DAMAGE SIGNAL
Cinematography and montage by Nathaniel.le Hendrickson.
Short performance documentary of the collective project called DamageSignal, 2018.
DamageSignal (D / s) was born in the autumn of 2017 in New York City. It is a lightning bolt that permeates various mediums, including but not limited to sound, video, and performance, in order to create and destroy, to divide and unite, to move and stagnate. A D / s performance is a multisensory ritual signaling a principle that is older than the most ancient civilization. This principle is conjured via an amalgamation of sound*, infrasound**, video, and gesture, which stimulate known and unknown senses to bring about contact with harmonic revelations. Before a performance begins, musk scent is emitted as a symbol of death to current thought patterns to allow a restoration of order and balance. Performances occur only at calculated times, such as solstices, equinoxes, etc. Other activities that are not open to the public happen at various times. D / s exhibits The Doctrine of the Whip (Dominus) and The Doctrine of the Rope (Servus) which culminate into The Diamond Mind (symbolized by the Ingwaz Rune, the rune of harmony). Merely gazing at a sadomasochistic whip arouses an observer’s nature - whip hand or whipped. The whip is the link that gives pleasure to both the master and the slave - if each individual is on the suitable end of it, unashamedly assuming the position of their natural propensity. The whip striking is the curve that harmonizes yin and yang. This principle is seen in the D / s sigil, which is a union of opposites in the shape of the Ingwaz Rune. Elements of ancient and contemporary occultism are present along with tenets echoing the philosophy of Heraclitus, Carl Jung’s concept of the Shadow, and BDSM practices. These components culminate into an idiosyncratic experience that sheds light and darkness on the individual and collective human condition.
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