Analong Dreams/2-Bit Dreams
By their very nature, zines are always going to be remarkably personal. After all, these are small yet significant labors of love made by people whose thoughts can’t help but breach mental containment and make their way into the outside world. It’s always worth seeing the way a zine invites us into the author's mind, but it’s woefully rare to see one that acts as a literal lens through which we can view the world an author inhabits. With Analog Dreams and 2-Bit Dreams, Dee Lightyears gives us both in a set of zines that even if not intended as one, work well as a duology.
Analog Dreams is the more outwardly personal of the two. It begins with a dedication by the author to both herself and all the other dolls who share her love of decidedly obsolete tech and glitch through life. The remainder of the pages feature both the author herself, as well as images of the aforementioned old tech that highlight the idiosyncrasies of both. I’m reminded of the Brian Eno quote about how the limitations of a technology end up being the aspects of it that are most fondly remembered. The fuzzy scan lines, blocky fonts, and low resolution of the images are testament to all that - sure, the images are interesting on their own, but the texture that they’re given makes them compelling.
That being said, the images of and by the old tech are only doing some of the heavy lifting here. Throughout the booklet we also see the author herself in a series of self portraits. Sometimes by herself, and sometimes engaged with the technology being used to present an image of herself that’s equally stylized and authentic (If the author is reading this, the picture with the headset is great, and would be at home in a 90s issue of Wired where the editor decided to get a bit avant-garde). The colors are also well used, and the occasional use of black and white acts as a nice visual syncopation to the visual rhythm.
If Analog Dreams is a visual of the internal world, 2-Bit Dreams is a love letter to the outside world. Shot entirely using a Game Boy Camera, 2-Bit Dreams shows why the device is increasingly venerated among those with a love for the intersection of creativity and dated technology. Page by page we get images taken with the Game Boy Camera, and images from the cart itself. The whole thing is a lot of fun to look at, and has me very tempted to break out my own Game Boy Camera and make a document of the world around me.
I touched on how in Analog Dreams there was some good use of color, but it’s in 2-Bit Dreams where color steals the show. Ironic, given the Game Boy Camera’s monochrome limitations. Bold pastels and neons rule the day here, and while it would be easy for the colors to distract from the pictures itself, this thankfully is never the case. The outdoor shots are especially great, and remind me of how nice it is to notice the things often overlooked in our day to day world. Makes me want to take a walk, ideally with the Game Boy Camera I decided to break out a bit earlier.
There’s not much else for me to say here about the duo of Analog Dreams and 2-Bit Dreams, but that’s not a slight against the zines themselves. Far from it, in fact. Any further writing I’d do here would just end up being a series of personal observations and relations to the the content of the two pieces. That might be fun for me, but I feel it would lessen the impact of looking over them yourself and letting your mind wander. Ultimately, that’s why I recommend you check these out, as well as the author’s works in general. It’s worthwhile to take a look at a distinct perspective and give some thought to both it and your own. Glitch for a little bit, glitch forever. Enjoy it.
And consider buying a Game Boy Camera.
Dee Lightyears’ website can be found at dee-liteyears.neocities.org. There you can find a link to 2-Bit Dreams. I was able to contact the author through and order physical copies of both zines, which may still be available!
