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titirangivillagedental · 11 months

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How Dentists Efficiently Fix a Cracked Tooth?

Cracking a tooth can be a painful and alarming experience. Whether it's from a sports injury, biting into something hard, or simply the result of wear and tear over time, a cracked tooth needs immediate attention. Thankfully, skilled dentists have the knowledge and tools to fix a cracked tooth and restore your smile efficiently.

In this blog post, we will explore the process of how affordable dentist West Auckland handle cracked teeth, from diagnosis to treatment options, ensuring a quick and effective solution to your dental woes.

Diagnosing a Cracked Tooth

The first step in efficiently fixing a cracked tooth is diagnosing the problem. When you visit your dentist with concerns about a cracked tooth, they will carefully examine your mouth, looking for any visible cracks or signs of damage. In some cases, cracks may be invisible to the naked eye and require further examination. Your dentist may use a dental explorer, X-rays, or other diagnostic tools to identify the location and extent of the crack. Once the crack is assessed, your dentist can determine the appropriate treatment plan.

Treatment Options for Cracked Teeth

The treatment options for a cracked tooth depend on the severity and location of the crack. Here are some common methods used by dentists to efficiently fix cracked teeth:

Dental Bonding

For minor cracks or chips, dental bonding is often the go-to solution. Using a tooth-coloured resin, your dentist West Auckland will carefully apply and shape the material to bond it onto the cracked tooth. Once the resin is hardened using a special light, it blends seamlessly with your natural tooth, restoring its appearance and strength. Dental bonding is a quick and painless procedure that can be completed in just one visit to the dentist.

Dental Crowns

In cases where the crack is more severe or extensive, a dental crown may be recommended. A dental crown is a custom-made, tooth-shaped cap that is placed over the cracked tooth to provide protection and support. It not only restores the tooth's function but also improves its appearance. Your dentist will take impressions of your teeth to create a custom crown that fits perfectly. The damaged portion of the tooth is then prepared, and the crown is cemented into place, providing a strong and durable solution.

Root Canal Therapy

If the crack extends into the root of the tooth, it may require root canal therapy. This procedure involves removing the infected or damaged pulp from the tooth and filling it with a biocompatible material. Root canal therapy not only fixes the crack but also alleviates any accompanying pain or infection. After the root canal is completed, your dentist may recommend a dental crown to protect the weakened tooth structure.

Tooth Extraction and Replacement

In rare cases where the crack is extensive and the tooth cannot be saved, your dentist may recommend tooth extraction. This is typically the last resort when all other treatment options have been exhausted. After the tooth is extracted, your dentist will discuss replacement options, such as dental implants, bridges, or dentures, depending on your individual needs.

The Importance of Prompt Treatment

It's crucial to seek immediate treatment for a cracked tooth, as postponing or ignoring the issue can lead to further complications. If left untreated, a cracked tooth can cause pain, sensitivity, infection, and even tooth loss. By visiting your dentist at the earliest signs of a crack, you can prevent further damage and ensure a more efficient and successful repair.

Maintaining Dental Health

Preventing cracked teeth in the first place is always better than having to fix them. Taking good care of your dental health can reduce your risk of experiencing cracks. Some tips to keep your teeth healthy and strong include:

Avoid biting down on hard objects, such as ice, pens, or unpopped popcorn kernels.

Wear a mouthguard when participating in contact sports.

Maintain a good oral hygiene routine, including brushing twice daily, flossing daily, and visiting your dentist regularly for check-ups and cleanings.

By following these preventative measures, you can minimise the chances of cracking a tooth and keep your smile healthy and intact.

Conclusion

When it comes to fixing a cracked tooth efficiently, putting your trust in a skilled and experienced dentist is paramount. Dentists are well-versed in the latest techniques and technologies, ensuring that you receive the most effective and efficient treatment for your cracked tooth. Remember, your dentist is your partner in dental health, guiding you through the process and ensuring your comfort and satisfaction.

So, if you find yourself with a cracked tooth, don't delay. Reach out to your dentist West Auckland as soon as possible to schedule an appointment. With their expertise and the range of treatment options available, they will efficiently repair your cracked tooth, restoring your smile and providing you with optimal oral health once again.

Source: How Dentists Efficiently Fix a Cracked Tooth?

#affordable dentist

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floorsandingandpolishingmelbourn · 11 months

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How Dentists Efficiently Fix a Cracked Tooth?

Diagnosing a Cracked Tooth

Treatment Options for Cracked Teeth

The treatment options for a cracked tooth depend on the severity and location of the crack. Here are some common methods used by dentists to efficiently fix cracked teeth:

Dental Bonding

Dental Crowns

Root Canal Therapy

Tooth Extraction and Replacement

The Importance of Prompt Treatment

Maintaining Dental Health

Avoid biting down on hard objects, such as ice, pens, or unpopped popcorn kernels.

Wear a mouthguard when participating in contact sports.

Maintain a good oral hygiene routine, including brushing twice daily, flossing daily, and visiting your dentist regularly for check-ups and cleanings.

By following these preventative measures, you can minimise the chances of cracking a tooth and keep your smile healthy and intact.

Conclusion

Source: How Dentists Efficiently Fix a Cracked Tooth?

#affordable dentist

0 notes

chapelparkd · 2 years

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Typical Cosmetic Dental Procedures and Their Perks

If you want a beautiful, sparkling- in a nutshell, the smile of your dreams, seeing a cosmetic dentist is the best course of action. Cosmetic dentists in Auckland don’t only render services that can act as corrective treatments for dental aesthetics; they also explain why these procedures are imperative.

Wondering when you should see a cosmetic dentist?

If your teeth and gums are healthy but you have cosmetic concerns, choose cosmetic dentistry in Auckland to enhance the beauty of your smile. A professional cosmetic dentist can offer extensive services ranging from professional teeth whitening and dental veneers to porcelain crowns, tooth replacement with dental implants, Invisalign teeth straightening procedures, and more.

To simplify, here’s a breakdown of the most common dental procedures and why you might need them!

#1 Tooth Bleaching

If you want a procedure that can quickly change your smile, tooth bleaching is the way. The procedure is excellent for people who don’t need anything more than a bit of brightening or for people who don’t want to make a massive commitment. In addition, it is one of the most cost-effective options that can leave your teeth bright and beautiful in one dental visit.

#2 Dental Veneers

Veneers are known to have the gold standard in cosmetic dental procedures. They are ideal for patients with dark staining that doesn’t go away with bleaching or fractured and chipped front teeth. Dental veneers are primarily thin porcelain shells fitting over the surface of the teeth. In implanting the veneers, the enamel of the tooth is filed gently, and an impression is taken. Then the impression is sent to a dental lab, and you get your custom set of veneers until the permanent ones reach you from the lab.

#3 Enamel Bonding

Enamel Bonding is a brilliant procedure for patients who have chipped or badly stained teeth. In the process, there is a composite bonding material that is the same for white dental fillings. Plus, the material is moldable, so your dentist can shape the material into any beautiful, ideal shape you want.

#4 Enamel Abrasion

Another cosmetic dentistry process is to remove discolouration. In enamel abrasion, cosmetic dentists use fine pumice in a micro-abrasion machine to eliminate surface stains. The process can remove superficial stains from wine, tobacco products, soda, and coffee. However, enamel abrasion isn’t much effective for intrinsic stains.

#5 Invisalign Braces

Braces aren’t just for kids; they are also for adults who want to get the smile they have always wanted. Invisalign braces are a fantastic way for adults as they are nearly invisible. No one can tell if you are wearing them, and these braces can help you to correct misalignments leading to pain, such as chronic headaches.

Conclusion

If you have overall excellent oral health but are concerned about one or more cosmetic issues, such as slightly crooked or stained teeth, cosmetic dentistry can help you to make dramatic improvements to the appearance of your teeth. So whether you want to completely re-do your smile with bonding and veneers or want a brighter, whiter smile, a cosmetic dentist in Auckland can help you with cosmetic procedures that best fit your needs.

#cosmetic dentist

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cocozoo · 2 years

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cushioning against the dark: a hologram

materials used: clear polystyrene from CD cases, tape

after experimenting with angles in order to direct light in my previous paper lantern model, i then thought about how it reminded me of a mini hologram that i had once seen at a school science fair. through some searching, i managed to find the hologram tutorial by Mrwhosetheboss that taught me how to make one myself.

making the hologram branched out my design thinking into avenues of creating an “atmosphere” with light as opposed to the initial intention of it just being a temporary guide for the user.

i then thought back to how the lanterns at the Chinese lantern festival made me feel safe and comforted not just by the light itself but by the large scale in which the light filled the space.

the Northern lights and the lit cabin in the middle of a snowy, monochrome setting are both examples of an impactful atmosphere created by light. with the hologram model, i hoped to achieve the same effect and accentuate the feeling of comfort i wish to bring to the users by making the light 3D, more realistic and more relatable.

...

pros:

- 3D light making the users feel like they are almost getting physical comfort from the light

- the light is stronger/more visible than the light reflected from paper lantern

- the transparent polystyrene material gives the model a high-tech and almost invisible quality. thus, making the 3D light/object feel more real and believable to the user

cons:

- sadly, it wasn’t me who created this method of making a hologram so i’ll have to think of other ways to form the same “atmospheric effect”

...

Sources:

https://youtu.be/7YWTtCsvgvg

https://youtu.be/Y60mfBvXCj8

Image sources:

https://www.diyphotography.net/island-hotel-wants-your-aurora-photos-in-exchange-for-a-free-months-stay/

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/lantern-festival-ready-to-light-up-auckland-domain-to-celebrate-year-of-the-rooster/KH4ISGT2VKBJQMD3GNURG4WR7I/

https://www.alamy.com/wooden-hut-on-the-lawn-covered-with-snow-the-lamps-light-up-the-house-at-the-evening-time-winter-landscape-mystical-night-mountains-and-forests-w-image437547215.html

#modelmaking #hologram

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the-voltage-diaries · 4 years

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Pulcherrima Rosa Me - Taki Kozaki

‘Pulcherrima rosa me’: Latin for ‘My beautiful rose’.

Disclaimer: Office AU, Hanahaki AU. Now, since it’s Hanahaki, of course it will be angsty. So, time to fasten those seat belts and sit tight.

Word Count: 2225

Author’s note: My first open-ended fic, lmao. Originally was supposed to have smut, but things changed here and there, so you see.

P.S.: Special thanks to @akaiiro-yume for being my proofreader and amazing fangirl buddy

14 years.

That’s how long they had known each other.

To be precise, that’s the number of years they had been the closest of friends.

Never more, never less.

Just two individuals who over time had, step by step, closed in on the gap separating them, narrowing it so much that barely any space remained. They became so used to being around each other that the thought of sharing the tales of their daily life, no matter how embarrassing, bitching and moaning about work and clients, laughing together without bothering to care about how weird they looked seemed like the definition of normal. But that’s the thing ; no matter how closely their paths collided, an invisible line always kept their journeys divided. Most people called that line “friendship”. Taki and (Y/N) had never been anything more than friends.

They never knew how to be anything BUT friends.

So then why was she the only person on Taki’s mind while his eyes shut to bear the pain of throwing up while he hunched over the sink, coughing up a handful of what looked redder than blood, albeit was anything but?

“I want this done by the morning,” Taki told the finance head, handing him the proposal for the project they were planning to bid for. “And when I say morning, I mean I’d like to see it on my table by the time I walk in. Is that alright?”

“Yes, sir,” the man responded, picking up the papers and giving him a quick bow before making his way out, muttering a quiet ‘good night,’ to which the CEO gave him a nod of his own.

Taki then turned in his chair and peeked through the thick glass wall of his cabin in search of his secretary. Once his eyes landed on the familiar raven up-do, his lips, though very quietly and only for a moment, lined up in a hint of a small smile.

There she sat on her table, her eyes focused on her laptop screen while her fingers typed away at the keyboard, not noticing the gaze a pair of dark brown eyes fixated on her.

Instead of calling her immediately to discuss the day’s schedule with her, Taki took a moment to admire the woman who had been at his side for the last two years, professionally speaking. For, beyond the walls of the office, he had known her for more than half of his life.

His eyes made their way across her form; slowly drinking in the way she every so often took a moment to stretch her back, roll her shoulders and her neck before getting back to the task at hand, how one of her delicate fingers came up to push a strand of hair behind the perfect curve of her ear, how she bit her lip in concentration every time she worked against time. God, was she beautifu-

The clang of a pen rolling across the table and falling to the floor startled him back to reality, and he shook his head, rolling his eyes at his carelessness before bending down to pick up the pen.

“(Y/N)!” He called, turning back to his laptop and opening up his schedule. He heard the familiar click-clack of her heels and soon enough, the door opened with a low creak. Taki didn’t even need to look up from the screen to know she was here. “Do we have anything else on the agenda for the day?”

“Yes, actually.”

‘We do?’ Taki thought to himself, his eyes giving his schedule a once-over. He didn’t see anything else on it that needed to be done today, so what was (Y/N) talking abo-

“You have a meeting with the board at 9 AM, then a site visit scheduled at 10 AM, a business call with the head of the Ichinomiya Group at 12 PM regarding the construction of their new hotel in Auckland, another site visit for at a different location at 1 PM, and th-”

“Wait a second, why don’t I see all of this anywhere on my schedule?”

“Because you’re viewing the schedule for 3rd November.”

“Yes, and as far as I remember, today IS 3rd November.”

“No, sir,” (Y/N) said, and it was then that Taki looked up to see the smirk on her face, “I’m pretty sure it’s the 4th today.”

He took a quick glance at his watch and saw that the smaller of the two hands had passed the 12 o’ clock mark, and it was, in fact, 12:30 AM. Which meant that it was, in fact, 4th November.

It also meant that they had worked beyond the designated office hours for the fourth straight day in a row.

“I’m sorry for making you work over time again,” Taki muttered, pursing his lips.

“Nah, that’s okay,” (Y/N) shrugged, sending him a playful wink, “Apart from that cute little pout, you’re paying me for it. Rather handsomely, too, so I’m chill.”

“Firstly, I’m NOT pouting,” Taki muttered, rolling his eyes when he heard his secretary whisper the word ‘denial’, “And secondly, Ms. (L/N), is that how you’ll be talking to your boss now?” He smirked. He would be straight up lying if he said he didn’t enjoy this amused change in the atmosphere. In fact, he welcomed it after the long day he’d had.

“Mr. Boss,” she immediately responded, stretching out the word ‘boss’, to which Taki couldn’t help but scoff, “The office hours are over. I’m under no obligation to kiss your ass anymore.”

And oh, he tried.

He tried so hard to stop that laugh from escaping when (Y/N) made a kissy face at him, but alas, he lost and let it erupt with a low rumble from deep within his chest when she lifted two tiny finger hearts to go along with the flying kisses.

And you know what they say, laughter is contagious. Soon enough, (Y/N) too joined Taki in his wonderland of chuckles, and it wasn’t long before they both laughed so much that their stomachs hurt because each time they’d try to stop, all it’d take is one glance at each other’s faces to lose their shit again.

“Pfft,” (Y/N) scoffed, trying to come down from the rush of euphoria she’d just had, “You should be thanking your lucky stars for having the privilege to get as fun a secretary as me. You have NO idea how lucky you are, I tell you.”

‘I agree,’ Taki thought as he took a moment to calm down, letting a rush of air fill his lungs as he took a deep breath in. He relaxed into his chair and glanced back at the magnificent woman standing before him, truly thankful to have her close by. But as soon as he adoringly grabbed on to the memory of the laugh they’d just shared, another sensation latched on to him, stopping him from thinking any deeper by dragging his attention to the ache building up deep within his chest.

Taki paused, shifting uncomfortably at the unfamiliar sensation. All remnants of humor left him at the way something seemingly gripped at the base of his lungs, squeezing hard. He felt like he couldn’t breathe for a moment, and his discomfort only grew with each passing second as a painful cough arose in his throat, blocking off any passage for air.

“Argh,” he groaned, his fingers pressing at the space between his collarbones, trying to massage the area into creating some sort of a path through the dark fog building up in his throat, so unforgiving that he almost saw black for a moment.

“Taki?” (Y/N) called his name, all her remaining laughter immediately dying down the moment her gaze washed over him. “A-are you okay?”

And just like that, as quickly had the discomfort come, it died down.

It vanished into a thin breeze, leaving Taki gasping for some much needed mouthfuls of air.

“Y-yeah,” Taki responded, still in a daze. He had no idea what just happened, and it seemed so surreal that he almost brushed it off as a hallucination, but the concern in (Y/N)’s eyes told him whatever transpired wasn’t just a figment of his imagination. He took a moment to compose himself, before following up with a much more self-assured “Yes, I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

“But I feel fine.”

“... Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“Are you like, sure sure?”

“No, actually.” He looked up at her, an amused grin floating on his face. “I’m not sure sure that I’m fine.”

“See? I KNEW you weren’t okay. Should I call for a doc-”

“You’ve got it all wrong,” he interrupted, stopping her halfway on her mini-panic spree, “I’m sure-sure sure I’m fine.”

“… You’re a jerk, you know that?” (Y/N) huffed, sending a scowl in Taki’s direction. “One of these days I’m gonna stab you with- with…” her eyes quickly scanned the room, looking for an appropriate object to finish her statement with while Taki tried to control his smirk from spreading any wider, “… with a sticky note.”

“A what?”

… well, it was too late to go back on words. So, grumbling under her breath, (Y/N) repeated, “With a… sticky note.”

“Pfft.”

“Mr. Kozaki.” (Y/N) narrowed her eyes at the man, giving him her least scary glare, “did you just ‘pfft’ me?”

“Yes,” he replied confidently, placing his forearms on the table top, “Yes I did.”

“Watch your back. I really will throw the sticky note at this rate.” (Y/N) turned around, her fingers grasping the doorknob, “… and soon.”

Taki watched her step out of his cabin, an amused twinkle in her eye. “Gee, I’m so scared,” he muttered, mostly to himself, before shaking his head at their childishness and turning back to the work at hand.

But even as his eyes swam across the screen, processing the words and formulating appropriate responses, the back of his mind couldn’t let go of the strange inquisitiveness that poked at it, seeking answers to just one question.

What was that fleeting, deadly little coughing fit all about?

He got so focused on his work that he didn’t notice the diligent finance head step into his cabin again only 30 minutes later, quietly keeping the finished proposal on the glass table before walking out just as quietly, so as not to disturb his concentration. He didn’t notice the same guy stopping by (Y/N)’s table, offering her a steaming mug of coffee and giving her the gentlest of smiles while offering to help if needed. He didn’t notice any of it until he heard the pleasant sound of her laugh, passing through the gaps in the glass walls before bouncing off of them on the inside, creating the most melodious of echos.

His eyes left the screen for a quick second to focus on the scene outside, and what he saw made a strange anxiety rise up within him like tiniest of dew vaporizing and stretching its fingers to reaching out to the sky - slowly rising up from the depths of his stomach, travelling up to his chest and finally solidifying just beneath his lips.

Right in front of him stood (Y/N), her fingers clutching an arm that didn’t belong to Taki, her lips turning up into the brightest of curves, shining so bright one would almost go blind, as she laughed along with the damned finance head about something or the other.

And that’s when Taki felt like the (Y/N) who had been standing just within an arm’s reach this whole time was about to slip away from his very fingers, and the feeling that he wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop it pricked at him, rendering him in a state of confused speechlessness.

‘Wait. Shouldn’t I feel happy for her, considering she’s finally seeing a guy?’ he thought, taking a deep breath. ‘Yeah. It’s a good thing. But then… what is this insecurity I’m feeling right now?’

The answer to that question seemed only a heartbeat away, and the moment he reached out to grasp it, his body jerked backwards, falling onto his chair while his breathing quickened. The somewhat familiar feeling of his throat being clawed at came back to him - much stronger this time. It all happened quick; his brow furrowed into a deeper crease as moisture pricked at the back of his eyes, his world going back for a moment. Taki’s mouth leaped to suck in a croaked breath - which sounded more like a painful gasp at this point - while his fingers gripped at the collar of his shirt, looking for any way to free him of the sudden pain growling in his chest. He felt a powerful cough coming, preceded by short, painful ones.

“Ah,” he let out a breathy moan, the tears finally making their way to the front of his eyes, followed by a few more. With him standing on the thin line separating sanity from delirium, his body lurched forward, finally finding solace in the way his throat forced out tiny balls of red while the moisture building behind his eyelids finally broke apart to slide down his cheek in one, straight line. The second his gullet felt free again, his body shook with need as he gulped in mouthfuls of air.

Once the dark haze clouding his mind finally started to part, he turned his eyes to look at the red chunk his trachea had shoved out. His eyes widened when his fingertips came in contact with the soft, silky skin of the petals - redder than the darkest of rubies.

The petals of the one flower which finally made him piece together his feelings for the woman standing beyond the see-through walls of his cabin.

… Remember how he wanted to know what his coughing fit was all about?

A rose.

Well… guess it’s about time he found out.

#my little crumbcake~#Taki Kozaki #Kings of Paradise #KoP #Voltage Inc #Otome Romance #Love 365 #Love 365: Find Your Story #Kings of Paradise Taki #KoP taki #Kings of paradise fanfic #kop fanfic #taki kozaki fanfic

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amourspointillesblog · 5 years

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**Alban Manager**

Avez-vous déjà vécu un gros coup de cœur ? pas physiquement, mais psychiquement ? Je m’explique… En général, tu craques aux premiers abords sur le physique d’une personne, sans trop la connaitre. Puis ensuite, au-delà du physique, viens l’aspect mental, la personnalité : soit cela clique encore plus, soit ton coup de cœur se désagrège : pouf ! Finito !

Et bien là, c’est tout l’inverse…

Ma première rencontre avec Alban, fut une suite de pur hasard. Rien ne laissait présager que lui et moi allions vivre quelque chose. Absolument rien. Et pourtant…

Cela faisait déjà 3 mois que j’avais immigré en Nouvelle-Zélande sur un coup de tête, pour changer de vie, oublier, effacer la routine qui me collait à la peau. J’avais besoin de me refaire un compte en banque, qui avait fondu comme neige au soleil durant ces 3 premiers mois. Trip, alcool, sorties, niaiseries. J’avais vécu la grande vie, mais comme toute bonnes choses, il y avait une fin. Et cette fin était mon cash-flow.

Je me mis donc à la recherche d’un job, dans un pays étranger, dont je n’arrivais nullement à baragouiner 2 mots dans la langue de celui-ci. On partait de loin, croyez-moi !

J’aime à dire que je possède une bonne étoile qui ne m’a jamais laissé tomber. Et pour cause.

Au bout de 7 jours de ‘’recherches’’, un de mes amis me propose de sortir décompresser. On passe de bars en bars, on danse, on picole, on vit ! Il s’éclipse pour aller saluer un ami dans un établissement de l’autre bord du viaduc. Au bout d’une heure, je décide de le rejoindre. J’en ai marre d’attendre !

Ma non-patience, me fera rencontrer l’un de mes sauveurs de voyage, qui prendra le rôle de grand frère à bien des égards lors de ma vie Néo-Zélandaise : Dadou.

Dadou est manager d’un bar Russe, sur la Marina. Il est français, vit en NZ depuis déjà 5 ans. Je ne sais pas s’il a eu pitié de moi ce soir-là, je ne sais pas s’il a voulu faire le bon samaritain, je ne sais pas ce qui l’a poussé à me tendre la main dont j’avais besoin: peut-être une sorte de patriotisme ? En tout cas, il m’offrit un job de serveuse dans son établissement… Je commençais 2 jours plus tard.

Le premier soir de travail, après 4 heures de services intense, Dadou vient me chercher et m’annonce que tout est beau : j’ai le job ! Du même coup, il me dit, une fois que j’aurai fini de me changer, de le rejoindre sur la terrasse du bar : il a des gens à me présenter. Ni une, ni deux, avec la joie et le soulagement au ventre, je m’exécute et le retrouve.

En arrivant autour de la table, Dadou m’agrippe et m’annonce à tout ce beau monde…

- Yo les gens, je vous présente Marine. Elle est française, elle est arrivée il y a 3 mois et il se trouve que c’est ma nouvelle ‘’runneuse’’ ! Elle a commencé ce soir. Je pense qu’elle a besoin d’un bon remontant ! je vous la confie, faites-lui faire la tournée des grands ducs !

- Hello Marine! Welcome to Auckland! Let me introduce myself please! Are you speaking in English a bit? or not at all? me demande une fille, au sourire ravageur.

- Hum! really a little, sorry, I need to improve…

- Oh ! Ok t’inquiètes pas ma belle ! on parle pas mal tous français autour de la table. Moi c’est Ludivine ! Je te présente Alban, et ‘’machin’’ et ‘’machin’’…

Oui, j’ai occulté les autres noms j’avoue. Car ces personnes-là, je ne les ai jamais revues ! Par contre Ludivine et Alban, c’est une autre histoire.

- On travaille au ‘’Pastis’’ restaurant sur Victoria, reprend Ludivine, tu connais ?

- Non, désolé, je reviens tout juste de l’île du Sud, je n’ai malheureusement pas encore tout visité ou fait sur Auckland, c’est quel genre de place ?

- C’est un resto typique ‘’café français’’, ce n’est pas donné, mais bon… faudra venir nous voir, c’est vraiment cool comme place ! Puis cela rappelle le pays !

- Avec plaisir, je n’y manquerais pas, promis !

- On va bouger dans un autre bar, tu viens avec nous ?!

- Je ne pense pas, c’est gentil de proposer mais j’avoue que Dadou ne m’a pas fait de cadeau ce soir, je suis claquée !

- Bouh bouh bouh ! cria Ludivine, pas de cela avec nous, il n’est que 3h30 du matin, c’est que le début de la soirée ! allez let’s go guys ! We move !

Sans crier-gare, je me suis retrouvé dans un guet-apens, et pas des moindres !

J’ai été l’invitée de cette joyeuse troupe. Je me suis fait rincée TOUTE la nuit. Je n’ai même pas eu le droit de payer ma tournée… NON ! Sacrilège ! Tu arrives, tu viens de finir de travailler, on t’invite ! Ça fait plaisir ! Laisse-toi aller !

Je trouvais cela complètement fou…Ce n’est pas en France que les gens feraient ce genre de choses, on va se le dire !

Cette nuit-là, je suis rentrée à 8h du matin…crevée…éreintée…saoule mais HEUREUSE ET LÉGÈRE. J’étais vivante de liberté, et cela n’a pas de prix. Et j’avais fait la rencontre de deux personnes qui allaient devenir de très proches amis.

Les semaines défilaient. A chaque fin de services, Dadou me ramenait en voiture à mon auberge de jeunesse directement. Sauf ce soir-là…

- Bon ma belle ! J’ai le goût d’un verre ! Tu veux venir avec moi, je vais au Pastis ! on va passer voir les fous ! puis après je peux te redéposer chez toi. Ok ?

- Ok! Je ne suis pas fatiguée, j’ai le goût d’un verre moi aussi. On y va !

Nous voici donc devant le fameux Pastis Restaurant. Je compris alors les mots de Ludivine : ‘’Café Bistro’’ à la française… on ne pouvait pas faire plus dans le cliché !

Nappes vichy rouge, Édith Piaf en fond sonore, un accordéon dans le coin de la porte, des bouteilles en verre vides d’Évian en guise de vase…et le Ricard qui trônait fièrement sur les étagères du bar.

Il y avait plusieurs personnes ce soir-là. Je compris très vite que c’était un rituel, un point de rendez-vous, pour les gens qui travaillaient en restauration- bar, de se retrouver à cette place pour profiter du ‘’début’’ de la soirée. Je dis début, car quand tu rentres dans le monde de la nuit et du service de bouche… le jour et le soleil, tu l’oublies ! En général, ta journée de travail commence à 17h, jusqu’à minuit, une heure du matin. Donc si tu as envie d’avoir une vie ‘’sociale’’, ce sera durant la nuit ! Et qui dit nuit, dit débauche, dit bar, dit sorties, dit beuveries, dit mal au crâne le lendemain, à l’heure où la plupart des gens normaux, eux, partent à leur occupation professionnelle.

Ce fut l’introduction à mon nouveau monde, et j’en appréciais tous les aspects. Le monde de la nuit allait devenir mon obsession, ma passion, mon point faible. Ce soir-là inscrivait dans mon ADN, le souffle chaud et dangereux de la tentation et de la déchéance. Il inscrivait aussi ma ‘’vraie’’ première rencontre avec lui : Alban.

Table ronde, terrasse, bières qui s’enchaînent les unes après les autres, paquet de clopes qui tourne de mains en mains, effluves de weed dans les airs, discussions qui prennent place.

J’observe, enivrée, les échanges percutants entre Dadou et Alban. Ce mec a un truc, je ne sais pas comment le définir. Je suis envoutée par son aura, clairement. Il a une voix rauque, et du bagout comme on dit par chez nous. Il ne parle pas, il s’impose. Il n’est pas très grand, pas très fort, le cheveu brun, le regard noir perçant. Il se dégage une assurance de ce mec, c’est fou. Je ne le trouve pas ‘’beau’’, dans le sens Apollon des magazines. Je dirais que je le trouve intrigant, il a ‘’de la gueule’’ et c’est attirant. Cette espèce de force invisible qu’il émane, me fait quelque chose. Et son regard croisant le mien, me fait perdre mes moyens, je le ressens au fond de moi : problème, pour mon esprit et mon cœur.

Après cette rencontre déstabilisante, je passe aux cribles tout ce dont je me rappelle d’Alban durant cette soirée. Plus j’y repense, plus cela m’obsède. Je dois le revoir, je dois lui reparler, je dois creuser. Pourquoi je ressens cette attirance ?

Je décide donc, à chaque fin de mes services, de monter rejoindre l’équipe du Pastis. D’une part, pour voir Alban, d’autre part pour assouvir mon addiction à la vie nocturne. J’aime être enivrée, j’aime tester mes limites, je veux aller au bout de quelque chose, je veux m’oublier, je veux rattraper le temps perdu, je veux me désinhiber et vivre de nouvelles choses. L’alcool devient mon meilleur allié, pour mettre au trou l’ancienne Marine trop ‘’propre’’ et trop ‘’bien rangée’’. Je me découvre une personnalité endiablée, je déterre le mal endormi au fond de moi. Je découvre mon Modjo en leur compagnie, ils deviennent mes professeurs…

J’allume, je drague, je flirte, je choque, et je m’en balance ! Je m’assume, je me sens libre, je me sens belle et féminine.

Je charme, aisément, simplement, et je m’en délecte. Le monde de la nuit m’a prise dans ses filets, pour de bon, et je suis entourée de gens qui s’en réjouissent avec moi.

Alban, le premier… je deviens une de ses favorites acolytes pour l’enivrance. Il me paie tous mes caprices, tous mes besoins, tous mes verres, pour combler ma frénésie libératrice, et cela lui permet de mettre entre parenthèse son sentiment de solitude.

On parle beaucoup, lui et moi. On aime se taquiner, on aime chacun avoir le dernier mot dans nos débats houleux. On s’observe. On s’apprivoise. Il devient une de mes nouvelles obsessions, mais reste intouchable.

Durant les 3 mois qui s’ensuivirent, il ne se passa rien de physique entre nous deux. Chacun a vaqué à ses ‘’occupations intimes’’ avec d’autres, durant nos heures de jours… mais la nuit nous appartenait, elle était nôtre.

Mon heure de premier départ approchait. Je devais quitter pour une coupe de mois la NZ, sans vraiment savoir si j’allais pouvoir revenir.

Ce fut l’heure des adieux, au cas où…

Le bar ou je travaillais organisait une soirée ‘’Full Moon’’. Je devais rejoindre mes amis et collègues pour une ultime soirée de débauche. Mais avant de m’y rendre, j’ai décidé de faire un premier stop au Pastis, bien entendu. Il n’a pas fallu beaucoup insister pour convaincre toute la troupe de me suivre à cette soirée, qui demeure des plus floues dans ma tête…Des flashs me sont revenus au fur et à mesure. La soirée Full Moon, demeure la soirée de mon premier Black-out. Avez-vous déjà fait cette expérience ? Non ? Grand bien vous en fasse croyez-moi ! C’est la pire des sensations que j’ai pu tester dans ma vie.

Te réveiller, sans savoir où tu es, sans savoir comment tu es rentrée, sans te rappeler la moindre chose d’une bonne partie de ta soirée. C’est juste ignoble et angoissant à souhait. Vous allez comprendre pourquoi…

Comme je le citais plus haut, ma soirée débuta au comptoir du Pastis. Alban étant aux commandes du bar, il fut aisé de faire passer mon taux d’alcool de 0 à élevé en un claquement de doigt, et plusieurs battements de cils j’avoue. J’attendis la fin du service, et continua sur ma lancée avec le staff. Shooter après shooter, le nettoyage et la fermeture de caisse faites, nous nous dirigeâmes vers le Viaduc, repères de tous nos vices.

Je n’avais nullement prémédité la suite des évènements.

Ce soir-là, ma soif n’avait aucune limite. J’enchainais verres après verres, tel un puits sans fond, mais le chemin que je décidai de prendre, trouva sa faille, sa falaise, son point de non-retour. Je fêtai mon départ, mais aussi en quelque sorte l’enterrement de cette personnalité diabolique que j’avais développée. Je savais qu’une fois revenue en France, je devrais la ranger bien sagement au fond de ma valise, et ne surtout pas la ressortir de sitôt. L’envie incommensurable de vivre une dernière fois avec mon double maléfique, me fit perdre pied en un claquement de doigt. Mon cerveau, mon esprit, mon moi cérébral, me quitta, d’un coup, sans prévenir. Comme si on éteignait la lumière pour aller se coucher. Paf ! Plus rien, silence radio, le noir complet dans ma tête…

******

Lueur de néons qui vacille, paf…

Porte des toilettes qui se ferme, paf…

Rires au bar avec Dadou, paf…

Danse langoureuse avec Alban, paf…

Baiser à pleine bouche avec Alban, paf…

Mains d’Alban sous mon T-shirt, paf…

Excitation dans ma tête, paf…

Bouffée de weed sortant de mes narines…paf

Shooter de Jager Meister, paf…

Montée dans un taxi, paf…

Porte d’ascenseurs qui se ferment, paf…

Chaleur étouffante d’un appartement, paf…

Échanges de baiser, enlèvement de mon t-shirt, paf…paf…paf…paf… NOIR TOTAL, paf….

Voilà ce que je me rappelle, de cette nuit…

Le lendemain matin, j’ouvres péniblement les yeux, le mascara colle à mes cils, j’ai la tête comme une enclume. Petit à petit, je distingue le plafond.

Fuck…ce n’est pas le mien…

Je baisse mon regard, je suis dans des draps inconnus…

Double Fuck…

Je lève le drap et OH MON DIEU SEIGNEUR JÉSUS !!! Je suis nue !!!!! J’ai un relent d’alcool qui me brûle la trachée. Putain j’ai envie de vomir. Je n’ose pas bouger, car je sens que je ne suis pas seule à avoir dormi dans ses draps, et que l’Autre est là…à côté…

Je tourne délicatement la tête en espérant ne pas le réveiller.

Je distingue juste une touffe de cheveu dépassant des draps, et cette chose ronfle…putain de bordel de merde Marine, mais t’es où !

Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé ! J’ai le goût de pleurer, j’ai le goût de me gifler, j’ai le goût de mourir.

J’arrive à m’extirper doucement de ce cauchemar. Rattrape au passage mes affaires qui gisent au sol. Je m’enferme dans la salle de bain. Je prends peur quand je vois mon visage dans le miroir. J’ai le mascara qui a coulé sur mes joues, j’ai de la peinture jaune fluo sur tout le visage. Putain de soirée Full Moon…j’ai l’air de Pikachu, mais un Pikachu essoufflé à l’aube de tirer sa révérence: beau portrait, avec mes cheveux tout en bataille. Pour le sex-appeal on repassera.

Arrive le moment de remise en question de tes choix débiles et stupides...comme des petits coups de poignard s’enfonçant dans ta culpabilité, dont la lame va et vient en faisant des rotations lentes. Puis, l’instinct de survie : comment sortir d’ici ? est ce que j’ai de la batterie sur mon cell, je dois me laver le visage, est-ce que ce sèche-cheveux pourrait me servir d’arme de défense au cas ou ? je me souviens de rien, ai-je eu une relation sexuelle ? je vais devoir aller à l’hôpital, ça se trouve on s’est même pas protégé, je vais mourir d’une maladie longue et lente, ou bien je vais finir enceinte dans un pays étranger avec un garçon étranger dont je ne parle que peu la langue ! t’es à 32 000 Km de ta famille en plus...seigneur...un café, il me faut un café...est-ce que si je me fais couler un café chez un inconnu dont je ne me rappelle rien, c’est too-much...

On frappe à la porte…mes pensées se stoppent...shit…je suis foutue…

- Marine ?? ça va ??

Je reconnais en un instant la voix rauque et imposante. ALBAN !

Désamorçage de la bombe à retardement qui venait de se mettre en route dans mon corps…et dans ma tête. J’ai remercié le ciel à voix basse, à genoux dans les toilettes, en promettant de ne plus JAMAIS me remettre dans ce genre de situation.

Je pris une grande respiration, et répondit :

- Alban ? oui ça va, enfin, si on peut dire cela, donnes moi 2 minutes s’il te plait, je ne vais pas tarder à sortir.

- Prends ton temps ma belle. Je voulais juste m’assurer que tout allait bien. Je vais nous faire du café.

A-t-il entendu mes pensées ? peut-être je parlai à voix haute...mais oui un café serait le bienvenu !

- Merci, t’es sweet. J’arrive.

Je sortis tout doucement de ma cachette de fortune, comme une enfant, qu’on venait de gronder et qui ne savait plus où se mettre.

Alban me tend ma tasse de café, avec un clin d’œil, et un sourire.

- Ça va ? pas trop mal au casque ?

- M’en parles pas, soufflais-je

- On s’est mis cher hier…

- Oui et encore tu pèses tes mots. Je vais être honnête, je ne me rappelle pas de grand-chose…je suis désolée de te demander cela aussi abruptement mais…on a fait quelque chose toi et moi ? je veux dire…enfin tu vois ce que je veux dire ?

Il se mit à rire.

- Oui je vois ce que tu veux dire ! il se racla la gorge.

- Ok, donc ??

- On a fait des choses, oui, mais pas ce que tu penses. Crois-moi.

- Peux-tu être plus explicite Alban ! Ne joue pas avec mes nerfs de bon matin !

- On n’a pas couché ensemble si c’est ça que tu veux savoir !

- Pourquoi je suis à poil alors ??

- Parce qu’on partait pour ce genre de fin de soirées ! Mais cela ne s’est pas déroulé vraiment comme prévu.

- ACCOUCHES !! BORDEL !!

- Woo on se calme Mademoiselle ! Bois ton café ! on se détend. Ne crie pas s’il te plait j’ai vraiment la gueule de bois….

- Excuse-moi, c’est vrai que de crier ne changera pas le mal-être que je ressens en ce moment ! mais tes explications si !!! What the fuck Alban ! qu’est ce qui s’est passé !

- Hahaha, calme tes nerfs, je te jure, ce n’est pas si dramatique que cela en a l’air, promis.

Il s’alluma une cigarette, et se mit à la fenêtre. Il prit une taffe, une gorgée de café, et me fixa, en souriant. J’avais le gout de l’étriper.

- On a dansé longtemps toi et moi, et on s’est pas mal embrassés…genre longtemps ! Ça commençait à devenir de plus en plus intime, alors tu m’as demandé si je ne voulais pas aller ailleurs.

- Vraiment ?...

- Ouais ! il s’esclaffa.

- Ok…continue…

- On est donc partis ensemble du bar, j’ai call un taxi, on est montés… et laisse-moi te dire que cette virée m’a coûté très chère puisque l’on ne se lâchai plus la bouche toi et moi, et que de ce fait, je n’ai pas fait attention au chemin que le taxi a emprunté ! En gros, on a mis genre 40 minutes à arriver chez moi au lieu de 10…haha.

- Tu n’es pas sérieux !

Je parti à rire à mon tour, car c’était scandaleux ! Et totalement risible on va se le dire !

- Non je ne déconne pas ! bref… on est arrivés, après un bon tour de la ville à destination. Prendre l’ascenseur n’a pas été des plus simple.

- J’ai un vague souvenir en effet…flou…j’avoue.

- Nous sommes finalement rentrés dans mon appartement. On a continué sur notre lancée de rapprochements intimes, jusqu'à ce que…

- Que quoi ? m’étouffai-je avec mon café.

- Que…il se remit à rire franchement.

- Alban ? …

- Jusqu'à ce que tu partes en courant vomir aux toilettes pendant pratiquement une demi-heure, et que je te retrouve endormie, sur la cuvette…

- Oh mon dieu…

Ma face se décomposa de honte. Je ne savais plus où me mettre, et l’image de moi, la tête dans la cuvette, avec ma peinture de guerrière jaune fluo sur tout le visage me laissa pantoise.

- Si je te jure ! C’était assez comique comme situation.

- Comique ? Pathétique plutôt!

- Non c’était drôle. J’ai donc réussi à te porter dans le lit, te coucher, j’ai mis un seau au cas ou à terre, et je me suis endormi à coté de toi en espérant que t’allais être correcte.

- T’as fait tout cela vraiment ? oh my…Alban… Merci du fond du cœur. Je suis sincèrement désolé. J’ai tellement honte. Dieu seul sait ce qui aurait pu se passer si cela n’avait pas été toi…

- T’as pas à avoir honte, on a tous eu une nuit comme cela dans nos vies. C’était avec moi, effectivement mais ne penses pas à ce qui aurait pu se passer car cela ne s’est pas produit…Tu verras que tu en rigoleras plus tard. Ce n’est pas la fin du monde. Tires en une leçon et ne refais pas la même erreur. En tout cas, moi cela m’a donné faim toute cette histoire, on se fait livrer quelque chose ?

- Oh oui mon cher ! j’en ai grandement besoin ! je t’invite ! je te dois au moins cela…

On passa notre journée ensemble, à manger, rire, regarder des films tels des enfants. Mémorables moments qui amorçaient une belle relation d’amitié entre Alban et moi pour un sacré bout de temps tout simplement…

La morale de tout cela me demanderez-vous…??

Le plus agréable dans une aventure sans lendemain, c’est qu’elle peut avoir un surlendemain.

#récit

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royaloakdental1 · 2 years

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ismartwebsystem · 4 years

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Ventilation System Auckland

The term ventilation system should be required to keep the indoors healthy as well as for supplying the fresh air. Therefore, the homeowners have to make sure whether the home is filled with fresh air without the involvement of any contaminations. The air circulated inside the home can build gases, moisture, dust, odors, and some other air pollutants.

The ventilation system must be needed for preventing the pollutants that mixed with the indoor air quality. Avail wide ranges of benefits offered by the ventilation system in your home. It can enhance the air tightness and make you to feel comfortable. Now you are going to see some of the reasons for installing the ventilation system.

Minimize The Asthma Symptoms

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lilahspatialdesign2020 · 4 years

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PRECEDENT RESEARCH

RELATED TO PACIFIC SISTERS PARTICULAR MODES OF PRACTICE, DISPLAY AND EXCHANGE

FAFSWAG:

Fafswag is an Auckland based collective of 10 celebrating queer pacific islander culture. They celebrate this through parties, events and some stunning video work. They are at the front line of fighting the moral restrictions on love, rigid gender binaries and political oppression. Besides all the crazy good times and impeccable style they are a group of artists working to navigate a particularly complex cultural landscape.

https://i-d.vice.com/en_au/article/59ga5d/fafswag-is-the-auckland-collective-celebrating-queer-pacific-islander-culture - A FAFSWAG family portrait. Image courtesy of the group.

Pacific Islander culture is unique in how it has historically both embraced and erased LGBTQ experiences. There is a widely recognised a third gender —sometimes called Fa'afafine, Fakaleiti, Fafine, Akavaine, Mahu or Takataapui — for individuals who are called male at birth, but raised as female. Sometimes people of this identity are celebrated, sometimes they're not. Either way, the transgender experience is a familiar part of Pacific Islander culture. Unfortunately, this doesn't extend to gay, lesbian or bisexual individuals. Being a L,G,B or Q is often still seen as a sin in a community where the church casts a long shadow. For many queer Pacific Islanders, the dichotomy makes it difficult to understand where they belong. That's where FAFSWAG comes in.

SOME ARTISTS:

Akashi Fisiinaua: Tāmaki Makaurau

AKASHI is an Indigenous Trans Political Artist of Tongan origin whose background is acting and dance – that uses the forms of vogue movements and chanting in her practice to empower indigenous queer/trans brown bodies into upholding themselves physically, financially and spiritually strong. Her medium is the B O D Y to communicate these ideas of self-sovereignty and not needing anyone to fill up your glass. Her work is always oozing in body politics, and the importance of CONTROL of your life.

Jermaine Dean: Tāmaki Makaurau

Jermaine Dean is a contemporary digital artist whose practice consists of photography and moving image. Ideas around gender identity, body politics, colour and surreal fantasy influences his visualconcepts which are all conveyed through pixel manipulation. Jermaine has been a member of FAFSWAG since 2012, and has exhibited work in Fresh Gallery Otara, ArtSpace and Auckland Pride Festival. He has collaborated with many indigenous artists within NZ and abroad.

Manu Vaea: Tāmaki Makaurau

Manu Vaea is an interdisciplinary artist currently completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts at AUT TeWananga Aronui o Tamaki Makau Rau. His practice revolves around the exploration of Polynesian mysticism, and the mundanity/complexity of existing as a queer Tongan living in South Auckland through poetry and illustration. Manu has been involved in many collaborative projects, one being 'Statuesque Anarchy' in Enjoy Public Art Gallery alongside collective WITCH BITCH and poetry devised theatre shows 'Loud and Queer' directed by Sarah Jansen and 'Mouth:Teeth:Tongue' directed by Grace Taylor. Vaea is also an active member of arts collective FAFSWAG and has been since 2016.

Moe Laga: Tāmaki Makaurau

Moe Laga-Fa’aofo is a Performance Artist from South Auckland, Whose practice includes movement and activation. Her works include a large number of stage and screen productions, as well as collaborative visual arts work that have been shown in Australia as well as the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China. Moe has a diploma from the Pacific institute of Performing Arts and recently completed her Bachelors in Creative Arts from the Manukau Institute of Technology.

Pati Solomona Tyrell: Tāmaki Makaurau

Pati Solomona Tyrell is an interdisciplinary visual artist with a strong focus on performance. Utilizing lens-based media he creates visual outcomes that are centered around ideas of urban Pacific queer identity. He has shown work at Fresh Gallery Otara, PAH Homestead, Museum of Contemporary Arts Australia and most recently at the Pingyao International Photography Festival. Tyrell is a co-founder of the arts collective FAFSWAG. He is a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Creative Arts programme at the Manukau Institute of Technology, Otara. Pati is originally from Kirikiriroa, Waikato but is now based in Maungarei, Tāmaki Makaurau.

Sione Monu: Tāmaki Makaurau

Sione Monu often uses Instagram (visit @sione93) as an art tool, constantly creating artworks that utilise the platform as a way of re-indigenising space as well as create accessibility for his community to engage with the works. His series of self portraits #BlanketCouture (2016) came to life due to a day of play but with only having access to the materials in his home. Although playful the use of blankets are on the artists’ body are striking and intimate is the artist challenges notions of representation and gender.

Tanu Gago: Tāmaki Makaurau

Tanu Gago is a visual artist and award winning photographer of Samoan heritage. Born in Samoa and raised in Mangere. Gago works as a new media artist with a portfolio of work that includes, staged portraiture, moving image and film. His practice is collaborative and imbedded within contemporary context that relates to cultural framing, decolonization, social politics, queer activism and gender and sexually diverse narratives. Gago is the cofounder and creative director of Pacific LGBT Arts Collective entitled FAFSWAG. Under Gago’s direction FAFSWAG have carved out credible cultural space within the contemporary arts scene within Auckland. The work achieved by this collective of artist spans over 5 years of producing art, activation, activism and visibility for a community traditionally marginalised socially and institutionally.

WITCH BITCH: Tāmaki Makaurau

WITCH BITCH came about through the constant talanoa had between the artist's regarding Polynesian spirituality and how they sit within it. This is further explored and manifested through the trio's activations. As such, WB’s pieces speak to their reclamation of space within the Vā. The contextual and metaphysical space that exist between all things. Their activations in turn serve as a vessel for the re-writing and imagining of queer Polynesian spiritual experiences. The trio's familiarity in regards to living in diaspora also works in tandem with this exploration of spirituality as a drive towards a cultural discovery of self.

Formed around a core team of artists, the collective works to create a queer space within the Islander identity and and call out restrictive cultural narratives. For the past four years they've done this through films, art, music and an epic annual voguing contest known as the FAFSWAG ball.

In an interview i-D spoke to member Tanu Gago about what it means to be an LGBTQ Pacific Islander, and how art and partying can make the world a much warmer place -

Before we talk about FAFSWAG, can we chat a bit about the Pacific Islander LGBTQ experience. ANSWER: It has remained largely invisible for a majority of our recorded cultural history; most of the text that states otherwise has been destroyed or augmented through the process of colonisation. The only remanence of any gender or sexual diversity has been epitomised through the cultural framing of our third gender population. It's the only culturally acceptable deviation from western gender and sexual norms that's widely embraced in the Pacific, but not without incident, contention or western distortion.

Do you feel you have a defined group mission? ANSWER: FAFSWAG emerged out of a lack of formal social spaces for people like us to access. We are outcast as society's undesirables and slapped with dual minority statuses as queer and brown people. For this reason it's been important to carve out a place for our stories and for us to facilitate meaningful connections with our creative peers. It just turns out that the very nature of doing this has huge political impacts.

Often there is this sense that queer groups exist to educate or engage the hetero world on LGBT issues. Do you feel you have a responsibility to that wider conversation? ANSWER: There's a hangover that sees our communities framed by mental illness, sexual deviance and our prevalence for sexually transmitted infections and new HIV transmissions. Our identities are constantly being cranked through a filter, and it's not a flattering Instagram filter! The heteronormative moral majority is always creating uneducated and misinformed stereotypes that make it easier to discriminate against people who are different. So yeah, we do have a responsibility to keep people in check and be part of a wider discussion. But it doesn't have to happen on their terms. We have to say no to your pantomime caricatures of our complex identities, no to your to your legislation that treats us like illegal citizens in our home, no to your moral restrictions on love, no to your rigid gender binaries and transphobia, no to your political oppression and social deprivation and no to your shitty art!

Can you tell me how the vogue scene and your vogue balls play in this? ANSWER: New Zealand youths have become enamoured by the New York Ball and Vogue scene of marginalised African American LGBTQI communities. The underground Vogue scene in this country is really young and is still something that happens on the fringes and margins of society. For the past four years we've produced a community based Vogue Ball in Otara South Auckland. In the beginning we made so many mistakes and had to really educate ourselves about the culture. This meant working collaboratively with legendary people in the scene like Mario Faumui, Jaycee Tanuvasa and Darren Taniue.

Fafswag has similar qualities and beliefs as Pacific Sisters in both their art and overall goal of inclusivity. The use of multimedia is present in both collectives work as they celebrate Pacifica culture, all aspects of Pacifica culture. Although Fafswag tends to use more video work and focuses more on the LGBT community in Pacifica culture and Pacific Sisters are more about general inclusivity with Pacifica culture and Pakeha culture they still have very similar themes and ideas about how Pacifica people are perceived in today’s society.

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rachaelburkeme2 · 5 years

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Presenting Image (Term 2) Week 8: Workshop

Focusing on the following artists: Luke Willis Thompson/Thomas Ruff.

Looking at different installation strategies they employ when exhibiting work.

Luke Willis Thompson (NZ/FJ)

Thompson, works across a range of mediums, including performance, sculpture and film, all of which allow him to push the limitations of object and space.

Luke of Fijian and European descent, frequently deals with the social implications of the ready-made – drawing from the biographical to inform his curatorial decision-making. His work summons racial and class based discourse and is provocative in its physicality yet there is an elusive reasoning behind his choices and an ambiguity regarding the role of the audience and the artist. Luke’s work is not only challenging for the viewer but it also sets a precedent for the institution of art – questioning agency of the artist and responsibility of the audience to create context within a work. http://www.tautai.org/artist/luke-willis-thompson/

(1) Luke Willis Thompson - Sucu Mate/Born Dead (2016)

Extracting sacred artifact from natural environment/re-installing in a controlled environment.

Isolating the object to amplify power and meaning.

Minimalistic. Repetition. Diagonal formation.

Luke Willis Thompson - “Inthisholeonthisislandwhereiam” Winner of the Walters Prize (2014)

Thompson’s winning piece takes the form of a journey beginning in the exhibition spaces at the Auckland Art Gallery. It is an unusual and remarkable work that was described by Walters judge Charles Esche as an ‘extraordinary intrusion of art into daily life that cuts through the protocols of the exhibition system like a knife.’(ocula.com/magazine/conversations/luke-willis-thompson)

The work has a kind of tri-fold structure. It consists of the ferrying of audience members in a prepaid taxi from an emptied gallery or museum, through a choreographed route of the city, and arriving at a villa, that is lived in, but temporarily shared as an artwork. The work allows for an indeterminate amount of time to look through the house and its contents and the taxi will take you back to the gallery when you decide its ready to leave.

Exists in both tangible and intangible forms.

Exhibition as an immersive/Interactive experience.

Visceral/Emotive.

Viewer invited to engage.

Filtered view of reality.

Ambiguous as to the construction/Installation method/poses questions. Has it been deconstructed/reconstructed to create a fictional space of narrative and mythology?

Autoportrait (2017) - Luke Willis Thompson

(Turner Prize nomination for this particular work).

Shot in 35mm, the black-and-white film shows the face of a silent Diamond Reynolds, who broadcast live on Facebook in the moments after her boyfriend, Philando Castile, was fatally shot by police in Minnesota in 2016.

Thompson has transformed the long corridors and towering ceilings of the gallery’s space into a lightless, almost airless vacuum. Partly necessitated by the artist’s cinematic medium, this blackness causes a sharp alteration of the senses. It makes us physically aware of invisibility and silence, which carry immense thematic weight in Thompson’s work.

His exhibition is comprised of three silent and visually understated films. While the scenes are staged as photographic portraits, they are captured as moving images, a technique referred to by the exhibition’s curator, Stephen Cleland, as “durational” portraiture.

The probing camera risks intrusion, yet manages intimacy. It is unwavering and foregrounds slight involuntary movements of habit and impulse; subtle flickers of restlessness, defiance, melancholy, suspicion, serenity, sobriety and self-awareness reveal a full spectrum of emotion in the subjects, despite the simple compositions.

Mute, without context and leisurely in pace, the work invites contemplation from its audience. It is unexpected then, when reading the short descriptions provided by Thompson, to have the work’s subjects placed within the lineage and legacy of war and police brutality.

Subjects Jone Lebanon, Rosi Lebanon, Rupeni Iraq and Inia Sinai of How Long? (2018), Brandon and Graeme of Cemetery of Uniforms and Liveries (2016) and Diamond Reynolds of Autoportrait (2017) are all in some way—whether directly witnessed or inherited— affected by violence.

In this way, Thompson transforms the ways in which we might usually encounter violence and brutality in art and media. The usual carnage, chaos and symbolic blemishes of red are a distant notion, here supplanted by a haunting sense of lasting trauma that is material, personal, immediate and embodied.

(2) Thomas Ruff

Thomas Ruff is a German photographer who lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. He has been described as “a master of edited and reimagined image.

m.a.r.s Exhibition

Alteration and manipulation. 3 D effect software. Reproduces large scale prints from satellite photographs.

Collages and renders.

Becomes an abstraction through partial isolation of the image.

Uses linear rows of square prints - different ratios/sizes.

Framed.

Hung low to the ground allowing viewer to engage and move into the work.

Use of large images to further engage the audience.

Portrait (Stoya) 1986

Portrait 1986 (Stoya) is a large colour photograph by the German artist Thomas Ruff depicting a young man, shown from the front and gazing out towards the viewer. The man’s head and shoulders fill most of the frame, and his features are set in a neutral arrangement. Although his hair is styled and he wears a deep yellow shirt and striped set of braces, the pale background, the blank expression and the even, flat tones in the image reveal little about the personality of the sitter. Tate’s version of Portrait 1986 (Stoya) is numbered two in an edition of four.

The works in the Portraits series are each identical in size and feature a young male or female sitter presented against a white background and staring out towards the viewer with a blank expression. Each was made using a standardised technique: the sitters, who were all friends and colleagues of Ruff, were positioned before a large format camera that was mounted on a tripod and covered in a black cloth. Ruff composed each scene using the inverted image that appeared on the camera’s focusing screen, after which he inserted a film holder containing the photographic plate, closed the camera, set the shutter, re-covered the camera with the black cloth and took the photograph.

Ruff was among a generation of artists including Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky who studied under the German photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie in the 1970s and 1980s. The work made by artists of this generation reflected the documentary objectivity – the use of even lighting, frontal presentation and the repetitive, serial format for exploring a subject – that characterised the Bechers’ photography, a style that was itself influenced by the 1920s German realist tradition of Neue Sachlichkeit or ‘New Objectivity’ painting and photography. Ruff stated in 1997 that ‘I have an idea of an image, but I can’t find the image because it doesn’t exist yet. So I have to make it myself’, and his Portraits, which act as both representations of individuals and standardised records of faces and bodies, could therefore be considered a reflection on the truth value of the photographic portrait (Ruff in Centre national de la photographie 1997, p.19). As Ruff explained in 1989: I don’t believe we can still make portraits in the conventional sense of ‘representing a personality’ today. At least I don’t claim to do that. Which is why I imitate portraits. Nonetheless, there is still a great deal of reality in my portraits. (Quoted in Thomas Ruff: Works 1979–2011, exhibition catalogue, Haus der Kunst, Munich 2012, p.26.)

#Presenting Image - Term 2/Week 8 Workshop

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sfdfmoviereviews · 7 years

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Ghost in the Shell (2017)

Half Man Half Machine All Cop somehow.

In a future Tokyo, director Rupert Sanders gives us (The) Major (Scarlett Johansson), a Section Nine operative made by implanting the brain of a refugee into a sexy robot body. When members of the Hanka corporation are targeted by the mysterious hacker Kuze (Michael Carmen Pitt), (The) Major is forced to question her origins. SPOILERS HO (also for the 1995 anime).

Adaptations of existing material always have a fraught relationship with the source material, and while movies such as Power Rangers or Beauty and the Beast are relatively harmless, this Chinese funded live action whitewashed Hollywood adaption begs the question of exactly what a new Ghost in the Shell is actually for. It’s a question the film never answers satisfactorily.

(I should clarify here that I’ve seen Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 anime adaptation of Shirow’s manga a couple of times- i rewatched it recently- and I’ve seen bits and pieces of the Stand Alone Complex series. I haven’t read Shirow’s manga).

In almost every regard, Sanders’ film apes Oshii’s film (and presumably the manga- it claims to be based on that only) but does everything worse. Where Oshii’s film gives us a shot of a city empty of all but splashes in puddles to indicate the passing of an invisible man, Sanders must give us CGI shimmers. Where 1995 gave us a taught chase to find a hacker operating out of a garbage truck resolving in a startling twist. 2017 gives us cyber zombies. Where Oshii and Shirow obfuscate and disorient in order to force us to question the essence of humanity in a world in which memory is mechanised and flesh is hardware, Sanders gives us apologetics for Cartesian dualism; (The) Major may question her identity but there is no question for us as to it’s nature (in any case, Juliette Binoche is here to explain things in the event you are confused). In fairness the thesis of the film is more accessible than previously, but only because the exposition is so egregious, and in any event the substance bears more in common with Verhoeven’s Robocop than anything else (and it’s worse than that as well).

Beyond that, there’s not that much going on here. There’s some interesting design- the cars are draped in Guigaro’s folded paper-, but as it is captured by lackluster cinematography it fails to achieve anything as singular as you might see in Blade Runner or The Fifth Element. The story itself is a version of the narrative from Standalone Complex: 2nd GIG, wrapped in set pieces and imagery taken from Oshii and Shirow. Those set pieces are all worse than previously, and stripped of the context that gave them meaning.

There’s a massive wasted opportunity in the whitewashing here. If the industry requires that Scarlett Johansson play this Japanese lady (despite an attempt to show future Tokyo as multicultural by filling it with Europeans, Chin Han, and the guy from Mabo, Johansson does play the sexy robot body of a Japanese lady; we even meet her mother in one weird and awkward scene), then a point can be made about teh stadardised image of a human being in terms or face and gender and beauty and how this all plays into the notions of individuality that the film is trying to invoke. Needless to say, that doesn’t happen. Indeed the casting of Johansson in place of a Japanese actress is part of a larger dumbing down of the film; everything is explained and explicit, and there is no absolutely no attempt to challenge the audiences preconceptions on anything.

Performances are okay. Johansson continues to display her ability to portray the inhuman, although you can see that put to much better use in Her or Under the Skin. Pilou Asbaek is perfectly cast and very engaging as Batou, and one of the few genuinely fun things in the movie; it’s no coincidence that he’s the one character to actually enjoy cyborgism. Takeshi Kitano is in it, he has some great hair. Peter Ferdinando somehow looks like the CGI people in Rogue One, but is actually a real actor.

If you’ve seen or read Ghost in the Shell before you’ll be disappointed by Sanders’ film, although I guess it may be of some academic interest. If you’ve seen it but didn’t understand it, this film won’t explain it to you and you’d be better off reading this wikipedia entry. If you’re interested in what Sanders has to say here, you may as well just watch Robocop.

Tim

P.S, I saw this at a thing organised by the Auckland Sci-Fi Meetup group. If you are a nerdlinger in Auckland and would like to meet similar cool folk you should totally join.

#ghost in the shell #rupert sanders #scarlett johansson #pilou asbæk #juliette binoche #takeshi kitano #chin han #peter ferdinando #tim #michael pitt #Anamaria marinca #masamune shirow #mamoru oshii #paul verhoeven

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cykragnostic · 5 years

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A shiny gold coin shall be yours IF you can identify the disturbing artist whose works I based these descriptions on! Seriously, I can't remember his name. It was years ago and a bad late night on the web. Freaky stuff appropriate for your Mythos-triumphant futures. I shall try to find the artist, but really, looking at this, there are any number of options for statting them out for an RPG: horror, weird-side dungeon fantasy, some mythogical game with symbolic and moral attributes, virtues and curses...

CRANIAL COMMANDO A large, broad, headless engine body, rather in the shape of a fat crab shell, sits atop a pair of fat machined legs, each foot with three broad toes. Four long arms extend from the rounded corners of the fuselage, each like a human arm, ending in a delicate three-fingered hand protected by a massive gauntlet. Harnesses across the top and back hold a variety of range and close weapons; two or three of its hands hold one at any time.

The body remaining to the originally human pilot is centered roughly in the abdomen; a thin skull surrounds a swollen brain, other organs mixed promiscuously with machine-organs. It is cradled in a thick, crystal-clear sphere etched with fine letters and symbols. No visible sense organs.

PELAGISTRIER A modified whale. Its skull has been greatly elongated and fused with silvery crystalline material into a hard hull. The back of the skull-cab swings up, hinged with muscle and metal; the lower edge of the hatch is ragged like teeth in a jaw. A comfortable, white, leathern couch is visible in the coach of the skull; slowly writhing black stumps are at hand for a head, hands, and lower orifices. The whale's eye-sockets are likewise enlarged and bristle with sensory spines and lenses; coils reach into the mouth from asymmetrical pods alongside the beast's underbelly, where two cybernetic paws are currently at rest, streamlined against the body. The massive fins and flukes are ridged with the same crystalline-metallic substance as the cockpit.

HEREROGENOUS FIEND A roughly human form, flesh not so much stitched together as exuded from a pump and cleverly spun together. A massive left arm, leathery flesh spread across a leaden armature and now clutching a vast spiked club; two smaller limbs on the left are balanced by five on the right, the largest of which is outlined in a blur as tendrils move back and forth. The smaller arm-limbs mostly do not end in hands but in spines or cudgels to be swung on fine but sturdy cable. The thing's torso has parts of at least nine jawbones, human and animal, visible, and eyes of all sizes here and there across its surface. On the right shoulder is a child-sized form with three stubby, independent arms weakly struggling; one limb reaches up to scratch at it now and then, and it may pop off.

PRECIOUS CONTRIVANCE FOR GUESTS' DIVERTMENT A porcelain construction in the shape of an elegant, slim woman, hands, body, and head in pleasing proportion, joints clever articulations of the ceramic exterior over dully shining bronze ball joints. It plays twelve games of skill and chance, sings with a piping sound, can accompany itself on stringed and percussive instruments, and serves tea. It is dressed in courtly silk garments that intermingle with the six tubes coiling like thick braids of hair from the head, wrapped in a large and intricate knot, then under the back of the frock and out into a trunk kept hidden from view. The trunk put-puts steadily as fluids are pumped in and out of the automaton. The head, from nose up, is concealed in folds of an intricate bejeweled turban which, should it somehow come undone, reveals a pair of lidless, mad, staring human eyes set in the ceramic skull. Mistress Hortense Bejezebaelia Montessori, Margravine of Auckland and Para-duchess of the 18th Precinct. Mistress Hortense is a tall and stately creature garbed in a vast and heavy frock, much frilled and laced and beaded. Her hands always move over the stove-belly-like contraption in her midriff, which her frock parts around. Many small dials, switches and knobs fill two arcs like commas on her sides, and from time to time she adjusts these without looking at them. There is a port on the swelling large enough to admit perhaps a cat.

THE PALANQUIN OF OBLOQUY Four bearers garbed in vast, flowing, layered robes grasp the highly wrought support bars at the base of an irregular dodecahedral object, each panel shimmering with images of the mighty victories and conquests of the kings of the land. The Palanquins are the honored conveyances of high level traitors and elaborate suicides from among the pathocracy; an annual lottery allows one lucky commoner to be sealed in the Palanquin and be borne about the streets for ages to come. The bearers are masked in gleaming black and grey globular helmets attached by hoses and cables to the underside of the Palanquin. They never rest, nor sit, nor cease their stately procession, but will slow upon request, the better to observe the decorative sides of the Palanquin.

HONORED SCRIBES The Scribe sits lotus style on a small platform, a lap-desk anchored to its atrophied toes and pens, ink and styluses rakishly set out to the sides. When not writing, the scribes' arms rest on contraptions jutting wide out from the walking-platform, its hands held in cunning mudras. The head has wide and staring eyes, all black, no nose or mouth. Its pearly skin smells of sweet oil and lilac, and it wears finely woven black and red mesh. The walking-platform is draped in a kilt-like garment patterned after an insect's carapace. A pair of strong, hairless red legs shoed in elaborate sandals jut out from the kilt and trace mincing steps over the floor of the palaces and salons home to the Scribes.

SPRIGHTLY SOLDAT Four long, thin, deer-like legs are the base of this entity, whose torso can seat a human-shaped figure; a fine uniform in bright parade-ground colors largely conceals the tumorous bulges where two bodies were molded together to form this steed; four clutching hands reach out from the front and back to hold travel-goods, and the heads have also been fused and relocated into a torpedo-like arrangement on the undercarriage; the lipless mouth has large, square teeth.

NIGHTWIGHT A whippy, ectoplasmic creature with a variable number of limbs and extrusions, more human shaped than not, with a headish protuberance whose color moves from the indifferent whitish-grey of the main body mass into inky blackness arranged around a radial, irising mouth, chisel-edged, before fading into invisibility. At a distance of half a meter or so away from the head and torso, orange electrical bolts sluggishly trace the surfaces of invisible nested spheres, and figures reminiscent of a star chart, or perhaps musical notation, appear momentarily along these ghostly orbits. The night-wight can move independently but prefers to spend most of its time waving circularly over the suited remains of a ship's crew or other places where humans and machines have catastrophically breached the mind-sea.

AERONAUTIC SENTRY CUR A dog it once was, for the doggy scent hangs closely about it, and beneath the steel and ceramic of the strangely articulated helmet, a predatory canine head is still to be perceived. The jaw has been altered to swing open in two fanged limbs. The head is on a thick but sinewy neck, the chest teardrop-shaped. Four large doggy paws are symmetrically aligned like the tail fins of a rocket, legs spread so it can stand on all four or on any adjacent pair. The paws have a fat but serviceable thumb. The tail is not cropped but elongated and prehensile. Where the sternum was, at birth or in the bodies of its ancestors, there is a ceramic circular lid, hinged on the bottom edge. It opens to extend a fuel intake proboscis that can expel corrosives, terror-drugs, and other liquids. The Sentry Cur is at home in gravity and free-fall both.

FUNEREAL JUGGERNAUT A giant creature, fifteen or so meters tall, neither like a tortoise nor pachyderm but partaking of the brutish qualities of both, with six thick, apelike legs ending in massive horny paws. A harness round the torso and waist support an intricately decorated cylinder, like a section of tower, that remains level as the beast moves forward. Rubbish birds flock to whatever is on the top. It plods along, jingling with bells, chimes, gongs, wind-whistles and other noisemakers. Its head is more maw than else, with eight long tusks scrimshawed and bound with gold, and a humming machine set in the center of the maw. No eyes are to be seen, but four independently moving tubular ears may overlap in general function. Heavy, putrid incense fumes from portals around the tower, and a pair of tiny human figures, hardly bigger than children, sit attentively in harnesses at its sides. Their head and arms are unseen and beneath elaborate ceremonial robes, a range weapon pivots atop each head, tracking any movement nearby.

#to be statted #whatever system shall the Satrap use

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i-am-very-very-tired · 7 years

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World of Lucid Dreaming LOG IN Lucid Dreaming Fast Track Can You Confuse Lucid Dreams with Reality? by Paul via Email SHARE EMAIL FACEBOOK TUMBLR TWITTER REDDIT GOOGLE+ PINTEREST If everything you see, hear and feel in lucid dreams is the same as when you're awake, how do you know you're dreaming? Can you confuse lucid dreams with reality? What is the objective difference? Rebecca Turner Rebecca says: Great question. This is a common misapprehension about lucid dreaming and I'm more than happy to set the record straight. In my experience (and, I'm sure, the experience of many lucid dreamers) it is not possible to confuse lucid dreams with reality. With the power of conscious thought behind you, knowing you're dreaming is as intuitive as knowing you're awake. Any deviation from that truth would be an indication of psychosis, and I see no evidence whatsoever to tar lucid dreamers with that brush! In fact, this myth of confusing dreams with reality stems from a common misunderstanding that lucid dreams can "feel" exactly like waking life. People think that if this is so, then the two states must be indistinguishable. While conscious dreams can FEEL real, there are other factors, such as memory and logical thought processes, which clearly distinguish these states. To illustrate this I have mapped out three separate states of awareness - waking reality, lucid dreams and normal dreams - as I experience them: Lucid Dreams vs Reality So while lucid dreaming is a conscious experience, it's a completely different state from being consciously awake, and it is easy to distinguish so. How Do I Know This Isn't Real? Philosophical arguments aside (what if reality is a dream itself?) here's a more specific example from last night's lucid dream and why I couldn't possibly confuse it with reality. There's nothing special about this example and I believe you could apply all the same rules of logic to any other lucid dream. In my dream, I was standing on a mountain over a forest. The desire to fly made me realize I was dreaming. I became lucid and the scenery shot into focus - suddenly I could see thousands of pine trees as vividly as real life. I got a sense of how high up I was, and now, when I looked into the distance, I could see the shiny silvery sea. If it looked so real, how could I be sure I wasn't awake? I was standing on a mountain I was talking to an odd looking character I'd never seen before I had no memory of how I arrived on the mountain Moments earlier the scene was dream-like I said out loud "my body is asleep in bed right now" I had a memory of my real "normal" life I could fly and there was little sense of gravity I could fill the atmosphere with invisible waves to fly higher ...and so on... But, you might argue, this scene was too fantastical to confuse with reality. So what if I dreamed lucidly of a very boring and lifelike scenario...? Lucid Dream vs Reality My experience of being in my living room in a lucid dream is not the same as my experience of being in my living room in reality. The lucid dream version is self-contained. I can only hear things in the immediate vicinity or whatever my consciousness is focused on. I don't necessarily know what day it is, nor what time of day. The world beyond the living room doesn't exist yet until I go there. As a result, I tend to perceive only my localized bubble of awareness and there can be little room for separate lines of thought that don't directly manipulate my dream reality. While awake, I might sit in my living room and daydream about being on a beach, while simultaneously being aware of both locales. In a lucid dream, daydreaming of a beach would most likely result in me appearing there, and the living room scene being left behind. In this thought-driven reality, thoughts drive the behavior of the "physical" dream world. And of course, the big giveaway is, in a lucid dream I can do impossible things like push my own fingers through my hand (see: reality check). However, this is typically used to distinguish a dream from reality, and not the other way around. Indeed, 95% of the population goes to sleep every night and fully accepts their dreams as reality. It's only when they wake up they realize it wasn't real. In this sense, you can confuse normal dreams with reality, can you not? But there is no concern for a sane mind to become locked in the belief that they are lucid dreaming, when in fact they are awake. The Memory Exception Have you ever recalled a memory of something trivial then realized it wasn't a real memory - but a recollection of a dream? For a moment you were fooled. Why? Memories are tricky. They are blurry and subjective and emotionally rooted. You can't critically analyze them in hindsight and so it's easy to confuse snippets of dreams with real life memories. By the way, we're talking about mundane memories here - a snippet of conversation perhaps - not jumping off the Empire State Building! False Awakenings A final word on false awakenings - aka dreaming of waking up. These can be exceptionally realistic dreams, like the most vivid kind of lucid dream, and yet you still don't know you're dreaming. Because you dreamed of waking up, you naturally assume you are now awake. Confusing, much? A false awakening has all the characteristics of a lucid dream (vivid, intense, self-awareness) without realizing you're dreaming or taking conscious control. It is a good example of a scenario where you can confuse a dream with reality based on it's tangible and realistic nature. The worst case scenario in a false awakening is you get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, head out the door for work... only to wake up, back in bed again. This next awakening can be a false awakening, too. And so it can be a frustrating cycle. The answer is to perform a reality check when you wake up. Often this transforms a false awakening into a lucid dream! And while for some people the experience may frustrating as it plays out, I don't believe there is really any doubt of reality when you finally do wake up for real. Objective thought will reveal whether you are dreaming or not... and the only reason a false awakening persists in the first place is because dreams lack objective thought. This is the key to distinguishing your reality for what it is - and it's automatically provided by a healthy human consciousness. SHARE EMAIL FACEBOOK TUMBLR TWITTER REDDIT GOOGLE+ PINTEREST About The Author About the author Rebecca Turner is the founder of World of Lucid Dreaming. She is currently studying for a science degree in Auckland and becoming famous as a science writer. Try our free lucid dreaming course and connect with the team on Facebook and the lucid dream forum. Learn how to control your dreams - with daily lessons straight to your inbox. 5f27cbb00c421495846819-10-steps-e-course.jpg 10-Steps to Lucid Dreams The most popular free lucid dreaming course on the web - enjoyed by over 30,000 lucid dreamers since 2013. Enter your name Enter your email address GET LUCID! LATEST The Anatomy of a Dreaming Supplement A lot has happened in the last 5 months. But how did we go from business as usual to changing the face of the entire lucid dreaming supplements industry? It’s a story that I think will interest you – and you might even learn a thing or two in the process. When I was first taken on-board as Chief Lucidity Officer in 2016, one of the first things I was tasked with was taking a good look at our operations and giving things a bit of an overhaul. LATEST Socially Triggered Awareness Socially Triggered Awareness Reality Test (START) Induced Lucid Dreams Lucid dreaming, like any advanced skill, requires a considerable investment of time, energy and dedication in order to master. Yet, as a lucidity researcher, I'm regularly asked by those new to the subject, for an easy and low-effort technique. Something that LATEST How to remember your dreams How to remember your dreams To lucid dream, I recommend being able to remember at least one vivid dream per night. That will boost your self awareness in dreams (making lucidity more likely) and also means you can actually remember your lucid dreams. Which is nice. Here are four detailed tips on how to remember your dreams more frequently. And if you don't think you dream at all - trust me, you almost certainly do. It takes an extraordinarily rare sleep disorder to deprive someone of dream sleep. LATEST Mugwort Dream Sage of the chumash Mugwort: Dream Sage of the Chumash Indians It is estimated that these wise and wily Indians have been using mugwort in their healing and ritual practices for 13,000 years, where it is known as the ‘dream sage’. They use the herb to promote good dreams, which they consider an essential aspect of normal human functioning! But that’s not all... LATEST Silene Capensis Silene Capensis: The African Dream Herb Silene Capensis has been used for millennia by the Xhosa shaman of the river valleys in the eastern cape of South Africa, where it is known as Undela Ziimhlophe or 'white paths'. It's fragrant white flowers open only at night, when they emit a fragrant and almost hypnotising aroma. Also known as African Dream Herb or Ubulawu, Silene Capensis induces spectacularly vivid dreams - yet has never entered the mainstream and remains a fringe taste within western culture. FEATURE How to have amazing lucid dreams How to have amazing lucid dreams Experts agree that everyone is capable of having lucid dreams. Dreaming itself is a normal function of the mind. We all dream every night, even if we don't remember. And we all achieve conscious awareness while awake every single day. So what does it mean to combine these states? Why, the amazing ability to have conscious - or lucid - dreams. Sounds simple, doesn't it? So why do I keep hearing from people who say they can't achieve their first lucid dream? 10 steps to lucid dreams Neuroon Open Kickstarter Homedics HDS 2000 Sleep Relaxation Machine 17 things I learned in 17 years of lucid dreaming How long can you survive without sleep? Bestselling Books on Lucid Dreaming 30 common dream symbols Top 10 lucid dreaming mistakes Famous Lucid Dreams How to create original music in a lucid dream How do dreaming pills work Copyright © 2008-2017 World of Lucid Dreaming. All Rights Reserved. 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