#ephemeral rift is who it is for reference

[dullanyan]

wowowowowow awesome an asmr creator i really enjoyed for well over a fucking decade comes out as a weird bigot fucking cool

[depressed-avocado]

||SAKUATSU AND THE JAPANESE MEDIA||

have you all noticed how we have an abundance of sakuatsu fics, fanart and stans in the western media but very few and rare doujins served by the japanese side of the fandom?

even the sporadic content we see has a very different take on sakuatsu than we do..

now, take myself as a referance. i entered the fandom with a vengeance against all but suga, avoided sakuatsu and kagehina like it was the COVID epicenter itself but a year and a half later ended up reading one teeny fanfic on ao3 out of dire curiousity and ended up with sakuatsu as my adopted babies.

there was a lot of discussion on this ship on twt, tumblr and the like, but when i searched up for doujins to satisfy my horny hunger, i found none?

the very few and far between were actually AtsuSaku (top atsumu, still not much common with the english speaking world) and SakuOsa (poor atsumu 🤣) and featured sakusa as a very grumpy, tsundere, devil-may-care lover whom atsumu had to ask permission just to kiss. compare THAT to how the western fandom potrays him as the blunt jerk who is nefariously down bad for atsumu, but is still kinda loveable and chaotic in his own steed.

the thing is, sakuatsu is a rare ship. there are hardly 5 panels on interaction for them in the manga, and still quite less info on sakusa available, which gives the people the opportunity to mould him into any shape they want. atsumu has more chemistry with hinata, aran, kita, suna, hell you'd even find more miyacest content in japan than sakuatsu. it all started out as a crack ship, something similar to matsuhana, and exploded exponentially in a span of few weeks like it was set on fire. honestly, covid-19 would be jealous.

in the year 2020, the world recieved so many beautiful fanfics, maybe some of the best in the fandom. the same teenagers once raving after kagehina and iwaoi were now adults and have had enough of bubbly, tooth rotting fluff and circumstancal angst.

iwaoi's biggest potential for angst is them seperating for college, same as bokuaka and kuroken. maybe an external factor causing a rift in the couple. very basic.

they wanted something dynamic, something real, something which allows your creativity to leap out the box and sprint several kilometres ahead.

the salient answer was sakuatsu.

only in sakuatsu, the angst potential come from the characters themselves. sakusa and atsumu are insufferable, totally unlikeable people (though i have met a lot of people like atsumu and they get on with their day just fine). they have no chill, no qualms, no redeeming feature other than volleyball and their looks and maybe this could work out?

two jerks, aint afraid to talk shit, bringing out the best (or worst?) in each other. maybe they could find love afterall? huh.

what's this? a chance for ao3 authors to expand their creative writing skills to new horizons and take artistic liberties indulgently but still have a locus to ground themselves to so that they don't go all hocus-focus?

you bet they'd take this chance.

famous fics like 'a liar's truth', 'hand study', 'burden of blame' were released and it was the explosive and beautifully belligerent start of a ship no one saw coming. riding on the highs and lows of a relationship, depicting exactly how toxic yet fulfilling realistic dating can be, its upto you how you'd end up. these fics depicted the shimmering tension, the passionate abhor and the disastrous clashes.

there was no way a huge chunk of japanese fans, enough to catalyse its popularity, would be able to reach these fics and fanarts, which were usually just characteristics fleshed out in the author's mind. ooc, if you will.

sakuatsu is literally whatever you want it to be. a murder mystery or a romcom, you decide. it is ever changing, ephemeral, dangerous. you need to keep up with every step to find its beauty.

its a pity that the japanese fandom wasn't able to catch onto this sakuatsu fever and create some god-tier content like they usually do with other notorious ships like kageoi or kitaatsu.

also, osaatsu/atsuosa, kitaatsu and atsuhina are already selling there a lot (which makes a lot of sense in hindsight than this sakuatsu, no offence) and view atsumu as a TOP.

also, also the japanese part of the fandom have no qualms with shipping komosaku and ushisaku and do it graciously, so well both characters are satisifed fully with the japanese seperately as far as they are concerned.

well, if the movies come out, there is a good chance that the sakuatsu car ride would be just around the corner again and maybe this time, the japanese fandom can hop on a ride? and show atsumu riding on sakusa too pls i need to see thier bful art ahaha

[warcraft-lore-archives]

On Nightborne: Schools of Magic

Spellblades

Chronomancy

Warpcasting

Telemancy

Ley Magic

Astromancy

Spellblades

Spellblades, as the name indicates, are those who combine both melee skill and magic into a single form of combat [Dungeon Journal: The Nighthold, Spellblade Aluriel]. Spellblade Aluriel, captain of Grand Magistrix Elisande’s guard, was the first Nightborne to take on the rank of spellblade. She is not only adept in the magical schools of fire, frost, and arcane, but she also commands great prowess with a sword, making her both expert mage and warrior [Dungeon Journal: The Nighthold, Spellblade Aluriel]. Although it was once popular to specialize exclusively in just magic or weaponry, Aluriel was the first to combine both skills and pave the way for generations of spellblades to come [Post: Azshara’s Court - Guards].

In addition to spellblades, a type of melee-based fighter called a spell-fencer also exists within the Duskwatch’s ranks. It is unclear how spell-fencers differ from spellblades, if at all, but there may be a marked difference between them since they are referred to separately. Both Thoramir and Silgryn, who previously served together under Spellblade Aluriel, are spell-fencers [Quest: Waxing Crescent, NPC: Thoramir Dialogue]. Spell-fencers, and most likely spellblades by extension, can empower their weapons with arcane magic [Spell: Arc Blade].

Aluriel may be the first Nightborne Spellblade, but high elven society developed their own version, which may or may not differ from the Nightborne’s spellblade [NPC: Sunreaver Spellblade, NPC: Silver Covenant Spellblade].

Chronomancy

Time magic, or chronomancy, holds a rather significant place in Nightborne society. In fact, Elisande’s command of temporal magic, given to her by the Eye of Aman’thul, rivals even that of the bronze dragonflight’s [Quest: Temporal Investigations, Page: Eye of Aman’thul]. With the Eye of Aman’thul, which was used to create the Nightwell, Elisande could look into the future and freeze, speed up, slow down, or even rewind time [World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume I, pg. 104, Dungeon Journal: The Nighthold, Grand Magistrix Elisande].

Nightborne who specialize in temporal magic are known as tempomancers [NPC: Nightborne Tempomancer, Tempomancer Virinya]. Although a ‘Nightborne Chronomancer’ file exists, the NPC does not actually appear in-game [NPC: Nightborne Chronomancer]. These tempomancers can increase others’ haste and rewind time to heal themselves [Spell: Tempomancer’s Grace, Spell: Celerity Zone, Spell: Rewind Wounds]. Time magic is also used to shorten the wine fermenting period of Arcwine, allowing the Nightborne to produce the magic wine at a rate much quicker than usual [Quest: How It’s Made: Arcwine].

Some Nightborne carry chronometers on their person [Item: Flashy Chronometer].

Warpcasting

Warpcasters can warp the very space around themselves [Quest: Network Security]. Warpcaster Thwen created a warp field around herself that redirected all attacks and spells, however this warp field failed when exposed to unstable space [Spell: Warp Armor, Quest: Network Security].

Warpcasting and telemancy may be related magical arts, since they both entail the ‘warping’ of space [Quest: Survey Says…]. Chief Telemancer Oculeth, who trained Warpcaster Thwen, gives out a buff called ‘Warpwalking’ that causes each kill to increase movement speed [Quest: Network Security, Spell: Warpwalking].

Thalyssra built a device to generate a warp-field that would trap and excite mana in a ley feed conduit, causing a manastorm [Quest: Ephemeral Manastorm Projector].

Telemancy

Telemancers specialize in teleportation, a form of magic known as telemancy. Although telemancers can teleport and cast portals freely, they prefer to use a system of telemancy beacons to stabilize their portals, making them much safer to travel through [Quest: Oculeth’s Workshop, NPC: Chief Telemancer Oculeth Dialogue]. Beacons do this by supplying power for teleportation triangulations, which makes portal calculations much more exact and, consequently, safe [NPC: Oculeth Dialogue, Quest: Bring Home the Beacon, Quest: Survey the City]. Placing too many beacons, however, has the adverse effect of overloading the telemancy network [Quest: Staging Point].

Telemancy beacons also reduce teleportation time. While mage portals take some time to cast, telemancy beacons foster instant transmission [NPC: Oculeth Dialogue]. Teleport pads and telemancy orbs, in addition to beacons, are other means of transport [Quest: The Delicate Art of Telemancy, Quest: Breaching the Sanctum, Item: Entangled Telemancy Orb]. Certain things, like magical wards and manastorms, create interference that prevent teleportation [Quest: All In].

To establish a portal, one must first use the beacon to survey any given area for optimal placement. After the beacon has been placed, a connection can be anchored to it, creating a stable two-way portal [Quest: Survey Says…]. Some beacons can also be used for one-way teleportation [Quest: Grand Theft Telemancy].

According to Chief Telemancer Oculeth, who created Suramar’s telemancy network, telemancy is a delicate art [Quest: Oculeth’s Workshop].

Other Nightborne telemancers include Apprentice Telemancer Astrandis and Third Telemancer Syranel [NPC: Apprentice Telemancer Astrandis, NPC: Third Telemancer Syranel]. 

Ley Lines

Ley magic is the very cornerstone of Nightborne society. According to Arcanist Valtrois, ley lines are rivers of raw arcane energy running beneath the land. Although they are at times chaotic and difficult to control, the Nightborne have become adept at drawing power from them [Quest: Feeding Shal’Aran]. The convergence of ley lines in Suramar feeds power to the Nightwell, which in turn sustains the Nightborne [Quest: A Dance With Dragons]. This unique relationship, combined with centuries of ley line research, has given the Nightborne power over the ley lines.  

Suramar City was constructed on top of a nexus of ley lines that extend beyond the city proper into outlying regions like northern Azsuna. The Arcway, a vast labyrinthine network of tunnels, was built thousands of years ago under the region of Suramar for the purpose of tapping into and channeling the power of those magical ley lines [Quest: Tapping the Leylines]. At some point following the sundering, the Arcway was abandoned after a disaster disrupted mana collectors operating there [Quest: The Arcway: Opening the Arcway]. This is why all ley line feeds require an infusion of mana to operate properly [Quest: Leyline Feed: Falanaar Depths].

The Nightfallen maintain Ley Stations in the Arcway using ley line feeds, large pillars that channel the ley lines. These ley line feeds are topped with leydar dishes, which collect ley energy [Quest: Leyline Feed: Ley Station Moonfall]. The circuit at Tel’Anor’s Ley Station was broken and had to be mended by recharging the chamber’s seals using a high and low potency current in tandem [Quest: Power Grid]. Oculeth owns several personal coils for tapping into the ley lines [Quest: Oculeth’s Workshop].

By placing ley line taps on key points of any given ley line, one can direct the ley line’s flow of energy [Quest: Unbeleyvable]. A ley line stream powerful enough can vaporize anything [Quest: Feeding Shal’Aran, Quest: Flow Control]. However, just as much as it can destroy, arcane energy from the ley lines can also repair physical damage [Quest: Leyline Feed: Ley Station Aethenar, Quest: Leyline Feed: Ley Station Moonfall]. A plant called Manaroot that grows underneath ley lines in Suramar possesses healing properties and can be made into a salve that heals wounds [Quest: Soothing Wounds, Quest: Salvation].

Valtrois casts a buff called ‘Leyline Mastery’ that causes the wearer to attract ley lines, triggering ley line rifts to appear [Spell: Leyline Mastery].

Shal’dorei silk has some ley energy woven right into it [Quest: Runic Catgut].

Nightborne society is full of all sorts of people dedicated to studying the ley lines, from Ley Line Channelers and Ley Line Researchers to Duskwatch Ley-Wardens [NPC: Ley Line Channeler, NPC: Ley Line Researcher, NPC: Duskwatch Ley-Warden]. There is a specific class of mage, known as Ley Walker, that specializes in ley line magic, however it is an RPG only class and cannot be considered canon [RPG: More Magic & Mayhem, pg. 20-22]. Although Arcanist Valtrois is an arcanist, she is clearly vested in the ley line arts, as she has been studying ley lines for millennia, and could be considered a ‘ley walker’ of sorts in her own right [Quest: Unbeleyvable].

Astromancy

Astromancy is undoubtedly just as important in Nightborne society as any other school of magic, however there are very few specific details about Nightborne astromancy, perhaps because it is so subtly woven into the very fabric of Nightborne culture.

The denizens of Suramar began studying the stars as early as twelve thousand years ago [Object: Highborne Astrolabe]. Even when the protective shield put up over Suramar obscured the Nightborne’s view of the sky, they continued to dedicate themselves to studying the stars in Astromancer’s Rise [Quest: The Nightborne Pact]. Suramar’s foremost astromancer, Star Augur Etraeus, uses the Nightwell to draw upon the essence of alien worlds to amplify his own powers. He, Astrologer Jarin, and a coterie of celestial acolytes and astral spell-users dedicate themselves to understanding the celestial forces from the Nighthold [Dungeon Journal: The Nighthold, Star Augur Etraeus, NPC: Astrologer Jarin Dialogue].

[poundfooolish]

ASMR is such a weird side of YouTube, but I genuinely love it. Like. A solid 90% of it is fairly similar to itself, hairbrushing, neural test, mouth sounds, tapping

but then you get to the like. Niche artisan roleplays. People who’ve constructed elaborate ASMR worlds, like. 

There’s Goodnight Moon, who has a whole series of just. Calm, fun fantasy, but also you’re getting wrapped up in the politics of the world which is revealed to you in drips, and in more recent videos you’ve been hired to go assassinate the Queen??

And then there’s Ephemeral Rift which is an interesting blend of fandom-reference and horror with heavy lovecraftian influences, with a very steady roster of ‘doctors’ who are experimenting with stress treatments on you? And you might be an eldritch monster yourself?

There was one channel I found and lost that was pretty exclusively historical period RP ASMR with a ridiculously wide variety of locations and time periods.

And anyway, I just watched one that was just called ‘Sleep like a baby vII’ and like. It starts off like it’s just an exhausted dad trying to get his baby to sleep but then he starts aggressively explaining economics and berating you for being a republican, and even though he never says it, you slowly start to realize you’re the baby trump and the whole video ends with him smothering you to death with a pillow. 

ASMR is so buckwild and I love it. It gets written off as the weird pseudosexual youtube phenomenon but honestly I feel like that just masks a genuinely interesting storytelling style that’s evolving right under peoples’ noses.

[midorikawa-lettuce]

kay so for those of you who don’t know, my M.O. is to take things that have skeletal or shallow lore and over complicate the whole damn thing especially with specific mythos, creation stories, and deity pantheons, so Tokyo Mew Mew is no different; under the cut commences my long and convoluted bits of lore that I have headcanoned and fanoned the shit out of for this series

Ryou says at one point that he thinks it was “no accident” that Ichigo and the girls were the ones who became Earth’s defenders, after Masaya turns out to be Deep Blue.  So time to extrapolate the fuck out of that.

All of the Mew Mews are very heavily coded, both in the anime and manga, to correspond to one of the four natural elements.  Mint is Air, Lettuce is Water, Pudding is Earth, and Zakuro is Fire.  In the manga especially, even, each of them uses the Mew Aqua to cleanse their specific element (Mint cleans the air from the Chimera Moth, Lettuce cleans the ocean, Pudding saves Tokyo Dome from collapsing due to instability in the earth, and Zakuro destroys the dome that causes an intense heat wave in Tokyo).

Then there’s Ichigo.  Ichigo doesn’t correspond to one of the natural elements, but she does correspond to a somewhat common trope in five-person-elemental-teams: in other words, Heart (Captain Planet is that you?).  This is furthered by the fact that in the manga, when she uses the Mew Aqua, it’s to save Masaya’s life, the person she loves.  I would actually almost hazard to say that she’s meant to represent the whole of the planet itself, or even life itself, as her use of Mew Aqua in the manga also restores plant life to the earth, and restores life to others (the Mews, Masaya, and the aliens).  In other words, Ichigo is the Sailor Earth.  (How’s that for a Sailor Moon plot twist?)

Now what the fuck does any of this have to do with anything in this post about made-up lore?  Well, I’m getting to that.  Let’s put together a few more concepts first.

First: Mew Aqua.  It’s both a liquid and a crystal, said to have been created by the aliens, the previous inhabitants of earth, but for an unknown purpose (I haven’t yet finished my rewatch of the series, but to the best of my knowledge, they never fully address why it was made).  It’s an incredible force that can cleanse the pollution of the earth and restore it to its natural state, influence strange phenomenon like the sudden overnight sprouting of an entire forest in the middle of a city, and even restore life.  That is a pretty INTENSE thing that these aliens made....and if they’re the ones who made it, and the aliens want it so that they can use it to restore Earth to what they want, why didn’t the aliens fleeing the original destruction of Earth just...use Mew Aqua?

The final concept I want to bring up before I move onto my actual lore is where Masaya/Blue Knight/Deep Blue fits into all of this.  Masaya is effectively a member of Tokyo Mew Mew, as a complement to Ichigo.  They’re not just a good couple, they’re a battle couple too: their attacks work together and Masaya is automatically tuned in to whenever Ichigo needs help.  But we’ve already got a blue member of the team (Mint) so why the heck did they decide to color code Masaya and Deep Blue as well, blue?  There were other colors available, like red or black, that might have even looked more aesthetically pleasing overall.  It’s also important to mention that Kish, Pai, and Taruto refer to Deep Blue as a “god.”

So where the fuck am I going with this?  Let’s start with this: I don’t think Deep Blue is the only god in this series.  Warning: as we go ahead, I will stop referring to this as headcanon and start talking about it like it’s a legit theory.  It is not.  I just don’t want to keep saying “this is what I think” over and over again.

Deep Blue as a god, first.  So, back to the question.  Why is Deep Blue, well, Blue?  Because Deep Blue is the sky.

Where Ichigo represents the earth as a whole, the planet itself, the terrestrial body, Deep Blue/Masaya is the complementary opposite: the sky and the atmosphere that surrounds the planet.  The Mews then each represent a major part of the make-up of the planet in a more specific, lesser form: once again, Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire (take a drink if the song got stuck in your head).

It makes sense again when you look at Kish, Pai, Taruto, and their people.  They specifically worship Deep Blue as a god, and if Deep Blue is the god of the sky, then their abilities are in keeping with this.  They can fly, they don’t require oxygen to breathe and seem perfectly all right with varying pressure, allowing them to live quite comfortably in any part of the atmosphere, and they can teleport, moving between the air from place to place.  All things that make sense for a people who are beholden to a god of the sky.

This is where my “”creation story”” comes in.  Deep Blue is the sky, and Ichigo represents the Earth.  Deep Blue is a god who lay partially dormant inside a human until he could be awakened.  Masaya is human, but contains the remains of an ancient god of the sky.  If Ryou is correct in that there was no mistake that it was Ichigo, the one who loved Masaya, who became a Mew Mew to face him, then why couldn’t Ichigo be the same way?  Why couldn’t Ichigo just so happen to be the reincarnation/vessel of the remains of the god of the Earth?

So I suppose this is where the story starts.  A very long time ago, when Kish’s people still lived on the earth, there were gods that lived among them.  The most revered were the Mother Earth who granted them life, and the Father Sky who enfolded them.  Also worshiped were the ephemeral and alien forces of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air, which had no shape or form but rather took the visage of the creatures that best represented them, and flickered from form to form when it suited them.  Father Sky was known as Deep Blue, and Mother Earth was known as μ (Myu/Mew).  It was said by their people that Deep Blue and Mew were in love.

By some strange, unknown catastrophe, perhaps by a mismanaging of Mew’s bounty or some unforeseeable disaster, or perhaps by some strange quarrel between Mew and Deep Blue, the planet underwent a series of natural disasters, making it nearly impossible to live on.  It’s not certain what caused the rift between Mew and Deep Blue, or if in fact there was a rift at all, but something violently drove them apart.  The peoples of the planet made reluctant plans to flee for a new home.  The strain of their people leaving them behind was too great for the gods who depended on their people’s belief.  Deep Blue went with them, but he was shorn in two, as the atmosphere could not fully leave the planet behind.  Half of him went with the fleeing peoples, dormant and dying, and ensuring that no planet they found could ever be a happy home enfolded by a forgiving atmosphere.  The other half fell back down to the earth, and was hidden among the souls of the creatures that still clung to life on its surface.

Mew, as the Earth itself, could quite obviously not be taken away with the fleeing people, no more than a planet could move out of orbit.  But the loss of Deep Blue was so terrible, so painful, that she could only cry.  And from her tears, which scattered across the whole of her, came the liquified crystals that would later be known as Mew Aqua.

As time passed, the earth settled once again, and creatures began to flourish.  Humans evolved, and among them, the lasting spirit of Deep Blue began to slowly reawakened.  After many thousands of years, when humans matured, the sleeping Mew sensed the approach of her love: the aliens were once again reaching out back towards the jewel they had left, and Deep Blue’s awakening self turned his eyes back towards home as well.  But the thousands of years of sleep, and the ragged tear that had split him had caused Deep Blue to become angry and resentful.  He no longer cared for either his people or Mew, but rather wanted to destroy that which he had been unable to keep.

Mew could sense his malice, and out of love for the creatures that were born on her soil, she did what Deep Blue’s spirit did.  She consigned what remained of her faded self to the souls of humanity.  Some years later, the new host of Deep Blue’s soul would be born.  Near the same time, a girl with the soul of Mew would also arise.  The souls of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire were not human enough to be passed into a human soul, but they could give their blessing, and so they, too, blessed several humans with their hopes.

When Deep Blue and his people returned to the Earth, there were warriors waiting to meet him, to protect the planet from his yet hidden, murderous rage.  Deep Blue did not remember everything, but he did know with a fiery instinct that these warriors were specifically his bane -- which is why he focused all his efforts on just them, on just their city, on just collecting the Mew Aqua, the tears of the one he had once loved, to facilitate his awakening.

I’m going to drop my narrator voice now and just say: this is a lot of shit that I had way too much fun crafting and I really fucking want to write fic about this but i need to figure out how to streamline it into a usable setting that won’t make me want to die with how much work it is, and for now i just want to dump this world building on SOMEONE because it’s been in my head for weeks.

that’s all i have now anyway thank you for reading this ridiculously long and unnecessary fake lore post

[indexvirus]

So, ASMR is a thing

this thing has been in my drafts for months and I thought I might as well post it before this site dies

So, I have listened to asmr now and I still have no idea what it feels like and a it seems that there are a lot of people who can relate with me.

I decided to share my own thoughts about it...

Asmr stands for these four words (autonomous sensory meridian response) that unfortunately not many are going to have any idea on what they mean so a lot of people translate it as "brain orgasm", or "eargasm", or "that tingly thingly feeling you get when you listen to this person making noises to the microphone while coming very close to your personal space".

Too bad the asmrtists (people who make these videos) weren't too helpful either in explaining it. A lot of them get very awkward when they try to get into what asmr is and think it's somehow funny to giggle about it. There are only so many who take their own career as an artist seriously.

That's one reason why people have the general consensus that it's somewhat sexual or supposed to be romantic, and it's not entirely a lie. It's mostly for your mental wellbeing, but some do make some "loving" videos as well. In fact, I found asmr from a japanese anime ear kissing "oh hai oniichan" video a friend send to me all "look at this new wierd trend", but to my surprise I got all relaxed to the soft speaking and fabric noises. I had to see what the trend was about and the first artist I followed was MassageASMR.

But the thing for me is that I don't get tingles. I get a strange pressure in my stomach as if someone has wrapped their arms around me too tightly. It doesn't hurt, but it makes me feel safe and relaxed. It was something I really needed at the time and I then got addicted...

I also really dislike to call it eargasm. I prefer calling it "audiotherapy" when I recoomend it to guys, referring it to other similar therapeutic mediums. I study neuropsychology and I know how complex human brain is, so it's not really a surprise to me that certain sounds could activate certain areas in the brain that can cause a safe feeling. It's similar to the brain reacting to certain words with different areas.

Brain is a wierd thing and full of mechanisms that we have not yet discovered. ASMR is a blessing really because it has helped many anxious people to find a safe place to their daily anxiety and I recommend it to you, your neighbour and your dog.

Also, some asmrtists I remember (Might be putting more)

Karuna Satori, MassageASMR, Gibi ASMR, Isabel Imagination, Power of Sound, Cynaunique, MassageASMR, TirarADeguello, Ellie Alien, Oliver Kissper, SophieMichelle, WhispersRed, FredsVoice, Jojo's ASMR, SensorAdi, Ephemeral Rift, PPomo, Latte ASMR, Dana ASMR, Relax Academy, ASMRequests, SoftAnnaPL ...

[ganymedesclock]

Based on S3E7, what do you think about the nature of quintessence? I get the impression it came from the rift, and yet so much of Altean technology that Allura seems totally comfortable using relies on it.

To my rough understanding, Honerva is being a reliable narrator when she claims quintessence is life itself. It’s not always used as energy- Allura in s1e1 noticeably says “The quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in his Lion” which would suggest that this is a sort of ephemeral vital essence- soul, or what Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra refer to as “spirit”. It is both the vitality of any living entity, and a reflection of the essential character of that person. In that sense, Blue, for example, doesn’t have to read Lance’s mind and mull over his thoughts to know he’s a worthy paladin- all she has to do is feel the energy he radiates by his natural personality and sensibilities- and know that it feels like her own.

It appears that even before the rift, the Alteans were using quintessence, but, as it’s the substance of life, it comes in, well, organic byproducts. Remember, Alteans were harvesting and powering their machines with Balmera crystals.

The majority of the energy-related minerals that we’ve encountered in the setting- crystals and scaultrite- have one thing in common: they’re organic byproducts of living creatures, Balmera and Weblums. 

(This makes me have some suspicions about luxite- it’s stated to have been mined, but that doesn’t rule out that it has its origins in a living creature. Quite possibly, luxite is a material similar to ammolite, petrified wood or amber- an organic byproduct fossilized and transformed by metamorphic processes into a mineral. And that would better explain that it was seemingly only found on one planet- when even fairly esoteric mineral compounds you’d expect to be in multiple places. But a particular plant or animal, especially a prehistoric one that had been potentially extincted or its descendants moved on from it, could easily only exist at a single planet where those remains could gather and become compressed into metal)

The revolution around the rift is being able to harness this sort of vital energy in a pure undiluted form, completely free of the creature that created it. This is where the vampiric allusions of the empire, and Zarkon in particular, come in- and this is where we see Coran’s horrified reaction to the refining station in s1e11. After all, if it’s the substance of life, harvesting it in masse as the empire is... well, imagine if all of those canisters were full of blood.

This also implies some fascinating things about the rift between worlds, which... roughly, as far as I gather, the implication is that the rift is effectively a sea of quintessence, whose so far only known landmark is the Rift Entity that swims freely within it, and every individual reality is a closed microcosm nestled inside of that rift, with the rift acting as a barrier or boundary between them, and the only thing naturally endowed with the power to cross between worlds and thus open those apertures into that liminal ocean is Voltron.

Which... raises some really, really interesting questions about this model of the universe and what this proposes for the origins of life in this setting. Because Coran’s video in s2e9, at least, the bits that we hear, imply planets themselves have a beating heart and a life cycle- that they, too, age and die, independent of their native ecosystems, and when they do, the weblums exist as planetary vultures that devour what remains of their souls, digest them, and processes them in some form to pave the way for the birth of new planets.

But if we assume all quintessence originates from the rift, and perhaps seeps into existing realities, that would imply life at all is a certain degree an alien presence- perhaps invoking a kind of Prometheus legend where at the beginning of reality, all quintessence only existed within the rift, and some sort of great breach occurred- either by Voltron, another member of its “species”, or... perhaps the “goddess” it’s implied to serve- that brought life to realities. Because whatever the Baku was, it appeared powerfully connected to quintessence given the vibrant violet glow around its nest, and controlled Luxia said some very ominous things about “it is time to return to the giver of life” that wasn’t really answered with the death of the Baku.

This is especially significant given what I discussed in a prior post about the thematic elements underlying the series on the topic of life and death. Especially given that we see quintessence in three forms: the yellow, neutral state that appears to be the body of the rift, the “primordial ocean” if you will- the cyan energy associated with Voltron, and the purple energy associated with the rift.

The only entity associated with the color purple out of Voltron is the Black Lion- specifically one who appears thematically conflated with transcending opposites, and kind of a ruler of the boundary between life and death. And both of Black’s paladins, and their answer among Sincline, are, in a way, all people who come back to this matter of ‘darkness’ and dealing with the matter of death- Zarkon, our wayward Orpheus; Shiro, who passed through a hellish experience and emerged a changed person- and Lotor, so far the only person we know who has the distinction of hailing from two different destroyed planets.

Simply- it’d seem as if there’s a sort of thematic order and entropy battle here. What we see of purple energy is that it is, by and large, destructive. It’s the consuming force that sustains Zarkon’s undeath, it appears most commonly in crackling, burning electricity or the razor-sharp cutting force of Shiro’s prosthetic. Our heroes have used it, Shiro most obviously, but Allura also used it to destroy the Komar.

But also, it cannot be harnessed easily, and without ill effect. The castle running even briefly on the energy caused lasting harm and the title of “Crystal Venom” is very evocative that the violet energy was as unto a poison in the castle’s veins. Alfor’s AI, afflicted by it, gave in to despair, turned manipulative and cruel, and tried to kill Allura and the rest of the paladins.

We also have so far yet to see galra healing pods, or any sort of restorative thing using the purple energy that the empire favors. If anything, the abundance of prosthetics and that Zarkon took months to recover between Haggar reviving him in s3e7 and his retaking the throne in s4e1 would suggest the empire is miles behind its ancient enemy when it comes to medicine.

And where does Altea vastly exceed the empire? In healing, and in defense. The empire’s shields are a joke compared to the undiluted glory of the Castleship who so far in the plot has yet to take a direct hit because its shield is so damn durable. Again, the implication is clear- there are two underlying forces in the universe of Voltron. The blue Order, and the violet Entropy.

This implies some very interesting things about Voltron and the rift entity- that the two are, in a way, natural enemies. That their conflict vastly predates their respective appearances on Daibazaal, and their alignment with various people at the scene of that impact.

That Sincline, ultimately, is destined to fall on Voltron’s side of this conflict- it is an inherently Order-aligned being by its obvious blue lighting, a color scheme it shares with Lotor- who it is not an exaggeration to say, at bare minimum Lotor’s pragmatism and concern with the stability of the empire means he could never really follow and believe in the entropic worldviews of his parents.

But also, in a way, this is obvious- because the whole point of Voltron, and presumably of Sincline, if it operates the same way as its “older sibling”- is to achieve harmony and order among five very different components. Solidarity is born of knowing, conscious, mutual unity.

[huma888podcast]

Aural Assembly: Artistic Statement

Aural Assembly: Echoing Life-Worlds

Interdisciplinary research requires not only the transgression of different fields of study, but can be viewed as the very questioning of the relation of subject and object, self and other, of concept and affect, in the active pursuit of knowledge and understanding.

Pairing the exploration of ephemerality as a way to engage and expand the relationship of interdisciplinarity, with soundscapes in a non-narrative and non-linear style, a podcast can become not only the discussion of a subject by means of words and discourse, but an (albeit short) engagement with relationality and aurality as epistemology itself. Recording soundscapes of our direct environment, pairing these with elements of found sounds, recordings of media or occasional poetics creates the fruitful tension of inference and interferences: at once an argument or idea is carried forward (to infer) in the modes of listening and sense-making as logocentric animals trying to gauge and utilize, to understand and categorize sound; while the idiosyncrasies of sound, its incidental and fleeting nature in the cycles of occurrence, reoccurrence and rhythmic breakages create interferences and epistemic-noise. Aurality that disregards “sense” for the current timespace of listening, unique and again living only in relation of subject and object, turning ephemeral, dissipating once the experiences cease to occur but binding in a transformative mode of kairos.

In creating different “Assignments” the group explored the ability of sound-making and recording as a means to engage with each other's life-worlds. That is, the active and sounding environment of one's own individual hearing and listening (passive/active), shimmering between specificity and everyday similarities. The group’s makeup creates a unique line of interferences/ inferences: taking up the theme of research and life during the CoViD 19 pandemic; listening through different levels of lockdown and protests across the political spectrum; hearing three different countries and through four different sonic approaches; listening to each other and understanding each other stretch over space, positionality and academic backgrounds. This might sound like interference as in a simple game of broken telephone, trying to echo and reiterate common themes and auditory cues, but it also builds a different relation to a shared life-world and mutual aural existence. For instance, we went from childhood memories to experiences of colorism, mothering and loss to political outrage within the span of two creation cycles.

Our aim is not only to create an intimacy within our group and our individual works, but to explore sub themes within the overarching focus on soundscapes during the pandemic, and in so doing resonate with the listeners of the podcast. Taking up these different relationalities, sounds (and soundscapes) as non-verbal communications of lived timespace can bridge the divides between us as powerful actors, creating a living narrative for listeners to follow. The self will always be inscribed in the recordings, incidents and editing might flow apart or together in the listening experiences of the audience, with their own relation being born in the process of encountering the piece at hand. In these movements the idea of static messages becomes alleviated and transformative: the affective nature of sound, the shaping of pure energy paired with the ability to communicate distilled emotion and situatedness via sounds, creates an active knowing for us and the listeners in turn. In creating a cohesive fifteen-minute experience while also enlarging this with our research work in the form of a Tumblr, padlet and soundcloud sites, references and textual resources become available while giving the listeners the agency to deepen and completely transform their own trajectory – giving the possibility to create their personal  “podcast” of sorts.

Post-scriptum: in entering the editing process for this 15 min montage, we came upon more than one ethical crisis. What had first been delineated as spaces, started to feel like rifts, then chasms. Questions of collectivity came through in questioning leadership, representativity, agency and choice. What does it mean for us to highlight violence? When does editing out become harsh, brutal even? Are we sublimating dissonance when advocating for unity? What does letting go mean for in fact wanting to hold on, tighter? We spoke louder across these distances, as if asking the same question over again: can you hear me. For some of us this has begun to feel like so much more than a project. It is about life under COVID. It is assembly, and it is dispersal.

What you are listening to is ultimately one take among many.

Subtheme Jayanthan Sriram: Breathing in Times of CoViD

As an academic working on olfaction and the epistemic value of smells, working with sound encompasses the making and disintegration of these relations via ephemerality. Following a modal anthropology as proposed by Francois Laplantine, while olfaction and smelling things break the relation in a mode of internalization, the inextricability of sounding-self and sounding-other(ness), sound and listening perpetuate similar delimitations of hearing and sounding, being in sound, sound itself and dealing with the eventfulness of something that is mostly regarded as the antithesis to knowledge formations of visuality and written language.

The exploration of olfaction via sound becomes an issue of translatability. A common denominator of sound and smell, however, is the air we breathe. The simplicity of an autonomous action, one that builds the very essence of bodily existence, becomes messy and contested during the pandemic and beyond. As protests for Black Lives repeat the dying words of those lives taken by executive force, “I Can't Breathe” turns to the disillusioned notion of those that feel their freedom pressured and their sovereignty questioned by lockdown regulations. Air and the common air we breathe becomes a contested field: The medium of an airborne virus and therefore the probable health hazard, the lived necessity taken by racist actions and the perceived source of defiance against the confines of state regulation and obscure power interested in leaning into conspiracies against white and western supremacy. Can a recording of this struggle for breath make sense of the times, or serve as the mere invitation for understanding the divides that have taken a different turn during a pandemic? Can a moment like the one we are living, that attacks the very nature of relating to one another, bring insight into connections of communities and society that have been under attack all along?

List of audio used:

Spoken excerpt: Wilkerson, Isabel (2020), Caste - The Lies That Divide Us. London: Penguin Books. p. 18.

Excerpts of Anti-COVID Regulation Demos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr1YyrolRZY (Courtesy of Spiegel TV) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf7fRGI_7eo (Courtesy of BILD)

Recordings of Guitar and Voice by Jayanthan Sriram

Excerpt from The Simpsons “Boy-Scoutz´n the Hood” (1993) and “Lisa´s Rival” (1994). Courtesy of FOX.

Excerpt of “Lil Diamond Boy” by Lil Yachty from Lil Boat 3.5 (2020). Courtesy of Capital / Quality Control.

Excerpt of “Many Jewels Surround the Crown” by Prurient from Bermuda Drain (2011). Courtesy of Hydra Head Records.

Excerpt of “Sleeping In” by Jesu from Terminus (2020). Courtesy of Avalanche Records.

Excerpt of “Between The World and Me” (2020), directed by Kamilah Forbes. Courtesy of Warner Media / HBO

Subtheme Amanda Gutierrez: Walking as a collective in Times of CoViD

Voice over:

Judith Butler's text, Gender Politics and the Right to Appear (2015), informed my work about the meaning of collective walking in the public space as a political alliance. In her book, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, she exposes the concept of "we" as a collective body that spatially voices the challenges of exclusion that have been experienced under conditions of oppression. For Butler, the performative action of taking public space as an act of resistance and solidarity reads as follows:

Each "I" brings the "we" along as he or she enters or exits that door, finding oneself in an unprotected enclosure or exposed out there on the street. We might say that there is a group, if not an alliance, walking there, too, whether or not they are anywhere to be seen. It is, of course, a singular person who walks there, who takes the risk of walking there, but it is also the social category that traverses that particular gait and walk, that singular movement in the world; and if there is an attack, it targets the individual and the social category at once. (2015, p. 51-52)

Thus, the idea of "walking with with" is a crucial tool for collective recognition and a performative act of enunciation, an act of speech that we can exercise in space. As a filmmaker, the virtual space could be an extension of the public space, an intersection that I am trying to find in these soundscapes.

However, how can we do it from the interior of our houses? Keeping us safe from being infected by a virus?

I did this performative exercise, please join me interacting with the sound:

Experiment on aural performance, can be heard in the minute 12:17 on the soundtrack.

Subtheme Koby Rogers Hall: Life and Death in Reproductive Labour

In the seminal book Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development and People, the authors argue for an interpretation of disaster as a complex process that is socially, politically, environmentally and economically constructed, as opposed to an event caused by an external agent (Bankoff, Frerks & Hilhorst, 2013). Correspondingly, the concept of “structural vulnerability” is used within the social sciences as a method to analyze the varying capacities of communities to deal with hazards, based on their social positionality; vulnerabilities result from an individual’s position within local hierarchies and broader power relationships. This approach to vulnerability differs greatly from others that seek to naturalize an individual’s ability to cope as a result of internal causes. 

(Henaway, 2020)

MY WORKING WILL BE THE WORK.

- Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Manifesto for Maintenance Art

The soundscapes work of the past four months has been an experiment in sounding, listening, and wondering, of being heard in a time of being unseen. As Dwayne Donald (2012) unravels in his work on a decolonizing research sensibility, our stories are held in tension as they display relationality and difference around difficult concerns. “The line which a story follows is not straight, logical, step by step. It varies from life to life. Most often, it zigzags, as if seeking out the spot for a breakthrough” (Novak, 1978, p.53).

In this year since my first child’s birth, a year of pandemic, of public outcry, of climate crisis on an ever-consuming scale, the violence of inequities for those of us who recognise them well have been forced to the forefront of our being. They say this economic crisis is ‘different’, in that it will set mothers back a generation between care work and the loss of any employment gains (Cohen, 2020; Adams-Prassl, 2020). As I do another load of diapers in what is essentially a broken laundry machine – having been asked to bear far beyond its load capacity - I am reminded of how my dreams of late feel so disjointed, and that disruption feels so familiar. “Everything I say is art is art. Everything I do is Art is Art.” (Ukeles, 1969, p.2).

The rage in the quietude is palpable. And so in sounding with my colleagues across locations, in conversing across ‘tasks’ we have given each other, I see the juxtaposition of our daily reproductive lives and labour. There are gaps between two sounds, two spaces, and we are left to negotiate in relation to this empty space. We are asked to “hold these understandings in tension without the need to resolve, assimilate, or incorporate” (Donald, 20102, p.534). The distances I feel from the people I organise with are felt stronger and stronger every day – mothering and organising, worker and consumer, the privilege of working and so feeling remotely. These distinct fields are not only removed from one another, but they further vulnerabilise us, structurally, by making the vast expanses already between us viscerally clear. When Judith Butler asks if precarity can be a unifying force, what do we risk losing in this assumption of unity? What are these soundscapes ‘trying to do’, if not be seen, then heard? Are we, am I, in fact grievable? (Butler, 2015, p.47).

A distanced visit with a friend and organiser tells me of ‘essential workers’, immigrant and migrant workers, demonstrating daily during the pandemic because they have to. In their words, “I have to be here, otherwise people will let me die.” (Henaway, in conversation, June 2020). Linda Tuhiwai Smith asserts that we need to think of research methodology as resistance, “a thoughtful engagement with these contradictions by providing a way to plan, conceptualize, strategize, and make cogent various forms of resistance to the logic of colonialism.” (1999, p.38) For those of us who are made to feel expendable, the ones who show up when the shit hits the fan, we know who we are – this is a moment of dignity and overflowing rage. With death comes endings, and as the contours of this world face their own forms of decay, there are those of us at the edges who find comfort in this, knowing that we breathe life anew.

Sub-theme Raphaëlle Bessette-Viens: feeling around

“What does your life sound like?” I asked you. “It sounds a bit like this, here, listen …” And when we listened to each other I felt my boredom, anxiousness and loneliness was shared. Some of us thought it was an ideal period to work, others felt too dispersed to concentrate properly. Micro social spheres; partners, children. A few times we shared being surrounded by collective appearing bodies; some skeptical or paranoid when they disbelieved the existence of the virus, some out of collective outrage when black bodies continued being assaulted by police officers.

Fear. Around me concern for sustaining life amidst an overwhelmed medical system co-exists with the perpetuation of fear of the ‘stranger’ (Ahmed, 2014): police violence, the criminilization of anti-islamophobic organisations, the expulsion and chasing of undocumented persons into invisibility. Being inside, feeling non-apparent. The aggregation of bodies that collect together in order to state their existence (Butler, 2015), to which I belong to, is in intermission. Spilling over. There was a protest and I saw all those familiar faces I hadn't seen in a while and walked and screamed and sang with them. Anger and happiness overlapped.

Affective contagion (Stewart, 2007, p.16). When I heard you say you were feeling anxious, and that you were having a hard time with distanced communication, it made me feel it was okay to say it too. I edited-in my piece that I gave back to you, to signify it. Did you hear it? Echoing. “... hmm that reminds me of”; the surfacing of a thought or a memory. Hearing your child made me think of me as a child and then I learned about your childhood. I heard the sounds of our bodies in our confined spaces, in relation with others in this space, in relation with the exterior world by mediation, being called-in to your world with your voices. Our echoes felt like intimate refrains: “(…) repetition that underscores, overscores, rescores in a social aesthetics (…)” (Stewart, 2010, p.339). We worked together, as Guattari suggests, with ways closer to the ethico-aesthetic than of scientificism (1995). Aggregating, week after week, our soundscapes and our thoughts, we practiced our attunement to one another, to our collective. “What does your life sound like right now?”

List of references

Adams-Prassl, A.,  Boneva, T., Golin, M., Rauh, C. (2020). Inequality in the Impact of the Coronavirus Shock: Evidence from Real Time Surveys. Cambridge-INET Working Paper Series, (18)

Ahmed, S. (2014). The Cultural Politics of Emotion (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Bankoff, G., Frerks, G., Hilhorst, D. (Eds.). (2013). Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development and People. New York: Routledge.

Bertelsen, L., Murphie, A. (2010). An ethics of everyday infinities and powers: Felix Guattari on affect and the refrain. In Gregg, M., J. Seigworth, G. (Eds.). The affect theory reader (1st ed. pp. 138-157). London and Durham: Duke University Press.

Butler, J. (2015). Gender politics and the right to appear. In Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly (pp. 24–65). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Cohen, P. (2020, Nov. 19). Recession with a Difference: Women Face Special Burden. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/business/economy/women-jobs-economy-recession.html

Donald, D. (2012). Indigenous Métissage: a decolonizing research sensibility. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 25(5), 533-555.

Guattari, F. (1995). Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm (Bains, P., Pefanis, J., Trans.) Sydney: Power. (Original work published 1992)

Jenkins, H., Ford, S., Green, J. (2013). Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture. New York: NYU City Press.

Henaway, M. (2020). The Borders that Define our Vulnerability. Terms, semi-annual program. Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University. http://ellengallery.concordia.ca/programming/online/terms/?lang=en

Howes, D. (2003). Sensual relations. Engaging the senses in culture and social theory. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Howes, D. (ed.) (2005). Empire of the senses. The sensual culture reader. Oxford & New York: Berg.

Laplantine, F. (2015). The life of the senses, Introduction to a modal anthropology (Furniss. J. Trans.). London: Bloomsbury. (Original work published 2005)

Novak, M. (1978). Ascent of the mountain, flight of the dove: An invitation to religious studies. New York: Harper & Row.

Reynolds, S. (2011). Retromania. Pop culture's addiction to its own past. London: Faber and Faber Ltd.

Smith, L.T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples. Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago Press.

Stewart, K. (2007). Ordinary affects. London and Durham: Duke University Press.

Stewart, K. (2010). Afterword, Worlding refrains. In Gregg, M., J. Seigworth, G. (Eds.). The affect theory reader (1st ed. pp. 339-353). London and Durham: Duke University Press.

Ukeles, M.L. (1969). Manifesto for maintenance art, 1969! Proposal for an exhibition: “care”, 1969.

Voegelin, S. (2010). Listening to sound and silence. Towards a philosophy of sound art. London, New York: Continuum.

[projectquhere]

Updates: Research and Meetings

I attended two events critical to the development of my project over this week. Read them below the break. 

Firstly, I went to an event called “Queering the Virtual Experience: Challenging Heteronormativity in Virtual Spaces”, in which Neill Chua, a queer designer and graduate from the graduate program of my major described his process when designing his thesis. He built a virtual reality voguing simulator using Unity that is playable using an oculus rift and a keyboard. My biggest takeaway was the quotes and definitions Chua used to inform his design. 

When discussing what makes a space “queer”, Chua pulled from the theories of Aaron Betsky, who wrote Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire. In his work, he writes “by its very nature, queer space is something that not built, only implied, and usually invisible. Queer spaces do not confidently establish a clear, ordered space for itself... it is altogether more ambivalent, open, self-critical... and ephemeral” (bolded for emphasis). Additionally, Chua described the ideas of Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner, whose work Sex in Public surrounds the concept of challenging heteronormativity.The goal of their research is to “describe... radical aspirations of queer culture building: not just a safe zone but queer sex, but the changed possibilities of identity, intelligibility, publics, culture, and sex that appear when the heterosexual couple is no longer the referent or the privileged example of sexual culture” (bolded for emphasis).  The former quote justifies the creation of a “queer” safe space - a space is queer because it is implied to be queer. This allows gay bars, gyms, clubs, and safe spaces to exist - they’re not necessarily “designed” to be gay, nor are the objects and structures that build those spaces particularly gay by nature. The inhabitants, use of, and energy of that space makes it gay. Those who exist in the space (and outside of the space) agree to the queerness of it. To me, this explains why many gay people sometimes get frustrated when parties of straight people enter a gay bar (especially if the straight people are rude or feel entitled to special treatment). While straight people can enter gay bars, there in a social contract implied upon entering that the inhabitants of the bar will respect the safety, autonomy, and expression of non-heterosexual, non-heteronormative concepts. Groups of heteronormative people, or especially cisgender people who feel entitled to special treatment or to gaze the “spectacle of the gays” destabilize the queerness invisibly imbued into the space. Because of this, I am more confident expressing that the safe spaces I create are meant for queer people. Many people have asked “what makes a VR space gay - can’t everyone just benefit from using your idea?”, and my response has been that it’s not necessarily a gay space, but a regular space made by and for gay people that I’m requesting that non-queer people don’t use. With Betsky’s definition in mind, I am more confident saying “It is gay because it is implied to be gay, just like most gay spaces are - by creating this space as someone who is queer, and designing it with the needs of various differently-queer people in mind, I’m implying that it is queer - and even though the quality is invisible, it deserves to be treated with respect and autonomy from non-queer people and its queer inhabitants alike.” The second quote explores the multitude of possibilities when society does not privilege heteronormativity, and it helps me understand how to frame my idea if asked how it is “child-friendly”. Yes, sexuality and gender are concepts that are linked to sex - but there are so many structures in the world that are also influenced by gender and sexuality, including identity as a whole, culture, public spaces and behavior, and forms of communication, social interaction, and even education. I would argue that queer needs for safety differ than heteronormative needs for safety - I could point to statistics about hate crimes as an example, but preliminary responses of a survey I created about safety show differences in the responses of straight/cis and non-straight and/or non-cis people [link to data analysis when I am comfortable with the number of responses]. If we privilege the heteronormative needs for safety and heteronormative safe spaces (or  architecture and design in general that privilege heteronormative lifestyles and structures), we lose the ability to better understand a wide range of ways of living, and we lose the ability to meet the basic human needs of safety and security for queer populations.

Secondly, I met with a professor on the floor in which my program is hosted who has experience developing games for VR within Unity. I showed him this blog (with models and theory), and I told him what I was struggling with the most (technical skills for VR in Unity). He gave great advice regarding achieving my goals with my limited technical skills within the short timeframe of the rest of the semester. 

To be specific, my original concept would involve moving objects accessible through an inventory around a scene to create a virtual space that created a sense of safety. I’ve been trying to tone down the scope and to pull from designers who consider a small space and limited interactions - experiences like Daily Life VR: Poop (only interaction is gaze and touch-based cartoon poop generation), Love Boat (a scene in which a user rides a love boat through a visual retelling of the creation of a cult), and Draw Me Close (an experience using both VR characters and “reactive actors” to give physical sensation to VR experiences - like being hugged or tucked into bed). So the concept I brought to this professor was a bit smaller scale - it would be a premade room, but with the ability to access an inventory to add onto it.

He gave the advice of using a tile-based system. I lit up because that’s perfect for what my project’s needs are. My prototype will be developed toward my needs/desires for safety, so I am 3D modeling totems that represent safety for me, but creating a premade room with specific tiles in which a specific, small range of items can go still allows users to be creative and have ownership over their space, but it avoids certain issues with rendering diegetic UI, file size, object manipulation at runtime, object manipulation in VR with a first person camera. It also limits the scope in a constructive way.

I will be posting a new model tomorrow, and I have a meeting with another professor with VR development experience to work on some technical skills to bring my vision to life.