The Genie

Marc Garrett,

One morning, I woke up after what I thought was a nightmare. In the nightmare, or what I later regarded as a real-time vision, I saw my mother and father asleep in their bed in the middle of the night. It was warm, and their window was open at the top, only by about four inches. Unexpectedly, I noticed a thick, winding fog slowly slip through the window’s gap. As it moved into the room, it hovered at the end of the bed. It was a shimmering shadow of a man’s body. It floated over to my dad, kneeling on his stomach. He woke up, saw the shady figure, and moaned loudly in fear. The figure began to slap his face repeatedly, which wouldn’t stop. My father then let out a massive scream, which I could hear from our bedroom while in my sleep.


On waking, I was surprised to see my mother sitting beside me at the edge of the bed, looking concerned. I was still shaking from the nightmare. My mother had her hand on my face to comfort me, and when she pulled it away, it left an imprint of fingermarks like dark red stains. It looked as if my face had been slapped very hard, but no, there was no pain. The pain I was feeling was my father’s in the memory of the nightmare as it came back to me. It all felt visceral. I could feel fright in my bones. It was an unnerving feeling remembering my dad’s face slapped by this entity. It was also unsettling to have felt the trauma he had gone through at the same time. I went to school that morning with a red hand mark on my face, and pupils asked if one of my parents had slapped me. Not this time, I said. Whenever we discussed the event afterwards, I would call the mysterious foggy shadow the Genie.

Extract from the chapter ‘My Dad, Me and the Genie’ in my forthcoming book, ‘Feral Class’. Image. The Genie. Drawing by Marc Garrett on A4. 2024.

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Published by Marc Garrett

Marc Garrett is co-director and co-founder, with artist Ruth Catlow of the arts collective Furtherfield, beginning on the Internet in 96. Furtherfield has two physical venues, a gallery and a Commons lab, both situated in the park, in Finsbury Park, London. Has curated over 50 contemporary Media Arts exhibitions, projects nationally and internationally. Main editor of the Furtherfield web site. Written for various books and articles about art, technology and social change. Two key Furtherfield publications include co-editing of 'Artists Re:Thinking Games' with Ruth Catlow and Corrado Morgana 2010, and recently on 'Artists Re:thinking the Blockchain' with Ruth Catlow, Nathan Jones and Sam Skinner 2017. Currently in the write up of last year of Phd at the University of London, Birkbeck College. Emerging in the late 80′s from the streets exploring creativity via agit-art tactics. Using unofficial, experimental platforms such as the streets, pirate radio such as the locally popular ‘Savage Yet Tender’ alternative broadcasting 1980′s group, net broadcasts, BBS systems, performance, intervention, events, pamphlets, warehouses and gallery spaces. In the early nineties, was co-sysop (systems operator) with Heath Bunting on Cybercafe BBS with Irational.org. Furtherfield’s mission is to co-create extraordinary art that connects with contemporary audiences providing innovative, engaging and inclusive digital and physical spaces for appreciating and participating in practices in art, technology and social change. As well as finding alternative ways around already dominating hegemonies, thus claiming for ourselves and our peer networks a culturally aware and critical dialogue beyond traditional hierarchical behaviours. Influenced by situationist theory, fluxus, free and open source culture, and processes of self-education and peer learning, in an art, activist and community context.