Desire paths, previously connected, community news, and more
Good day to you, and happy gregorian new year. What is this year feeling like?
Where we are it’s extremely cold. Like, pipes frozen. We’re listening to Blue Heron by Milan W. (thanks to Michael Guidetti).
This year, as always, we’re thinking about infrastructure. Long-lasting, resilient infrastructure. And open-endedness. And attention! What have you been thinking about?
Previously Connected
In the beginning of this year, as we prepare and plan for some larger projects (ahem, mobile, ahem search), we are finding ourselves thinking about smaller, deeper, more foundational, quality-of-life improvements. In practical terms, among other things, this means working on items such as preventing spam from seeing the light of day and improving image loading speed. It’s the little things.
One very tangible feature we released (relatively) recently is the long-asked-for ability to see when a link or image was previously connected to a channel. You asked, we delivered – both in the connect interface and in the browser extension. Now if you open either one on something you’ve previously connected, the channel will be indicated with a check mark. Little things!
Are.na Editorial
We had a busy month on Editorial, publishing both new pieces and some re-pubs from the Are.na Annual, including:
James Langdon’s essay, which defines a category of images that go beyond the plainly appropriate or reasonable — where a latent, empathic, ecstatic energy resides. Best to read it in his own words, online or in print.
Willa Köerner’s interview with Elaine Ayers about thinking like moss, reimagining our social order, and reorienting our attention.
So You Want to Escape the Algorithm
Elan Ullendorff’s primer on how to Escape the Algorithm (also the topic of his newsletter and a course he teaches). All research, resources, and examples are conveniently arranged into Are.na channels.
Mariah Barden Jones and Raegan Bird’s beautifully meandering conversation on impermanence, desire, and the paths made by walking.
Events
In case you happen to be in or near Richmond, VA, Raegan and Mariah, along with Luiza Dale, will be reading at an Are.na Annual launch party at Material Room this Saturday, January 25. More details here.
Press
Thank you to Tavi Gevinson who mentioned Are.na in an interview with Kate Lindsay in the newsletter Embedded.
Thanks also to Itay Dreyfus who wrote some very nice things about Are.na in the newsletter Product Identity.
Itay writes, “When I step into Are.na I’m not seeking attention or competing for visibility. I simply follow my intuition, allowing my presence to resonate with those who share similar interests, even without a literal and direct engagement.“
Community News
Perhaps you noticed that we have a new Community News channel, where we’ll be pulling from for this section of the newsletter. Here’s what people on Are.na have been up to…
Leslie Liu is collecting trash. If you're about to permanently delete some files on your device but would like to have your trash sorted, send them to Les before disposing of them and she’ll send you a report.
Annie Howard interviewed Phil Elverum aka Mount Eerie for the Buddhist magazine Tricycle.
Spencer Chang has some good news – Gather, the local-first app for archiving & curating multimedia collections and client for Are.na is now officially in the App Store & Play Store.
And just to note: The Are.na Annual is now stocked at Inga Books in Chicago. If you’re a bookstore and you’d like to carry the book — or if you have suggestions for your favorite local bookstores to reach out to — let us know!
More community news? Add it here.
As always, you can check out our roadmap page which goes into the features we're building, our long-term goals, and our current numbers.
There are so many places you can spend your attention, and we’re touched that you spent it reading this letter.
The Are.na Team