dec _23
▲ highlights: bye, bye, 2023, you were extraordinary // new alwiki documentation // shoutout to some awesome homies // two exhibitions concluded
heiii,
can definitely say that i’m looking forward to turning an imaginary new page and leaving the past year behind. Even though time is just one line moving forward, all these artificial markers such as minutes, months, or years, are somehow helpful to put a structure to it and use them to trick our minds to call it a day when needed.
2023 was no less than extraordinary. On a very tiny personal scale (not even thinking of getting on the local and global scale.. that would be unbearably overwhelming). I should definitely be proud of some significant for my tiny scale achievements - finishing my XPUB master’s programme successfully, being part of three exhibitions in three cities in the Netherlands, becoming part of the Blob Shop Collective, wrapping up UrbEX with a conference in Berlin, being part of three amazing causes - Ideas Factory’s villages support project, Biodiversity foundation’s visuals making, and Emprove’s annual visual report.. But also quite the cost - torturous 3+ months under a leak in my “new” flat, constant anxiety, duodenum infection, almost broke a knee + couldn’t walk for a week after Berlin, and now another round of (long)covid that has tons of weird and annoying symptoms. I pushed myself a lot.
Feels like after this 2-year rollercoaster, i should definitely find a better effort-care balance. The idea of taking a break or slowing down sounds like the most logical thing to do now, but when you are a freelancer, you cannot stop working, nor get sick. There’s nothing to cover for you while you’re not working. So, you only take a break when your body is pushed too hard and says “nope”. And to wrap up this confession on a positive note - once you know what you actually need, you will look for ways to make it possible. Or die trying ;-}
bye, bye, 2023!
hugs,
ål // ≧◉◡◉≦
p.s. Here is a postcard from Cyprus <3
Larnaca Salt Lake
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// things to share » =================================================================
◍ [alwiki new documentation] There are several new documentation pages on the wiki that i finally published and/or updated:
▶ the process of building up my installation for the s.å.t.e. - sounds at the exposure exhibition is now updated. However, i still need to add a few things - info about the cards deck publication and what new prompts i made for the closing event.
▶ the workshop i facilitated at the Zine Camp - a collective audiozine making is also described + the fun infomercial from the future made by the participants are available to listen.
▶ together with the other digital makers and artists, taking part in the FYI Talent Development programme organised by the Hmm, we made a group exhibition in Amsterdam between 1-3 December. My work there was a sound & print tiny installation called "sorry for the inconvenience” that told the story of my notorious room leakage and the way the housing company [didn’t] handle it. I am planning to publish the sonic piece soonish, so keep an eye on the sonics here.
▶ still working on collecting information about how to handle the dutch admin as a freelancer, but the page is growing up.
▶ hopefully, in january i will be done with my FYI programme documentation and will send it to you with the next letter.
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🖤 [shoutout to some inspiring homies] It was about time to feature some of my favourite makers around me and starting this corner on the monthly news now feels just like the perfect time. So, here we go - the first 3 people of a never-ending list of humans I am amazed by, whose work you should check!
★ Léa Cadieux // we met during the The Emerging Digital Maker Program in Amsterdam and we made a joint presentation for the the Hmm @REBOOT event. She was the best during the whole process of preparing the presentation and she had to talk without me at the event, because I had covid just a day before it. Léa explores digital technology as a medium for spaces and creates new typologies of virtual experiences. Her designs respond to the transformation of social dynamics through digital technology, and explore communication and engagement between humans, non-humans, and objects. These days, she works on building cross-disciplinary networks for collaboration and teaches how to design hybrid environments at the Design Academy Eindhoven, where she got her master’s degree. She hopes that her work as an educator, performer, and designer promotes the queering of our virtual environments. You can see her presenting for both of us our “Protocol of collectiveness” at the REBOOT live stream recording here.
We came up with this “Protocol of collectiveness” while preparing our joint presentation because we found all of these elements to be an important part of both of our practices.
★ Romina Cristi Olate // we met so many years ago, at the Subjective Mapping workshop organised by Nomadways in France. When I moved to Rotterdam I realised she was living in Utrecht at that time, so we reconnected for a bit before she moved back to Santiago. Romina is an incredibly talented watercolourist who paints “landscapes and subjective maps in watercolour and creates zines and artist books”. Her work is the trace of the habits and rituals she builds in order to define her reality and it focuses on the perception she has of the place that surrounds her and the one inside her. She sends a lovely art letter, you can subscribe to it here.
★ Ilaria Fresa // my friend Ilaria is 1/3 of our wonderful Nomadways team and we have been working together for several years already. We currently wrapped up working on a 2-year project together that was quite challenging but also fulfilling - Urbex - which was about creating a methodology for urban exploration for marginalised youth. She can transform anything into beautiful and clear visuals - thoughts, talks, speeches, hesitations, concepts, ideas, you name it! Every time I see her visual recordings of events and meetings I am in awe.
Ila’s graphic recording of the “Abandoned Berlin” presentation by Ciaran Fahey at the UrbExplorers conference, Berlin 2023
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★ [design is always political] Working with visual language is always capsulated within the bubble of the common references in the community you’re making your works. If you cross borders, you always bring some backgrounds with you but you should be aware of what the visual language you’re using means to the people who will look at your work. I found a lovely book that talks about that with examples from various cultures around the globe - Politics of design: a not so global manual for visual communication. Here is a short quote from the book that should hang on any graphic/communication/etc. designer’s wall :-]
…all design is political. Every design “either serves or subverts the status quo”, as Tony Fry argues. A design cannot be disconnected from the values and assumptions in which is was created, from the ideologies behind it. It can be difficult to see how visual communication and ideology are related because ideology is in everything around us, we perceive it as natural.
Acknowledging that communication is not neutral puts everything in perspective. It is by realising that we are all culturally biased that we can understand why communication often fails.★
Understanding that as a person who creates visual works, you hold power is key. Cliché or not, with power, comes responsibility. As a designer, your choice will always put you on some side of a barrier. It’s good to know where you are going to land with your work. It’s not serious to be ignorant in this world full of information and raised awareness.
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★ Pater, R. (2016). Politics of design: a not so global manual for visual communication. Amsterdam: Bis Publishers.
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