about

Lorren Gordon is a writer, artist and programmer based in Kansas City, Missouri.

Teratoma:

A type of germ cell tumor that may contain several different types of tissue, such as hair, muscle, and bone.

I was first exposed to the existence of teratomata as a child while watching an episode of the short-lived Guinness Book of World Records television show in which a 303 pound dermoid cyst teratoma originating from a woman's ovary was successfully removed. The show revealed imagery of the surgical staff wheeling the thing away on a steel cart, and as it went, the glistening mass of tissue looked to be breathing.

Of course, I understand now that it was not indeed breathing, but that idea festered in my mind for years. What if it was breathing? Or perhaps more unsettling still, what if it was only imitating the act of breathing in an attempt to become more like its host... to become more human?

Now, over twenty years later, I feel an admittedly morbid sense of relatability to that idea. What am I but a mass of tissue doing his best human impression?

Tinkering with and creating things makes me feel more human. Maybe some of the stuff I make will help you feel more human too.

Thanks for bein' here.

— Lorren