I consider my ‘other ‘stage moniker, Circuit Des Yeux, to be the pit of my creative endeavors. But right now I am working and celebrating Jackie Lynn, an American band featuring members of Bitchin Bajas, and a new persona, all of which have a new album out. Jackie embodies so many things that I am not. But I am, for physics sake, one and the same as Jackie Lynn. Whether I am Circuit des Yeux or Jackie Lynn I am the same mind, voice, and body, occupying the same physical space. How I have chosen to shape the information attached to my mind, body, and voice, creates an optic that allows a new identity to exist.

This is no new notion. Social media may be humanity's greatest resource in bridging the gap between personal perception and global identity. The following cases are examples of how lack of information, or the curation of specific information can transform personal perception into global identity.

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

This book is a devastating and unreal piece of non-fiction. I read it when it first came out about 10 years ago, but I still find myself trying to throw it into conversation whenever possible. This is the story of Henrietta Lacks, and her singular contribution to the immortal cell line, known as HeLa. This cell line, in which all of modern medicine is tested and tried, came from Lacks’s cervical cancer cells in 1951. In this book the author discusses the dark reality of how racism and inhuman treatment left Lacks with a painful death and no recognition for her contribution toward this modern medicine miracle. The author also does the investigative work of finding Henrietta Lacks’s real name and tracking down her family so that she may reunite them with the heroic story of how Lacks gave humanity immortal life.

JT IV Cosmic Lightning (LP / DVD)

For this one you will have to go way back in your imagination and consider a time when the internet did not exist in the way it does today. In 1987 JT IV a savant glam / punk rock icon released Cosmic Lightning. The record is fantastic, but the DVD / Archived VHS footage is what haunts me. This trailer only shows a fraction of extremely potent audio/visual clues found on the DVD. Interwoven with live footage from the time, JT wears various masks, jewellery, and swaps genres and looks to which he becomes hardly recognisable. There is so much intimacy and energy in these VHS clips that merits it as a fantastic example of the artist as an information architect.

Jacqueline Humbert aka J Jasmine My New Music

Jacqueline Humbert is a fantastic artist, working with David Rosenboom and Robert Ashley. My partner Cooper recently showed me Daytime Viewing, and I have to say that it is quite unique. But this post is about her alter-ego release under J Jasmine called My New Music. It was a provocative release, discussing gender politics in 1977. I find it so interesting that she chose to disembody herself from a piece that addressed androgyny and female sexual power. Both releases merit a listen.

Roberto Cacciapaglia The Ann Steel Album

Michigan singer Ann Steel & Roberto Cacciapaglia work together to create a bubbly and otherworldly pop album that is balanced with direct, clear, and carefully arranged vocals. Roberto Cacciapaglia has been quoted saying that this album “isn’t about anything”. But what I find interesting is that there are almost no other clues to Ann Steel, no track that leads toward another musical outlet, and no background on how or why she is wearing a snowsuit & carrying a yellow canteen.

Bobby Brown Live

This album has everything that I love about a good private press record. It has a fabricated album cover and title to lead the listener into thinking that the music inside is a stadium worthy musician by the name of Bobby Brown, on par with the likes of Fleetwood Mac. But what is really going on is a man playing music out of his van to his dog. The credits read like a larger than life statue – a vocal range of six octaves, a one man orchestra with too big of an audience, 331 songs, – a tall tale to set the mood is always what I am looking for. The music is really lovely. Bobby Brown is a remarkable musician and brilliant mind, and I am in love with what he is choosing to leave behind.

Cult Hero “I'm A Cult Hero”

Robert Smith & local postman Frank Bell made this one time disco hit in the studio.

Circuit Des Yeux features on the cover of The Wire 390. Subscribers can read the full cover story via the digital archive.