Trans Game Zine

[(t8n:"dissolve")[//This is a collection of fragments—games and glitches, circuits and bodies, moments that flicker and fade.//](stop:)] (live: 1.5s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//Each title below is a cartridge, a code, a crack in the system. Load one, and see what appears.// ](stop:)] (live: 2.5s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ <div class="image-row"> [[<img id="Incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Incantations2.png" class="linkimg" width=30% height=30%>|Incantations]][[<img id="BEAscapes" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/BEASCAPEcart2.png" class="linkimg" width=30% height=30%>|BEAsapes]][[<img id="TheTWorld" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/T-World2.png" class="linkimg" width="100%" height="100%">|The T-World]][[<img id="TransistersLament" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TRANSISTERSLAMENT2.png" class="linkimg" width="371.5" height="408.5">|Transister’s Lament]] </div> <div class="image-row"> [[<img id="MortalGames" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MortalGames2.png" class="linkimg"width="371.5" height="408.5">|Mortal Games]][[<img id="BlueBlocks" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Blueblocks2.png" class="linkimg" width="371.5" height="408.5">|Blue Blocks]][[<img id="SecretAlcoves" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/SecretAlcoves2.png" class="linkimg" width="371.5" height="408.5">|Secret Alcoves]][[<img id="Afterword1" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Afterword2.png" class="linkimg"width="371.5" height="408.5">|Afterword]]</div>Press [[RESET|Intro2]] to return here. Read [[Artist Statement and Acknowledgements|Citations]] here. Outside links to contextual information can be found by clicking the "*".](stop:)] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Sequence-03_1.gif" alt="">

[[[(t8n:"dissolve")[//X...N...K//]<XNK| [(click: ?XNK)+(t8n:"dissolve")[A massive tome rests in my lap. [//X...G...//]<XG|] (click: ?XG)+(t8n:"dissolve")[My finger traces the inscrutable text as I recite this cryptic incantation. [//L...I...E//]<LIE| (click: ?LIE)+(t8n:"dissolve")[My friend, Megan, listens to my instructions, slowly guiding the cursor to the random assortment of letters. She double checks: [//XNKXGLIE//]<XNKXGLIE|? (click: ?XNKXGLIE)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Scanning again, I nod. She presses [[START|START1]].]]]]] ]]<img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/BackgroundOrange.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[The familiar //Super Mario Bros. 3// logo flashes on screen. But before Mario and Luigi begin their preprogrammed antics Megan presses [SELECT]<Select|, highlighting //2 Player Game//.] (click: ?Select)+(t8n:"dissolve")[And then [START]<Start|.] (click:?Start)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The overworld music fills the room, drowning the steady whir of [tractors in the fields]<tractors|.] (click: ?tractors)+(t8n:"dissolve")[To keep us kids out of the farmers’ way, we’re given a rare [opportunity]<opportunity|. (click: ?opportunity)+(t8n:"dissolve")[We are given permission to play Megan's older brother's NES [[all day->deadly hammers.]].]]]</div> <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/BackgroundOrange.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[The //Super Mario Bros. 3// cartridge hangs precariously out of the gray [housing of the NES]<NES|. (click: ?NES)+(t8n:"dissolve")[When the NES is powered on, the Game Genie launches a crude, colorful [bios]<bios|. (click: ?bios)+(t8n:"dissolve")[<img style='border-radius: 15px' src=https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/GameGenieGIF.gif height=360px width=640px> A sparkly star dances around and a cursor hovers over sixteen seemingly random letters that we string into incomprehensible ciphers. After pressing start the [[game launches|game launches.]].]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/BackgroundOrange.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[The Game Genie comes with a manual<a class="ext" href="https://archive.org/details/game-genie-1992-nes/Game_Genie_1992_NES/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> complete with a compendium of [codes]<codes|:]](click: ?codes)+(t8n:"dissolve")[//SLXPLOVS Infinite lives for Mario and Luigi// //GZUXNGEI Multi-Jumps// //OXKZELSX Super speed running.//Our favorite is://[XNKXGLIE Start and stay as Sledgehammer Mario]<Sledgehammer|//.(click: ?Sledgehammer)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Each code is a spell that grants supernatural abilities, but after beating the game with our invincible Mario we get [curious]<curious|. (click: ?curious)+(t8n:"dissolve")[We know that straying from the prescribed spells always brings the possibility of [[chaos]].]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/BackgroundOrange.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/GameGenieManual.jpg" width=782px height=569px>The manual isn't so dramatic. It calls our tampering in the arcane [//Video Game Home Programming//]<Programming|. (click: ?Programming)+(t8n:"dissolve")[It outlines two systematic methods of creating [new codes...]<newcodes|] (click:?newcodes)+(t8n:"dissolve")[...but it also notes that this process of [[reprogramming isn’t as scientific as it may seem|next one]].]]<hr class="clear">]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/BackgroundOrange.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[We didn't think that what we were doing was anything close to programming. Instead, we fumbled, experimented, and [searched]<search|. (click: ?search)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Cycling through dozens, hundreds, of [combinations of codes]<codes|.] (click:?codes)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Writing words, mashing buttons, jiggling cartridges, swapping games. Most things had [no effect]<effect|.] (click:?effect)+(t8n:"dissolve")[But every so often our persistence [[pays off]].]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/BackgroundOrange.gif" alt="">

[(live: .5s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I sit on the floor,](stop:)] (live: 2s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[gray NES controller in hand,](stop:)] (live: 3.5s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[a mess of chords surround me.](stop:)] (live: 5s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[On the screen, a small green dragon bounces around a maze.](stop:)] (live:6.5s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Until everything is jolted into [[incomprehensibility...]]](stop:)]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[ [[SIX!!!!!]<six|(click:?six)[(if: $sixStarted is not true)[(set:$sixStarted to true)(track:'theme','fadeout',2)(track:'theme','loop',true) [<video class="video js-volume" style="border-radius:15px" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/bubble6-mp4/" data-volume=".55" autoplay width=768px height=432px></video>](change:?RedScreen,(background:"solid")+(background:black)) |slot1>[] |slot2>[] |slot3>[] (live:6s)[(replace:?slot1)[//I love Six the Videogame//, we joke, as //Bubble Bobble// devolves into imparsable text we attempt to decipher...](stop:)] (live:18s)[(replace:?slot2)[Our excitement shifts to quiet appreciation, and then curiosity...](stop:)] (live:24s)[(replace:?slot3)[//WOAH! Wait. We had one there. [[I want it.->PB laughs.]]//](stop:)]]]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/TWorldMario.jpg" width=450px height=337px>A group of teenagers sit on the floor in front of a [glowing television]<television|.<a class="ext" href="http://www.max.hi-ho.ne.jp/hikaru/KG/kg8.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>] (click:?television)+(t8n:"dissolve")[On the screen I can just make out the graphics of //Super Mario Bros.//, but the level is [unrecognizable]<unrecognizable|. (click:?unrecognizable)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Blurry clouds, and fire, and pipes. The building blocks of the Mushroom Kingdom, [[rearranged]].]]<hr class="clear">] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-08.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[//[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/GameGenieAd.png" width=562px height=430px>]Yo!!! Video Game Dudes! [Talk to me!]<talk|//](click:?talk)+(t8n:"dissolve")[[//Excellent!!!//]<excellent|](click:?excellent)+(t8n:"dissolve")[A couple knockoff Bill and Teds was many people's [introduction to the]<genie| Game Genie:<a class="ext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af5kc_BwEMI" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>(click:?genie)+(t8n:"dissolve")[//This is the Game Genie from Galoob. The awesome video game enhancer for your Nintendo Entertainment System!// //Buckle up! Cuz you'll do what no [[video game dude]] has done before!//]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-10.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[The first thing I hear is [my name]<name|. (click:?name)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The voice sounds far away. I try my best to answer, but my body [doesn’t respond]<respond|.(click:?respond)+(t8n:"dissolve")[//Madison, honey, you have to [wake up]<wake|.//All I can manage is a feeble, [[//unnnnghhhh//->I feel utterly pathetic]].]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-09.gif" alt="">

(t8n:"dissolve")[I’ve found a [rhythm]<rhythm|. (click:?rhythm)[(if: $rhythmStarted is not true)[(set: $rhythmStarted to true)(track:'theme','fadeout',2)(track:'theme','loop',true) [<video class="video js-volume" style="border-radius:15px" class="video" autoplay src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/sequence-12-mp4/" data-volume=".55" width=768px height=432px></video>](change:?RedScreen,(background:"solid")+(background:black)) |slot1Reveal>[] |slot2Reveal>[] |slot3Reveal>[] |slot4Reveal>[] |slot5Reveal>[] |slot6Reveal>[] (live: 1.5s)[(replace:?slot1Reveal)[Power on.](stop:)] (live: 2s)[(replace:?slot2Reveal)[START.](stop:)] (live: 9s)[(replace:?slot3Reveal)[Kerchunk.](stop:)] (live:10s)[(replace:?slot4Reveal)[I rip the //Super Mario Bros.// cartridge out of my top-loading NES.](stop:)] (live:12s)[(replace:?slot5Reveal)[Mario fades into an assortment of tiles pulled from another cartridge: //Tennis//. RESET.](stop:)] (live:15s)[(replace:?slot6Reveal)[When I hit [[START]], the same jingle I’ve heard hundreds of times plays.](track:'theme','fadein',2)(track:'theme','loop',true)(stop:)] ]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-11.gif" alt="">

(t8n:"dissolve")[Anna Anthropy’s //Queers in Love at the End of the World//<a class="ext" href="https://w.itch.io/end-of-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> depicts the last moments shared between two lovers at, as the title suggests, the [end of the world]<world|.] (click:?world)+(t8n:"dissolve")[We open at the conclusion://In the end, like you always said, it's just the two of you together. You have ten seconds, but there's so [much you want to do]<do|.//](click:?do)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Act, or miss your chance: //[kiss her, hold her, take her hand, tell her]<kiss|.//](click:?kiss)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Whether the lovers find shelter in each other’s arms, comfort themselves with dark jokes, or desperately fuck, the ending is [always the same]<same|.] (click:?same)+(t8n:"dissolve")[When time runs out the branches collapse into a [[single line:|kiss her, hold her, take her hand, tell her]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03-1.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Circuit-Bending-Living-Instruments.jpg" width=614 height=823> Reed Ghazala didn’t so much as invent circuit bending as provide an [incitement]<incitement|]. (click:?incitement)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Evangalized through his books<a class="ext" href="https://archive.org/details/CircuitBendingBuildYourOwnAlienInstruments/mode/2up" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> and regular segments in //Experimental Musical Instruments// beginning in 1992,<a class="ext" href="https://archive.org/details/emi_archive/EMI_8_1_September1992/page/22/mode/2up" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> the practice slowly spilled into hobbyists, noise musicians, and tinkerers, turning crossed wires into methods for new [[unanticipated sounds]].] <hr class="clear">] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Background5.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[While I play with the controller, they play the console, using wires to connect pins on the NES’s [Picture Processing Unit]<PPU|. (click:?PPU)+(t8n:"dissolve")[This introduces noise into the system, but the PPU still [interprets the errant electrical signals]<electrical|.] (click:?electrical)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Inputs are intercepted, altered, and a new, unexpected output results. This process is called //[[circuit-bending|circuit bending]].//]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Experimental musician Reed Ghazala coined the term //circuit-bending//<a class="ext" href="http://www.anti-theory.com/texts/lmj/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> after a childhood spent pulling apart electronics and turning them into strange new instruments by soldering points on [circuit boards]<circuit|]. (click:?circuit)+(t8n:"dissolve")[In the 1990s, Gazala wrote a long-running column<a class="ext" href="https://archive.org/details/emi_archive/EMI_8_1_September1992/page/22/mode/2up" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> in the magazine //Experimental Musical Instruments// describing his circuit-bent creations. He called them [[living instruments]].]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[PB explores the circuit board, her hands make new connections with [unpredictable outcomes]<outcomes|.] (click:?outcomes)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The sixes return, flickering for a moment. And then are [gone]<gone|. (click:?gone)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Tiny dragons appear in the corner. And those are [gone too]<gonetoo|. (click:?gonetoo)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Every now and then the NES freezes up, unable to comprehend the [[hacked input->chance music]].]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Ghazala called the sounds of a BEASape //aleatory music//<a class="ext" href="https://archive.org/details/CircuitBendingBuildYourOwnAlienInstruments/page/n55/mode/2up" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>—[chance music]<music|.] (click:?music)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Our play too is [aleatic]<aleatic|.] (click:?aleatic)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The play scholar Roger Caillois, writing in 1958<a class="ext" href="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Man-Play-and-Games-Chapter-2-Roger-Caillois.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>, labels //alea// as one of four basic categories of games. For Caillois alea is //a negation of the will, a [surrender to destiny]<destiny|.//] (click:?destiny)+(t8n:"dissolve")[But we are not just rolling dice, leaving everything to chance. We tinker with intention. Searching the circuit board until we find an effect that stops us in place for just a [[just a moment, together->just a moment]].]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03.gif" alt="">

[(live:0s)[(t8n: "dissolve")[PB leaves the next day.](stop:)] (live: 1.75s)[(t8n: "dissolve")[I drive them to the airport, and she crosses borders that have become increasingly dangerous.](stop:)] (live: 3.5s)[(t8n: "dissolve")[Then she is gone and I miss her dearly.](stop:)] (live:5.5s)[(t8n: "dissolve")[But, for a few hours, we are BEAsapes—connected through circuits of play.](stop:)] (live:7s)[(t8n: "dissolve")[[[RESET|Intro2]]](stop:)]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/BugBoy.jpg" width=496px height=819px>In 1986, a magazine circulated in Japan called //FC Bug Boy Special: Super Mario 256W//,<a class="ext" href="https://archive.org/details/bugboy-special-guide-mario-256w-800dpi-ozidual/Bugboy%20Special%20Guide%20Mario%20256w%20%28J%20OCR%29/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> which cataloged mysterious //Super Mario// levels called the [//256-Worlds//]<256-World|. (click:?256-World)+(t8n:"dissolve")[These levels were discovered early in the NES's life. Shortly after its launch, players learned that if they swapped a //Mario// cartridge with //Tennis// and then back again, //Mario// would interpret deprecated data in RAM as [level data]<data|. (click:?data)+(t8n:"dissolve")[What appeared were levels no one had designed, far [[past 8-4->256-Worlds]].]]]]<hr class="clear"> <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-08.gif" alt=""><hr class="clear">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/T-1Intro.jpg" width=562px height=285px>Almost 20 years later, in 2005, a group of friends meet in Sendai, Japan to explore the //256-Worlds// they learned about in the magazine [years before]<before|. (click:?before)+(t8n:"dissolve")[They come equipped with a Pro Action Rocky modification device to replicate the// hot swap//, prepared to explore the depths of one mysterious level: the //[[T-World]]//.]]]<hr class="clear"> <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-08.gif" alt=""><hr class="clear">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Beyond the tunnel, the level unfolds into a gaping chasm, floating platforms, and an [endless abyss]<abyss|. (click:?abyss)[(track:'theme','fadeout',2)(track:'theme','loop',true)[<video class="video js-volume" style="border-radius:15px" class="video" autoplay src="https://videos.files.wordpress.com/8xlk0XEx/fire-night.mp4" class="video js-volume" width=768px height=432px></video>](change:?RedScreen,(background:"solid")+(background:black)) |slot1Reveal>[] |slot2Reveal>[] (live: 3s)[(replace:?slot1Reveal)[Hovering over the pit, they pick up a fire flower, and the world turns to the black of night.](stop:)] (live:6s)[(replace:?slot2Reveal)[They call this //The Fire Night//. One player recounts the experience on his personal blog://Even though it was a product of chance, the appearance of such a world is [[nothing short of miraculous]].//<a class="ext" href="http://www.max.hi-ho.ne.jp/hikaru/KG/kg8.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>](track:'theme','fadein',2)(track:'theme','loop',true)(stop:)]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-08.gif" alt=""><hr class="clear">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[I remain at the pipe, throwing Mario’s body at it over and over. I’ve arrived at the T-World, but I am stuck with [nowhere to go]<nowhere|.] (click:"nowhere")+(t8n:"dissolve")[Piles of boxes [surround me]<boxes|.] (click:"boxes")+(t8n:"dissolve")[I [power off the console]<console| and turn my attention to packing up my life to move across the country, out of Florida and its hostile environments—ecological and, more pressingly, political.] (click:"console")+(t8n:"dissolve")[For now, I think about what it means to be stuck, pressing against a wall that refuses to give way, urging me to find other ways of moving. [[RESET|Intro2]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-08.gif" alt=""><hr class="clear">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side"" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_1555.jpg" width=562px height=454px> I deploy yet another method of accessing the T-World by entering a string of codes in my Game Genie to modify the [level pointer manually]<level|.] (click:?level)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The level begins in a tunnel of clouds, but after a short time I can go [no further...]<further| (click:?further)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Frustratingly, Mario’s progress is blocked by an [impassable pipe]<pipe|.] (click:?pipe)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Unlike me, the Sendai explorers were [[prepared for this]].]]]<hr class="clear"> <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-08.gif" alt=""><hr class="clear">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Using a turbo controller they perform a //[wall clip]<clip|//.] (click:?clip)[(track:'theme','fadeout',2)(track:'theme','loop',true)[<video class="video js-volume" style="border-radius:15px" class="video" autoplay src="https://videos.files.wordpress.com/Gl4kWUw8/t-wallclip.mp4" data-volume=".55"width=768px height=432px></video>](change:?RedScreen,(background:"solid")+(background:black)) |slot1Reveal>[] (live: 4s)[(replace:?slot1Reveal)[Slipping through the pipe they investigate the [[hidden reaches of the T-World]].(track:'theme','fadein',2)(track:'theme','loop',true)](stop:)]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-08.gif" alt=""><hr class="clear">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Decades earlier, Italian futurist Luigi Russolo called for more than a bend, [but a major break]<break|.] (click:?break)+(t8n:"dissolve")[In his 1913 manifesto //The Art of Noise//,<a class="ext" href="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Russolo_Luigi_The_Art_of_Noises.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> he urged musicians to: //abandon the restrictive circle of pure sounds// and embrace //the infinite variety of noise-sounds// found in [machines and modern life]<life|.] (click:?life)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Russolo writes: //Noise accompanies every manifestation of our life... Noise has the power to bring us [back to life]<back|//.](click:?back)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Russolo’s demands echoed forward as one of many frustrations in the limits not just of art, but of the [[possibilities for life->back to life]].]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Background5.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Ivor Darreg pioneered electronic musical experimentation in the 1960s, less enamored with city soundscapes but equally restless with the [limits of scales and traditional instruments]<instruments|. (click:?instruments)+(t8n:"dissolve")[In a 1963 newsletter titled //Exciting "Breakthroughs" in Electronic Music,//<a class="ext" href="http://www.tonalsoft.com/sonic-arts/darreg/specbul2.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> Darreg spelled out his [irritations:]<irritations|](click:?irritations)+(t8n:"dissolve")[//Almost everyone in the musical world seems to ignore very carefully the facts that: 1) what a composer writes is largely determined by the instruments he plays and the instruments he is allowed to hear; 2) a composer will avoid writing certain passages, because of the ordinary musical notation, which makes certain things easy to write and others, just as good, difficult or [[impossible to write]].//]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Background5.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Darreg invented new musical notations and championed what he called //xenharmonics//—tuning systems that rejected the rigidity of twelve-tone scales in favor of microtonal divisions. But notation alone was [not enough]<enough|. (click:?enough)+(t8n:"dissolve")[New sounds require new instruments.<a class="ext" href="https://www.furious.com/perfect/xenharmonics.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> In the 1930s, Darreg built computer synthesizers long before their mainstream adoption, as well as a library of hand-crafted [experimental instruments]<instruments|. (click:?instruments)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Informing Darreg’s process was the recognition that a perfectly clean note lacks character. He writes: Without noise, music is //[[dead|dead.]].//]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Background5.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Even when digital tools made perfection possible, Darreg [warned:]<warned|](click:?warned)+(t8n:"dissolve")[//Instrument-makers and the computer musicians have to put some ‘dirt’ in it. Vibrato, celeste effect, random deviations, reverberation, other gimmicks. Just think of it: once a perfect tuning of the 12-tone system is attained, we shrink from the consequences. [We imitate the imperfections of ordinary instruments]<ordinary|.//<a class="ext" href="https://www.furious.com/perfect/xenharmonics.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>(click:?ordinary)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Noise is never aberration, excess, or background. The idiosyncratic, the imperfect, the fleeting glitch—this is what brings [[music to life->animated music]].]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Background5.gif" alt="">

(t8n:"dissolve")[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Transisters-Lament.jpg" width=573px height=752px>In 1993, a year before his passing, Darreg wrote a series of letters to //Experimental Musical Instruments.//<a class="ext" href="https://archive.org/details/emi_archive/EMI_9_2_December1993/page/2/mode/2up" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> The letters appeared under the title: //[The Transister’s Lament for Her Long-Lost Transbrother]<lament|.//] (click:?lament)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I arrived at the archive searching for Reed Ghazala—following the wires of circuit-bending back [through the magazine’s issues]<issues|.] (click:?issues)+(t8n:"dissolve")[But the title [[short-circuits that path|short-circuits that path.]].] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Background5.gif" alt="">

[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Transisters-Lament.jpg" width=573px height=752px>(t8n:"dissolve")[Darreg wrote in these letters about the difficulties capturing his music—of preserving instruments that only he knew how to [play and maintain]<play|.] (click:?play)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Their fragile bodies designed to slip out of tune mid-performance, to sound slightly different every time they are [played]<played|.] (click:?played)+(t8n:"dissolve")[He ends with a plea://Must I go down in permanent silence? [[Or do I ever get heard?]]//]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Background5.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[The launch of the //radical video game enhancer// in the US was mired in [legal disputes]<disputes|.] (click:?disputes)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The US distributor of the Game Genie, Canadian company Galoob, preemptively sued Nintendo in 1990, who then countered with [their own lawsuit]<lawsuit|.] (click:?lawsuit)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Nintendo claimed the Game Genie was a //derivative work,// an illegal imitation that violated their copyright. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Diego [[disagreed|disagreed.]].]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-10.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[But Nintendo attacked the Game Genie's legality in [other ways]<other|.] (click:?other)+(t8n:"dissolve")[They argued that the device eroded what they called [//Nintendo Culture//]<culture|.] (click:?culture)+(t8n:"dissolve")[This was Nintendo's term for their marketing strategy aimed at cultivating reverence for their [perfectly crafted games]<crafted|.] (click:?crafted)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The court was not swayed. The official ruling scathingly characterized Nintendo's [arguments:]<arguments|](click:?arguments)+(t8n:"dissolve")[//This culture, the apex of Nintendo's marketing strategy, is a mind-set intentionally created by Nintendo in its consumers. Like most cults, fads or addictions, it thrives when fueled by constant peer pressure. Nintendo fears that, by allowing users to change the rules of Nintendo games, the Game Genie will upset the inculturation process that Nintendo has designed into its products, thereby lessening the value of membership in [[the culture]] and reducing product loyalty.//]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-10.gif" alt="

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Nintendo’s intentions were [transparent:]<transparent|] (click:?transparent)+(t8n:"dissolve")[To protect their role as arbiters of //real video games// and maintain the fiction that their games are [stable, fixed, beyond alteration]<stable|.] (click:?stable)+(t8n:"dissolve")[In a surprisingly poetic passage, drawing on other legal precedents, the court reminded Nintendo://While good board games may never die, [good video games are mortal]<mortal|.//](click:?mortal)+(t8n:"dissolve")[But it is not just //good video games// that are mortal—all technologies are. [[Circuit boards and bodies alike.]]] ] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-10.gif" alt="

[(t8n:"dissolve")[A key component of Nintendo Culture's //inculturation//, famously, was marketing their games to young [boys]<boys|.] (click:?boys)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The very same //video game dudes// that Galoob knew they had to appeal to as Nintendo's [core audience]<audience|.] (click:?audience)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Nintendo did more than simply court a demographic, they helped //create boys// in cultural imaginaries: Game boys and video game dudes were someone who [[played with power, knew all the games, and saved the girl.]]] ] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-10.gif" alt="

[(t8n:"dissolve")[What is really striking from //Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc.// is Nintendo's frank acknowledgment of the cultural [power of hacking]<hacking|.] (click:?hacking)+(t8n:"dissolve")[They understood the ways that fictions of fixed code and predictable outputs uphold [cultural systems]<culture|.] (click:?culture)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The glitch becomes dangerous as it reveals that everything is [up for grabs]<grabs|.] (click:?grabs)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Afterall, not everyone hailed by [[Nintendo Culture]] became a boy. ]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-10.gif" alt="

[(t8n:"dissolve")[The Game Genie’s conjured worlds vanish when the power cuts,] (live: 2s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[but so too do all worlds that pretend to be fixed.](stop:) (live: 3s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Codebases, circuitry, bodies—each glitching, provisional, alive for a moment, then gone.](stop:)(live: 4s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//Every good video game is mortal.//](stop:)(live: 4.5s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[[[RESET|Intro2]](stop:)]]]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-10.gif" alt="

[(t8n:"dissolve")[When it’s clear I won’t be getting up any time soon, the nurse muscles my ragdoll body into a [sitting position]<sitting|. (click:?sitting)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I slump over and thank her by retching into her chest. I hadn’t eaten anything all day, so I ineffectually convulse for minutes. [[I feel pathetic]].]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-09.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[He notes exactly where he will make his [incision]<incision|.] (click:?incision)+(t8n:"dissolve")[How he will insert his tools under [my skin]<skin|.] (click:?skin)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Where he will shave millimeters off [my bones]<bones|.] (click:?bones)+(t8n:"dissolve")[He assures me these small changes will go a long way helping me look (text-style:"shudder")[//female//]<female|.] (click:?female)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I bite my tongue. I don’t think it is a good idea to [[lecture]] the person who will be cutting my face open later.]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-09.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[A week later, I find myself lecturing in front of a classroom, [deep blue bruises ring my eyes]<eyes|.] (click:?eyes)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The day's lesson is on [circuit-bending]<bending|.] (click:?bending)+(t8n:"dissolve")[We discuss how we might rethink the [bounds of technology...]<tech|] (click:?tech)+(t8n:"dissolve")[how we might hack videogames and [cultural systems]<systems| alike...] (click:?systems)+(t8n:"dissolve")[...and I demonstrate how my students can make nearly imperceptible changes to circuit boards to [[alter outputs]].]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-09.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Students break into small groups, each with their own CRT television, alligator clips, batteries, and disemboweled NES—the carapace pulled away to [reveal the circuitry]<circuitry|.] (click:?circuitry)+(t8n:"dissolve")[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Circuitry.jpg" width=605px height=396px>[They take turns [connecting pins]<pins| on microchips.] (click:?pins)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Other students watch, sporadically erupting in excitement, while annotating a [diagram of the circuit board...]<board|] (click:?board)+(t8n:"dissolve")[scrawling [lines and circles]<lines| across its body.] (click:?lines)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Over time, they become adept at manipulating the board, understanding which pins affect outputs, what areas crash the game, what chip changes visuals or music or [[game states]].]]]<hr class="clear"> <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-09.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[My head [aches]<aches|. (click:?aches)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I float around, helping students troubleshoot problems and witness their successes when they stumble across [beautiful errors]<beautiful|.] (click:?beautiful)[(track:'theme','fadeout',.5)(track:'theme','loop',true)Then a [POP...]<pop|] (click:?pop)[|slot1Reveal>[] |slot2Reveal>[] |slot3Reveal>[] |slot4Reveal>[] (live: 1s)[(replace:?slot1Reveal)[Gasps...](stop:)] (live: 2.5s)[(replace:?slot2Reveal)[...the faint smell of smoke...](stop:)] (live: 4s)[(replace:?slot3Reveal)[...the room goes quiet...](stop:)] (live: 5.5s)[(replace:?slot4Reveal)[(track:'theme','fadein',2)(track:'theme','loop',true)...everyone turns to see [[what happened->faint smell of smoke]].](stop:)]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-09.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side medium" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_9984-rotated.jpg" width=454px height=605px>One of the boards gives out, a capacitor burned, but the screen lingers, a solid wall of beautiful blue blocks [frozen in time]<frozen|. (click:?frozen)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I’m frozen too, staring at the screen. Exhausted. But I appreciate this moment of [pause]<pause|.] (click:?pause)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Maybe this is what it means to keep playing: Not to move forward, but to linger in the glitch, to stay with it a little longer, to appreciate the momentary reprieve of clock cycles and [preprogrammed logics]<logics|.] (click:?logics)+(t8n:"dissolve")[To pause before we inevitably [[RESET|Intro2]] again.<hr class="clear">]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-09.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[I play //Tennis// for a few minutes. The tiny player tosses a ball in the air and launches it [over the net]<net|.] (click:?net)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I’m not really paying attention to the game though. I randomly press buttons for a few minutes as the player [runs around erratically]<runs|.] (click:?runs)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I’m sitting on the floor again. This time in Lexington, Kentucky. I’ve yet to [unpack]<unpack| most of my belongings.] (click:?unpack)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I feel unmoored, transient, [uncertain]<uncertain|.] (click:?uncertain)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I’m again exploring the //256-Worlds,// but with [less precision]<precision| than before.] (click:?precision)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I’m using the hot-swap method that first [revealed]<revealed| the alien worlds to Mario players nearly 40 years ago.] (click:?revealed)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I swap the cartridges again. This time in [[reverse|KERCHUNK. KERCHUNK.]].]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-11.gif" alt="">

[[(t8n:"dissolve")[KERCHUNK]<reverse|.](click:?reverse)[(if: $reverseStarted is not true)[(set: $reverseStarted to true)(track:'theme','fadeout',2)(track:'theme','loop',true) [<video class="video js-volume" style="border-radius:15px" class="video" autoplay src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/sequence-12-1-mp4/" data-volume=".55" width=768px height=432px>](change:?RedScreen,(background:"solid")+(background:black)) |slot1Reveal>[] |slot2Reveal>[] |slot3Reveal>[] |slot4Reveal>[] |slot5Reveal>[] (live: 2.5s)[(replace:?slot1Reveal)[The court morphs into a distorted amalgamation of the Mushroom Kingdom.](stop:)] (live: 7s)[(replace:?slot2Reveal)[Pressing A and START continues the game, but the system's RAM is full of junk data from //Tennis.// ](stop:)] (live: 9.25s)[(replace:?slot3Reveal)[I load into level Brick-1, which is seemingly level 1-1 with the underwater tile data and theme.](stop:)] (live: 16s)[(replace:?slot4Reveal)[I'm relieved to find this unique level. The past ten tries sent me to a version of World 2-1 that infinitely [[loops]].(track:'theme','fadein',2)(track:'theme','loop',true)](stop:)]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-11.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/digital-tv-dinner.png" width=559 height=411>]Jamie Fenton’s //Digital TV Dinner//<a class="ext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad9zdlaRvdM" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> made in collaboration with Raul Zaritzky and Dick Ainsworth in 1977 is comprised of cascading patterns of blocks and lines, [mazes of visual memory]<memory|.] (click:?memory)+(t8n:"dissolve")[These effects were made by ejecting cartridges as the system reset, causing unpredictable dumps of information to be [rendered on the screen]<screen|.] (click:?screen)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Whit Pow<a class="ext" href="https://www.whitneypow.com/articles/trans-historiography-of-glitches-and-errors" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> describes the piece as a //[trans media historiography:]<history|//](click:?history)+(t8n:"dissolve")[//It is a record of what-ifs, of outsides, of possibilities beyond the scope of what could be coded and anticipated. This glitch art piece is both a record of the failure of software and a record of trans history, [[labor, and embodiment|what could not be captured by the computational system]], and what could not be captured by the computational system.//] ] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-11.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Pow's description of Fenton's //trans labor and embodiement// [strikes me]<strike|.] (click:?strike)+(t8n:"dissolve")[They call Fenton's methods a [//patient dismantaling//]<dismantle|.] (click:?dismantle)+(t8n:"dissolve")[In a video made in 2018 titled //Primordial Glitch Art//<a class="ext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMhqFtkDk9s" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> Fenton demonstrates [her process]<process|.] (click:?process)[[KERCHUNK]<Chunk|.] (click:?Chunk)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Fenton lodges the //Blackjack// cartridge [into the Astrocade]<astrocade|.] (click:?astrocade)+(t8n:"dissolve")[[RESET]<RESET|.] (click:?RESET)+(t8n:"dissolve")[After re-launching the game, with another clanking KERCHUNK she deftly hits [RESET and EJECT]<eject|.] (click:?eject)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The screen is briefly striped with [blue and white lines]<blue|.] (click:?blue)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Fenton acknowledges the effect, but gets right back to it, expertly hammering away—[cycling through possibilities]<possibilities|.] (click:?possibilities)+(t8n:"dissolve")[//Let's do a few more of these,// she remarks. [KERCHUNK.]<Chunk2|] (click:?Chunk2)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I, like Pow, am moved by the steady rythm, the intentional physicality, the [dogged persistence...]<persistence|] (click:?persistence)+(t8n:"dissolve")[but also the short moments of pause that punctuate the [[hopeful search|KERCHUNK]].]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-11.gif" alt="">

(t8n:"dissolve")[Tennis again [fades]<fades| into Mario. (click:?fades)+(t8n:"dissolve")[[START+A]<go|.] (click:?go)+(t8n:"dissolve")[A different World, this time represented as [//COIN-1//]<Brick|.] (click:?Brick)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Mario [appears]<appears| in what I recognize as a subterranean bonus room, normally accessible by going down a pipe in World 1-1. This area is also flooded, the underwater theme meshing with the underground landscape.(click:?appears)[(if: $appearsStarted is not true)[(set: $appearsStarted to true)(track:'theme','fadeout',2)(track:'theme','loop',true) [<video class="video js-volume" style="border-radius:15px" class="video" autoplay src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/fishy-mp4/" data-volume=".55" width=768px height=432px></video>](change:?RedScreen,(background:"solid")+(background:black)) |slot1Reveal>[] |slot2Reveal>[] |slot3Reveal>[] (live: 2s)[(replace:?slot1Reveal)[I make Mario swim, collecting coins while a single fish swims towards me.](stop:)] (live: 8s)[(replace:?slot2Reveal)[But exiting the pipe leads to a loop. I'm right back where I started.](stop:)] (live: 18s)[(replace:?slot3Reveal)[I eventually set the controller down, watching in silence as the fish swims across the screen and slowly the [[clock ticks down]].](track:'theme','fadein',2)(track:'theme','loop',true)(stop:)]]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-11.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[I hadn’t known what I was [searching for]<searching|.] (click:?searching)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Yet, amidst the repeated motions of my hands on the console, boxes around rooms, and life across the country, I’m grateful to find this quiet [secret alcove]<alcove|.] (click:?alcove)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Underwater, I find a moment to breathe, to resurface, and try again—settling into new rhythms that might open [secret worlds]<worlds|.] (click:?worlds)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Still, I remember that what I find in the glitch is not just my own. Its rhythms are [shared]<shared|.] (click:?shared)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Each repetitive cycle a small part of a larger [patient dismantling]<dismantle|.] (click:?dismantle)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Hammer, breathe—KERCHUNK—keeping time with bodies slightly [out of sync]<loop|. (click:?loop)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Repeating engrained actions, hoping to find something new [the next time around. [[RESET|Intro2]]]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-11.gif" alt=""1

(newtrack: 'theme', 'https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/The-Wall-Swimmers_D2.mp3') (track: 'theme', 'loop', true) (track: 'theme', 'playwhenpossible') (masteraudio: 'volume', .3)

[(t8n:"dissolve")[<img class="center" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/updatedchair.png" width=908px height=544px>] ***Transister's Lament//RESET*** A Meditation on Glitch and Trans Life [[START|Untitled Passage]] By Madison Schmalzer (text-size: .7)[CONTENT NOTE: Contains flashing lights, references to surgery, illness, and loss] ]<img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Sequence-04.gif" alt="">

(enchant:?Link, (t8n-depart:"instant") + (t8n-arrive:"instant")) (unless: (track: 'theme', 'isplaying'))[ (track: 'theme', 'loop', true) (track: 'theme', 'play') (masteraudio: 'volume', .3) ]

[(t8n:"dissolve")[However, the Game Genie intercepts the communication between cartridge and console, interpreting the inputted code as an address in the game’s [ROM]<ROM|. (click:?ROM)+(t8n:"dissolve")[When that address is called, the Game Genie replaces the data with its own input, temporarily [patching the game in real time]<realtime|. (click:?realtime)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The first level loads, but Mario isn’t the recognizable, squat [plumber in red overalls]<plumber|.] (click: ?plumber)+(t8n:"dissolve")[He wears armor and fills the screen with [deadly hammers]<hammers|.] (click:?hammers)+(t8n:"dissolve")[//Super Mario Bros. 3//, for a moment, becomes [[something else|something else.]].]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/BackgroundOrange.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[The manual [reads]<reads|:(click:?reads)+(t8n:"dissolve")[//You may have to try many random codes before you get an interesting effect.// //Your success in code programming will depend a lot on luck.// //[[Keep trying!]]//]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/BackgroundOrange.gif" alt="">

(t8n:"dissolve")[Sometimes we find something [fantastic]<fantastic|.(click:?fantastic)[(if: $fantasticStarted is not true)[(set: $fantasticStarted to true)(track:'theme','fadeout',2)(track:'theme','loop',true) [<video class="video js-volume" style="border-radius:15px" class="video" autoplay src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/redscreen2-mp4/" data-volume=".55" width=768px height=432px></video>](change:?RedScreen,(background:"solid")+(background:black)) |slot1Reveal>[] |slot2Reveal>[] (live: 11s)[(replace:?slot1Reveal)[[We gasp and point at the screen. But excitement gives way to reverence as we realize we may be the only ones to ever see these strange worlds.]](stop:)] (live:20s)[(replace:?slot2Reveal)[[And when the game crashes, we press [[RESET|Intro2]]. Wiping it away forever.(track:'theme','fadein',2)(track:'theme','loop',true)]](stop:)]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/BackgroundOrange.gif" alt="">

[(track: 'theme', 'fadein', 2)(track: 'theme', 'loop', true)(t8n:"dissolve")[The kaleidoscopic effects are flickering—there for a moment, [difficult to hang on to]<hangon|. (click:?hangon)+(t8n:"dissolve")[We play in this shifting breakdown until the unholy numerology [crashes the game]<crash|. (click:?crash)+(t8n:"dissolve")[PB looks up from the circuit board, wires in hand, and they hit [[the RESET button->crashes the game.]].]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[His living instruments were animated by a player’s body completing circuits, integrating themself [into the system]<system|. (click:?system)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Through this amalgamation, Ghazala claimed, a new being is brought forth: the //[Bio-Electronic Audiosapien]<BEAsape|.//<a class="ext" href="https://archive.org/details/CircuitBendingBuildYourOwnAlienInstruments/page/n49/mode/2up" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> (click:?BEAsape)+(t8n:"dissolve")[But this life is fleeting. in Ghazala's words: //The BEAsape’s material is temporary, [its existence momentary]<momentary|.//](click:?momentary)+(t8n:"dissolve")[//[Like you and me.]<you|//](click:?you)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The NES blinks back to life and we [[continue playing]].]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Earlier that morning my surgeon displayed my face on a huge [flatscreen]<flatscreen|. (click:?flatscreen)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I look up at myself staring blankly [back]<back|. (click:?back)+(t8n:"dissolve")[With a swipe on his tablet, he zooms in on my brow, scrawling circles and lines across my face, [[dissecting me]] like a football analyst recapping a lineman’s game-winning block.]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-09.gif" alt="">

(t8n:"dissolve")[//This is a collection of fragments—games and glitches, circuits and bodies, moments that flicker and fade.// //You can start anywhere.// //Each title below is a cartridge, a code, a crack in the system. Load one, and see what appears.// (t8n:"dissolve")[ <div class="image-row"> [[<img id="Incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Incantations2.png" class="linkimg" width=30% height=30%>|Incantations]][[<img id="BEAscapes" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/BEASCAPEcart2.png" class="linkimg" width=30% height=30%>|BEAsapes]][[<img id="TheTWorld" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/T-World2.png" class="linkimg" width="100%" height="100%">|The T-World]][[<img id="TransistersLament" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TRANSISTERSLAMENT2.png" class="linkimg" width="371.5" height="408.5">|Transister’s Lament]] </div> <div class="image-row"> [[<img id="MortalGames" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MortalGames2.png" class="linkimg"width="371.5" height="408.5">|Mortal Games]][[<img id="BlueBlocks" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Blueblocks2.png" class="linkimg" width="371.5" height="408.5">|Blue Blocks]][[<img id="SecretAlcoves" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/SecretAlcoves2.png" class="linkimg" width="371.5" height="408.5">|Secret Alcoves]][[<img id="Afterword1" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Afterword2.png" class="linkimg"width="371.5" height="408.5">|Afterword]] </div>]</div>Press [[RESET|Intro2]] to return here. Read [[Artist Statement and Acknowledgements|Citations]] here. Outside links to contextual information can be found by clicking the "*".] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Sequence-03_1.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[To qualify as derivative requires a separate physical form: a //transferable copy of the work.//<a class="ext" href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14167398686354689030&hl=en&as_sdt=2&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> In legal terminology, to claim copyright something needs to be [//fixed//]<fixed|.] (click:?fixed)+(t8n:"dissolve")[But the Game Genie’s alterations vanish the moment the system is [powered off]<powered|.] (click:?powered)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The court concluded that //no independent, fixed work is created.// Game Genie's conjured worlds are fleeting, unable to be pinned down to claim [[legal ownership over]].]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-10.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/GameGenieAd2.png" width=562px height=430px>]The video game dudes play so hard they [blow their television up...]<up|] (click:?up)+(t8n:"dissolve")[leaving us with a parting: [//Excellent!!!//]<excellent2|] (click:?excellent2)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The ad concludes with a voiceover that lists the amazing things the Game Genie [can help you do:]<do|](click:?do)[(if: $doStarted is not true)[(set: $doStarted to true)|slot1Reveal>[] |slot2Reveal>[] |slot3Reveal>[] |slot4Reveal>[] (live: .5s)[(replace:?slot1Reveal)[[//go to any level,//]](stop:)] (live: 2s)[(replace:?slot2Reveal)[[//jump higher,//]](stop:)] (live: 3.5s)[(replace:?slot3Reveal)[[//stay bigger,//]](stop:)] (live: 5s)[(replace:?slot4Reveal)[[//[[live forever|their own lawsuit]].//]](stop:)] ]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-10.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Another 20 years later, in 2025, I sit on the floor of my apartment in Sarasota, Florida under the glow of a [CRT TV]<CRT|.] (click:?CRT)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The documentary work of speedrunner and videogame historian GlitchCat7<a class="ext" href="https://glitchcat7.com/the-complete-history-of-kaizo-mario/?srsltid=AfmBOooQFtx9DEXmlr5VKGe0Bv7NDcORSrrRYN_--q5JSyq9NLqEpt-S/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> led me to these same exploits, and [[I too am intrigued|I too am intrigued.]].]]<hr class="clear"> <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-08.gif" alt=""><hr class="clear">

<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Transisters-Lament.jpg" width=573px height=752px>(t8n:"dissolve")[It is by chance that I find myself here, and, like a glitch, the title's pun resists easy [decoding]<decode| for me. ] (click:?decode)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I find myself circling it, returning to Darreg's writing: not for what it reveals, but for what it withholds—an echo of trans that lingers without explanation, a signal of [kinship and loss]<kinship| flickering across the archive.] (click:?kinship)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The words feel like a misconnection—static-filled, but alive, insisting the archive itself is [[a glitching body]].] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Background5.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[This short collection is a primer and provocation for one approach at doing trans media history that centers breakdown.] (live: 1s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Trans media history is not merely a collection of dates, games, and important figures. It is a kind of play in and of itself—assembling anecdotes, tracing associative connections, and chronicling embodied moments that don't tell a complete story, but resonate with trans ways of living and being.We are adept at re-membering ourselves, of allowing pasts to change to open futures. Imaginaries of history as stable and authoritative foreclose the ephemeral, everyday glitch's ability to crash and reset the system. Reveling in the porousness of technoculture allows us to make our own ways of playing in the remnants of the past.](stop:)](live: 2s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Thank you for reading. Keep fucking with games, circuits, and bodies <3 A huge thank you to the amazing people that have made the //TGZ// possible including the folks at Soft Chaos, Ari and Teddy, and all of the other insightful, rad people this piece has the privelage of being displayed alongside. All the love to those who graciously and enthusiastically lent your ear to my ramblings, especially PB, and Bethany, and folks in my writing group.Music is //The Wall Swimmers// by Kevin Cooley. Find his music, art, writing, and other cool things at: (link:"https://cooleycreates.com")[(goto-url:)'https://cooleycreates.com')]. [[RESET|Intro2]]] (stop:)]]<img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Sequence-03_1.gif" alt="">

[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Transisters-Lament.jpg" width=573px height=752px>(t8n:"dissolve")[How do we hold on to glitch? How might we create ourselves while still being open to change? And how do we preserve the noise that brings us to life—knowing it was [never meant to be preserved]<preserved|?] (click:?preserved)+(t8n:"dissolve")[I'm not entirely sure the answer to these questions. But, even though I come to his writing by chance, I find a trans resonance in Darreg's commitment to playing in the breakdown and [[indexing the unindexible]].]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Background5.gif" alt="">

(t8n:"dissolve")[[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Queers-in-love.png" width=634px height=575px>]//[Everything is wiped away]<away|.//](click:?away)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Below, two exits appear: //[Afterword Restart]<afterword|//(click:?afterword)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Restarting the loop offers a ritual. The Afterword offers a [[reflection]].]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03-1.gif" alt="">

(t8n:"dissolve")[[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Afterword2-1.png" width=508px height=686px>]The Afterword's white words seemingly spray painted on a black background read://[WHEN WE HAVE EACH OTHER WE HAVE EVERYTHING]<everything|//](click:?everything)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The cascading apocalypse cannot be stopped, but there is still comfort to be found in one another. We can [share these precious, fleeting moments]<moments|.] (click:?moments)+(t8n:"dissolve")[There is more to this passage. At the bottom a link reads://[[Inspired by an image I found on tumblr.]]//] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03-1.gif" alt="">

(t8n:"dissolve")[[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Whenwehaveeachother2.png" width=652px height=659px>][The Afterword points to a tumblr post on a blog titled [//Barely Real//.] The post once showed the image of a door with the same words painted on it:<a class="ext" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190403212012/http://barelyreal.tumblr.com/post/6479482747/when-we-have-each-other-we-have-everything" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>[WHEN WE HAVE EACH OTHER WE HAVE EVERYTHING]<everything|](click:?everything)+(t8n:"dissolve")[But when I click the link now, the same URL sends me [[somewhere else entirely]].]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03-1.gif" alt="">

(t8n:"dissolve")[[Well, not somewhere else per se. It is still the same URL and still a tumblr blog called //Barely Real//,<a class="ext" href="https://www.tumblr.com/barelyreal" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> but there is no longer a door. There is a [different image]<image|:] (click:?image)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Lying on their back in a bed of pillows, they gaze up at the [camera]<camera|.] (click:?camera)+(t8n:"dissolve")[They wear a black dog collar and their long brown hair drapes messily over [bare shoulders]<shoulders|.] (click:?shoulders)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Their tongue hangs out of their mouth, and the word //SLUT// is [written]<written| across their forehead in marker.] (click:?written)+(t8n:"dissolve")[A new user adopted an abandoned user name. The link may be the same, but it [no longer connects]<connects| to the same history.] (click:?connects)+(t8n:"dissolve")[[[Links rot; meaning drifts.|[Links rot; meaning drifts.]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03-1.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[This isn’t a bug at the margins—this is ordinary [media death]<death|.] (click:?death)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Garnet Hertz & Jussi Parikka<a class="ext" href="https://direct.mit.edu/leon/article-abstract/45/5/424/45503/Zombie-Media-Circuit-Bending-Media-Archaeology?redirectedFrom=fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a> call practices like circuit-bending //[zombie media]<zombie|//: out-of-use things resurrected for new contexts—ecological care through extending technology's lifespan, art through DIY hacker methods.] (click:?zombie)+(t8n:"dissolve")[It’s a compelling image. But zombies suggest [immortality]<immortality|.] (click:?immortality)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Media doesn’t live forever; it dies often. And goes on to live any number of [[afterlives]].]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03-1.gif" alt="">

[(t8n:"dissolve")[Afterlife is a [practice]<practice|.] (click:?practice)+(t8n:"dissolve")[We cannot save media from death, but we play within its breakdowns—document, reinterpret, miswire, rehost, footnote, glitch, relink, and [share histories]<histories|.] (click:?histories)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Links rot, but this isn't an end. The memories they connect to are constantly [[changed]].]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03-1.gif" alt="">

(t8n:"dissolve")[Ten seconds.//[Everything is wiped away.]<away|// ](click:?away)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Then a choice: [Restart or Afterword]<afterword|.](click:?afterword)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Afterword names the habit of making meaning in breakdown. We look to the past to find other paths. But we don’t stay in the ruin—we take the next step, letting [play carry us forward]<back|.] (click:?back)+(t8n:"dissolve")[The game dies; play continues. [[RESET|Intro2]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03-1.gif" alt=""

(t8n:"dissolve")[A console attempts to read the ROM, but that message is intercepted, the message filtered by an intermediary. [The game is patched in real time]<patch|.](click:?patch)+(t8n:"dissolve")[A wire connects pins on a circuitboard. Data meant for one register is funnelled to another. A cacophony of lights and sounds emerge, [flickering and ephemeral]<flicker|.](click:?flicker)+(t8n:"dissolve")[One cartridge is swapped for another. RAM isn’t cleared, but the console interprets the errant data anyways, opening new worlds and [new possibilities.]<poss|](click:?poss)+(t8n:"dissolve")[Preservation isn’t embalming—it’s reanimation. A trans practice of remaking, remembering, reimagining. We describe provenance, play with circuitry, and accept that tomorrow’s click may open [[somewhere else]].] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sequence-03-1.gif" alt="">

[<img style='border-radius: 15px' class="right-side large" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Transisters-Lament.jpg" width=573px height=752px>(t8n:"dissolve")[The //Transister's Lament// is a mourning for what will inevitably slip away and a plea to take [deadly serious]<serious| the broken, noisy, aberrant, and ephemeral. Not as mere curiosity or historical footnote, but as the most vitally important part of life.] (click:?serious)+(t8n:"dissolve")[In Darreg's resigned and defiant words://Sic transit glorie mundi//—So, passes the glory of the world.[[RESET|Intro2]]]] <img class="bggif" id="bg-incantations" src="https://madisonschmalzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Background5.gif" alt="">