A story of world-making. She is a coder, employed to design a simulation WOVEN TOGETHER USING EXISTING science-fiction LITERATURE for new speculative LANDSCAPE. Silicon Valley by way of a civil war in another land. Power IN the hands of the PROGRAMMER. PLATE ONE: MORNING Affirmations. “I am sure that, as a woman, I can do a very good skyscraper.” The manifestation of power in digestible forms can be swallowed, spat or chewed with A strong black coffee before we start the day. Bulletproof coffee for the biohackers amongst us. Once the butter has melted, dragons will raise their wings and the weight of the beaten air will lift ME from MY perch. The day has begun. PLATE TWO: I don’t walk to work, I fly.
PLATE THREE: Affirmations in the bathroom. To the sound of running water, I know I am great. I am the woman I always wanted to be. I can do a very good skyscraper and I can carve deeper into the ground than anyone ever has. The people love me for my mountains. I builD and burn bridges at will. Power is and was and always will be mine. I take myself seriously. PLATE FOUR: The flowers in the lobby are arrangements of birds of paradise that drip over the reception desk. I stare at them in-between emails. Strelitzia. (Sertaline and serotonin by way of flora). PLATE FIVE: I cry heavily out of tiredness. No one sees or hears but my skin is delicate and slightly allergic to the salt of tears. It swells red and itchy for several days after. PLATE SIX:In my dreams the mountain gets too steep and I start to slip. I wake up wet, sticky. PLATE SEVEN:Collective splendour. The re-emergence of winter-blossoming Jasmine. A gratitude diary, self-help blogs and an Instagram account called ‘The Holistic Psychologist.’ “I will never give myself the luxury of thinking ‘I’ve made it.’ I’m not the same as I was 20 years ago, but I always set the bar higher.”