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#the human bondage

Freedom and restriction is one fundamental dynamic in the human existence. It's a paradoxical relationship. Being bound grants freedom from choice and responsibility. It challenges trust and surrender. It touches upon the experience of both belonging and loneliness. But still, fundamentally, it's always your choice. Holding this power is a paradox between expressing your own desire, and emphatically holding space for others. Shaping the body shapes the mind, altering thoughts and feelings, altering one's entire experience. How can a single rope be a symbol for so much?

#the session work

This is for YOU. Medical Massage. Bound Bodywork. Repterapi (therapeutic rope). Hypnosis. They are all ways to serve. To be a guiding hand on your journey. A safe space to let the guard down and just rest, or to face old fears, or to experience something completely new. The session work is my exploration in how to serve another in a one-on-one meeting. What I offer is the expertise that I've built up over a lifetime. As a lesson, or an experience, or something in-between. Selected, tailored, and curated just for you. You pay for my time, so I can focus on you.

#the in-between space

What is found in-between sexuality and creativity? Celebration and meditation? A tribe and the egoistic self? Life is a theatre between reality and dreams. The room is a stage. People are performers and audiences in your existence. Our culture and norms are the rules of our drama. Our personalities are the masks we wear. And what happens when all this is temporary deconstructed? Leaving space for something new to emerge. A play without dire consequences. A co-creation from our subconscious dreams. A long lost desire. A utopian vision of the future. The answer is found together.

#the man and the machine

The man and the machine is an investigation of the relationship between human biology and machine technology. The arena is art. Vibrations through a surface, like a floor or an object, become notes in a composition. While motion in space draws patterns in pitch and tempo. And pulsating bass synchronized with the human heart. I believe that technology can be a modern form of mysticism and magick. My work translates human movement and form to the digital world. The design is modular and the result is ever evolving.

about andy

My work aims to create magical rooms were people can rest, heal and grow. My tools, spirit and experience springs from neurosemantic team building, medical massage therapy, european theatre, and japanese rope art. I work with both groups and individuals, and I love the fact that the world is allowed to be complicated because that makes every meeting unique. My time in Japan engraved into me the presence, passion and embrace for the glimpse of zen that exists in every movement of life – and this I gladly share with you in a session, workshop, or with a cup of tea.

Safer vs. braver spaces (2019)

I’ve for a long time been trying to define what happened to me during the years of Schwelle 7. And now ten years later I carry the fruits of Schwelle 7 forward in my own work with the in-between space. Now I realize that I’m personally more interested in a space to be brave, than a space to be safe.

Bondage and story, or why yoga pants doesn’t belong in my bondage (2019)

The human bondage experience tells a story between two people. In the simplest form of rope bondage, between the person tying and the person being tied. The story is created by individual fantasies coming together. Fantasies are like seeds in our unconscious waiting to be discovered and cultivated. By telling the story with our action, we learn about ourselves.

Workshop: Tantric rope journey (2019)

After teaching rope for almost ten years in different subcultures. The tantric community in Scandinavia has a special place in my heart. It taught me so much. To celebrate that I want to make a longer workshop tailored for the qualities and quirks that make it special to me. That is consciously being with the present experience – how does it feel right now? Breath in, breath out. Welcoming all emotions and giving them space. No fuckin’ charity still apply. This is for you and your experience.

I did a rope love scene in a feature film (2019)

…or I ghost rigged it. Ghost rigging is the deal that I make a beautiful tie for some kind of video recording or photoshoot, but we make it look like someone else did it. In this example a young girl suspending an older man.

Being busy the past years with my theatre studies, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around bondage and performance. One possible element is a story and character development, that the acts to tying ropes move the story somewhere. This is possible in a dedicated rope performance, but often feels forced and a bit out of place. However, being a part of the story that unravels in a feature film gives other possibilities.

In the clip below has Stefan has walked away from his ten year wedding anniversary, after an awkward dinner conversation about old lovers, commitment, abortion, loyalty and freedom. He needs a break from this day and the complexity of life. Faith leads him to Saga. As many times before. She is a university student of his. They share a secret.

Two rope study groups (2019)

I’m coming home to Stockholm this autumn and I’m super-hyped to start up the weekly rope teaching again. I can’t believe that two years of theatre and directing studies are over. Looking back on what I’ve learnt and how I’ve been tying the past years I decided to run two bi-weekly rope groups this autumn on very different subjects.

The story about a lone cowboy (2019)

Women often ask men to advise men on how to interact with women, but who am I to preach? I can share a story that I’ve seen re-enacted hundreds of times over the years. The story about a lone cowboy. It is heteronormative and exaggerated. Still, it carries an important message to some men out there.

Interview: About a Play Party (2019/DAN)

What is a Play Party? What is it? WHAT IS IT? This question is continuously asked. Here video interview in Danish with my beautiful and brave friend Lea Love. She is doing the organization and amazing food for the Play Parties in southern Sweden.

Her answer to the question “What is a Play Party” was the following (translated to English).

It’s a space.
That we create together.
That is built on trust.
Where you are free.
To explore your own sexuality.
Alone, together with others, or in whatever constellation that feels right.
Exploring sexuality can be an inner journey without any physical contact.
It’s a space where we are free to be as we are.
An experiment.

What is tantra? (2019)

Hi Andy! Tantric Rope bondage! How is it tantric? What kind of tantra are you connecting it to? White, red, black, Hindu, Buddhistic, or TNT?

I have received this question many times, so I wanted to answer properly here. First off, I’m NOT a tantric historian. I started to learn rope bondage in the BDSM community. It was about 10 years ago that I got invited to share my knowledge in various different tantric gatherings. It started with Sexsibility in Sweden that is much inspired by Barbara Carellas Urban Tantra. Funnily enough, I’ve heard it said that Barbara regrets calling it “Tantra” in the first place because of this question in particular. Because in essence what we practice is a handful of concrete technique and values, that makes sense alone, without connecting them to a spiritual and mystical legacy. It doesn’t matter if you associate the techniques with a Hindu or Buddhist deity, or none at all because they work anyway (for most people). But the question is still important, so I’ll explain myself deeper.

Machine held spaces (2019)

One of the reasons why I started the man and the machine project was to explore how to create an space that was holding it self. In a one-on-one session I’m holding space for the other person, by actually continuously adapting to the client. In a workshop I shape the space by selecting exercises and guiding along the way. But I’ve also been curious about how much the space can do by itself.

Current technology (2019)

This is an description of the technology behind the interactive soundscapes that I’ve mainly been building as a part of the man and the machine project. It is aimed for non-nerds to explain what I do to artist of other disciplines.

The technology is modular. This means that is works like lego bricks, so it can be picked apart and reassembled in many different ways. That allows the evolution of project, so similar to a theatre production, I do rehearsals to learn more about how I want the lego bricks to be put together. The final result is some kind of machine that interacts with the human outside.

Workshop: The rituals of BDSM (2019)

“Basically most of us will get turned on at night by the very same things that we will demonstrate against during the day.”
–Esther Perel, the secret to desire in a long-term relationship

Bondage, discipline, submission, sadism, and masochism are the pillars of BDSM. They are conscious taboos in our everyday life, but they are equally strong in our subconscious, governing both our sexuality and creativity. We are often tempted to explore them unconsciously in destructive relationships, lasting a night to a life-time. Or trivialising them to an embarrassing 50 Shades of Gray clique (or Harlequin novel if you were born before 1980). Instead, in this retreat, we will explore BDSM through rituals, that act as frames that we can consciously relate to and reflect upon. This enables, on one hand, a safer space and clearer communication, and on the other hand a deeper experience, as we follow a known path that works together.

Motion born out of restriction (2018)

This photo shot together with Joakim Erixson Flodman from 2018 was a continuations of RAW:MOTIONS. We wanted to explore what kind of motion that is born out of restriction. It was shot at the top on Hammarby Backen i Stockholm on a sunny summer afternoon.

Workshop: Zen in semenawa with Saara Rei (2017)

One way to think of zen is a total state of focus that incorporates a total togetherness of body and mind.

Semenawa can be defined as rope that creates a feeling of helplessness and endurance, often with the use of pain and discomfort.

In both Zen and Semenawa a key is the practice of letting go. Letting go of comparing the present experience with experiences from the past or future. No longer attempting to change the present, but accepting it while still being responsible for one’s emotional and physical well-being. Practicing this paradox is the theme of this weekend.

Semenawa can bring the height of dramatic expression and the depth of trust. It teaches us to slow down and tune into a universe of intimate nonverbal communication. The beauty of semenawa is the raw emotions that form a strong bond of trust and vulnerability between the top and the bottom.

People often ask why one would like to be tied or tie another person. The answer is always vulnerability in the polarity between surrender and holding power. When done in a consensual and loving way it empowers intimacy, healing, and growth.

Eve Arm – Today I saw a dragon (2017)

Today I met the pain
Raw, strong and fierce
And suffering had to leave
Through the magic of letting go

Today, I met with shame
Through humiliation and enjoyment
It welcomed and already had to leave
Was in a hurry to visit other’s homes

Today, I met with my shadow
And it was not so scary
One step closer to freedom
Shadow has been diffused by light

Today I saw a dragon
Spitting flames in the evening sky
Stretching wings stretched out over the sea
Witnessed only by few boats

Chorus:
This is Freedom
This is Life
Hand in hand with sadness, anger and joy
Hand in hand with pain and with blaze of pleasure
This is Freedom
This is Life
All feelings are OK