Poseidon's Waterfall
Gijs de Boer: Self Model Making
Dear reader,
The upcoming week promises 40°C (104°F). Maybe promise is the wrong word. Warns would undoubtedly be more fitting, given that the calendar says June.
I still struggle to adapt my daily life to the realities of the weather. I was born and raised in Denmark, a country known for LEGO bricks and rainy days. In fact, many Danes would tell you that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. (They say this proudly, dressed in outdoor gear made for arctic exploration while strolling the shopping street with their €7.5 flat white to-go).
So, being Danish, last year, you’d find me running on the streets of Athens during Midday at 36°C. But no worries, I was wearing my hand-embroidered sunflower baseball cap.
Now, I recite to myself that winter is for all-day outdoor activities. Summer? Let’s switch on the air-conditioner and continue building that LEGO landscape.
With care,
Kristoffer
𐦂𖨆𐀪𖠋
Gijs de Boer: Self Model Making
Gijs de Boer is an artistic researcher and educator living in Rotterdam.
What is Self-model-making?
An open artistic research group on how Things structure our concepts of the Self. When we think of thinking as ‘processing', or DNA as ‘code', or creation as ‘generation', technologies become a kind of 'self-model’ that shape how we relate to our selves and the world around. In monthly sessions, hosted at Extra Practice in Rotterdam (NL) and online, we discuss texts, reflect through drawings, diagrams and writings, and work towards publishing some outcomes in September.
Why did you start it?
Throughout my studies I kept learning about relationality: how the model of a self separated from context and history is a myth that sits comfortably at the root of many crises and forms of extraction. But what made this myth so believable? If I would be so relational, then what material contexts make me often feel like I'm separate? I wanted to explore this question in the most relational way I could: by opening it up to others.
Who or what inspired you?
There’s a lot from my Extra Practice studio mates. Elliott helping to see this research stream as a 'life project’. Emma suggesting that I can use our space to host. Ben's Homemade Computer Club at Varia. Kirsten's online curriculum sites (also inspired by fruitful.school). Jack’s many small material experiments. And a desire to test our self-hosted Etherport publishing tool.
People are welcome to join any session that resonates (next one is on June 26). More info online and stay posted about sessions and findings via the newsletter.
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Field Notes
1.
Memory Banks. On how data is stored on magnetic tape and why we should become active caretakers of our most valuable files. I enjoyed the story of the person who bought what she believed was an empty VHS tape at a thrift store, only to discover it contained footage of a newborn, prompting her to search for the original owners.
2.
Computing Shrines. Witnessing the growth of friends is one of the best things in life. Here, Spencer Chang unfolds some of the work they have done around intimacy, communality, and situational computing.
3.
»When it comes to routines and rituals, I’m more like the seasons than the expansion of the universe. I keep falling in love with new practices, only to see them fade as the weather shifts. I would run every day for half a year, then stop for three years until I decided to run a marathon with three weeks of practice.«
— Kristoffer (me) in an interview with Apossible.
4.
Calls for Participation: Believers Grant (Due 30/6), Peckham Digital (Due 30/6), Tiny Awards (Due 30/6), HCI.Place (Due 1/7), and Taper #15 (Due 15/8).
5.
Poetic Web Calendar: Meme Reading Club (23/6, Rome), Synthesis Assembly (LA, 28/6), DxD25 (3-4/7, London), Vector Festival (Toronto, 10-20/7), FWB Fest (Idyllwild, 1-3/8), What Hackers Yarn (Geestmerambacht, 8-12/8), and POST Design Festival (Copenhagen, 12/9).
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Wayside Flowers
NB: The title of today’s newsletter refers to the latest addition to the LEGO landscape.
Last email was sent to 4702 inboxes. Eleven people support me with a paid subscription. You can send questions, comments, products, sites, links, and more to kristoffer@naiveweekly.com. I read everything you send me :)