Matthew DeBlock has worked primarily as an R&D software and electromechanical engineer. Working for decades in China, fluent in English/French/Spanish/Chinese Matt’s writing often blends linguistic and conceptual elements from various languages and cultures.
The role of Head of R&D in interactive technology development in Shanghai garnered a deep appreciation for the vast scope of current technology as well as trends in advancements. Growing up in Canada for 2 decades, then 2 decades living in China, his cultural, conceptual, and ideological identity is a filled with polarities and pluralities that are blended and fused. Living in Mexico for a year, studying the language and culture, learning French language and culture from Canada and France are also core elements intertwined into his identity. Always seeking out and absorbing from people, cultures, places, and environments he never stops weaving new threads into his internal tapestry.
Creating art for decades, from 2D art and writing systems to retro-styled tech art, these works are often akin to a journal of personal learning and progress or preposterous tangents and ideas. Never taking oneself too seriously, these media, documents, and posts frequently expose Matt’s own misconceptions and misunderstanding at the time of their creation.
There is no hesitation to post or say something that may later be regretted, we all go through cycles of learning and Matt is not embarrassed to put his own on display. A bit of an exhibitionist with zero expectation or desire for privacy, there is no shortage of embarrassing moments and no hesitation to laugh in self-deprecation. Moreover, Matt has come to find a provocative value in pushing into the ridiculous, even at the expense of reputation or image. Inspiration and new perspective often arise from looking at problems in a new light, and a leap into the absurd is often the most valuable move available. "The world doesn't need another hide the mistakes highlight reel."
Short stories became a new artistic outlet at the beginning of 2024 and are now a beloved pastime. Developing a personal writing style that uses fragmented narrative and employs lots of heavily abstracted visual, psychological, and emotional elements. Also stripping as much race, age, gender, and other traits as possible, leaving only words and actions to define the characters.
Matt loves blending science with human experience and narratives, and is particularly enamored with conceptual-symmetry and conceptual-self-similarity (when there is conceptual similarity as you zoom out, like a conceptual fractal). The challenge is blending accurate science with abstracted human experience.
A fan of hard-sci-fi, Matt endeavors to hold firm to accurate science eg. A narrative about personified atoms must not deviate from actual physics and chemistry, if the science says a structure or reaction does not exist then the story must bend to the science, not the other way around. When a tangent into the unknown or unexplored arises Matt spares no effort to stay on the path of the conceptually feasible and aim for something with meaning, significance, or potentially predictive value.
Fantasy, humor, and wild speculation are often employed, but there is care to ensure that they are obvious as just what they are, and not presented as rigorous science. Fantasy and science can coexist, but Matt is irked by pseudo-science that tries pass off speculation or fun musing as rigorous or serious science.
All stories by Matthew DeBlock are written with pen and paper while physically moving around out of home. Nothing is written at home, at a desk, or cocooned inside. Moving through both time and space is part of the writing process. Matt finds simultaneously walking around and writing opens up the creative process to external influences in a beautifully inspiring way.('Earth based coordinate space' to be specific for the semantically obsessed nerds)
