I’m largely trying to ignore UK election politics and the ridiculous nonsense thats going on here in the freezing temperatures of early June
Hope everyone is doing ok.
Things are weird out there.
Other Things First
It’s been a super busy week for me. Mostly taken up with working on my talk @ Human Entities in Lisbon on Wednesday. Then we’re going to have some down time, and get the train to Albufeira. We’re away for a week, so there’ll be no Weeknotes next week.
When I’m back, my life needs to change gear a little – I’m looking for work so will be hustling.
In other news, I’m the sort of sicko who when busy, gets very creatively inspired. Lots to do.
But I simply MUST FINISH OTHER THINGS FIRST.
Forest Bed
My band played a gig yesterday which massively interrupted the talk writing flow state – but – A. I should have planned my week better B. When one makes commitments, one must keep them.
We played a 40min set and it went really well. We have another show/day festival in Kingston in late August.
Permanently Moved
Little Computer People
Right now AI is the worst it’s ever going to be. It costs about 60 bucks a day to house a state of the art little computer person powered by an LLM in a virtual world. But what will the world be like when it costs 60p?
Full Show Notes: https://www.thejaymo.net/2024/06/01/2411-little-computer-people/
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Photo 365
The Ministry Of My Own Labour
- Working on my talk for Human Entities next week in Lisbon
- Lots of calls – hope something comes of them
- Finished the draft for issue #10 of SSRZ for subscribers – I don’t rate it. Needs lots of work.
- Thinking about hypermedia and CD-ROMS because Y2K is back.
Terminal Access
Tobias Revell was interviewed over at design decode about the ‘The Interplay of Reality and Imagination in Speculative Design‘. I encourage you to click on the link to read the whole thing. At the very you should head over just to see the header photo they used of him. 😂
echnology only really becomes a locus of the future because of the Cold War with the arms and space races and second-order technologies that resulted. So our techno-sphere is somewhat coincidental – a product of political, social and cultural constructions fuelled by nationalism, greed and nihilism (that’s a whole closet theory I’m developing – that tech is essentially nihilistic) – as opposed to the myth that it’s inevitable and certain. I want to firstly challenge that inevitailism and broaden the sense of the possible and secondly understand why these particular technologies ‘stick’ in society (AI in particular).
Dipping the Stacks
I came to this conclusion sometime during quarantine when I realized that certain websites give me a sense of shelter and rest more than others.
How to live without your phone – by Sam Kriss
After a while without my phone, I started to really notice how much everyone else was staring at theirs. On public transport in particular. Every adult is sitting there, pushing around coloured squares and popping coloured bubbles. They are playing with toys for babies. Now look at their faces. These people are not being entertained. They’re not having fun. They are turning their brains off while they wait.
Crypto’s cultural potential — The Digital Buffets
You can conceptualise these tools in terms of the five Cs, each representing the capabilities of blockchains as a (i) catalogue, (ii) custodian, (iii) canvas, (iv) computer, and (v) casino.
You suspect that could make you truly happy. But also, you have to get real. This is a capitalist world. Pursuing a “dream”? Think of all the ways it wouldn’t work. All that rejection. All those hours. Now that wouldn’t make you happy, would it?
Every time I join a new team, I go to the next fresh page, and on top of that page I write: “WTF – [Team Name].” Then I make a note every time I run into something that makes me go “wtf,” and a task every time I come up with something I want to change.
Reading
I finished Matt Alt’s Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World. Absolutely fantastic book. Can’t recommend it enough. It re-situates much of the cultural weirdness we are experiencing online as part of a 60+ year long dialogue of exchange between Japanese and American culture. Feedback loops of influence and recapitulation.
I finally went back to and finished The Breathing Book by Brad Tompson. The exercises are designed to allow you to explore your chest, posture and diaphragm. By giving you more awareness of whats going on, what muscles are moving and how posture effects the breath you can begin to re-learn how to breath as an adult after years of not thinking about it. Pairs well with James Nestors Breath book I think.
Moving on from all that I *finally* started reading How Music Works by David Byrne. I bought it back in 2012 and it’s taken me 12 years to get round to reading it. So good!
Music
Fearless Movement – Kamasi Washington
The new album is a bit good isn’t it!? The opening track is an absolute riot.
Remember Kids:
It can often seem that those in power don’t want us to enjoy making things for ourselves – they’d prefer to establish a cultural hierarchy that devalues our amateur efforts and encourages consumption rather than creation.
David Byrne – How Music Works
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