Running the Race: Approaches to the Viva

 Finding time for a rare post hereabouts whilst taking a break from thinking about the practice-based research, and what may be getting presented at my exam. The outright ban inflicted by Youtube against my video account there has, following an initial period of disbelief, turned into more fertile ground. I hadn't expected to be making any new work specifically for the examination, but this incident has fuelled some concepts. One is a garish 1960s/70s-style exploitation poster, inviting the viewer [the unsuspecting examiners] to "see what was BANNED by Youtube!!!" or something to that effect. Humour and parody are rarely far away from the surface of my work, and I believe it is an underrated element of certain forms of art practice. 

 

 I've already addressed this happening in an endnote in the written thesis, which may or may not make the final draft. Far from a personal sniff at falling foul of a site's Ts & Cs, I find this may have far-reaching implications if the 'sex & nudity' policy is actually analysed:

The key phrase is right at the top: "meant to be sexually gratifying" (my emphasis). I appealed the decision of course with this exact phrase outlined and dissected, to no avail. Because seemingly, two seconds of a non-erect penis at the end of a performance poem is "meant to be sexually gratifying". That therefore means that, according to their own Ts & Cs, Bump 'n Grind is genuinely pornographic and made with pornographic intent. And there I was thinking it was a piece of burlesque performance made in pursuit of a PhD, but seemingly an American AI bot run by a Surveillance Capitalist data-harvesting operation knows my work and my intentions better than I do.

Thankfully, I already had a Vimeo account up and running.

Do I consider this some kind of silencing of trans and NB artists and voices? No, not as yet. But it's an interesting, if disturbing, thought, and one that can only provide further fuel to my current creative output.

Thoughts on the Thesis, Performativity and Theatricality

 Long time no post: much writing and rewriting of the thesis, and production of practical works (and performances) have held me back from posting lately. But with my viva now approaching, it seemed like a good time to catch up with some reflective thinking - some of it still sketchy - on what I'm doing, how, why, and for whom.

Performance and Performativity

The research poster I created earlier this year addressed my sense of theatricality as an artifice that knows it is an artifice, citing place as a space for performance to occur. Therein, the ubiquitous nature of the red curtain which is knowingly a backdrop which operates solely as a backdrop to focus on the action, and hide the domestic banality beneath. The curtain as a signifier of theatricality, of artifice: the knowledge that what follows is not fact, but a narrative composition.

My sense of dress and the theatrical in terms of display, action and dress. The sense that there are layers beneath which are more 'real' as in (Layer Upon Layer). Theatrical garb/performance as an overt acknowledgment of the theatricality of being, the knowing that what is presented is a fabrication of some sort. There is artifice at work, often knowingly and explicitly, but as to how  deep is dependent upon the subjective  readings of the performer as a person, beneath the acknowledged layers of artifice (hats, gloves, boas etc.) To a point I can separate work from person, though any attack upon a performance could be seen as a veiled ad hominem, but on the reverse, I can always flip the argument to refer it to a persona rather than the person beneath.

Theatre of performance, theatre of objectivity. The 'sex object' aspect. Who is my audience? Who are my audiences? Qualitative: as distinct from Shirley, who disavows working FOR any kind of audience. My work demands audiences plural, but they will vary for each area of my work and pracvtice. My webcam paying audience will not be the same as my Hardwired or Punk Opera audiences. As Sprinkle says, her audience grows along with her - but also, they vary according to my works. My live performance is dependent upon some level of give and take (e.g Bump n Grind requires "the dreaded audience participation" - a lack of which has actually informed how far to take the piece, as discovered on my opening night of the Dundee Fringe, 2023).

My work is presented 'as is'. A nonbinary body subject to subjective readings of the person and self (note the Fringe reviewer's use of 'she/her' pronouns on my show). I do not 'aim' to be accepted or 'read' as anything, as in a drag show - I am simply me, embodying my own sense of me, being, self. My work relies upon audience, only in the sense that each member of an audience will ‘read’ me in their own subjective way.

Is there a sense of 'connivance' at work within female and trans-generated porn whether amateur, or especially, professional - in the sense of 'pleasing the crowd' and therefore tending to conform to standards of heteronormative expectation - to what extent is the dominant culture internalised?* (I recognised this tendency within myself long ago, and aimed to subvert it (e.g. my comix which led to the ‘phiz/phys’ concept), and utilise it in whatever way I could, rather than trying deny its over 40-year influence upon me.

Fragmentation as a theme – interconnectivity between related, and also disparate, elements and works (or components of works). Fragments of the artist’s self and persona are presented via monologues, personae and other imagery, sometimes with autobiographical references.

Fundamental element of all works is the non-binary body, physiognomy and/or persona, via either drawn representations, performative personae, or biographical/auto-ethnographical narratives.

‘Incongruity’ is an element but one which is often not explicitly presented or referenced – leaving this to a subjective reading of any persona, as an aesthetic, social etc. judgment on behalf of the viewer (A Punk Opera presents a spectrum of gender from hypermasculine thug, to squeaky-voiced girlish female lead). Those who view the performer simply ‘as they are’ will be unlikely to consider the incongruity present, but works are made with the expectation and knowing that many will, and that various readings of characters in, say, A Punk Opera or Weimar will affect an audience’s view of those characters’ sexuality as a result.

The DIY, the domestic, the unpolished, the raw and the natural are all aesthetic elements which reflect a body of work made mostly without ‘high’ sensibilities or veneers, hence frequent references to anarchism, punk, and DIY, plus the natural readymade material of the performer themselves as a medium. Immediacy, then, is an important element of the performative, whether in live public interactions (gigs, open mics, festivals) or online (webcam work).

Energy, attitude, emotion and personal lived experience are foundational forces behind many of the works, specifically the preference  for live iterations over any single ‘canonical’ recording. The obliteration of ‘canon’ as well as structure are two of the main themes of A Punk Opera.

Work informed by adult/porn material (whether soft – striptease) or hard (Howard, Sprinkle) references not sex but bodies, revelation, and tease (itself used as a device to deter biological essentialism and present gendered  ambiguity),  a theme founded in the necessity of presenting a solo performer who does not interact sexually with others. Or else – as in Do you think it’s OK, Lilith of the Valley and 2 Minutes of Sketchy Noises, discuss real-life interactions with others, others’ views of the self, and in the latter two examples, the artist/performer’s place within a specific online adult hierarchy. Hence the creation of works in ‘problematic’ genres seeks to address the research question of whether such material can ever produce positive, body-affirming, validation or empowerment. Again this is subject to individual audiences’ perceptions, and readings of the performer.

The responses of real people in real time is an element used by the performer to further fuel performance – whether it be online, or in a live situation.

Weimar embodies the performative and theatrical elements of its source material, 1920s cabaret, Brecht, Berg’s Lulu and Bob Fosse in general, with immersive characterisation also featured heavily in ‘Jack Robinson’, in which one persona is maintained throughout seven short monologues (and one dialogue). My characters, like most fictionals, exist within the world of the words they speak. Most are nameless - only in Hardwired, the Punk Opera and Incredibly Queer Transition do characters have biographies and names outside of the immediate text (in terms of a past which life which has informed their current states).

The works are designed to either suggest a ‘new normativity’ (i.e., to normalise what is still referred to in ‘alternative’ or non-standard terms) or to challenge preconceptions, prejudices, assumptions about what ‘is’ or is not’ acceptable within certain genres or modes of behaviour. This owes its fundamental affirming, positive origins to Juliet Jacques’ appeal for an Écriture trans-feminine.

A couple of the final AI-generated images in the Trans Bodies 101 series, being of a disturbing nature, sit uncomfortably alongside other explicit images which may be read as pornographic. This is intentional, for where there is sex, there is violence, as Chapter 3 of the thesis makes clear, and the series is also intended to be experienced sequentially (providing, it is hoped, a deliberate cessation of any hint of erotic frisson that may possibly have been built up over the preceding images). Transwomen remain overtly sexualised in media, and are also subjected to violence, dark realities which the artist’s work otherwise rarely touches upon (the other example, Do you think it’s OK?, being a catalogue of sexual harassment the artist has personally received in public over the years). The reasons for not addressing these points more openly is strictly socio-political, as the artist no longer considers themselves a frontline activist.

Thesis chapters and case studies are referenced within various works as follows:

Ch. 1 – A. Sprinkle. Main sources: L. Kipnis, D. Torr, S. Marcus.

Relevant practice-based works: 42^nd Street, Striptych, Bump ‘n Grind, Shemale Porn 101

Ch. 2 – J. Howard. Main sources: Ogas & Gaddam, Bakhtin via Stam, Marcus

Relevant practice-based works: Trans Bodies 101 AI-generated series, What Do Guys Want to See…?, Questioning Cartoons series

Ch. 3  – ‘Shirley S. Willing’. Main sources: Sade, Bataille, Ruberg, Marcus

Relevant practice-based works: Last Transmission

The Future of Personal Research, and a Bit More

 Having spent the past few months completing Fragments of a Punk Opera, working on my PhD upgrade 'exam' and with the odd dash of awkward reality (just for kicks), I've finally found some time to reflect on what I've accomplished so far - made possible by my upgrade process - and also where it'll all be going in the next couple of years, now that I seem to be firmly on course. 

Hardwired was featured in the recent art school research expo, and as such was able to reach a wider, and more general, audience - thanks perhaps also to my presentation on the subject and its themes at the expo opening: 'Digital Media as Means and Method of Individuation': DJCAD Research Expo '2.

The inclusion of the head as a faux 'surveillance device' which also reflects the gaze of the viewer (in a complete reversal of the Medusa myth of Perseus' shield) was an interesting choice, and suggests that works are ever rarely as complete as we think they are - when installation in a new environment can kick off exciting and additional ways of presentation and interaction. Having given four talks about this film in as many months to various audiences has also allowed me to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the film (made almost exactly a year ago now) and how I can move forwards with similar, bigger, better works. A Punk Opera is certainly ambitious but needs equally thoughtful curating, something I'll begin thinking about soon.

The cyborg theme was also presented at the University 'Nietzsche, Science, Life & Art' symposium at the end of 2022, featuring an iteration of a drawing which features in Hardwired:

The graphic comix work made for last year's BRAW bursary is now on show at Generator Projects' Members' Show:

I recently also contributed to this article:

Inside the Wild and Highly Lucrative Erotic Art Industry

 written for Vice magazine, where I had much to say on the subject of kink and fetishization in art (most specifically on the pornographic 'shemale' form), but only a little of it was used - still, nice to be namechecked, and be out there in the media!

Having now pinned down the themes at stake and subject matter of what will be the second chapter of the thesis - the erotic art of John Howard and 'shemale'/futanari in general - I'm now able to consider how this leads into the proposed third chapter, which discusses webcam porn performance and the personal, and wider, issues therein. 

It'll be good to return to the thesis chapters with new, well-informed eyes and with any luck a coherent structure will soon begin to emerge. And with the confidence boost that I'm now a fully-fledged researcher, things ought to gain traction as the writing becomes more coherent, and goes on to inform further practice.

Lo-fi thoughts and Shonky Reflections on 'Fragments of a Punk Opera'

 Working intensely on recording, writing, producing and filming more instalments of the 'Fragments of a Punk Opera', I've been reminded of the DCA exhibition 'Shonky: The Aesthetics of Awkwardness' which I attended in 2018, between 2nd and 3rd years of my BA. I recall the show making no impression at all upon me at the time, but it obviously stayed with me as I immediately thought back to it in terms of the form and methodology of that which is loosely-formed, rough, somewhat klunky - yet nonetheless still engaging or, I hope (with regards to my own work), at least entertaining. 

I routinely refer to my music adventures as 'lo-fi' and this is an accurate description, but it is also in keeping with the DIY aesthetic which is a signatory on the original punk manifesto. My method is basic, not by choice but by virtue simply of how it is: with no training in music production, I use basic means to create pretty basic music: the drumkit requires several hundred pounds worth of new skins and cymbals, and the main crash has a 2-inch split in it. Punk did everything it could with the rock 'n roll basics of bass, drums, guitars and vocals - one or two groups even incorporated keys, as I do too, albeit in a faux-jazz idiom which is still, I would claim, of punk heritage, as I have no formal or any other understanding of jazz and associated music theory (if it qualifies as jazz at all then it is genuinely 'shonky jazz', no?).

 

These jazz-ish moments may owe their inspiration to the classy sophistication of pop-musical geniuses Sparks via the smart-ass lyrics, but the production and attitude is more suggestive of the quirkiness found in early Adam Ant or the Stranglers. The works also reinterpret aspects of two previous (if not in fact still ongoing) bodies of work, 'Weimar' and 'A Punk Trilogy in 4 Parts': decadence, cabaret, dark humour and occasional historical and social references which all bounce around between the other recurring interests and obsessions - narrative, character, relationships, betrayal, heartbreak...and occasionally art.

Herein, musical professionals will note missed beats, fluffed notes, flat vocals, hammy performances all round - none of which is done on purpose to simulate crude or raw aesthetics as a shallow raison d'étre, but is simply the results of "doing what I do". Sometimes the fluffs aren't noticed until well into the mixing process, and digital music editing can only fix so much. The Band Aid-patched results are therefore in full concert with the 'shonky' concept: I make music because I love it: it's an affair of the heart, not of the intellect. I do not try to polish the results too much: too-slick production would only highlight the fluffs and clangers even more, and make them sound much worse. A rough, hissy punk demo track can get away with a lot more than an HD production of 'Moonlight Sonata', in which instrumental perfection is expected.  

A recently-recorded track with a Sham 69 vibe, 'I Swear', humorously bleeps out the occasional swear words until the ad lib rant at the end, in which the f-bombs slip past the completely out-of-time censoring devices, thus not only calling into question the authority of the censor (which was wielded as hamfistedly during the original punk era as much as any guitar in the hands of countless young would-be upstarts), but also celebrating the subversive punk voice itself: despite all attempts to shut us up, we are still shouting:

For we know three chords, and we therefore are a band. 

As a working-class phenomenon, punk highlighted the élitism of the music world of its day, and levelled the playing field of musicianship (going on to inform various subsequent waves, and Grunge, in later decades). My body of work does not shun the economic divisions of society. The two main characters start off penniless, and possibly end that way, too (assuming they even survive). And does the millionaire gangster sit beneath a portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth II for reasons other than mere affection? Economic concerns are writ large across the 'Fragments' project, starting out from the reality of my need to replenish an entire drumkit and invest in a recording microphone (rather than merely yelling at the laptop), to the desperate situation of the two main characters, Steff and Jen. However, the levelling and liberating tendencies of technology, which originally allowed punk to flourish at street-level, have permitted this artist to realise their creative endeavours in a tangible form, in the same way that cheap Xeroxing technologies of the 1970s allowed fans and writers to publish and distribute their own 'zines, and no longer had to rely upon the stuffy music papers of the day for opinion and information.

'Hardwired' Public Screening and 'Bad Money' Continues...

 As expected, my presentation of 'Hardwired' at DJCAD last Wednesday (26th) went splendidly well. Working with only a couple of sketchy notes, I managed to speak for 45 minutes around the 20-minute screening, thanks to a very engaged and talkative audience. As my first ever solo presentation/exhibition, I found it a very rewarding and exciting experience, and hope to do more of the same soon. 

The layout of the event was exactly as I had first imagined it back in the Springtime - incorporating the sculptural Medusa work, printed flyers, and me presenting in character as Em in a snake print dress, which reflects the serpentine aspect of Medusa's myth. The feedback and discussion points surrounding the characters inspired me to push on with the nascent 'punk opera' concept ('Bad Money'), and a few days later I had a good demo song 'Madame Melodie Melody' recorded, from which grew a big musical production number and some semi-improvised narrative working around the slim storyline to date.

"I am the one, I am the law and the word. I am the beginning and the end. I take what I want and I get what I need At a profitable, comfortable dividend... You got a problem with that? You better go speak to the Lord, honey. He's the only one who's gonna save your godamn sorry ass now... 'Cos I am only a dame (But what a helluva dame) And while this world's my oyster, I will eat pearls and I'll poop caviar... We were put on this earth to do the best we can, and London town's my cloister And if you want a share, then you better beware 'Cos I'm (she's) a mean mutilator like Robespierre You said it boy, I'm the fellah's biggest fan I'm (she's) gonna get you any way I (she) can... So don't mess around with the Big Bad Melodie Ma'am... That's what I am."

Spot the Harry S Truman reference above...

This clip, filmed in part of the family house, involves me portraying 4 characters, stretching the concept of multiplicity of persona, and may be the most ambitious indoor musical video work to date, as a result. Synchronicity, a recurring theme within much of my creative work going back three decades now, resurfaces when reflecting upon the retro aspect of the Madame's interior decor and style (antique, Royalist, jazz) versus the younger, brasher youthful protagonists (contemporary, poor, punk). The flip.comes when we discover that Melodie is a furious atheist, as a result of Jen's blabbing about her devotion to prayer to resolve their economic situation. Intentional deadpan comedy now also infuses the work, as a means of propping up the stock/cliché character types (musical theatre, after all, isn't renowned for its depth of characterization), and one of the redeeming qualities of original punk was its cheeky and subversive sense of humour and occasional lapses into the elder generation's sphere of music hall and other popular forms (e.g. the piano singalong interlude in the Cockney Rejects' single 'The Greatest Cockney Rip-Off'). The movie musical has therefore some features in common with the porn film: neither can possess narratives or characters that are too deep or layered, due to the need to pack in sufficient 'crowd pleasing' scenes - both genres, too, tend to assume some level of 'audience participation' to be considered truly engaging. 

The whole artifice itself is attractive to me, in terms of my growing methodology with increased exposure - even celebration - of the limitations inherent in making works like this alone with no assistance. I would be interested in presenting some of the musical material live one day, perhaps as part of a multi-media exhibition of the punk cycle. Might the 'book' of such an opera be traditional, or radically rethought - whether in a Brechtian mode or some other alternative or subversive means? The libretti displayed as works in themselves which stand alongside, rather than being subservient to, the musical aspects?

Rather than constructing an entire genuine musical film out of these interludes, this body of material is now being dubbed 'Fragments from a Punk Opera', with fragmentation itself a recurring theme and methodology in my recent work (cf. 'Fragments of Amazonia' (2018), 'Fragments, Intermediaries', my MFAAH final exhibition in 2021, and as a subtext in the 2022 film 'Hardwired') wherein what is included is as relevant as the idea of what is not, or what is shown versus what is not shown. Which sections, stories, characters, from the over-arching narrative are deserving of having a song and dance made about them, and which ones not? Furthermore, the concept of connectedness itself can become the responsibility of the viewer, the audience, if the 'book' - i.e., the over-arching storyline, is left deliberately ambiguous, or even non-existent, providing only the libretti of each individual song. The old punk methodology of DIY - from printing and distribution (photocopied cut 'n pasted fanzines) to the music itself ('learn 3 chords, form your own band') - can therefore be applied not only to me as creator, actor, composer, musician, but to the audience who are invited to create their own beginning, middle and end from the selection of musical and other materials on offer. A 'random access' musical. Who are the villains and who the heroes? Why? True anarchy - make up the story that you want to see, not the one that is fed to you... (perhaps for this concept to fully work, some more ambiguity of character and motivation may need to be applied. But, as it stands - are Steff and Jen truly blameless? Is Melodie really irredeemable, if she regularly decapitates other gangsters, and furthermore, respects the Queen? Who's to say that Mr. Hookz won't let Steff & Jen 'off the hook' out of personal sympathy?) Furthermore, are there any links to my previous works - such as the similarity between the Melodie persona, and my work of a year ago, 'A/Object' and 'Untitled Sculptural Objects'?

There is potential for the humour to get blacker, and the art to become more artistic, in reference to one of my favourite films of all time: Peter Greenaway's 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover', which also deals with themes of crime, betrayal, and revenge, concepts which have already begun to swirl around some of the newly developed lyrical ideas.  

'Bad Money' and Good Vibes

So much of my art practice seems to revolve around recurring 'meta' narratives that I've long since assumed that my subconscious sense of creativity really does have some sort of master plan for a seemingly disparate collection of works produced over a number of years (or else, I'm really just lacking in originality...)

Reworking and recording an old punk number written as part of a 'rock opera' which had been written some years ago (and then promptly forgotten about), and now given new visual life in the form of a music video, made me realise - though only after watching the video back a few times - that it seems to represent a stage in the 'further adventures' of Em and Jay, the main characters from my film 'Hardwired'.

The concept of bringing my interest in music-making (albeit of a crummy, lo-fi form) into the forefront of my practice is probably long overdue. Original scores did feature in all three of my 'major' (i.e., over 10 minutes' length) films of the last few years - 'The Wanderer and the Wish-maid', 'Solstice' and 'Hardwired'. But making music into a main focus, for all its roughness (which itself could be a personal methodology, and is indeed a deliberate aesthetic used in various genres) is something I will be exploring in more depth - featuring, as it does in this case, character and narrative, which have always been my main driving forces. 

My enthusiasm for punk as a social, cultural and musical movement has already been documented in my 'Punk Trilogy in 4 Parts', which can hardly be called nostalgia as I was barely a conscious entity when the first wave began to fizzle*, but I do have a long history of living and breathing various aspects of the ethos, especially the 'DIY' concept of making (comix, zines - including my forthcoming 'A/Object' zine, which includes a few punk-inspired images among the other X-rated material), production (especially music - I play all instruments, to varying standards), and distribution. 

A few other tracks with narrative (or at least artistic potential) include pieces which exist, at present, only as titles, like 'Acne Empire', 'What a Load of Crap', 'So I'm Married to a Drag Queen' and 'I ****ing Swear'. How might this body of work develop? With my public exhibition of 'Hardwired' only a week away, I'm expecting to channel some feedback from that experience in this new direction. Perhaps Em and Jay will become a pair of recurring universal heroes in a whole series of works, popping up in multiple genres and/or places. 

Keeping with the musical theme, I also had the following cartoon published in a recent zine by Coin Operated Press:

(Whilst writing this, I've just been reminded of another commission illustration - for a book by David Kerekes - which I made some years ago, entitled 'Gob' - featuring a spotty punk vocalist doing just that, the very antisocial activity (namely, spitting, in British slang) which became a trademark activity for the UK press to accuse all punks of being guilty of as yet another signifier that The End of Civilization was night. Except that, at that time, many people spat in public. To the extent that I can still remember as a tiny kid, on the old Dundee buses with my mother, seeing signs which read 'No Spitting'.)

*I usually refer to it as a 'celebration', covering as it does the 6 year period of British history from 1976 to the Falklands War of 1982.

Weimar Poetry Cycle: all 4 Parts

Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop all had their Berlin phases - and I think I've just concluded mine. Or at least one of mine. The concept has hung around for quite some time, although it has only been realised (and realisable) in recent months*.

This is the 'movie' edition incorporating the pieces 'Berliner Girlz', 'Marlene and Me' and 'Die Freudlosse Gass', with extra opening footage to give the whole work a cyclical feel, and the fourth 'satyr' segment, 'Weimar, Schmeimar...' which concludes the story on a bittersweet, but still light-hearted, note. I'm still seeking the opportunity to perform the whole sequence live some day, somewhere...though probably not on a smoky backlit stage.

There's a nice physical (as well as the obvious thematic) link to an earlier live work, my Brexit-inspired take on a couple of 'Cabaret' classics - in that both this and 'Berliner Girlz' uses the same prop chair.

*The first segment, 'Berlin Girlz', was actually first written some years ago, and incorporated as part of a one-act play within the text of my one professionally-published novel to date - whose very title shows that my Berlin phase has been in progress for some time, as well as its inescapable connection to retro erotica, as the novel is set in an establishment which dates from the Weimar period.

'Weimar, Schmeimar...'

Fell in love with a Berlin girl so many years ago

Strange to think how many things since then have come and quickly gone.

As Mr Hitler warred, and went,

and everyone was left quite bent

so out of shape, we thought we’d never

even write poetry again.

Yet, here we are.

A people scattered – we refugees.

We left the city on its knees

and fled, like all the lucky ones

Across the sea – all hail Manhattan.

Then one day, some day

I saw her, somewhere

Standing on a smoky backlit stage

She was on the path to self destruct,

I mean, man – she was really fucked

I grabbed her and I took her home with me.

She told me of the path she’d wandered

Prostitution, drugs, time squandered

How she almost ended up impaled

or, so she says...in vague detail

like a butterfly, in some entomologist’s case.

But it’s 1952, and – hey!

We’re in the land of opportunity

And every night, we dance together

To those old songs that brought us hither

And knock back whiskey, telling tales

of the nymphs and satyrs of the Domino house

Just down the road from the old White Mouse.

But all those days have gone, my friend

And while I hate to come across as picky -

The fun has fizzled, liberty’s been redefined -

The only mouse around here is Mickey.

Prosit.

(MB, September 2022)

Writer's note: while the Domino is a fictional establishment, the White Mouse is not, and was a hive of extremely liberal performance art in its day. I first found it referenced in Donald Spoto's biography of Marlene Dietrich back in the late 90s, and the reference has kicked around my head for all that time. Maybe my next Berlin-themed venture will be to try to replicate some of the more risqué acts from that period, like those made notorious by Anita Berber.