β 10 month update on family home + confessionsss
Hello!
I promised that this email list was the best way to stay up to date on new stories on the blog...I'm embarrassed to say that this has not been true π
π‘ A building is a thinking tool
This is a photo essay on the first 10 months of construction of our family home, wrapped around a rumination on architecture as a way of knowing.
If you subscribed primarily for house updates, this post has 50+ photos of what it looks like so far!
Read: A building is a thinking tool β
And here are other notes from earlier in the year:
My last email newsletter was in January, almost an entire year ago. Why have I been so hesitant to send messages? I think it's at least partly because I suspect that a lot of you subscribed specifically for updates on the family house building project, and so part of me feels bashful about sending anything not directly related to that.
But I have several interests, and as I think about 2023, I intend to write about them more frequently. So! Let's exorcise this bashfulness with a re-introduction.
Hello! My name is Emmanuel, and I treat my personal website as a sort of networked notebook for things I'm curious about. When I post something on there, I'll let you know here.
While my primary area of curiosity these days is architecture and the built environment (especially in Africa), I enjoy seeing patterns between seemingly unlike things. So you can also expect riffs on a wide range of topics, including ornament, libraries, fragrances, spatial thinking as technology, media, imagined communities, cookbooks, abundance, the relationships between thought and thing, and more.
What is this email newsletter for?
I've been thinking about this a lot ever since I discovered recently that 400 people had subscribed to this email list (!) I feel like I should be a better steward of your attention.
This newsletter is partly to a way to distribute my writing. But I also hope that it becomes a place to chat with kindred spirits. I'm not in touch with many people in Accra who share my curiosities. It gets a bit lonely, tbh.
So hopefully this newsletter becomes something of a mindgarden, pollinated by our conversations. If you come across a book/podcast/video/reference or if you have an idea that you believe to be even halfway related to one of my areas of curiosity, please hit reply and let me know!
I don't know where this newsletter is going, but this is what I can promise:
that I will write clearly, playfully, and compellingly, in a way that delights in the wonder in things
that if you write to me, I will take your ideas seriously, no matter how odd they sound, and I'll reply earnestly
Okay! That felt good haha. It felt oddly cathartic writing all that out π
If none of the above sounds like your cup of tea, I promise to not take it personally if you unsubscribe (the unsubscribe link is at the very bottom of this email) β€οΈ If it does sound like your idea of a good time, I hope we become a conspiracy of friends π
Here's a parting gift before I sign off.
I'm in love with this painting of light. The word that comes to mind is haptic. I can feel the dance of dappled light against my skin, a kaleidoscope of reds against inner eyelids. I don't speak Japanese, but I believe this is the artist.
Wait, one more thing: tell me, what are you working on? I mean that! I'm genuinely curious. It doesn't need to be a huge project, it could even be "dinner." I'm just curious to learn more about the people on the other side of this screen.
Okay, that's all from me. Have a great weekend!
Love,
Emmanuel
(claps hands with a thunderous crack. a luminous crater remains, the air smelling faintly of Le Labo ThΓ© Noir 29)