high/ low
embodied moods
issue 1
guilt
guilt noun a feeling of worry or unhappines that you have because you have done something wrong, such as causing harm to another person
Intro to the magazine and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Guide
How procrastination deals with much more than laziness
What is guilty consumerism and how can we use shame to make the world a better place?
It is time to deal with travel guilt and openly enjoy a cold brew
Travel guide to do nothing
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I didn't do it .. they did
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Editor' s letter
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Magazine intro
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A small analysis of a cultural phenomenon inspired by Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and the show’s purposefully crappy execution
William Burrough’s Junkie review and its controversial topic around drug addiction
Charles Bukowski’s poem
People who made this magazine happen
Content creators
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It' s allright, don' t lay any guilt on me
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Morphine addicts have numbered days on Earth
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The problem with guilty pleasures
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high/low Moods refer to a temporary state of mind and it is a central aspect of what makes us human. Sudden change is expected when we talk about the human experience of moods, making it worth of exploring and High-Low wants to capture it by creating a place where curiosity, knowledge and culture can be combined. The ephemeral tendency that makes states of the mind so complex, also makes it interesting to look at each one of them through a creative lens, delving into multiple themes of our society. The current issue dives into Guilt, sometimes overlooked but ever present in our lives and it provides a place where stories from the world around us makes us think about ourselves, our actions and how society portraits this complex feeling. Consumer guilt, guilty pleasures, addiction and travel are some of the pieces that cover the following pages while we hope to give space for personal reflection. How does guilt permeates our daily life? We hope that, together, we can get to know a bit more about the world we live in.
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs guide Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a popular theory in psychology that helps understanding the motivation behind our actions. The things we talk about on the pages of high/low are broadly inspired by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, with the various levels ranging from basic needs such as food to the most abstract and complex like self-actualization. If you are interested in any particular levels of the pyramid, follow the simple guide and you will find just the right content!
SELF ACTUALIZATION
ESTEEM LOVE/ BELONGING
SAFETY PHYSIOLOGICAL
Editor’s Letter
“Morphine addicts have numbered days on earth. Who hasn’t?”
I Didn’t Do It ...They Did.
The problem with guilty pleasures
Travel Guide to Do Nothing
it’s all right, don’t lay any guilt on me
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Editor’s Letter Imagine a residential compound that evokes both brutalist and postmodernist features. This is where I live, in a small, traditionally white Danish student room, w here I keep my thin and worn down mattress. In my room, I strive for comfort and balance, opposed to the functional outside, trying to reflect my character and maintaining a semblance of control.There you go, one of the most cherished values in contemporary society: being in control. Unfortunately, my Achilles’ heel works directly against this intention, leaving me laid down on my bed, slothlike. Procrastination - once considered equal, simply, to laziness - shows up more and more in stressed groups; even pigeons are afflicted. Pigeons! I was definitely not expecting to relate that much to this meme-bound animal. Laziness and procrastination share a lack of motivation and action, but the latter aspires to act, with no success, however. When it comes to procrastination, instant gratification is king, supposedly. Sources like Tim Urban, the TED sensation with over twenty six million views, promote the idea that instant gratification is what drags us to unproductivity.They also pair it with solutions, but what they fail to explain is what leads someone to that point, since instant gratification is only a coping mechanism. On the other side, the internet acts like a sponge, perfect for bacteria to grow, but in this case it creates a space where there is no resolution to the problem; instead, the internet only creates a multitude of hiding places. The underlying problem concerns a much bigger issue, moods and feelings.
Anxiety and fear of the future tend to be the favorites, but that is where guilt comes in, taking two forms: as a reason and as a consequence. In part, my own expectations have been distorted, as the society I grew up in expected men to show few weaknesses, intensifying the guilt effect. It is sad. Psychologists say that these bad moods precede procrastination, and my brain agrees, yelling: “Hell, yeah!”. Sometimes my actions make me feel guilty; they make me think I have betrayed my own standards. So, nothing done! I imagine it as me drowning in my own mind, trying to stop life around me. As Timothy A. Pychyl puts it: “Avoid the task, avoid the bad mood”. Sounds fair, coming from an award winning psychology researcher and writer from Carleton University. Guilt, again, is the result, because now I am lazy and I think that the problem is not that big . Such a vicious cycle. There is hope, though. After all, we are not pigeons, right? The more we talk about procrastination, the more we can explore and change how we feel together. Determination is key, and we should strive to lower people’s fears and anxieties. Society, too, can play a role, not by lowering expectations, but by creating an environment where mistakes and errors can be used to help people grow. I hope we can explore this and much more in this issue. I invite you to stay curious in the pages to come. As a side note, I went through the procrastination hole when writing this piece, and yes, guilt was there too. Just great!
Written by Daniel Jesus Illustration by Meile Adinavičiute
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I Didn’t Do It ...They Did. In today’s society, we have been encouraged to engage with our guilt primarily as consumers. Increasingly, we are urged to take fewer flights, buy environmentally friendly products, walk or cycle instead of driving to help lower our carbon footprint and thus, make our own contribution to ‘saving the planet’. A plethora of ‘sustainable’ products are on offer; giving consumers the chance to make, what appears to be, an eco-friendly or morally favourable choice in comparison to the other competing brands on offer. Guilt is a very understandable response to problems we feel partially responsible for. We have been encouraged to believe that we are the ones to change our ways, rather than something a political system or society needs to address.
I remember the first time I felt this sort of guilt. I was up late on a school night, watching “Kill it, Cook it, Eat it”. As the title suggests, the BBC programme explained (and visualised) exactly how meat gets onto our plates. I was sitting on my bedroom floor, the darkness felt like a shroud around me. I remained cross-legged on the carpet beside the bed until the programme reached the slaughter of the animal. I shuffled across the prickly carpet on my knees, transfixed on the screen. I flinched as they hurried a squealing piglet onto the set. As the time came for the poor creature to be entered into the food chain, the pile carpet beneath me felt like a thousand needles piercing my skin.
Understanding consumer behaviour is like putting a mile-long headphone cable into a washing machine, throwing in a mile of dental floss then trying to unravel it all...with your feet. There has been much debate among psychologists regarding shame and guilt when analyzing consumer habits. There are however, fundamental differences in both emotions. Researchers have noted that “shame, centres on the self, whilst guilt, centres on behaviour”, (Marcus P., 2019. Psychoanalysis, Classic Social Psychology And Moral Living).
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Written by Megan Millar Photography by Polina Juránková and Eliška Bernardová
inconvenience.
The only thing modern consumers hate more than injustice is an
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“UNDERSTANDING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IS LIKE PUTTING A MILE-LONG HEADPHONE CABLE INTO A WASHING MACHINE,
THROWING IN A MILE OF DENTAL FLOSS THEN TRYING TO UNRAVEL IT ALL...WITH YOUR FEET“
I felt it’s helplessness, and it was awful; I felt such shame and guilt at my ignorance that - from that moment on - I became a vegetarian, and I have never eaten meat since. I began to encourage my family to purchase freerange eggs to help better the lives of these intensively farmed animals. Despite the positive connotations with the ‘free’ in ‘free-range’, I would soon learn that the happy chicken running around an open field is not usually the case. In recent decades, more consideration has been placed on the green aspect of shopping. Superficially, at least, this strategy of ‘shopping for a better world’ (Porritt and Winner, 1988), has been very successful. There has been a rise in green products over the last decade, such as eco-friendly/Dolphin -friendly/CFC free/cruelty-free and bio-degradable etc., as more and more companies look to compete with the demands of the guilty consumer. In today’s western society, it is evident that there is now a huge market for niche ‘eco’ products. These menaces are deceptively displayed on the shelves to ease the mind of the consumer. As your hand reaches for the CFC free deodorant can with the wooden cap and biodegradable packaging, your conscience emits a sigh of relief, a peaceful protest on your part. You have successfully supported the continuance of a healthy ozone layer, right? Well, researchers have discovered that despite being CFC free, aerosol products contain petroleum-based chemicals that emit as much air pollution in the form of volatile organic compounds (or VOC’s) as the average car does (MacDonald et al 2018). So why the hell are we buying them?!
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Marketing gurus believe guilt can be an effective motivator when selecting products. Research suggests consumers reported anticipating future guilt if they failed to shop for green products and 84% consequently, chose fair trade options (Peloza, White and Shang, 2013). Depending on our own ethical or moral compass, we can support different practices by buying products which promote certain values. If we ‘support’ a product that falls below our own ethical standards, we will feel guilty, possibly also responsible, thereby, encouraging us to force a change of habit and so this need for green products successfully thrives. There are many types of consumption, for example, ethical, sustainable and ecological. Of course, we can opt for that CFC free deodorant can with the wooden cap and biodegradable packaging but, does it really make a difference? Green consumption, as progressive as it sounds, is still consumption. Just like the evidence that the earth is flat....completely ethical consumption does not exist. In the words of Florence and the Machine “The World is a Beast of a Burden.” To be conscious of your everyday purchasing is a way of easing the weight on your shoulders. Bear in mind that dissecting everything you or others do is not healthy. Everything wrong with the world is not your fault and opting for greener products in a market bloodthirsty for your money really is the lesser of two evils. Living by example is the best you can do.
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Something which once had the potential to mobilise into activism has been reconstructed into a marketing tool as western society implements guilt to distract a minority of people through easy acts of commercial consumption; acts that engage people primarily as consumers rather than typical citizens. The older tactic of shaming has mutated into a capitalistic dream.
Fifty years after fracking was established in northern England, protesters successfully lobbied government officials to end their support of the controversial process of drilling down into the earth to retrieve shale oil. After 50 years of activity, the government were compelled to indefinitely ban the process thanks largely to the devoted campaigners highlighting the negligence on the government’s part.
This guilt which causes us grief requires a conscience. As individuals, we are more likely to respond effectively to guilt over larger groups. Companies and corporations lack a conscience and cannot feel guilty. That is why we need to blow the dust off the shaming tactics book in order to rehabilitate these faceless corporate giants.
The more profitable method of guilt-free ‘green’ shopping isn’t creating much of a difference. Although harder, shame can influence entire industries and lead to large scale reform. So it’s time to leave the CFC free deodorant can on the shelf and start shaming.
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Travel Guide to Do Nothing
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When was the last time you caught yourself doing just nothing? That utter reprieve from daily thoughts, like in Interstellar, when the docking station crashes and all you hear from space is silence.That blank moment when you are not busy refreshing your feed, glancing at unread messages or planning the next week’s bits. We all can name a time and place, a spot, that local treat where we find a golden moment to switch off for a while. And finding that hidden gem elsewhere is even more precious. And for me, Oliver Coffee in Manhattan hits the spot. You might think a vacation is a fair example of doing nothing. But who is going to find that local treasure then? And inform the crowd we left behind about that glorious new land? Or immortalise an ice cream cone for Instagram in front of a famous looking building? This privileged touristy position obliges us to explore restlessly. We must milk this opportunity and we better start having fun, right now.
Over my last trip, this serious realization hit me again. I rushed off the subway at Bowery to make sure I documented every part of Chinatown well before I reach Battery Park. Six minutes in I already got overwhelmed with my surroundings. I ran into the junction of Park Row, where I noticed the tired little bench of Oliver’s. The quietness of the street drew me there with no hesitation and the modesty of the yellow window counter sealed the deal. I got a cold brew, just to keep up the good work for the gram, then I found myself ditching the phone and grabbing a book I have been carrying around a couple of years now. Sitting there outside felt like I was in a library or a museum, but without the pressure to absorb any information. I could have been in a park with no bees or children, buzzing and running around. And this simplicity invited my brain to turn off and indulge in the moment. Well, not really its simplicity, but the way it simply is.Two small tables and a tall wooden bookshelf. A once green bench, drowned in stickers located outside. Background music that is so mellow it almost blends into the walls. All the drink items a coffee place should offer and two bites to eat. Genuine and laid-back staff, sticking their head out of the window for a chat every now and then. And there you have it. Oliver Coffee at number 5 Oliver Street. Just like the sibling you wished for. Oliver Coffee does not outshine you. It leaves you alone whenever you want to; but it has that homey comfort that assures you are never really on your own.
Written by Dori Feher Illustration by Meile Adinavičiute
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Photography by Polina Juránková and Eliška Bernardová Model Gudrun Gudmundsdottir Mortensen
COVERED
Why do you feel so guilty
all the time?�
the problem with guilty pleasures
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Written by Maciej Kazmierski Photography by Polina Juránková and Eliška Bernardová
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(and how the shabby horror aesthetic saved me from myself) How do guilty pleasures work? And what makes them, well… guilty? I recently had to exercise that thought while hunkered down in my apartment, using the recent nationwide quarantine as a convenient excuse to comfort myself by rewatching one of my favourite TV shows (I am sure you can relate). The show of choice was wChannel 4’s Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace; a six-episode mini-series that tells a spooky story of a certain haunted hospital. It holds a special place in my heart for so many reasons, most of which make me consider the series an example of guilty pleasure entertainment. Yet, the more I tried to analyze what makes Darkplace seemingly fit into that category, the more trouble I had with the popular idiom. But, we’ll come back to that. In the popular understanding, guilty pleasures are the pleasures we derive from activities we know we should not engage in, harmless little sins. I find most of mine in the world of film and TV. More specifically, I consider myself a passionate amateur of the “So bad that it is actually good” movie genre.
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At night, I wonder whether the prequel to Troll 2 (I guess just called Troll) will ever get made, and I am actually a little proud of the fact that Tommy Wiseau, the infamous creator of The Room, a.k.a. The best worst movie ever most probably was born in the city I come from (we can’t know for sure, but Reddit thread rumors are good enough for me). I love cringing at poor dialogue and over the top acting, admiring dated CGI or grimacing as the totally-notred-paint-at-all blood ejects from various body parts in seriously troubling amounts. And in my preferences, I am not alone; many indulge in such delights. No wonder: terrible movies often give us what we want, instant gratification, easy entertainment sprinkled with comfy condescension. But where does that condescension come from and why is a bit of frivolous TV a reason to feel guilty? Supposedly, when we do something that feels good but is wrong for all the other reasons, we feel guilty in the end. I think most of us make an immediate connection between pain and pleasure. And there should be science to support that.
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"IT IS SO BAD,
THAT IT IS ACTUALLY GOOD!"
As the Yale School of Management professor, Ravi Dhar concluded in his research: “Intuitively, we might believe that a negative emotion like guilt would adversely affect the pleasure we feel from an indulgent, or hedonic, experience. Quite the contrary, we found that guilt may be a key mechanism for enhancing pleasure”. It does feel good to surrender to temptation. A doughnut only tastes half as good when you are not on a diet. Even the biblical Adam and Eve aren’t strangers to guilty pleasures, if not the very precursors of it (credit where credit’s due). Although the divine authors of the Bible would probably not approve, arguments for liberating guilty pleasures have been made across the world of academia. Many argue it is actually healthy for human beings to shift from problem-solving mode and dive in headfirst into shallow, undemanding activities. Intuitively, I wanted to scoff at the notion of crediting mindless reality TV and bad movies for my good mental health, but then something stopped me.
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“The trouble with guilty pleasures is that they are not really about feeling guilt.�
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Enter Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. A mini-series created in 2004 by Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade. At first glance, it looks and feels just like a poorly written, poorly acted and definitely underfinanced horror show made in the 80s’. The fantastic premise of the show is that the viewers are watching a program in which Garth Marenghi, a horror author, is presenting a special edition cut of a failed TV show that he wrote, directed, co-produced and starred in. The special edition is intertwined with commentary from Garth and the rest of the film crew, who reminisce about particular scenes, stunts and the good old times in general. What makes the show so different though is that the creators are undoubtedly talented and clever filmmakers, who made it bad on purpose. Essentially a parody and a love letter to bad filmmaking, the show within a show is riddled with weird cuts, inconsistent sound design, cliché writing and obscure plots. That would be binge-worthy on its own, but the additional layer of interviews and commentary where the creators show the viewers that the screw-ups are on purpose is what makes the show so much more satisfying. Yet, Holness and Ayoade never wish to moralize or undermine the seemingly poor quality of their characters’ work. So what to make out of a show that for the bulk of its runtime looks and feels like a trainwreck only to be redeemed by a couple of subtle hints? Highbrow culture? Lowbrow culture? It seems like the creators are trying to say ‘Who cares?’
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The trouble with guilty pleasures is that they are not really about feeling guilt. If anything, the pleasure in participating in what we consider lowbrow culture makes us feel good because we know better. Or at least we like to think we do. From a cultural point of view, the very essence of the idiom lies in enabling manifestation of our cultural literacy. Calling something by that phrase is a way to distance ourselves from what we consider substandard. It comes from the oppressive notion that we only deserve pleasure when we worked hard for it. Which is exactly what Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace deconstructs by playing with the “So bad that it is actually good” genre. Here we have skilled and cultured creators butchering all standards of filmmaking, and having the time of their lives while they are at it. Yes, there is a narrative designed to remind us it is on purpose but the winks are not condescending; they are inviting. The creators manifest their own cultural literacy, but they also poke fun at both high and lowbrow culture, blurring the lines and delivering a project that brings joy on so many levels; as a comedy, pastiche, cheap horror; however many layers you can or wish to decode. It’s up to you. Guilty pleasures can be fun exercises in expanding our understanding of culture, challenging the norms and standards. Or they can just be a healthy getaway from problem-solving. So let’s get off our high horses and embrace our pleasures. No guilt attached.
NO GUILT
ATTACHED 39
Morphine addicts have numbered days on Earth Who hasn’t?
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In his novel, William Burroughs dives into a rather controversial topic around drug addiction (including his own), exploring the question of who should actually take the guilt. Most of the time, we use guilt as a coping mechanism. Be an apology, a gesture, straight-up denial or a slight acknowledgement. At least that is my humble opinion. We can do it intentionally by going ahead of our acts. Seeking a solution to avoid negative consequences. Or unintentionally, just floating, waiting for something or someone to fix it. For William S. Burroughs, in his first novel, Junkie, it is the subtle combination of the two. He lets us peek into the decisions of his guilty habit and how he coped with it through a somewhat autobiographical lens.
And let me point this out right off the bat - he does not feel guilty. “The addict himself often feels that he is leading a normal life and that junk is incidental.” He is refusing the responsibility and also refusing the judgement of people who have never been users of any junk. Instead, he paints a fairly accurate and rough picture of a chunk of his everyday. Almost forcing a pair of fresh glasses on you to show the stripped-down reality of what it meant to be a junkie in the early 1950s of America. And a junkie would never apologise for his actions.
Written by Dori Feher Photography by Polina Juránková and Eliška Bernardová Illustration by Meile Adinavičiute
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“I don’t mean it as justification or deterrent or anything but an accurate account of what I experienced while I was on the junk.” - Burroughs explained in his letter to his editor, Allen Ginsberg. To me, this plain accuracy is one of the things that brings the twisted element to the narrative. It does not equip you with instructions. It might ask you questions but not to take sides, in any way. You are left on your own, just as much as the junkies are in his chapters. The other thing is humour. Not in the light-hearted or sentimental sense. There is a particularly sharp way of phrasing, tinted with satire, honesty and ambiguity. It is so subtle you can almost miss it between the bare lines of his stories.
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“The questions, of course, could be asked: ‘Why did you ever try narcotics? Why did you continue using it long enough to become an addict?’ You become a narcotics addict because you do not have strong motivations in any other direction. Junk wins by default.” And Burroughs does not want any consolation or understanding for it. Just because the junk always wins, it does not make it a problem or an enemy.
Not necessarily. In fact, it turns the gloomy, repetitive days into purpose and hard work. Or maybe it is another excuse calling itself an accomplishment. The way I see it, Junkie is an open field for your opinion to thrive. What it does is exactly challenging the conventional ideas of what good and bad is, which makes it fascinating to read, and re-read in the years to come.
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It' s allright, don' t lay any guilt on me - Charles Bukowsi
I am a cloud I am snow I am vanilla icecream I am this paper
I find it good to awaken in the morning like this, although there’s some pink, and you might say that my face is red
but mostly I am the other and I’ve learned not to mind it even though it makes some people angr y
all I’ve got to do is be this and it’s easy it’s all over me now
and when I’m dead even my bones will be white and I find it all an attr active consignment.
CONTENT
Daniel de Jesus Coming from Madeira island, what some call paradise, he would say he was blessed. Nowadays, he lives in Copenhagen, studying to be a communication designer or what life brings along. He likes so many things it is difficult to name them, but to make it short, art, crafts and food always brings him home.
Dóri Fehér Budapest native, currently chasing her career in Copenhagen to become a communication designer. Passionate organizer and control-freak who prefers to review stuff in her spare time.
Maciej Kaźmierski Originally from Poland, a student at KEA’s Communication Design & Media programme and a Copenhagen wanna-be local. Loves to feed people good food and will probably open his own restaurant if the whole writing thing does not work out.
Meile Adinaviciute Lithuanian currently living in Copnehagen. Aspiring to be a creative director with a background in graphic design. A sweethooth since 1996 aka snoldetrold.
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CREATORS
Megan Millar Scottish lass living the good life in Copenhagen city. Media and Communications student with a background in visual design. Connoisseur of memes, UK grime and graphic design.
Eliška Bernardová Born in Prague, living in Copenhagen. Student of Communication Design with background in Multimedia Design. Loves all things aesthetics and independent music. Goes to concerts a lot.
Eszter Melisande Rehák Hungarian gal lived in the UK, US and now in Denmark. Striving to use visual communication to spread meaningful messages. Drinks hot cocoa everyday, will read your astrological chart upon first meeting and eats lunch at 11.15.
Polina Jurankova Born in Siberia, grew up in Prague, now studying Communication Design in Copenhagen. She loves analog photography, black coffee and fast techno.
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visuals made by
Polina Jurankova Eliska Bernardova Meile Adinaviciute Eszter Melisande Rehak
words written by
Daniel Jesus Maciej Kazmierski Dori Feher Megan Millar March 2020