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lostinthewinterwood · 4 years ago

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Hetswap 2020

Hey there friend! Thanks for creating for me.

Sorry this letter’s late—it includes the general likes and fandom-specific notes that my signup is tragically lacking.

My other exchange letters can be found here, and all the fandoms I’ve linked have fandom-specific request tags too. I’d be happy to get treats in any medium.

General DNW non/dub-con; non-canonical major character death; heavy angst; hurt no comfort; on-page deliberate self-harm*; on-page suicide; smut; gore; grimdark; complete downer endings; character bashing; incest; cringe comedy; a/b/o; mpreg; graphic eye trauma; graphic hand trauma; issuefic; unrequested full-setting aus; unrequested identity headcanons; a focus on unrequested romantic relationships**. *I don’t include things like, say, punching a wall in a fit of emotion under this. however, something like cutting would not be appreciated. **canonical levels of canonical ships are perfectly fine; background non-canon ships that I haven’t dnw’d are okay too.

General Likes

– I really like plotty fics

– Secret identity and disguise shenanigans, the more layers to them and more absurdity the better.

– Crossdressing for whatever reason and gender disguises, also for whatever reason, though not as a kink—that I enjoy less.

– A focus on family and/or friendship, especially characters realizing they’re not nearly as alone as they think they are, and just generally characters who like each other and enjoy spending time together

– Found family; families of choice

– Character studies

– Worldbuilding

– Canon-divergence AUs and missing scenes; things set pre- or post-canon; wriggling into canon and poking at it to see what it spits back at you, if that description makes any sense at all.

Art Things(??)

I’ll be real here, I’ve never requested art before; I don’t really know how best to prompt for it. I like a lot of different styles, though, so—if you matched on art or want to make art, just, do your style? I’m sure I’ll like it! For the visual media, definitely don’t feel pressured to stick to the canonical art style if you don’t want to. Seriously—digital, traditional, some combination—you do you.

As I, again, don’t really know how to prompt well for art, I haven’t given art prompts even where I’ve requested art. Don’t feel pressured to try to work any of the proposed scenarios into your art, though if you feel inspired by them that’s great; just give me the characters together, however you think best—that will be enough.

Podfic

My only podfic-specific comment is that I do generally appreciate not having very sudden volume shifts, especially from quiet to loud, as I like to listen on headphones. Apart from that, again, go with your style :D

Original Work

· Male reforester who's planted thousands of trees/Female dryad of the new forest

· Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl/Female Student Warrior Disiguised as a Boy

· Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl/Female Fellow Student Mage

· Runaway Princess/King of Thieves

· Sheltered Prince/Roguish Female Thief

· Teen Girl Medium/Ghost of a Murdered Detective Helping her Solve the Case (OW)

· Teenage Supervillainess with a Secret Identity/Teenage Superhero with a Secret Identity

· Teenage Supervillain with a Secret Identity/Teenage Superheroine with a Secret Identity

· Fanfiction

This isn't a hard-and-fast rule, but I'd rather all the human characters in relationships be at least fifteen, and I'd rather not have a very large age gap (say, >5 years) if one of the characters is underage. (For the medium/ghost, you don't need to keep it that small; just maybe don't draw too much attention to it and/or make her an older teenager lol).

fandom-specific dnw: predatory manipulation between characters in the relationship in service of the relationship--if, for example, the superheroes/villains are manipulating each other for non-relationship things and such that's okay, but i'd rather both parties in any of the ships be interested in the romance of their own accord. Additionally—this isn’t in my signup—please don’t have characters react to any gender-disguised characters (or characters in general, but it’s most relevant to them) in transphobic or transphobic-adjacent ways (i.e. none of the characters are requested as trans, but I still wouldn’t want to see the kinds of comments people make about trans people aimed at them).

Reforester/Dryad—I really like, idk, the vibe I get off this one—it’s got a very nice atmosphere? I don’t really know how better to say it, I’m sorry.

Student Mage/Student Warrior; Student Mage/Student Mage—obviously I love identity and disguise shenanigans; it always struck me as tragic when I was younger that there were all these stories about girls disguised as boys, but no one ever seemed to do the reverse? Hence prompts such as these. I’d love an identity/gender reveal, or maybe a post-reveal setting; I’d really rather not see them engage in any kind of serious romance without both of their genders being accurately known to the other, though flirting is definitely okay, as would be a date or two. It’d be fun to go with some variety of mutual pining pre-reveal though, that could make the reveal all the sweeter.

Runaway Princess/King of Thieves; Sheltered Prince/Roguish Thief—these seem to be mirrors of each other, somewhat at least; how does a royal meet a thief? Does our princess find herself in the criminal underworld when she runs away? Does our prince have a burglar appear on his balcony, or does he perhaps meet a girl at a masquerade who’s no noble and instead a thief?

Medium/Ghost—lots of fun shenanigans you can go into here! What kind of case are they working on? How does a relationship work, when one of you is alive and the other isn’t?

Supervillain(ess)/Superhero(ine)—love me some superhero identity shenanigans. Do they know each other in their normal lives? Are their identities secret from each other, or only the world? How do they first fall for each other—were they friends in their normal lives and enemies in masks? Is this enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, or maybe something in-between? How do they reconcile a romantic relationship with one being a hero and the other a villain?

Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure

· Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel (Cartoon)

· Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Stalyan (Cartoon)

· Fanfiction

Eugene/Rapunzel—they’re adorable. I love them. Give me more—a moment in their lives? Something in the year before the series starts; something post-canon? Or maybe glimpses of them on the road?

Eugene/Stalyan—I will admit that this certainly isn’t my endgame ship for this canon, but I’d really love something pre-canon, when they were engaged or dating—what was their relationship like? How did they interact with each other and the world? Maybe a heist fic; that could be fun. My interpretation from what we get in canon is that their relationship wasn’t necessarily the healthiest (healthy relationships don’t usually lead to one getting left at the altar, after all) but it didn’t seem to me that it was necessarily abusive; I’d appreciate it if it was kept out of the actually abusive zone.

Hanging Out with a Gamer Girl (Manga)

· Terazaki Kaoru/Takekawa Izumi (HOwaGG)

· Terazaki Kaoru/Ousaka Nanami (HOwaGG)

· Fanart

· Fanfiction

· Podfic

Fandom-specific dnw: sexualization of Kaoru’s crossdressing, full justification of Kaoru’s fears re: Nanami’s dad

Kaoru/Izumi—they’re both cute; they have cute interactions; give me more of that?

Kaoru/Nanami—I, admittedly, don’t usually ship these two—but I love their friendship. Give me more of that, show me how it becomes a romance?

My typical DNW for unrequested setting aus does not apply here; if you want to write an au and want some ideas, I requested several in my AUEx letter.

Tortall – Tamora Pierce

· Stiloit Tasikhe/Varice Kingsford

· Kaddar Iliniat/Kalasin of Conté

· Roald II of Conté/Shinkokami of Conté

· Fanfiction

fandom-specific dnw: characters in the political marriages hating being married to their spouse throughout the fic--they can start off with reservations or not liking it but i'd really rather end with them at the very least liking their spouse.

Stiloit/Varice—they had quite interesting interactions, the few times they got the chance; Varice is a bit young for him in Tempests and Slaughter, but say he didn’t die—say he was alive still when she grew up a bit more—what does their relationship look like? What changes in the wider story, if Stiloit doesn’t die, if Ozorne doesn’t become quite so close to the throne as young as he does?

Kaddar/Kalasin; Roald/Shinko—these are both political marriages between characters who either seem to like each other or like they’d have a reasonable chance to like each other; what does marriage look like when you came into it as a diplomatic thing rather than falling in love? How do they learn about and come to care for each other?

Revolutionary Arc – kitsunerei88

· Aldon Rosier/Francesca Lam (Revolutionary Arc)

· Aleksandr Willoughby Dragic/Fei Long Lin (Revolutionary Arc)

· Fanart

· Fanfiction

Aldon/Chess—they do not have enough fluff or gentleness in the story right now; I’d like some more, please. Maybe post-war, with Chess off at muggle university—how does Aldon do with living properly in the muggle world? What do Chess’s classmates/friends think of him? I would also happily accept fluff/soft things set in the universe of Blake.

Alex/Fei—they haven’t ah, interacted ever in canon that I recall, but they seem like they’d fit together well, if only for a little while—is this a wartime friends-with-benefits? Maybe post-war? If you go with the friends-with-benefits take here I wouldn’t necessarily mind a bit of smut, as long as it’s not only smut—please no PWP.

Rigel Black Chronicles – murkybluematter

· Arcturus Rigel Black/Pansy Parkinson (Rigel Black Series)

· Remus Lupin/Rispah Cooper (Rigel Black Series)

· Fanart

· Fanfiction

Archie/Pansy—so. Archie’s quite attached to Hermione right now; but he’s also fourteen. Not all romantic interests people have at age fourteen stay strong; I’d rather not have a hard break or too many hard feelings between him and Hermione, and I think he’d be interesting to see with Pansy. As for Pansy herself—she seems to be too close to Rigel as a friend to seriously consider him as a partner, but she did seem potentially interested in Harry at the Gala—perhaps she’d also be interested in Archie, when she gets to meet him properly. Maybe this is a post-reveal thing; perhaps in trying to get to know the real Black heir she falls for him? I don’t know.

Remus/Rispah—this is admittedly partly my inner Song of the Lioness fan coming out, but I’d love to see Remus learning more about the Lower Alleys and what goes on there, and conversely bringing Rispah more into his world too.

#hetswap #exchange letters #requested: art #requested: podfic #requested: fic #requested: original work #requested: rapunzel's tangled adventure #requested: hanging out with a gamer girl #requested: tortall #requested: revolutionary arc #requested: rigel black chronicles

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kristablogs · 4 years ago

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How to travel solo, according to an adventurous biker

Traveling alone gives you the opportunity to be completely responsible for yourself, revealing how capable you truly are. Santa Marta, Colombia. (Janelle Kaz/)

This story originally featured on Motorcyclist.

There’s a lot of trepidation before setting out for the open road, leaving behind comfort and the known. This uncertainty can come from heading to a place you’ve never been before, perhaps away from civilization, out of cell service range, or from embarking on a solo journey—especially if you’re a woman.

I should know, I’ve ridden nearly 135,000 kilometers solo in the past five years on three continents. People constantly ask me if I’m afraid, regardless of where I am or how safe the area is perceived to be. While riding in Laos, an extremely peaceful country, an old grandma told me that men might come to slit my throat and steal my motorcycle. Likewise, I’ve had people in the US say something similar, though slightly less graphic. The general consensus is that I shouldn’t be riding alone. Well, to hell with that, I say.

I love riding solo. I adore being able to do whatever I want when I want. I enjoy not having to check in with someone to see if they also want to take this alluring detour or stop here or there to take photos, and I also value meeting myself during the hardest challenges. I’m not interested in following a man around, thank you.

If you wait for others to join you on that motorcycle adventure you’ve been dreaming about, it may never happen. May as well get some practice in. Antioquia, Colombia. (Janelle Kaz/)

I’ve also found that you’re more likely to meet interesting people and find yourself in incredible situations that wouldn’t have happened if you were in your secluded pair or group bubble.

I guess this all started when I planned my first trip abroad. My friends who I had made the travel plans with completely bailed. I was determined (one might say “stubborn”) and went anyway. I haven’t stopped traveling solo since. In fact, I’ve never really traveled with other people for much time, only taking day trips by motorcycle together, never touring. I’m curious what that would even be like.

Curiosity aside, perhaps some of you will benefit from my solo riding safety tips that I’ve gained over the years (and miles), so here they are:

Book ahead

Reserve your accommodations before you arrive. That way you have an address to navigate to so that you don’t have those moments of drawing attention to yourself (or your motorcycle) while looking for a hotel either on foot or riding around. Anytime you can omit looking like a lost, vulnerable tourist is a good thing. That being said, confirm the address before you set out as sometimes they are off (I have some stories to elucidate this but I’ll spare you for now).

Booking ahead isn’t always possible, such as in the remote mountains of Peru where you have no idea how long it will take you to get from point A to point B. I actually found prebooking to be a source of added stress in these situations, because I felt I had to make it there since I already paid for my hotel, when really, it would have been better to take my time and not rush. Therefore, I stopped trying to prebook once I realized I wasn’t sure how far I could make it each day. You can still write down the name and address of your top choice of places to stay so that you have an idea of where you’re headed if you do make it there, and consider looking for a place in a nearer town as well.

How much do you underestimate yourself? The only way to truly know is to push yourself beyond your own perceived limitations. Xiangkhouang, Laos. (Janelle Kaz/)

Fake it

Carry a fake wallet. Fill it with junk papers, business cards, some coins—make it look and feel legit. Keep it somewhere that is easy to hand over if someone ever tried to jump you. Also carry backup info, such as scanned passports and ID cards, but consider what you would do if you lost everything, just so you have an alternative plan and have already thought through it.

Don’t overshare info

Time and place predictability isn’t much of a concern these days by the majority of the population; just have a glance at social media. Don’t share your specific locations either online or in person to anyone who might ask you (such as “Where are you staying?”). This is especially a good call if you’re a woman traveling alone. Stay smart.

Often when people ask me where I’m going along the road, I tell them a different destination. I don’t post about my locations socially until after I’ve left—sometimes weeks after. If I don’t feel comfortable telling people I’m traveling alone, I tell them my boyfriend or friends are right behind me, or that they’re waiting for me just ahead.

Don’t worry, feeling like it's unwise to even attempt a solo motorcycle trip is normal. Thakhek, Laos. (Janelle Kaz/)

Leave a trail

Carry a GPS tracker. There are plenty to choose from these days, such as the Garmin inReach Mini.

Diversity your maps

Carry a variety of maps with you. We are way too dependent on technology these days. Just recently, here in Colombia, my iPhone stopped communicating with satellites to register where I am on the map, even in my off-line maps. Digital navigation really only works when you know where you are in relation to where you’re going. It turns out my specific model of phone was recalled for a motherboard error. I was in the remote mountains of the coffee-growing region, using paper maps and a compass.

Show strength

Carry yourself with confidence. When I walk around in the city or small towns, I walk as if I’m about to kick someone’s ass. It’s about what you wear and how you hold yourself. I am not a large person, but I walk quickly, usually wearing my armored leather jacket and motorcycle boots. I try my best to always look like I know where I’m going, which sometimes takes some planning ahead or ducking out of view to recheck the map. Don’t wear headphones, even if you’re not listening to anything—the appearance of headphones makes it seem like your senses are hindered. If you must, only keep one earbud in. Don’t stare at your phone, be very observant of your surroundings. Do not go out at night to bars alone, or even with newly acquainted locals.

“The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.” —Robert M. Pirsig, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Pirsig-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Reissue/dp/B00HTK12TW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?dchild=1&keywords=Robert+M.+Pirsig,+Zen+and+the+Art+of+Motorcycle+Maintenance&qid=1597758302&sr=8-4&linkCode=ll1&tag=mcy01-20&linkId=62dc724648ab6c98a18d0a93cd7874ee&language=en_US">Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance</a>, a prerequisite read before you head out on the road. (Janelle Kaz/)

Smile, you’re on camera

Use an affixed helmet camera. Since using Sena’s 10C Pro, I’ve noticed that when I touch it just to turn down the volume around police or nefarious-looking people (like the gunmen outside of the Peruvian jungle who barricaded the road), they notice the camera and they start to act a little more respectful. Because they don’t know, exactly, what this low-profile, side-mount device is—they only see that it has a camera lens on it— they aren’t totally sure where the information is going at that moment. I have certainly seen the benefits of using a helmet-mounted camera which were totally unexpected before setting out on the trip. I think enough people know what a GoPro is that such a square box mounted on your helmet wouldn’t work the same way.

Stay lit

Travel during the day. No need for the added risks that darkness brings. Although sometimes you might unintentionally wind up navigating in the dark, plan your rides for the daylight hours, when our eyes work best.

I’ve always got knives with me—which I mostly use at wonderful, roadside fruit stands like this one. Tungurahua, Ecuador. (Janelle Kaz/)

Carry (legal) weapons

I feel that it is better to have them and not use them than to not have them at all. I always carry mace and a couple of blades with me. I even wear a fixed blade on my belt so that it is clearly visible, as a deterrent. Anyways, the knives are useful for all the delightful roadside fruit stands. I keep the mace in my jacket breast pocket for easy access. If you can’t travel with these defensive tools (if you’re flying with only carry-on luggage, for instance), look into where you can pick something up once you arrive. Keep everything in a consistent place so that you’re never searching for it and can easily find it in the dark.

“In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.” —Robert M. Pirsig, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Pirsig-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Reissue/dp/B00HTK12TW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?dchild=1&keywords=Robert+M.+Pirsig,+Zen+and+the+Art+of+Motorcycle+Maintenance&qid=1597758302&sr=8-4&linkCode=ll1&tag=mcy01-20&linkId=62dc724648ab6c98a18d0a93cd7874ee&language=en_US">Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance</a>. (Janelle Kaz/)

Follow cultural norms

Depending on where you are in the world, showing parts of the body that are rather mundane to the Western world, such as your shoulders, can be a big deal. Living and riding in rural, traditional Thailand taught me modesty, because otherwise people perceive you as intentionally being “sexy,” which is not the ideal vibe you want to portray to the general public while navigating on your own.

Weigh the cost

Sometimes I might want to stop and take a photo, but based on the crowd that’s around or the sort of attention I may draw, I choose not to. I’ll never know if those situations would have caused a problem for me or if I would have just ended up with one more epic photo, but something—call it intuition or judgment—told me not to. Get to know that intuitive voice within you and listen to it. It could very well save your life, not just from criminals, but from choosing the right path in terms of your motorcycle journey and in life more generally.

“You look at where you’re going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you’ve been and a pattern seems to emerge.” —Robert M. Pirsig, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry-ebook/dp/B0026772N8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?dchild=1&keywords=Robert+M.+Pirsig,+Zen+and+the+Art+of+Motorcycle+Maintenance&qid=1597758302&sr=8-1&linkCode=ll1&tag=mcy01-20&linkId=6d0a1eff539a0e8d5059250b7a194dd2&language=en_US">Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values</a>. (Janelle Kaz/)

Prepare for a breakdown

What if you break down? Obviously, the answer is going to depend on your familiarity with how motorcycles work. I personally am not the greatest mechanic, but I’ve learned a lot on the road—when my bike did break down. Thankfully, my older brother is a fantastic mechanic and has essentially talked me through motorcycle maintenance 101 over the phone. Most of the time, the problems have been accumulative; I noticed something was going wrong, the bike didn’t just quit (except that one time in the middle of nowhere, Laos). Therefore, if I couldn’t fix it myself, I’ve mostly ridden my bike to the mechanic…or even walked it there. Definitely carry a few tools and a flat tire kit; knowing how to use them helps.

Overall, my advice is to play it safe. Riding a motorcycle is risky enough, so be sure to take the steps necessary to protect yourself in case you are ever targeted. Personally, I’ve always felt welcomed in the world and I believe that most people are good. I move through the world with compassion and empathy, but I’m not a sucker who trusts everyone blindly. Being courageous doesn’t mean you don’t experience fear; it is about feeling fear and pushing through it anyways. Motorcycling solo is the perfect opportunity to learn to lean on yourself, to really get to know who you are in those stressful, difficult moments. You’ll cultivate the belief that you can get through anything and gain confidence—along with an extensive collection of adventure stories to share with your friends and family when you get home.

Armored Roland Sands Design gear (Mia Jacket, Julian Pant, Bonnie Gloves), leather boots I can run in if I need to, fixed blade clearly visible, wind in my hair, and the beating drum of nature in my heart. (Janelle Kaz/)

0 notes

scootoaster · 4 years ago

Text

How to travel solo, according to an adventurous biker

Traveling alone gives you the opportunity to be completely responsible for yourself, revealing how capable you truly are. Santa Marta, Colombia. (Janelle Kaz/)

This story originally featured on Motorcyclist.

If you wait for others to join you on that motorcycle adventure you’ve been dreaming about, it may never happen. May as well get some practice in. Antioquia, Colombia. (Janelle Kaz/)

I’ve also found that you’re more likely to meet interesting people and find yourself in incredible situations that wouldn’t have happened if you were in your secluded pair or group bubble.

Curiosity aside, perhaps some of you will benefit from my solo riding safety tips that I’ve gained over the years (and miles), so here they are:

Book ahead

How much do you underestimate yourself? The only way to truly know is to push yourself beyond your own perceived limitations. Xiangkhouang, Laos. (Janelle Kaz/)

Fake it

Don’t overshare info

Don’t worry, feeling like it's unwise to even attempt a solo motorcycle trip is normal. Thakhek, Laos. (Janelle Kaz/)

Leave a trail

Carry a GPS tracker. There are plenty to choose from these days, such as the Garmin inReach Mini.

Diversity your maps

Show strength

“The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.” —Robert M. Pirsig, <a href="https://ift.tt/3jaGayS and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance</a>, a prerequisite read before you head out on the road. (Janelle Kaz/)

Smile, you’re on camera

Stay lit

I’ve always got knives with me—which I mostly use at wonderful, roadside fruit stands like this one. Tungurahua, Ecuador. (Janelle Kaz/)

Carry (legal) weapons

Follow cultural norms

Weigh the cost

Prepare for a breakdown

0 notes

biofunmy · 5 years ago

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Polyamory Works for Them – The New York Times

The Look

Having multiple partners can mean more pleasure, but it’s not always easy.

Photographs by Yael Malka

Text by Alice Hines

Produced by Eve Lyons

Through a half-century of sexual upheaval, monogamy has been a curious stalwart.

The tradition of having a single sexual partner is among the only sexual practices liberals and conservatives rarely disagree about. Its blandness belies mysterious origins: Scientists have yet to conclude why prairie voles, much less people, prefer to bond in long-term pairs.

Yet in certain concrete burrows, monogamy’s inverse is on the rise. Jade Marks, a 26-year-old artist and herbalist in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, recalled a recent post by a friend on Instagram: “Are there any other queers out there who are monogamous?”

That feeling may have something to do with the immediate environment. Most weekends in New York, a smattering of events cater to the non-monogamous. There are lecture series, workshops and discussion groups. There are cocktail hours and meet-and-greets. And there are, of course, parties.

On a recent Saturday night in Crown Heights, an angelic gatekeeper in a pastel harness did her best to assure a reporter that she wouldn’t be a total buzz kill at a private party of 200 mostly straight, mostly non-monogamous New Yorkers. “Just watching is O.K.!” she said outside the site, a loft lit like an infrared sauna. “Have a good time! Stay hydrated! And always ask for consent!”

Inside were some of the happiest-looking sober adults ever seen after 2 a.m. “It’s like ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ meets a Gaspar Noé film,” said a Scandinavian digital artist and recent Brooklyn transplant. He and his girlfriend were attending for the first time; they had read about the party, called NSFW, on the internet.

NSFW caters to the 25-to-35 age bracket, has an all-black dress code and is made up of 60 percent women, according to its founder, Daniel Saynt. Its application for membership requires a social media profile link (“It’s very curated,” Mr. Saynt said) and responses to open-ended and check-box questions (“ultimate fantasy” is a short answer; optional boxes to check include “hedonist,” “daddy” and “label-less”). That may sound like the precursor to a job interview, but the point is to ensure that the needs of attendees are met. Wouldn’t it be nice if other clubs worked that way?

“I don’t think that polyamory is somehow more evolved than monogamy,” said Zhana Vrangalova, a sex researcher who will teach an online course for couples and individuals seeking to open their relationships this fall. “But it should be an option. People should have more options.”

That was a maxim for the two dozen non-monogamous people interviewed for this article. The subjects, who represent a range of ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender identities and professions, agreed on this: For them, more partners means more exploration and more pleasure.

Consensual or ethical non-monogamy is an umbrella term that encompasses various relationship models, including polyamory, open relationships, sexual encounters with more than two people and swinging. Polyamorists are interested in exploring long-term relationships with multiple people. Swingers tend to be older couples opening their marriages recreationally.

According to a 2014 Chapman University survey, 5 percent of American relationships identify themselves as non-monogamous. In a more recent survey of single adults in the United States, in 2017, one-fifth of respondents said they would try some form of non-monogamy at some point in their lifetime.

In major cities, there are plenty of ways for non-monogamous and polycurious people to meet, among them apps, dinners, friends, blind dates and parties. In New York, organized sex parties include Chemistry, which requires a Q. and A. application and photo, but doesn’t screen for a particular look; NYC Inferno, a gay play party that mostly attracts cisgender men but is open to queer, trans and nonbinary people (Playhouse, a spinoff event, revolves around trans guys); Skirt Club, a members-only club for bisexual women; and Wonderland, which welcomes everyone as long as they bring a buddy who will vouch for them, and are committed to fantastical dress codes (“Ancients vs. Aliens,” “Dungeons and Drag Queens”).

Now a cottage industry of coaches and educators has cropped up to help polyamorous partners strive for compersion, the happy-for-you alternative to jealousy. Effy Blue, a relationship coach in Brooklyn, works with all of the following: triads, or three people in a committed relationship together; individuals seeking to transparently date multiple lovers simultaneously; partners who each have intimate friends, all of whom are close; and clients cultivating long-term relationships with someone who already has a primary partner.

“There is no single model that suits everyone,” Ms. Blue said. She also wrote a book on play-party etiquette. “Consent is the cornerstone of any well-produced, healthy and fun sex party,” she said. “This makes it safer and more fun than an average nightclub on any given day.”

Ella Quinlan, a 27-year-old event planner, said she knows hundreds of peers on the East and West Coasts practicing their own flavors of non-monogamy. In her own relationship with Lawrence Blume, a 55-year-old tech investor, Ms. Quinlan’s goal is to enhance what is conventionally beloved about monogamy, she said.

“We want to show people that it’s actually possible to be in a long-term, healthy, satisfying, deeply rooted and connected emotional relationship with somebody — and do this,” Mr. Blume said.

It’s not always easy. “There’s a lot of talking, and it takes a lot of work,” said Jade Marks. When Jade began exploring non-monogamy with Tourmaline, Jade’s primary partner, the pair quickly realized they had different expectations: Jade wanted casual encounters, while Tourmaline preferred sustained relationships with multiple people.

It took a lengthy negotiating period. Boundaries helped: Jade and Tourmaline established safe sex guidelines, and a rule of not bringing any partners to the apartment they share, though Jade said they have “a clause” for unexpected encounters.

Some emotions come with the territory. “A lot of us grew up with few of examples of what supportive queer, trans or non-monogamous relationships look like,” Tourmaline said. Among the couple’s queer and trans peers, non-monogamy can sometimes seem compulsory. “It’s O.K. to feel jealous,” Jade said. “It’s O.K. for this to be hard.”

Karen Ambert, 35, met Kenneth Play, a 38-year-old sex educator, three years ago on an art bus that was touring their neighborhood of Bushwick. Two years later, Mr. Play introduced Ms. Ambert, an emergency-room physician, to the man who became her second boyfriend, Geronimo Frias, the co-owner of a parkour gym.

It’s not technically a triad, but a V, as the relationship configuration is known in the poly community. Mr. Play and Mr. Frias don’t date each other, but they do date other people. (Mr. Play employs an assistant, in part to help book his rotating cast.)

Polyamorous for most of her adult life, Ms. Ambert hid it from her colleagues in medical school and residency. “I was always worrying about the next step. How will this impact my education and career?” she said. But recently she has grown more comfortable in her professional standing, and felt ready to come out about her love life too.

Mr. Frias was sitting on a couch at the home of Mr. Play with Ms. Ambert wedged in the middle, basking in the gaze of four adoring eyes.

Sexual repression is at the root of the wider public stigma about non-monogamy, said Narjesi Tragic, an environmental science student in Queens.

But that’s rapidly changing along with “tolerance of different kinds of lifestyles, traditions, religions,” said Orion Starbreeze, Narjesi’s metamour (both date Tiana North, a professional dominatrix and dog trainer, but not each other).

“We’re returning to that nomadic sharing of partners and resources,” Ms. North said. “There’s ride shares, there’s house shares, bike shares — we’re in a sharing generation now.”

Which, for some, is easier to intellectualize than practice. “The biggest obstacle to free love is the emotion we call jealousy,” the sex educators Janet W. Hardy and Dossie Easton write in the 1997 edition of their book “The Ethical Slut,” which introduced many Americans to the concept of non-monogamy.

One morning, I Skyped with Na’Im Najieb, a 33-year-old author, and Tyomi Morgan, 31, who is a sexuality coach. The two of them have been in an open marriage for a year and a half, and they recommend the use of mindfulness techniques to overcome jealousy.

“Is this really my partner separating from me?” Ms. Morgan said she asks herself when feelings of insecurity arise. “Or am I struggling my own abandonment issues, and needing to clearly express to Na’Im what affirmation I need to receive?”

Instead of jealousy, Ms. Morgan said she tries to think about gratitude and send messages like, “I was thinking about how much I appreciate you,” rather than, “Where are you?” and “Who are you with?”

Ms. Ambert, Mr. Play and Mr. Frias are all members of Hacienda, an intentional sex-positive community in Bushwick. (Mr. Play is a founder .)

Hacienda Villa, one of four locations, is an unassuming brick rowhouse across from an auto-body shop. Below the open concept kitchen-living room where 14 roommates have house meetings about chores, is a basement where events like Learn to Love Oral Sex: Tips from a Real Sex Worker (open to the public) and Second-Base Brunch (members only) are held.

“There’s a lot of sex problems in the world, like harassment,” Mr. Play said of the community’s mission. “We’re trying to engineer a way to coexist and celebrate sex without harming each other.”

He, Ms. Ambert, and Mr. Frias were currently in the process of contemplating a practice new to many of their open-minded friends and acquaintances: raising children.

“We’re in an extremely happy situation, and yet with a future that’s uncertain,” said Mr. Frias, 41, who is discussing starting a family with Ms. Ambert. “Being married and having kids in a V, I don’t know anyone else personally who’s done it.”

The idea was spurred during a conversation between Mr. Play and Ms. Ambert. It started much like any couple’s might, with Ms. Ambert saying she wanted children sooner rather than later, and Mr. Play hesitating.

Then Mr. Frias was in the picture. Like Ms. Ambert, he, too, wants children.

It was precisely her quality of “accepting people exactly as they are,” without trying to curtail their individual desires, that makes talk of such a long-term commitment possible, he said. “I’m not trying to change anything about her, and she’s not trying to change anything about me,” he added.

And those are just the emotional perks, said Mr. Play, who is coming around to the idea of helping raise children who aren’t his own. “Three incomes. Three parents. No one feels like they’re drowning in responsibility,” he said. “And the kid, surrounded by more loving adults.”

“I think this is really beneficial — a good life hack.”

Yael Malka is a photographer and artist raised in the Bronx and now based in Brooklyn. Alice Hines is a writer in New York City.

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allisenoble · 7 years ago

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Hello all! I visit ArtPrize in Grand Rapids every year, and always look forward to being able to share some of the favorite works I have seen. This year, I was involved as an artist as well, showing my series at Founder’s Brewing Co.

I enjoyed visiting my series with my significant other, drinking excellent beer, and even getting to pretend to drive a Tardis! Though we tried to stuff as much art inhalation into our day as possible, I was only up at ArtPrize for approximately 10 hours so only saw a cross section. However, I’d love to share with you my favorites from what I witnessed that day.

Empowered Women by Florencia Clement De Grandprey

This collection was hands down my favorite. Not only are the portraits themselves diverse, emotive, and detailed to perfection, but upcycled mixed media elements such as wallpaper and fabric samples were used along with the paint. A woman after my own heart!

Companions by Deborah Rockman

These digital drawings have an interesting style to them as the backgrounds are more photographic, but the images of people are more illustrative making them stand out. This is the image that particularly stopped me in my tracks. The entire series explores inequity in our world by placing side by side images of people that mirror similar situations visually, but reflect a glaring difference in circumstance.

Time Marches On by Sue Laage

I love antique assemblages, and this collection was a little Alice In Wonderland which made me adore it all the more. Each piece has it’s own distinctive style, yet similar colors and forms unify them as one.

Be The Change For Human Rights by Hazel Park High School Ceramics Students

First off, I am so jealous of these kids! Secondly, this is an amazing project. Each student picked a human right to represent on their tile. Assembling it into a mirror where the viewer can literally see themselves behind the well-known quote asking them to be the change really drives the impact home.

Kirsten by Carolyn Zinn

Portratiure is challenging enough when using pencils or paints, let alone joining together hexagons of printed fabric. The 3 dimensionality of the shading and highlights that is achieved is mindblowing, and the image completely transforms as you look at it closely and then far away. This was an ambitious, out-of-the-box, and very successful design that I kept wandering back to.

The Resistance of Hybrid Cacti by Salvador Jimenez Flores

I love love love surrealism, and the fact that this piece wasn’t just a sculpture but almost a mini created universe was especially entrancing. It turns out, a new universe is just what the artist aimed to create. In Flores’s ArtPrize bio, he says that his inspiration comes from sci-fi and re-imagining what the future may look like as opposed to what is presented in mainstream media. He states that in most sci-fi content, the majority of the future’s inhabitants are depicted as white. He aims to resist labels and create a future where the protagonist can be a minority, understand his experience, and also be relateable to others.

Struggle by Kyle Orr

What drew me into this sculpture was the strong sense of illusion that was created by the floating chains. This piece at first glance can seem very dark, but then you realize the walls aren’t really there … Orr’s concept statement reads, “Life can be a struggle. Sometimes life feels like it has you chained down in imaginary walls that keep you from achieving your inner most desires conquering the fear that causes you to hide your face in shame. We’ve all been here at one point or another in our lives. These are the moments in time that we make the decision to look at the chains as something to be broken or something to enslave us. The struggle is what grows courage and strength. Decide to thank the chains and imaginary walls, for they have grown strength and courage, but break them, indeed!”

Reflections of A Quilted Iso-Cube In Primary Colors by Diane Rabb and Julius Cassani

I found this piece ridiculously calming to look at. I find geometric designs relaxing for my brain, which is probably why I am including them all over as I continue to renovate my new house. I also loved how modern this piece was as opposed to what traditionally comes to mind when people think of “quilting”.

We Are One by Melissa Machnee

For this piece, the title really says it all … Its impact is in its simplicity. Too often, works of art have these detailed, lofty concept statements hanging next to them that you have to actually read in their entirety to even understand the piece you are looking at. With this work of art, the meaning in the dynamic composition is clear immediately.

Suspension by Sarupa Sidaarth

Sidaarth states in her ArtPrize bio that she likes to use unique raw materials that are usually rejected in traditional paintings such as crystals and even GOOGLY EYES. Now, I’ve been known to throw some bling on my mixed media drawings and paintings more than once, and am all for using non-traditional materials. However, as an art educator, I have a very complicated relationship with googly eyes. At the art studio where I work, I oftentimes go so far as to hide them or fib that we don’t have any right now when students ask for those goofy little eyes, because I had always thought of them as a surefire way to ruin what was formerly a decent creation, making it look like a daycare craft project. These amazing paintings have completely changed my mind about googly eyes (and yes, they are in there!) – not an easy feat.

Atomic Reaction by Susan Supper

Supper wrote in her artist statement for this piece that growing up in the age of television, cartoons and pop culture not only entertained but also provided a moral compass for children. She was particularly interested in Astroboy, who harnessed atomic powers for good rather than their traditional destructive nature. In this series, she depicts social issues and moral dilemmas through the lens of popular media. As a pop surrealism fanatic, I am in love. Her mix of familiar pop culture/advertising imagery with a Japanese aesthetic reminds me a lot of one of my favorite artists, Alex Gross.

It was hard to narrow everything down to just these pieces, as there were so many talented artists on display this year. Until 2018, goodbye ArtPrize! I’ll miss you!

Artists To Know: ArtPrize 9 Edition! Hello all! I visit ArtPrize in Grand Rapids every year, and always look forward to being able to share some of the favorite works I have seen.

#art #artprize #contemporary art #dr who #drawing #fiber art #grand rapids #illustration #michigan #mixed media #portraits #quilting #sculpture #sewing #tardis

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critdecomp · 7 years ago

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Listening #2: on violent human/computer/nature interactions

Ryoji Ikeda - 0 C (1998, Touch records)

Ikeda (born 1966) is interested in machines. Recordings of the human voice return a couple of times in these tracks, and the track c7: continuum builds around what might be a heartbeat; but on this record he is mostly working from the sounds of clicks, skips, bursts, drones and impulses. Processing is secondary to arrangement and dynamics, with two major sound classes emerging: drawn out textures, and rhythmic events. The magic is in their interaction, how the absence of one emphasizes the ruthlessness of the other, how a high frequency squeal makes you long for, of all things, the click of jack being plugged in or the low thump of a heartbeat.

The first set of pieces, pre-fixed C1 through C0, show you what Ikeda can do with this barren set of sounds: never dull, never quite giving you what you expect. By the time you get to the closing track, Zero Degreees (3) and its brutally minimal techno beat sounds like it would top the pop charts.

Alvin Lucier - Sferics (1988, Lovely Music 1017)

Short for atmospherics, Lucier (born 1931) presents to us the electromagnetic utterances of the earth’s atmosphere. Sferics, in its sub-9 minute glory, appears to be the raw output of antennas aimed at picking up the stray fields from our ionosphere.

(from http://www.desertunit.org/deserting-the-site/performance-alvin-luciers-sferics/)

I find the crackle and pop of our “natural” electric environment to be increasingly relevant today - Douglas Kahn wrote most of Earth Sound, Earth Signal (MIT Press, 2013) about it. As human use of the radio spectrum becomes denser and more efficiently used because of digital multiplexing, There is something relaxing about knowing that some of the airwaves are just popping and fizzing along, not caring at all of what we might be doing to the lower strata of the atmosphere. That you can tune into this with some strange looking wood and wire contraptions is something that seems underappreciated.

Conversely, there is compositional capital to be found in having designed, assembled, refined and performed technological systems as the focus of a sonic work. More specifically, that a raw recording of a machine justifies both a listening and the machine itself is an accomplishment, with legitimacy grounded in both engineering and sound. To borrow language from economics, there is value created from transferring knowledge from a technical domain an applying it in creative one. Lucier, working in his classic position as the musician of the electronic age, presents here a physical phenomena through his usual medium of electrons and sound. Just like his classics I am Sitting In a Room or Vespers, you learn about him, about what is around him, and about the technology that connects you to them through listening. There has not been enough credit given to recordings as wordless science lessons, and to science lessons as art.

Steve Reich - Pulse Music (never recorded, performed 1969)

http://www.allmusic.com/composition/pulse-music-for-phase-shifting-pulse-gate-mc0002501034

Reich (born 1936) and his Pulse Music (for phase shifting pulse gates) is a work I’ll probably never hear. It, and the underlying technology, is effectively what pushed Reich away from the mostly-electronic works of Come Out and It’s Gonna Rain and into the acoustic works inspired by electric processes he is getting performed and known for today.

A collaboration with engineers from Bell Labs, this piece is arguably Reich’s work most dependent on electronics. Reflecting on his two performances:

... the “perfection” of rhythmic execution of the gate (or any electronic sequencer or rhythmic device) was stiff and unmusical. In any music that depends on a steady pulse, as my music does, it is actually tiny micro-variations of that pulse created by human beings, playing instruments or singing, that gives life to the music. Last, the experience of performing by simply twisting dials instead of using my hands and body to actively create the music was not satisfying. All in all, I felt that the basic musical ideas underlying the gate were sound, but that they were not properly realized in an electronic device.

Reich, Steve. Writings on music, 1965-2000. Oxford University Press, 2002. p. 44

It’s easy to imagine Reich, faced with a mess of cables and devices that would make David Tudor proud, decide that this system might not be for him.

Yet to me, this basically non-existent work constitutes the crux of Reich’s work as an experimental composer. He has rarely come so close to the synthesis of human-scale phase difference (that is, phase differences resulting from musicians working at slightly different tempos, but operating at human times scales, favored in pieces made after Pulse Music) and electronics-scale phase differences, which is a complex value relating to the frequency of the signal, usually consisting of thousandths of a second-delays and which can only be detected by humans as a varying timbre when contrasted with a signal of fixed phase through the destructive and constructive interferences that result from these two signals overlapping (the classic “woosh” sound of a phaser guitar pedal). Before him, no one had really come so close to making those two phenomena - one mostly relevant to engineers, the other mostly to musicians - work together. In never really liking what came of this, Reich picked his camp, contemporary electronic musicians came to understand phase as mostly his post-pulse music conception of it, and audio engineers continue to be confused by the vagueness with which this term is used in the context of avant-garde concerts: “phase? as in degrees of phase difference?”

Yet electronic phase - present in Reich’s early tape works, the performance work of Nic Collins, Alvin Lucier and many others, continues to fascinate musicians with circuit inclinations. It’s often there, either unintentionally implemented by circuit benders or as an early assignment for those figuring out the mechanics of digital filter design (in which phase issues become almost as important as linear responses) - one could write a decent history of experimental electronic music through a history of uses and misuse of phase in either of its conceptions.

The technological and cultural politics of Reich’s early career still deserve to be unpacked: they are clearly related. After reneging on electronic experiments of that scale with Pulse Music, Reich wrote a short piece predicting some potential futures of modern music, in which he states:

“Electronic music as such will gradually die and be absorbed into the ongoing music of people singing and playing instruments.”

immediately followed by:

“ Non-Western music in general and African, Indonesian, and Indian music in particular will serve as new structural models for Western musicians. Not as new models of sound. (That’s the old exoticism trip.) Those of us who love the sounds will hopefully just go and learn how to play these musics. ”

This is a man who in Come Out and It’s Gonna Rain had used audio recordings of minorities. Arguably, he had done so as part of an effort to reflect and amplify the racial and political conflicts of the 1960′s (as a benefit for the Harlem Six and in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, respectively) but his work as a white artist working from audio recordings of black men seems to deserve a more pointed address than that made in those Optimistic Predictions (1970). Even more than that, his addressing of the undertones of appropriation in the second quote above seems somewhat vague. How is using non-Western musics as a structural template rather than sonic template less exoticizing, exactly?

By reneging on addressing phase technologically and instead falling back on a hyper-referential practice of patterns which extend the complex polyrhythms of non-Western musics, Reich isn’t simply making a technological choice due to convenience. He is making a culturally charged decision, one I believe he never fully addressed when he was clearly willing to write and find a platform for his writing. He regularly acknowledges the individual concepts as being adapted from another tradition, or referenced in his work, but if you know of any writing commenting on the ethics of his multiculturally-inspired practice, please do let me know.

http://www.allmusic.com/composition/pulse-music-for-phase-shifting-pulse-gate-mc0002501034

http://www.allmusic.com/composition/its-gonna-rain-for-tape-mc0002360349

http://www.keepmywords.com/2010/02/13/when-it-rains-it-pours-%E2%80%9Cit%E2%80%99s-gonna-rain%E2%80%9D/

https://www.oddballfilms.com/clip/13170_41296_union_square_sunday2

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/arts/music/steve-reich-at-80-still-plugged-in-still-plugging-away.html?mcubz=3

Gavin Bryars - Sinking of the Titanic (1975, Obscure Records #1)

I absolutely adore this piece. I’ve listened to the Obscure recording of it at least a hundred times, and yet, I must confess I’d never read about it in much detail. I had assumed something along the lines of a procedural score with the simple melodic lines to be played and the overall pattern of the piece, guessing that Eno and Bryars probably added the British chatter, and probably some tape loop processing, during mixing. This is what I listen to when I’m sick, what I listen to when I need to calm my brain. I suspect some of it might be consonant to my tinnnitus. You can listen to it quietly, you can listen to it loudly - there are no sharp edges and you can fall asleep to it but it is also fantastically satisfying to listen to attentively.

Prompted by the question of what the string quartet on the Titanic must have sounded like as it sunk down to the bottom of the Atlantic, Bryars got a (living) string quartet to play a piece that probably played as the original quartet was going down:

My initial speculations centered on what happens to music as it is played in water. On a purely physical level, of course, it simply stops since the strings would fail to produce much of a sound (it was a string sextet that played at the end, since the two pianists with the band had no instruments available on the Boat Deck). On a poetic level, however, the music, once generated in water, would continue to reverberate for long periods of time in the more sound-efficient medium of water. The music would then descend with the ship to the ocean bed and remain there, repeating over and over until the ship returns to the surface and the sounds re-emerge.

(program notes from a 2013 performance in vancouver, https://vimeo.com/57017267)

I’ve had a hard time understanding exactly the amount of tape loop processing used in the original recording, but modern video recordings show that the piece maintain much of its effect with minimal processing (https://youtu.be/SkfJVTPV-Ps). A particularly satisfying aspect of the piece is that is has been updated as new information about the titanic’s demise is published by researchers, and as Bryars develops more sophisticated methods of rendering the original idea. As a performance, it often takes advantage of pools and other aquatic and reverberant spaces, offering listeners the possibility of listening from in the water. He’s added turntablist John Jeck to the regular cast of performers, for added effect - and I will admit to loving the vinyl crackle from the direct rip of the original Obscure record I listen to. As a recording, the speculations regarding what the orchestra actually played on the boat are a also big part of this piece’s mythology.

It is telling that one of the best pieces - it prompted Eno to start his record label just to make sure it was released - to come out of this era of British experimental music is clearly related to the tape loop work of the time (Discreet Music, Come Out, etc.) but doesn’t clearly depend on any clever uses of new technology. Bryars was agile in his negotiation of traditional instrumentation and how it could be augmented by considering acoustics and electronics. Furthermore, he’s not been afraid of changing the overall nature of the piece as contexts for its consumption (recorded or live) changed.

http://thequietus.com/articles/08491-gavin-bryars-interview

http://www.gavinbryars.com/Pages/titanic_point.html

Phillip Glass - 1+1 (composed 1968)

youtube

http://philipglass.com/compositions/one_plus_one/

http://www.ubu.com/aspen/aspen8/onePlusOne.html

http://www.allmusic.com/composition/1-1-for-1-player-and-amplified-table-top-mc0002584691

This piece appears somewhat as Reich’s Pendulum Music: powered by something that borders on gimmick, yet offers a surprising amount of fun for both the performer and their audience. What pendulum gives up to the action of gravity, though, is here very much performed by a human, as such, the setup is a bit easier (a table, contact mic and amplifier) but the performance is a bit more robust on the human side (see score notes). Because feebdack seem to be more of a unifying phenomena, recordings of 1+1 also seem to vary quite a bit whereas Pendulum sounds more consistent across iterations.

I’d argue that from a mechanical perspective it is this slightly more active agency on the part of the performer that really differentiates these otherwise very accessible pieces (in addition to their sonic output being completely different). The world needs both: it is important to have precedents for either, and I regularly think of the almost idiot-savant richness of Pendulum Music and its painful, comical unfolding in live contexts.

youtube

1+1 shares some of this: a solo performer playing on a piece of amplified wood is funny. Glass’ serious set of instructions makes it fun: this is a good example of the tightrope of humor in experimental music being fairly well handled.

It doesn’t take much for 1+1 to go into parody: the second video above involves a heavy use of the phaser effect built in to the amplifier, which just appears as overkill. The demonstrative simplicity of Glass’ work isn’t lost, but it’s hazed up in a sound that anyone who’s ever dreamed of starting space rock band as a teenager is neither interested in nor amused by. One gimmick per piece is enough.

Merzbow - Promotion Man, off of the album Merzbeat (2002)

youtube

This is one of Merzbow’s beat-full albums. It is also about the sounds of machines, but musical machines. It also plays of the humor in absurd repetition and gimmicky processing, but with the knowledge of a thousand harsh noise albums that make you happy it’s not “something a lot more aggressive.”

“Promotion Man” is only a story if you consider it’s title. The uplifting beat serves as the grid for various, almost pleasant, synthesizer stabs that might be motorcycle samples and the occasional high pitch squeal. It eventually gets revealed as a straight drum loop when the distortion wears off, only to be compounded into chaos by slowly adding delayed and speed-warped versions of itself.

I tend to gravitate to this album, like Tortoise’s Millions Now Living Will Never Die because it shows what an extensive knowledge and experience with electronic music can sound like in a popular music context (or, here, as close to that as Merzbow will ever get). Compared with his recent collaboration as the noise person in hardcore bands (see his work with Full of Hell), I would almost say there is more value in making Merzbow pop than making Merzbow be yet another noise artist in a sludge / metal / scream band.

“Promotion Man,” then, is perhaps not the story of the beat used in the track and its transformations from fuzz to clean to delay, but perhaps about the alternate future where Merzbow’s violent consumption and production of music and its parallels with the regular world are not underlying, but celebrated.

Overall, these pieces reflect on how technology can mediate relationships between humans, machines and their environment through sound. The documentarian, or descriptive approach taken by some (”here are all the ways I like sine waves”) is contrasted with the more context-aware production of say, Merzbow playing with popular music tropes. Most of these include or refer to some sort of violence: pure 12k and over sine waves, repetitively hitting a piece of wood, the aggression of hyperdistorted, bassy loops, the commemoration of a tragic event or conflict. With each piece, the technologies being used offer commentary on these violences: it might be more muted than the visceral description of pieces like Come Out, with the narrator describing he had to “push some the bruise blood, so it could come out, to show them,” but the modes of propagation of these messages are also charged with their own politics.