← but some part is blaring and perfect →



i'm ian, i've got music in my pores—but i love reading, tinkering, and experimenting pretty holistically: a mile across, but only a few inches deep in places. you probably have got an adequate intuition for that if you're here



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(abridged) list of current projects:

🎼final revisions, electronica LP
🀄svg timeline, china's dynastic history
mixed media video essay, chess history


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learning chinese⇒ 🀄 ⇒@cidian
〃to be a person⇒ 🦒 ⇒@aquamanile


✨X≡¤≈∶∓⹀)⁄⁏;-ɐ±‥≁ɚ×—≡¤≈∶⹀⁏|∣-♯‥≁ɚ×✨



🧿🏡🧿https://ianremsen.nand.sh
🎶🎼🎛https://audio.com/ia.remsen
🔡🗨🔡@​iar:matrix.org
🐘⚗🐘@ian@​cathode.church
🐘🎹🐘@ian@​musicians.today


last.fm listening



cathoderaydude
@cathoderaydude

i am not genuinely mad at people for doing it, but god, it is so eviscerating to have someone say "oh man i love your content"

it's like walking up to a cow and going "dude i just want you to know? the burgers i'm gonna make out of you are going to be so delicious. my mouth is watering already. i cannot wait to exploit you. i see you purely as a resource"


cathoderaydude
@cathoderaydude

i will never stop reiterating this: "content" was a word created by people who think like this

what is the purpose of the text on a website? to increase visitor count! to "convert" "leads"! to generate organic traffic! imagine being so brainwormed that you think the purpose of baking cookies is to make people interested in the cookie jar. "content" is a word created by the people who invented SEO and ruined google.

"content" is a block on a wireframe (derogatory) that's tucked in between "navigation", "banner ad", and "targeted ad," and just to the left of "column ad (animated)." applying that term to someone's creative output is unspeakably demeaning. applying it to your own is horrifying.


BlushingYokai
@BlushingYokai

“Content” is soulless. “Content” is dehumanizing. It elicits thoughts of click-baity titles, bright, emoji-ridden thumbnails, scrolling endlessly through a sea of CHEATING ON GIRLFRIEND WITH EX (PRANK) or I CALLED THE JOKER AT 3AM, begging brain-off unchallenged viewers to like, subscribe, and hit the bell.


rem
@rem

there's definitely a lot of genuinely-felt alienation to be had here, but i suppose there's always going to be the knotty structures of human language convulsing in the background, their nodes ever-shifting in scope and connotations over time and space, their bases bouncing restlessly, martially off of their superstructures.

i used to get really roiled when people would die in real life or whatever, and any given internet person would react with just, 'F'. you know, referencing the infamously callous scene from the call of duty game, now rerouted as a twitch.tv-borne meme, with the recitation in itself being half-mockery, but also half-tacit-recapitulation. as these internet-ironic kōans tend to be. initially, whenever someone dared to commit this faux-pas around me, i would put my hackles right on up. it came off as deeply tone-deaf (at least with me in the audience) at best, and as actively misanthropic at worst. it's classic red pen, see me after class territory for me when i indulge in my more busy-bodied scolding impulses—though i do try and pick my battles.

over time though, on the whole this kind of usage became much more neutral in my mind, and my hackles came down in kind. i didn't reflexively toy with the red <span> in my pocket any longer, and it became increasingly possible for me to just read the gesture as genuine, if deliberately quaint or coy. they really did just press F to pay their damned respects.

as more, different people engage with whatever language construction, its potential range of interpretations can broaden, as you tend to give people you already trust more benefit of the doubt (because there's always doubt and ambiguity) not to be shitty, for their use of language to continue being thoughtful and intentional. and over time that propagates as a generalized 'euphemism treadmill', not necessarily shedding complexity as much as it keeps the flowing flow of semantics flowing, the ever-shifting vector space of words ever-shifting.

if it makes you feel better, i don't think there's such a thing as permanent language capture. having your brain washed into repeating the words of your overlords can only control you for so long before a current of humanity bursts through a crack in the dam again.

that being said, the inverse dynamic (human language being co-opted by capital and power, the manufacture itself) is maybe more well-known, and is arguably an equally strong force in our lives, of course.


You must log in to comment.

in reply to @cathoderaydude's post:

Ugh, yeah. The other thing I hate is when someone comments on someone's blog post, or well-researched thread or something, "wow, I hope X youtuber makes a video about this"! Like "text content" only exists as fuel to make "video content"

in reply to @cathoderaydude's post:

in reply to @BlushingYokai's post:

To me, "Content" is just a fancy word for "Stuff".
it could mean anything and nothing at the same time.
For example: "They Produced Content shortly before flushing the toilet"

It means nothing without context and the context gets to the point far better than merely saying "content", it's a useless word.

I gag when I think about how I need to be a better "influencer" so I can make more money.

I took a small business class a year or two ago that talked about leads and content and SEO. Taught by some old british guy who really liked curry.

Perhaps that's been a bad influence on me and part of why I self destructed my patreon so hard... I tried streaming and cross posting and collabs and merch and all the shit I'm supposed to do. It makes me miserable. Tips and subscriptions for cohost cant come soon enough. I just want to live here and draw shit that makes my heart go brrrrr.

Paying rent sadly isnt optional. I'm pinning too much hope in cohost but it's been over a year now and I'm still just as ride or die as I was day 1 if not more so