hey! this week is the start of some big changes, after a rocky couple of months. this is all stuff I’ve been mulling over for a while, but I finally felt like I couldn’t wait anymore and will just be going for it.
ISSUE 1: MEMBERSHIPS
when I launched this newsletter with Substack, literally the lowest price I could charge was $5/mo and $50 a year because that was a Substack thing. even though this newsletter is a lot of work, that’s a lot of money when I know that many of you are students, and many of you are not living on the US dollar. Ghost, the platform I use now, has been teasing tiered pricing for a while, and I’ve been waiting for that feature rollout to offer a new lower tier. well, I know how software development goes, and I don’t want to wait anymore just to preserve some legacy pricing.
from now on, memberships are $2/mo and $20 a year if you want to support this work.
if you were previously subscribed at a higher rate, you should be discounted to the lower rate going forward (please email me if you aren’t)
my hope is that more people can and will support this work at a lower price point, those people will feel some pride or agency in supporting this work, and I will actually be able to roll out more content by taking on less contract work. I will also feel better about potentially offering member-exclusive content in the future if I feel like it is more financially accessible. I know a lot of both art and technology is predicated on the idea that if you love it you’ll do it for free, but I am a human with meatspace needs. more subscribers means more specialized content and more features that I can build for this site. so if you can afford it, think about it! you can register as a supporting member here. additionally, if you’d like to be a one-time donor, you can always donate via Paypal.
tl;dr: memberships are now cheaper!!!!!! become a member please!
ISSUE 2: SOCIAL MEDIA
basically the only reason I still use social media is because I do this newsletter, and then I get sucked into all the endless dark corners of those apps in the process. I am tired of it! for one, it is a really inefficient way to gather or share information. this newsletter partly exists because of how inefficient it is!!
the other reason is that I just feel BAD spending time on social media, and even if every one of you became subscribing members I don’t think it would be worth how bad it feels. social media is so siloed, and so corporatized, and so toxic that I can’t keep making excuses for myself to be on it. it unabashedly sucks, and it doesn’t care that it sucks. I love art and technology a lot less for spending time on platforms like Twitter and Instagram, and I don’t want to feel that way anymore.
part of my initial excitement about moving to this new site was the idea that I would have more power to collect, organize, and archive information about this very specific niche in new ways that are more free from these bad places. well, it’s hard to do that when I’m spending X hours a week sucked into Twitter pits and then feeling sad about it after. I’m logging out of Twitter and Instagram today for the foreseeable future. if you want to be in touch I recommend emailing me or joining the community Discord. if you, like, actually KNOW me and we primarily have talked via social media, feel free to reach out and get my actual phone number to be in touch on Telegram, Signal, whatever. call me!
the plus side to this is I will actually be able to answer my emails and spend time on Discord if I’m not having the life sucked out of me by social media!!
tl;dr: social media sucks and I am taking a break! if you want to be in touch, especially to submit to the newsletter, do it via email or Discord.
ok onto the real shit!!!!
resources!
this looks extremely useful! Em Lazer-Walker has built a free, no-code tool for turning any HTML5 browser game into native Windows and Mac apps! if you’ve made something with Twine (or Bitsy, PuzzleScript, etc.) and want to sell it on Steam or just protect it from breaking browser API changes, this is for you!!! you can check out the project here on Github.
in these extremely online times, I’m always on the lookout for tools that might make the creative process a lil easier. I came across Kinopio this week, and though I haven’t had much time to play with it yet I can say that it’s already inordinately cuter than Miro when it comes to mind-mapping and creative exploration. give it a try, especially if, like me, you feel frustrated by using a lot of extremely corporate office-type tools for your creative practice that is anything but corporate.
the latest season of the Public Books 101 podcast is all about data:
How long has human life been quantified as data, and in what contexts? What are some major implications of humanity being measured as data? How are people pushing back against the datafication of human life, work, health, and citizenship?
check out the first episode, featuring artist Mimi Onuoha and reporter Lam Thuy Vo, here.
open source best practices are as much about community etiquette as they are about actual git processes. bookmark this handy dandy guide by Pragati Verma, and maybe even add a link in the readme for your next project!
here’s a fascinating deep dive with Golan Levin into the hairy truth of Christie’s Warhol NFT auction:
Dear @ChristiesInc @gcerutti: As you advertise the authenticity of Warhol's "five original drawings" on the NFT blockchain, I'm concerned that your collectors might be confused about what they're bidding on—since you're not auctioning the originals, which were created at 320×200.
— Golan Levin (@golan) May 20, 2021
educational opportunities!
Hyperlink always has something good going on, but the Websites for Creatives class starting tomorrow seems especially relevant to you all! the class is specifically designed for creatives and artists who want to learn to code and really own their personal webpages. you can also check out everything that is launching next month here! I am extraordinarily tempted by the personal filmmaking course even tho I am not sure how I would have time to give it the love it deserves!!
CUNA has a new Spanish-language creative coding cohort starting on June 23! they have also started offering tiered pricing to account for economic differences in different regions, which is an interesting and exciting model to see! learn more and register here!
open calls!
the Second Annual Small File Media Festival is accepting submissions for their 2021 program! why not embrace the burden of your carbon footprint by making the coolest thing possible for either their under 5MB or under 22MB category??? learn more and submit here!
the Institut Ramon Llull, New Art Foundation, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, La Caldera and Hanger have an open call for 5 grants for the production-research of artistic pieces that explore the confluence between art, science and technology. applications are due by June 4! the grants include workspace at the Hangar Interaction lab in Barcelona for varying durations. learn more and apply here.
Culture² is launching a publishing platform for a peer & practitioner reviewed journal as well as an asynchronous conference this fall highlighting the practices of researchers within community science, creative biology, and ancestral knowledge. they have an open call for submissions for the journal and the conference, both due June 15:
Wonderville has an open call for their new in-house arcade cabinet, the Wondercab. the cabinet extremely cool-looking, is built with digital joysticks that support 8-way movement, and can support up to 3 buttons per player. they’ll be showcasing games for 3-month residencies. learn more and submit an application here!
upcoming events!
today, May 26! 12PM UTC-4! the Future Sketches group has been hosting a series of public talks on artist-built toolkits, and this week’s will feature artist and engineer Patricio Gonzalez Vivo. you can learn more and grab the Zoom link here, as well as check out past recordings of talks with Phoenix Perry and Baku Hashimoto. next week: Matt DesLauriers.
May 26 – 28! UCT-4! Digital.Visual.Material is a 3-day virtual symposium exploring the cross-disciplinary construction of a computational imaginary of design through scholarly presentations and first-hand accounts on pioneering efforts to transform computers into visual and creative media. each day’s session has a distinct theme with some extremely interesting line-ups. learn more and register here!
Sunday, May 30! 3:30PM UTC-4! Tech Learning Collective are hosting a hands-on workshop this weekend where you, yes YOU, can learn the basics of website security auditing. learn how attackers exploit real vulnerabilities by launching live-fire (but legal and safe!) Web exploits against a practice target! learn more and register here.
just for lulz!
ONE LAST TWEET
— olia lialina (@GIFmodel) May 13, 2021
* ~ housekeeping ~ *
if you have anything in the works that you are excited about (an event, a workshop, a new project), please send me all the details. if I didn’t respond to your email or did and nothing happened, I totally forgot and you can feel free to bug me again. if you wanna share links or chat, there is now a Discord server that you can use here. as always, becoming a member of an Artist’s Guide to Computation helps support me and my work directly.
