The Rules of Attraction w/ Margot Hulme

an AP Computer Science Principles veteran & elegant metalworker.

Hi, Margot. I love you. Who are you? What do you do? What’s your favorite book?

Hi Archie! Love you too. I study Printmaking and Linguistics at SUNY New Paltz although I don’t do as much printmaking as I should. My favorite book is The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard. I have only read one chapter but it’s already so beautiful I just know the rest will be too. I feel like I’m growing 7 new brains with every new page.

Why did you choose The Rules of Attraction? And why these pages?

I’m not really into fiction but I know many people who have shaped their lives around this book in particular so I guess I’m trying to get into their head a bit. Also it’s about a bunch of college kids so I figured there would be at least something in it that would stick with me, and there is! These pages are particularly relatable to me, specifically the underlined part at the bottom of 43. I see a lot of my fellow art students make work solely rooted in emotion, and it always feels so performative, and like the narrator says, impure. It takes a lot of intelligence to channel emotion into good art, otherwise it might as well just be a hobby. I try to make the work that’s like, two degrees removed from being “emotional,” so it was pretty affirming [read: ego-boosting] to see that reflected in a celebrated (debatable) book.

Do you prefer working at table or counter service restaurants?

Getting to lock your door as the clock strikes close is something I miss so much while I’m working at a table service restaurant. So for now I’ll say counter service. I like being the only one on shift too.

Do you think smoking cigarettes is cool?

I used to think it was way cooler than I do now. I less think that it’s cool and more appreciate that so many of my friendships came out of taking smoke breaks together (even if we didn’t all smoke). It’s a group activity, and therefore a great way to meet people. I think that part is cool.

Where can I get a good sandwich in Bratislava?

The best sandwich is a grilled cheese at Axioma Cafe. They serve it with ketchup with lots of oregano on top (I skip this part). Axioma is probably my favorite bar in Bratislava - it has bikes hanging from the ceiling, a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, a massive sunken in green circular couch, it’s so authentically hip, I feel like places like that don’t really exist here. Bratislava, at least when I lived there in 2018/19, was pretty untapped tourism-wise… There’s no Eat Infatuation Bratislava or Time Out Bratislava. My friends (who were all three years my senior) and I would go on Fridays and split a pitcher of Ribezlačik (red currant wine) and smoke inside and just hang out. The only bar food they have is grilled cheese, and they make it on a scrappy little panini press behind the bar. Your stomach probably won’t thank you, but your heart will!

Margot is a printmaking BFA at SUNY New Paltz who’s within an ace of moseying on down to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to work at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts for a couple months. She may also be recognized as the cherubic face behind Teen Millennial, a completely incomprehensible online community dedicated to. . ?

So, uh, what’s Teen Millennial? What are you guys talking about? Why do so many influencers comment on your posts?

The professional answer would be an Instagram account dedicated to D2C indie wellness/beauty/fashion brands.

Teen Millennial was a page I ran from 2019-maybe 2021? ish? I was very interested in brands like Glossier or Outdoor Voices who are total now-case studies in fierce brand loyalty/community around brands. These brands were making really good products, and had killer marketing and branding to back it up. Being a fan of a brand to basically fan-page extent sounds ridiculous (which of course, it is), but the products were good, and the people who also bought them were cool! And I can say pretty confidently that the founders cared about what there were making and believed in their work. Lots of these brands used micro-influencing as a marketing strategy, which helped make the brands sound like friends instead of corporations. It was the millennial artsy intelligent woman renaissance, and that is who I wanted to be around. And thus Teen Millennial was born.

How much money have you made from being a micro-influencer?

Maybe like $1k. None of it in cash, all of it in various supplements/yogurt/beauty products/accessories. It’s fun to point out brands I’ve gotten PR from when I’m in a group. A lot of people like to say they’ve lived a lot of lives when they really mean just being a child then a teenager then in college. I had Xs on my hands at product launch parties. I got recognized at my job a couple months ago for it.  So I’ve lived all the usual lives, plus I was the Teen Millennial.

Tell me about Affection and Quiet Luxury. One is my favorite piece of yours, one I don’t quite understand (yet). What inspired you, and what makes them cool?

Affection - Color laser image transfers with Citrasolv, Canvas, Steel Fencing, Thread (2025)

Quiet Luxury - Margot’s dad’s old (clean) socks and sterling silver, and some red thread to hold it all together (2025)

Affection is a book form made of weavings of steel fencing and images printed on canvas from my time in Bratislava. I am interested in material implications and binaries, and what happens when you put them together. Cloth is soft, yet strong. Metal is tough, but can be brittle. I am also interested in craft as someone who is somewhat removed from it - as in I don’t come from a long line of craftsmen. What does it mean to teach yourself these skills that are in any other case traditional practices with rich, long histories? Is it sacrilegious? Not? This is something I think about a lot in my work, and something that is again relevant in Quiet Luxury. I have very little experience in mending, and what I know is from YouTube instead of my grandmother teaching me in a small cabin in the Tatras. This piece is a pair of my Dad’s red socks with large holes in the heels that I have darned* with a cast silver patch. To me this was the most obvious decision in the world. I am exhibiting sentimental value through material value, but in doing them so making them useless, which I think is part humorous part sweet.

Thanks for thinking they are cool. I think the material contrast makes them cool. I think it’s awesome to look at two materials next to each other and in real time realize their strengths and limitations. I love work that makes you appreciate a loose thread, a paper fold, the especially simple things that show the makers hand.

*Darning is a type of mending where you weave a patch within the hole with a needle and thread.

What does the ⌂ symbol mean to you?

That’s a House! Or Home… Hmmm…..  Once my thesis gets proofread i’ll be able to share more…

How do I go about creating (finding?) my own signature art style?

I heard this in a podcast recently and it sums up my thoughts on this well: Copy until you find a fork in the road. It is impossible to make work independent from all influences. You should be influenced, and you should look carefully at and obsess over and argue with what you are drawn to about where they just don’t get it. That is where your art style is. I think I prefer the term “thesis” or “ethos” to art style, though.

Editor’s note: The middle sentence of this paragraph is a mouthful, but it’s worth processing.

What makes a good font? Is this a good font?

A good font is one that does its job. Readability is only necessary if it is imperative the information gets across. This font is good because you can read it and I personally think it is imperative that you do. Another example is how everyone got mad at Spotify for using a really stretched out typeface for wrapped one year. For Christ’s sake, is it really life or death if you can’t immediately register what podcast you listened to the most? And now we have DOOF DOOF RAVE AFTERNOON daylist. Should’ve shut your mouth about the font.

What are your top three Black Country, New Road songs?

Mark’s Theme, Track X, Sunglasses (but this version- i think hearing the live noises makes all the dissonance of the titular (sure, let’s say that) section sound so so good. also I like that he yells AND YOU CANNOT FUCKING TOUCH ME).

(Bonus 5pts) How do I represent a list of integers in the programming language Racket?

I don’t know. If i still knew the fake code.org language i would write it in that way, because i never actually learned Racket, I just wrote all my answers to my CS exams in the fake code.org language even though they asked for Racket lang. Next time.