FEELING BLUE

You know what time it is – that delicious timeless interplay between solitude, melancholy, seasonal depression and self-reflection. Today, we're launching our third theme of 2024, FEELING BLUE. It will have everything to do with both the mood and the colour and we invite you in. Custom-made accompanying animation by Marek Mundok.

A little, somewhat cold hand tentatively slides out from a fluffy coat sleeve and gently but unshakingly rests on your shoulder, pressing lightly, turning you around. That’s us – asking you to join us on our autumnal/wintery journey. We will fold into layers of rich indigo, cobalt, bleu royal, ultramarine and envelop you in the quiet weight of melancholy and introspection. In anticipation of the crunchy silence of snow, we’ll enter the world of susurration and murmuration, mastering the ruminative mode.

Melancholia isn’t static, it’s transient; it evolves, echoing the human experience in a rapidly changing world. We will embrace melancholy like the good old friends she is, sit with her, have tea. Let her carry us like a golden boat over slow, calm, shimmering deep waters. On other days, we will take a contemplative trek across the emotional landscapes of a self-aware human being sorting through inner turmoil and overthinking, seeking clarity and inner peace.

It’s time to softly hum your favourite sad song over and over. The time of long pensive showers. To experience the Emo-Romantic Turn in art as described by Michal Novotný. There will be space even for sentimentality and melodrama – BLUE can hold, withstand and encompass even all that. We also have all the classics, from sadness and longing to quiet contemplation.

Looking from the inward to the outward, once again, nature and her processes and creatures (us too) are also slowing down and dozing off. Although she might swear she’s not nodding off, that she’s only pondering very hard – like all of us these days – we know better. There’s no shame in taking the rest you need nor should it be.

Also, did you know that “professional garden hermit” was a paid job? Let’s embark on our hermitage internships at least and find beauty in a bit of (healthy, self-aware and regulated) isolation. Together, we shall found the great nation of HyberNation.

 

Let BLUE wash all over you.

Moodily yours,

SWARM Mag

FOR YOUR READING, VIEWING AND LISTENING PLEASURE

Reading

Instagram account Softcore Trauma @softcore_trauma 

Hua Hsu – Stay True

Layla Martínez – Woodworm

Michal Novotný – The Emo-Romantic Turn

 

Music

Our playlist on Spotify – Songs to Play at 3 After You Snuck Out of the Party to Nurse Your Seasonal AD

The Moody Blues – Nights in White Satin

Aldous Harding – any album

Agnes Obel – any album

Portishead – any album

Massive Attack – any album

Susanne Sundfør – Ten Love Songs (album)

Mustafa the Poet – Dunya (album)

Placebo – Meds (album)

Björk – Vulnicura (album)

Einstürzende Neubauten – Die Befindlichkeit des Landes

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – 15 Feet of Pure White Snow

Nick Cave – Into My Arms

Rezső Seress – Szomorú vasárnap

Hjaltalín – Ethereal

Gotye – Heart’s a Mess

When Saints Go Machine – Add Ends

David Lang – Just (After Song of Songs)

UKLE – Lonely Soul

ANOHNI – Hopelessness (album)



Films

Lars Trier – Melancholia

Lee Isaac Chung – Minari

Charlie Kaufman – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Sofia Coppola – Lost in Translation

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Bio

More about our SWARM MAG team at “ABOUT” section :))

AUTHOR OF THE THEME ANIMATION / Marek Mundok is a Slovak freelance animator and illustrator specialising in frame-by-frame animation. His biggest inspiration is hardcore music and skateboarding culture. He worked with clients such as Red Bull, Duckworth and Travis Barker.

Credits

Text / Františka Blažková

Animation / Marek Mundok @marekmundok

https://marekmundok.com/

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