footnotes on my deed poll

ïm nøt sure ŵ my name iꝬ. ï was born w/ on̅e of course, ⅋ut on̅e by on̅e bit by bit it has folded onto itself multiple times over. ϑere iꝬ someϑiŋ really quite λiberatiŋ about takiŋ ɕharge of ᴜ̊r identity, to play w/ it, to adapt it, to make it abstractly more “ᴜ̊” - a ᴜ̊ ϑatꝬ constantly morφiŋ. evolviŋ. ϑis iꝬ muɕh more commonplace ϑan ᴜ̊ might ϑink. my fav𖹭urite example of ϑis iꝬ iṋ ϑ’merging of tw̅̅o beiŋs. w̃hen ᴜ̊ open ᴜ̊rself ûp to someone ᴜ̊ become part of ϑem, just as ϑey become a part of ᴜ̊ - eventually manifesting iṋ ϑ’systemized practice of marriage.

Making love is not just becoming as one, or even two, but becoming as a hundred thousand. Desiring-machines or the nonhuman sex: not one or even two sexes, but n sexes. — Deleuze & Guattari

“Rhyo” iꝬ derived from a mergiŋ of my birϑname “Ryan” & “Cryo” (from “cryotato”, on̅e of my 1ˢᵗ adopted names),. ⅋ut ïm still Ryan, & ïm still Cryo. it was spelt Ryo for a while, ⅋ut ϑat spelling had already carried context & culture ï was never a part of. Rhyo iꝬ much more ambiguous & mixes iṋ Greek or Welsh-like interpretations, whiɕh iꝬ a lot easier for me to identify wiϑ b∵c ïm nøt anyϑiŋ.

淼子尘 iꝬ a deterritorialized pun of my legal Chinese name. it translates roughly to “abyssaling Dustling”. ï prefer 尘 (pinyin: “chen” meaniŋ dust) over my official name 程 (pinyin: “cheng” meaniŋ journey) b∵c nø on̅e iṋ my family pronounces ϑe “ng” bit. ϑe “ch” iṋ pinyin iꝬ pronounced a lot môre like “tz” as well. iṋ south east asia before ϑ’sweeping influence of ϑ’PRC Chinese people originally spoke mostly Hokkien so ϑ’Mandarin ϑey speak comes w/ a heavy accent. ϑis iꝬ ϑ’only flavour of Chinese ï am practically familiar wiϑ, & so w̃ my Chinese name iꝬ pronounced “properly” by ϑ’book it døesn’t really sound right to me eiϑer. ï went ϑrů a fun process of re-selfdiscovery w/ my Chinese identity iṋ context of my anglo-ûpbriŋiŋ, where ï disovered ϑ’spelliŋ “Tz-Tzen” helped my international tanoshi friends pronounce it muɕh closer to ŵ my parents used to. itꝬ pronounced like ϑ’middle of cats ‘n’ dogs. my surname (anglosized as “Leo” here) iꝬ Liau (廖) like meow,. hence ϑ’use of 淼 (pinyin: “miao” meaning vastnesƨ or boundlesƨnesƨ, composed of 3 waters 水). ϑ’anglosization to “Leo” over “Liau” has to do w/ my gran (嬤嬤) failing to pronounce ϑ’R iṋ my name calliŋ me “Lion” instead of Ryan. Lion Meow like ϑ’Zedong. ʃhe makes ã effort. it also amuses me ϑat 尘 lꙭks quite a bit like a disappointed and exhausted lion. me w/ my mane. ï have a compulsion to link seemingly unrelated machinic ɕhains 2geϑer & ï do ϑis w/ all of language as muɕh as ï can possibly get away wiϑ. to quote D&G again…

No chain is homogeneous; all of them resemble, rather, a succession of characters from different alphabets in which an ideogram, a pictogram, a tiny image of an elephant passing by, or a rising sun may suddenly make its appearance. In a chain that mixes together phonemes, morphemes, etc., without combining them, papa’s mustache, mama’s upraised arm, a ribbon, a little girl, a cop, a shoe suddenly turn up. Each chain captures fragments of other chains from which it “extracts” a surplus value, just as the orchid code “attracts” the figure of a wasp: both phenomena demonstrate the surplus value of a code. […] Schizzes have to do with heterogeneous chains, and as their basic unit use detachable segments or mobile stocks resembling building blocks or flying bricks. We must conceive of each brick as having been launched from a distance and as being composed of heterogeneous elements: containing within it not only an inscription with signs from different alphabets, but also various figures, plus one or several straws, and perhaps a corpse.”⠀⠀