404 Ink

Mass protests and direct action have been familiar tactics against the many crises of the 21st century. Though methods vary, there’s a collective longing for meaningful and transformative action. Some are deemed too weak, others too disruptive: from Instagram tiles to cans of soup thrown on famous paintings. Through conversations with activists and organisers, Sam Gonçalves recounts stories of protest and the fight for change, from a community of landless workers in Southern Brazil, to chefs unionising their workplace in Glasgow, Scotland. These narratives reveal the opportunities and challenges that are part of the difficult work of creating change, a wrestling with the question: how does change happe? aving a ‘positive impact’ in the world is often relegated to the ‘personal’, an individual endeavour. Gonçalves investigates that assumption and explores ways communities have resisted collectively, and fought against the individualising forces surrounding them.

Queer musicians have long mined beauty from the darkest of seams – and today's artists are taking that treasure and using it to make magic. In Small Town Joy, trans writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall discovers the sometimes surprising ways LGBTQ+ artists changed Scotland's soundtrack, meeting Scots artists, industry insiders and music fans to celebrate the music and musicians that filled floors, opened minds and changed lives. Featuring interviews with Shirley Manson (Garbage), Lauren Mayberry (CHVRCHES), Sean Dickson (HIFI Sean), Maya Evan MacGregor and many more.

Sex on screen is unnecessary, gratuitous, and serves no purpose. This is the sentiment on the rise as cinema becomes less and less sexy. Xuanlin Tham counters that sex scenes can open our minds and bodies to the possibility of new futures, and seduce us towards an expanded political imagination. Through The Matrix Reloaded, Lingua Franca and beyond, Revolutionary Desires explores how the form’s intimacies, transgressions, and dedication to pleasure can be uniquely poised to rupture dominant narratives of capitalism and the violences that flow from it. Why is the sex scene, demonised as it is, therefore more politically important and subversive than ever? And how can it power a desire for something more?

What does the command “look, don’t touch” suggest about the (lack of) freedom to feel in societ? ayla-roxanne hill and Francesca Sobande reflect on society’s nurturing and obstructing of emotional expression, physical touch, and connectedness between different species and spaces. Through the music of feeling across genres from nu-metal to hip-hop, the spectacle of “self-help” social media content, and powerful pop culture portrayals of (im)mortality and “monsters”, Look, Don’t Touch moves beyond the language of “being okay”. It embraces tenderness, dreaming, love, solidarity, messiness, release, and ultimately, feeling.