S O U N D f i l m fa s h i on C U LT U R E

F R E Q U E N C I E S F O R A N E W P HA S E

CLAUDE VONSTROKE [SAN FRANCISCO]

AUTOGRAF [CHICAGO]
BERGHAIN [BERLIN]
HUXLEY ANNE [L.A.]
SHAMBHALOVE [B.C., CANADA] ISSUE 1
DEMO EDITION
THE HANDMAIDEN [SOUTH KOREA] US $14.99 // CAN $ 17.99
 The Fraternal Kiss: Iconic graffiti on the Berlin Wall by Dmitri Vrubel (Photo by: Ross Thompson)

CONTENT

ON THE COVER AJ Gianni explores Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah during the Perseid Meteor Shower, August 2016

FEATUREs

6 CLAUDE VONSTROKE
B. I. Empey
12 BEING (FE) IN A MALE WORLD
Huxley Anne
Insights to the creative process of Vonstroke, boss man at
Dirtybird Records, voted Best DJ in the U.S. in 2016
20 BERGHAIN: A GERMAN TALE
Ross Thompson

30 SHAMBHALOVE
Dave Van
26 AUTOGRAF:
CREATIVE COLLECTIVES
B. I. Empey
Why Shambhala Music Festival sold out in less than 24 hours.

36 HYPERNORMALISATION 2016
Graham Beckstead

40 THE HANDMAIDEN
Graham Beckstead

HEART OF GOLD: By HYBYCOZO - The Hyperspace Bypass Construction Zone Installation (Photo courtesy of: hybycozo.com)
and Sculpture by Yelena Filipchuk and Serge Beaulieu, Burning Man 2016

KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION 5

 (Photo by: Ross Thompson) (Photo by: Stefan Poulos)

STAFF

Goddess hammock puddle, Burning Man 2016. (Photo by: Ross Cooper)
PUBLISHER / EDITOR IN CHIEF CONTRIBUTORS WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK
B. I. Empey Graham Beckstead Desert Hearts
Ross Cooper Tom Amestoy

EDITOR B. I. Empey Dave Brewer and Jude Gilmore

Graham Beckstead A. Millo Tyson Ainge

Ross Thompson Cindy Wall
ART DIRECTOR Dave Van Choice
A. Millo Stefan Poulos Crystalroes
Erin Sanders Artemis
PHOTO EDITOR Serge du Preez
Dave Van CONTACT Hayden Price
DaveVanPhoto.com | @DaveVanPhoto info@kinetikmag.com Heidi Gress

PUBLISHER - KINETIKMAG.COM
Danny Fracken

ADVERTISE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ADVERTISING WITH KINETIK,

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ALL CONTENT KINETIK PRODUCTIONS, L.L.C., 2017 Waiting for The Man to burn, Burning Man 2016. (Photo by: A. Millo)

KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION 7

KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION 11
 CLAUDE VONSTROKE:
ON LEARNING HOW
TO FAIL TO BECOME
SUCCESSFUL

WORDS AND PHOTOS

B. I. Empey

I n the early 2 0 0 0 s , long before

he was C laude V on S troke , B arclay
Crenshaw independently produced
the documentary film I ntellect:
T echno H ouse P rogressive .

Some film afficianados regard it as one of the most

comprehensive films ever made about DJs and club/un-
derground electronic music culture. Intellect
features a staggering amount of interviews from
pioneering DJs and electronic music producersJuan
Atkins, Derrick Carter, Miguel Migs, Orbital, Paul Van
Dyk, Deep Dish, Sandra Collins, Steve Lawler, Derrick May
- the list goes on.

Nowadays, accolades abound for VonStroke and Dirtybird

Records, both of which are by all accounts resoundingly
successful. The list of Dirtybird Players and their
achievements grows longer and longer. September 2016
brought VonStroke to the peak of American DJing in the
eyes of the fans who voted in Pioneer/DJ Times Best
American DJ Award. By besting Kaskade, The
Chainsmokers, both halves of Jack (Skrillex and
Diplo), Bassnectar, and Porter Robinson, VonStroke
has put the first of many exclamation points on this sec-
tion of his winding career.

CLAUDE VONSTROKE, Fabric London, 2016 (Photo courtesy of: Get Tiny Photography)

KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION 13

 VonStroke joined Kinetik Magazine
editor B. I. Empey for a conversation about
the genesis of Dirtybird and his journey
from amateur film director to purveyor
of tongue-in-cheek funky tech house
as chief of Dirtybird Records.
B. I. Empey: The first thing I want to
talk about is the formation of Dirtybird
Records. It must have taken a massive
amount of trust from your wife Aundy,
who is now COO/CMO of Dirtybird
Records, to originally back you on that
project like she did.
CVS: Dirtybird Records was a project
that I had to save forever to start. I saved
$25,000 to launch the record label. Making
Intellect, I learned you had to be able
to survive 5 vinyls and not be paid by the
distributor if you wanted to be a real
label. All these labels were folding after
their second or third record. So I saved
enough money.
O t h e r l a b e l s d i d n t understand
the economic math behind starting a
successful label?
CVS: They didnt know. You dont know
anything when youre doing it. Making
Intellect let me skip some steps. Then my
wife Aundy paid the rent for the year. It was
a gift.
Can you talk to me about making
Intellect?
CVS: I got to the point in my mind where
I told myself, If I finish this project,
something will happen. If I dont finish
this project, Im going to be a failure. Im
finishing this project even if everyone ha-
If I dont finish this project, Im going to
be a failure. Im finishing this project
even if everyone hates me.
KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION
tes me. And so I finished Intellect, and Maybe Ill play this. I was still in the so I would ride my bike to the gas
everyone hated me. That project took at stage where Id ask Justin, will you play station because they had a pretty
least two years. this tonight? I didnt have any gigs! So if good selection of rap tapes. During
Justin didnt play one of my songs I would that time, Harmony House was like
So after releasing Intellect in 2003 and think it wasnt that good. Virgin Records. They didnt even have
before the record label launched in 2005, shit, only Run DMC and Fat Boys.
what was life like? Well one of the things Justin told me The gas station would have Whodini,
is that he doesnt display his work until Steady B, Heavy D and The Boyz,
CVS: I was an assistant film editor at a post its 100% done. So Im wondering about UTFO, Salt-N-Pepa, all the other tapes.
production shop. Justin Martin was the your process.
only one having any success around town So that was in Detroit, after you moved
in San Francisco. He made some bootlegs CVS: I go out and play a track way there from Cleveland after sixth grade.
vinyls, the Ben Watt released Sad Piano before its 100% done. When a track is 70% Can you talk about your first years in
track on Buzzin Fly Records, and another I work it out by listening to it in the club. Detroit and how you experienced music
remix that was successful. But I had given Thats one thing I learned from Intellect. there?
up! Justin learned Reason only six months If youre gonna grind a project to a point
before that time. So when I saw Justin where youre too far of a perfectionist, CVS: The only lifeline I had on music
having such an easy time, I thought This is youre never going to get any shit done. in Detroit were radio stations. WJOB,
ridiculous. I can do it! Yes, you can get it to that pristine point WGPR, WHYT had the radio DJ The
where no one gives a fuck except you, Electrifying Mojo in various stages
You couldnt let Justin do you like that. but the cost is too high. Unless youre that of his career. Hes been at every
Howard Roark character in that Ayn Rand radio station, and hed play everything
CVS: Justin was the final catalyst for me to book The Fountainhead [laughs]. from Afrika Bambaataa to Beastie
finally start producing music again. Boys to Prince to Punk. He would
Youve got to utilize resources effectively play Juan Atkins records. I listened
So tell me about that decision to start and finish projects regardless of to his program every night and I was
releasing your own productions when imperfections, I suppose. So, youve had obsessed with his radio show. It was
Justin started experiencing success. such a large success as Claude VonStroke, music 101 for cool people.
and now were moving towards Barclay
CVS: It wasnt a decision. I wanted to Crenshaw as a new project. That seems like a huge influence on
surprise everyone with a remix of an your life.
original track. I didnt even think my tracks CVS: Its another project, not the end
were going to be big. I did a remix of anything. Thats the original sound CVS: It was amazing. I hated the techno
of Justin Martin and Sammy Ds The I wanted to make. too, thats the funny part. All the
Southern Draw and then a remix of other stuff was cool, but the techno
Swamp Thing. I followed that with Deep The hip-hop style of your Barclay was terrible.
Throat, Whistler, Whos Afraid of Crenshaw project reminds me of the
Detroit?, and Chimps. hip-hop tapes around when you Its kind of like how wine grows on you
were younger. as you grow and your palate develops.
And then your career caught fire.
CVS: The only place you could get rap CVS: Right. When I listened to
CVS: No, it wasnt like that! It was very tapes in the mid-1980s was the gas techno, I was like, what are these
slow. DJs around San Francisco would say, station. I wasnt old enough to drive, repetitive, terrible songs? I like all
the funky ones.
I went through a long phase of
making stuff and not understanding
the club experience. My stuff was
too heady, too sporadic and choppy,
dropping five changes in one song. I
TOP: Justin Martin
BOTTOM: Claude VonStroke
(Photos Courtesy Of: Dirtybird Records)
had to go to a lot of clubs to figure
how to get it. That took for fucking
ever, all the way to San Francisco.
15
 If I went through a long phase of making stuff
I had to go to a lot of clubs to figure how to get
he said, dude, if you just chill and
stick to one idea youll be fine. You
have the technical ability, but youre a
mess. That was helpful.
Who was the Scottish director you
were driving? You seem like a pirate, Barclay.
CVS: Michael Caton-Jones. He was
kind of a jerk. [laughs]. You have to
be a jerk to be at the top of a movie
project! I started to realize, now that
Im the boss of our company, you kind
of have to kind of be hard. Theres
no time for stupidity, which I didnt
Dirtybird Campout, (Photo courtesy of: understand. If youre the boss of your
2016 Dirtybird Records)
whole company and your assistant is
stupid, you dont have a lot of time
for it. I was a stupid assistant, just a
kid driving around [film directors],
Are there any specific experiences you like Listen to this song, whatever!
remember that showed you musical What are we doing? I was an idiot.
patterns and resonant beats?
Like we all are.
CVS: Well, the day after I graduated
from college I moved to Los CVS: But thats fine! Youre supposed
Angeles to work on films. I got in to be an idiot. I was 22 years old. It
with directors as their personal driver. takes a long time to figure out why
Id work all day on the film set and Id those guys were like that. Maybe they
go home to work all night on music. were jerks, but they had to be jerks to
Id play my music on the morning get their project done.
drive with the directors. But my songs
were insane. Theyd be 7 songs in So that was around the time your
four minutes. One Scottish director relationship with Marc Houle
wanted to put all this jungle music in (Items & Things co-founder/Inner-
his movie. I played him my tape, and visions/Minus) started, right?
KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION
CVS: Yeah, Marc and I became
buddies during that time when I lived
in downtown Detroit above Mickeys
Pizza. He gave me all this crac ked
software. I loved cracked software.
CVS: But Marc was the one that told
me for the first time that it existed! I
dont use cracked software anymore,
I pay for everything now because I
feel like I should. But when I lived
in downtown Detroit above Mickeys
Pizza, I had nothing! So I used cracked
software. Marc knew how to get it all.
He said, If you want more, youre
gonna have to learn how to get it.
Marc and another guy named
Phasee made music with me. We made
songs that sounded like Stereolab. We
made really cool stuff! We were just
like, Whatever, lets just make music.
Its ridiculous, that could have
easily come outit was good! You
cant know what youre doing when
youre doing it. I wish I had those
songs, I have no idea where that shit is.
and not understanding the club experience...
it. That took fucking forever.
Stereolabs 1993 Transient Random-
Noise Bursts With Announcements.
Stereolabs 1993 Transient Random-Noise not R&B at all. So it was really cool
Bursts With Announcements, the first because I started in R&B and then I
full length album on self-established ended in darker and weirder territory.
Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Discs.
Happy accidents.
Im interested in that creative
process. How does it work for you? CVS: A lot of people wait for their thing to
come down from the heavens to tell them
CVS: Sometimes Im trying to listen what to do. I go into the studio and work
to somebody else to see how they every single day until that happens. So Im
got to where they are because I the opposite of most producers. I work on
really think its cool, sometimes Im music everyday, until something happens.
listening to multiple things. Perfect Every single day that Im at home I work on
example: I was trying to make this music, and everyday that Im not home Im
R&B, modern, hip-hoppy, trappy working on other shit. Im always working
beat. What happened is that it en- on shit.
ded up being that kind of pattern but
(Photo courtesy of: DustinHollywood.com)
17
 BEING (FE) IN A MALE WORLD:
INTERSECTIONALITY IN ELECTRONIC MUSIC

WORDS AND PHOTOS

Huxley Anne

The first show I ever played as Huxley Anne was actually as

half of an all-female electronic music project.

We called ourselves MoonfacedI was really into tarot cards at the time, and she was really into
phases of the moonso we performed a few times as a back-to-back DJ duo before I moved
away to Los Angeles a few months later.

In the three years since that project, I havent once seen another female DJ duo perform live
and I keep asking the people I meet along the way, but most of them answer with the same
response: No, Ive never seen two women spin back-to-back at an electronic music show.

This gender disparity is a product of institutional sexism. Youd think that in a technology-driven
society where we are capable of sending spaceships to Jupiter we would have accepted the
equality of human being...yet, this is far from the truth.

Institutionally-enforced sexism is what happens when the belief that women are unfit for certain
jobs, careers, or roles in society is held up by social power structures. In my experience, the
music industrybehind the stage, in the realm of production, or behind the decksis incredibly
male-dominated, and has been for a very long time.

Men are used to being in command and in control at high-profile shows, on the large-format
festival stage, or running the booth at a club, while the womans role has historically been as the
go-go dancer, or the model/waitress serving cocktails. The social structure that electronic music
is performed within lends itself to sexism simply because of the history of the stage show.

To see a woman entering the male-dominated sphere, behind the decks as a DJ or behind the
scenes in production, running the equipment necessary to achieve professional levels of mixing
and mastering, defies the historical norm. I was astounded the first time a man told me I couldnt
touch his gear because I was a woman, not because of my ability to use the gear.

To pursue this industry as a woman, you need a shield of steel resolve. Sexist comments will
hurt you, and they wont go away automatically because sexism is deeply ingrained in the way
our society thinks. Ive been on stage, spinning back to back with a male producer, performing
an hour-long visual show that I created, and still had people tweet at me that Im just up there
pressing fake buttons. Somehow, seeing a woman onstage in a technical role triggers disbelief,
and perhaps even fear.

KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION 23

 However, there are ways to start fixing this blatant disparityto reframe
what we are capable of as women, and to broaden our horizons when
it comes to accepting the rising underground cultures within electronic
music focused on the art form itself, not the gender of the performer.

Reframing what not only women, but also gay, non-binary, and transgender
people are capable of is something that needs to be happening in every
industry today, including music. The key to sending successful, prepared,
and confident individuals into such a male-dominated industry is to give
them the tools needed to find strength in their knowledge.

Reframing what not only women, but

also gay, non-binary, and transgender
people are capable of is something that

needs to be happening in every industry
today, including music.
Once I figured out how to make a kick drum, and how to make a good kick drum that is strong and resonant and powerful, I was no
longer afraid to sit down in studio sessions with 5-6 men crowded around a laptop. Womens advocacy groups like Womens Audio
Mission,Womens Beat League, Intersessions, and many more have started providing safe studio spaces for all genders to learn how to
DJ, produce, mix and master, and perform their technical skills.

I talked to R
hi Blossom, a founding member of Intersessions and advocate for equal representation of all genders in electronic music.
She says:

We try to make sure that all the Intersessions teachers are women or part of the LGBTQ2 spectrum, but we are also careful to not
go about it in a tokenizing or exploitative way, which I think loads of bookers need to be aware of. While gender balancing a bill is
important, booking agents must really do this in a genuine way and not just book artists based solely on their gender, sexuality or race,
because this is super tokenizing. We dont want to be booked for solely for our gender, we want to be booked and appreciated for our
talent and hard work.

These groups are taking it upon themselves, bringing in industry professionals who share similar beliefs to tell their story and inspire
confidence in the younger generation. As Rhi tells me, So far weve done DJ workshops in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, New York,
Ottawa, Berlin, and Los Angeles, with upcoming workshops in Mexico City, Vancouver, LA, and NYC.

KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION 25

 Widespread participation from all genders, and by all genders, within groups like this shows that the problem is not that technology
is male-oriented, or that production is only something men are capable of. Environments to learn these skills provide a great benefit
for the younger generation, and they will begin to close the gender gap in electronic music as more young women and LGBTQ2 folks
enter the industry.

It will take a great deal of courage on behalf of young women and gender nonconforming individuals to progress from classroom
or workshop environments to professional environments. It will be an equal challenge for booking agents and promoters within
electronic music to truly find an equal representation of the genders in the industry itself.

While the gender disparity rages on, advocacy groups and open studio spaces like Intersessions are only just beginning to close the
gap. The most important component to understanding the level of performance and
creativity required to succeed in the music industry is that of the solo journey into
the art form, a process that lies within each artist.

Art is a product of life, and the inspiration behind the artwork is what we see and
feel in our everyday experience. Whether its a painting I saw that week at a museum,
a conversation I had about space travel, falling into a random internet rabbit-hole at
3 a.m., or even social pressures from the sheer lack of female representation in the
music industryI draw all of this experience into my music and make it a personal
component of my work.

The pioneering women who are succeeding in electronic music todayBjork, Gri-
mes, Rezz, Dot, Nina Kraviz and many morehave battled through the rampant
sexism and never given up on expressing their vision through this medium. As ar-
tists have historically created realms that expose their interior world, through beauty,
shock, fear, form, or creativity, the most successful have expressed their uni-
que vision, and their careers are a result of their commitment to that internal journey.

Electronic music is simply another medium, and it has the potential to rise to great
heights within the realm of art itself. If we can embrace the women and gender nonconforming individuals who are learning these
skills, as a whole society, we will begin to see beautiful expressions of this struggle through the gender disparity.

The key to sending successful, prepared,

and confident individuals into such
a male-dominated industry is to give

them the tools needed to find strength in
their knowledge.

KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION 31

 To be a blur in motion.

The courage and talent that is required to succeed as an artist in todays industry will reward us as more individuals from all gender
identities find the strength within themselves to begin powerful, revolutionary creative work. Dont let your shield down, and dont
let the sexism stop you.

The great joy one can find in expressing themselves through their art belongs to each and every one of us, male, female, LGBTQ2,
or otherwise.

xx
huxley anne

KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION 33

 BERGHAIN: A GERMAN TALE
AN AMERICAN PILGRIMAGE TO THE MECCA OF TECHNO

23:45 - BERGHAIN

WORDS AND PHOTOS SOUNDTRACK FOR READING
Ross Thompson : : Clouds - Future 1 (nthng Rework) ::
:: Answer Code Request - Calm Down ::
:: Flug - XLR (DJ Emerson Remix) ::
:: Head High [AKA Shed] - Rave (Dirt Mix) ::
Kevin and I intentionally split up and patiently waited our turn as the line inched forward. I had heard from locals that its best to look dirty,
i.e. to dress and appear as though you dont give two shits. So, while in the line, I wiped dirt all over my face. I was wearing my murdered out
Nike Janowskis, a brass chain necklace, white moto pants, and a zip up black sleeveless hoody, strategically unzipped about 20% of the way.
As I looked to the front door, I saw Berghains gatekeeper, Sven, watching over the door operationshe was fucking terrifying.
Standing in line for my first attempt at Berghain was easily one of the most nerve-wracking things Ive done in my life, and I swear to Christ
my heart stopped beating when I approached the most intimidating doorman in the world.
23:55 - MAIN ENTRANCE, BERGHAIN

Oh boy... Its finally my time, Sven stood at attention nearby, overseeing the entire operation wearing a suit and fresh white kicks. I looked
SATURDAY EVENING. BERLIN. Sven in the eyes. Compose yourself! I thought. I shifted my gaze to the bouncer, glaring, no smile or expression of any kind. Sven asked if I
was alone in German. I responded, Ein.. Ya.

Berghain loomed large on the menua sumptuous offering indeed. The doors to the Berghain building open on Friday night, but
He looked me up and down for about four seconds, an eternity. His pursed lips finally opened, Sorry, not tonight.
only Panorama Bar (the housier dance floor) is open. Berghains famous Klubnacht is on Saturdays at midnight. In addition to extensive
research leading up to my Hajj to technos Mecca, Id observed everything I could from the moment I arrived in Berlin, asking various
I smiled. Danke. Gute nacht. I kept moving. FUCK.
locals for advice. From what I could gather, the look for Berghain was more along the lines of hipster goth/thrift store swag. The
techno kids in Berlin look exactly as youd imagine them...nearly all black with some weird fuckin haircut and all sorts of trendy
Slightly heartbroken, I left. But not all hope was lost. The bouncers changed shift every 10 hours, so the next guy would come on at 10:00
accessories: necklaces, rings, sunglasses, tattoos, etc.
in the morning and the following at 20:00 Sunday night. Kevin and I went to some shitty bar called Paloma to see some Detroit DJ, whose
name I cant remember.
The locals were forthcoming with tips for what to do at the door and what to expect. Aside from the obviousdont be on your phone,
go alone, dont socialize with othersI got some good advice. I was told Berghains bouncers usually ask, How many are you?
In German, Ich ven alienare you alone? Its important to know the nights lineup should they ask at the door. Just in case, Id
memorized all of the record labels the artists playing that night were associated with. When in Berlin, right?

I ate dinner around 20:00 or 21:00 and headed to the hotel for the casual pre-club routine. Weird ass techno tunes, 10-15 shots of
vodka, and the oh-so-precious Club-Mate (pronounced kloob maw-tay). I figured I stood a better chance of getting in if I arrived
early so there wouldnt be a lot of people in the club, but not too early to look eager. I started walking to Berghain, which sat about
15 minutes from the hotel.

Berghain has no signs or labeling on the exterior of the building and the entrance isnt clear. I made my way to the back of line, the
palpable sexual energy sizzling around the environment. As I approached, something seemed awry. We waited in line for five minutes
and gained admittance with no questions asked. The door guys seemed pretty lax about the whole thing...something seemed fishy. I
had no idea, but I had unwittingly walked into the middle of Lab-oratory, Berlins premiere all-male nude dance club.

The room was filled with about 100 dudes walking around butt-naked. Judging by the countless amount of stink eyes we immediately
received, everyone was pissed that I was wearing clothes at all. Realizing this wasnt our scene, we left, but only after laughing our
asses off. Finally, we made our way to the main Berghain entrance and decided to hang out in the general vicinity until it was time.

(Photo courtesy of: 6am-group.com)

KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION 39

 Originally a power plant used during WWII, the ceiling is roughly 200 tall with a big, winding steel staircase leading up to the dance
floor. At the bottom of the staircase stood a large statue of a Norse-looking fellow drinking from what appeared to be a funnel - very
mysterious. Throughout the building, several other small statues and figures of naked guys or people having sex stood frozen in time.
In The Garden there was a massive black dick statue, about eight feet tall. It was the biggest, blackest penis Ive ever seen. Giant machine
pieces lay strewn across the Garden, parts of the architecture that served a purpose at one point while Berghain was still a power plant.

Once you get a stamp re-entry is no problem. From the main dance floor another set of stairs led to the snack bar/ice cream shop and
Panorama Bar. Yielding to our sleep deprivation and partying hard for three days straight, we only stayed about two hours. We headed
back to the hotel where we would take a nice long nap and then head back for the evening.

18:00 - BERLIN.

After napping and a solid lunch we then left to go back to Berghain. We got right in and caught about an hour-and-a-half of Dr.
Rubinsteins set, and it was fucking awesome. She was playing vinyl only acidic alien shitsooo dope. Hard hitting straight up laser-
beam techno. The BPM never dropped below 128.

After Rubinstein, Boris came on and I decided it was time to explore. Up in Panorama Bar, a guy named Mike from Texas chatted with
me for a few minutes. He said he would show me all the secret rooms in Berghain. I was stoked! First, he took me to the Dark
Room-Lite and then the Dark Room. Both rooms were completely sex-focused. It was stuff from my wildest imagination, beyond
everything Id heard.

Orgies with humans of every gender, people hooking up and fucking everywhere. The main dark room was directly under the stairs
in the main room, so you could get your freak on and still get the full rave experience. Gotta love German efficiency.

Exterior, Paloma Bar

The DJs were fine, but shit sound quality and a lame crowd made for an unmemorable experience. We rolled back to the hotel at
about 03:00, which was an early night for us. Sigh. We knew what we had to do: Get a solid nights rest and hit Berghain first thing in
the morning.

09:30 - HOTEL ROOM, BERLIN.

Early the next morning, we crushed some vodka and moved out into the Berlin morning. This time there was hardly a line. Only about
15 people were ahead of us. Most were getting denied, and we were getting nervous. This time, Kevin and I decided to head in together
as a team. We got to the bouncer and he said, Zwei? (Two?), holding up his pointer and middle finger like a peace sign. This was an
important test. Germans signal two with the pointer and the thumb. So, Kevin signed back with the pointer and thumb and said Zwei.

Go on, the bouncer said.

10:00. - INTERIOR, BERGHAIN.

Maybe there is a God - we were in! As we entered, attendants placed stickers over our phone cameras, looked through our shit, gave us
a stamp, guided us on our way. Inside, Berghain is fucking incredible.
Dr. Rubenstein (Photo courtesy of: Dr. Rubenstein)

KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION 43

 What youd see in an acid-laced
underground movie is exactly how
youd imagine Berghain.

Finally... The moment I had been waiting for. It was around midnight when Marcell Dettmann and Steffi came on. This was incredibly
special to me, because Marcell Dettmann provided my very first techno experience in Brooklyn, and techno was the whole reason I
went to Berlin in the first place. They had so much fun playing together and working the crowd. Marcel wouldnt stop playing trippy
robotic vocals throughout his tracks.

03:30. - EXTERIOR, BERGHAIN.

We were whooped. It was time to leave.

Back at the hotel, I realized that my experience had come full-circle. Sunday was the last club night for us in Berlin, and what a hell
of a way to end the trip. I had been fortunate enough to see the following DJs while in Berlin:

Surgeon
Juan Atkins
Moodyman
Dasha Rush
Donato Dozzy
Regis
Magda El Bayoumi

But nothing could match my experience at Berghain. I cant begin to do justice to the full Berghain experience via the written word.
The custom Funktion One sound system, the architecture, the lights, the crowd, the music, the art...purely amazing. Clearly, Berghain
is the epitome of top-notch euro clubbing. What youd see in an acid-laced underground movie is exactly how youd imagine Berghain

After packing my luggage and catching a cab back to the airport, I sat in the airport lounge, trying to wrap my head around the dream
Id just gone through. Flying back to the states, I knew that I would have to return to see it all again as soon as the techno Gods would
allow.

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 AUTOGRAF: CREATIVE COLLECTIVES

WORDS
B. I. Empey

PHOTOS
Autograf

B. I. Empey: Thanks for joining us Jake, whatever, it does its thing. Louis: Some of our songs are those that we
Louis, and Mikul. Can you tell us how wouldnt play out live. Theyre designed
your musical paths converged to come The end result is its own thing, more for listening in a smaller space or
together as Autograf? but the process is interesting too. alone, versus at a festival. We write songs
Speaking of process, can you talk for all different situations. Theres so much
Jake: We started off in separate projects. about your inspirations and the material we have that we havent put out.
I had my own project, Louis and Mikul situations that molded your musical
Mikul, Lous, and Jake of Autograf had their own music projects which were tastes and sensibilities? With the material you havent put out,
electro house, heavy bass, dubstep sort of whats the process of deciding what to
music. We were touring with those projects Mikul: In high school I was into metal and release?
WE DONT INTENTIONALLY MAKE PROJECTS BASED ON ONE THING. IT COMES ABOUT BECAUSE THE and playing the same gigs at a bunch of whatnot. That led me into indie rock type
CREATIVE PROCESS IS CONNECTED TO EVERYTHING YOURE DOING. festivals and nightclubs in Chicago. I have stuff. It was bands like The Faint who were Mikul:Thats what were working on now,
a background in welding and fabrication, crossing the lines of electronica that got me what we want the next track to mean in
Such is the methodology of Autograf, says Mikul Wing. Mikul, together with Jake Carpenter and Louis Kha, produce melodic so Louis and Mikul asked me to build a into the world of electronic music. Seeing terms of what were doing with Autograf at
electronica and stunning works of visual art. Autografs music features a wide array of sounds culled from house, funk, disco, big pyramid for their group Midnight people start to remix those songs into more this present time. Everything we do keeps
rock, and various electro influences, coalescing into a live performance act forged from Chicagos thriving mid-2000s art scene, Conspiracy. It was this big laser Daft Punk danceable tracks, the evolution of the crossing over boundaries. With Dont
Before forming the group all three were active across different creative mediumsmusic, sculpture, painting, and operating art pyramid thing with LEDs. music, 2007 or so when all that was Worry, we wrote the music first, and
galleries included. happening. Thats what got me into dance then worked on art installation pieces that
Mikul: Autograf began as a reaction to culture. say Dont Worry, Eat Ice Cream, Dont
A busy 2016 included the release of Autografs debut EP Future Soup and two massively popular singles: Future Sauce, a tune what was going on, wanting to make Worry, Drink Bourbon. We made 4x4 foot
backed by echoey grand piano tones, ambient chants, refined snaps and hi-hats, and resonant deep-bass frequencies punctuated by something that wasnt those other projects. Louis: Ive listened to Pink Floyds The to 4x10 foot long street installations to
tribal beat drops and slapping funk-bass riffs, and Dont Worry, a track featuring brightly washed out tropical guitar and bass sounds, The idea was to create something that we Dark Side of The Moon hundreds of times, inspire people.
steel-drum-turned-synth melodies layered with shimmering strings and punchy kick drum beats. ourselves would have enjoyed. Even before Ive listened to Felix da Housecats Kittenz
we started producing music, we threw a and Thee Glitz hundreds of times. But I We put out Episode and Dont Worry
Hot off the release of their newly certified #1 Hype Machine single Episode and wildly successful live tour (co-headlined by party like Andy Warhols Factory parties listen to neither of those now, because as free downloads. We want to tell people
Goldroom), Autograf joined Kinetik editor B. I. Empey for a conversation to discuss the history of the group and how their combined that incorporated music and art. Jake has youre into something at the time and then to take a second to relax, not to worry with
processes function together to create their work. a sculpture background, Louis also an art you move on. Whats most important is whats going on in the world.
background, and I used to own an art the present moment. Just like people, the
gallery in Chicago. I did a lot of street art moment is always changing and evolving. So how does the process of collaborating
back then too. So it was never the intention Thats why our music is never standing still. together to make music work for you
to only be a music project. three?
Jake: Everything is setup by location, time,
Louis: Musically, artists are always trying and place as to how you feel about it. Jake: Since we all live in different cities
to do something different, something new. You could hear the most amazing festival we email files back and forth. For the
Its not because thats the smart thing to dubstep track at a funeral and it definitely most part, I start off the songs and send a
do. Its because you get tired of doing the wont make you feel like you would at a whole bunch of content to Mikul and Louis.
same thing over and over. Thats why artists festival. I dont think theres any song on Im good at spewing out a lot of content
develop and evolve, because the process earth that can defeat context. We strive to and theyve got the golden ears. Whatever
is more interesting than the end result. make music that you can play in a lot of I send out, they immediately respond with
The end result is a track, you put it out, different places. their feedback.

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 Mikul: Were critical of what hes sending it to pieces. is. Songs like Dream and Dont Worry
us. Its important, being harsh critics on relate to each other even though theyre not

We didnt realize at the time how

each other. It helps filter what were making. Mikul: Songs we started almost two years stylistically the same. The message and the
ago havent come out yet. Were revisiting meaning behind them correspond with
Louis: Were all each others biggest critic. those songs after not touching them since each other.
Thats not limited to the music, that applies then. What weve experienced over touring
to visual art as well. Mikul will create and life in general, we have new views How aware are you of the continuing everything was connected until
something, well tell him it sucks or what on those songs. Going back and making nature of your work?
needs to change or what to do. changes - now we feel theyre ready to put
out to the world because weve had time Mikul: Im aware of it now. Its been more
you look back at it later.
Im sure that takes a lot of trust. to have perspective. Like, This is what was recently that Ive become that way. When
missing, and this is what it needed. we started Autograf, I wasnt. We were just
Mikul: Especially with three different making stuff. Jake was saying how he pops
people all bringing different ideas to the Future Sauce is a song we started before out all these songs and sends them to us
table and wanting to express those ideas in the last album, along with the accompanying and we filter those songs downthe same
different ways. All of our backgrounds in art piece, which is in the same vein of was going for the art we were making. We
music and art - we want to put those ideas Warhol-esque pop art using Sriracha bottles. didnt realize at the time how everything
out there for the world to enjoy. We spent time working and figuring out was connected until you look back at it
when to put Future Sauce out. later. You can see how that song connected
Louis: Its weird, because you develop a to another song.
part of your brain to look at things The idea of ongoing projects is definitely
critically, but for some reason it only observable in your work. Right, and people will always try to
applies to our group. When someone else explain the result of that creative process
sends me a track for feedback, Im always Mikul: Certain songs relate to each by categorizing projects in certain ways,
like, That sounds cool. I have nothing other. Future Sauce obviously relates to like genre.
else to say. But when its your own, you tear Future Soup in theme and what the idea
Mikul: I hate categorizing music. People
always ask what genre we make. We make
live electronica because were making
electronic based music and performing it
live. Theres definitely house influences for
a lot of our songs, four-to-the-floor type
stuff, songs in the 120 BPM range. We also
have tracks that are like 100 BPM, more
breakbeat, drawing inspiration from that.

Theres stuff like our song Ocean Glass,

a feeling type of song thats something we
wouldnt play out live. Its a song that youd
listen to thats sonically engaging. Theres
everything in our music. Having wide range
allows us to be so diverse in what were
trying to put out there musically.

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 THE HANDMAIDEN:
Sade in Korea

WORDS
Graham Beckstead

PHOTOS
Courtesy of Amazon Studios / Magnolia Pictures

Pornography is a powerful catalyst for social change, and

its periods of greatest availability have frequently coinci-
ded with times of greatest economic and scientific advance.
- J.G. Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition

Pornography that is serious literature aims to excite in

the same way that books which render an extreme form of
religious experience aim to convert.
- Susan Sontag, The Pornographic Imagination

With The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wooks latest contribution to the cinema of cruelty, one of South
Koreas greatest auteurs attempts to transcend the limits of his own masculinity. The Handmaiden
is a lesbian erotic thriller that sees two women outwit their oppressors by turning the
patriarchys own tools against itself. Park adapted the screenplay from Sarah Waters Victorian-era
thriller novel The Fingersmith (2002).

Set in a 1930s Japan that feels a nostalgic fetishism for its own domination by Victorian England,
the Japanese colonization of Korea lends a political undertone to this tale of sadism, love, and
betrayal. Aside from transposing Waters novel from 19th century England to the Orient, Park
also works in more explicit depictions of sexuality between his two female protagonists.

The film tells the story of Sook-hee, a lowly but comely pickpocket who is hired by a con-man
to become the handmaiden of Lady Hideko, a Japanese heiress of royal descent. The con-man,
posing as Count Fujiwara, hopes that Hideko will agree to elope and marry him, primarily
so he can lock her in an insane asylum and exploit her fortune for himself. Sook-hees job, of
course, is to convince Hideko to fall in love with the Count.

Though seemingly innocent, Hideko spends her days reading aloud from her uncles library of
rare pornographic literature, narrating these tales to a shooting gallery of bourgeois businessman
and assorted grotesques like Fujiwara. Hideko, though, is not as easily tempted by men as she
is by beautiful young handmaidens, and she and Sook-hee rapidly develop a budding, but
forbidden romance.

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 These performances, though reminiscent of the libertine literature of Sade, provide an almost antithetical inversion of those texts
emancipatory ambitions. Rather than free Hidekos homosexuality from the chains of history and societal repression, these stories
contribute greatly to her internalized suppression, enacted both by the Count and by her sadistic Uncle.
An epic, erotic caper, The Handmaiden, like Vertigo and much of Michael Hanekes most oppressive work, is a piece of cinema that
implicates the audience in the desired construction of its fairy tale narrative, surfing the contours of our assumed position within a
deeply heteronormative and binary era of sexual violence, repression, and third-party Disney Princess porn.
Parks elegant, classical style recalls Pasolinis Sal, and while it doesnt go as far as that film in wringing wry comedy from ultimate cruelty,
it never passes up an opportunity to undercut its explicit depictions of violence and sexual intimacy with a cleverly constructed joke.
The men in this film are uniformly despicable. They are torturous, sniveling, pathetic liars
who deploy deception to rise in the social hierarchy at any cost. Hidekos Uncle Kozuki, too,
is posing as somebody he is not. Though he is Korean, he pretends to be of Japanese descent,
and hopes to marry his niece in order to fill the gaping lack of his common lineage.
Kozukis sexual fantasies are derived from the literature he reads, complete with illustrations.
He learns from these texts how to desire, and so he lusts after money, power, and a violent,
domineering, often non-consensual form of sexual pleasure. Through sharing those texts by
selling to the highest bidder, he infects others with his violent depravity.
Kozuki has employed the con-man Count Fujiwara to create expert forgeries of those
texts to sell to his fellow collectors, exemplifying a form of greed and deception that feels
distinctly masculine in Parks hands. Both men are driven to their intricate, generations-spanning
cauldron of deception by their competing, intersecting desires, eventually leading to their
mutually assured self-destruction.
Hideko, too, is exposed to these centuries-old tales of lust, torture, and murder, forced
to read them to a group of collectors in a deeply eroticized parody of salesmanship. Her
sexuality is just as inflected by those stories, full of events later to be performed in reality
with Sook-hee, who is submissive in public but just as dominant in the bedroom.
The diametric difference between the bipolar pairing of Lady Hideko/Sook-hees desire and Uncle Kozuki/Count Fujiwaras desire is
that of exploration versus exploitation.
KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION
Kozuki revels in a sexuality of cruelty, consisting of fantasies of forced rape, prostitution, and murderous strangulation, not to
mention that of voyeurism, and numerous *wink wink* gimmicks that indulge Parks ongoing games with his audience and their
implicit complicity in the brutal and pornographic nature at the heart of the cinematic experience.
Thus, Kozukis sexuality is masculinized in the most violent sense of the word. It is the fictional sexuality of capital, embodying greed,
selfishness, dominance, antipathy, and the pure desire to take from others coldly and at any price. As Count Fujiwara says, Im not that
interested in money itself. What I desire is how shall I put it? The manner of ordering wine without looking at the price.
But Hidekos fantasies, realized in the culmination of both hers and Sook-hees greatest desires, are deeply, mythically feminized. Their
romantic experiences are that of mutualizing pleasure for its own sake, far removed from the possibility of procreation or narcissistic
satisfaction. Theirs is a communistic and Amazonian sexuality of coming together, of reciprocity, empathy, and of giving and receiving
in equal amounts.
At the same time, they too will pay any price for their love, and are warriors more than adequate to the task of outwitting the men who
chase them. Quite often, they exploit the superstructure by its very own mechanisms.
It is Hideko who teaches Sook-hee, the illiterate daughter of a legendary female thief, how to read. Sook-hee, a thief herself, in turn
teaches Hideko what its like to free oneself from authority. Each of these gifts informs the means by which they compose their plan to
overthrow their oppressors and live their lives together in freedom, bound by their love (and Hidekos fortune, to be sure).
With Hideko and Sook-hee, Park attempts to shoot long scenes of intimacy removed from the voyeuristic presence of the male gaze.
In doing so, he develops a vaginal inversion of Sades erect phallus, aspiring to a pornography in the cinema that is both revolutionary
and emancipatory, but neither violent nor patriarchal.
Whether or not he succeeds in doing so, well, lets not kid ourselves...pornography is in the eye of the beholder. Park could have gone
much further by embracing the elementary sadomasochism of desire, and he might have flirted more with the fluidity of the gender
spectrum, but that would have made for a poor adaptation of the original novel. Had he depicted both Sook-hee and Hideko in truly
painful, violent, but deeply pleasurable sexual games, Park mightve pushed a less regressive and binary view on human sexuality.
Alas, he keeps it tastefully genteel when it comes to the lesbian love sequences, and even undercuts them with moments of comedic
awkwardness. When Sook-hee and Hideko first sleep together, it is with teenage innocence that they explore each others bodies, both
unknowing that they are actually deceiving each other, presenting a performance of themselves as virginal, despite their mutually
virtuosic abilities.
To empathize with his characters, Park attempts to shoot things from their perspectives...that task is handled elegantly, if incompletely,
by acknowledging the overbearing influence of the so-called male gaze.
It is one thing to merely deploy the cinema in order to attempt a critique of the long tradition of feminine objectification so prominent
in the cinema since its earliest deceptions (See: Edwin Porters What Happened on Twenty-Third Street? (1901)). It is quite another to
aestheticize sexuality itself, mobilizing it as a mode of self-analysis, ideally enabling a restructuring of the fundamental tools of
performing our subjectivity.
In The Handmaiden, Park is more concerned with utilizing the camera to reject, or erase, his own subjectivity in an attempt to shock his
audience with a deeply erotic lesbian romance, consciously set against the translucent cultural apparatus of the gaze, calling out the
learned and performative aspects of our sexuality within the larger constraints of culture.
That gaze itself could be considered as the abstract, or conceptual villain of the film, positioning the sexual union of its two female
protagonists as a revolutionary act that frees them from the hegemonic structures of institutionalized patriarchy and the web of lies
and illusion that support it.
In this way, Park deftly navigates the political spectrum of class, race, gender, and sexuality to weave an intricate tale of social repression
and sexual transcendence. Despite his attempts to work against the male gaze, to chip away at its foundation, the traditional beauty of
the actors and the aesthetic beauty of the sex sequences tend to make one wonder: is it possible to transcend the boundaries of ones
own sexuality?
59
 To pursue fantasy in such a nihilistic fashion as to actively transform the limits of our desire?

This tradition of reactionary transgression has long persisted throughout the history of art. Whether through increasingly ubiquitous
depictions of violence, sexuality, or a combination of both, the great artists and craftsmen of historical canonization often work against
the grain of societal acceptance, breaking down the normalization of environmental reality in order to bring about new formulations
of perceptual possibility.

In the twentieth century, cinema intervened with the more traditional methods of depicting human sexuality. Where literature and
painting fell squarely on the side of fantasy, pornographic cinema found new ways to realize the purely performative elements
of sexuality (copulation, fellatio, cuninnlingus, coitus-a-tergo) combined with increasingly surreal, synthetic dimensions of the
imagination (Japanese octopus porn).

With the advent of the internet, the movies have made pornography a readily available fact of life. Today, in the age of Eli Roths Hostel
films (gore porn) and Gaspar Noes 3-D opus Love (arthouse porn), many filmmakers are actively seeking to transcend the socially
constructed boundaries of sexuality through perversion. Pornographers, on the other hand, are more and more approaching their
medium with an aesthetically considered sensibility. Each has borrowed from the other in ever-increasing extremities.

Perhaps thats because pornography is cinema, and any distinction between the two is in actuality non-existent.

It comes as no surprise that pornos often adapt movies or parody Hollywood as their source material. But, there is such a thing as

Only when the two female characters

avant-garde pornography, where the goal is less stimulation for its own sake than an attempt at exploring and rationalizing that
stimulation, taming it into something that is less animal and more intellectual.

are allowed to act on their own sexuality, Both realms, those of the artist and the pornographer, borrow heavily from characteristic literary figures who have, for better or worse,
defined and defied the limitations of erotic expression.

rather than suppress it or display it The Handmaiden, while chock-full of steaming hot lesbian tribbing action, runs closer to the avant-garde side of things. It is in fact more
interested in the relationship between performativity and the realization of desire. Thus, Park explores the counterintuitive fashion in

strictly for the interest of other parties, which we go about our lives presenting an illusion of ourselves to the rest of the world in order to get what we want.

This translucent supra-ego, this self-applied sheen of imago, is never entirely public and never entirely private, remaining complicit in
are they able to free themselves ... a web of deceit so dense as to be largely invisible. You might even say that the film represents this illusory self in the form of its genre,
as a conventional mystery-thriller, while subversively defying the expectations of that genre through its aesthetic considerations of a
sexuality freed from gendered construction.

Like a lover, we are always aware when The Handmaiden is lying to us. Each characters behavior and dialogue is carefully constructed
to mislead the audience towards unfounded conclusions regarding their motivations. Upon the conclusion of each of its three
chapters, the degree to which each character is wrapped up in their own metafictional narratives becomes more and more apparent.

Only when the two female characters are allowed to act on their own sexuality, rather than suppress it or display it strictly for the
interest of other parties, are they able to free themselves from their falsely constructed personalities and realize the actuality of their
desire to be together.

Parks film asserts that a pornography of common exploration, rather than that of exploitation, is neither morally nor ethically
compromised by social restrictions and the mechanisms of suppression. Rather, it offers the audience the prospect of an alternative
sexuality, one of truly revolutionary implications.

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 S H A M B H A LOV E
WHY SHAMBHALA MUSIC FESTIVAL SOLD OUT IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS

WORDS AND PHOTOS

Dave Van

Campground love message, 2016.

BEACON: Pagoda lighting over downtown city-centre, Shambhala 2016.

SALMO RIVER RANCH HAS BECOME A PLACE TO TAP INTO AN ETHOS EMPHASIZING INDIVIDUALITY
WITHOUT JUDGEMENT

Shambhala Music Festivaldid something its never done in its 19 year history. The festival sold outin less than 24 hours for its 2017
event10 month in advance. Why? Its not a mystery to the thousands of people whove already secured their tickets for whats sure
to be Shambhalas raucous 20th anniversary.

Shambhala is much more than a gathering of electronic music fans, or an annual festival showcasing genre-spanning Canadian taste
makers. Salmo, British Columbia hosts the festival at the Salmo River Ranch. The ranch has become a place to tap into an ethos
emphasizing individuality without judgement, and reconnecting with friends and family year after year. Shambhala is a family run
festival with no corporate sponsorship and no alcohol sold on site.

Whether fueled by booze, drugs, or good clean fun, Shambhala is a rejuvenating escape to the wild evergreen forests of the Kootenay The first attendees arrive at Starlight campsite. Skii Tour crowd at the Amphitheatre Stage.
Mountains. Its best to go with an open mind and heart. If you do, youll be bound to make memories that last a lifetime.

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 NIGHT SCENE: Ravers perched on the banks of the Excision performing at the Village Stage.
Salmo River overlooking the Living Room Stage.

Shambhala boasts a wide range of talent, world-touring DJs and local producers performing on six uniquely themed stages: The Grove
, Living Room,Amphitheatre, Fractal Forest,Village and Pagoda. A seventh stage called the Cedar Lounge functions as the home to
workshops and lectures throughout the extended weekend.
Rezz performing at the Pagoda Stage.
Stages stay standing year-round, and each stage is upgraded and maintained by independent stage crews. PK Sound and Funktion 1
audio systems, combined with spectacular stage builds and visual effects, create an amazing experience regardless of whichever stage
you see your favorite artist perform. Art displays can also be found throughout the property. Explore and find some hidden gems!

Salmo Ranch hosts up to 15,000 attendees each year for Shambhala Music Festival including staff and volunteers. With so many
people to cater to, the ranch is set up as a small village with services, including a wide variety of food trucks, showers, and a general
store. Taking a stroll through downtown Shambhala to check out what the stores have to offer can result in some interesting finds. In
addition to the retail shops, there are also services provided for first aid, harm reduction (ANKORS) as well as the Sanctuary set up, a
safe place to go for anyone who may need it.

While wandering around dont be surprised to receive plenty of high fives and hugs. Shambhala attendees become a tight knit Early afternoon, downtown Shambhala. Keys N Krates perform live at the Village Stage.
community with each person looking out for everyone else. Attendees have coined the term Shambhalove which has become part
of the culture that is Shambhala Music Festival.

Whether you are a first time attendee or a returning guest, Shambhala is a place where you can be yourself, enjoy and discover some
amazing music as well as make some new friends. The moment you turn off the highway and down the bumpy dirt road, youll know
youre some place special.

Morning session with Yoga of Bass featuring F req Boys Noize DJing at the Pagoda Stage.
Nasty & Claire Thompson at the Living Room Stage.

Kush Arora at the Living Room Stage. Justin Martin performing at the Pagoda Stage. Attendees at Shambhala. Clozee performing at the Grove Stage.
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 So Shambhala is sold out for now...

Dont worry! More tickets come up for sale closer to the event date. Keep a tab on the Shambhala Ticket Exchangegroup on Facebook.
Face value tickets are exchanged on the group page fairly often, so keep a look out there, as well as Shambhalas official website. Fun
fact: Festival tickets are sent out to attendees with glitter inside! The highly anticipated 20th year anniversary is sure to bring something
special to those who attend. Well see you next year at the Ranch!

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 HYPERNORMALISATION 2016
A POST-TRUTH SIMULATION OF THE TRUTH

WORDS
Graham Beckstead

HYPERNORMALISATION 2016, Adam Curtis sprawling 165-minute juggernaut of heavily politicized post-postmodernism,
is as timely as it is dense. Arriving just three weeks before the election of President Trump, one wonders what the results would have
been had such blatant propagandizing been proliferated more effectively by the flaccid American Left and its ideological counterparts.
That Left is both the target audience and one of the many groups of Truthers who are savagely satirized by Curtis disjointed, often
disorienting narrativization of history. In Curtis world, there is only that narrative, or interpretation, of the historical events that make
up the audiovisual content of this abrasive but pertinent work of docufiction.
For although it is a documentary in the purest sense of the term, HyperNormalisation is hyper-aware of its status as a fictional
representation of the Truth, via a deeply manipulated set of found footage video. Curtis sourced the vast majority of the film from
the BBC archives where he works as an archivist and video journalist, adding to the simulated authenticity of the mass media it is
intentionally lampooning. The hypocrisy, therefore, is built in.
The truth of HyperNormalisation is ambiguous not because of the conclusions drawn, which are clearly presented, but rather because of
the evidence provided, often tangential and specious. We as an audience take his truth-telling as a journalist for granted, even as he
reveals to us the constructedness of the narrative web that he is spinning, heightening the artificiality of the truth by exploiting its own
image, and thereby undermining the images, or any images, claims to authenticity.
It is precisely this sort of mirror effect of a false truth, the idea that truth is essentially the trap of History, that Curtis is warning
against yet necessarily indulges in to craft the hypnotic tone and echo chamber aesthetic of his work.
His truth is the trap of ideology, the truth of the bureaucrat and the lawyer, slippery and immaterial. Yet Curtis, by relying on news
reports and found footage, depends on the materiality of his medium to formulate its fragmentary narratives, thereby problematizing
the provocative conclusions he draws from the evidence given, and prompting his audience to look deeper only to find a truth that is
no more legitimate or stable than what came before.

These moments, from international news channels, Hollywood cinema, Youtube, and countless other sources, span over four decades
from the late 1960s to today. The status of news video as an (or perhaps the) official form of validity, acts as a silent but deadly attack
on the underlying truth claim of cinema and video.

That claim of historicity by the technological innovation of cinema is very much at stake in Curtis particularly manipulated formulation
of historical events into narrative. Channelling an unacknowledged
debt to several giants of critical theory (Baudrillards simulacrum,
Lyotards postmodern, and Jamesons Political Unconscious to
name just a few) Curtis fuses primary footage of events with the
aesthetic experiments of Jean-Luc Godards similarly didactic 90s
video experiment Histoire(s) du Cinema.

In doing so, Curtis weaves together a self-reflexive fictionalization

of actual events, consciously structured to be revelatory of the kind
of ambiguous truths afforded to the Kennedy Assassination and
Unidentified Flying Objects.

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KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION 79
 The film takes up the corporatization and financialization of American everyday life, tracing its evolution into a virtual cyberspace
that bleeds into reality. It then segues into the profound complications of Late Western Imperialism in the Middle East, concluding
with brief analyses of the Occupy movement, the Arab Spring, Brexit, and the rise of President Donald Trump.

The propagandistic tone and flow of the editing, the jarring jump cuts and vague interconnections between narrative strands strain
the credulity of the audience like a Pynchonian conspiracy that never quite adds up.

These interwoven theses of HyperNormalisation, which are numerous, to be sure, amount to nothing short of an indictment of the Truth
itself, a muddled reenactment of the utter hopelessness of its representation as anything more than an ideal, begging pathetically for
the impossible sublimation it was promised by its very conceptualization.

And soon enough, Curtis will release his next film of despair and pessimism, yet another web of lies composed of tiny truths, propped
up by an audience that has little hope of confronting the vast intricacies of a simulated world.

A world ruled by celebrity politicians and politicians who want to be celebrities, where international warfare plays out like
gladiatorial violence on a computer screen, and where fake news and corporate brainwashing reveal themselves to be exactly
that. Yet, we continue to watch As if we just cant look away.

Fractions of that Truth are cut into Curtis audiovisual presentations, simulations in a reality inextricably suffused by subjectivity, and
therefore infused by the paradoxically toxic and liberating lie of the individual. The lie of the individual is exploited, Curtis argues, by
the utopianism of the Technocratic political institutions of the United States.

The proliferation of images, the invention of the television, and the technocratic utopianism of the internet operate, much like Curtis
film: contradictorily. They offer visions simultaneously utopian and dystopic, a supra-natural plane of reality where charming cat
videos and the beheading of an American soldier by a terrorist syndicate can coexist without political interference.

It must be said, however, that Curtis presents this intimate connection between technological innovation, the mass media, foreign
policy and warfare as a political phenomenon emerging in the wake of the revolutionary failures of the 1960s, and the rise of
neoliberalism. However, any cursory examination of the history of mass media reveals that this phenomenon is in fact a recurring
theme throughout all of History.

From Citizen Kane to The ParallaxView, from Man with a Movie Camera to TheTriumph of theWill, and culminating in A Clockwork Orange and Chris Markers
A GrinWithout a Cat, Curtis continues a long tradition of cinema that investigates the relationship between celluloid and video, narrative and
history,fiction and truth.His primary innovation is that he has worked towards a purely contemporary representation of a fabricated truth,one
composed strictly of images of reality that merely point to their own inherent inadequacy, a truth that dissolves on impact.

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KINETIK - ISSUE 1 - DEMO EDITION