OLUWASEUN is an encryptor living in the Ikoyi neighborhood of Eko. She subscribes to REMINDR, a service purporting aid for her self-forgetfulness. The program requires subscribers to record daily logs based on prompts. As OLUWASEUN abides, the voice of the spirit ADESEUN presents himself. He invites her to join him in formulating a new memory and thus a new self out of what she believes is lost. Together, they create a place not far from where they belong.
Audio transcript of REMINDR commercial as OLUWASEUN begins her first session (front speakers):
[LAGOS PIDGIN] Una welcome-o to REMINDR—a monthly subscription. Wey go help you (to remember). You go take your first step from here. Make una come join our global community. Engo help you find your way back again.
[ALGORITHM ENGLISH] Welcome to REMINDR, a monthly subscription service for memory retention. You’ve taken the all-important first step. Join our global community to help you find your way back again.
Audio transcript of OLUWASEUN and ADESEUN’S REMINDR call and response logs (back speakers):
LOG 0: OPEN
OLUWASEUN: “Identify a memory last felt.” How? Day after day, every night is felt by what I haven’t done and have yet to do. What time is there to remember? It’s come to my attention that to remember is to live, and in my forgetfulness I’ve lost my home.
ADESEUN: What is our home?
LOG I
OLUWASEUN: What happens when you avoid your shadow? If no landscape is permanent, only industry stays. The rest is mechanism. (Scuttling) back and forth around every corner of this cubicle, you remain in the same place. I’ve never bothered with the reality tried outside, but I’m sure to leave all tabs open. Years spent keeping up. A change of scenery tricks the head. Does funny things. Isolated within this congregate capacity, I sit, addressing the fear of not recognizing myself. How does one arrive here?
ADESEUN: This is not a mirror, only the anxious backside you face. There’s no captain of industry to be found.
OLUWASEUN: Another Dawn Breaks.
ADESEUN: Last Seen.
OLUWASEUN: Reset Protocol.
ADESEUN: Delivery.
OLUWASEUN: Prompt.
LOG II
ADESEUN: As space gets filled, we become preoccupied with misapplied opportunity. The pursuit alone renders us forgetful. Taking stock of different forms, we stumble to figure a language. When pressed, the shapes expressed dance then abandon. We must untether ourselves from clarification demands, for sifting through it all is expensive. Of course, it’s a requisite activity, but it sucks time. We’ve grown accustomed to letting the side down. Every now and then, throw it all away. Wholesale. Clean slate. If there’s less to carry, who’s accountable for what we can’t accommodate? To proceed with plans, we choose no further adjustments. Still, forgetfulness hurts.
OLUWASEUN: You know there are no utopias left. They cost too much.
ADESEUN: Fruitless Record-Keeping.
OLUWASEUN: Fruitless Record-Keeping.
ADESEUN: Local News.
OLUWASEUN: Frustration Protocol.
ADESEUN: Foraging.
OLUWASEUN: Forage.
ADESEUN: Left Overs.
OLUWASEUN: A Familiar Voice.
LOG III
OLUWASEUN: I blame the place, not my habits. I blame everything else but the thing. On the surface, it results in a mannered malnourishment. Don’t get me wrong, the best of me is my pride. It contributes directly to my unwavering indecisiveness. Malnourishment is convenient for sustained attention. You must appeal through its promise that you can still be held, molded, turned, disarmed, folded, unraveled.
ADESEUN: It’s difficult to catch someone while they’re in transition. Sometimes the truth may not feel safe. But life’s work is defined by what you require. You must communicate your desires honestly with others, especially when surfaces fail you. The release of truth creates possibility for more truth around you.
OLUWASEUN: Uninterrupted Satisfaction?
ADESEUN: Uninterrupted Satisfaction.
OLUWASEUN: Groundless.
ADESEUN: Denial Protocol.
OLUWASEUN: Your Face Is a Love Letter.
ADESEUN: Highly Adaptable.
LOG VI
ADESEUN: When and where are we?
OLUWASEUN: Injecting ourselves into areas we know nothing about. Existing in other place-times. The fresh and exciting parts have gone. And I swear, this is when I hear a voice ask me, over and over, again and again: “all this, for what?”
ADESEUN: What purpose is there in imagining the worst?
OLUWASEUN: And the answer accounts for so much more than myself—more than this body, alone, here.
ADESEUN: Manifesting.
OLUWASEUN: Manifesting.
ADESEUN: Satellite.
OLUWASEUN: Satellite.
OLUWASEUN: Acceptance Protocol.
ADESEUN: Summon A Memory.
ADESEUN: Ground. Less.
LOG V
OLWASEUN: My job requires a level of legerity. Diligence is in the management of psychic sacrifice zones. Avoiding redundancies is the ever-evolving project. The most elegant, concise edit obliterates translation. It never happens, but you try anyway.
ADESEUN: Liminal planes are baseline and ambition is rewarded where streams of free enterprise are seized. It’s not our fault the voracious nature of compounded hemispheres encourage mistreatment. Resources are limited, no one will help you. Just be mindful of consumption. Reconfiguration and reform are addictive activities, forcing harvest of claims and unwarranted enclosures. In the discord of foregrounded drama, you’ll know you’re really good when time bends.
OLUWASEUN: But I wonder, how can one remake with the materials on offer? The languages I handle are always active. They reinforce looking good while seeking pleasurable destinations. No neutralities. Greatness awaits those who prove exceptional in their thoroughness. I’ve made my mistakes—all for the sake of sustenance. The discovery is a reminder: time only slows once pain is felt. The lucky ones see perspectives run their course; better, if they’re freely discarded with reverence.
ADESEUN: And yet, in our line of work, time creates space. It’s never wasted. We’re shrines not temples. We must take care to repair. Unknowing benefits us; mystery is the key to the incongruous parts of ourselves. If we become lost, we’ll find joy in forgetting. If our record’s constant rotation has you seeking optimization, remember silence is truth.
LOG IV: CODA
OLUWASEUN / ADESEUN: Unsettled process has a way of spouting unexpected magic. Don’t meddle. There are no demarcations. The borders aren’t . . .
ADESEUN: Here.
OLUWASEUN: There.
OLUWASEUN / ADESEUN: Only being is felt.
ADESEUN: I am her.
OLUWASEUN: He is me.
OLUWASEUN / ADESEUN: Attempts will be made to sell us closure for the things unresolved. We do not want them. Everything is here. What we have is also there. We do not need to understand. We remain in mediation.
