I Was Called Naive
Introducing the Naive Yearly x Are.na Publication
Dear reader,
We published the first essay adapted from the talks at last year’s Naive Yearly. It’s Tiger Dingsun’s remarkable lecture on Minecraft, The End is Not the End.
The rest of the talks will follow over the next weeks. If you’d like to read the essays as they are published, you can subscribe to Are.na Editorial. You can also visit the digital publication where I wrote a foreword about the time when I was called naive.
I’m hosting Naive Yearly again this year but need support making it more sustainable financially. If you have connections to foundations, sponsors, or potential venues, please let me know. When I wrote the same message last year, Emily and Josh reached out, and it is thanks to them that it all happened again.
One last thing, regular readers will notice that today’s newsletter looks different. As the reader numbers keep growing (thank you, and welcome!), I want to use the increased visibility to introduce the practitioners whose work inspires me.
With care,
Kristoffer
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Javier Arce: PoetiCal
Javier Arce is an independent designer and developer living in Barcelona, Spain.
What is PoetiCal?
PoetiCal is an online collaborative publication that uses a calendar as its medium. Anyone can submit texts through the website, and if selected, they are published on a shared calendar for subscribers to read on the date chosen by the author.
Why did you make it?
I built it out of fascination with the web and its endless possibilities as an expressive space. I'm also drawn to subverting tools and bending them in ways they weren’t intended, something I explored in two of my recent projects, Book Saboteur and Enfont Terrible; though there, what I altered and played with were the produced objects, not the tools themselves. And then there's an idea I find irresistible: if you subscribe to this publication, poetic texts will inhabit a space typically reserved for work meetings, anniversaries, medical appointments, and bill payments.
Who or what inspired you?
I was inspired by many online projects and communities like Rest Notes, Special Fish, Are.na, an early version of Carly Ayres' famous Google Doc website, and a project I worked on in 2009 called Oficina Nacional de Asuntos Temporales (or National Office for Temporal Affairs), where people could claim a day and invent a fake anniversary for it.
Field notes
1.
A Jungian reading of Minecraft. I asked Tiger Dingsun to talk about myths at Naive Yearly. He answered he would like to unfold it through a massive online game to show how poetry also grows in the largest and most mainstream online environments, not just in tiny backyards. In the end, he delivered this incredible reading on Minecraft through Jung.
2.
https://naive-yearly.are.na/ :)
3.
»No one wants to make ‘ugly’ art, or a ‘bad’ website. But struggling and making mistakes is an important part of developing skills and – increasingly important – finding your own voice.«
— Pirijan in The Lo-Fi Art and Human Tools Era
4.
Calls for Participation: Robida is open for submissions (31/3), Shed of the year (31/3), and Ensemble Park is open for submissions (Due 2/4).
5.
Poetic Web Calendar: Self-Making Research Group (hybrid, 18/3), Wordhack with Maya Man & Reuben Son (NYC, 20/3), Ruby J. Thelot Keynote (Boston, 20/3), Feed me the news (Berlin, 21/3), Digital Memory Archive Workshop (CPH, 22/3), Dream Spheres (Berlin, 23/3), Bound to Make Friends (Rotterdam, 28/3), and Softer Internet Futures (London, 12/4)
Kiosk: A Field Guide to Hype
What? A zine introducing you to hype and its misuses. Become a skilled surveyor of the modern hype landscape and a learn to poke holes in the extrapolated narratives of technology.
Who? Johannes Klingebiel is a designer and researcher working at the Media Lab Bayern. His personal projects are focussed on exploring possible futures for the news media and his website is wonderful.
Price? €7 + shipping.
Wayside flowers
Last email was sent to 4319 inboxes. Logo by Dreams™. Photograph by Ana Šantl. You can send questions, comments, products, sites, links, and more to kristoffer@naiveweekly.com.