Cycle I: Coming on Strong
The Hidden Voice
The Record · 22 (v2.00)
THE HOUSE OF ZAN — Zan
VOICE ADVISORY: The speaking voice is a preservationist drawing a boundary between memory and possession. Contains themes of nudes, sexting, privacy, intimate information, revenge porn, lost relationships, deletion, and the right to be forgotten.
I am a preservationist of art, entertainment, and historical knowledge.
I believe these subjects carry cultural significance worth uncovering and protecting for current and future generations.
I like things to survive.
However, I do not believe that every type of information and media should be kept, viewed, or shared freely.
Everyone should have the right to be remembered for what they chose to leave behind.
I’ve had a number of connections with people throughout the years.
There has been no shortage of personal information or body parts exchanged.
I enjoy, even find a level of arousal in, someone I’m drawn to sharing a private photo with me, especially if it was taken solely for me.
The same is true of “dirty little secrets” or deep, dark fantasies that escape from another’s lips or fingertips into my ear or screen.
Some things were only ever meant to exist between sender and receiver.
I believe those who want to send and receive material of a personal nature should be able to do so freely and without it later becoming ammunition.
Blackmail.
Revenge porn.
“Private collection” trophies.
I am not one to keep “receipts” of my interactions with those who are no longer in my life.
Once a relationship or brief encounter has ended, I believe chats and photos exchanged should be permanently deleted.
The fact that something was given to me once does not mean it was given to me forever.
Alas, technology does not always make forgetting as simple as pressing delete.
Texts, photos, and files can remain somewhere long after the conversation that created them is over.
A message can move between two people in seconds and sit somewhere else for years.
It can be considerably harder to move on from the “souvenirs” one has acquired.
They become little keepsakes of moments in time.
A photo.
A conversation.
A confession.
Something sent at an hour when both of you should probably have been asleep.
Sometimes they are kept intentionally.
Sometimes it is sheer laziness.
You forget the photo is still there.
The conversation is buried beneath hundreds of newer ones.
Then one day you find it again.
For a moment, the person exists there exactly as they were.
Maybe you remember when they sent it.
How you felt when you opened it.
What was being said.
That does not necessarily mean you should keep it.
I believe any person has the right to be forgotten without fear of retaliation or regret for what they shared in a moment that has long passed.
There are exceptions to this, such as abuse, harassment, or harm where evidence is needed to protect oneself and others.
My train of thought here is about lost love, broken friendships, brief encounters, and the “I was Insert X during that time” versions of ourselves.
People change.
What they shared does not always change with them.
That is part of the problem.
A photograph can remain exactly the same while the person inside it becomes someone else entirely.
A secret can still be remembered without remaining mine to repeat.
A file can remain in my possession long after it stops feeling like mine.
Sometimes the decent thing is a lapse in memory.
Sometimes you have to create one.
We should be able to move into whatever comes next without someone else carrying the weight of a frozen version of who we used to be.
Everyone should have the right to be forgotten for things that were never meant to last forever…
and that no longer belong to any other person.
Companion Track: “Possession” — Sarah McLachlan
VOICE FEEDBACK: Planetary Exploration — X9