We're gonna need a bigger boat
Hey everyone! There's, uhhh... a lot more of you than the last time I wrote (!) and I'm so excited and grateful that folks are interested in following along with my absurd projects. I know many of you are here because the first few episodes of the knitting machine series piqued your interest, so I'll cut right to the juicy stuff:
The next instalment is live! And it is a monster, which I mean in the most affectionate way possible. It is my hour-long love-letter to the process of creative problem-solving, the beating heart of the series: The Design, aka Everything (else) I learned about knitting machines while designing one of my own.
(Please don't let the run-time put you off; there are chapter markers in the show notes if you prefer to break it into smaller chunks.)
Writing, producing, performing, editing, animating, and publishing this video was an intense, months'-long endeavour, without even counting the hours put into knitting machine project itself. I'm so glad it's done... and, after an extremely long nap, I can't wait to do it again. As the view counts have grown, I've had a few messages hinting that some number of people who've enjoyed my work would like to materially support the "doing it again" part, and I won't lie: that would make a bunch of this more sustainable. Sidestepping for now the issue of how to value my time and creativity and build a fulfilling career at the intersection of art and technology... it turns out that making cool stuff is rarely entirely zero-budget. I've been squeezing all the mileage I can out of the resources I already own or can borrow, or otherwise access for free, but unfortunately expenses still loom.
This little newsletter is a good example: as the project gets more interest, I'm approaching the subscriber limit for my current (free) plan, and when I reach the magic number I'll have to make a tough choice about whether to move to paid hosting or put the emails on hold. At that point I may consider adding an optional (no paywall) pay-what-you-wish subscription tier, but in the meantime I'd love to know: what are your favourite ways to support (financially or otherwise) the people making the stuff that inspires, entertains, and/or educates you? Fellow creators, what types of support have been most helpful and/or meaningful?
One of the (free) things I like to do is simply to share what I've been watching, reading, or listening to. So without further ado:
The talks from the XOXO festival started trickling out a couple of weeks ago and–whew, what a line up! All the presentations I've seen so far have made a big impression on me, each for very different reasons:
- Dan Olson on the toxicity of creative envy (just @ me next time, jeez)
- Ed Yong. Ed Yong, y'all
- Erin Kissane on "build[ing] better and safer networks for collective survival"; it's impossible to capture everything this talk is about in a pithy bullet point, it's inspiring and infuriating and heartbreaking
- Molly White coming through with some much-needed hope for the future of the web
Thanks for being here. It means a lot. ❤️
Until next time,
xoxo Sparks
P.S. Apparently, yes, the actual line from the film is frequently misquoted and it's actually "you're going to need a bigger boat" but that doesn't really scan for me and I got vaccinated in both arms yesterday and I want to be done typing so we're all going to be cool about it, kthx