June 15, 2021

Prolix and incomplete

Art by London based artist Mark Powell. A portrait of James Baldwin drawn using a bic ballpoint pen on antique ephemera, in this case, a New York City map.

READING IN MY TABS

• “When the system hasn’t historically stood for you, why sacrifice yourself to uphold it? Especially when you have the power to change it instead.”
• This research paper by Neil Cohn makes a strong case that the high level of visual literacy in Japan is developed through repetitive practice at school drawing comics/anime, one that overcomes the “drawing stagnation” that otherwise commonly occurs at puberty. As he writes, “Humans do seem to have an innate capacity for representing concepts graphically, but attaining full proficiency requires interacting with an external system of representations. This requires that a learner is exposed to a rich graphic environment with learnable signs and has the motivation (such as social acceptance) to acquire fluency.”
• I have always been fascinated by how Gen Z studies online now — music, Discord rooms, TikTok accounts etc. and glad to stumble upon this rich essay on this culture.
• ”… we were supposed to find ways to exist within the broken system, by heeding the unspoken rules, watching our own backs, and privately fixing things when they went wrong. Along the way, many of us did more than just survive a bad situation. We learned how to thrive within these environments, becoming devils ourselves. We, the Grateful Generation, owe you younger people in the room an apology.”
• TIL numérasse, “a French neologism that describes the annoying and massive amount of digital forms (online or pdf) that one has to fill for bureaucratic reasons”. Well being a Malaysian and could completely relate to this, I guess this is universal.
• I have never heard of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and that’s not the point of this itemised bullet – but I am struck by the word ‘prolix’ in this article, which means ‘tediously lengthy’. More insulting was when in the article, the High Court deemed the band’s legal claims were ‘prolix’ and ‘incomplete’. Phew. (via Russell Davies)
• Also, TIL komorebi.
• We need to talk about screenshots.
• ”…a mute sadness settles in, like dust, for the long, long haul. But if I do not get up and sing. If I do not get up and dance again, the savages will win.”

RESOURCES AND TOOLKITS

• How to make technical choices with an explicit focus on justice and anti-oppression.
• Tech tools for human rights documenters.
• This site from Data 4 Black Lives explores the history of data capitalism from slavery to today. They recently released a report called Data Capitalism and Algorithmic Racism. (via Design Justice)
• Organise is a gathering place and a campaign management tool for people who want to instigate change at their workplace. Among other things, it provides templates for petitions, open letters and surveys that can be launched and distributed anonymously within an organisation. Sounds OK, but I would pose questions about their data privacy terms, given that workers surveillance is in the rise these days as everyone pivots to working from home.
• Types of dark patterns.

STATUS BOARD

• Reading: I turned to fantasy novels these days in an effort to stop/reduce myself from further doomscrolling. Now reading Samantha Shannon’s tome, standing at an intimidating 848 pages, The Priory of the Orange Tree, deemed an “epic feminist fantasy perfect for fans of Game of Thrones” (although not a fan of GoT).
• Listening: I just finished Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows duology and still found myself mentally in Ketterdam.
• Watching: “You’ve got to write yourself in.”
• Food & Drink: Made sardine sambal out of this recipe from Periuk (I am part of this project!)
• Mood: Perpetually this – “all I have is a pile of papers covered with wrong words.“