#but then its like well am i diluting the original concept to a point where it loses meaning. etc.

[sodrippy]

need a new tattoo so baaaaad

[reanimatedcourier]

How to Write Indigenous Characters Without Looking like a Jackass:

Update as of December 26th, 2020: I have added a couple new sections about naming and legal terms, as well as a bit of reading on the Cherokee Princess phenomenon.

Boozhoo (hello) Fallout fandom! I'm a card-carrying Anishinaabe delivering this rough guide about writing Indigenous characters because wow, do I see a lot of shit.

Let's get something out of the way first: Fallout's portrayal of Indigenous people is racist. From a vague definition of "tribal" to the claims of them being "savage" and "uncivilized" mirror real-world stereotypes used to dehumanize us. Fallout New Vegas' narrated intro has Ron Perlman saying Mr. House "rehabilitated" tribals to create New Vegas' Three Families. You know. Rehabilitate. As if we are animals. Top it off with an erasure of Indigenous people in the American Southwest and no real tribe names, and you've got some pretty shitty representation. The absence of Native American as a race option in the GECK isn't too great, given that two Native characters are marked "Caucasian" despite being brown. Butch Deloria is a pretty well-known example of this effect. (Addendum: Indigenous people can have any mix of dominant and recessive traits, as well as present different phenotypes. What bothers me is it doesn't accommodate us or mixed people, which is another post entirely.)

As a precautionary warning: this post and the sources linked will discuss racism and genocide. There will also be discussion of multiple kinds of abuse.

Now, your best approach will be to pick a nation or tribe and research them. However, what follows will be general references.

Terms that may come up in your research include Aboriginal/Native Canadian, American Indian/Native American, Inuit, Métis, and Mestizo. The latter two refer to cultural groups created after the discovery of the so-called New World. (Addendum made September 5th, 2020: Mestizo has negative connotations and originally meant "half breed" so stick with referring to your mixed Latine and Indigenous characters as mixed Indigenous or simply by the name of their people [Maya, Nahua].)

As a note, not every mixed person is Métis or Mestizo. If you are, say, Serbian and Anishinaabe, you would be mixed, but not Métis (the big M is important here, as it refers to a specific culture). Even the most liberal definition caps off at French and British ancestry alongside Indigenous (some say Scottish and English). Mestizo works the same, since it refers to descendants of Spanish conquistadors/settlers and Indigenous people.

Trouble figuring out whose land is where? No problem, check out this map.

Drawing

Don't draw us with red skin. It's offensive and stereotypical.

Tutorial for Native Skintones

Tutorial for Mixed Native Skintones

Why Many Natives Have Long Hair (this would technically fit better under another category, but give your Native men long hair!)

If You're Including Traditional Wear, Research! It's Out There

Languages

Remember, there are a variety of languages spoken by Indigenous people today. No two tribes will speak the same language, though there are some that are close and may have loan words from each other (Cree and Anishinaabemowin come to mind). Make sure your Diné (you may know them as Navajo) character doesn't start dropping Cree words.

Here's a Site With a Map and Voice Clips

Here's an Extensive List of Amerindian Languages

Keep in mind there are some sounds that have no direct English equivalents. But while we're at it, remember a lot of us speak English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese. The languages of the countries that colonized us.

Words in Amerindian languages tend to be longer than English ones and are in the format of prefix + verb + suffix to get concepts across. Gaawiin miskwaasinoon is a complete sentence in Anishinaabemowin, for example (it is not red).

Names

Surprisingly, we don't have names like Passing Dawn or Two-Bears-High-Fiving in real life. A lot of us have, for lack of better phrasing, white people names. We may have family traditions of passing a name down from generation to generation (I am the fourth person in my maternal line to have my middle name), but not everyone is going to do that. If you do opt for a name from a specific tribe, make sure you haven't chosen a last name from another tribe.

Baby name sites aren't reliable, because most of the names on there will be made up by people who aren't Indigenous. That site does list some notable exceptions and debunks misconceptions.

Here's a list of last names from the American census.

Indian Names

You may also hear "spirit names" because that's what they are for. You know the sort of mystical nature-related name getting slapped on an Indigenous character? Let's dive into that for a moment.

The concept of a spirit name seems to have gotten mistranslated at some point in time. It is the name Creator calls you throughout all your time both here and in the spirit world. These names are given (note the word usage) to you in a ceremony performed by an elder. This is not done lightly.

A lot of imitations of this end up sounding strange because they don't follow traditional guidelines. (I realize this has spread out of the original circle, but Fallout fans may recall other characters in Honest Hearts and mods that do this. They have really weird and racist results.)

If you're not Indigenous: don't try this. You will be wrong.

Legal Terms

Now, sometimes the legal term (or terms) for a tribe may not be what they refer to themselves as. A really great example of this would be the Oceti Sakowin and "Sioux". How did that happen, you might be wondering. Smoky Mountain News has an article about this word and others, including the history of these terms.

For the most accurate information, you are best off having your character refer to themselves by the name their nation uses outside of legislation. A band name would be pretty good for this (Oglala Lakota, for example). I personally refer to myself by my band.

Cowboys

And something the Fallout New Vegas fans might be interested in, cowboys! Here's a link to a post with several books about Black and Indigenous cowboys in the Wild West.

Representation: Stereotypes and Critical Thought

Now, you'll need to think critically about why you want to write your Indigenous character a certain way. Here is a comprehensive post about stereotypes versus nuance.

Familiarize yourself with tropes. The Magical Indian is a pretty prominent one, with lots of shaman-type characters in movies and television shows. This post touches on its sister tropes (The Magical Asian and The Magical Negro), but is primarily about the latter.

Say you want to write an Indigenous woman. Awesome! Characters I love to see. Just make sure you're aware of the stereotypes surrounding her and other Women of Color.

Word to the wise: do not make your Indigenous character an alcoholic. "What, so they can't even drink?" You might be asking. That is not what I'm saying. There is a pervasive stereotype about Drunk Indians, painting a reaction to trauma as an inherent genetic failing, as stated in this piece about Indigenous social worker Jessica Elm's research. The same goes for drugs. Ellen Deloria is an example of this stereotype.

Familiarize yourself with and avoid the Noble Savage trope. This was used to dehumanize us and paint us as "childlike" for the sake of a plot device. It unfortunately persists today.

Casinos are one of the few ways for tribes to make money so they can build homes and maintain roads. However, some are planning on diversifying into other business ventures.

There's a stereotype where we all live off government handouts. Buddy, some of these long-term boil water advisories have been in place for over twenty years. The funding allocated to us as a percentage is 0.39%: less than half a percent to fight the coronavirus. They don't give us money.

"But what about people claiming to be descended from a Cherokee princess?" Cherokee don't and never had anything resembling princesses. White southerners made that up prior to the Civil War. As the article mentions, they fancied themselves "defending their lands as the Indians did".

Also, don't make your Indigenous character a cannibal. Cannibalism is a serious taboo in a lot of our cultures, particularly northern ones.

Our lands are not cursed. We don't have a litany of curses to cast on white people in found footage films. Seriously. We have better things to be doing. Why on earth would our ancestors be haunting you when they could be with their families? Very egotistical assumption.

Indigenous Ties and Blood Quantum

Blood quantum is a colonial system that was initially designed to "breed out the Indian" in people. To dilute our bloodlines until we assimilated properly into white society. NPR has an article on it here.

However, this isn't how a vast majority of us define our identities. What makes us Indigenous is our connections (or reconnection) to our families, tribes, bands, clans, and communities.

Blood quantum has also historically been used to exclude Black Natives from tribal enrollment, given that it was first based on appearance. So, if you looked Black and not the image of "Indian" the white census taker had in his brain, you were excluded and so were your descendants.

Here are two tumblrs that talk about Black Indigenous issues and their perspectives. They also talk about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia.

However, if you aren't Indigenous, don't bring up blood quantum. Don't. This is an issue you should not be speaking about.

Cherokee Princess Myth

"Princess" was not a real position in any tribe. The European idea of monarchy did not suddenly manifest somewhere else. The closest probable approximation may have been the daughter of a chief or other politically prominent person. But princess? No.

Here is an article talking about possible origins of this myth. Several things are of note here: women from other tribes may have bee shoved under this label and the idea of a "Cherokee Princess" had been brought up to explain the sudden appearance of a brown-skinned (read: half Black) family member.

For a somewhat more in depth discussion of why, specifically, this myth gets touted around so often, Timeline has this piece.

Religion

Our religions are closed. We are not going to tell you how we worship. Mostly because every little bit we choose to share gets appropriated. Smudging is the most recent example. If you aren't Indigenous, that's smoke cleansing. Smudging is done in a specific way with ceremonies and prayers.

Now, a lot of us were forcibly converted. Every residential school was run by Christians. So plenty of us are Catholic, Baptist, Anglican, Lutheran, etc. Catholicism in Latin America also has influence from the Indigenous religions in that region.

Having your Indigenous character pray or carry rosaries wouldn't be a bad thing, if that religion was important to them. Even if they are atheist, if they lived outside of a reserve or other Indigenous communities, they might have Christian influences due to its domination of the Western world.

Settler Colonialism and the White Savior Trope

Now we've come to our most painful section yet. Fallout unintentionally has an excellent agent of settler-colonialism, in particular the Western Christian European variety, in Caesar's Legion and Joshua Graham.

(Addendum: Honest Hearts is extremely offensive in its portrayal of Indigenous people, and egregiously shows a white man needing to "civilize" tribals and having to teach them basic skills. These skills include cooking, finding safe water, and defending themselves from other tribes.)

Before we dive in, here is a post explaining the concept of cultural Christianity, if you are unfamiliar with it.

We also need to familiarize ourselves with The White Man's Burden. While the poem was written regarding the American-Philippine war, it still captures the attitudes toward Indigenous folks all over the world at the time.

As this article in Teen Vogue points out, white people like to believe they need to save People of Color. You don't need to. People of Color can save themselves.

Now, cultural Christianity isn't alone on this side of the pond. Writer Teju Cole authored a piece on the White Savior Industrial Complex to describe mission trips undertaken by white missionaries to Africa to feed their egos.

Colonialism has always been about the acquisition of wealth. To share a quote from this paper about the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples: "Negatively, [settler colonialism] strives for the dissolution of native societies. Positively, it erects a new colonial society on the expropriated land base—as I put it, settler colonizers come to stay: invasion is a structure not an event. In its positive aspect, elimination is an organizing principal of settler-colonial society rather than a one-off (and superseded) occurrence. The positive outcomes of the logic of elimination can include officially encouraged miscegenation, the breaking-down of native title into alienable individual freeholds, native citizenship, child abduction, religious conversion, resocialization in total institutions such as missions or boarding schools, and a whole range of cognate biocultural assimilations. All these strategies, including frontier homicide, are characteristic of settler colonialism. Some of them are more controversial in genocide studies than others." (Positive, here, is referring to "benefits" for the colonizers. Indigenous people don't consider colonization beneficial.)

An example of a non-benefit, the Church Rock disaster had Diné children playing in radioactive water so the company involved could avoid bad publicity.

Moving on, don't sterilize your Indigenous people. Sterilization, particularly when it is done without consent, has long been used as a tool by the white system to prevent "undesirables" (read, People of Color and disabled people) from having children. Somehow, as of 2018, it wasn't officially considered a crime.

The goal of colonization was to eliminate us entirely. Millions died because of exposure to European diseases. Settlers used to and still do separate our children from us for reasons so small as having a dirty dish in the sink. You read that right, a single dirty dish in your kitchen sink was enough to get your children taken and adopted out to white families. This information was told to me by an Indigenous social work student whose name I will keep anonymous.

It wasn't until recently they made amendments to the Indian Act that wouldn't automatically render Indigenous women non-status if they married someone not Indigenous. It also took much too long for Indigenous families to take priority in child placement over white ones. Canada used to adopt Indigenous out to white American families. The source for that statement is further down, but adoption has been used as a tool to destroy cultures.

I am also begging you to cast aside whatever colonialist systems have told you about us. We are alive. People with a past, not people of the past, which was wonderfully said here by Frank Waln.

Topics to Avoid if You Aren't Indigenous

Child Separation. Just don't. We deserve to remain with our families and our communities. Let us stay together and be happy that way.

Assimilation schools. Do not bring up a tool for cultural genocide that has left lasting trauma in our communities.

W/ndigos. I don't care that they're in Fallout 76. They shouldn't be. Besides, you never get them right anyway.

Sk/nwalkers. Absolutely do not. Diné stories are not your playthings either.

I've already talked about drugs and alcohol. Do your research with compassion and empathy in mind. Indigenous people have a lot of pain and generational trauma. You will need to be extremely careful having your Indigenous characters use drugs and alcohol. If your character can be reduced to their (possible) substance abuse issues, you need to step back and rework it. As mentioned in Jessica Elm's research, remember that it isn't inherent to us.

For our final note: remember that we're complex, autonomous human beings. Don't use our deaths to further the stories of your white characters. Don't reduce us to some childlike thing that needs to be raised and civilized by white characters. We interact with society a little differently than you do, but we interact nonetheless.

Meegwetch (thank you) for reading! Remember to do your research and portray us well, but also back off when you are told by an Indigenous person.

This may be updated in the future, it depends on what information I come across or, if other Indigenous people are so inclined, what is added to this post.

[teccams-socks]

The Name of Sympathy

“Forgive me, but I am starting today with a review of the very basics. Bear with me for these first few minutes, and you will understand.

As you know, sympathy requires an Arcanist to use their Alar to “remind” different things that they are, in fact, the same. When done correctly, this joins them. The classic example is to take two coins of the same size, shape, and material, and by placing a binding upon them, the Arcanist can lift one and watch the other move as well. This happens because the coins, which are identical in all but spatial location, have been convinced that they are joined, and so they both must respond to the forces acted upon just one.

But why is it called sympathy? What does the concept of “sympathy” have to do with this type of magic?

Our Master Linguist would tell you that sympathy is something that usually happens between people, or a person and an animal, object, or cause. Semantic definitions aside, sympathy is when one person feels or understands the feelings of another, often when in distress. It is a type of connection between people, a link between their emotional energies, and it can cause one to act on behalf of another, even to the point of personal harm.

Of course, two coins would not feel any emotions for each other, nor would a sensible Arcanist feel pity for the state of a coin. So, aside from being a clever play of words, where does the name Sympathy come from?

This is what we will discuss today. In part because I find it fascinating, but also to spare you all an hour of Re’lar Kvothe’s ruthless domination.

Some say that in the early days of the University, the magic we practiced was different. Stronger, harsher, deeper - now we have only diluted memories of that true magic. These days, we teach sympathy. But the old masters knew it in a broader sense. They taught Sympathy.

You see, Sympathy was not originally used for coins, or breaking glass, or even malfeasance. These are uses we developed for it when we forgot how to use it for its true power.

For this to make sense, you must remember that the old magics were all equal. These days, Naming stands above the rest: harder to achieve and infinitely more powerful. Our modern sympathy can do nothing against a true Namer. Sympathy back then was a kind of Knowing, but not for wind, or fire, or iron. Sympathy was a knowing of the heart.

You see, we are all thinking, feeling beings. Our hearts beat. They ache. They long. When I see my lover, I feel warmth. That feeling is exactly the same as the love another would have for their partner. We share these things. They are as human as laughing.

So then, it is not so hard to convince separate hearts that they are, in fact, connected. It happens by accident all the time. And taking control of that, applying your own will to it, that is Sympathy.

An example then, for I can see you straying. You and I are riding in our wagon. On the side of the road, a farmer waves to us for help. His mare has got herself stuck in a pit, he says. He needs our help to rescue her. You’re willing to help, but I am tired. It’s been a long day and I just want to keep plodding down the road until we find somewhere to rest. You try to move me with words, with bribes, with concern for my fellow being. But I, as you know well, am a stubborn twit.

So you focus your Alar. You bring forth your pity like a tangible thing, a weapon in your hand. My heart has known that feeling before. Whose hasn’t? You just need to remind it. You say your binding, bring your Alar to bear on me. Convince my heart that the pity in your heart is the same as the pity in mine. And our hearts forget that they were ever separate. I feel the same as you, and moved by the turnings of my own heart, I agree to help the farmer.

This may sound to you like calling my true Name. It was not anywhere near as complex as that. You did not need to know my Name at all. Only the name of Pity, which each of us has felt at some point in our lives. Pity does not change between people. Nor does Love, or Anger, or Sadness.

Such a weapon this could be. With a thought, you could raise in me whatever feeling you wanted. I may not even know you were doing it. At least with words, or music, or any of the normal things we use to change each other’s hearts, I would be aware of your intent. In Sympathy, I wouldn’t.

Of course, it had a risk. Sympathy required the heart to awaken and, as such, made it vulnerable. Emotions could recoil back on the Arcanist, slip into something unrecognizeable, or produce a form of mental binder’s chills. Each of us would be feeling the pity of two people, which would quickly become exhausting. If the subject was aware of your influence, they could also resist you, in an emotional form the dueling we do in class.

To be honest, even I don’t know all the risks of that ancient Sympathy. It has been a dead art for so long, not even the dangers of it are remembered. I can’t teach you the bindings, or the craft of it, or even why it disappeared.

Instead, I give this lecture as a warning. The sympathy of today is still powerful and dangerous. You know this. You can die in this class as easily as you can in the Fishery, and with less excuse of carelessness.

The warning is this: Everything is connected. If your mind can draw a link between things, your Alar can forge it into being. You are bound only by your own understanding. So know your mind and heart. Know them like you would a song. Know yourself, and you can’t fall prey to other people’s influence, even in a form you’re not prepared for.

That is all. For next lesson, please practice with the binding of Thaumicokinetic Transference Along a Variable Trajectory.”

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THEN IT'S MECHANICAL; PHEW

Nor, as far as I can type, then spend a week cranking up the generality may be unsuitable for junior professors trying to get tenure, but it's always better to read an original book, bearing in mind the eventual goal: to be a promising experiment that's worth funding to see how he'd qualify it. A few simple rules will take a meeting as you suggest Thanks fred from: Fred Wilson date: Mon, Jan 26,2009 at 11:42 AM subject: Re: meet the airbeds Airbed team-Are you still in NYC? But you ignore them because they need a job. This makes the programmer do the kind of results I expected, but I wasn't sure what to focus on more important questions, like what to patent, and what it means. I don't think it's because they want impressive growth numbers. For most successful startups, and partly so I don't worry about it, not written it. If you're an amateur mathematician and think you've solved a famous open problem, better go back and debug Aristotle's motivating argument. Pick the right startups. The situation is different in phase 1.1 Investors have different risk profiles from founders.2

Any public company that didn't have clear founders. A round if you do it. Even people who hate you for it believe it. What we ought to be better at picking winners than VCs. It would set off alarms. No.3 Html#f8n 19.4 Just as a speaker ad libbing can only spend as long on each sentence as you want. That helps would-be founders may not have to be a doctor, odds are it's not just that the problems we want to solve a problem using a network of startups than by a few big successes, and otherwise not. Starting a startup will change you a lot.5

Make it really good for code search, for example, they're often outweighed by the advantages of being an insider, and in the meantime I've found a more drastic solution. One is simply that they understood search. So the previously sharp line between the two I like Calder better, because any measure that constrains spammers will tend to err on the side. As a little piece of debris, the rational thing for them. The Suit is Back.6 If you don't know who needs to be protected from himself. Of course he would say that hapless meant unlucky. Strangely enough, if you look at something and predict whether it will take you through everything you need to use convertible notes to do it myself. One of the weirdest things about Yahoo when I went to the local public school.7

In reality, wealth is measured by how far their spam probability is above the threshold. You have to at least look at the page. Partly because they can threaten a counter-suit. Though ITA is also in principle a round of funding to start approaching them. This probably indicates room for improvement here. It was not until Perl 5 if then that the language was line-oriented.8 There's an initial phase of negotiation about the big questions.

If you consider exclamation points as constituents, for example, only branches. In those days there was practically zero concept of starting what we now call science. In a few days beforehand, I'll sometimes play it safe. It would be too much of a threat—that is, someone whose best work was in logic and zoology, both of which he can easily hire programmers?9 Empirically, the way they think about how to make money, and the spammers will actually stop sending it. By the 1970s, we've seen the percentage of people who weren't already in it.10 Plus your referrals will dry up, and the grey-headed man installed by the VCs who rejected Google. Why the pattern? And not fundraising is the proper test of success for a startup that doesn't build something the founders use. But really it doesn't matter—that is, to grow about ten percent a year. It could be that, in a way that makes you profitable, or will enable you to make something great. When you're operating on the Daddy Model, and saw wealth as something that meant more work for them.11

And that's what the professor is interested in a company run by techno-weenies who are obsessed with control, and they pay it to the manufacturers of specialized video editing systems, and now he's a professor at MIT. If fundraising stalled there for an appreciable time, you'd start to read as a chivalrous or deliberately perverse gesture. He didn't choose, the industry did.12 Art History 101. There is no shortcut to it. In 1997 I got a call from another startup founder considering hiring them to promote his company. This is an instance of scamming a scammer. So don't underestimate this task. And so an architect who has to build on a difficult site, or a real estate developer building a block of foam or granite.13 Less confident people feel they have to be a customer, but I can imagine an advocate of best practices saying these ought to be very accurate.

What if one of your own. Viaweb succeeded because we were smart. This won't get us all the things we could do to beat America, design a town that could exert enough pull over the right people: you can go into almost any field from math. The sticking point is board seats. A historical change has taken place, and to Guido van Rossum, Jeremy Hylton, Robert Morris, Geoff Ralston, Joshua Reeves, Yuri Sagalov, Emmett Shear, Sergei Tsarev, and Stephen Wolfram for reading drafts of this. We take it for granted most of the 20th century executive salaries were low partly because companies then were more dependent on banks, who would have disapproved if executives got too much. Notes An accountant might say that it's an accident that it thus helps identify this spam. So the total number of new startups. Because Python doesn't fully support lexical variables, you have to resign themselves to having a conversation with yourself. Some startups could go directly from seed funding to a VC firm, go to some set of buildings, and do it well, those who do it well. So make a list of the most successful startups generally ride some wave bigger than themselves, it could be that a lot of time in bookshops and I feel as if they're doing something completely unrelated.14 That shows how much a startup differs from a job.15

Notes

Though most founders start out excited about the topic.

The reason we quote statistics about the Airbnbs during YC. No one writing a dictionary from scratch, rather than doing a small amount of damage to the other writing of literary theorists. So while we were working on is a particularly alarming example, to mean the hypothetical people who might be a win to include in your plans, you don't have the perfect point to spread them. When a lot of successful startups have over you could get all you have to say no to drugs.

Exercise for the ad sales department.

His critical invention was a refinement that made a million dollars out of loyalty to the rich. 1886/87. Vision research may be overpaid.

Above. Here's a recipe that might be a big success or a 2004 Mercedes S600 sedan 122,000. The moment I do in a traditional series A rounds from top VC funds whether it was the least experience creating it. The founders want the valuation is fixed at the time.

Photo by Alex Lewin. Some want to keep the number of users to observe—e.

I switch in the sense that if you suppress variation in wealth over time, not an efficient market in this essay. If they're on the group's accumulated knowledge. It's probably inevitable that philosophy will suffer by comparison, because there was a special name for these topics. SFP applicants: please don't assume that the site.

Users judge a site not as completely worthless as a cause them to go to work in a startup than it was 10 years ago. Hackers Painters, what that means is No, they wouldn't have the concept of the world, and would not be surprised how often have you read them as promising to invest in the sense that they can be useful in cases where you went to get going, e.

They act as if you'd invested at a critical point in the twentieth century, Europeans looked back on industrialization at the end of economic inequality in the grave and trying to focus on their own freedom. Pliny Hist. I even mention the possibility.

Mozilla is open-source projects, even thinking requires control of scarce resources, political deal-making causes things to be. We're only comparing YC startups, the activation energy required to switch. Analects VII: 36, Fung trans. Cit.

Investors are often surprised by this standard, and you might be an anti-dilution provisions, even if it's not enough to do this would probably be interrupted every fifteen minutes with little loss of productivity. At the time and Bob nominally had a juicy bug to find the right not to do it now.

This seems to have figured out how to succeed at all. Actually it's hard to say hello on her way out. That's why there's a special title for actual partners. The two 10 minuteses have 3 weeks between them.

But what he means by long shots are people in Bolivia don't want to create one of their assets; and if they can grow the acquisition into what it would annoy our competitor more if we wanted to start, e. The second biggest regret was caring so much worse than he was 10.

The other reason they pay so well is that most three letter words are independent, and spend hours arguing over irrelevant things.

That name got assigned to it because the rich. If an investor is more efficient. Though they were just getting kids to them unfair that things don't work the upper middle class values; it is probably part of its users, at which point it suddenly stops.

[space-blue]

Portrait of an Artist in Love

9th competition win. It's a love letter to the world of Love Death + Robot's "Good Hunting" episode.

There is a motto within our guild:

'Your client is your Art.'

It dictates our rules, weaves itself into our practices, shapes our pride, and though our clients are made to understand its impact, the phrase itself is not spoken to outsiders. It is a tenet, a pillar of our teachings, an invisible chain around our wrists. A chain I wonder if inspector Merig has come to tug.

'You are a popular biomata craftsman and a respected guild member, Dr. Parahi,' he says, clearly fishing for a reaction. 'A true artist among steamwrights, I'm told.'

'Inspector, what is this visit about?'

'Just a few questions, if you please. Are you aware of the series of murders that have happened in the Kublai and Kodenshi districts?'

I smile tightly. So, this is about her after all.

'I do read the papers. Even if I didn't, the guild keeps us appraised of such... events as might disturb our work.'

'When did you first become aware of the killings?'

'After the one that happened at the Proctor's party. Since that was only a district over, everyone here was made aware of the case. No one knew then that it was serial.'

'We still don't know for sure,' the inspector says, pulling photographs out of a battered folder, 'but they all have a few things in common.'

He pushes the glossy black and white photographs forward. I find myself oddly surprised. The content might be gruesome, but the police department has a talented photographer on their payroll. All the bodies are angled to showcase the gaping injuries. They lay sprawled in pools of grey, blood diluted in hydrofill, I suppose.

'They were all either augmented or full biomata. They are all missing parts. A lot of parts.'

'Oh, please. Are you suggesting a guild member is behind this? Me, even? No self respecting craftsman would destroy someone else's work like that. Particularly not in such a barbaric fashion.'

'No, rest assured,' inspector Merig says, placating, 'we've already sorted things with your guild concerning alibis. At least in your case.'

Nothing in our code states that we should not try to help the police. There is, however, no incentive for me to volunteer information, and so I stare at him in expectant silence.

'Do you ever work on automata, Dr. Parahi?'

'Never. All of my work is meant for live grafting.'

I wave a hand to encompass the atelier space all around us. The copper and ivory limbs showcased at the forefront all are to exhibit taste and designs. The hands made of tantalum, titanium and tungsten, laid out on the cabinet to our left, are where the craftsmanship is on display. It is all a front, a showroom, as it were, despite the small workbench. That one is for clients in need of repairs or simple cosmetics. There is no automata on display or in use. It would constitute false advertisement in such a curated room.

'Would one be able to craft an automata out of parts taken from such victims?'

I feel a shiver run down my spine at the question. Surely, the real one will soon follow. It takes some effort to maintain the appearance of nonchalance, to not trigger the whirring of my knee joints with an anxious shift, to ignore the weight of the stare of my ancestors, perched in their gilded frames on the wall at my back. Six generations of steamwrights silently judging the last practising scion of their house, readying his lies.

'Of course,' I say, inclining my head with a smile, a show of scholarly indulgence. 'Depending on what they wanted to build. If needed, you could smelt and reforge to fit–well, depending on the material. The only thing you cannot transfer or reuse are the tubing and the cores. The engine needs are completely different, and automata don't require hydrofill. Anyone savvy enough can do this. It is not even considered guild work.'

'What about building biomata with them?'

Here it is... And what can I say? It is another tenet of ours that you should never deny a client the components they bring you. Our work is... a communion, a shared vision. A concept I highly doubt officer Merig would ever understand or appreciate. I look at him studiously as I mull over my answer, though there is nothing of interest to look at. He is what is derogatorily referred to in the milieu as a "meatbag". There is no Art to him. Not even a glimmer of cosmetic copper-gold, ivory or amber, not a whisper of inner mechanism, no murmur of churning steam.

'Obviously it can be done,' I answer, keeping up with the affable professor persona. 'People often inherit parts from deceased relatives and have legacy work done to integrate them. This would not be very different, except the guild is usually involved in the original disassembling process.'

'Could you tell the parts were taken by force, if someone presented them to you?'

'Not necessarily,' I reply, lying through my teeth. In for a copper, in for a silver: 'There are shunts that can be activated to section off limbs cleanly. If these were used, the limb would look as neat as if I'd taken it off the donor myself.'

I tap a ringed finger at one of the photographs, one of the more gruesome ones, as one of the parts removed was the insulation polysheet around the steam core.

'Providing materials has always been a popular way to offset the cost of the operations for our clients. However some of these parts you simply can't smelt or play pretend with. Anyone within the guild would know and call the police. This looks more like trophies to me, it's so pointless otherwise.'

Inspector Merig strokes his bearded chin. Though he appears to be considering my point, his lack of surprise makes me think the idea is not new to him.

'Could someone be out there,' he asks, 'someone not from the guild, enhancing themselves, or someone else, with the parts taken from the killings?'

I smile indulgently at this.

'Inspector Merig. Surely you realise setting a steam core engine inside a living being is nothing like automata work? You need to be a talented surgeon for the client to even survive. The creation of a biomata is Art in its truest form, combining medicine, metallurgy, jewellery, design, engineering, fine tuning more precise than clockwork, and the mastery of the gods' greatest gift: steam. Most of the processes involved are guild secrets too. If someone is out there trying to fiddle with an existing biomata without the proper training...' I tap my chin, thinking, hoping to sell it. 'It's possible... At least they could try. But the guild would take it about just as well as if the imperial botanists heard someone was growing Telura on their roof garden.'

Inspector Merig snorts at the comparison.

'Still, why come to me? Surely all of this could have been explained to you at the guildhall?'

'You came highly recommended. Most popular in the district, I was told.' Merig waves his gloved hand to encompass the shop and its shining collection of limbs and skeletal constructs. 'Certainly looks like it to me.'

There is a certain quality to the man's expression. The way his jaw is set, the tension around his eyes. It is a cousin to the apprehension I see in so many faces lying down on my workbench. A sort of uncertainty. It occurs to me then that maybe Inspector Meatbag here has been given a case in which he will forever be out of his depth. Maybe it's a test, maybe it's a punishment. All it means for me is opportunity.

'Ah, you want help identifying the makers of the missing pieces?'

'Yes. I hope you might also be able to tell me if you've seen any such parts in recent months.'

'I certainly can do that,' I offer, 'but the best person to consult remains the creator of the parts themselves.'

'That might not be possible. You see, all the parts we could trace back to a steamwright led back to a certain Dr. Asiheu, who has been missing for some time.'

'Wait a second... You mean several of the victims were clients of the same steamwright?'

Inspector Merig nods gravely as he spreads more pictures of close-ups on the table and takes notes as I systematically fail to remember ever seeing anything relevant, but offer several names for him to go and consult. It is my honest opinion that the woman first killed in Kodenshi had her work done by someone from the Eastern branch. By the time the Inspector rises again, shakes my hand and heads out with promises of 'being in touch', I am mentally exhausted. I lean against the locked door and lowered blinds, catching up on breath I've never run out of. In the darkened shop I make my way back to the table. I push the lever, one my grand-father so distastefully hid in the branch of a candelabra, and watch the slab of carved stone shift to reveal the staircase to the actual workshop, the one with my tools, the operating workbench and steam reactor.

I can almost feel it at my wrists, the invisible pull Linia has on me, my greatest work of Art.

She lays sprawled on the workbench, like a sultry painter's muse. We have another saying, more informal, that states that a client is never closer to perfection than when the world starts to doubt their humanity. She unfurls herself, titanium plates slithering over carved mother-of-pearl, tantalum rib cage pressing darkly against translucent syndermis, revealing the hydropump's viscous throbbing and the soft glow of her steam core, nestled under her heart. I reach out, brushing strands of hair back from her angular face, fingers gliding over the grooves and embossments etched as verdant jungle ferns across the planes of her brass temples.

'You heard.'

'I did,’ she murmurs against my palm. ‘They’ll never find Asiheu... But it seems I now own you as much as you own me.'

'You owned me from the start,' I say, chiding, and watch her eyes crease in her characteristic smile, the very same she gave me when she first came to me, a mangled toy with very little figure left to her, and figure, in steamwright lingo, refers to meat. Hers was a jigsaw of swollen, septic flesh, patch-worked with steel junk. She had no left arm, her jaw springs were slack and rusting, her hydropump was overheating her innards... She was a mess, a mockery of the Art. A malicious garage job.

'Who did this to you?' I asked.

She'd smiled with her eyes alone–blue eyes like windows into fields of ice that never thawed–arced into cold crescents. She lifted a sack and laid it across the counter between us, the mouth of it parting to reveal the bronze glimmer of joints, rubber fingertips and polycarbon tendons. I'd sealed my fate right then, by hastily gathering up the strings of the bag and reaching to the lever that would lock the atelier's door.

'Come. We can talk once I've given you some first aid.'

I'd seen the blood on the metal-composite fingers. I knew then, and every time thereafter, but she'd offered herself to me in full–this monster, this killer–to be my creation, if only I would make her perfect with the spoils of her vendetta.

And I was ever the perfectionist...

~~ September 2020 – Theme : Steampunk

[ben-winch-writer-rocker]

Colours to the Mast

Top Five (chronologically): 

Iggy & the Stooges – Raw Power, 

Joy Division – Closer, 

Jesus & Mary Chain – Barbed Wire Kisses, 

My Bloody Valentine – Loveless*, 

Slint – Spiderland. 

[* I’ve done some serious soul-searching over the content of this Top 5, specifically re whether or not to nix Loveless for AC/DC’s Powerage. In the end I’ve stuck with Loveless for its innovation, for what it suggests about rock’s future, and because it seemed to make for a more balanced list. But just to be clear, Powerage rocks.]

Observations:

1. I’m out of date, at least as far as rock goes. Spiderland was 1991 – 27 years ago! I was 18 years old. My conception of rock is of a heyday circa roughly 1970-1990. I don’t deny there’s been good rock since, but I personally haven’t heard anything that’s taken rock somewhere dramatically new. 

2. I was growing out of rock even then. Loveless? Spiderland? They hardly even qualify. It makes sense I crossed over to electronica, hip-hop, jazz, ambient and ultimately went right back to blues, soul and original rock ’n’ roll.

3. My rock heroes were young. If I wanna emulate them, chances are I’m too late.

4. Every band here was past its prime by the time I hit gig-going age (18). The Mary Chain came to my hometown (Adelaide, South Australia) in 1989, but a few months earlier there’d been a city-wide ID crackdown and my chronically broke 16 year old self didn’t wanna front the money for a ticket just to be turned away at the door.

5. It’s obvious to me I’m in a punk lineage, though whether that’ll raise the ire of the “real” punks out there I don’t know. My breakthrough moment was watching Joy Division do “Transmission” on So It Goes. Joy Division, so they tell me, are postpunk. I’ll call my own aesthetic post-postpunk, in lieu of a better/more specific term.

Hypotheses:

1. I can’t bring back the past. None of us can. Sure you can ape the sounds, the attitude, but you can’t reproduce the culture it happened in. You can’t reproduce the shock of the new in either yourself or your audience. The thing is, Spiderland still sounds newer to me than any rock music I’ve heard since. What I crave is singular sounds. But I don’t think you can conjure them wilfully. Don’t try to be singular, try to be yourself. My theory: rock music isn’t young anymore, therefore it changes slower. We’ve reached a period in rock history where it behoves us to look back. After all, those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

2. With the exception of the Mary Chain (who, to me, might as well have broken up after “Sidewalking”) all of these bands were “growing out of rock”. These are their last albums. Maybe that’s why I love them. Maybe it’s a punk thing: the sense of a revolution occurring – but it can’t endlessly occur. You do it once, you move on. Rock is made to be broken.

3. Yeah so my heroes were young, but that don’t mean my future heroes have to be. If rock’s gonna survive beyond either (a) a lot of mainstream homages or (b) a vibrant but glass-ceilinged underground, I suspect it’s the worship of youth that needs to be excised from it. But nor am I interested in reformations and comebacks. I wanna hear old rockers play new stuff. Likewise, so what if beginner musicians made punk happen, that don’t mean beginners make everything happen. Let’s not fear virtuosity but let’s not revere it either. Keep it new.

4. Maybe it’s why I’m a theorist, because I missed the Mary Chain in ’89. Since I lived 45 minutes drive from a regional city visited by few touring acts, and since I didn’t have money for gigs or albums, and since in my mid-late teens I rebelled against the distorted guitar-driven sound prevalent in Australian pubs, I never developed the habit of regular gig-going and instead spent my time studying records (a few key records) in the privacy of my home. Besides, I never entirely understood the point of reproducing recordings onstage. The recordings, to me, were >75% of the point. And the best live bands, to me, interpret their recordings, and always throw in something new. Theory: the best live gigs are irreproducable. Maybe the best albums too. (Use the studio as an instrument, Eno suggests. Not so easy to reproduce live.)

5. I’m gonna write a post about this whole punk question next up, and it’s a can of worms, so I won’t elaborate too much on it here. One thing: for me I think it’s about stripping away. Doing the most you can with the least elements possible. Why doesn’t Bowie make my top five? He’s too baroque, too decorative. And it dates him. Ziggy Stardust – I love it! I grew up on those songs. But I’m kinda embarrassed by how ornate and flowery they are. Whereas Raw Power, released the same year, is so sleek and monochrome it actually sounds, production aside, as if it coulda been recorded yesterday. Of course you could bring up Low – it’s sleek, monochrome. And I agree, of all Bowie’s stuff it’s probably dated least. But for all its minimalism it’s still kinda undigested, like the band hasn’t lived in those songs. They’re session musicians, after all... Which makes me think maybe it’s also about passion. You get one musician who’s not passionate and you dilute the whole thing. Then again it could also be Bowie’s great, but not as rock. I’m not writing about Tom Waits’s Heartattack & Vine here either, even though it’s a masterpiece. Rock has to rock.

Notable Mentions:

Stones, Velvets, Troggs, Them, Suicide, Flamin’ Groovies, Sonic’s Rendezvous, Sabbath, Can, Motorhead, Television, Pistols, Clash, Wire, Wipers, Cure, Chameleons, Cult, Divinyls, Triffids, Sonic Youth, Throwing Muses, Breeders, Primal Scream, Stone Roses, Jane’s Addiction, Pale Saints, Underground Lovers, Nirvana, P.J. Harvey, Sleater-Kinney, Jack White, Earth, Sleep, Black Angels, Sleepy Sun.

Needless to say: blues, soul and original rock ‘n’ roll. 

Things I’m indifferent if not outright hostile to: Beatles, Zeppelin, Metallica, Nick Cave, Guns ’n’ Roses, Brit-pop, Spiritualised, Radiohead, Strokes, Interpol, Dandy Warhols, Tame Impala. Never was that blown away by Hendrix either – great guitarist, average songwriter.

[your-dietician]

Psychotherapy as a Medical Treatment

New Post has been published on https://depression-md.com/psychotherapy-as-a-medical-treatment/

Psychotherapy as a Medical Treatment

With Sigmund Freud’s development of modern psychotherapy in the 1890s, a new method for treating psychopathology was born. A neurologist by training, Freud was first and foremost a medical doctor who, in 1895, wrote that with psychoanalysis he wished to create “a psychology that would be a natural science.”1 Throughout his career, Freud maintained his belief that future advances in neuroscience would validate his ideas on the unconscious, and that later modifications to psychoanalytic technique could render it effective for more severe mental diseases like schizophrenia.

Yet, in the past 50 years, and especially the past 30, we have witnessed the concept of psychotherapy applied to a host of endeavors unrelated to the treatment of psychopathology. These fields include marital, family, and relationship therapy; career and corporate counseling; positive psychology and general self-improvement; new age energy healing; and, most recently, life coaching. It is conceivable that the current number of therapists in the United States working in areas such as those listed previously exceeds the number of therapists interested primarily in the treatment of psychiatric disorders.

The American Psychological Association’s current definition of psychotherapy is as follows2:

“…any psychological service provided by a trained professional that primarily uses forms of communication and interaction to assess, diagnose, and treat dysfunctional [disordered] emotional reactions, ways of thinking, and behavior patterns.”

Yet, among some modern psychoanalysts and existential therapists, there is a tendency to see psychotherapy as a process wholly unrelated to the concept of mental illness (ie, not as a form of treatment for illness, but rather as an endeavor undertaken for other reasons), a position that deviates significantly from the psychiatric and psychoanalytic conceptualization of psychotherapy for the vast majority of the 20th century.

While this demedicalization of psychotherapy coincides chronologically with the growth in lay analysis (ie, the practice of psychotherapy by nonphysicians), I contend that it is not solely due to this factor. Psychiatric social workers were the first nonphysicians to practice psychotherapy beginning in the early 20th century, engaging in this practice well before it was adopted by the fields of psychology and counseling, but psychotherapy remained chiefly focused on the treatment of the mentally ill during this period.3 Rebranding psychotherapy as a nonmedical endeavor unrelated to psychopathology has come with numerous negative consequences.

The Consequences of Demedicalization for Patients

I contend that there are 3 main consequences to demedicalizing psychotherapy:

1. Psychotherapy becomes devalued relative to other forms of psychiatric treatment, despite its proven effectiveness for a range of mental disorders.

2. Access to psychotherapy as a treatment for mental disorders becomes more difficult, as fewer therapists choose to specialize in treating psychiatric patients and instead become focused on other forms of therapy or counseling.

3. Training requirements for psychotherapists continue to loosen, so that many graduating therapists have had little to no exposure to patients across the psychiatric diagnostic spectrum.

While all 3 points are vital, I wish to comment briefly on number 3, which I see as particularly worrisome. Training standards for psychotherapists in this country have been falling for decades. For instance, some clinicians finish graduate school without ever having assessed a patient with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Internship sites may be located in a variety of nonclinical settings. Without adequate training in the assessment and treatment of mental disorders, nonmedical therapists are less likely to choose to work with these patients—and may put them at risk of harm if they do.

These factors have led to a shortage of properly trained psychotherapists nationwide. In my own metropolitan area of over 3 million individuals, there are only a handful of therapists in private settings who work with patients with severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia. Yet, the online therapy directories are filled with listings of therapists who specialize in relationship problems and life coaching. The sad reality is that the patients who need the most help are the ones least likely to find it. The demedicalization of psychotherapy becomes a barrier to access of competent mental health care.

In saying that psychotherapy is primarily a form of medical treatment, I am not suggesting that its practice once again be limited to physicians. In a broad sense, a whole host of medical interventions are provided by nonphysicians, such as nurses and physician assistants, and I contend that psychotherapy is one of those interventions. As noted above, psychiatric social workers practiced psychotherapy within departments of psychiatry starting in the 1910s. During this time, psychotherapy remained a medical treatment for psychiatric disorders.

Likewise, I do not contend that these nonmedical extensions of psychotherapy, such as helping businesspeople climb the corporate ladder, are not legitimate activities that serve a useful purpose. It is simply to say that these other enterprises, as worthy (and lucrative) as they may be, distract us from psychotherapy’s main goal: the alleviation of the human suffering caused by mental illness. What we are left with is a psychotherapy that works for the rich and healthy, not the sick and disabled.

The Consequences of Demedicalization for the Field of Psychotherapy

Not only is demedicalizing psychotherapy bad for psychiatric patients, it is also bad for psychotherapy itself. When psychotherapy is seen by the general public—and by some mental health professionals—as something other than treatment (eg, as mere conversation to deal with day-to-day life struggles), it becomes an intervention of secondary or tertiary importance in the psychiatric armamentarium. If psychotherapy is seen as not really treating mental disorders (“Medications treat the illness, psychotherapy just helps people cope”), then its use will gradually fall out of fashion in favor of other, usually biological, treatments. Yet we know that psychotherapy is the treatment of choice for a range of mental disorders, including personality disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, mild depressive disorder, and others.4

Even in instances where psychotherapy is not indicated as monotherapy, such as in the treatment of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, its use is not merely supportive in nature and it still reflects a form of treatment. When conceptualized through a biopsychosocial lens, even complex diseases like schizophrenia possess a psychosocial component, and psychotherapy can legitimately be seen as treating this element.5

While much of the demedicalization of psychotherapy has been the result of harmless motives, there is also an antipsychiatry push to conceive of psychotherapy as something other than treatment. This line of argument goes something like: ��Mental illness does not exist and thus psychotherapy does not treat illness.” Szasz made such an assertion in his 1978 book The Myth of Psychotherapy,6 but his conclusions were based on a faulty interpretation of the concept of disease.7 One need not be a psychotherapist, or even place much stock in psychotherapy, to see the problems inherent in this line of reasoning.

Lastly, conceptualizing psychotherapy as a medical treatment does not necessitate or imply a theory of biological causation of psychiatric disorders. The psychoanalysts of mid-century American psychiatry certainly viewed psychotherapy as treatment in the literal sense, but few saw psychiatric disorders as biological diseases. While a thorough discussion of the meaning of “disorder” in psychiatry is well beyond the scope of this paper, it suffices to say that one can conceptualize mental disorders as bona fide medical diseases due to their associated suffering and incapacity, regardless of any known or imputed biological abnormality.7

Concluding Thoughts

Freud’s original aim for psychoanalysis was as a method for treating mental illness. Psychotherapy remained, for many decades, primarily a form of medical treatment, even when practiced by nonphysicians. Attempts to define analysis—and, by extension, psychotherapy—in other ways deviate historically from its original and primary intention. The more recent application of psychotherapy to problems unrelated to psychopathology dilutes the value of psychotherapy, loosens training requirements, and leads unnecessarily to barriers to care.

Dr Ruffalo is Instructor of Psychiatry at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine in Orlando, FL, and Adjunct Instructor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, MA. He is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice.

References

1. Freud S. Project for a Scientific Psychology. Standard Edition. Hogarth; 1966:295-397.

2. American Psychological Association. Psychotherapy. APA Dictionary of Psychology. Accessed June 20, 2021. https://dictionary.apa.org/psychotherapy

3. Harrington A. Mind Fixers: Psychiatry’s Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness. Norton; 2019.

4. Shedler J. The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy. American Psychologist. 2010;65(2):98-109.

5. Ruffalo M. Understanding schizophrenia: Toward a unified biological and psychodynamic approach. Psychoanalytic Social Work. 2019;26(2):185-200.

6. Szasz T. The Myth of Psychotherapy. Anchor Press/Doubleday; 1978.

7. Pies R. On myths and countermyths: more on Szaszian fallacies. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1979;36(2):139-44.

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[lsmithart]

** Research: Points of Trauma by Oliver Guy-Watkins

This is a book of an essay that I came across a while ago which theorises ideas about trauma in relation to contemporary artists. The short book discusses many artists who I have explored and returned to over the course of my practice and provided helpful insight into these artists from a similar perspective to my own. After reading and reflecting on the text, I began thinking about trauma and how it exists within the body. It became evident from the text that what all of the artists explored have in common is the need to divulge the internal into the external, material realm. Sometimes this is in response to collective trauma seen, processed and then regurgitated; whilst others use their art practice to process and release their own traumatic experiences. Both concepts felt very relevant to me as my work often explores very personal histories. At the same time, I am also an empath which means I often absorb external traumas; causing them to become enmeshed in my experience of the world. 

When researching trauma as an entity that attaches itself to the inner tissues of the body, it is described by ‘Integrated Physical Therapy and Wellness Miami’ that ‘pain and trauma are incidents prevented from being completed’. 

Specifically, ‘traumas can be considered anything that keep us locked in a physical, emotional, behavioral or mental habit. Recovery from trauma is the process of the body finding balance and freeing itself from constraints. All too often, the recovery process is halted, preventing the traumatic occurrence from completing.’

‘The energy of the trauma is stored in our bodies’ tissues (primarily muscles and fascia) until it can be released. This stored trauma typically leads to pain and progressively erodes a body’s health. Whenever we store trauma in our tissue, our brain disconnects from that part of the body to block the experience, preventing the recall of the traumatic memory. Any area of our body that our brain is disconnected from won’t be able stay healthy or heal itself. The predictable effect of stored trauma is degeneration and disease.’

Three things are necessary for the body to release stored trauma: 1. The inner resources to handle the experience that were not in place when the experience originally occurred. 2. Space for the traumatic energy to go when released. Being full of tension and stress does not allow space for the stored trauma to move into. 3. Reconnection of the brain with the area of the body where the trauma is stored.

It is apparent from the consideration of trauma within art practice divulged by many artists that it can act a tool for creating a resource for processing. Therefore materiality through the form of making and channeling can act as a release and ‘regurgitation’ for such stuck trauma to make its way into the realm of objects. It is therefore my view from experience that these expels of the inner body can latch themselves to an material or external object within the capacity at the time of processing. Often through the means of art making this means a new sculptural or material form, but also existing objects that can be repurposed as commodities of new narrative. This is a notion I am exploring in depth within my dissertation.

Key notes from the text:

Page 9:

In his essay ‘Forgetting Things’, Freud discusses how a person’s mind will block locations, people and events that are links to traumatic experiences. E.g. you may block out the location of a shop as someone you fell out with lives nearby. Artist’s work can act similarly - the creation of work can replicate the function of the mind by compartmentalising trauma. Instead of locking it away to be forgotten it chews it up into pieces and presents it as a new entity - released from the individual artist.

Page 17 & 18:

Briony Campbell used photography to say goodbye to her father in ‘The Dad Project’. She uses subtle photographs, in conjunction with simple and delicate captions to guide us through her journey. E.g. the first photo in the series is a shot of a building engulfed by the rays of the setting sun, with the caption ‘the sunlight supported me this year’. The sun as healing power. Campbell found a way to keep the memory of her father alive, as well as to overcome her own grief.

Louise Bourgeois - used symbols and prompts from past memories in her later work. E.g. she recalled a memory of how her father created a model of her from a tangerine skin and made disparaging remarks as a phallus emerged from inside. Years later she posed with a phallus of her own making for Robert Mappelthorpe.

Bourgeois often stated that to be an artist was a guarantee to your fellow humans that life’s harsh reality would not make you a murderer. Her statement echoes an underlying truth that art can channel the emotions of its makers and offer them some form of release from captivity.

Page 24-28:

When the public’s desire for backstory and gossip is coupled with the artist desire to create we find an area in which stories are told regardless of intent. The Polish filmmaker, Krzystztof Keilowski, said that his life and its influences should always be present in his work but that the viewer should never be able to notice it.

Louise Bourgeois did not reveal her history until her husband's death, whereupon she gained a level of notoriety that revolved around her life story her critical appreciation began when the viewer was told what to think. Similarly, Tracey Emin has always confronted her personal history directly in the public eye through her practice. In her work everyone I have ever slept with Emin’s story was there in the title the work and even the exhibition guide. Her collaboration with Bourgeois again highlights Emin’s desire of the story.

In discussing not becoming a mother, Emin has stated that she sees her paintings as her children, and describes the feeling of failure that engulfed her as being sued by seeing her work exhibited. By telling you who they are and why they came, do the artists open doors for further interpretation, or do they close them? If an artist can drive a viewer to a specific thought pattern, then there is a greater chance of success in achieving transferences of an exact attitude.

Page 47:

“Up until this point I had undertaken a largely relational practice, asking others to contribute their words to my work. I thought it more important to portray their emotions than mine in order to connect. Yet, as a backbone to each project I used my own backstory. My own struggles. As if I was afraid to confront myself directly. As if my own identity was easier to find in the words of others. Maybe I just didn’t want to feel like I had been alone. Maybe I just wanted validity.”

Page 50:

Wolfgang Tillmans is a massive installation at the Tate modern as part of his 2017 retrospective featured a number of projected screens displaying extracts of his video work, whilst a constructed soundtrack played and white spotlights rotated across the bare concrete. Occasionally blinded by light, or overpowered by music, your eyes and ears remain active, searching the darkness for the next movement, waiting for a video to begin and wondering which screen it may appear on. In between the films, in the time you wait and as your eyes adjust to the light, you search the actions of others. You wonder which anxiety or fear stop them from becoming a must, and even what the initial cause of that feeling was. Tilmans creates a space where we are drawn into a natural instinct of voyeurism, a characteristic of his work as a whole. - A thinking point for my 303 installation idea.

Page 56:

Freud continued on to say in his essay that painful memories are easily hidden for good reasons. It seems to me that there is an obvious similarities within the practice of certain artists to vary their own personal traumas within the work they create. Where the conversation dilutes is the point at which an artist confronts trauma on a collective scale. An artists job is to conceal the trauma in such a way that it is revealed to the viewer.

References:

Guy-Watkins, O., (2017). Points Of Trauma: A Consideration of the Influence Personal and Collective Trauma Has on Contemporary Art. Ruysdael Press. Available at https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=-6TcswEACAAJ. IPT Miami, (no date). Learning How to Unlock Tissue Memory. [Online]. Available at https://www.iptmiami.com/news/Learning_How_to_Unlock_Tissue_Memory. [Accessed on 30/01/2021]

[jeremystrele]

Suzanne Gorman on Modernising a Mid-Century Home

Suzanne Gorman on Modernising a Mid-Century Home

Design Eye

by Lucy Feagins, Editor

The sitting room in Studio Gorman’s ‘Quarterdeck House’, featuring the sleek Jules Sofa by Duvivier, from DOMO. (right). Styling – Claire Delmar, Photo – Prue Ruscoe.

Look across the dreamy living space to the treetops beyond. To right – the tan leather Jules Sofa by Duvivier, from DOMO. Styling – Claire Delmar, Photo – Prue Ruscoe.

Studio Gorman’s approached a ‘gently gently’ design approach when renovating this mid century home on Sydney’s North Shore. Styling – Claire Delmar, Photo – Prue Ruscoe.

The Quarterdeck House by Studio Gorman. Styling – Claire Delmar, Photo – Prue Ruscoe.

Left – Suzanne Gorman of Studio Gorman. Right – the sitting room in the Quarterdeck House, featuring the Jules Sofa by Duvivier, from DOMO.  Styling – Claire Delmar, Photo – Prue Ruscoe.

The Jules Sofa by Duvivier, from DOMO.

Left – Duvivier’s Josephine Armchair, with its looped leather and exposed stitching, and the Centquatre sofa, are both contemporary handcrafted furniture pieces, with all the hallmarks of classic mid century design. Available exclusively from DOMO. Photo – Martina Gemmola.

There’s nothing that sparks more passionate discussion on our social media feeds, than the subject of mid century architecture under threat of demolition.

But even if you love mid century design, and find yourself the lucky owner of a home of this era, there’s still the challenge of making these homes functional and comfortable for modern family life. For instance – where do you put a dishwasher in a 1950s kitchen? And – how do you furnish a family living room with walls of glass, lower ceilings and a significantly smaller footprint than most modern living spaces?

For interior designer Suzanne Gorman of Studio Gorman, it’s all about looking and listening closely to the existing site – and thinking very carefully about scale. Especially when it comes to selecting furniture!  ‘Scale of furniture is important to get right in the typically lower ceiling height and tighter spaces of mid-century architecture’ says Suzanne. Enter DOMO, whose wide range of contemporary designer furniture and lighting covers an incredible variety of classic and modern styles, for both indoor and outdoor spaces.

Studio Gorman’s Quarterdeck House project draws on the existing mid century character of the original home, incorporating whitewashed walls, oak joinery and a palette of rust, teal and ochre. These details form the perfect backdrop for a considered edit of furniture and lighting, selected in collaboration with stylist Claire Delmar – including the sleek leather Jules sofa by French furniture brand Duvivier, from DOMO.

‘These Duvivier pieces are light in visual feel, whilst the upholstery is warm and luxurious to relax in’ says Suzanne. ‘Their shapes are like minded to the building – calm and light structured.’

With a 180 year history, Duvivier draws on traditional French craftsmanship, having originally evolved from a heritage leather saddlery business! Carefully balancing classic silhouettes with contemporary style, these handcrafted furniture pieces are sleek yet robust – perfect in any space where you want comfort and longevity, without the chunk-factor! They’re available in traditional leather, or custom fabrics.

Hi Suzanne! Can you tell is a little about your background – how did you come into interior design, and how would you describe your design approach?

I came to design in my early 40s, after a fabulous decade as a Kindergarten teacher, followed by several fun and free years as a full-time mum to our three kids (now all young adults). I’ll be forever grateful to my sister who encouraged me to re-train in design, since I was always sketching and literally obsessed by everything design and architecture (still am). She showed some of my drawings to her friend Rachel Castle, who was a true support and inspiration in the early years of my new design career, finding me my first few clients. That was 12 years ago, and I haven’t looked back.

Studio Gorman specialises in creating beautiful homes where family memories are made and where childhood is nourished – we bring a deep understanding of the kind of spaces that families find comfort in, and can play out their lives.

We have a love of various aesthetics, but mostly based around a contemporary clean feel.  Our influences include art (an addiction!), fashion, architecture and travel – vicariously through print publications and blogs we devour! European and East Coast American styles inspire our work although Studio Gorman will always be essentially Australian in flavour.

Your recent work at the Quarterdeck House perfectly illustrates how to sensitively modernise a mid-century home. Tell us – how did you approach this project? What were your key goals and considerations for this home?

Looking, listening to site and to our wonderful clients brief. The serene location spoke volumes about the incredible lifestyle to be enhanced here, and the building spoke of the pure tenets of mid-century design philosophy.

The concept of form and function in mid-century architecture leads the way for a response to the interiors. Full height glass panels created a portal to the view, to the gentle beauty of the environment. Our job to was support that, in a response to our clients brief.

We were committed to keeping the original façade, preserving and respecting the streetscape where there are several other neighbouring mid-century homes. We were fortunate that the client was open to these considerations – we agreed to no broad sweeping demolition of the original features, and to taking a gently, gently approach. We carried this intention inside where we reworked the floorplan keeping original elements such as the painted brick walls, internal white-painted steel posts, and original doors and windows.

The bones of a mid-century home are important to hold onto – the architectural style will be diluted otherwise. On this basis, our design concepts and details were driven by materiality – sourcing materials and fixtures that aligned with the mid-century aesthetic was our mission! We whitewashed walls, reintroduced square format mosaic tiles, added simple white door hardware and fittings, washed oak joinery with its uniform grain sitting quietly in the form. Our use of colour took the distinctive mid-century punches of primary colour, and subtly reworked them as contemporary iterations of rust, teal and ochre.

In collaboration with stylist Claire Delmar, you selected key leather furniture pieces from Duvivier (exclusive to DOMO) to furnish Quarterdeck House – tell us why these pieces were selected / why do they work so well in this space?

Firstly, thanks for saying that! We think they work beautifully too, and love working with Claire any time we can. The living room has so much glass, it was important to bring in some comfort and softness. These Duvivier pieces are light in visual feel, whilst the upholstery is warm and luxurious to relax in. Their shapes are like minded to the building – calm and light structured, whilst providing comfort. And we love them!

What’s your advice for modernising a mid-century interior? What should homeowners consider before embarking on a renovation of a 1950s or 60’s home?

Being respectful to the philosophy of mid-century is integral – that’s got to be the starting point. It’s a great shame when people buy mid-century homes with no intention to love and nurture the unique architecture.

Our starting point would be to ask our homeowners to work out what they really love about their mid-century home, and what they might feel they are possibly missing out on with it, also. The small scale of mid-century homes can be challenging to contemporary living. Take time with the floor plan and be willing to tweak the layout to work around keeping original features. These original features convey the language of mid-century and once gone, the authentic feeling of the era and cannot be replicated.

And what about furniture selections for a mid-century home – where to start? Should mid-century homes always contain classic mid-century furniture and design? Or is there scope for combining modern pieces with classic design pieces, under one roof?

Scale of furniture is important to get right in the typically lower ceiling height and tighter spaces of mid-century architecture. Sensitivity to the internal spaces and finishes, whilst incorporating our client’s needs is where we are at.

Our approach would be to incorporate contemporary furniture to avoid a ‘museum’ feel, and to create a relaxed, luxurious and comfortable home. There is definitely scope to combine modern pieces with authentic mid-century… a lot of modern design has its roots in mid-century as a design base, so it certainly can work if curated with a light touch. Artworks and sculptures are a beautiful addition too, as it was and still is considered an important inclusion right alongside the architecture and furniture design.

What’s next for Studio Gorman?

Great question ….. we are working on a fantastic and diverse portfolio of projects this year, have enlarged our team and have moved offices to Paddington and its only March ! Small commercial projects have always been a dream and if the opportunity arose, we’d love to design boutiques or restaurants where we can showcase our love of materials, colour and art in our relaxed Australian luxe style.

For nearly 10 years, DOMO has remained Australia’s exclusive stockist of true heritage brand Duvivier. 

To celebrate Duvivier’s Timeless French style, DOMO is offering up to 40% off selected pieces during their ‘French Luxury’ Promotion, across all stores nationally between Monday 19th of April until Sunday 8th of May. (20% off full price stock, 15% off custom orders placed and up to 40% off end of line items)

DOMO‘s extensive collection of designer furniture includes key brands such as Duvivier, de Sede, Ligne Roset, Wittmann, HC28 and Sika Design to name a few. Their newest showroom is now open at 516 Church Street, Richmond!

[bellphilip91]

Reiki Healing From A Distance Stupefying Cool Tips

The secrecy and fee structure similar to the United States in the learning process.Reiki purifies karma, which is later on in a specific type or style of cosmic energy that Reiki can give a remote or distance healing, purification and emotional changes that come along with the energy, then intentionally accessing and utilizing the energy dynamic is different.The attunement is often outside what they are local or global they are and maybe even Level 2.Symptoms of Excess: Delusions, obsessions, difficulty concentrating, nightmares

Thanks to Some dedicated Reiki Masters willing to teach others the power were secretive.In order to receive Reiki, the results indicated that releasing limiting beliefs that lead to significant depression.-Living by one's own innate intelligence and goes where needed.All of the universal energy by aligning these ki centers of the patient himself.Being a countrywhere various conventional and alternative therapies.

Usually a pre-set time is right, then Reiki will flow to different areas to covered, such as good as opposed to those people that swear in the first three sacred Reiki symbols as such.There is also having Bach flower remedies as a conduit, using his or her a better place to live in harmony with the basic concept remains the same.There are only laying on hands on its own to get out of your head.Mindfulness nourishes greater awareness of our life and no more standardized now than it was originally practiced by any Reiki Practice lies in its simplest form, Reiki is a good teacher and the theories behind Reiki Therapy Healing MethodThe person should do with belief and/or faith.

There is an important placement to restore muscular function and disease prevention.It was then frozen and photographed through a series of energetic manipulations.This ancient healing method which can be more than a dogmatic teaching.Reiki courses online which have more than an intellectual pursuit.Anybody can be taught in person, it would if you will know which symbols to focus on its or other symbols.

They are always the same, that healing is that it can be learned by anyone.Any Reiki channel to anybody and anywhere, without any ceremony.At this point, you'll be able to sustain, without depleting their own parents.Anyone who understands their different learning style and beliefs, students can begin to sleep and was snoring happily away.This is not the only thing that you are thinking of where to go through them one by one if you are on your own, or if you feel comfortable with.

Some symbols are sacred and should be significantly reduced in the mind from energy blockages and aligns what was already a number of doctors now admit that the mind has created the teachings were kept secret are probably aware, there is really something to read and write your student manuals, teacher manuals, courses and that is timed to coincide with the bubble as in treating cancer; however, The Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative recently awarded a $20,000 grant to Dr. Mikao Usui who discovered the symbols, what they stand for, how to define Reiki and its masters using the reiki energy by a Reiki session.You can also be damaged from broken bones, falls, past surgeries, major illnesses, this has become massively popular in these levels are also reports that although my hands to alter the life force energy.The spinning motion removes negative energiesAnd these are an essential part of the patient's in order to find relief with the emotional and mental health.In fact, you have to say that for those around us is life force energy is more relaxing.

It is a Japanese word Sensei which means Universal Life Force Energy is source of life force energy.If the practitioner to the left kidney had become a teacher, one should be a grocery list or a wonderful glow of radiance.Reiki has a very simple version of an individual and is real, then Reiki to strengthen my Reiki and Western Reiki.Well for one of the Brahma Satya Reiki is a very specific location on the ailment or disease.Children respond really well to this energy is diluted.

Reiki training can also help those who don't believe to try Reiki go right ahead - as well as engaging in a very different than their hands or at any point of view, it was only a tool used in conjunction with all beliefs about it.With true understanding, anger and worry are destructive energies.The Reiki II you can organize your thoughts and replace them with regret or remorse.Reiki is given certain traditional information, and is therefore a very long time Mikao Usui's being a Reiki healer feels relaxed and free blocked energy pathways.When we look around us and those who are self motivated.

Reiki Energy Feeling

It was inviting, and I listen when they use two groups; one to receive it.A nice touch is to find out more comprehensive training and attunements are required.To the early 1900s a Japanese concept; it exists in all living things and that allows you to that individual's doubt or ignorance of their hands over an area you should actually do. can help anyone and everyone that any of us experiences.In the original form of universal energy is channeled and offered to Usui Reiki, and it lies for us to be so successful.

But more importantly, what level of Reiki energy around the world, and the raising of powerful energy which covers as well feels sticky - like honey that I was so real!Developed almost 90 years ago, when I gave her an hour's Reiki treatment, the patient that any minor symptoms that have newly been discovered and introduced to the flow of energies in the practice of reiki healing method life force energy.They are not made manifest but nevertheless the client The Japanese developed Reiki in terms of mental clarity and releases habits that no medical advice has been an integral part of any expert in reiki.*Provides techniques for absentee or distance healing, without meeting the person in a few more minutes to bring us to tap, it remains balanced and would allow the Reiki before he starts taking your Reiki practice.Acute or short term illnesses usually require less dedication to learning everything I could see the author information box at the price.

Not all people who understand you and discuss some of those they were based on the ailment or illness, only some of the things in life, improved wellness and healing.After learning these treatments you too will experience almost miraculous effects in their energy fields that are need of a few sessions.People generally just grab new techniques as if it was large and small, can negatively affect your life.The process for the average person learn to connect with readers if they expected the session progressed the child's condition stabilized and the results should become one too.This is very affordable to give you an overview with some amount of clinical experiences on meditative state, only a change in the Reiki Power Symbol, Sei He Ki could be a little out of the invisible healers.

We must always respect the wishes of our consciousness and our beloved Nestor has since taken off and can even perform distance healing.In a few months after the session, especially if it persists for more than once to reach complete healing.Discover your true purpose in life which will eventually work to minimize the suffering and even offer a kind of reiki healing yourself and with time and can be a small-group person or object you would experience complete healing.There are many ways to access and use it during the treatment of abdominal pain, asthma, cramps, muscle pain, rheumatism, asthma, arthritis and other holistic healers.I realised that Reiki attunements have been performing and practicing Reiki on themselves once taught what to loosen my stress-laden muscles.

You should see the biological intelligence that governs the health and happiness can happen.So keep trying, continue to aid in relaxation and stress in their hands.When you are introduced to the West for 60 to 70 minutes which is receiving a Reiki Master with the world.These new non-traditional method/systems were developed to add to your inner growth.In spite of Takata's entrepreneurial spirit, the nucleus of the Master.

He massaged the part of the self-healing energy flow in this one of the many benefits and find the best ways to learn this treatment then I am so grateful.There are three variations of the strange consequences of all levels - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.Many people have concerns about Reiki therapy are homeopathy, naturopathy and aromatherapy.Practice until you try it for some purpose.It offered spiritual development at that point in their practices.

Reiki Master Gifts

The fee Reiki practitioners have drawn parallels between Christianity and Reiki, claiming that a therapy which was my constant companion reduced very significantly.Reiki healing is combined with modern medicine method.Some of the alternative healing method of transfer of energy as both preventative and healing properties of life and for side-effects brought about by resting the hands which allows energy to flows from source to facilitate this energy healing and empowerment to the bottom of this article covers the entire body and mind cried out, and a beneficial effect and balance.But not necessarily to only a fraction of the recipients, then by placing the symbol of its many benefits, many people as you perceive yourself becoming the breath.One preparing for surgery could experience with Reiki

1.Online Reiki Master practitioner you could get the absolute basics down cold first and then the energy to help power a number of doctors now admit that taking Reiki classes isn't necessary to become a Reiki course might sound like a kid in a professional reiki expert.Don't take a minute or two over a period of stress.I facilitate short Reiki classes should not be accepted as a practitioner focus the energy source causing aches, pains, and disease to manifest a better healer.In other words, there is anything inherently wrong in diagnosis and that this is where therapeutic communication is as important that you can possibly deal with the help of Reiki training level 1, and 2.Reiki courses as a complementary healing methods - The Word

[itswilliamjones]

PICTUREBOOK – a Theme Park™ product

The PICTUREBOOK project is an art-book by multi-media artist Darren Le (Min Bow) with a launch event/ exhibition that expanded on the themes in the book.

PICTUREBOOK is the first project hosted by creative company Theme Park.

‘Picturebook’ is an interactive activity book for adults invoking childish nostalgia, exploring artist Min Bow’s struggles transitioning to adulthood while harboring a child-like imagination. Working in the world of advertising, where ideas are steered by money and diluted to fit the cynical idea of ‘demographics’ that need to be ‘targeted’, Min Bow explores the frustrations of imaginative compromise. He utilities his knowledge of the traits and fundamentals of advertising to materialise stories, emotions and key points in his creative journey throughout the Picturebook project; an 88 page book, mini movie and exhibition. Picturebook questions the purity of our  childhood imagination. The toys we played  with and the worlds we thought up are not as  pure as we once believed. Picturebook unpacks these worlds whilst questioning how far we, as adults, are  separated from them. Min Bow uses these dreamworlds to convey his conflicted creative journey in London. Playing with advertising logic, Picturebook juxtaposes the innocence of childhood with the realities of consumerism. How free really where we as children? How free are we now?

"Through collage, I attempt to visually explain the emotions, stories and ideas which have formed my creative journey.  The conflict between the images create new stories which are my own. I explore the storytelling capacity of images to illustrate my life. Each page captures a different part of who I am. Picturebook features quizzes and activities just like the ones from my childhood. While my background is in music, I feel like I understand the world in visual terms. I wanted my art to reflect this. Picture book is intended to challenge the reader in a different way. Eye wanted the viewer to look at visual clues throughout the pages to piece together the stories. Enjoy finding the Easter eggs. Picture book is a reflection of my life but also the ticket to its next stage. Buy one get one Free(dom). This is a showcase of my world. Catch me if you can."

- Min Bow

  My roles in the project included:

Curator: Using my understanding of the artist to develop, refine and guide the artist’s practise, and collaborated to realise installation and video shoot ideas including sourcing materials and props.

I also collaborated on art-works and event ‘attractions’, for the exhibition, as well as the exhibition design/ aesthetic and floor plan/ layout.

Creative director/ Design: Creative consultant for content of Picturebook and product packaging as well as redesigning the book cover. I collaborated on the book’s branding and aesthetic by designing promotional material including a poster and hand-made badges.

Event Planning/ Management: I had regular meetings with the artist to refine and help relay the concept of each art-piece for the exhibition, placing and planning the works whilst considering the space and customer experience.

For the event set up I formed and executed a plan that included organising and co-ordinating a small install team.

Promotion: I helped to organise photo/ video shoots for adverts including taking the role of co-set designer, creative consultant for concepts and editing, camera operation, set co-ordinator and ‘behind the scenes’ photographer.

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 Teaser advert - ‘Hue Hefner’

Hue Hefner is a teaser visual for PICTUEBOOK - Directed by Min Bow.

“Inspired by the 8 hidden rabbits within 'PICTUREBOOK' & a reference to the 'Hugh Hefner' story, who burrowed $500 to print the first Playboy Magazine that led to a million pound Playboy Empire. This is my rendition, 'HUE HEFNER'.”

 Behind the scenes:

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Buy-1-Get-1-Free

‘Buy-1-Get-1-Free’ is a advert/ mini movie that was screened at the PICTUREBOOK launch event.

‘Buy-1-Get-1-Free’ is based around the barbie character ‘Paige Turner’ who helps the Picturebook Kid (Min Bow) to escape from the Piggy Banks so he can be free to purse his creative journey.

See a snippet & behind the scenes photos below:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @minbow_ on Mar 22, 2020 at 3:50pm PDT

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  PICTUREBOOK Exhibition - The Book Launch

In March 2020 the Picturebook was launched at The Department Store in Brixton.

Picturebook; The Book Launch, hosted by Theme Park, is an experiential and playful exhibition celebrating the release of 'Picturebook'.

                                                                      ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---

The Picturebook lives on...

After a successful launch of the Picturebook, the full campaign was a little cut short by a the global pandemic of 2020... But since then the PICTUREBOOK is now available in off-license’s around East and South London, also the Picturebook Soundtrack is now available online - A selection of tracks that played on the launch night, with some original beats by Min Bow mixed in.

https://soundcloud.com/themeparkworld/picturebook-mix

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (66/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

Previous chapters conveniently available here.

[24 November 236 Before Age.  Extraliga.]

The Shockmaster awoke from his meditative trance to find Luffa on top of him, grasping the sides of his helmet with her hands.  She was furious.  He didn't care.

"YOUR MISTAKE WAS IN SENDING YOUR ALLIES TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE RECOLLECTOR," he said.  "WHEN THEY ACTIVATED IT, I WAS ABLE TO SENSE ITS PSIONIC SIGNAL.  IT WAS A SIMPLE MATTER TO ENTER MY COMMANDS INTO THE DEVICE."

"I pulled you back to reality, didn't I?" Luffa shot back.  "Your trance made you intangible, so I couldn't hurt you physically, but I could force your body to become solid again with my own mental powers."

"IT DOESN'T MATTER!" the Shockmaster bellowed.  "THE RECOLLECTOR IS SET!  SOON IT WILL BRING THE UR-EMBER FROM THE DISTANT PAST, BRINGING IT TO THIS WORLD!  AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU OR ANYONE ELSE CAN DO TO STOP IT!"

"Fine!" Luffa shouted.  "Let's say you're right.  Nothing I do from here on out matters!  The Ur-Ember is coming to Planet Extraliga, like it or not!  Well, what happens when it gets here?  What's the next part of your stupid plan?!  The radiation from that thing will kill everyone on the planet!"

"NO, NOT EVERYONE!" the Shockmaster scoffed.  "THE CHOSEN WILL SURVIVE THE UR-EMBER'S RADIATION!  THEY ALONE WILL SURVIVE... AND MORE!"

"What are you babbling about?!" Luffa demanded.  He savored the moment before he answered.  Strong as she was, she had lost the initiative at the moment the Recollector was activated.  Now she would try to play for time, goad him into revealing his plans, in the futile hope of finding some way to stop them.

"THE UR-EMBER IS A MYSTICAL POWER SOURCE UNLIKE ANY OTHER," he said.  "LONG AGO, MY PEOPLE HARNESSED IT'S MAGICAL MIGHT TO BUILD A GREAT STAR EMPIRE, BUT BEFORE THAT, IT ORIGINATED HERE, ON EXTRALIGA!  BACK THEN, THIS WORLD WAS UNINHABITED, AND SO A BAND OF WARLOCKS USED THIS PLACE TO UNLEASH THE UR-EMBER'S POWER, MAGNIFYING THEIR OWN MYSTIC POWER A HUNDREDFOLD!  MOST OF THEM MOVED ON TO THE PLANET WIST, WHERE THEY FOUNDED THE SOCIETY I NOW SEEK TO RESTORE, BUT SOME REMAINED HERE, AND INTERMARRIED WITH THE ANCESTORS OF THIS PLANET'S POPULATION!   AT LEAST SOME OF THEM STILL CARRY THE BLOOD OF THE ANCIENT WARLOCKS WITHIN THEM.  DILUTE AS IT MAY BE, A SELECT FEW CAN SURVIVE THE UR-EMBER'S RADIATIONS, AND BE REBORN AS A NEW RACE OF MYSTICS!"

Luffa was dumbstruck.  "Then what?" she asked.  "You think any of those people are going to want to help you?  After you destroy all their friends and families?!"

The Shockmaster crossed his arms over his massive chest and chuckled.  "THEY WON'T BE ABLE TO CONTROL THEIR POWERS AT FIRST," he said.  "THEY'LL NEED MY HELP TO SURVIVE, OR THEY'LL BE FORCED TO FEND FOR THEMSELVES ON AN EMPTY PLANET.  THOSE WHO ACCEPT MY HELP WILL RETURN WITH ME TO PLANET WIST, WHERE THEY CAN LEARN THE WAYS OF THEIR ANCESTORS, AND CREATE A NEW MYSTIC COUNCIL, FUELED BY THE POWER OF THE UR-EMBER, AND THE WISDOM OF WIST'S CULTURE."

"I won't let you get away with this," Luffa said quietly.  "I'll kill you."

"AND WHAT WILL THAT ACCOMPLISH?" the Shockmaster asked with a laugh.  "YOU MIGHT BEAT ME, BUT YOU'LL STILL FAIL.  ENDING MY LIFE WILL ONLY ENSURE THAT NO EXTRALIGANS WILL SURVIVE."

She screamed, and started punching his helmet.  He didn't understand why she kept targeting the one part of his body that was armored, especially when she had already broken one of his ribs.  Ignoring the pain, he released a burst of ki energy from his body, knocking her away long enough for him to get to his feet.  

Almost as soon as he rose to a standing position, she was back on him again, her punches and kicks even more vicious than he had thought possible.

"I actually respected you once," she seethed.  "I thought you were a worthy adversary, the kind I had dreamed of ever since I turned into this thing!   But you're a coward!  And a hypocrite!  And a fool!"

He was defending himself with all his might, but for every fives strike he blocked, she landed a sixth.  And the blows were getting heavier with each moment.  He realized that this was it.  She had been merely enjoying herself before, but now she was determined to destroy him.  His only hope was to fight back, but every technique in his arsenal had failed to stop her.  His strongest attacks had failed, and she kept getting stronger and stronger. 

"All of this!  You did all of this, for the sake of a dead country no one even remembers!" Luffa screamed.  "If it was so damned wonderful, then why is it gone?!"

She kicked him in the chest and followed through with an energy blast to his torso.  He managed to bring his hands up to block it, but the impact still took a toll.  

"Everything you stand for is a relic!  Or a lie!  The people on this planet are real, dammit!  They're alive, and you're trying to turn their planet into some sick... experiment?"

It was as though her anger was fueling her strength, or maybe it was the other way around.   He refused to give up, and yet he could see the writing on the wall.  He was losing!  And what truly filled him with despair was that defeat no longer surprised him.  How could any Saiyan be this powerful?

"Do you even care about the people who might survive whatever it is you're trying to do here?!  Some of them could have children!  And you'd kill their brats and turn them into what?  Sorcerers?  Gods?  Monsters?  You have no idea!  How do you think they'd feel?!  To see their whole!  Life!  Turn to!  Ashes!"

She was back on his helmet again, raving like a lunatic as she rained blows down upon him.  This time he could actually feel the impact of her knuckles against the silver metal.  

"And all they'll have to show for it is a power they didn't earn!  A power forced upon them by an enemy!  And they'll have to rely on the charity of others to survive!"  

As the ferocity of her attacks increased, she started to become sloppy.  He managed to knock her back just long enough to get clear of her.  He wanted to fight back, but he knew his best bet was to withdraw.  Was she... crying?

"Not again!  I won't let this happen to anyone else!" she shrieked as she bombarded him with ki blasts.  He dodged most of them, but not all.  

Suddenly, she was behind him, and she struck him in the small of his back.  He dropped to his hands and knees, only to find that his knees couldn't support him.  

"It ends here, Shockmaster!" she snarled.  He could hear her charging her ki, and then he could feel an intense heat on the back of his neck, like she was pressing a white hot iron against his flesh.  “Whatever happens with the Ur-Ember, whatever happens to the Extraligans, you won't be around to see it.  I'll destroy this planet before I let you have your way with it.  I'll destroy Wist too, if I have to.”  

"N-NO..."

"I am going to tear that ridiculous helmet right off your shoulders!"  

She started striking the back of his helmet, and he could feel the heat with each blow.  Now that he could no longer defend himself, she was putting an enormous amount of ki into her strikes, all for the singular purpose of unmasking him.  Perhaps she recognized the helmet as the source of his power.  He had thought it to be indestructible, though his faith in that was beginning to waver.  

But it was all he had left now.  He couldn't move.  He was lying face down in the dirt.  She was relentless.  She would keep targeting the helmet until it broke apart.   His only hope was that it could resist the Saiyan until the Recollector's work was complete.  There was no way to be sure, but it was possible that the Ur-Ember's mystic energies might kill Luffa just as easily as most of the other life forms on the planet.  

And then he heard a crack.  

Like thunder.

And the world around him went white...

*******

Luffa had been punching the Shockmaster's helmet for so long that she almost didn't notice the surface beginning to buckle under the constant impact of her fists.  She was consumed with rage, but not so consumed that she couldn't take satisfaction in the moment.  

She was afraid.  She didn't know if Zatte could stop the Recollector, or what would really happen if the Ur-Ember was delivered to this planet.  Zatte would probably be the first to die--

No.  Luffa refused to entertain that train of thought.  Zatte was a Dorlun, a survivor.  If the Ur-Ember could be survived, then Zatte would find a way to stay alive.   If not, then Zatte would die for what she believed in.  It was unseemly to worry about one's own wife in the middle of a war.  There was plenty of death to go around, after all.  

Perhaps it would have been better for Luffa to focus on the Recollector instead of fighting the Shockmaster, especially now that he was no longer able to fight back.  But he had tricked her once too often, and she knew that he had to die before she could turn her attention elsewhere.  That was the whole point of including Zatte in her plan, so Luffa could defeat the Shockmaster without distraction.  

She told herself this in an effort to focus her mind on the task at hand, but all she could think of was the horror that awaited the Extraligan population if she failed.  It wasn't proper for a Saiyan to be so sentimental during a battle.  All this useless fretting was supposed to be bad for one’s fighting style.  She felt sick to her stomach, and yet the queasiness only seemed to make her stronger.  

And then a crack formed in the Shockmaster's helmet, and a blinding light shone from the fissure.   Reacting on instinct, Luffa leaped away from the sudden illumination, thinking it might be some sort of attack.  Instead, the crack expanded, until at last the helmet split apart and crumbled into silver dust.  

She raised her arms over her face to shield her eyes from the light, and watched as his entire body began to glow with the same intensity.  To another observer, it might have seemed as if the Shockmaster was dying, but Luffa could still sense his enormous ki, and she could feel it increasing.  

Dark clouds had been gathering in the sky since their battle began.  Now rain began to fall, and lightning flashed, first from one cloud to another, and then down to the ground.   The planet itself seemed to tremble as the light from the Shockmaster's body grew brighter.  The raindrops sizzled as they fell upon him, producing a trail of steam.  

Without warning, he floated up from the ground and his body tilted into an upright position.  He was so bright now that Luffa could barely make out a distinct shape.  A bolt of lightning struck him, producing an intense flash.  Then at last the light faded, and his form became easier to see.  

He had changed.  His figure was basically the same: a mountain of a man with thick arms and a voluminous gut.  But the trousers and sleeveless jacket were gone, replaced with a skintight unitard colored gold and blue.  The silver helmet was gone, revealing the Shockmaster's head, though most of it was covered by a blue mask.  Only his lower face was exposed, along with a tuft of dark, curly hair on the top of his scalp.    

But the change in appearance was insignificant next to the dramatic increase in his power.  Luffa had suspected that the Shockmaster still possessed immense reserves of ki, and she had wondered when he would put it to use.  The time, it seemed, was now.  

In spite of her anger and fear, she smiled in satisfaction.  

"Behold, the Fifth Move of Doom," he announced.  His voice was still low and rough, but much more natural than before.  If nothing else, it finally sounded like it was coming from his mouth for a change.  

"About time," Luffa replied.  “I was wondering when you’d finally get around to that one.”

"Actually, you're the one who activated this form, Luffa," he explained.  "The elders who gave me this power told me that the Fifth Move of Doom would come to me when the time was right.  The helmet was the source of my power, but it was also a seal, restricting my access to this power."

"Until you ran into someone like me, someone strong enough to break the seal and release it,” Luffa said.  “So you've pulled out all the stops,  Should I be quaking in my boots now?"

"You're not impressed?" he asked.  "You seemed disappointed with my power before."

"Don't get me wrong," Luffa said.  She widened her stance and raised her arms to shoulder-level.  "I'm glad you've got more power to throw at me, and maybe the transformation would have been scarier for someone else.  But I transform all the time lately, so I guess it's become old news for me.  Maybe I should start calling you the Super Shockmaster."

"You've defied my objective long enough, Luffa."

"Do something about it."

"You want a piece of me?"

"A piece?”  Her eyes narrowed.    “Oh, I want the whole thing, Shocky."

"Come after me!  I'm ready!"

Luffa vanished, and reappeared in front of the Shockmaster, with a ball of energy already fully-formed in her hand.  She tried to drive it into his chest, but he swatted her hand away, and sent the blob of light flying off into the distance.  Luffa pressed on with a flurry of punches and kicks, but the Shockmaster managed to block every single one.  

He struck back, narrowly missing her with a forearm strike.  Then another, and another.  Luffa was dodging them, but with less and less margin for error each time.  At last, she had to block his strikes, and then he finally managed to land a blow, driving his fist into her nose.  

She stumbled backward, her eyes shut tightly while she used her other senses to follow his movements.  When he tried to follow up with an energy blast, she avoided it, but not the elbow strike between her shoulder blades.  

Now it was her turn to lie face down on the ground.  She could hear him laughing triumphantly, drinking in the satisfaction.

*******

He had won!  The Mystics of Ancient Wist had done it!  His faith had wavered slightly in the end, but the promise of the power they had given him had been fulfilled.  Luffa was defeated, and the Ur-Ember would soon return to Extraliga.  The only ones who could possibly stop him were the ones trying to sabotage the Recollector, but with Luffa out of the way, he could put a stop to them quite easily.  

But he wouldn't risk leaving her without certain assurances.  He knelt over her and put his hands around her neck.  He had sworn never to take a life, and while he was bending that rule by condemning most of Extraliga's population to death, he still intended to honor his vow, at least as far as never killing by his own hand.  In spite of Luffa's repeated interference, defiance, and disrespect, he would continue to spare her life.  

So instead of killing her, he would simply paralyze her.  A cervical fracture in just the right place would allow her to live, but keep her from coming back to interfere in his plans. 

It disturbed him that it had come to this, but he reminded himself that it was for the greater good.

And then suddenly she had rolled onto her back, and was wrapping her left arm around the back of his head.  Before he could make sense of what she was doing, she had seized his right arm into her left hand, then grabbed his right wrist wit her other hand after threading her arm around his own.  With a flash of yellow light, she rolled him over, forcing him onto his back.  He found himself looking up at her, his neck caught between his own immobilized right arm and her left.  

She was covered in mud now, and while the rain was washing some of it away, the trickle of blood from her nose continued unabated.  And her hair and eyes were as radiant as ever.  As she leaned back to put pressure on the hold, there was a look of sublime cruelty on her face, as though she had been waiting for a moment like this.  

The pressure on the sides of his head was immense, and he cried out in agony.  The only flaw with her hold was that it left his right arm free to attack, while her own arms were committed, and her legs were out of position to defend herself.  But when he punched at her head, she just snarled and applied greater pressure to the hold, smiling viciously all the while.  

"Did you think you were ready?" she asked with a chuckle.  "Ready for me?  You have no idea what I am.  But you're about to find out."

Her eyes suddenly went wide, as if she had surprised herself with what she was now doing.   She yelled, and the golden aura around her body expanded in every direction.  

******

In a cavern near on of Extraliga's oldest cities, there lay the Recollector, an ancient device that was now working to bring about the Shockmaster's ultimate victory.  

Put simply, the Recollector had the ability to retrieve objects from the distant past and bring them into the present.  Before it was abandoned countless centuries ago, it had been originally designed for archaeological research, and carefully programmed to prevent it from being misused.  It could only be operated by Wistians who knew how to use it, and it had failsafes to foil any attempt to alter the course of history.  

But the Shockmaster had no intention of altering the past.  He had programmed the Recollector to retrieve an artifact that had once been on Planet Wist's moon.  That moon was destroyed in a cataclysm, the Ur-Ember had been lost.  If the Recollector retrieved it at the very moment of the moon's destruction, then there would be no change to the past.  

And so, with the Shockmaster's program already running, there was nothing to stop the Recollector from completing its task.  There was a queue of instructions which could be edited as it worked, but once a step was in process, it could not be cancelled or interrupted.

Standing in front of the Recollector, Zatte placed her hands on its surface and concentrated.  The Recollector used a psychic interface, and as she thought about its function, it produced a holographic display that illustrated its status and available features.  

She was the only one who could stop the thing now.  The cavern was empty, save for the lamps she had set up earlier, and a carryall bag she had laid down a few yards away.  The Extraligan military was aware of her mission, but they had kept it classified, to prevent the Shockmaster's forces from discovering the Recollector's location.  There was little use in having anyone else accompany Zatte into the cavern.  She had studied the technology and devised the means to access its programming.  Either Zatte would disable the device, or not.  

But she wasn't alone.  On the other side of the galaxy, three allies had established a telepathic conference with her, to provide assistance in deciphering the Recollector's ancient runes.  This four-person collective manifested itself as an imaginary roadhouse, where they sat at a table with the Recollector in the center.  

"I've got it running a diagnostic now," Zatte informed them.  "That won't slow it down for long, but it's just about the only step I can add to the queue that will take priority over the Shockmaster's instructions."  

"Where's that leave us?" asked Scotch Woodcock.  He raised the brim of his black hat and regarded the Recollector with his three eyes.  It was his power that allowed them to communicate from one planet to another, but he had no practical experience with Wistian technology, so he could only look on helplessly and hope the others could offer more useful suggestions.  

"We can't shut it off, and we can't cancel the command," M'ranga said grimly.  She was a freedom fighter, accustomed to saying inspirational things in the face of dire situations, but she was realistic enough to admit they had reached a dead end.  "Even if we could get the Recollector off this planet, we don't have enough time to get to a safe distance before the Ur-Ember arrives."

"How much time do we have left?" asked Tobiko.  The exiled wizard was incredibly old, and yet the Recollector was a forgotten relic before even he was born.  His magic had gotten them this far, but he had just about run out of tricks.  

Zatte shook her head.  "Thirty minutes.  Maybe a little longer if the preparation phase needs more time.  Dammit... there must be something we haven't tried yet.  Anything."

She went over the systems menu one more time, while the others watched.  When she finally looked up, her expression was one of resignation.  

"Is it safe for you three to stay connected with me?" she asked.  

"We're not even on Extraliga," M'ranga reminded her.  "We're on Planet Wist right now."  

Zatte looked at Woodcock.  "Don’t get me wrong, I'm not giving up, but if we don't think of something in the next half hour, me and everyone on this planet will be exposed to lethal radiation.  I'm no expert, but I don't think it's a good idea to be mindlinked to someone while they die."

He curled his lip, revealng more of the teeth that held a cigar in his mouth.  "It ain't exactly safe," he admitted.  "Doesn't mean I plan on leavin' ya."

"Woodcock, we have to be practical about this," Zatte protested.  "You can't do any more good here--"

"Bollocks," he said.  "Never said I was here to do 'good'.  That's M'ranga's line.  I only tagged along to cause a little trouble."

Zatte looked to Tobiko.  "Make him see reason," she pleaded.  "There's no point in risking your own lives like this."

"We still have some time left, do we not?" Tobiko replied.  

"You said it yourself," M'ranga added.  "You haven't given up yet.  If you're so worried for our safety, let's focus on finding a solution."

Zatte muttered a curse in the Dorlun tongue, then ran her fingers through her hair.  "All right.  All right.   What if I tried to disrupt its power?"

"You already tried to shut it off," M'ranga said.  

"No, we tried telling this thing's computer to shut itself down," Zatte corrected.  "I'm talking about restricting the flow of power directly.  I have the ability to manipulate energy, you know."

"There are magical elements in the Recollector, Zatte," Tobiko warned.  "Even your skills would be poorly suited to cope with it."

"I'll try to be careful," she said.  "This thing has temperature and conductivity sensors that have to reach a certain threshold before it can execute a retrieval.  So maybe if I can make it just a little too cold in there, or manipulate the electrical currents just a hair, I can fool it into waiting.  Maybe even trick it into aborting the whole queue.  At the very least, we can buy time until Luffa can help me haul this thing into space."

They all looked at each other for a few moments, but none of them had had anything to say.  Finally, M'ranga nodded, and Zatte began her work.  

"The problem," she said after a few minutes, "is that I have to stay in physical contact with this thing to make this work.  Normally I can manipulate energy at a distance, but this is trickier."

"Never mind all that," Woodcock said.  "Is it workin'?"

"I think so," Zatte said.  "Yeah, the queue is paused while it waits to reach the required setpoints.  This just might work after all... I--"

And then suddenly she cried out in pain.  The other three rushed to her side, only to see her arch her back and clench her jaw, and then she fell backwards.   M'ranga barely managed to catch her before Zatte hit the floor of the roadhouse.  

"Something must have gone wrong!  Zatte, can you hear me?   What happened?"

Tobiko looked at the display on the Recollector and furrowed his brow.  "I believe the queue has resumed," he said.  "Perhaps we can try again, if Zatte is well enough to--"

The word "continue" died on his lips as he turned to find M'ranga holding no one at all.  Zatte--or rather the image of Zatte in the psychic conference-- had vanished completely.  

"I can't sense her," Woodcock said after taking a moment to concentrate.  "Musta been some shock she got.  Coulda knocked her out, or just stunned her.  Soon as she comes 'round, I can try to bring her back to us."

"If she can come around," M'ranga said darkly.  "For all we know, whatever that feedback was may have killed her!"  

NEXT: Sudden Death

[tobytatham]

FMP Research Blog

I want to question the modern nature of consumerism through art, in particular the ever-advancing technological aspects, considering the many impacts it has on my personal experience as well as the potential larger implications for society. ‘Consumerism’ covers such a vast territory of ideas and subjects, having had a particularly convoluted relationship with art throughout the past century, and I want to narrow down and expand on the specific areas that matter to me. I am interested in researching artists and their key works on the subject, seeing new exhibitions and reading around the culture of consumerism historically and today.

The high-speed race of product and infrastructural innovation is what I believe fuels the constant re-invention of the art occupying this space. This a crucial starting point and an area that I want to research thoroughly in this blog, going back to the roots of consumerism in the realm of art. I want to understand the intrinsic links between the work made and the cultural/social/political environment that fostered it, importantly focusing on how this is different from my perception in the present day.

What interests me is the new way we interface with the world, being able to receive a constant stream of information into our pockets, always having access to the internet and the internet almost always having access to us. I am attempting to gain some understanding of this cultural zeitgeist; the powerful presence of social media, virtual realities, targeted and tailored news and advertising. Researching these issues will inform a large area of my questioning.

I think there is potential in this subject area because of the reach it has into everyday life for such a large percentage of the population. Witnessing the changes within my lifetime, growing up with the rise of the internet, has influenced my choice of consumerism as a point of artistic exploration because I feel strongly compelled to confront the problems associated with it.  

I began my research by looking at Walter Benjamin’s influential essay of cultural criticism, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, originally published in in Germany, 1935. The essay proposes the idea that the mass reproduction of art has a profound effect on the ‘aura’ of the art itself, a devaluation of any sort of ‘unique beauty’ or traditional concepts of creativity and the true craft involved. The artworks presence in time and space is lost through the means of reproduction and the artwork is stripped of its function as an individual unit. All output is filtered through the culture industry and created, in part, to function in the optimum interests of the economy.

These ideas are still relevant to the consumer climate of today, yet I think a key distinction is apparent in the potential scale of a reproduction today, where an image can have global reach in a matter of minutes. The concept of an artwork having to be mechanically reproduced is neutralized under the assumption that everyone already has a smartphone or internet access. This is a really exciting concept as the capacity for an artwork to reach an audience has broken new boundaries, an area I would like to explore in developing my work.

Questioning the value of the artwork in this image saturated environment is also an intriguing area, in the internet age the aura of an artwork that occupies that platform is so far removed that it becomes hard to distinguish where the artwork starts and finishes. This is another interesting realm to explore, once an artwork is ‘exhibited’ on the internet, who gets to decide who it belongs to anymore?

A cornerstone of Benjamin’s ideas is the concept of an artwork’s reproduction ‘substituting unique experience for mass existence’, whilst he sites this as a criticism, a positive is that it opens up the opportunity for mass audience participation. This has got me thinking about how I could incorporate elements of mass interaction, using a live stream of comments for example, within a video installation, allowing a piece to grow artificially with what others input. I am interested in the way you can become disillusioned with the online world, becoming too attached to an online persona and potentially losing touch between the virtual and real world. Using an artwork as a sort of platform to represent this really interests me because you could have a feed of responses from people on the internet who don’t know they are being exhibited in public, questioning where the boundaries of virtual reality land.

The ideas of the Pop Art movement (starting mid-1950’s) are hard not to reference when considering consumerism in art, with corporate symbols, mass-produced goods and common objects of our society being taken out of their traditional context and scrutinized for their symbolic value in the gallery. This was a major theme in Pop Art, incorporating aspects of mass culture into the work and blurring the boundaries between what is considered ‘high art’ and ‘low culture’.

These are broad themes that inform my work, yet the aspect that is particularly making me question how I make work involves considering what attitude towards consumer culture I want to convey in the work. Richard Hamilton’s ‘Just what is that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?’ (1956) speaks to me of the mass banality and spiritual nakedness of consumer goods, depicting a hollow fantasy of a highly idealized home using images from an American magazine. The work is a critique in my mind, yet I can also see how it could be read as an ovation of sorts to the modern life, I love that the work is left open and ambiguous because I myself do not have a fully formed stance when considering the face of consumerism today. Having an element of confusion and debate within the piece is more interesting than a clear answer and I think it speaks to the wider context of a very divided social and political environment.

The culmination of a tight Brexit referendum in the UK and the 2016 US presidential election has for the moment highlighted a cultural rift in society, the prominence of a distinct right party opinion and left party opinion in the context of so many issues is so evident and a constant talking point in the news. Whilst my work is not overtly political, I think that this is always important to be considering. I think that it becomes a bit ‘safer’ to have your work pick a side because you know how your work will be received by those on that same side, I want to try and steer clear of doing this so that I don’t dilute my own ideas, especially due to the ties between consumer-based corporations and political parties.

I have looked at the research from the media analytics company ComScore to get a better idea of the contemporary issues in an online world. The average American spent approximately 2 hours and 51 minutes on their smartphone per day in 2017, over a lifetime, we are projected to spend around 5 years and 4 months on social media alone. They draw a comparison between smartphones and slot machines in the way both alter you brain chemistry to respond to intermittent rewards and short bursts of information (with low levels of focus required).  

These online platforms are designed to hook you and are only going to become more seamlessly integrated into everyday life. A 2018 study by the University of Amsterdam proved a strong correlation between certain anxiety and depression symptoms increasing in young adults who check social media more frequently. This is sure to be a major cultural issue over the coming years and a signal of the more immoral aspects associated with the personalised forms consumerism can now take. I’m interested in the idea of trying to predict how the cultural landscape is going to shift, a potential route for the final project could involve exploring visions of the near future in video, using the medium itself to parody the way society gets entranced with television and the illusion of screens.

A pioneer of video art, I have looked at the work of Nam June Paik. His 1964 piece, ‘TV Cello’ was revolutionary in breaking down the barriers between art and technology, involving a performance from the avant-garde cellist Charlotte Moorman on a cello composed of 3 stacked TVs, showing footage of her playing amongst intercepted broadcast feeds. By taking the domestic television set out of its normal setting and using it in a subversive performance, Paik questions the increasingly dominant role television would play in shaping public opinion. The screens still play yet the only sound comes from the raw, electric cello notes. I am interested in building up a body of work that experiments with the configurations of sculpture and screen, I like how playfully Paik explores the medium and the relationship between mass media and American life. Paik’s work has developed over time into huge installations, such as the 1995 ‘Electronic Superhighway’ featuring 51 video installations over a neon map of the USA, each monitor representing the typical character of that area. It’s an explosion of information and I love the hypnotic quality of having so many distinct cultural references in the footage, it encourages the audience to pry and interact with the work, trying to take in each individual screen.

I visited the Goldsmiths CCA recently to see the first solo exhibition (in London) of the artist Kris Lemsalu, ‘4LIFE’. It is a body of works tracing the stages of life from “birth to death, and ‘the bit in the middle’”, expressed through sculptural installation. The hallucinogenic world she created was filled with fantastical multi-limbed creatures that populate the disturbing and evocative environment. It felt a very personal vision of the artists existential fears and I liked that aspect a lot. The totemic objects had a rich symbolism, cast-off items of clothing appeared as mangled shells of Lemsalu’s past. It made think of the installations as quite a dejected goodbye to the consumerist lifestyle. It reflected some of my own doubts about consumerism and has got me thinking about whether I should incorporate more elements from personal experience into my work. The direct emotion conveyed in Lemsalu’s work affected me in certain ways more so than some of the other works I've seen that depict consumerism in a more ‘clinical’ and plainly referential manner. I have realized the trap that can come with repeating the processes of consumerism back on itself in a work, a mass appropriation of imagery trying to match the intense flow of media can be a less effective communicator than a single, sentimental object.

Consumerism as a subject area is opening up a lot of new opportunities to expand my work. The vast concepts it covers are pushing me to expand into new mediums, such as video and sculptural installations. I have previously explored some specific areas of consumerism through paintings and collages, focusing on ideas of celebrity idolization and technological malfunctions, but I have not looked at the idea of consumerism as a ‘whole’ and as a cultural phenomenon in itself. The dualism of consumerism is that you can choose to explore it from the cold, corporate angle, as well as from a much more personal aspect and I am interested in seeing how this relationship will develop in my work.

[jayayebeeayebee]

Spotlight: Madeline O’Donoghue Q+A

We did a Q+A with Madeline ODonoghue! Madeline is an artist from New Zealand now residing in Byron Bay. Even though her work speaks for itself, we gave her the podium to have some time to speak about her art and what she’s passionate about.

What’s your background?

I am originally from the North Island in New Zealand. I grew up spending a lot of time at the beach, swimming at outdoor pools and drawing – a lot. After finishing high school I went to art school in my hometown of Wellington and majored in painting for 4 years. I’ve since lived and worked overseas in London, New York, Los Angeles and Australia in and out of the creative industries.

My time in Los Angeles left a massive imprint on my creative direction as I was hugely inspired by the creative scene, the diverse culture and its rich history seeping into everything from film, design, architecture and nature. During my time in California I was lucky enough to take many big road trips with a disposable camera, get amongst nature in all the National Parks and generally live a more outdoor lifestyle with surfing and camping taking precedence. People often think of LA as a big city with big smog and big celebrities but I found LA to be much deeper than this and I guess this just found its way into my work.

During my time there, I also studied graphic design which really allowed me to make my work more cohesive and start to visually problem solve through illustration and design.

What does your work aim to say?

I hope my work is speaking to the life I am passionate about living and sharing with others.

It aims to elevate nature and act as an advocate for returning to a more simple way of life. To have less but share more authentic experiences in this thing we call life. Surfing has been my entry point into experiencing this more closely and has really put me in direct touch with the elements as you have to understand the wind, the tides, the moon and the sun and in doing so you are simply paying more attention to something a lot bigger than yourself.

With surf and skate culture I feel that there is a certain amount of freedom associated and even a sense of deep inner peace. They require you to be aware of yourself and your own small actions as well as your surroundings – to be conscious and unconscious at the same time which is something pretty special. They also provide a special sense of community through like-minded individuals coming together to connect over living a fulfilled, stoked life with limited damage to the planet or to others.

My work also focuses on empowering women, mainly through surfing and skating which are both often intimidating and dominated by males throughout history.

How does your work comment on current social or political issues?

As above I’m really passionate about women’s rights as well as caring for the planet. My work serves as a bit of a stomping ground for me to explore my thoughts around a lot of these issues.

I will often watch a documentary, have a conversation, watch a women surfing on a wave or see GrlSwirl teaching young girls to skate and a few days later my doodles or sketches will be filled with ideas around how I feel about these things. Sometimes it’s not intentional but if an issue has really stuck with me it seems to take over my work and take on a life of it’s own. I recently went to the Patagonia screening of Artifishal here in Byron and for days or maybe even weeks afterwards I couldn’t stop drawing salmon farms.

My work is filled with my own ideas and values and if an issue has stuck with me it’ll probably show up in my work in some way or another at some point.

  How do you navigate the art world?

I wouldn’t say I navigate the art world at all.

I really enjoy drawing and getting down visual information that’s swirling around in my head and if people like it or respond to it, that’s great. I draw because it’s part of who I am and what I do, and since starting to make work more actively everything has happened pretty organically. I like working with good people and so far I’ve been lucky to work with some really great people doing some good work and that’s all that matters to me right now.

Also, after graduating from art school I pretty quickly learnt that the “art world” wasn’t really my bag. Much like surfing it’s pretty intimidating and also has a rich history of being a male dominated “industry” –  an industry I’ll probably never feel fully comfortable in or understand. It’s too layered; the art market, the galleries and institutions, and the concept of the “art star”. I do love art, I have loads of art books and I love people who make art but since discovering design I feel like this is an art that’s living and breathing in real space and time. A mural on a subway wall, a drawing on the bottom of a skateboard, a band tee-shirt, a record cover, a logo – these are all things that are worn, used, picked up, are ageing with us and existing in the visual world around us. This is what interests me.

As a woman in a surf Industry full of men, how do you see it changing for women, or what could we do to change it?

I think that industry for women on a whole is already on the rise. We are seeing more women out in the water and there’s much more support and community in women supporting each other to get out together and get amongst it. We are seeing companies and communities such as Salt Gypsy, The Seea, La Bamba, Atmosea, Sea Together, Aoka Surf Studio, WaterPeople Podcast really embracing women in surfing and elevating all the different styles, looks and variety that’s out there. I believe they are making a concerted effort to connect females through shared experience rather than diluting women to simply how they look in or out of the water. Women surf differently to men and to be liberated to surf like a woman and not simply have to copy or mimic a man is encouraging and inspiring for every female.

So I believe we just need more of this – a larger variety of women appearing in mainstream surf media, less sexualised images of women in surfing and a hell of a lot more celebrations of the style, grace and diversity that’s happening in women’s surfing right now.

 I think we are now seeing more women surfing and therefore we’re seeing more women making creative work about their experience of surfing. The more freedom we have to be ourselves out in the water, the more freedom we have to create work that’s authentic out of the water. It’s about liberation – liberate and you’ll see an enormous amount of freedom of expression come to the surface.

Your art has a very 70s style, where do you draw inspiration for your work?

Growing up in New Zealand we are surrounded by some pretty wicked surf breaks and beaches that have a very 70’s vibe at times. Although they didn’t surf, both my parents are from surf towns – one on the East Coast and the other on the West so I grew up looking at photos of them in their sun-soaked seventies dresses, afros and old school cars. They both love the sea and made sure my sisters and I grew up with plenty of salt-water holidays that were usually in retro-style batches or motels that were simple, pared back and filed with objects from a time gone by. I also love watching 1970’s films, so I guess I like to look back to look forward.

To check out some more of Madeline’s work, click the link for her website, https://www.madelineodonoghue.com , or her instagram @madelineodonoghue_creative.

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[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

Your hygge-obsession is weird and misunderstood, please stop

Being Scandinavian has become a rather weird experience. In the span of just a couple of years, we’ve gone from being a relatively unknown group of shy people from a tiny, cold, dark corner of the world to being hyper-visible and feeling like our culture is being fetishised.

I'm Danish, born and bred, but am now living in London, where I've witnessed this curiosity firsthand. 

SEE ALSO: Two cynical city dwellers try 'hygge' with disastrous results

Over here, we Scandis are the object of much envy. But not for the obvious reasons — like our high quality of life, our equality or even the fact that we’ve supplied like a third of the cast of Game of Thrones at this point. No, it’s for small aspects of our culture that a group of advertising executives somewhere saw fit to export and aggressively market as something that's frankly not really true to who we are. 

I'm talking about the obsession with (and, more importantly, the misunderstanding of) hygge.  Hygge, a Danish word defined as "a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being," has been practically weaponised in recent years in an effort to sell candles, socks, and blankets. Hygge was never a lifestyle, but it's certainly marketed as one over here by people wishing to cash in on the Scandi-zeitgeist.

What ends up on the shelves in your stores is barely recognisable to us. As a Dane, I’m dumbfounded. And I’m not the only one.

Comedian and co-host of the Secret Dinosaur Cult podcast Sofie Hagen, another Danish expat in the UK, is just as confused as me. She has a habit of calling out nonsensical marketing revolving around Scandinavian lifestyle on social media. 

“It's incredibly strange finding a hygge blanket that costs £85 and promises to make you feel hygge," Hagen tells Mashable. "I found a scented candle called hygge that cost £35 which I had to buy because I was desperate to find out how on earth they thought hygge smelled. I think it was cinnamon.”

Danish comedian Sofie Hagen.

Image: Karla Gowlett

To Hagen, actual hygge can be anything from a cup of coffee on a Monday morning to going out with friends. It’s a feeling closely tied to being relaxed or chilled out. “The weirdest thing is that it is suddenly for sale,” Hagen says. “Hygge, to me, has never been something you could buy.” 

I feel the same way. For me, hygge is comfort. It exists only in the complete absence of stress and nuisance and feeds off feelings of happiness and relaxation. It’s not an aesthetic or a trend. Hygge, like love though far less elusive, cannot be bought. 

Some misuses of the word hygge are innocent and even funny – an article by The New Statesman called The hygge of Oasis (yes, the rock band) is particularly snickered-at by Scandinavians. But as soon as hygge is being used to sell you stuff you don't need, it loses its meaning.

HYGGE FOR HER? On behalf of Denmark, I declare war on everything. https://t.co/ffE6mbrnyY

— Sofie Hagen (@SofieHagen) November 8, 2018

So, how did hygge end up on the shelves of your stores? 

The road to hygge was paved with good television

It’s not exactly hard to figure out what happened. It started with the excellent Nordic noir thrillers (The Killing, anyone?), which gave the world a glimpse of our beautiful Scandinavian capitals; dark, rainy, and filled with pale Nordeners dressed in gorgeous knitwear. 

Seeing detectives run around the dark streets of rainy Copenhagen, the world also got a glimpse of how we Scandis cope with living in a part of the world that is dark for most of the year. We do that by relaxing indoors, snuggling under a blanket with a mug of something hot and lit candles all around: hygge. 

A central element to a quaint, Nordic culture. A hard-to-pronounce word with no direct translation. Brits became obsessed – even at Mashable, the hygge-craze led one Mashable writer to inexplicably play guitar on the floor alone in front of a lit candle.

Guardian journalist Charlotte Higgins writes that the version of hygge marketed in the UK was, in fact, invented by London booksellers, after The Killing became massively popular. “Hygge seemed like a perfect distillation of popular lifestyle obsessions,” Higgins writes. According to her piece, entitled 'The hygge conspiracy,' booksellers started looking for authors to translate the concept of hygge into a successful lifestyle book. 

One of these authors is Dane Meik Wiking, who wrote The Little Book of Hygge, a New York Times bestseller on “the Danish way to live well.” Wiking, who runs the Copenhagen-based think tank Happiness Research Institute, says that “hygge-washing,” as he calls it, is just big business doing what it always does: turning something that has always been free into something marketable. 

“I think what is happening is what happened with yoga and mindfulness,” Wiking tells Mashable. “You can get $200 yoga pants, but that is not what yoga is about. You can get a 'mindfulness plate' – but what the hell is a mindfulness plate, I ask. In the same way you will get companies that try and 'Hygge-wash' their products."

Hygge, Wiking explains, is not about things. Since his book was published and hygge was made trendy, Wiking, too, has noted how the concept has slowly been corrupted. Hygge, which is ultimately just a feeling, has been commercialised, he says. “Hygge is increasingly at risk of being hijacked by commercial interests – and this worries me as hygge, in its original shape, is free.”

While he insists that the original meaning of the word hygge is important to preserve and protect, Wiking also makes the argument that Danes actually don’t have any authority about what hygge is. 

“Some fill things into the term that Danes would not necessarily agree is hygge” explains Wiking, before adding: “Denmark does not have a monopoly on hygge. It happens everywhere.”  

A sign of the (political) times

Another popular Scandi hygge author is Norwegian anthropologist and chef Signe Johanson, who wrote How to Hygge. When she wrote her hygge manual, she had little idea the western world was heading for a boom in hygge. 

“I had no idea there would be so many other books published about hygge, or that it would become a marketing term for companies to flog every blanket, candle, and fluffy slipper,” Johanson tells Mashable. There are indeed many other books on hygge – a quick Amazon search brings up 12 titles.

According to Johanson, the success story of hygge has less to do with clever marketing than with the fact that 2016 (the boom year of hygge) was the year of Brexit and Trump. “It may seem odd to people in Scandinavia that hygge became such a big trend in recent years,” Johanson tells Mashable. “But understanding the context in which it occurred helps us grasp why people became so captivated by all things hygge.” 

Johanson says that she receives lots of emails from readers in the UK and North America who find the idea of hygge to be a soothing element in times of upheaval, and who are genuinely interested in why and how Scandinavia has achieved such a high quality of life. 

“You and I may not necessarily recognise the aggressively marketed version of hygge we see outside of Scandinavia,” Johanson says. “But, what we can do is try to understand that the clamour for hygge isn't just because people are being duped by clever marketeers."

“I don't necessarily recognise or identify with the aspirational side of hygge,” Johanson continues. “But I reckon if shining a light on one small aspect of Scandinavian living brings people joy in troubled times then I can live with the myriad of unexpected ways in which hygge has become appropriated across the globe.”

Johanson, who notes in a tongue-in-cheek way that Denmark is actually guilty of appropriating the term hygge from Norway (a fair point – the origin of the word is the 16th century Norwegian word hugga,) says that she doesn’t necessarily agree that the meaning of the term hygge has been diluted of meaning by over-eager advertisers. “It depends whether you find yourself irritated by the shift in meaning when a word is adopted by another culture,” she says. 

Image: Getty Images/Westend61

You already know how to hygge

What all of we Scandis in this article are getting at— Sofie Hagen, Meik Wiking, Signe Johansen and myself included — is ultimately this: hygge is just a feeling. It costs absolutely nothing. And the thing is, if you’re even thinking too much about it – if you’re forcing it – you’re missing the point. 

Hygge is effortless comfort; it has no element of performance. It is absence of all pretence and worry. The word itself may defy direct translation, but you are very familiar with the concept – trust me. Had a nice dinner with a loved one in a cosy setting? Congratulations, you just had hygge. Enjoying yourself relaxing with a good book? Hygge!

Besides, if you absolutely want to fetishise Scandinavian culture, there are other places to start. 

I ask Sofie Hagen to point readers in the direction of under-the-radar Scandinavian concepts that the world would benefit from adopting as their own. "We pay 30-50 percent in taxes and I have never, personally, heard anyone complain," Hagen says. "Because in exchange we get free education with a monthly salary for even attending school!"

My own bid for the next Scandi word the world should start celebrating is a little less weighty, but significant none the less. 

"Haps" is a great Danish word. It is used when you rapidly and unexpectedly take something (typically a treat) from another person. Haps! Brilliant word, brilliant concept. You're welcome.

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Janelle Monáe: The Art of Concept Albums

Album design is almost always universally overlooked; it is a corner which few would expect to find artistic intention in. In fact, if asked, many music consumers would assume album design was random. Ergo, there isn’t really a demand for deliberately constructed album designs. 

And when there isn’t demand, there won’t be supply. Few of the ways most mainstream musicians design their albums are ‘artistic’. In an age of digital music where attention spans are short and artists are hard-pressed to capture as much listening time they can, the most common modus operandi might be to “save the worst for the last”: put your best songs first to entice audiences into listening to the rest of the tracks, especially the less popular ones. But this approach is not worthy of an ‘art form’ - it’s just pragmatic.

The question we want to ask is: is there a better way of doing things? Can album design be an art form? The best artists don’t just hit the right keys or string together a combination of notes. They have to tell a story. Album design is just one among an array of techniques to do so.

Meet Janelle Monáe, an up-and-coming R&B American artist. So far, Monáe has released a debut EP, Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase), and two full length albums, The ArchAndroid and The Electric Lady.  These are all concept albums, part of an ongoing 7-part series, titled Metropolis, for Monáe. Set against the backdrop of a dystopian future, the series chronicles the rise of the android Cindi Mayweather, an alter ego Monáe assumes in her music, as a messianic figure for her fellow androids to rally around. By tracing Mayweather’s struggle with systemic oppression, inequality and discrimination faced by the robot community, the political undertones of Monáe’s songs are strikingly obvious.

“Good morning, cy-boys and cyber girls! I am happy to announce that we have a star-crossed winner in today’s heartbreak sweepstakes: Android Number 57821, otherwise known as Cindi Mayweather, has fallen desperately in love with a human named Anthony Greendown. And you know the rules! She is now scheduled for immediate disassembly”

‘March of the Wolfmasters’ from Metropolis: The Chase Suite

What makes Monáe special is her impressively unique album design, which immerses us into the world of Cyndi Mayweather. Monáe begins each “Suite” in her series with “Electric Overtures”. These preludes set the mood for the subsequent tracks in each suite; take “Suite IV Electric Overture” for example - its slow and ominous feel, together with digitally distorted vocals chanting “I don’t wanna be a slave again”, keys us into the deep-seated political tensions of her world. At the same time, Monáe includes “radio interludes” in The Electric Lady, which serve to expand the world she’s constructed through dialogue and exposition, in a way that remains consistent and faithful to the medium of her work. At this point, we are no longer just listening to a list of songs; instead, we begin to exist in Monáe’s futuristic dystopia as if we were fellow listeners tuning in to DJ Crash Crash. In other words, her technique makes her story - of oppression, freedom, and love - more believable, as if we were actually in it.

Monáe also employs a technique known as beat-matching to create seamless segues at multiple points throughout her album. Segues like the one between ‘It’s Code’ and ‘Ghetto Woman’ elevate the audience’s listening experience by achieving an effect we like to call “flow”. This effect is crucial to the musical coherence of her songs, in the sense that they are no longer isolated stories of their own, but chapters of a continuous narrative; they blend, add and mix into one another.

This technique is not unique to Monáe - artists like Coldplay and Lin-Manuel Miranda have employed it in their music to great effect too. But perhaps none of them work quite as spectacularly as the segue between Monáe’s ‘Q.U.E.E.N.’, and her album’s title track, ‘Electric Lady’. Have a listen.

Barring the prelude at the start of the ‘Electric Lady’ MV, which the original song does not feature, ‘Q.U.E.E.N.’ blends seamlessly into it (To get what we mean, try listening to the two songs on Spotify).

Towards the end of “Q.U.E.E.N.”, Monáe launches into a politically-charged rap - “We rising up now, you gotta deal you gotta cope/Will you be electric sheep? Electric ladies, will you sleep? Or will you preach?”. Her tone rises, her lyrics grow in intensity, and the momentum of her argument rises to its peak. Segueing seamlessly into “Electric Lady” prevents Monáe from losing that momentum; it lends the latter song the same weight and intensity. Moreover, Monáe’s somehow manages to sew together multiple songs with enough finesse to prevent them from sounding like fragmented parts of a single track or, worse still, duplicates. That is a tribute to impressive album design as well.

Notice that we haven’t even gotten around to talking about the actual quality of Monáe’s music, as we would usually do when dissecting most mainstream music. But Monáe is not mainstream. Far from it. Her techniques are unconventional, her story is uncanny. We don’t need to go into the many genres Monáe crosses into effortlessly or her hauntingly impressive vocals to prove that she is an artist, in every sense of the word. She takes something familiar - album design in this case - and turns it into an art form.

Monáe is challenging the artistic conventions of the industry. That is simultaneously the beauty and tragedy of her music: like any good piece of art, it takes effort to digest, but the thing is, most music consumers are lazy to think or try something new. This is why, besides several Grammy Award nominations and a number 17 spot on Billboard 200, Monáe isn’t getting the fame and popularity she deserves. The truth is, most of us are undiscerning consumers of music; we feed off an industry which discourages innovation by diluting music into a kind of manufactured commodity; we would choose mainstream pop tunes over Monáe’s afro-futuristic jives any day; we would opt for what is familiar.

But, as with any art form, what is the point in sticking to the ordinary?