🏎️✨The Nexialist #0116

hawthorn effect | digital esoterism | passed by me | substitution | candle flame | therapy speaking | copilot | allowed to f*** up | enjoy your life | elixir angel

Apr 13, 2023

welcome to another week of fabulous links by a cyber flâneur, the nexialist

hello, you! i hope this e-mail finds you ~~[as a coincidence from the algorithmic gods]~~. this week we’ll get a bit spiritual, a bit artificial, a lot musical and a bit nonsensical. read until the end for all of that.

these pasts weeks i’ve been experimenting with AI to help me with my work and also other ideas i’m having. here are some things i’ve been feeling, which is basically a constant ~~hype~~ cycle (or roller coaster):

🤯awe: i can’t believe it created this text/image
🤩excitement: wow, it is quite impressive, i can’t deny it. i’ll just test a lot of things with it.
😰but wait… this thing could actually replace me? i also feel i can get dependent on this very easily.
🫠nahh… most of the links are made up (really), and even though i’m being very descriptive, it is not quite understanding everything i say. but it can still be my sidekick.
🤓i’m learning how to ask better questions/give better prompts/develop my vocabulary, and better think about what i’m after. also, the results trigger new ideas and questions in the process, which i might have overlooked before.

now, enjoy 🫀

Buy Me a Coffee? ☕️

👁️hawthorn effect

the Hawthorne effect occurs when people behave differently because they know they are being watched. It can affect all sorts of behaviours such as dietary habits, or hygiene practices because these have considerable opportunity for instantaneous modification.

i was so satisfied to learn that there is a name for this phenomenon. personally, if a camera comes in the room, i immediately start moving differently, unconsciously. but i was looking for this term as more related to digital technologies all around us. what happens to our spontaneity when we feel like we’re being watched the whole time?

🔮digital esoterism

A couple of weeks ago i visited the stedelijk museum with my friend raquel, and ginevra petrozzi’s work stayed with me (even though i did not see her performance.) just the text on the floor (transcribed below) and this tarot table with room for ~~cards~~ phones, mixing the esoteric with the digital, resonated with me. sometimes i catch myself attributing (and then questioning) virtual coincidences and synchronicities: is it still luck if it was sent by an algorithm? petrozzi’s work reminded me of byung-chul han’s disappearance of rituals and his thoughts on smartphones as a digital confessional (tn#44). in the museum’s link you can watch her doing the digital esoteric performance with her mother, who passed away a few months later.

The practice of Digital Esoterism entails a total reconsideration of the predictions of your personal algorithm. By entering this space, through the Disclaimer entrance, you are accepting all the terms and conditions of the space. The digital witch will have access to your smartphone’s automated predictions, such as Targeted Ads, Suggested for you posts, For you page suggestions, Picked for you articles, predictive keyboard words and emojis, Spam Email, Suggested Follows. All the information you share with the digital witch will not be shared to third parties, except the ones that are already using your Data on your smartphone when entering the space. At any moment, you can decide to end the session, or to not show specific contents to the digital witch. When receiving and analyzing your content, the digital witch join the knowledge on the symbology of Tarot, together with what the querent sees and feels. By using the knowledge accumulated through Tarot readings, the digital witch can make parallels and connections with the symbology of visual predictions usually produced by the most dowloaded apps and platforms. The readings can be as long as you desire, feel or need, to be able to unfold any question you may have regarding your digital or physical self. The space of Digital Esoterism has no commercial interest in you information, nor will it showcase it without your approval. The readings from the digital witch are completely private, and consider the choice of what you want to share as the most important requirement. The digital witch has no right to touch your phone, which represents the embodiment of your digital self, unless you clearly ask them to do so. You have the choice of everything that happens inside of the space.

🔨passed by me

one of this year’s most anticipated albums, yaeji’s with a hammer, came out this week, and it’s SO GOOD. i don’t get tired of saying she’s one of the coolest artists at the moment. in this video, i also felt a spirigital vibe, in a trippy ritual where she goes into another dimension and meets with herself. the ritualisitic imagery reminded me of agnes’ spiritual disco (tn#43). the part below really stayed with me, as i constantly have to remind myself that my inner child needs my care.

♪ (do you remember your childhood) ♪
너의 모습 너의 생각들
♪ what you looked like, what thoughts you’ve carried ♪
♪ Do you know that that person is still ♪
♪ Do you know that that person is still
inside of you waiting for you to notice? ♪

“Yaeji’s debut channels a lifetime’s worth of anger into an airy blend of synth-pop, jazz, techno, and ambient. It’s a generous, understated exploration of rage as a source of creative renewal.” —Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Pitchfork

👯substitution

well, these guys are making such danceable bops, and i couldn’t help but click when i saw such an odd title. got me thinking not only of this substitution fear of being replaced by AI, but also how we have this obsession with substituting the one new shiny thing for the next one. we do it a lot with new technologies, and many times it is not the best way to go.

🕯️candle flame

we love jungle and their dance crew, and this choreography made me think of the human-machine interaction conversation. usually, they have looser movements, and this time they are all doing the dancing machine with such grace and beauty. it reminded me of ontological design, or this idea that “everything that we design, in turn, designs us back” (tn#3). not only the way we speak and think, but also dance.

🤖therapy speaking

so apparently, this post from bustle went viral (or just kept popping up in different feeds), and i could not help but wonder if these people were using AI to write their boundary-setting/friendship-breakup messages:

“I’m in a place where I’m trying to honor my needs and act in alignment with what feels right within the scope of my life, and I’m afraid our friendship doesn’t seem to fit in that framework,” the friend wrote. “I can no longer hold the emotional space you’ve wanted me to, and think the support you need is beyond the scope of what I can offer.”

they call it therapy-talk: the lingo we learn in therapy or tiktok-therapy. in one hand, we have better vocabularies to advocate for ourselves and our needs. on the other hand, we might lack compassion, and empathy.

read: Is Therapy-Speak Making Us Selfish? - Bustle

🏎️copilot

thank you, Pierre, for sharing this. belén aguilera is a spanish pianist who is also an online creator, and i’m actually enjoying a lot of her music. another y2k realness for us to enjoy.

🖕🏻allowed to f*** up

repeat (and dance) with me the mantra: “i’m allowed to fuck up whenever i want.” mura masa released this super cool song and video as an ode to fucking up and making mistakes. i see a parallel with yaeji’s anger release for creativity. maybe it’s a moment of reckoning with our “bad emotions?”

🪩enjoy your life

romy’s new song and video are everything you need. another mantra to remember. my grandmother says the same to me, also adding: do not care about what other people say, they don’t pay your bills, and do what you want.

💎elixir angel

i know, perfume commercials are so tacky, but wow, something happened inside me when i watched this one. starring hunter schafer, with charli xcx music, space-theme and this sailor-moon-inspired mugler transformation.

see you next week, angels ☄️

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