From handkerchief code to representational fomo

The handkerchief code (also known as the hanky code, the bandana code, and flagging^[1]) is a color-coded system, employed usually among the gay male casual-sex seekers or BDSM practitioners in the United States, Canada, and Europe, to indicate preferred sexual fetishes, what kind of sex they are seeking, and whether they are a top/dominant or bottom/submissive. The hanky code was widely used in the 1970s by gay and bisexual men, and grew from there to include all genders and orientations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handkerchief_code

---

Symbol/abstract representational code
A flirtation
individual preference and desire for connection with other/s through a recognition of/reading by way of shared language.

---

Visible/Invisible
Ungrammatical

The sentence and the young man

A sentence lies exposed to public view, in an open trash can. It is the ungrammatical sentence "Who Sing!?!" We are watching it from where we stand concealed in a shadow archway. We see a young man walk past the trash can several times, eyeing the sentence curiously. We will stay where we are, for fear that, at any moment, he will reach in quickly and fix it.

                                                                                                                                     Dream

By Lydia Davis in Can't and Won't

---

Visible/Invisible
Repetition
Fluctuations of fomo


What is required in order for us to read, understand and participate in the subtext?

----

Just because something is visible doesn't mean it's predictable

I love you = I hate you = the monkey was allergic to bananas

The road not taken = fomo =

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

punk band lead singer = our drummer hates punk and we suck = can we play in your bar?


---

The symbolic pocket (a blast from the past):

Page 3 of our work for Hue & Cry Journal 5, 2011

---

Representational fomo

he he... her her... er eh... !?!