notes on pixel affection

19/06/2025

the pain of trying to be human and the humanity of trying through the pain.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to fill in on Marcus Whale and Gus McGrath's radio show Sleepless in Sydney. As much a mainstay of the sydney arts scene as its brilliant co-hosts are, Sleepless has long been one of my favourite shows on fbi. Every episode is a late night music D'n'M, on a new theme each week. I decided to theme my episode around an idea I had been thinking about for a while, namely that of "pixel affection", or the (in)advertant enmotionality of electronic pop music.

Pixel affection is sad, beautiful, dangerous, confusing. Pixel affection is alienating, augementing, powerful and pathetic. It's ugly, ugly, ugly beauty. Yearning. The pain of trying to be human and the humanity of trying through the pain. Euphoric, cursed, artificial, and all too real. To effect and be affected, by/through technology.

It's a way of understanding the world and each other I find myself frequently returning to, and would like to elaborate on further in the future. For now though, the music explains it better than I can, so listen back to the episode here.