So its goodbye Facebook hello sanity. After several years dalliance with Zuckerberg’s monster I had, within the space of but two very short minutes, deleted my Facebook account and at the same time said absolutely no goodbye’s whatsoever to numerous friends, family, acquaintances and total strangers most of whom are still scratching their heads wondering where did that Idwal Fisher person go? A rash act yes, and with hindsight perhaps a little farewell letter and an explanation would have been polite but no, IT HAD TO BE DONE THERE AND THEN before I changed my mind and put my account ‘on hold’ or whatever it is it does. Not for me the new ‘dislike button’. I shall have to proceed to my deathbed forever wondering whether I would be the recipient of ‘dislikes’ for my post supporting Jeremy Corbyn and his decision not to attend the opening of the Rugby World Cup. I will no longer see posts from people who have gone to Whitby for the day, have made a curry for their tea, have bought a pint in a pub in London and are shocked at the price. I will no longer have to anguish over the fact that I don’t have time to watch films, or listen to albums on bandcamp that are recommended to me. I will miss out on gigs because I don’t have the event calendar function anymore. Advertisements for carpet slippers and the Hugo Boss sale are becoming distant memories as are the endless stream of inconsequential posts, some of which, it has to be said, were the work of my own hand.
All of this may sound rather heartless and unforgiving and you would be absolutely right to think so but my patience has worn thin and the very few plus points that Mr Zuckerberg’s enterprise offered me have been far outweighed by the bloated, all seeing, world dominating, soul sucking, nefarious, dangerous piece of spyware that it has become.
That such a small act could arouse in me such a feeling of relief goes to show just how much my hatred of Facebook had grown over recent years. I’m simplifying my life, shedding some algorithms along the way and whilst I may not have totally weaned myself from social media [I still find Twitter a far more useful tool than Facebook] I feel as if I have gone someway to regaining control over my life once more. If I shut my eyes and scrunch them up tightly I can still remember the pre internet days and the tap coming from the keys of a very old, very heavy typewriter which I sued to sit crossed legged at whilst playing Whitehouse in the near dark, smoking cigarettes and drinking whisky thinking I was some kind of Bukoswki typing letters to distro’s asking for their catalogues. If I can recapture just a little of that feeling by deleting Facebook I will feel like I have won a very small but important battle. Ditching Facebook is just the start. This thing could grow.
I yearn to be as creative with the keys as Dr. Steg is with his brushes, pens and glue and while he has stated in letters that he’s done with the art world a steady trickle of his work still reaches these shores suggesting that giving it up might not be as easy as deleting a Facebook account.
Regular visitors to these pages will be well versed in the ways of Dr Steg and his nihilistic view of the world as seen through the eyes of recently imprisoned 70’s pedophiliac pop stars. Animal jaw bones, plastic containers full of detritus, zines full of tracks made by wind up toys, diaries, framed pictures stating ‘I’ve Never Been Sexually Abused By Jimmy Savile’, postcards featuring Gary Glitter and A4 files filled with portraits are but some of his marks but its his zines that see him at his most prolific.
After ditching his long running SPON venture [a malleable thing that could be object, art or idea] he’s now on with Spong [and its variously spelt brethren]. The Spong you see here is an A5 zine that has stapled within its pages fold out letters written to Dr Steg, artworks of Dr Steg, an A6 zine called Readers Digress, CD covers, iron-on t-shirt transfers from Science Fiction Monthly magazine, newspaper cuttings, 3D pictures and a DVD of Dario Argento’s Profondo Rosso. We also have something called Dr Stegs ‘Spunkk’, an A4 zine containing reproductions of some Steg postcards and an insert regarding Syd Barrett. Last but not least comes a collaboration with Dave Walklett called SPONK, a colorful affair with the URL to this blog all over the back page. I have to declare an interest; I’m a fan of Dr Steg’s work but you knew that already. It may not be deep and meaningful but it does have a sense of urgency. Its something I’m hoping to rediscover myself since the ditching of Facebook.
The World of Dr. Adolf Steg