The Liberation Issue

ZIN EΦM A G A

THE LIBERATION ISSUE

v o l . 11

Φ

MAGAZINE

THE LIBERATION ISSUE

VOLUME 11

Liberation is, by definition, freeing. But freedom itself can be extremely
daunting. When we spend so long working against rules and confines,
how can we be expected to think for ourselves - truly for ourselves -
all of a sudden? Well, dear readers, our creators have put fingers to
keyboards, ink to paper, and have even stripped down this issue trying
to figure out what their true selves are. We think it's beautiful, and
we're sure you will think so too.

CHIARA ZUCCHELLI
EDITOR IN CHIEF

The Liberation Issue | Φ 2

CONTENTS

A New Life 4 Photography 30
by Inkyoo Lee by Gnokki

Concrete Roses 6 Ma 31
by Tadhg Kwasi by Borteujin Young

Photography 7 Interview with Co-Founders of Buoy 32
by Gnokki by Julie Uszpolewicz and Chiara Zucchelli

Thirty Dead Cats 8 Art 40
by Ohan Hominis, art by Cveta Gotovats by Antonis

The Physical Supervenes on the Mental Terracotta Tiles 42
by Quies
10by Bradley William Holder

Reflections on Conflict, Politics and the Body Menstrual Womb 43
by Namita Maria Herzl
12by Christina Erotica, photography by Alfie Poynter

Photography 16 Photography 44
by Çağrı Ertem by Maria M.Guasch

WhatdoweCareAboutinCaringAboutFreedom? Fear of the Devil 45
by Mimi Garciaayan Chan
18by Nora Ammann

Photography 22 46Leap into the Other
by Maha Zia
by Mori Kento, photography by Jane Dabate and Reuben Strong

Liberation and Maturity 24 Nip It, Instagram! 50
by Bojin Zhu by Tabby Boyton

Photography 27 Liberation as Self-Release 52
by Maria M.Guasch by Dylan Ngan

Ascend Photography 53
by Jeanne Proust
28by Laura Empson, photography byAnna Papadopoulou

The front and back covers for this issue were created by Maha Zia.
For enquiries, and more of their work visit @mahaziaphotography on Instagram.

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The Liberation Issue | Φ 4

A NEW LIFE

by Inkyoo Lee

1
I believed a flower would grow
out of everything unspoken.
So I left my diaries to soak in spring rain—
the pages kept sprouting thorns.

2
Sometimes I think
unknown wishes are like strips of paper
imprisoned in a bottle. A survivor
alone on his island after a shipwreck
would have written words in the moonlight
and tossed his bottle into the sea.
I don't believe his dreams washed up on any shore.

3
It is said we cannot step in the same river
twice. Every tear unseen
will be lost in a cascade of turning seasons,
they say. You may return to that balcony
only to find yourself sitting there alone
after all these years, still waiting
for a saviour. This time you're not afraid
(to live). Perhaps this is what existing means.

4
A bottle was reflecting the moonlight. She decided
to wipe the sand off it, before entering the sea
once and for all. She took out
a strip of paper, and read the untold words.
No one went missing that night, but death.
As the salty foam erased her footsteps
she inhaled a new life.

5
And so I went out into the spring rain
to retrieve the memories I left unresolved.
I could find a bud growing among the thorns,
and maybe there is more to life than suffering.

5

Concrete Roses

by Tadhg Kwasi

I’m the seed of ill greed
Mistaken for weeds since day one
I was told centuries ago, pale gardeners
Came with mechanical spanners and a maniacal plan
They dug up my family en mass
Didn’t care they were screaming
Called our mothers crass for their supposed sass.

Forcefully bred hybrids they call ugly flowers
They build towers flourishing on their backs.
We stood tall and strong, but what we lack
means we’re inferior
In the interior stacked with rich roots,
But they see malign shoots
so they align their clippers and pesticide

Soon enough we were moved to the concrete jungle
Lost our spirituality for the hustle and bustle
We started separating, killing each other
Using their tools, pesticidal homicides
Unity no longer is applied
Divides reside wherever we are

We were let free, to germinate after a long battle
But in this concrete jungle we’re suffocating
While they stay in greenhouses and orchards
Flourishing with all the care

They say we’re free to grow
But we have no soil
Toil to gain sunlight
While trapped in darkness

This rose that grows from the concrete
Watered with the tears of sobs
Blessed is our concrete orchard
Blossoming against all odds.

The Liberation Issue | Φ 6 PHOTOGRAPHY by Gnokki

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The Liberation Issue | Φ 8

THIRTY DEAD CATS

by Ohan Hominis

Right now for instance I’m staring into your eyes in this upscale basement bar that is very bourgeois
underworld chic, sipping cocktails that are pieces of art made by people who give a lot of fucks
as to what alcohol tastes like and, what, we’re both dressed well, groomed, you smell divine, I hope
I smell subtly masculine, we focus on one another, the people around us focus on who they’re with,
other conversations are inaudible over the music that fits some intentional ambiance, just loud enough
to make us lean in close to speak, close enough to smell one another. And should anyone have the time
in between trying to figure out whether or not they’re getting laid, and if they are how to do it sooner,
and if they aren’t how to leave, they may see us and assume we’re on a date, but the only people who
have the time to look around in a place like this are tourists, maybe from another city, maybe from the
suburbs of this one, maybe just from too many blocks away. You see the life I want you to see. Maybe
I’m coming from work and live a block away, have a steady job that pays the rent, friends close by, a
barista I flirt with where I grab my morning coffee, a cook I shoot the shit with at the spot I go to when
I’m too lazy to cook dinner and where I sometimes have breakfast on the weekends if I wake up alone.
Or maybe I live on the other side of town and have thirty dead cats in my closet next to framed pictures
of the Unabomber and Ronald Reagan. Maybe I woke up this morning, dropped some acid, and spent
the day in the park because I’m unemployed, then got back before my partner came home from work
to shower, change, and make my way across town to the apartment of a guy I used to fuck who I knew
would give me a massage and a blowjob anytime I was in the neighborhood. Then walked around the
corner to meet you for a drink, hoping I could string together a coherent enough story to get you excited
about inviting me back to your place so we could each fuck away our problems, as two images instead
of people, without feelings and baggage and bullshit, pulled together by a secret need for grit and the
idea of the version of ourselves that’s spontaneous and maybe a bit reckless, for the poetry of it, for the
sake of the hope we each hold on to that we’re still human, to have lived many lives in this fleeting one
which we chose so little of and, maybe, even just for a moment, to be ourselves.

9 ART by Cveta Gotovats

THE PHYSICAL SUPERVENES
ON THE MENTAL

by Bradley William Holder

We’re sitting cross-legged on your bed
In a soft, semi-stoned silence, which
Has, like an afterthought or deep repression,
Instilled within me a desire more powerful than
I can bear.

“Sex is better when you know someone,”
I’d said, knowing (or feeling like I did)
That these words had no meaning days ago,
That they were born from thinking that, perhaps,
I’d known you.

“Like you said,” you say, “the emotional yields
To the physical”—the sightless displacement of
Matter in prima facie terms—“so, then, somehow,
I thought I’d loved, when I only wanted to feel like
I’d loved.”

You take my glasses, left inverted on the mattress,
And, out of nervousness or sheer theatricality, you tease
The edges of your hair line. “I can’t see shit.” Laughing,
You take them off, putting them closer to you.
“I can’t either.”

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I can remember this—or something so much like it—in youth,
Being not much younger than you are now, in the intimate space
Of an impossible relationship. Despite my forced predilection—
After years of learning to yield to emotions so seldomly—
I allow myself, now, to drown in them: and I’m introducing
You to my oldest friends: and (delicately but confidently) you
Sit in my lap, talking about nothing: and we make love in
Borrowed beds, the boundaries of our bodies barely holding:
And our children and our wedding day and our brief separation.

You represent, very likely, the feeling itself—or another person
Who once represented the same. If I were wise, which lately I am not,
I’d tell these things to you, because the more of this I keep,
The less of me you have. If nothing else, you are a reminder
Of some truth, long ignored yet always indirectly desired—
That a good life is drenched in passion; in honesty, clumsy and
Self-assured. But pensions and mortgages and performance reviews
Are not constituted here. Even though sleep comes more naturally,
A birth that’s worth a lengthy procession may not.

You come closer but only mechanistically, and so I touch the small
Of your back, a gesture that exceeds only slightly the contours
Of our friendship. “Do you want me to light it for you?’
I ask.

“Yes, please.”

And our knees are touching, and I am perhaps unfairly observing you.
When you exhale, you raise your fist to your mouth; and even though
The future—alone or with someone else—dissipates just as quickly, for now,
The sight alone sustains me.

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Reflections on conflict,
politics and the body

by Christina Erotica

The Liberation Issue | Φ 12 PHOTOGRAPHY by Alfie Poynter

When I first decided to join the burlesque society,
I did not expect it to be a social space where
one could find a sense of community. I expected it
to be a space where we would organise ourselves to
produce performances.

I was quite shocked when I realised that beyond
the shows, the burlesque society’s structure had a
more fundamental concern; it aimed at building a
community where its members shared a purpose and
a common identity. This was first made clear when
we were asked to sit in a circle and share our name,
something about ourselves and a body part that we
like with the group.

In this way, the members could feel connected with
each other, but also build a general shared identity.
Marshall Ganz (2005) talks about the importance
of having an identity built for community change,
as someone’s identity shapes the storytelling of the
political narrative.

Having a body is having a politicised body. Having
a body is having a sexualised body. Politically, this
means control of it, of yourself and of the possibilities
that your body can occupy. Therefore, having an
identity in which we contextualised our bodies and the
sexual aspects of it, as something liberating, without
the stigma often associated with it, made members,
including myself, to see performing burlesque not
only as a personal endeavour, but also as a means of
changing perceptions about sexuality and the political
body in ourselves and our community.

The politics of the body are central to burlesque;
it creates the space where often women and other
gender minorities can express their sexuality without
feeling threatened. Through the time that I spend
with others in burlesque, I realised we had a lot of
common life experiences; sexual abuse and violence
was an experience almost all its members shared and
was credited as one of the reasons for wanting to be
part of the society. Burlesque creates space for an
exploration and appreciation of the sexual without the
fear of being perceived or treated as less than.

Ultimately the society gave me and other members,
the power of the collective, of demanding social
change through performance. Albeit within its
societal walls, it gave us the agency of our sexuality
which we craved so much. Personally, I felt that
performing gave me agency; I could decide when to
be sexualised, when to attract that sort of attention on
me and my body. Feeling sexually desirable I believe
is something healthy, a vitality of life. The issue is that
when a woman chooses to express it, in a patriarchal
society one faces the consequences of being labeled a
whore at best and killed at worst.

As for many other members, sexuality for me was
never an easy topic of discussion nor was I usually

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able to express it properly. When I am asked where
I come from, I am confronted with the grotesque and
sublime. What side of Cyprus do I want to expose?
Do I talk about the fact that I live near a no man’s
land with active landmines and thought that was
normal until I was 15? Do I talk about the magnificent
beaches? Do I talk about the lemon trees and the
mandarins and the olive groves that are entrenched in
my oldest and purest memories? Do I talk about the
communal trauma and the aftermath of inter- ethnic
conflict? Where does the personal become political
and public shared experience? For me, there isn’t such
a distinction. Everything that happened, everything
that I live, is branded permanently on my body.

Sexuality develops in a very peculiar way in post-
colonial, post conflict areas I believe; sexuality
becomes a means of control and more rigid gender
roles are expected.

In the case of Cyprus, feminist politics in public
discourse are not seen as urgent enough because of
the Cyprus Problem. This is often reflected by the
lack of sexual education in schools, to the everyday
harassment of simply walking down the street.

Sexuality develops within the interethnic conflict. For
example, in an effort to diminish the important work
of community organisers in peace building, right
wingers will joke that women are only in it because
they want to have sexual intercourse with Turkish
men; they are not simply whores, they are traitors
of their ethnic group. Traitorship and the limits of
political discourse are therefore implicated in the
sexual dimension of life.

And this is how I view Burlesque ultimately;
political, not by default but because the political is an
inescapable lens we all wear with which we interpret
the world around us.

Another insight that I recently had, was that the
burlesque society gave me the space to think
creatively. It created the space for the desire to be a
reality; political utopias require the same, I think. A
space where they can experimentally develop. And
this is of utmost urgency, as the current ideology has
the ultimate goal of suppressing hope for political
change as Slavoj Zizek (2018) states.

And this is what having a stage and a community for
burlesque gave me; not the talent, but the possibility.
I could finally have the opportunity, the confidence to
try out my fantasy that was kept hidden behind my
closed bedroom door.

Humans have this extraordinary ability to change
the world so drastically through their choices and
actions. And burlesque granted me a platform, and a
community to collaborate, changing the world, one
performance at a time.

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Traced down
This no man’s land
This sorrowful body
I can smell the fig trees

Trying to conceal
The sadness of the

Ghost town

Living on this borderland
This no man’s land

Lays the vestige of a dream
A never ending scream

Burning through the ground
My body

Didn’t make a sound
My soul

Land mines
Barbed wires
To protect me
From what the water gave me

I wish
This body
I wish it was
A no man’s land
My body and its other parties
My beautiful trauma

I want to be drained of my blood
And be filled with sweet rose syrup

So it can heal my scars
But are you a rose that is doomed?

No beauty to serve

Only thorns can bloom
Deep inside me

In this man’s land
In the cypress trees
Having lost the dream
I hope you didn’t lose

The art
Of Healing.

- C.E

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17 PHOTOGRAPHY by Çağrı Ertem

What do we care about in
caring about freedom?

by Nora Ammann

Typically, when freedom is discussed in In any case, freedom, as conceived here, carries
political philosophy, the discussion revolves the central purpose of protecting the individual
around the question concerning its nature? Given from oppression and coercion by an external,
the amount of ink spilt on the topic, the avid more powerful actor. Whether it be coercion of
reader can safely assume that thinkers agree on the body or the will, freedom is being limited
at least one thing: the fact that freedom, whatever by virtue of the fact that alternative choices,
its exact definition, is important and worthwhile or alternative paths of action, were rendered
protecting. From here, a further question ensues - ineligible by external actors.
why do we care about freedom?
In contrast to negative freedom, positive freedoms
There are many possible reasons why we can are those that rely on the presence of something.
care about freedom: protection from oppression For example, positive freedom may be concerned
or authoritarianism or enabler of individual with the establishment of institutions and practices
potential. But, in this essay, I will focus on yet of collective governance in shaping one’s shared
another reason, which I find worth examining the realities and steering one’s lives, as a means to
most – freedom as the unfolding of humanity’s individual and collective self-determination.
collective potential. While it is not required under this view to limit
state activity to its bare minimum, it still places
WHAT IS FREEDOM & WHY DO WE certain constraints on what legitimate structures
CARE ABOUT IT? of governance look like, such as by guaranteeing
citizens' ability to participate freely in the
Before we can properly consider the role of democratic process.
freedom in the unfolding of humanity's collective
potential, we shall first equip ourselves with some On top of the negative-positive axis, add another
key concepts in deconstructing the nature of axis that can help chart out the space of notions of
freedom. freedom: exercise- vs opportunity-based notions.
In the former, freedom is determined not merely
Negative liberty (where liberty and freedom are by my possibilities, but by what I actually do.
largely used synonymously) is a term first defined In the case of opportunity-based notions, on the
by Isaiah Berlin in his seminal essay titled “Two other hand, freedom is understood as the option to
Concepts of Liberty” and is often summarized as do something, whether or not one eventually takes
freedom from something. that option up.

Freedom from what exactly? Different thinkers Freedom as individual self-realization maps onto
would give different interpretations. For Hobbes, the exercise concept (more cleanly so than onto
for example, freedom was centrally about the either positive or negative notions of freedom).
absence of physical coercion of the body. Locke Here, self-realization is enabled by the proper
would later expand on this, arguably rather thin, use of introspection and reason in directing one’s
interpretation of negative freedom by adding that actions, as opposed to being driven by one’s
a person can also be rendered unfree through passions or unreflective compliance with social
coercion of the will. Later yet, it became salient norms, say. Merely having the opportunity to
that the mere fact of not being interfered with in choose what would further one’s self-realization
one’s doings is not enough if you have to fear that isn’t enough - it necessarily has to be acted out
you could be interfered with at any time, without and realized for it to be of value.
warning or reason, at the mercy of the whims of
someone stronger than you. Somewhere in between a pure exercise and a
pure opportunity-based conception of freedom,

The Liberation Issue | Φ 18

we can situate the so-called capabilities approach. In his 1981 book The Expanding Circle, Peter
It, too, recognises that opportunity alone may not Singer introduces the idea of the moral circle
amount to substantive freedom. Instead, it is only as a way to conceptualize the nature of moral
capabilities that amount to substantive freedoms progress. Humanity, over the course of its history,
as it is capabilities that allow a person to acquire has expanded its circle of moral concern from
or achieve the things they desire. Amartya Sen and the individual, the family and the tribe to include
Martha Nussbaum are the most prominent names forms of life increasingly more dissimilar to
associated with this view. oneself.

As such, we have seen that the role of freedom in Looking back at the relevant periods in human
the unfolding of human potential can come in the history, it is not that the ill-treatment of slaves,
form of protecting said unfolding from external women and non-human animals was recognized
or internal factors that may interfere with it; or as morally wrong yet it was tolerated - the first step
in the form of supporting the realization of said to the emancipation of these groups resided in the
potential by such means as material resources, mere acknowledgement of their moral worth. This
capabilities and institutional or cultural structures. argument also suggests that the expansion of the
The discussion of freedom as means of unfolding moral circle hasn’t yet come to its conclusion. We
individual human potential, of realizing some may not know where, but chances are that moral
higher or true ‘self,’ or of actualizing some atrocities are unfolding at this very time that we
authentic ‘way of life,’ raises the question: what is cannot even yet identify as such. One thing we can
this ‘self’ that is being realized? learn from history in this regard is just how blind
we may be to injustices that may unfold in front of
The notion of a ‘higher’ or ‘true’ self appears to our eyes. But this recognition also poses a puzzle:
assume some view of the true essence of human what ought one do when one is ignorant of where
nature. Mill or Taylor, for example, find their notion one’s mistake lies but has reason to believe that
of the 'self' by differentiating between lower and one may well be committing some mistake(s)?
higher-order motivations, wherein some desires or
drives may be considered foreign to us, while others The answer lies at least in parts in investing in
represent what we really want, our ‘true will’. the processes that tend to drive moral and cultural
Hannah Arendt has a different view of the human progress. From the point of view of the ignorant
condition. According to Arendt, freedom needs or morally uncertain, investing in those processes
to be understood as freedom of action within the is the best guess for discovering that which you
political arena. We are only free if we can exercise don’t yet know you need to discover. And, so
our power within the political sphere. While in the I claim, freedom plays a central role in these
former case, humans are essentially understood as processes.
creatures of reason, Arendt takes human nature to
be essentially political. Thereby, the unfolding of THE UNFOLDING OF HUMANITY’S
human potential becomes inevitably tied to full and COLLECTIVE POTENTIAL
equal participation in the collective political life.

HUMANITY’S TRAJECTORY, PAST & FUTURE Freedom acts as the engine of exploration that
differentially selects its direction of progress
Having explored some key concepts related to the based on reason more so than power. This
nature and role of political freedom, let us now unfolding happens in an open-ended fashion, with
turn our attention to the role freedom plays in the no need to know its destination before arrival,
unfolding of humanity’s collective potential. thereby providing some robustness against moral
imperialism and related concerns.

Humanity has come a long way. Far from arguing Borrowing from this idea of Universal
that human history has not also been the witness Darwinism, freedom can be understood as
of an unspeakable amount and severity of moral a socio-political institution that protects the
tragedy - the average human being is drastically production of ‘variation’ (in the form of ‘ways of
better off living today rather than 100, 1000 or life,’ perspectives and ideas). In the analogy with
10’000 years ago. Accordingly, we may harbour Darwinian evolution, negative freedom can be
the hope that this trend of the general betterment of understood as serving the purpose of preventing
the fate of sentient life may continue. any small number of powerful actors (akin to, say,

19

some invasive species) to take over the entirety of norms, and political economics as unsatisfactory,
the ecosystem, thereby locking in their singular it matters that humanity continues to explore new
‘way of life’ (i.e. cultural norms, ideologies, configurations.
moral perspective, etc.). Conversely, positive
freedom and the fostering of capabilities allow Here, we start to glean the connection between
individual actors or groups to property actualize, the reason d’être of freedom as a means to the
explore and develop their own ideas, perspectives unfolding of individual potential and the raison
and ways of life. In doing so, these ideas get a d’être as the means of the unfolding of collective
chance to mature, be tested, be improved upon potential. If freedom isn’t able to provide the
and - if they prove unsatisfactory or non-adaptive individual with a space in which they can
- get dropped. authentically and thoughtfully explore their ideas
and ways of life - then freedom could never fulfil
The insight that exploration is crucial to its purpose of driving collective progress.
progress has long been understood in economics
and the philosophy of science. In his 1942 However, exploration alone is not enough. The
book Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, process is guided by something - but that something
Joseph Schumpeter introduced the concept of emerges from a bottom-up, decentralized logic
entrepreneurship into modern economic thought. rather than being imposed on the system in
He argued for its critical role in innovation. It is some top-down fashion. Some mechanisms can
individual people who notice problems, apply be studied and understood, and maybe even
their creativity to come up with solutions and influenced, that drive the direction of progress.
take risks who become the ‘engine’ of capitalism. The hope is - after all, this is a philosophical essay
Friedrich Hayek added a further puzzle to this - that reason may be the overwhelming factor in
view by illuminating the epistemic function of selecting between new forms and configurations
the market. As opposed to a system of centralized of cultural norms and moral beliefs. But is that
economic activity, a decentralized market is able hope justified?
to exploit the local information of individual
actors. These insights stand at the origin of the Freedom is the protective condition under which
libertarian view that aims to protect individual reason can come to the surface and prevail. We
(economic) liberty against state interventionism, can find support for this view in the writings of
intending to protect innovation and the proper John Dewey. He discussed how exactly it is that
functioning of the ‘free market’. In turning our reason - on top of mere habitual reaction - interacts
gaze to the philosophy of science, we find a with human action and decision-making. In What
similar logic at play there. In science, where the is Freedom? Dewey explains that what he calls
goal is for the truth to prevail, freedom of thought ‘freedom of intelligence’ is what is achieved when
allows for arguments to meet each other, and for one’s decisions are made based on reason and
the better ones to prevail. In society, individual informed judgements in the pursuit of purposes
freedom allows citizens to pursue their own way one has come to judge as intrinsically worthwhile.
of life, thereby allowing humanity at a collective Conversely, actions that are not governed by reason
level to explore and compare a wider range of but by impulse and desire instead make the actors
possibilities. Insofar as we consider the current subject to arbitrary forces and circumstances and
set and configuration of ideologies, cultural thus, according to Dewey, wholly unfree.

The Liberation Issue | Φ 20

If it is the case that freedom is about the triumph that nobody ever forms and defends their own
of reason, what we do when we protect freedom views as to what makes for a good life. On the
is to make sure that reason will trump power in contrary: the engine of collective progress lies
the evaluation of new cultural or moral ideas. exactly in individuals exploring different views
Furthermore, at the collective level, the protection and attempting to find the strongest version and
of individual freedom and particular values such argument for why their perspective is a valuable
as tolerance, respect and free speech creates a one to be included in the overall picture. Freedom
public arena in which different views and ways is a critical ingredient to making this process of
of life can interact in a way that allows for the collective sense-making steer towards insight,
potential of mutual enrichment. This adds other instead of division, parochialism or arbitrariness.
elements to the engine of moral and cultural It does so by allowing for the production of
progress. variation among moral and cultural views, while
at the same time strengthening the extent to which
One may object to this whole notion of moral reason acts as the primary guiding factor and
progress that it risks being merely a cover for diverse epistemic perspectives can be brought to
some form of moral imperialism. However, bear on those questions.
there is, in fact, nothing inherent to the logic of
these mechanisms that they have to converge to As humanity expands its range of capabilities
some singular view on the ‘right’ cultural norms, through scientific and technological progress over
way of life or moral view has to triumph. This the horizon of decades, centuries and beyond, we
is not what we see in biology, economics or will be increasingly able to affect the fate of things
science either. In fact, it is precisely freedom that at ever faster spatial and temporal horizons. It is
constitutes a critical ingredient in the machinery thus high time for us to strengthen a collective
of moral progress - in acting as a sort of buffer - conversation about how it is we choose to yield
which makes it compatible with value pluralism. these capabilities. The moral stakes are high. In
As such, the unfolding of humanity’s collective that, I see why we want to live in a society that
potential should be understood as an open-ended protects and fosters freedom: for the sake of us all,
process. We need not know where the journey and the sake of future forms of life.
takes us as long as the journey is guided by a
process with the right properties. Freedom is a critical ingredient to making this
process of collective sense-making steer towards
Given our lack of moral omniscience, we should insight, instead of division, parochialism or
not try to steer the processes of moral and arbitrariness. It does so by allowing for the
cultural development in a top-down manner. The production of variation among moral and cultural
efficient and robust functioning of the processes views, while at the same time strengthening the
of decentralized information gathering and extent to which reason acts as the primary guiding
processing - be that in economics, biology, science factor and diverse epistemic perspectives can be
or society - is contingent on the integrity of the brought to bear on those questions. In that, I see
conditions of operation. In the case of cultural and reflected our third - if not the strongest - the reason
moral progress, freedom captures a large part of for why we want to live in a society that protects
what is required for the process to run effectively. and fosters individual freedom; for the sake of us
Importantly, proper functioning does not require all, and the sake of future forms of life.

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The Liberation Issue | Φ 22 PHOTOGRAPHY by Maha Zia



Liberation and Maturity:
Richard Rorty’s

Anti-authoritarianism

by Bojin Zhu

Here is a late 20th century philosopher vocabularies. As he puts it: ‘a talent for speaking
who works mainly within the canon of differently, rather than for arguing well, is the
analytic philosophy. Sometimes he announces, chief instrument of cultural change.’ Most
not undramatically (self-consciously following importantly, it is producing cultural changes,
Nietzsche), that philosophy is dead, and rather than discovering truths, that should be the
sometimes he falls back to a more ‘modest’ aim of philosophy.
claim that most of contemporary analytic
philosophy has gone bankrupt. Metaphysics and These doubtlessly radical claims, liberating
epistemology should have long been abandoned, for some and outrageous for others, come from
because the former is infected with problematic Richard Rorty, possibly the most controversial
Platonism, and the latter, Cartesianism. ‘Part of figure in late 20th-century analytic philosophy.
my ambition,’ he says, ‘to paraphrase Freud, is to While his radical stance remains more or less
help it come to pass that where epistemology and consistent throughout his academic career, the
metaphysics were, sociology and history shall be.’ way he reasons for it has undergone several
Instead of being the first philosophy, philosophy major changes. Eventually he settles on a line of
of language has been wrongheadedly invested in reasoning that he calls ‘anti-authoritarianism’,
the notion of representation, which, as he sees which becomes the master idea underlying his
it, is so thoroughly contaminated by disastrous cluster of radical theses. The central idea is rather
collateral commitments that we should abandon simple: philosophy should be liberating, it should
it altogether, like burning the leper’s rags. He also free us from any authority we have no reason to
has fundamental problems with the way analytic be responsible for. This sounds all very well in
philosophy is done: for him, good philosophy moral and political philosophy, but how does it
is rarely about producing rigorous arguments, become an all-sweeping meta-philosophical force
but primarily about creating interesting new in Rorty’s hands?

The Liberation Issue | Φ 24

Here is a broad sketch of Rorty’s thoughts. Despite having reclaimed our moral authority, our
According to him, the only kind of authority we cognitive authority remains external to us in this
have good reason to recognise comes from our post-Enlightenment world. The task of philosophy,
fellow human beings. We are only responsible now, is to further liberate ourselves and take back
for our peers; there is no authority external to our cognitive authority, to bring humankind
humankind. The problem of most contemporary our of its adolescence into full maturity. What
philosophy, as Rorty sees it, is that it recognises the Enlightenment does to religion, Rorty now
an authority over and above humankind: namely, proposes to do to metaphysics and science: we
that of the external world. Once we see the world give up the notion of absolute truth, and replace
as having an intrinsic nature or unique structure, it with justification (to our peers); we give up
one that we could only discover or fail to discover, the notion of objectivity, and replace it with
only represent more or less accurately, then we solidarity (with, again, our peers). For intelligent
have already ceded our authority to something and discursive beings like us, conversation is the
external – it is in the nature of representation that it highest good; when repetitively charged with
must be responsible to the represented, must take unseriousness because he ‘merely’ wants to agree
the represented as the authority. Suppose I see a with his peers, Rorty replies every time: what’s so
tree in front of me. For Rorty, I have absolutely ‘mere’ about that?
no responsibility towards the tree when I try
to think about it, conceptualise it, describe it. I With this master meta-philosophical idea in place,
have no responsibility to ‘get it right’, on its own Rorty’s general take on philosophy starts to come
terms. What I have is a responsibility towards into view. If the world is not something that we can
other people to whom I’m describing the tree: my accurately or inaccurately represent, then truth as
description had better serve their interests, needs correspondence (between our beliefs and reality)
and wants, whatever those are. has to be abandoned since there is nothing for our
beliefs to correspond to. As he puts it, we don’t copy
He sometimes calls this view ‘pragmatism’, the world, but cope with it; there is only one right
sometimes ‘humanism’, and for him these are way of copying, but lots of ways of coping. A crucial
merely two sides of the same coin. As he sees way of coping is conceptualising: we use concepts
it, his view is continuous with the spirit of the to describe and redescribe the world so that we can
Enlightenment: according to the canonical reach better understandings of it. As with coping, for
narrative, the Enlightenment liberates us from Rorty, there are a myriad of ways of conceptualising;
theological authority. We used to recognise some the ground to evaluate them is not accuracy, but
kind of deity as the source of our moral and pragmatic usefulness. Good philosophy, as with
political authority, but after the Enlightenment good literature, generates new ways of describing
we came to realise that human beings are the the world, or, as Rorty likes to put it, creates new
only source of moral authority. If some actions ‘vocabularies’ that haven’t been thought of before.
are morally wrong, they are not wrong because If we, following the later Wittgenstein, sees our
God says so, but because they violate some language as a toolbox rather than a mirror, we
standards stemming from human virtue, dignity, might see a new vocabulary as a new tool added
or wellbeing. Rorty calls this ‘humanism’, and to the toolbox, enabling us to cope better and more
proposes that we go one step further: flexibly. In the Nietzschean spirit, Rorty claims
that philosophical arguments are mostly futile: for
For Rorty, the idea that matter, spirit, the self him, you can’t rigorously argue someone out of a
or other such things have an intrinsic nature philosophical framework; you can only redescribe,
that in principle is in no way dependent and redescribe attractively, so that other people
upon our activities of knowing and that we might see the virtue of your vocabulary and come
attempt to represent in increasingly better to adopt it. Same for Rorty’s picture of science
ways, represents the secular descendent of a (which sounds especially provocative in a school of
conception which should not have survived philosophy that models itself on science): it is just
the era of the theological world-view from another vocabulary that we find useful for all sorts
which it emerged. (Jacques Bouveresse) of pragmatic purposes, but it no more describes the
world ‘as it is anyway’ than poetry. He does not
Accepting that idea, Rorty suggests, is casting deny that scientists like Galileo are significant, but
the world in the role of the non-human Other he reinterprets that significance: for him, Galileo is
before which we are to humble ourselves. someone who found ‘a tool which happened to work
(John McDowell) better for certain purposes than any previous tool.’

25

Given his fondness of vocabulary creation
and conversation, Rorty’s vision of politics is
determinately liberal: the goal of politics, as Rorty
sees it, is to create and protect a safe private sphere,
free from cruelty, humiliation and oppression,
where people can freely converse and create new
vocabularies. ‘Our overarching public purpose,’
summarises Brandom, a student of Rorty’s and
a fellow pragmatist, ‘should be to ensure that a
hundred private flowers blossom.’

Where does all this leave philosophy, one
might ask worryingly, if Rorty’s radical vision
comes true? Rorty answers: this is liberating for
philosophy as well, curing it from its Platonic,
Cartesian and Kantian sickness. It no longer has to
play the alienating role it used to, or to provide a
‘foundation’ for all human knowledge, by creating
this Other, this external authority that grounds our
knowledge. It tears apart the Cartesian veil, which
opens up a gap, a distance between us and the
world. And when this happens,

we would be left with less encouragement to
cling to the pathos of distance. We should be
more Nietzschean in our willingness to say
“Thus I will it” rather than “Thus the Intrinsic
Nature of Reality obliges me.” We should
be more “humanist” in the sense of that
term which Heidegger endeavored to make
pejorative - more willing to take power into
our own hands.

Now you, the analytically trained philosopher,
might be inclined to respond: yes, let’s grant that
his advertisements are not misleading, that his
vision is indeed liberating. But then the crucial
question is whether it is true, and he has not yet
provided any argument that the traditional picture
is wrong and his is right.

I could imagine Rorty shrugging at this charge.
Remember, his ‘vocabulary’ vocabulary applies
back onto his own view: by putting forward his
philosophy Rorty is essentially creating a new
vocabulary, a new option, a new tool in the
toolbox. Whether it’s true is neither interesting
nor relevant to him; he would regard anyone who
puts forward that question as remaining in the grip
of philosophical authoritarianism. What matters
for him is whether people (both in the present and
future) find it useful and enlightening, whether it
gives people freedom to say and do things that
they didn’t know before, and whether it makes a
genuine contribution to the ongoing conversation
of humankind, which, according to him, is our
only pathway to liberation and maturity.

The Liberation Issue | Φ 26

27 PHOTOGRAPHY by Maria M.Guasch

Ascend

by Laura Empson

Her face made of freckles
Where one ends and another begins

is unknowable
The sunlight kissed her face as I longed to
Ravishing her rosy cheeks with its rays
She was the warm sun and the cooling

dip in the pool
Everything I could imagine
Spread across her constellations
An atlas showing me the world
Her sigh of contentment and longing
Echoed through my chest
Like a hymn in the heart of

a believer
My being dropped away
And I became her
Freckled girl in the

worshiping
sun

28

29 PHOTOGRAPHY by Anna Papadopoulou



MA

by Borteujin Young

four feet pitter patter the nights became damper and
through the grass rich, your stomach warmer,
verdant, the butterflies left for someplace new
dew settled in its cozy. the garden a shattered web.
my Ma’s first dream was
ballet. earth lifts between our I watched you stoop,
toes and as the air grew stale
the music, our comforting I tried to love you with
dissonance of reinvented hums from sunny side ups for
the radio. your hair flailing in perfect breakfast to cure your
time. morning blues.
you still hadn’t grown
dainty white butterflies bumble out those soft lines at the
the coneflower bushes, passing edges of your eyes.
between our ankles, fluttering
angels of the summer days. their your arms hung limpen,
candid pirouette all your colour faded to dust, I
leaving me warm kisses struggled to see your dreams,
to hold onto come nightfall, we let them flutter away as
when you took your own warmth. two. i cling onto that memory,
the one of us dancing, Mama.
first it came out at night, they told me metamorphosis was
then night became day. meant to be a beautiful thing.
glasses

chiming over my peripherals
cascading bodies down the stairs.
the whole neighbourhood could
hear your howling.

PHOTOGRAPHY by Gnokki 31

TECH TAKES BACK THE NIGHT
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE CO-FOUNDERS OF BUOY
by Julie Uszpolewicz and Chiara Zucchelli

According to a 2021 survey, one in two women and one in seven men feel unsafe walking alone
after dark. This is where Buoy comes in. Buoy and its founders believe that everyone has the right
to get home safe, no matter who they are or what they wear. For this Liberation Issue, we decided to
speak with co-founders Alistair Pullen (CEO), Nicola Cooper (CMO) and Hope Allen-Baptista
(Head of Social Media Marketing) about safety, start-ups and the future of this promising app.

The Liberation Issue | Φ 32

What is Buoy?

Alistair: Buoy is a personal security app geared
to effectively help people get around safely. It
started about a year ago and it incorporates many
different features. The core of the app is to let your
friends and loved ones know that you've gotten
home safely and to be able to share your live
location or other important details of your journey
with the people you choose. There are many
other features as well. We have ETA monitoring
deviation detection – while you’re going from A to
B we make sure that you are making the progress
you should be. If you deviate significantly from
the route you should be taking, we can raise the
alarm to you and the loved ones you selected.
Also, we make sure that you got home roughly
at the time you said you would. Again, if you
don't, we'll notify your contacts. We're currently
working on a feature for safer routing, which is
a new take on routing. Most routing is optimised
for speed, whereas we're optimised for safety. I
think the last thing to add to that is that we've also
got a wearable in development. It’s this little tag.
[Alistair jiggles his keychain]. You can have it on
your keys or whatever. It’s similar to an Air Tag. If
you triple press this button, it will link to the app
and raise the alarm to your emergency contacts.
It will automatically start location sharing and notify
your contacts by a text and a push notification. They'll
be able to see where you are and raise the alarm.

How did you come up with the idea for the app?

Alistair: The initial idea was in the wake of
many unfortunate things that happened regarding
safety that were heavily discussed in the media,
particularly the Sarah Everard case. Closer to
home, some of my friends had some close calls
getting home after nights out. In the light of all
those things, Sam and I sat down and thought to
ourselves whether there was any way we could
apply some tech to help with this. I have built a
location-sharing app in the past while I was at
university. It had a panic mode in it. Having built
something like that already, I felt like it was a
good time to revisit it, add a lot more features,
and make it fully-fledged, so the app would have
a good chance of tackling the issue head-on. So
that's where the initial thought came from. A huge
amount has been built on top of it since then.
Nicola and Hope were able to add a lot more
insight. Sam and I look at the problem in a
rather abstract way because we don’t have
to deal with the real-life issue as much.

Nicola: That leads nicely into the fact that for
me… I've suffered from situations that are quite
intense. Getting home is not simple for me. I'm
normally in London and I live in Kent. I live on
my own. So, there’re lots of things that concern
me about getting home safely. I'm also the kind
of person that will fall asleep as soon as they

33

get in. So, I forget to tell people that I have got immediately like “yeah this is something I am
home safely. I have been followed home such an passionate about, let me come on board.”
inordinate amount of times that I would rather not
share - it’s pretty extreme. So my experience is Hope: Alistair asked me, a couple of months
another reason why we looked at this. into my job in marketing. He was like “You’re
actually quite good at this. Do you wanna come
Hope: And it's just such a universal problem work on this project?” [Alistair laughs] He asked
amongst so many groups in society. Women in me whether I was interested and it’s such an
particular. I don't know, I mean, that's why we important issue that, obviously, I was.
do it, right? That's why we text our friends when
we get home. That's why I'll wake up to my best You mentioned that the idea for the project
friends asking me “are you dead?” because I grew around the time of the Sarah Everard
forgot to text them that I’m home. Your friends thing. And I think it’s not surprising to anyone
freak out because you didn’t text them. And it that this is an issue that disproportionately
just indicates that there is a very real danger of affects those who are female-presenting. But
something happening and it's not being addressed who is your app targeted to?
very well. If we can do something about this, we
should, because there are so many people who are Nicola: Our app is for everybody. We are aware
worried about it. that women and the LGBTQA+ community and
ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected
So it was Alistair and Sam at first. How did the by this. Our features echo that. However, we
team grow? How did you get together? are also aware that 1 in 7 men, according to the
Office of National Statistics, fear walking home
Nicola: I worked with Sam and Alistair and we after dark. That’s a huge amount of people from
were friends before. Sam told me about the idea, a male or male-presenting perspective that are
he said that this was something that the two of also facing this issue! When we are building
them were building. I immediately expressed our features, we think about it from everybody’s
interest because it's something that, as I said, I've perspective. How do I think about personal safety?
suffered from. I think it is a huge issue that's not How does Alistair think about personal safety?
being looked at and it concerns me greatly. I was How do people from these communities that are
disproportionately affected feel about personal
safety? And what works across the board?

Hope: And it’s definitely different dangers too.
Alistair is more worried about being mugged than
he is about being sexually assaulted. But it’s still a
fact that the majority of people are scared of going
home after dark because of the dangers that exist.

You have a quite gender-diverse team. Was
there anything in particular that you think this
diversity contributed to the app?

Alistair: When Sam and I started working on this
we were thinking about this in a quite abstract
way. We knew these problems existed, we, sort
of, knew the form those problems take. But it
wasn’t until we had some input from people who
actually experienced it in the real-world that we
could make it work.

Hope: The doorstep mode, which checks that
you've gotten in through your door safely, was
a pretty big one. It was one of the points that I
brought up because a lot of attacks happen on
people’s doorsteps when they are trying to get in.

Alistair: Yeah, I hadn’t even thought of that. It is just
not something that would have ever crossed my mind.

Nicola: That’s why diversity in the decision-
making and the diversity in the experiences we
have had as a team are really important. We want

The Liberation Issue | Φ 34

the app like you would a navigation app. That
fundamentally means that I get to choose when I
want to turn on the safety-specific features of the
app and I can choose when not to.

What interested us in your app was your
slogan – “working for the future where the
app is obsolete.” How is your brand trying to
achieve this aim?

Alistair: I think at the moment, you could argue
that the app medicates the symptoms without
treating the cause. In the long term, the way we
want to make the app obsolete is by supporting
organisations and charities, that work on the
grassroots level to help educate and improve a lot
of the perpetrators. As an example, when we have
some money to play with, we want to divert some
of that to those causes. To treat the problem from
the ground up and not just medicate its symptoms.

Nicola: Education is super important in helping
alleviate the concerns over personal safety. That
kind of education and understanding of the impact
of violence, hopefully, might prevent there from
being so many perpetrators of those crimes.

to make sure that we build features that are not Hope: I think currently, the way we are trying to
only something that, no offence Alistair, but a cis- do that – without spending any money, because
het-white-male would also immediately think of. we don’t have any at the moment – is just raising
awareness. People like Alistair and Sam, they
Hope: There are a couple of other things as well… started doing it because of the experiences their
Alistair looked at doing ‘Find My Friends’ style friends had. For instance, Nicola and I would talk
location sharing when building out the location about things that we did to keep ourselves safe.
sharing feature. Nicola and I then flagged that We try to bring this up to others who don’t have
this is actually a quite common tool for abusers the same fears. To make them realise that this is
to keep tabs on their partners. So, we requested actually a big problem.
that that feature should be changed to only
sharing your location when you’re on a journey On your social media, you share a lot of useful
as opposed to all the time. We all do different bits information. How do you balance the content?
of research that contribute to feature decisions.
For example, another factor that influenced our Hope: It’s interesting to see what content gets
decision on location sharing was investigating more traction on our social media, though I
some competitor apps targeted at parents and don’t think we have a big enough following yet
teens that enable constant location sharing. Teens to make generalisations on certain topics being
have been pretty vocal about the fact that they more popular. We get quite a lot of sharing on our
hate that their parents can watch them constantly. posts about men, which is interesting. I think it’s
We thought that if it was just the journey, they because that’s less talked about in the media. A lot
might be more willing to use our app. Then, at of people will know that women suffer are at risk
least, their parents could check if they got to their of sexual assault or harrassment and are afraid
or their friends’ homes safely and teens would feel in public spaces but I don’t think that that many
like they have more control over who they share people hear about those things impacting men.
their location with and when. They don’t know that 1 in 7 men are afraid to
walk home at night or how many men have been
Nicola: You have more freedom, in general. In sexually assaulted in public. It’s something that’s
the version of the app we are currently testing, not really discussed very often. On the whole, it’s
you have the choice to share the journey or to use the topics and groups that are less talked about,
and maybe more surprising, that do better. I also
try to balance the negative content with positive or
entertaining posts, as well as reminders to protect
your mental health. We don’t want our Instagram
to stress people out every time it comes up on
their feed. Social Media is a crowded space and

35

it can often seem like there are too many causes Hope: It’s definitely about taking care of each
to support and so many things to be anxious about other.
that it becomes completely overwhelming, which
hinders action. We want to give our followers Nicola: I’ve had instances before where I’ve been
information and actions that they can take, heckled on a train and – I wish I knew her name
without making them feel like they have to bear – but I’ve had another woman from further down
the weight of yet another societal problem. the carriage walk and sit next to me almost in a
show of solidarity. And I love it. Little things like
Nicola: We want to empower people. To give them that have meant the world to me.
something that will ensure their feeling of safety.
We are aware there is a threat to our personal Hope: It’s so important. I know I will get freaked
safety. And that’s paramount. But, equally, making out even if a woman is walking behind me at night
sure that we are not perpetuating negativity because I won’t want to turn around to check who
it is, in case it exacerbates the situation, which has
On the topic of giving people some actions to happened to me before. So if I’m walking behind
feel more empowered. Apart from downloading a woman, I’ll always try to step to the side or drop
your app, what are some things you can do back, so she can see that I’m not a threat.
individually to stay safer?
Alistair: If I’m walking behind a woman, I cross
Alistair: I think from my point of view, my the road so I’m not walking behind her.
experience is quite different. My concerns – and
this ties back to the team diversity thing – my We’ve been talking about the political points,
concerns are quite different to Nicola and Hope’s the social points, what you want to do as
just by nature of being a white bloke. For me, in an aim…But, now, that it comes to actually
terms of getting home safely, obviously, I use Buoy, implementing those things, how do you
but my concern is mainly not getting physically approach the day-to-day construction of the
confronted, not getting mugged and stuff like that. app? Have there been any struggles?
So I make sure I don’t have any valuables on me
visible. I don’t walk with headphones in at night. Alistair: When we all started this, we never
I try to avoid taking my phone out if possible. I envisioned it growing as big as it is. We designed
don’t make eye contact with people – just keep a structure of all the back-end services, like
my head down, and go where I’m going. location tracking and stuff, to be as cost-effective
as possible because we have been paying for all
Nicola: I remember you saying that you do things this from our own pockets since day one. Location
not only in reaction to your own personal safety, sharing sounds simple because every phone can
but to make other people feel more secure too. give you a GPS coordinate, but doing it in a way
that is power efficient is a technical challenge. The
Do you think that given your work with Buoy way you do it is that they’re constantly updating
you are more aware of others' safety? your GPS location. It uses a huge amount of
power.
Alistair: Oh 100%. It has been a very eye-opening
experience for me in that respect. Because as I And usually, you’re using Buoy at the end of
mentioned earlier, a huge number of things that the night when your phone battery might be
have been going on before we started Buoy was lower.
happening, and I’m a lot more cognizant of them
now. When I can see them happen I try and do what I Alistair: Exactly! There was a good month of
can to be as helpful as I can be in any given situation. optimisation just on that alone. For our SMS
notifications, there are third-party services
Hope: You regularly walk me to the tube station. that will send them for you, but they’re very
Alistair: I mean, yeah, I walk people places expensive. So, we actually bought a 4G modem
wherever I can. Or you know just putting someone and a SIM card, and I built a bot that I can send
in a cab. Just anything that, again, might put the requests to and then it sends an SMS on our
probabilities in your favour. There’s a lot of things behalf. This is like one-thousandth of the price
we can do to try and make people feel safer. of sending an SMS and you can just buy a pay-
as-you-go plan. It’s a very start-up-y thing, but
I really liked your point that you had about how it’s not something I really saw myself doing for a
in media it is often presented that as a woman personal security app. Another thing is that there
you have to protect yourself, and it shouldn’t is no comprehensive data set of parks in London.
be like that. What are some things that we can I went on Google Maps and I traced every park in
do collectively to improve that? London, even bits of Surrey.

Nicola: Well, beyond the education and the awareness Hope: I would get messages from you like “would
thing, it is a case of everyone looking out for each other. you consider this a park or a small common?”.

The Liberation Issue | Φ

Alistair: Hope would let me know if she would country, we build routes from that map, and it’s
walk through there at night, and, if not, I would a huge undertaking to do that. That’s been a huge
trace around that. It would become a no-go zone operation that’s been months in the making.
for safer routing. Also, street lighting! For safer Deploying it is going to cost a fortune because
routing, street lighting is a large part of it. There you need quite a big computer to serve a lot of
is no centralised data set of street lights in the concurrent requests for that, but we feel like it’s
UK. Crime? Easy! Police have a central database. a vital feature. No one else has it, and I think it’s
You can download it, process it…Streetlights are really needed. Also, we are crowdfunding data
not like that because it’s on a council level. We in the app. Say you are out and about, there is a
made loads of Freedom of Information requests hazard button in the app, where you can report
to the different boroughs in London. We got a lot suspicious activity, crime, poorly lit areas or an
of streetlights data, which is great. Then we did unsafe route. Say you’re walking home and you
the same for towns outside of London so we did see a dodgy guy on a street corner, you can report
Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and it and say someone else is going through that area
Northampton. We’d like to get more but like I said and they’ll be routed around that.
it’s at the council level. And many councils don’t
have inventories of their street lights in terms of Is this re-routing stuff only from reports within
geography. Mostly they know how many but not the app? Or is there something where you
where they are. We’ve had to create the dataset might consider doing this based on police data?
ourselves, and it’s been quite laborious and it is by
no means comprehensive. Alistair: We could. Anything’s possible.

Nicola: It’s been a lot of work, a lot of hours, and a lot of Hope: One of the issues with police data is that it
time, to make sure that you have all of the fundamental can be quite out of date. A problem with a couple
pieces of technology, but then making them work… of our competitor apps is that they’ll route around
a location of crimes that are no longer relevant.
Alistair: The safer routing sounds great but
we’ve had to get an entire routing system from Alistair: We take a bit more of a nuanced
the ground up. We basically have a map of the approach to it. We process the crime and treat it
a bit more holistically. We take into account the
date of the crime, how old it is, and what type of
crime it is. We base it on a regional basis – Soho
at night time turns out to be the dodgiest part of
London. We can treat that semi-holistically. If
multiple people report using that feature – crime
or something dodgy happening in that area –
that would be weighted a lot more heavily than
anything else. Because it’s live, we know it’s real,
even corroborated, after some time that would
fade away and become irrelevant as time goes on.

Nicola: And we’re keen to hear feedback. We like
hearing “this doesn’t work,” suggestions about
new features, but also suggestions about features
that could be tweaked. We take that feedback.

Sounds like a really laborious project. So, how
big is your team?

All: Us.

Alistair: It’s just us three at the moment.

And what’s your favourite part about working
in such a small team?

Nicola: That we actually like each other.

Alistair: We actually like each other a lot, yeah.

Hope: And it’s really easy to communicate. We
don’t have to disperse information across a huge
team or anything like that.

37

Alistair: One of my favourite things about How are you going about the funding side of things?
working in this environment – and I think this is
true for any start-up in general – is the speed at Nicola: Up until it’s all been self-funded.
which you can do stuff. For example, Hope gave However, in the future, we would be looking for
me the idea for Doorstep Mode and by the end of some funding. But what that looks like is currently
the day, it was done. You don’t find that in big tech undetermined.
or big corporate environments. The pace at which you
can move is so much faster. I just love that in general. Alistair: Fundamentally, if we have an investor,
they’re going to need to be aligned with what we
Nicola: It means that we’re able to be agile are trying to do. We’ve been very careful not to
with the features that we have and being able to overly commercialise this project.
improve things as well.
Hope: We didn’t want the app to be paid for. We
Hope: You don’t have to put a request in that’s going wanted everyone to have access to something that
to take the product team three months to build. could help them.

As you said it’s a passion project, but it’s a lot amount Alistair: The core feature set of the app will
of work. I assume you also have otherthings going on. always be free. What you have now will always
be free. We’re not going to make somebody pay
Hope: Until recently we all had full-time jobs. Nicola for safety, that’s ridiculous!
and I still do. It makes things a little hard to juggle.
Hope: It’s monetising off people’s fear.
How do you manage this project alongside your job?
Alistair: It just looks bad. It’s morally reprehensible
Alistair: This is now my full-time job. I quit my to make someone pay for something you cannot
job to pursue this because things are coming to guarantee. You just can’t.
a head now. There’s only so much that we can
do part-time with this. We really believe in the Where does the app work?Where is it available now?
mission, we believe the product is great, and we
want to continue innovating and building on that. Nicola: Currently it’s available in the UK – on the
I feel like the only way to do that is to take it to the Apple App Store and the Google Play store. Both
next level. So, I resigned from my job a couple of across iOS and Android devices.
weeks ago and from here on I will be doing Buoy.
And contract work so I can pay my bills. Alistair: If you download it in the UK and go on
holiday in Spain, or Italy, whatever, it will work.
Nicola: I’ve recently started a new job and one of The reason why we haven’t shipped it globally
the most wonderful things about my new company yet, and that is an intention of ours in the medium
is that not only are they okay with me having this to long term, is because we’d like the safer routing
passion project, they actually actively encourage to be available internationally and a huge amount
it. In my capacity, as a CMO I can work on an of work needs to go into it.
evening or a weekend.
Hope: He’s going to need to go and trace around
Hope: My boss was really positive about it too. But every park on the planet!
it is hard to balance. Obviously, Alistair and Sam
are up all hours of the night trying to do coding. It One final question: why the name? Why Buoy?
does get kind of overwhelming at times but we do
all support each other. There’s no pressure to do Hope: It’s got those connotations of safety
four social media posts in a week because that’s precautions and saving lives. The life buoy is
just not feasible. I think, hopefully, when we get something that is always there, in every swimming
some investment and expand, it’s going to make a pool, on the beach, on boats… just in case, but you
real difference to the amount we can do. But, for hope that you don’t need it. Our app encompasses
now, everyone does as much as they can. the same idea. We always want to be looking out
for your safety, and give you the tools that will
Alistair: For the moment, a lot of the grunt work is get you help if you need it. Though, we hope that
done by Sam and me. We don’t have lives a lot of the you’ll never need it.
time, and that’s okay because we live and breathe it.

Hope: Luckily, they love coding. Buoy is available to download via the Apple Store
and Google Play. You can find out more about the
Alistair: It’s just fun! Building something like start-up and keep up to date on all things Buoy
this is really enjoyable and is what I’d be doing via their Instagram - @buoyofficial - and website
anyway. I was building apps and projects before www.buoy.org.uk.
Buoy. It’s just what I really enjoy doing.

The Liberation Issue | Φ 38

39

The Liberation Issue | Φ 40

41 ART by Antonis

terracotta tiles

by Quies

I tie a cerulean string around my finger – four little knots trap my blood in a clot
I just wish to lay on the terracotta tiles of my home.
I watch as my fingertip slowly turns blue
I feel the sun rising through them as I drip
Drip
Drip
I am the mother of all breaths I take
I am the mother of all words I drink
I feel liberation when I let my blood flow
It drips down my thighs, tells me I’m whole;

I crotchet a blanket of daisies on my tubes
I tie them so tightly with a string of cerulean blue
I snip at the chord, lie down in the sun.

Terracotta tiles scorch my thighs and I give births to new tales and lies:
I am the mother of all things I want
I choose to lie down in my own sacred blood.

The Liberation Issue | Φ 42

43 MENSTRUAL WOMB by Namita Maria Herzl
This work was painted with menstrual blood.



Fear of the Devil

by Mimi Garcia

I've been talking to the devil for days
I've offered him refuge,
company,
trust.
To then run away
feeling his back on my chest
my chest on his back.
Between glances; a commitment
before knowing that it was hell
what he offered me between his hands.
And once again
fear is personified by the times I have looked the devil in the face
and I've gone through hell
thinking it was honest what he was offering me with his hands.
A shiver runs through my body.

What if tomorrow it's me, Dad?
Will you go out with them to claim my name?
Will you go out with an open heart, demanding justice for my untold story?

I can't put into words
how close I've been to hell
where my autonomy and dignity
have been in the hands of others;
where hell has been sold to me
as an inevitable place to transit,
a place where sooner or later
all women have to go.

But now that I've lost my fear of the devil
I'm not afraid to look him in the eye
or shout with sorority
that my autonomy,
and dignity is not theirs.
That our liberation
does not belong in hell.

45 PHOTOGRAPHY by Maria M.Guasch

The Liberation Issue | Φ PHOTOGRAPHY by Jane Dabate and Reuben Strong

Leap Into
The Other

by Mori Kento

"Hell is other people."

Ihave never been an adherent follower of
Sartre. I find him, unlike his work denotes,
quite pretentious and trapped in a shadow of
his own. Trying so hard to be the one and only
true existentialist that has true insight in human
existence. However facetious it is, this display is
the exact manifestation of ‘No Exit’. Perhaps he is
truly putting his heart on the nip of his pen; perhaps
he is sincerely expressing his dread in despair. As
long as he remains as ashes, I can do whatever I
want to his expression (or any extension in that
matter, but we don’t wanna go there).

I could have been raping him, as long as ashes
don’t speak.

Where does this sense of misdeed come from? To
misread AI-generated texts probably won’t bring
the same guilt. Besides, Sartre is a dead man, he
has no feelings that I can hurt. Exactly who am I
doing violence to?

The idea of ‘’the other’’ does not exactly refer to
a group of people that exists externally. It is the
understanding that foreign explanations of actions
and expressions exist, and we have no access to
the exact content of that. The guilt that I have
for misunderstanding Sartre is here, because I
understand that there is a possibility that he never
meant what I thought he did. Paradoxically, it is
never exactly about Sartre’s feelings; it is about
how I could have wronged him.

Ever since I was young, I learnt that I am
ultimately other. I am a mere shell in the eyes of
the other; they can never penetrate this dull and
thick skull of mine, so that they can never have an
assured belief about my intentions. In their view, I
can be no different than an automaton.

I remember the moment of relief when I got
my results from a public exam that determined
whether I went to university or something else.
I got horrendous grades, but I also passed maths,
which meant that I could, at least, go to uni
overseas. When I brought that news to my family,
my mother locked her brows, forming a deep gap
between me and her. I was intimidated.

47

What is going on inside this familiarly foregin Demandingly sensitive. In embracing the other
mind? we have to risk doing misdeeds, and being
misunderstood.
"Of course, what else can we do." She whispered,
in a volume that makes it barely intelligible. She Inversely, what if my thoughts are transparent to
expected this. A shit grade. "You are quite a sly the other? What if the boundary between me and
one, no? Since we sent your brother overseas there the other dissolves, and every intention is brought
is no other way than also sending you elsewhere." to the light? It would be a bizarre picture to have
"Or else, we’d be unfair.’’ my father added. really, since there would no longer be privacy.
The interior would be dissolved into the exterior.
In a confined space, just me and my parents. I felt Without the distinction of interior and exterior, can
this void between me and those who are dearest to there really be an individual? It seems impossible.
me. I never took anything for granted. I’d gladly
accept it if they refused to fund me. It was a time It is that which makes me ‘’me’’, that makes
of uncertainty for me as much as it was for them. understanding others near impossible. To retain
I find them, by the mere virtue of their existence, our individuality, this solitude is the price to pay,
constantly sought for an explanation to me. 'I feel for an unwarranted sovereignty.
this obligation to squeeze myself into the narration
of others; to try to be a good son, even though I It is hardly liberating to know that individuality
never had a son. entails loneliness; some may even give up their
own sovereignty to appease the rest, lower
In the eyes of theirs, I was cunning, calculative, the boundaries as low as they can. Is that the
and meditatively lazy about school work. peace that we want? With due respect, I think
this is a mere escape from reality. To forcefully
From then on, they are my blood, and that is it. match one’s inner (being? Thoughts? id?) with
the surrounding is a pretence. There is no true
It haunts me to this day, that I myself might be reconciliation between the inner and the outer. It
putting them in the wrong light, thinking of is a sorry excuse.
them as these authoritative, demanding figures.
Perhaps they didn’t mean what they said; I might What about the other way around, to be
be projecting my insecurities onto their careless unapologetic in every sense, to refuse any
words. I have no way to know. I am so self- encroaching understanding? This seems familiar
absorbed that I can only be me. to us: a figure that is difficult, challenging,
even prophet-like. The romantic idea of a crazy
Hell is also in me. I am caged within me. philosopher. Imagine Nietzsche, and his (self-
indulgent) Zarathustra. It seems that their virtue of
I remember reading Levinas, his work is being difficult welcomes unhinged interpretations;
inexorably (hard to read) honest and demanding. a life that was appreciated only after it returns to
There is this solemness in the face of others, he the earth. However authentic that life must have
says. They shout ‘’thou shalt not kill.’’ There is a been, I don’t see how that allows understanding.
certain attribute of the other that demands respect, How many fervent followers of Nietzsche see that
without any expression. Simply the presence of shivering little boy beyond his insightful words?
the other, being absolutely other. The knowledge Perhaps his philosophising is not an attempt to
that they have the same depth, an inner that is reach the pinnacle of metaphysics. Rather, it is
intransparent to us. It halts our relentless advance. a treaty between his intentions and the outside
Some call this sonder - the realisation that anyone world. An explanation to his frustration at the
of those out there has the same capacity, and they unfairness of the world he lived in.
live as we do. It is exactly this realisation that
causes an acute pain; we are so alike yet radically The only thing that being unapologetic allows is
different, we pass each other just by the shoulders. the establishment of the content of authenticity; a
life that, although do not answer to the other, is in
We yearn to understand and to be understood. accordance with the intention of its subject.
Much like the pursuit of goodness and personal
flourishment. The satiation of such pursuit doesn’t To be authentic is painful. It is a frightful
end in the acquisition of goodness but in further experience, no matter how much experience you
pursuit of good. In the same same sense, our have with it. What if our actions got the wrong
desire to understand the other doesn’t stop, it can translation to our intention? Worst of all: even if
only go further. However, to overstep means to they get through, what if the receiving end rejects
risk doing violence, and we cannot know if we are your true heart? The moment when you submit
doing so or not. yourself to the other, waiting for an answer.

The Liberation Issue | Φ 48