Hi from the bus!

Welcome to my new journey towards making the internet fun and generative for myself again. I needed out from the pushy tendrils of The Algorithm.

Thus, the birth of this newsletter!

The short:

I love freedom and wandering and chance encounters and putting things next to each other. I am excited to write to you from time to time with these relationships that emerge and subside, with text, image, links to all sorts of things that have charmed my attention of late. I love that I, personally, can write directly to you and you can opt in or out, passing through as you feel.

The long:

I am too excitable to stop sharing completely. I pick up too many rocks, make too many things, and discover too many weird goings on in the natural world. My whole existence could probably be summed up by "Wow look at this!" and that sure isn't going away. Plus, thanks to Naz’s writing workshop back in the fall, I'm writing like a possessed woman.

At the same time, the battle for attention has exhausted me. I find myself wanting to go underground, discoverable if one happens to come through but otherwise be quiet and private. Sophia and I were texting about the idea of latency the other day, letting something grow unseen.

Plus, it turns out that I am weak-willed when it comes to reels of sweet pitbulls and couple’s calisthenics challenges. A few months ago, after one of my evening calls to friends, I realized I'd done nothing but look at reels. For an hour. I was enraged. I did not spend seven months (and my entire apartment lease buyout) on building this bus and restructuring my way of life to sit looking at my phone.

The next day I stumbled across Unplatform in another newsletter (Words of Mouth). Unplatform is a step by step guide for getting off of social media. This was the tool I didn’t know I needed. Damian's guide both validated my desire to share (a need currently questionably met by instagram) and also helped me remember what I loved about the early web’s sense of wandering and discovery. Many of those same tools (email, rss feeds, strange personal websites!) not only still exist but are being used by super smart, wildly interesting people! It invited me back to roaming through links and personal connections and self-curated feeds. With a little effort, I could step away from an increasingly forceful, invisible architecture pushing my dopamine levers. Harvesting the most attention was not my definition of success, and the constant hidden imperative to do so was hampering my own work. It was time to leave for more generative modes of expression.

I'm not saying you should quit social media, just that if you want to, Unplatform is awesome at addressing some of the reasons that might be holding you back.

Other places you might find me as I embark on this new digital endeavor:

• my personal fieldnotes website where I share all sorts of notes and images from the field (but don’t overwhelm your inbox with my daily enthusiasms)

• my more traditional portfolio website full of the art I'm making outside and at various residencies

• The Emplacement Society – which is a good place to find out how to meet me outside backpacking, camping or teaching outdoor workshops. It's also the press I will be releasing books through, starting this summer!

Some news:

• I'll be back in LA all of April and want to visit your studio, meet for coffee, do city things!

• I'm teaching an Introduction to Backpacking workshop on 4/25 at the Feminist Center for Creative work (and there is also a beginners campout!) This workshop is geared towards women and gender non-conforming folks.

• I’m going to UMOCA’s Fieldworks residency at the end of May at the Canyonlands Research Center where I am SO EXCITED to be able to meet with artists from all over the Colorado Plateau.

• I'll be up in Wyoming by end of summer, where I'll stay until my October residency at Jentel :)

Love from the dirt and sun,

Christina (and Bird the Dog)