reading response 2.1.22
1. the internet's back-to-the-land movement
the idea of "local" internet communities really intrigues me; it's true that most people, including myself, think of all of the internet as needing to be reachable by everyone, everywhere, but it doesn't have to be that way to truly be considered accessible. it just has to be such that people who like the same things can be connected online despite physical distance, which definitely doesn't require as much overhead as big sites like facebook. i have a soft spot for the niche forums where i spent my online-youth, always available but seldom populous, and feel like the internet could benefit from the revival of these kinds of simple communities again.
often, when thinking about societal improvement (not quite utopias, but the winding pathways to them), i find the biggest obstacle is scale. it's nearly impossible to effect meaningful, permanent change on something as vast as the entire world wide web, because everyone wants something different, and even if they wanted the same thing, collective habits are difficult to break. but focusing instead on "locality" could at least let sections of people bring about the changes they want, and being able to build, maintain, and modify their own small communities would feel a lot more direct and impactful. it's like what they say about activism: change starts at home!
2. on how to grow an idea
fukuoka's "do-nothing" farming method is ingenious! it feels like the way i would have thought farming happened at large. i am reminded of american indigenous practices, where natives rotate crops in order to preserve the richness of the soil, rather than the european method of growing only one kind of crop and accelerate the depletion of nutrients. fukuoka's thinking seems to be in line with the former, paying special attention to the minutiae of how nature functions around him, and treating nature as his collaborator rather than a tool.
odell's presentation of ideation as following the same process (listening intently to the environment and letting it influence us, rather than forcing something to happen) rang true the moment i read it. we really do get creative inspiration from the world around us--and in a sense, that makes the ideas we have not only ours, but nature's, too. nothing exists in a vacuum; it's impossible to say that an idea is truly original. but it's hard for creators, in our increasingly individualistic society, to have that kind of humility. we want to feel like we've made something for ourselves! there's a sort of beauty in admitting that creation is always a collaborative process, though. and in doing so, perhaps we open ourselves up to more opportunities to create.
3. learning trails
while reading this article, the concept of blogchains reminded me a lot of a recent phenomenon on tumblr, where there are posts containing several screenshots of many different works, all connected implicitly by a common theme. t doesn't really have a proper name, but most people refer to it as "web weaving". the content of these "webs" can be anything--poems, novel excerpts, movie screencaps, song lyrics, photographs, works of art, or even pictures drawn by other tumblr users. sometimes the original poster (or OP) will state the common theme at the bottom, sometimes they won't. often, other users will add their own relevant media snippets to the post, further enriching it with their own unique interpretation of the theme.
this sort of user-specific synthesis of sources, to me, is reminiscent of shaw's musings on continuous re-orientation, organic information-absorbance, and thought processes made tangible. trail-making is a personalized, flowy style of learning, which feels much more natural and connected than reading one book at a time, or slowly picking off emails. the importance of intent in this style of learning cannot be understated, and applying that sort of intention to how we navigate online spaces would be especially relevant and beneficial.
4. on building knowledge networks
i love édouard u.'s analogy for learning as a garden, which we allow to "grow naturally or ... sculpt ... deliberately". sometimes sculpting is necessary, as in the cases he describes, but it can also be beneficial to let learning grow wild. i admire his tenacity in creating reading networks by continually and purposefully consuming multiple works at once, allowing his mind to make connections between them in real time.
i wonder, too, if there will ever be a tool that aids us in this endeavor, as it seems any tool built for the purposes of learning guidance inevitably guides us to learn in one specific way. perhaps it is one of those things that must be learned on our own, because it is inherently different for everyone--an experience shaped by the very nature of who we are.
5. interview with charles broskoski on are.na
the concept of are.na is so incredibly fascinating to me. i wish i had known it existed years ago. i love saving links to things i'm interested in--i have an absolutely atrocious and disorganized bookmarks bar--but have always been discouraged from seeing the connections between them due to the fact that a list of links is just that: a list. the visual component scratches that itch, i think; it reminds me of when i was in vis 220: digital animation, and prof. szetela asked us to make tumblr blogs filled with our inspirations for our final projects. i've continued this habit with my junior and senior vis shows, and i often like to look back on what i've saved, just out of curiosity. one of broskoski's highlighted lines in this interview is, "it's important to think deeply about why you like what you like." and i really do think that's true! it's important to know yourself, and to be curious about what you do and why you do it.
i also really like broskoski's idea of a generous artist being one who makes tools for other artists. it's like how the best teachers are those who help their students develop new ways of thinking, without trying to impress a certain mode onto them. and teachers in themselves are generous intellectuals by creating these thought-tools for students, who are themselves burgeoning intellectuals. are.na certainly reflects broskoski's desire to give people a way to create and reflect on their artistic processes; i hope it continues to grow towards this goal.
6. overall
the overarching theme in each of these articles of developing a more organic method of learning is deeply pleasing to me; i've always been frustrated by the way we learn in schools, and only wish there was a good way to implement this unique way of thinking on a grander scale. but obtaining and being successful at a career necessitates the kind of sculpture-oriented gardening employed in our current education system, so for the society we live in right now, it is perhaps a necessary evil. that shouldn't stop us from learning naturally in everyday life, though! curiosity is rarely linear; it doesn't hurt to cultivate that hunger for knowledge, and to use tools like are.na as we explore and discover more about the world (and ourselves).
i am continually brought back to the web-weaving community on tumblr, which most exquisitely exemplifies this fascination with connection. i consume these posts with great delight; i love seeing how other people connect things in their mind, and trying to figure out the connections for myself when they seem a bit vague, and it inspires me to look for my own connections with the many things i see out in the wild. that sort of thing can really only happen organically, i think.
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