The 1 Year Anniversary of BM’s launch.
Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself
A Year ago today I went live with BM by posting “My Transition into a Cyborg” and “Benign Malevolence 2024”. It’s safe to say I jumped the gun a bit.
I haven’t been active on BM socials because I realized there was a lot more to be done behind the scenes. Let me give you some context.
In May 2024 I wrote “Starry Night(s): “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”, which got me freaking banned from Substack (my old blog host). Apparently I used the word Nazi too many times (cowards). After editing the blog they unbanned me, but the damage was done. SubStack silenced me. They castrated me like an innocent Unsullied child soldier.
All I was doing was providing SubStack the content they so desperately crave AND THIS IS HOW THEY REPAY ME? SubStack’s hypocrisy is truly stunning, banning someone for calling out fascism is a little on the nose, wouldn’t you agree? Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black if you ask me. Anyways, those little content junkies couldn’t handle the truth and now they must live with the consequences. It may take years, decades even. But SubStack will reap what it sowed, BM will make sure of it.
As Jay-z would say, this is a public service announcement.
FELLOW ARTISTS, BLOGGERS, CREATORS. CALL YOUR BANNERS, RAISE YOUR ARMS, WE ARE GOING TO WAR AGAINST THE WICKED OPPRESSION THAT GOES BY SUBSTACK. THE VILE SCUM THAT MINES YOUR DATA UNDER THE ILLUSION OF FREE SPEECH WILL BE BROUGHT TO IT’S KNEES. (it sounds cooler if you read it with a JFK impression).
What I’ve Been Up To
Enough with the threats. All jokes aside, it was a blessing in disguise. In May 2024 I also graduated from University. My freelance stuff was going well but I had extra time on my hands and the way my brain works if I’m not actively learning something I sorta just melt into a pit of despair.
I thought about learning how to brew non premade coffee. I thought about learning how to become a professional Crusader Kings 3 player. I even thought about reading the Bible for the first time. But none of those tickled the itch.
After getting banned from SubStack I needed to rebuild BM’s business plan. I didn’t want to run the risk of getting banned from another server due to my precarious prose. So I choose to build my own blog server. One entirely developed by and through BM — BRICK BY BRICK.
Integrating a blog into the site the way I envisioned was a lot more challenging than I initially thought. In order to do this I needed to get nasty at coding. So that’s what I did. I clenched my teeth and dove headfirst into the trenches (Javascript) and came out a different man. I felt like Christopher Walken in Deer Hunter the way I was losing grip on reality.
But now I’ve got the juice. I am an absolute unit when it comes to Java. I went from averaging page scores of 30-40% to 90% consistently! My newfound arch nemesis SubStack can only reach 41%. Losers!
That’s right, ain’t nobody can tell me shit. I hope you’re reading this Mr. Botzo. My grade 7 teacher never would’ve seen this coming. I would like to thank a few people for this momentous stride I took in the past year.
Anthropic; the people who made Claude. I’ve learned more about Java using the A.I. Claude to teach me, then I have in 8+ years trying to learn through YouTube.
David Goggins – I read his book last year and honestly I don’t agree with a lot of it, but he did inspire me to love the grind. It’s kinda funny his grind is 20x marathons and mine is starring at a computer for 20 hours straight. But hey, a grind is a grind, baby.
My parents – my Dad has been adamant I learn how to code and take advantage of these tech advancements before I’m too far behind
The Raiders – Mark Davis selling part of the team to Tom Brady has renewed my lease on life. I feel like I’ve just crawled out of Plato’s cave and am seeing colors for the first time.
God. Family. Football. You can be the one to choose whether Claude or Goggins is God in this scenario.
For real, coding is so fun. The webpages I’m making are pure art and nobody can tell me otherwise. It puts me in a flow state I haven’t felt since I worked on my first exhibition Human Error.
It’s very serendipitous a year ago I wrote “My Transition into a Cyborg” asking you all what it means to be an artist in the 21st century, and now I’m proclaiming my code is as artistic as anything these days, like I’m Marcel Duchamp posted up with my urinal.
OG Bubby Jaustin reflecting on the rhapsodic interplay of form and void, where chromatic luxuriance meets the whisper of negative space, within his JavaScript code. The artist’s gestural bravura imbues the composition with a kinetic vitality, oscillating between chaos and meticulous intentionality. One senses an almost synesthetic dialogue between code and brain, as though the lines themselves are imbued with a sentient longing. It is not merely code, but an invocation—an ephemeral mirage of emotion, suspended in the liminality between abstraction and revelation.
– OG Bubby Jaustin
Didn’t that philosopher Heraclitus once say “Character is Destiny”? I’m thinking he was onto something. Anyways, enough of what I’ve been up to. Here’s what’s in store for BM.
2025 Roadmap
The site is far from perfect. The first few months of the year, the majority of my BM work will be on the backend, trying to get everything up to par before I really go to town with content.
Q1
– I expect to have the site fully coded how I envision sometime by March-April.
– Finalize the partnership with the Creative Commons
Q2 & Q3
CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT
– I don’t want to lock in a schedule yet, but I’m aiming to produce something like 1 blog a week and 1 video a month for BM
– During this time I’m going to be pursuing as many people as possible to join the BM community. Again, not something I’ve finalized but I’m planning on offering creatives either; ownership into BM varying on how much engagement they produce, or x% Profits from each piece of content they produce.
For example, companies like YouTube, Spotify, Apple music, etc., tend to pay creatives something like $1 for every 1000 streams, so BM will use a similar model.
– Hoping to secure a partnership with 2 specific Toronto-based media companies I’m a fan of (this is me speaking it into existence)
Q4
– MORE CONTENT
– By now, hopefully BM will have more than just me as a creator, therefore we should be posting more than 1 blog a week.
– The goal is to eventually have 1 piece of content a day. That’s probably ambitious for 2025, but hey, shooters shoot.
– Over the past year I’ve been playing around with a new exhibition idea. No promises but maybe when I gear more into content mode I get to work on bringing that to fruition. (BTW if you still haven’t seen HYPERREAL, the archive is back online temporarily: https://benignmalevolence.com/2022/09/24/hyperreal/ )
What Else?
I don’t mean to pull your leg as it’s probably going to be at least a month before you hear from me again, but I figured since it’s the year anniversary of BM’s launch, you were long overdue for an update.
In the meantime I’ll leave you with some of the art/books/content BM is looking at so you can get an idea of the aesthetics we are focusing on going into the year:
The Xenogenesis Series by Octavia E. Butler (1987)
This is a science fiction book about aliens saving humanity from a nuclear war and holy shit it’s one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever read. I just finished book 2 and need a breather before I go into 3. If the thought of Alien orgies are cool this is probably your thing.
The Deer Hunter by Michael Cimino (1978)
The main consideration for me on whether or not a movie is good is if I think about it the day after. I watched The Deer Hunter a month ago and I’m still thinking about it. This movie fucked me up. I’ve watched all the main Vietnam war movies and this one is by far the most traumatizing of the bunch. It’s also the first time I’ve seen Christopher Walken not as an old man so that was cool. Warning: shit is dark asf
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)
I had a blog of Fahrenheit 451 in my drafts last year but due to unforeseen circumstances (fuck you SubStack) I had to can it. With all the election BS and the propaganda hitting our feeds I feel like this book is more important now than ever.
K-Punk by Mark Fisher (2003-2015)
If K-Punk has 1 million fans, I am one of them.
If K-Punk has one fan, then I AM THAT ONE.
If K-Punk has zero fans, that means I am dead.
Shout out and RIP Mark Fisher. K-Punk will always be in BM’s DNA. I will continue to make it one of my life’s missions to put as many people onto Mark Fisher as possible.
May 68’ (1968 lol)
I’ve been obsessed with watching documentaries and reading books about May 68’ lately because It seems so similar to what’s going on with the student protests of the Israel Palestine war. Maybe in a few weeks I’ll explain what I mean, but for now, I encourage you all to read up on the May 68 protests. History is repeating itself in front of our eyes.
Constructivism (The art movement)
Constructivism is about jamming as much meaning to produce as provocative a reaction as possible using only the most simplistic and universal artistic elements. “Constructivists believed that art had no place in the hermetic space of the artist’s studio. Rather, they thought that art should reflect the industrial world and that it should be used as a tool in the Communist revolution” (Constructivist handbook). BM doesn’t necessarily agree with the ends of the constructivist art movement, but it surely supports the means. I am constantly impressed by the constructivist ability to produce such poignant aesthetic truths in such mundane works of art. My goal as an artist is very much aligned with the constructivist ideals. To better understand BM’s philosophy I recommend you read up on constructivism.
Any and all Future Music
I was never a fan of Future growing up but in the past year something switched in my brain. Future was my second most played artist in 2024. Unfortunately I might be in my misogynistic era cause “I ain’t got no manners for sluts, Imma put my thumb in her butt!”. I’m just joking! Mom, aunts, uncles, I pray to god you didn’t read this far. I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
Now seems like a good time to end this. Thank you all sincerely for taking the time to read my work. I’m very excited about the work BM is planning to produce and I’m hoping I can pass some of that onto you! To whoever’s reading this, I hope you have had a great start to your year, and continue to push that momentum forward!
DULCE ET DECORUM EST PRO PATRIA MORI
“IT IS SWEET AND FITTING TO DIE FOR ONE’S CREATIVITY”
FUTUE TE IPSUM SUBSTACK
“FUCK YOU SUBSTACK”
