No Technology Here

I work at Silicon Valley. I’m surrounded by technology the whole freakin’ day. You wouldn’t believe the extremes to which technology has altered every single thing in our lives. And it’s like a competition here. Everyone wants to have the ultimate gadget and show it off. I’m sick of it! After all, I’m just a boy from Montana who ended up here because of work and the modern life. If it wasn’t for Shibari, I would go nuts. I like Shibari because there’s no technology here, just ropes, a bunny, and whatever you can do with them.

You see, I like technology. I wouldn’t have studied Engineering if I didn’t like it. But it must have a limit. Besides, there are things that work better without it, like bondage. For example, I like to use the same kind of natural fiber rope that Shibari masters used a hundred years ago. And I like to do the same knots they did and feel that, somehow, we are together when I do a scene, regardless of time.

I like to be able to do something that doesn’t need a Wi-Fi connection. Concurrently, I also like doing things that are real, instead of existing only in a screen. When I’m working with a model, she’s real. She may not have the perfection of a woman designed using AI, but she’s real! She breathes, has a beating. I can smell her and feel her warmth as I tie her. No technology can surpass that.

My studio is a room specially designed not to catch any signal. I don’t even allow electricity on it. I want things real. In the end, I don’t need technology around me everywhere, all the time. Shibari has taught me to appreciate tradition, to take my time, and to prefer something that I do with my bare hands to whatever a program can offer to me.

This is my Shibari story.