피, 땀, 이론 (BLOOD SWEAT THEORY)
Drawn from the Fake Love... project’s poetics and themes on neoliberal arts institutions and artistic labour, two songs were AI generated as K-pop inspired boyband scores for the exhibition. With lyrics refined in collaboration with Chinese AI language model DeepSeek to fit pop song templates, two tracks (깊은 가면) DEEP FAKE LOVE and 피 땀 이론 (BLOOD SWEAT THEORY) were created.
Musician Tzekin (Justin Tam) then heavily re-processed the vocal stems, fraying the standardised soundsapes into echoing anthemic-like incantations into an ether of fanchants and cheers.
Listen:
︎(깊은 가면) DEEP FAKE LOVE
︎ 피 땀 이론 (BLOOD SWEAT THEORY)
_______________________
Lyrics:
(깊은 가면) DEEP FAKE LOVE
Gilded halls, they promised me the truth
A curated world for my believing youth
Your neoliberal stare, so cold and sure
I fell so hard for your ‘theoretical’ cure
나만을 위한 대본인 줄 알았어
(I thought this script was written just for me)
A new order, made from stolen land
이제 너의 모든 스텝을 배워, 강제된 춤을
(I'm learning all your steps, this conscripted dance)
A patron's fever trance
Your smile is policy, your words, a trap
I see the ghost behind the map
뼛속까지 느껴져, 다 가짜란 걸
I feel it in my bones, it's all fake
내 모습은 사라져 가 (My reflection is fading)
I'm so sorry, it's a Deep Fake Love
I quote a theory where a heart should be!
I quote a theory where a heart should be!
To hide the horror of the things I see
깊은 가면 (Deep Mask)
다 가짜야 (It's all fake)
Yeah, I'm so sorry, it's a Deep Fake Love
I speak your language now
I know your curator's game
You pull my strings to press release my rage
You think you're different but you're just the same
Your palace is built on what was never meant
My radical demand is now your interior design
니가 원한 평화는 나의 복종 (The peace you want is my submission)
벽에 걸린 분노 (My anger, hung on the wall)
I'm tired of living in this white cube you call 'brave'
I get empty plates for the love I gave
In this hall of mirrors I've become the smoke
This deep fake love is a ghost in my throat
뼛속까지 느껴져, 다 가짜란 걸
I feel it in my colonised bones, it's all fake
더는 안 돼, 이 미친 놀이 (I can't do it, this insane game)
I'm so sorry, it's a Deep Fake Love
I quote a theory where a heart should be!
I quote a theory where a heart should be!
To hide the horror of the things I see
깊은 가면 (Deep Mask)
다 가짜야 (It's all fake)
Yeah, I'm so sorry, it's a Deep Fake Love
You believe a lie that should eat you alive
That’s why we won't survive
I'm pulling my plug, I’ll steal the key
진짜인 너였으면, 진짜인 나였으면
(I wish you were real, I wish I was real)
Yeah, I'm so sorry, it's a Deep Fake (Me!)
I'M SO SORRY, IT'S A DEEP FAKE LOVE!
I QUOTE A THEORY WHERE A HEART SHOULD BE!
I QUOTE A THEORY WHERE A HEART SHOULD BE!
깊은 가면 (DEEP MASK!)
(다 가짜야!) (IT'S ALL FAKE!)
YEAH, I'M SO SORRY, IT'S A DEEP FAKE LOVE!
I quit a theory where a heart should be.
...anymore.
다 태워버려 (...let’s burn it all down.)
팔레스타인에 자유를
Free Falasteen,
Mother Fuckers.
____________________________
피 땀 이론 (BLOOD SWEAT THEORY)
Kitab, Ikra!
Blood, Sweat and Dust!
Hypnotic Moombah/Trap, sensual and dark
Thematic Parallel: Both songs explore a dangerous, almost sinful attraction. Where BTS sings of a tempting love that feels like a sin, this track sings of the sinful allure of compromised knowledge and the colonial archive.
(위험한 지식의 유혹에 빠져)
Falling for the temptation of dangerous knowledge
(네 파라다이스는 독이 묻어있어) (Your paradise is tainted with poison)
This muse of mine, she wears a scholar's cloak
Her every whisper is a learned smoke
I know this sin, but I can't turn away
For this cursed truth, I'll willingly pay
It’s my Blood, Sweat, and Theory for you
This epistemophilic desire, so true
A sinful pleasure, an intellectual high
To drink the truth, though I know it’s a lie
For you, for you, for you
It’s my Blood, Sweat and Theory for you! (3x)
It’s my Blood, Sweat, and Theory for you
This epistemophilic desire, so true
A sinful pleasure, an intellectual high
To drink the truth, though I know it’s a lie
For you, for you, for you (2x)
He shows me Pusa, reconfigured as Isis
A violent amalgam, your central thesis
And like Aladdin, a tale you stole and told
A story of the so called Orient you bought and sold
And I’m complicit, caught in your design
Because this broken narrative feels like mine
이 달콤한 독은 나를 무너트려
This sweet poison breaks me down
네가 준 상처는 이론이 되었어
The wounds you gave have become theory
This muse of mine, she wears a scholar's cloak
Her every whisper is a learned smoke
It’s my Blood, Sweat, and Theory for you
This epistemophilic desire, so true
A sinful pleasure, an intellectual high
To drink the truth, though I know it’s a lie
For you, for you, for you
Icarus flying far too close to the sun
Loving the system that must be undone
They'll pick a chosen few, a decolonial star
To keep the rest of us outside the bar
This is the first sin/descent(?) the original fall
Loving the monster that has consumed us all
이건 원죄야, 사랑의 죄
This is original sin, the crime of love
이건 선별이야, 계층의 창조
This is selection, the creation of a class
For you (repeated)