Hot Sugar is back with his latest video and it’s already
being pulled from the net as fast as it gets uploaded. “The Forest Nymph That Lives Behind the School”
is an atmospheric, dream-like track,
a much more subdued affair from the producer that acts as a soundtrack to this
self-directed short. Hot Sugar had this to say about the work…
"In this generation of internet dependency, we
experience the arbitrary censorship of nudity. Social networks like Facebook,
Instagram, and YouTube offer no room for discussion. One of the world’s biggest
artists, Rihanna, graced the cover of a fashion magazine with her delicately
exposed nipples (an image then wheat pasted across the streets of Paris, one of
the world’s most reputable and historical centers of culture), had that photo
deleted from Instagram as obscenity. Nicki Minaj’s bikini clad butt was
airbrushed to the point of looking like a cartoon but still got removed a
couple weeks ago. More absurdly, a photo of a marble nipple from a centuries
old statue at the Louvre can be reported as offensive if uploaded to Facebook.
"For a couple years I wrote off the culpable social
networks as irrelevant, suggesting that they would wane in influence over time,
but Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have become so pervasive in our culture
that they control and dictate a significant part of the social interactions in
our lives. If the majority of your communication with friends, family, and professional
associates takes place on these social networks, they should be held
accountable for limiting your freedom of expression.
"As it stands, there is no room for art on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube if
it should imply the human body in its natural form. Despite what they may
argue, they are not looking for a debate. They have essentially declared that
all nudity is obscenity, regardless of artistic merit.
"This can send younger generations a frustrating
message. Its not like they haven’t seen a naked body (most people in fact
emerge into the world from a naked body as a naked body). This is also the
internet. A couple clicks will bring you from a Facebook wall post with your
grandmother to a porn site that showcases unfathomable acts of sexual
acrobatics, the likes of which have never been recorded throughout history
(with the highest standard of clarity and resolution).
"This treatment of nudity marginalizes the meaning of
nudity and removes any middle ground. On one hand, we are being taught
that all nudity is obscene in social settings. On the other hand we are
shown that nudity can flourish and be financially lucrative in its most extreme
and gratuitous form.
"If you’re going to portray someone naked, why bother
doing it with a paintbrush? You wont be able to share it proudly with the
general community. Also, why bother settling on something as benign as a
painting of a torso? It certainly wont compete against the ‘wow’ factor
of hardcoresmoothie.com (a
popular website where women choose the ingredients of a smoothie and then
funnel the blended results into their butts).
"The nude body will always represent a human (or any
living organism) in it purest form. It is how we entered the world and it is
the only thing we will bring with us when we disappear from it. After millennia
of slow progress in the fight to legitimize artistic representations of nudity,
its disappointing to watch these important websites that moderate our social
interactions take such a step backwards."
