Athletic Narratives

DAY 489

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Marker : 6,  Daniel Ascot

Either.

  Cold, abrasive metals that illicit a lubricating solution in the arms at the same time the ICF_1 gene 

increases the toxicity in my blood is nothing new to ( me ). 

  Its Green.  Plasma. 

  Exactly. 

  Like your pumping the metallic components of a television set into my fucking forearms. 

  Rule : 

Let it harvest inside you.

Absorb energy from light.

  Its been awhile since ( I ) administered it. 

  Like This. 

  This Particular. 

  This -  Method. 

  This is the way it was. When it was really illegal.  Forty Liters to over. 

  Three hours to Phase 3. Unable to move, unnerved.                              

  PHASE 3: 

Your on a damp floor, shaking - skin sticky.  

  Stuck. 

  Bound. 

  Parasitic. 

  A voice in my head suggests : 

"Don't forget to insert the needle under the fascia after 20 minutes so I can monitor the substrate on the Advancer."

                                            I've been doing it after 5.  

  It’s less painful. 

  The Advancer can never tell the difference. 

    Or.  

    Unplug and puncture a resident against its will with a Vampirical stake into the vertebrae.

  Unannounced. 

  Purify through its marrow. Its kidneys and pancreatic responses haven't responded to this omnipresence. 

  To this. 

  Purify.  

  Simple. Attach the cord to the flow regulator as proxy, and feed the tube through the fascia under its lip. 

  The tube likes this. 

  Its warmer there. 

Methodical Braces.

  Cold, abrasive metals that illicit a lubricating solution in the arms at the same time the ICF_1 gene increases the toxicity in my blood is nothing new to me. Its just been awhile since its been administered - in this fashion and in this period of time - 5 hours before the game.  The new regulation and "Neo-purification" as the League calls it - doesn't apply to the MVP, the so-called League star. Perform at all costs is still its motto. I was supposed to supplement 5 days ago prior to the game on Sunday but because Helen was in labor, I had no other choice. This was the quickest way - the way it was, when it was really illegal.  Susan, the Biotrans nurse at headquarters administered the last of the supplement before heading home to her family for the holidays. Here I lay, 40 quarts away from the changeover to trans athletic - or three hours to Phase 3. Unable to move, unnerved.

  "Thanks Helen. Enjoy the turkey, I'll be fine." 

  "Don't forget to insert the needle under the fascia after 20 minutes so I can monitor on the AthMon."

  I’ll do it after 5. Its less painful. The AthMon can never tell the difference.

  Incendiary. 

  If I leak a milligram of the solution, or pierce myself I could reformat the subcutaneous drive under my skin and ignite the whole facility. Either my vitals get monitored or this mega billion-dollar facility goes up in flames. That’s a lot of trust for us athletes. A group the government called "users" prior to the allowance of bionics/ gene doping into the league. The nomenclature never short of negative undertones as if no matter what, athletes are still cheats to the system. But again, stars are never questioned. 

  Ice. 

  My veins are now cold as shit. I am close to vomiting. I’m close to saying fuck it - lets unplug and puncture a non-athlete against his or her will with this vampirical stake into the vertebrae and purify through their marrow. I figure their kidneys haven't seen nearly what mine has over the course of my career. Purify. Isn't this what the new CBA agreement wants anyway? Purify at all costs. Sounds simple - attach the cord to the flow regulator as proxy - feed the tube through the fascia under the lip because its warmer and usually pain free. Thing is - I just don't want to spoil somebody else's evening. 

  God damn, this thing is itching the shit out of me. 

  The metal clasp attached to the sub dermal fascia underneath his skin has itched him for years. In all its uses, when attached to the consistent feed tube the itching is perpetuated by the adhesive counterpart that lives on an athlete’s body while in season.  His skin is chapped, red and bruised as if he'd been shooting heroin all his life. Urged consistently to look into preventative non-invasive lubricants - league officials decline. Sponsors and marketing heavyweights make sure of this. The commissioner included.  

   Monitor Evoked 

  It’s been two weeks now that he has tricked his monitoring team into recording his vitals. The wet washcloth of various temperatures would only suffice so long before they started knocking down his door. When did a high profile athlete become an animal - caged, watched and burdened by vital machines that emit sounds of screaming upon entering the "system" on your person. The baby can't sleep - my wife is terrified of it. When she wakes up at night she nearly trips over the cord attached to my appendix and she loses her breath at the sight of the thing when she wakes up because it scares her. It reminds her of a Robocop apparatus and is thrilled at the thought of a new, smaller operating system - supposedly due out in December. It’s supposedly minimal. Supposedly, it’s non-invasive. Supposedly.   

  Defy the Bionic Therapies

It is my intention to present a case for thinking of athletics as already posthuman and consider that the pursuit of human enhancements is a defining feature of that life. These enhancements can easily be understood as rituals, as ways of marking out oneself from others or as part of a community. But how could that ritualistic behavior take place/ look like or be designed within a new setting dominated by hormones and gene doping techniques to name a few. How do athletes interact or engage themselves physically in a sporting world that is posthuman?  

Projects such as Revital Cohen’s Assistance Animals and the work of Andy Miah on Design for Evolution, really take the notion to new heights as they force the athletic population to look at a mode of enhancement that seems to be inevitable. Intravenous blood sampling from an animal’s liver to purify a red blood cell count in cyclists is not far off in the grand scheme of things when discussing how athletes may gain an edge on the competition. They address not only new ways of thinking but they take into consideration what I have desired and expressed to research further this past spring. Ideas such as research implications in a posthuman athletic world to develop design outputs that relate to human enhancement technologies and its ability to capture movement, transfer data and change a perception. Seamless interactions within physical performance on an athlete as well as sensory augmentation need to be considered in a posthuman physical space as well. The discussion of genetic alteration is seemingly more present than ever before in athletics. I am eager to see how an athlete either adheres to a common practice or changes his/her ways to adapt when the setting is altered both psychologically and physiologically. As I seek to design for a world of posthumans in athletics, the major question going forward is what ought that entail? How is it designed and ultimately how will we justify employing that term in athletics.