The divine Drum and Lace – one of the newest additions to the Mesh music label, which I am so proud to work for – hosted a spectacular session titled simply “Solstice, Solidarity, Synthesis” at the Old Church in Stoke Newington last week. This incredibly moving night of deep, experimental, and – dare I say it – angry ambient music raised funds for the charity @mermaidsgender, who help transgender children through all their struggles.
And why can’t ambient music be angry – and shouldn’t we all be angry? The totalitarian persecution of trans people isn’t just heartless and petty – it’s just the first step. If Trump and the Tories want to punish them for being themselves, it’s just the first step: next it will be immigrants, then queer folk, and then everyone else. Including, just imagine it, you.
So what could be more poignant than an ode to trans rights in a church – a building which traditionally hosted homophobic and misogynistic rants.
As I have said before:
“I always say, I loathe religion – but I adore cathedrals.
If you want more on my opinion on the offensiveness of churches, here a rant I defy you to argue with:
If you’re still impressed by the insufferably bland art created by Dall-E, Midjourney and other soulless machines that just plagiarise real creativity, you’ve clearly never taken the time to truly appreciate human craftsmanship using clay, stone… and wood.
Wood is an unparalleled, complex material that took three billion years to evolve. As a zoologist and a carpenter’s daughter, I could not be more impressed by wood than anyone.
Japan House’s Craft of Carpentry exhibit, showcasing Japanese woodwork in exquisite, nerdy detail, was something else. From the detailed saws laid out at the start, to the jigsaws we could put together ourselves, to the huge structures created with *no nails*… this got 15/10.
Behold The Herds, a mobile collective of elephants, giraffes, gorillas and antelope puppets.
Crafted from cardboard, newspapers, plywood, and the human imagination, these are slowly making their way from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Arctic Circle in an artistic stunt from The Walk Productions, designed to bring attention to how climate change will force the world’s animals – including, by the way, humans – to migrate huge and often insurmountable distances. More pics and videos on my Instagram account (where I put most photos, as the dictators at WordPress won’t allow me to post videos here).
Brought to us by the same team who created Little Amal, an enormous and brilliant puppet designed to bring attention to the migrant crisis.
I’m best known for my work related to drugs and music – but anyone who knows me well knows I started my career as a specialist on environmental issues. And anyone who knows me well knows I am beyond bored of CGI or AI graphics, but I ADORE handmade puppets and claymation. So The Herd gets 10/10 (despite the annoying staff constantly telling us to just get out of the way). I’d never make the effort to go to Stratford’s horrific mall unless it was to see something like this.
And though public art might not seem like the most grandiose way to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and climate change… one could easily argue this puppet parade did a lot more than any UN COP ever has. At least this was beautiful. And I didn’t feel I had wasted my time.
Most poignant for me: seeing the animals dismantled at the end, lying in a puppet graveyard.
I will never not be proud to be #reepsone’s collaborator. And, more importantly, his friend.
Reeps is an internationally renowned beatboxer and multimedia artist, named by f’ing TIME Magazine as one of the world’s most influential people in AI.
(Take *that* Sam Altman and every other tech twat who push nefarious bots on us without our knowledge or consent.)
I first worked with this one-of-a-kind human being in 2011 at a muddy music festival, where he beatboxed with a metal oscilloscope I’d built with #stevemouldscience to show the shape of sound. Back then he was a cute little kid from Walthamstow who had won national beatboxing competitions. As Rahzel #rahzelandrootsdisciples adorably put it, “He’s the beatboxing Eminen!”
Now Reeps is a world famous virtuoso, who has performed at Davos, the WEF and countless other world class platforms.
His biggest passion: the human voice, which he accurately describes as a beautiful gift all of us possess, even if we don’t know it. “So many people say things like ‘I don’t like the sound of my own voice,’” he observed. “But your own voice is unique – and as complex as a John Coltrane track.” He’s right.
I’ve seen the work before – but this time he showed us the “voices” of bees, trees, and more. Beautiful. Unparalleled.
I was surprised that he wasn’t going to be at Glastonbury that weekend. “I had the chance, but I wanted to stay in London and work on a new project,” he told me.
And *that*, ladies and gentlemen, is the sign of a true artist: Somebody who always wants to push the boundaries of what they can achieve. and show people something they’ve never seen before – rather than rolling out the same thing they’ve done a million times before.
I have spent my entire life in the music industry, and many times I’ve seen performances in Roman amphitheatres in Italy, the Royal Albert Hall in London, and for five years I worked at an old vaudeville theatre in Toronto called simply The Opera House (my second home as a student).
Well done Barcelona, and well done life. It’s always amazing when as jaded as a bitch can be, you can still be impressed by something unlike anything you’ve seen before.
London has always been my spiritual home, and my body and brain both seemed to know this from the day I was born, years before I first visited at the age of sixteen. As an aunt put it, remarking on my love for British culture – Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Glastonbury and a zillion things more: “It’s like the mothership was calling you home”.
But it’s not just the abundance of culture, wackiness, and fascinating people that called me to London – every other metropolis from New York to Tokyo has those too. There is a serenity and a humanity to London that most other heaving “world class cities” often don’t have.
I toyed with the idea that New York might be my spiritual home as a kid. I’m a writer, I’m sarcastic, and I’m feisty, so maybe I’d fit in there.
But honestly, every time I visit NY, I like it less: almost all the artists and musicians I knew have left for Baltimore or Philly, as the city is just unaffordable unless you’re a stockbroker or willing to live on peanuts in the service industry.
New York is just too dominated by the world of finance, and it’s boring. (Spoiler alert: wealth does not equate to intelligence. Just look at Musk.) Yes, London is dominated by the financial industry too, but the “vibe” (for lack of a better word) in New York now so thoroughly orbits around the uninspired pursuit of wealth alone, I truly find it intolerable. I don’t want to live in a city where it’s expected I’ll get “double salary” because I have to pay $9,600 a month for a shitty shoebox apartment.
But worst of all: THE NOISE. As a lifelong insomniac, I can barely sleep for a minute when I’m there – even in quieter neighbourhoods – I can feel the honking horns and construction racket from miles away.
London, as I put it to friends, is a city where you can go out for a filthy drug riddled night with a raucous group of boys and not go home for 48 hours. But you can just as easily stay home in a nice quiet flat, read a book, and then enjoy the next day in your garden. It has it all. Or as an American colleague put it, “London has all the things you like about New York, but not most of the things you hate about New York”.
However, there is one thing that London has always lacked, and that is a viable night life scene – by viable I mean healthy, normalised, relatively sane places to go. You can find an illegal party or a proper ticketed club to go to… but for just a chilled out bar to drink casually until the late hours, nope, those are shockingly hard to find. I grew up in Toronto, and worked at a club where we stopped serving alcohol at 2am, and then closed up fully at 3am – which to me, is normal. I was absolutely horrified to discover that ‘last call’ in this country is at 11pm, and the tube shuts at midnight. What on EARTH is this BULLSHIT, my 23 year old self thought? A nation of alcoholics where the bars shut at ELEVEN PM?! And proper transport stops at midnight? Are you TRYING to get vulnerable young women assaulted? Thank GOD we now have the Night Tube on weekends for a few lines – hooray for Sadiq Khan as always – but it will take a long time for British people to understand that it’s *normal* to be out until 2am, and you don’t *have* to down eight pints as soon as you leave the office at 5pm because you only have a short amount of time to relax.
I adore London – it will never not be home – but there is one thing that it has always lacked, and that is a viable night life scene – by viable I mean healthy, normalised, relatively sane places to go. You can find an illegal party or an expensive ticketed club… but for just a chilled out bar to drink casually until the late hours, nope, those are shockingly hard to find.
…which is why the London Night Cafe @londonnightcafe in the central neighbourhood of Aldgate – a stone’s throw from Tower Bridge – is such a breath of fresh air.
There is no dance floor, but upstairs a cozy living room with board games, a dispensary for coffee, tea, and pastries, a library – and no bar.
You can BYOB on Saturdays only, but the place was primarily designed as a sober nocturnal refuge for night owl students who want a place to work on their thesis that is less isolated and depressing than their dorm room. Somewhere a bit more cheerful and humane – where you don’t feel like a penniless outcast stuck in student halls working on a beautiful but obscure academic idea that nobody will ever read.
Here, introverted and interesting intellectuals who can’t sleep and have a lot of work to do can find each other.
… and below ground, there’s a ball pit, a “hacker’s corner”, old school video games, a soundsystem, and a huge bed large enough for 16 people (I’ll leave it up to your imagination what they get up to).
I’ve been to a few events here, but by far are the “Chill In” events put on by kickass DJ and promoter Kafn, found on Instagram at @kafn.music for his music and @its404baar for events.
All info about the Chill:In here @chill.in.chill.out/
The key word is: chill. Downtempo, relaxed, humane.
“This event is meant to engage with your creative side with different themed activities planned around every event,” says Kafn. “This place really is a haven for people who want respite from the tyranny of hectic dancefloors, but also can be supplemented to your night out as either a pre or post-rave chill space.”
Perfectly put, and I don’t think I can add anything to his excellent summary, so I won’t.
You can check out all the music from the last event on Soundcloud here
Honestly, I am afraid to sing the praises of the space and Kafn’s nights too much because I don’t want a ton of “normies” crowding into our space – because right now, this is London’s best kept secret.
I went to use the loo, wasn’t sure which one to go into as they’d taped white A4 paper over the male/female icons. Then I saw this and it made sense. Nice and equal.
Sidenote: You know, I had a boyfriend 20 years ago who always sat down to pee, which I thought was strange. But now I’ve discovered that tons of men do this.
In any case, I approve. In a perfect world, every venue would just have a long row of cubicles that all genders can use no matter what, and we’d all have to queue for the same thing. I’ve always loathed that women have to queue for ages and men get to breeze in and out. Not fair. That would equalise things.
Also – with unisex toilets, I can go into a cubicle with my male friends to do naughty things. Everyone wins.
As for the gender-toilet issue, for the uninitiated – that means, should trans women be allowed to use the female toilet? Obviously YES. Jesus. As Raanan Hershberg put it, “So many people think that if you let trans women into women’s bathrooms, there will be a loophole for predators. And if you THINK that, then that means you believe there are guys out there going “I’d Love to go into a women’s bathroom and abduct and murder someone… but unfortunately… I’m not allowed in there!”
I have a new piece in SynBioBeta about the use of synthetic biology – the use of microbes, algae and fungi to produce drugs, industrial chemicals and more – about ways to create dyes for the textile industry using beautiful, indescribably beautiful and complex biology.
A mound of biofabricated indigo pigment from Pili, a pioneering company using microbial fermentation to create sustainable textile dyes. Unlike traditional synthetic indigo, which relies on toxic chemicals like formaldehyde and cyanide, Pili’s process dramatically reduces environmental impact while maintaining the deep, rich blue that defines denim. (Photo credit: Marie-Sarah Adenis)
You might think “Well don’t we already know how to do that with things like henna and indigo?” Yes and no – there is just no way to produce dyes for the world’s textile industries from natural sources for everyone on the planet. It would be truly impossible without devouring every inch of the earth that should be used for food. Which is why for over 150 years we have come to rely on fossil fuels to make textile dyes – over *90%* of the dyes today come from oil and gas. Crazy. But the environmental harms – water pollution, soil degradation and severe human suffering (look up the harms from artificially bleached denim – enjoy) are intolerable and unsustainable. Without question, I think this new technology is the answer…
I put more time than might seem sane into this piece, and it was actually originally supposed to be part of just one piece about dyes and textiles. But in the course of my research on the fashion and textile world, I found so much information that I had to just split this into two pieces – it was too beautiful and too interesting.
I don’t normally care much about nice clothes compared to most women (despite having a mother who made beautiful garments in the 70s and 80s with her label Rags to Bitches). I’m too repulsed by the fashion industry… and I guess I’m still a TomBoy child of the 90s, where true hotness is shown with a cool personality, a hot body and more basic punk clothing.
But writing both these pieces really refreshed how I see the world of clothing and creativity…
Also – I never really thought much about how our colour vision is related to what we put on our bodies… Have a read and I think you’ll see what I mean.
Many thanks to the editors for letting me make snarky comments about Buddhism and the tech industry – delighted to be able to write with my own voice.
Last Friday I had the privilege and the pleasure of seeing the brilliant techno maestro Floating Points, who is not only a musical master, the smartypants also has a PhD in neuroscience – similar to the singular genius Max Cooper, my friend and collaborator, who has a PhD in genetics, one of the most awe inspiring subjects a human can explore to understand the true majesty of biological forms. As I always say, biology > technology.
Floating Points is a master, and like any master, he has a signature – you can spot his music as identifiably his, even if you heard it in isolation with no song credits.
But particularly riveting that evening was the art – enormous beautiful projections of swirling, hypnotic forms, cast behind him and all around us on Outernet’s giant screens. These were created by funky Japanese artist Akiko Nakayama, who used just soap, paint, a microscope, a camera and her imagination to entrance us for three straight hours with an endless, enchanting variety of mesmerising forms.
I’ve seen a lot of art like this before – I even used to programme the world famous beat-boxer Reeps One to perform alongside the cymatics of Zack Walker at music festivals. I loved this kind of art then and I am still entranced now. Nakayama’s setup was something else though – she must have had at least three dozen different fluids in test tubes to select from in her kit. I adored her setup and her style – very chill and together.
Take THAT AI proselytizers – you don’t need stupid, brainless, heartless robots that devour gargantuan amounts of energy to only barf out plagiarized versions of truly original art made by actual human beings.
All you need to create magic is cheap and simple ingredients and your imagination.
Stop underestimating the power of your brain, people, it’s infinitely more interesting than any computer could ever wish to be. Except, of course, computers can’t wish for anything – nor can they love, dream, hate, strive, or grieve. Without the “wetware” of hormones and neurotransmitters – the gloopy stuff coders think of as annoying “noise” in the data, and wish to eliminate for clean calculations and cognitions.
Those pesky biochemicals aren’t “noise” – they’re the *secret sauce*. And without them no machine can ever truly, truly, “create” in the real artistic sense of the word.
WordPress won’t let me post videos here without paying a fee, but you can see much better and clearer vids on his Youtube channel, which I repost faithfully here.
I spent a good amount of time in Los Angeles in 2015 when I was writing this piece for The Guardian about new designs in condoms (because, for some reason, many of the top condom innovators were based in LA).
And you know what? Everyone thought I’d hate LA, but I deeply enjoyed my time there and liked the city so much more than I thought I would.
I can’t drive, I hate air pollution, airheads are anathema to me, plastic surgery and body fascism are evil and uninspired… but I dug the weather, the food, the positivity, the attention to self-care, actually sleeping and enjoying two hours of yoga a day and more were refreshing compared to the nonstop adrenaline-fuelled finance-driven angry vibes of New York. As a lifelong insomniac who hasn’t slept without ear plugs in 23 years, I think I’d be dead in a couple of years from sleep dep if I lived there.
But I would happily spend a month in LA every year if I could, with the right friends in the right neighbourhood. I deeply wish I could have joined some lovely friends of mine I got into Max Cooper’s last show there in November, which looked incredible.
So naturally, like for everyone, it was shocking and heartbreaking to see these fires destroy so many places I actually recognise and innocent people’s homes. (Except James Woods, who said “Kill Them All” about Gaza. Fuck him.)
Now, it’s ten years since my visit, and in addition to seeing Musk make the Nazi salute, the uninspired AI-worshipping asshole broligarchs continue to destroy books, journalism, movies, music and art, accumulating vast undeserved wealth while they keep trying to convince us that robots can make art and music and poems just as beautifully as we can.
So I have one question for the world:
WHY COULDN’T THE LOS ANGELES FIRES HAVE TOTALLY DESTROYED SILICON VALLEY INSTEAD.
If those fires had razed Meta, Tesla, Amazon and all the other asshole techbro cult HQs to the ground, along with their “smart homes” filled with fancy gadgets and empty brains… you know what? You could have convinced me that there really is a god.
Zoetic 