feb _25

▲ highlights: new artwork "glitched seagulls" // Severance's inspiring multimedia storytelling // food for thought on the topic of big tech bros // and more..

hey, here is my audio intro 💭

hugs,
ål // ≧◉◡◉≦

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// things to share » 

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⍟ <artwork spotlight/> From this month on, I will present here one artwork I’ve created during the last month that is for sale. It will be discounted until the next 13th of the month when a new piece will pop up. Here we go :)

glitched seagulls // It is quite rare to see seagulls in Cyprus. However, during the winter you can encounter some of their flocks and this one was enjoying some treats near a fish tavern at Lady’s Mile near Limassol. I processed the photography to make it glitchy, because, firstly, I love glitch art. But mostly, because it feels like a glitch seeing seagulls around here. :-)

↳ closeup

_glitch art (photography and digital edit), digital file (4096x2712px // 144x95cm)
_on sale: 13 EUR (digital file, personal use only) // print on demand (send me an email to discuss size, printing, and delivery)
_send me an email if you want to purchase ▶ aaaalnik@proton.me

_

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★ <Severance: amaziiiiing case study of excellence in multi-media storytelling/> I’ve been interested in transmedia storytelling for some years and I see many movies and tv series. Some of them have quite hooked fanbase who produce lots of content outside the series - whole wikipedia-like spaces to read about the background of the characters, maps of the fictional worlds etc. - none of this is news. However, Severance definitely took it to another level! Let’s talk about that.

If you’re not following this series, Severance is a production of Apple+, created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller. It tells the stories of a group of people who decided to severe their personal lives from their professional ones for real. The company that undertakes that procedure, Lumon Industries, is in the middle of the storyline because, of course, if someone creates something like that, there is deep shit under that surface.

Lumon’s LinkedIn page

Why am I talking about this show? Because it is probably one of the most interesting, different, and exciting things we can see on the streaming platforms right now. Besides having excellent art direction and aesthetics, Severance also tackles very interesting questions, such as who are we with and without our background (family, relationships, etc.) and who would we be if we reset our brains and start afresh? How do we deal with grief? Where is the borderline between our personal lives and our careers? ...

_Severance’s multimedia storytelling

One of the best things about this show is that the creators developed a very impressive set of content outside the walls of the TV screen. For instance, Lumon Industries has a LinkedIn page where you can sense the company culture, that “posts cheery business platitudes that align with founder Kier Eagan's 9 core principles, and it introduces the "Innies" who work on the Severed floor with short descriptions focusing solely on their productivity.” (Mashable)

In addition, Ben Stiller created a podcast and together with leading actor Adam Scott, discusses the episodes and how are they being made.

One of the characters in the series wrote a book that became quite popular in their fictional world. Now it is making its way into our world and people are losing it. Lumon Industries also posted about it on LinkedIn - the reason they’re saying this copy is an “incomplete and misleading version” is that inside the series they’re trying to rewrite it with the author. Hilarious!

Are you a Severance fan? :D Did I miss any of their brilliant spreads into our world? Let me know.

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💭 <How to stand against the Big Tech Bros?/> While it’s quite exhausting to have USA’s recent political news all over our newsfeed and Musk and Trump’s stupid faces all over our feeds, it is something that affects us and will affect us in the following several years. What course of action will these two take, having made this ridiculous and scary duo of tech and political power, it’s yet to be seen. Looks like Meta, Google, etc. will also follow their path and if you don’t care about politics, you surely use at least 2-3 of the products of the already mentioned Tech Bros’ companies.

I have many friends who are trying to at least stop supporting their products. People switch from Instagram to Pixelfed. From X to Mastodon and Bluesky. From Google Mail to Proton. But that transition is rather difficult, isn’t it? I assessed how many of their tech products are part of my daily life and the answer is scary. The scariest thing is that if I really leave all of those apps and services, I would have to lose contact with lots of people I care about and will have to pay much more for subscriptions and my own technical setup. And still, will struggle to organise my work in such a fluid way as it has been so far..

So, what can we do? Nothing? Something? Everything? Where do you stand in this mess? :-)

💭 For now, my tiny revolution was slowly moving to a new mail service and using gmail less and less (cancelled subscriptions etc.). I moved to Proton, which used to be a very nice and ethical alternative until recently, when they expressed an ambiguous position about the war on Gaza and supported Trump.. but for now you can reach me at: aaaalnik@proton.me (until I find a better alternative, and until that alternative stays really out of political mess). #exhausted #techandpoliticsmergingishorrible

p.s. Erica, a friend of mine, shared with me today this list with radical servers. Will explore it later on.

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★ <To know or not to know/> The School of Life shared recently an essay on the topic of anxiety in connection to the information overflow we’re living suffering in. Last month, I had covid again, and one of the days, my eyes were leaking and hurting so bad that I just couldn’t look at any screen. Even reading one message on my phone gave me a crazy headache. My first thought was something like “Oh my, what am I going to do today? I should try to read something!” I couldn’t imagine a day without consuming information, it hasn’t happened for ages..

What if selective ignorance were in reality to belong to one of the preconditions of a good life?

What is your connection to knowledge and information? Are you able to put a limit to the things you explore and if yes - how do you do it? Please, share it on a comment of this letter at Substack or just send me a letter. Would love to hear your story.

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p.s.. 😅

▶▶ savethe.ai
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