simply wanted a creative outlet that felt pure and new, and basic (cycling-link:'web design', 'zine making') was that outlet. I don't want the (cycling-link:'sites','zines') to look clean and professional ... The more my (cycling-link:'sites','zines') look handmade (with my clumsy dumb hands), the happier I am."
<em>Zach Mandeville, <a href="https://coolguy.website/basic-html-competency-is-the-new-punk-folk-explosion/" target="_blank">Basic HTML competency is the New Punk Folk Explosion </a></em></div>
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">Isn't that a bit of a [[cop out though]]?</p><div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
[A cop out?]<a1|
(click:?a1)[<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">You know, like an excuse?<br> Something to whip out when what you've made comes out [a bit shit]<a2|? </p>]
(click:?a2)[Haha! Maybe. I work hard on my (cycling-link:'zines','websites'), and I want them to be good. But also, for every person who (cycling-link:'buys one of my zines','finds one of my websites'), I want them to make two more of their own. I think that's more important to me, in the end. That we're all [[adding to compost pile]], in our own way.]
</div><div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
<div style="padding-left: 5%;>"The seamlessness of commercial culture and the technical virtuosity of (cycling-link:'high art', 'professional websites') encourage spectators/consumers to stand back and utter in awe, “Wow. That’s amazing. How did they do that?” (cycling-link:'Zines','Handmade websites')—with all their seams showing—encourage the opposite response, encourage you to come close, and say, “I see how they did that. That’s not too hard. Anybody can do that.”
<em>Stephen Duncombe, <i>Notes from Underground: Zines and Politics of Alternative Culture</i> (1997) in Alison Piepmeier, <i>Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism </i> (2009).</em></div>
</a>
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">Ohhh I see. It's less an excuse, and more of [[an invitation...|getting somewhere]]</p><div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">so you're making them for yourself?</p>
yes
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">but you also want to share them with other people </p> yes
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">don't you want to know who is reading your work?</p>
well ... [[yes]] and [[no]]. Sometimes I need to just hurl my thoughts into the void, and then wait and see what, if anything, comes back. Not to hover over them like some deranged helicopter parent.
<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">[[Okay...|okay 2]]</p>
</div><div style="overflow:scroll; padding:20px;
padding-left: 10%;
padding-right: 10%;
background-color: #E9C6D4;
color:#00004d;
border: 4px double #00004d;" data-raw="">
Each time I make a (cycling-link:'website', 'zine'), it feels like I am [reaching out]<a1|
(click:?a1)[ [<p style="font-family:'Arial'; text-align: right;">To where?</p>]<a2| ]
(click:?a2)[To [[grip onto the world around me]]
To [[the unified compost pile]]
To [[no one in particular|no one in particular]]
]
</div>