September 2021
This zine was created during a Rotterdam Arts & Science Minor session about ‘radical imagination.’ Students were encouraged to create a future based on their personal experiences. Enjoy!
Someone is pressing me under water. Two hands are gripping my shoulders tight, pushing me down, down into the muddy depths. The water surrounding my body is cold, dark and heavy, beneath me nothing but black vastness. I desperately try to pedal with my feet, try to push me up against the firmness of my opponent’s arms, who, slowly, but with superhuman strength, submerges me into the grey masses. My nose is still above the level of the water, still I can breathe, gasp for air, one last gasp, until I’m completely immersed in the hostile liquid. For a few more seconds I pedal, my arms push against the thick water, try to reach up, up, until everything around me is flooded by heavy darkness. I choke. Open my eyes, finally air enters my lungs again. Breathing hastily, I stare at the ceiling, stare at the so familiar light reflective stars I have attached to it after moving in, like one would hang in the room of a child. I breathe. A faint yellow shimmer surrounds the stars, big ones and small ones, their outlines are blurry. Suddenly my gaze jumps to the corner opposite my bed, discerns a figure whose dark garments stand out against the grey-in-grey of the room. Someone is in my room. Pressed against the wall,
they stare straight at me. Through the quiet of the night, I feel like I can almost hear them breathing. A scream forms in my throat, but it fails to leave my mouth. Terrified, I try to push myself back, but my limbs remain motionless. Again, I try to scream, but my body doesn’t obey me, paralyzed, I lay and stare back at the blank eyes of the human-like shape. I blink. And suddenly, I feel it jumping on top of me, kneeling on my chest, its face hovering right above me. It is so close to me that I feel its warm breath, its long hair, slung wild and twisted around its head tickles my temples. Its face looks nearly humane, but weirdly swollen, faded, its washy eyes are streaked by red veins. It starts talking, whispering rather, in a melodic voice, the timbre seems to constantly shift as it hisses: “Come with me. Follow me. Follow me down. No need to fear the vast darkness, no need to turn on the light. I too once drowned. There are things I need to show you down there.” Suddenly I regain control over my body, the scream which has been caged in my throat for so long finally escapes and permeates the room. With the sound of my voice, the creature vanishes. I jump up and run to the other wall to turn on the light.
The Daily Blind
September 14th, 2450
I gave the Free Touch movement a chance - and so should you. A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine casually mentioned that he was part of the so-called hippies. The mission of the Free Touch movement is to get rid of some of the taboo around touching. They believe that touching should not be confined to the bedrooms of married couples, but should instead also be practiced outside the context of reproduction. Crazy idea, I know. Although as of now there are no credible reports of people getting pregnant after being touched, many people are still opposed to the idea of free touching. ' That is why I decided to join one of their Free Touching festivals, and report on it. When I arrived at the venue the weather was hot and the music was being blasted at full volume. At the door a person greeted me and told me where everything was. I decided to to what they lovingly called "The Revolutionary Groundbreaking 2-Dimensional Being Experience." It was invented four years ago by the hippies to provide an even more immersive experience. The idea is that while you listen to music, you are also allowed to touch each other. I have never experienced anything like this. Instead of only playing pop songs, they also played a lot of instrumental sounds. One that I particularly remember was that the sound of a crowded bus came up, and we all started to shake and bump into each other as if we were actually sitting in this bus. The euphoria I felt at that moment is indescribable with words. I have never been happier in my life. After spending an hour in the "Revolutionary Groundbreaking 2-Dimensional Being Experience", I decided to check out other parts of the festival. So I went to a group where they were passing among each other an object they referred to as a "Blunt." Read the full story in the Rolling Stone.
Banker replaces himself with BILLBOARD HOT 100: a friend, to get some days off
u.
Last week, at the city bank, it was reported that one of the workers switched its position with a friend. Apparently, he wanted to get some days off with his partner, and taking the advantage that we all have the same voice, he thought that the board would not notice. The director of the bank said that after the third day, he felt that his employee was not behaving in the same manner as he normally did, so to test if it was really him, he asked him to say the sentence that the employee would g always say as he enters the bank. The sentence was almost correct, if it was not because of a slight pause o that the friend did in the middle of the sentence. Immediately after this, the employee received a called in which was said that he was fired.
Einstein proposes theory of the third dimension
Nobody believes him. Has he finally al gone crazy? Read more on page 12.
#1: Teach Me What Touch Is - Michael Bolton #2: I Can't Feel Without You - Air Supply #3: It wasn't me - Shaggy
What is love? Roses are dead, All my cats are fed, And love is the way You phrase John, go to bed. You are the person of my dreams, Because the way you phrase things, it seems Even when you say that our money is low, It doesn't feel like much of a blow. I love you very much And the way you phrase things, is mesmerizing as such That I would even forego your touch I would rather listen to you speaking Dutch. - J. A. Deelder
Eyes wide shut What do you see? Within the realms of your insanity(?)
Forwarding, reciprocating, relocating Registered within the confines of the mundane.
ty
i
ed bit
Inh
Spectrum of light, in plain sight, Absurd, vision through the pin hole, Information possessed, manifested within your eyescapes.
I
ni nfi
Fundamentals of optics. Lenses, dense, layered glass Of nothingness.
Symmetry, distortion, ambiguousness?
noitaler ni gnivlover ,stcejbuS .noisiv dereyal ruoy oT siri ekil msirp ruoy sA epacsthgil eht stcarfeR .ytinifni detibihni ruoy otni
Individually Strolling together
Ancient Technologies for Modern Problems “You call this waste?” they asked us upon arrival…
Internet Internet of Things Internet of Plants
resembling our own nature. As if we were the centre of it all.. Many of had given up, thought we were past a point of no return, Our whole natural supply of resources exhausted and changed into structures and formations incapable of rotting. “What do you call this?” we asked the fungi, who had visited our landfills.
philosophies..
First we were sceptical, but more and more people started adopting their
Back then we had no clue, we worshipped soul-les products and images They taught us a lot, how everything comes and goes, the cycles of life and the building blocks of nature, about the here, now and eternal life.