Subject Matter from Subpixel Space
Subject Matter is a new and experimental "side project" of Subpixel Space. My information intake greatly outpaces my writing output, and I've been seeking a way to regularly siphon off and share some of this knowledge with others. Whereas the Subpixel Space main blog focuses on design-related topics, Subject Matter will be less limited in scope. It will include—but will not be limited to—recommended reading, unfinished thinking, links to projects by associated acts, design prompts, and even maybe intellectual dead ends (you have been warned!). It will package up all of these things into a digestible email of perfect length, like this one.
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Entry 009 of Subpixel Space is out. In this essay, Seeking New Arrangements, I explore the relation of people to their homes and the possibility for designing this relation. I do this first through a historical account of home-ownership's intentional design into Western culture. I then examining the emergent trend of digital nomadism. Although I conclude that digital nomadism is likely to remain a fringe lifestyle, I leverage some of Venkat's ideas to show how we might design a more flexible way of relating to our homes.
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I'm on Are.na, you should follow me there. Speaking of Are.na, each Subpixel Space entry from now on will include a link to Are.na. Click it to get the full set of referenced articles for the piece. It's a lazy bibliography.
Speaking of Are.na, Catherine Leigh Schmidt has an intriguing channel called ornament & crime that explores "ornament and orientalist themes." Train your aesthetic sensibilities on the contents and holler on Twitter when you come across find your own examples.
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Listening
Metome - Rolling
A track that feels like a late summer afternoon: hot, slow, relaxed, over too soon. Organic drums and an indecipherable vocal sample give distinctly South-Asian overtones, make it perfect for browsing Cath's Are.na channel. Metome is a producer more well known for his frenetic tracks, but he really pares it down on this one. A song that's no more than it needs to be. On repeat at 44 Henry Street.
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Reading
How the Snowden Saga will End
I've been reading a lot of architecture and urban theory lately, including The Stack by Benjamin Bratton. One of the key concepts in there is how technological manifest their own forms of governance, and how traditional modes of governance expand to ultimately comprise all areas opened by technology. This 2013 piece about the Snowden revelations Emin Gün Sirer came up on Twitter, and I found it helpful in making this topic more concrete for me, although it's rather negative in outlook.
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Until next time.
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Listening
Metome - Rolling
A track that feels like a late summer afternoon: hot, slow, relaxed, over too soon. Organic drums and an indecipherable vocal sample give distinctly South-Asian overtones, make it perfect for browsing Cath's Are.na channel. Metome is a producer more well known for his frenetic tracks, but he really pares it down on this one. A song that's no more than it needs to be. On repeat at 44 Henry Street.
..
Reading
How the Snowden Saga will End
I've been reading a lot of architecture and urban theory lately, including The Stack by Benjamin Bratton. One of the key concepts in there is how technological manifest their own forms of governance, and how traditional modes of governance expand to ultimately comprise all areas opened by technology. This 2013 piece about the Snowden revelations Emin Gün Sirer came up on Twitter, and I found it helpful in making this topic more concrete for me, although it's rather negative in outlook.
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Until next time.
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