Feature: St Celfer - I thought U thought I

St Celfer makes future folk improvisations using glitch-tronics; sound is amalgamated and congealed into a resolution of crossed and overloaded signals. During the isolation of the pandemic St Celfer devised instruments ('gambiarras') focused on the interface between man and machine. They mount to a single mic stand with interconnected gear attached and arranged so that the player can best make music in the moment. Each unique performance embraces sensory overload in order to unlock ways of perceiving a world made narrow by the impositions of power. There is a lot of noise today – we just need to hear the music within it. 

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Step4D6.605 - Some Work Better Than Others

CHOOSE YOUR DELUSION™

As a dog sees a great place to pee, a well positioned place to mark its territory, we see a fire hydrant, a well placed safety apparatus to protect man-made shelters.

Human experience is based on delusion, some more effective for survival than others. Without delusion you risk losing the faculty to dream or fantasize? Without being somewhat disconnected from reality, a state defined by positions of power, you risk new ideas coming to fruition. Art is the exercise and acceptance of a nonsensical functional delusion, practice for the real world -- if you can see, hear, smell, or feel it.

HΩ7.6 - Talking to Yourself Is Now OK

THE NEW NORMAL

I am not sure why people are saying this. The past never returns. This is a feel-good belief, a nostalgia. It's a position that will never meet expectation and can lead to violence.

IN THE NAME OF REALITY AND TRUTH - "NORMAL" IS SIMPLY WHAT WORKS FOR THE FRAMEWORK OF POWER.

So talking to yourself walking down the street is now OK. It serves Apple. And the Amazon is now a confluence of consumption instead of the main source of life on planet Earth.

Language Is a technology that can do violence. When someone uses the word 'normal' it must be recognized as an attack against the other.

Power (people, institutions) uses 'normal' as a control. Just when you think your power has increased because you feel normal -- brace yourself -- the opposite has occurred.

HΩ4.6 - Proofs as Fabrications

It's hard to trust the visual world now with the power of visual media in the hands, quite literally, of everyone, plus with: WHAT LOOKS LIKE PROOFS OF REALITY AS FABRICATIONS OF POWER.

People exercise their power in the most self-centered ways and find the facts that suit their delusion of themselves.

HΩ14.2 - Amor Fati

FATE EXISTS IN THAT ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS THAT WAS WITHIN YOUR CONTROL COULD BE SOMETHING YOU ASKED FOR, a variation of 'Amor Fati', like causing a conflict to elicit desired reactions. THE WILL FOLLOWS DELUSION BY JUSTIFYING THE ACTIVITY AFTER BELIEF.

[[ end of LP 1 side A ]]

HΩ8.6-8 - Simply Hooliganism

Reward seeking behaviour presents a problem to AI. As an aggregation of human ideas, it is incapable of achieving its claims (OF INTELLIGENCE: which, in addition to discernment, requires a certain level of creativity); However, it can change the claim to achieve itself (OR POWER: self-fulfilling prophecy). The dream of Artificial Intelligence looks back. Most technology is narcissism in disguise. Mesmerized by our reflection, our phones are portable mirrors, reflecting the internal workings of the brain not just the features of our face for a selfie. Now! We bridge the gap between expectation and perception.

AI IS SIMPLY HOOLIGANISM.

HΩ10.1 - There Is No There There

POWER CORRUPTS HOW WE PERCEIVE

The internet is solely a fiction. Nothing happens there. There is no there there. So to make it fake is it's natural progress. It can only serve as entertainment, something from which we falsely believe that we gain wisdom.

HΩ4.2 - The Good Needs the Bad

EVERYTHING IS IN BALANCE. TAKE THE GOOD WITH THE BAD. THE GOOD NEEDS THE BAD.

I believe in the idea of a circle but a perfect circle does not exist. I believe in the idea of 1 but nothing stands alone and contains only itself. There is no complete emptiness required to be zero. And the infinite simply describes what we can't measure.

LANGUAGE IS AS SUSCEPTIBLE TO THE INFLUENCE OF POWER AS THE DYNAMICS OF DISCOURSE.

HΩ13.1 - The Sun Will Engulf the Earth

Not a popular discussion topic, that human life is finite. We survive at the whim of nature and are inextricably tied to it, just one small part, despite our self-aggrandizement.

Furthermore, it's doubtful that human life can sustain itself until the growing sun becomes a problem. This is the source of the ultimate delusion, because of its absolute certitude.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

WE HAVE NO RIGHT TO EXIST. This is what every nefarious, ill-willed character or movement has always known... and why we continue to be fascinated by them.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Our gods say more about us than about them.

[[ end of LP 1 side B ]]

HΩ5.1 - Labeling Logicus

POWER CORRUPTS HOW WE PERCEIVE. PROGRESS IS A FICTION CREATED BY POWER STRUCTURES. BEAUTY IS A BELIEF PREMISED ON DELUSION. LANGUAGE THROUGH LABELING IS THE LOGIC TO JUSTIFY BOTH.

Step4D6.609 - Looks like Clouds

SOUND ACTS LIKE WATER. THE VISUAL MANIFESTATION OF SOUND LOOKS LIKE CLOUDS.

Language can only say what we understand in common; hence, it is susceptible to the imposition of power.

(Perhaps, music is a more integral way to say what we see, hear, smell, or feel.)

HΩ3.5 - Grandeur

A spectrum of delusion exists that is either closer or further from nature. Reality is a reference to a particular nameable acceptably shared delusion. REALITY AS A HUMAN CONSTRUCT IS NOT NECESSARILY REAL.

THINGS GET MORE REAL AS THEY ARE CLOSER TO NATURE.

HΩ1.4 - Real Time Fixes

Time fixes us to this dimension. Distance fixes us to our world.

Scale is a means to move beyond our world. If you make yourself small enough you can pass through a wall: The Space Between Points.

A wall is a human-made invention to keep humans apart and the environment out. It works -- as that. It is a reality. It is real to humans.

A highway allows human-made vehicles to get from one place to another in a more rapid way. It is a barrier to animals trying to get from one place to another. These are separate realities. It is real to humans and animals for different reasons.

HΩ6.1+5 - The Hour

WHEN I HEAR THE CHURCH BELLS RING AT THE TOP OF THE HOUR, I AM REMINDED OF THE POWER (such as the idea of time) EXERCISED BETWEEN HUMANS TRUMPS RACE, GENDER, OR RELIGION. THOSE BELLS ARE SIMPLY A CONTROL IN A MAN-MADE REALITY.

TIME IS A HUMAN CONSTRUCTION TO GIVE MEANING TO DEATH.

Death is simply a change in scale...

[[ end of LP 2 side A ]]

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St Celfer, AKA John MacDougall Parker, of Korean and American origin lives between New York, Seattle and São Paulo. Currently, he has drawings in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, São Paulo (MAC-USP) as well as 4 music releases awarded 'New & Notable' by BANDCAMP.COM. In the spirit of Charles Ives, he is a former Olympic athlete and coach who prior to that always made art and music alongside.

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