Melyssa Hubbard Interview

 

How do you start being involved in the BDSM community as a dominatrix?

 
Thank you for being the first in Europe to interview me. I will be interested to hear what a European audience thinks of my story. 

In the year 2000, I was introduced to the lifestyle via a boyfriend who showed me the early Internet societies on AOL (America On Line). My initial education of the D/s arts (dominance/submission) also took place in early underground chat rooms where I met a few amazing individuals in real life.  I was never keen on the American BDSM societies, but did try to work within them for a time after I was first outed in 2003 by local media.  I learned the vicious world of politics in underground kink societies before I practiced above ground in the real political arena where it matters. 

There’s a fun section in my book detailing the first time I visited a BDSM club three hours away from Indianapolis, Indiana in Chicago, Illinois. My book details many of my other early lifestyle D/s (Dominance/submission) adventures and how that journey led to my decision to go pro against the many internal moral obstacles I would have to reconcile to do so. 


Dadara/Exchanghibition Bank Interview

Can you tell us a little about your background as an artist?

I started drawing cartoons from a very early age. Then beginning of the nineties I got involved in the upcoming electronic dance music movement, designing hundreds of record covers and flyers and doing live-paintings etc. I started making paintings and over time these paintings evolved into large scale sculptures and installations, which provide a surreal mirror for our society. Creating dystopian Utopias, such as for instance Checkpoint Dreamyourtopia - a border control checkpoint to enter your own dreams. For years I used to destroy my big projects. I feel that when a project, or art, a new youth movement or a new piece of music comes into the world it has a certain kind of power, or magic. Eventually that magic fades, and it turns into a business, and starts earning money. In order to preserve that magic, I blew up projects, set them on fire, or smashed them to pieces, preserving that energy, and turning it into a kind of Urban Myth. These installations are turning more and more into interactive performances, and this year I am working on my first theater play.

Brett Scott Interview

Can you tell us about your background working in Finance and how did you come with the idea of writing The Heretic’s Guide to Global Finance – Hacking the Future of Money book?

In 2008 I undertook a somewhat subversive anthropological adventure into the financial sector in London. I ended up working for two years as a derivatives broker. Derivatives are large financial bets, and brokers spend all their time trying to convince large corporations and banks to use them. I learned a lot about the financial system and since leaving have continued to explore various aspects of the system. In the wake of the Occupy protests I was asked by Pluto Press to write a guide for activists on how the financial sector works, and how one can go about improving it.