{"id":37364,"date":"2021-08-12T17:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T21:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cultureaddicts.com\/?p=37364"},"modified":"2021-08-10T08:30:28","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T12:30:28","slug":"flossing-explores-surveillance-capitalisms-psychological-warfare-on-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cultureaddicts.com\/?p=37364","title":{"rendered":"Flossing explores surveillance capitalism’s psychological warfare on \u2018TRAP\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Six years ago while taking a break from music and stuck in a loop of over-work,\u00a0Heather Elle\u00a0(former bassist of\u00a0BODEGA\u00a0and\u00a0The Wants) was staying a sponge for potential new musical material and overheard a stranger on the street say, “…and everyone gasped as the clothes fell onto the tarmac!”<\/em> She couldn\u2019t stop wondering about the bigger story and loved how it involved the combination of technology, error, necessity, and luxury. Around that same time, Elle kept hearing Fetty Wap\u2019s single Trap Queen<\/em> everywhere she went and found it a strange coincidence that T.R.A.P. laws (Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers) were also in the news for using insidious non-medical reasons to shut down abortion clinics. This inspired her to reflect more on the double binds of both technology and gender – the social control, not-so-obvious coercion, and confusion. She wrote a skeleton of a song and put it away until 2020, coincidentally revisiting it when we were more plugged in and engaged with surveillance capitalism than ever before in human history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is the second single from Heather\u2019s upcoming debut EP as\u00a0Flossing\u00a0entitled TRAP<\/a><\/em>, along with a\u00a0remix\u00a0by Interpol\u2019s Sam Fogarino.\u00a0The video for TRAP<\/em> was directed by Brooklyn video artist\u00a0Ali Yildiz\u00a0of\u00a0Analog Nation<\/a>\u00a0who, during the lockdown, began experimenting with circuit-bent AV gear, video synthesizers, CCTV and VHS cameras, and televisions. Elle once again plays with BDSM imagery and role play, seamlessly shuffling through exhibitionistic and voyeuristic characters. Whether she’s adorned and bound in a tangle of cables, sharpening knives in a harness, or tied up with tailor tape, she represents both the technological sadist and masochist. And with Yildiz’s CRT television tower as the main focal point of anxiety and trance \u2014 simultaneously live-streaming and replaying her pre-recorded memories \u2014 they comment on the eerie shifts in spectator culture, engagement with highly curated content, and the technocratic convergence of humans and data. Discussing the track, Heather offers, “Humanity’s fear of anti-mattering mixed with surveillance capitalism’s psychological warfare is quite the dirty martini to sip on every day<\/em>.\u201d Check out the video clip for TRAP<\/em> via YouTube below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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