lettre no. 37

Interpersonal communication is imperilled by AI, but Elvis can help. His song 'Return to Sender' recounts the tale of him apologising to a woman, after a quarrel, via post. The letter keeps coming back, but our focus is that the words were his own. Sincerely Elvis, not AI.

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lettre no. 36

 
 

They say 21 million hula hoops were sold in 2023. That's a lot of hula-ing of hoops, by any standard. But you don't have to have hula hooped recently, or ever, to gain from today's tech lesson. You just have to trust me when I tell you: hula hoops help us think about AI.

Defined as a large hoop spun round the body by gyrating the hips—for play or exercise—the hula hoop requires you to combine concentration and coordination in equal measure. One does not simply hula hoop on a whim, it's an activity done with care and intention. That’s why we should think about the hula hoop—and hooping the hula—when we employ AI.

 
How hula hoops help us think about AI
 

lettre no. 35

“Popular art is characterised by vital expression, which is direct and collective,” Dutch painter Constant Nieuwenhuys once wrote. Proliferated tech is (currently) typified by obscure objectives, infused into personal and professional domains by the digital oligarchy. But this is not the end; we’ve only just begun. Everyone will live in his own personal "cathedral," French philosopher Ivan Chtcheglov proposed. “There will be rooms more conducive to dreams than any drug, and houses where one cannot help but love.” Let’s look towards that horizon.

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lettre no. 33

Are you Schiaparelli’s robot baby?

You don't expect to see robot babies at fashion shows. So when Schiaparelli sent a techno-doll down the runway as part of its spring 2024 couture collection, the accessory provoked serious reflection—rumination that feels relevant still today.

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From the sun I learned this:

…when he goes down, over-rich; he pours gold into the sea out of inexhaustible riches, so that even the poorest fisherman still rows with golden oars. For this I once saw and did not tire of my tears as I watched it.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

 

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lettre no. 32

 
 
 

“Starting from an analysis of "body-politics,' feminists have not only revolutionized the contemporary philosophical and political discourse, but they have also begun to re-valorize the body. This has been a necessary step both to counter the negativity attached to the identification of femininity with corporeality, and co create a more holistic vision of what it means to be a human being.”

— Silvia Federici | Caliban and the Witch (2004)

 

Footage: Silvia Federici addressing Occupuy Wall Street (OWS) Making Worlds Conference, February 2012, Hofstra University. Courtesy of School of Commoning.

 

lettre no. 29

 

Colour chart by Emily Noyes Vanderpoel. Via Color problems (1903)

 

Colour chart by Emily Noyes Vanderpoel. Via Color problems (1903)

 

One of things I'm thinking about lately: what it means to be creative is up for debate.

AI tooling has changed the game for all of us. Many things that used to take a long time are now shockingly simple, and fast too. At the same time, many people are asking — from both a philosophical and practical standpoint: how can we support and preserve what’s unique and special about the human creative process?

Right now, the tech industry is focused on productivity, efficiency, and optimization at all costs. I get it. As someone who is building a startup, where we need to squeeze the most we can out of our limited resources to survive and thrive, we also want to build as fast as possible...

But something is getting lost in the mix: protecting space for the inefficiencies of human creativity. The random walk that gets you to something incredible. The unexpected connections and observations that bring you to a new destination. The joy of discovery — and the awe of your own participation in it — that keeps you connected to the work.

 
 
 

I still think that’s how you build craft, how you solve hard problems, and how you stay engaged and motivated in your work and your purpose. For me, it impacts both the outcome, and the story you tell yourself about it.

It's all pretty "meta" for me, because at my company Focused Space we are quite literally building a platform to help people protect space for deep work, make progress on what matters most, and have fun doing it (in community with other humans, not AI).

I'm interested in seeing how human creativity evolves. I think we need to protect, nurture, defend, and value the unquantifiable aspects of creation — no matter what new tools rise to prominence in the years to come.

Words by Alexis Hope | Head of Product at Focused Space

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lettre no. 28

The Romantics lived through a turbulent period where technological advances were changing labour conditions and reshaping the countryside with railways and “dark Satanic mills”. As a reaction, they turned to nature and looked inward to human nature.

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lettre no. 26

 
 

Nature is beautiful,

… not because it changes beautifully, but simply because it changes.

 
 

Metrobot (1988) by © Nam June Paik courtesy of Cincinnati Preservation Association. Via JSTOR.

 
 

lettre no. 25

 
 

Of shapes and space,

nothing is as it seems, and time is a puppet under the fingers of the Moon. A god blesses Beauty, among the rhymes and verses in which Love is not without Knowledge.

Enrico

 

Image by Harry Burnett. Einstein with Puppet. Via JSTOR.

 

lettre no. 24

 
 

Time to leave now, get out of this room, go somewhere, anywhere; sharpen this feeling of happiness and freedom, stretch your limbs, fill your eyes, be awake, wider awake, vividly awake in every sense and every pore.

Stefan Zweig, The Post-Office Girl

 
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Image by xinanimodelacra via Giphy

lettre no. 23

In William Blake's late-18th-century work, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, he mentions "any man of mechanical talents." Blake describes a writer characterized by mental or rational functions used to manipulate symbols and thereby author texts that lack insight and are graceless--that is, unable to receive a boon neither compelled nor owed--such that a text generated by means of those talents may seem more crassly determined than miraculous or gifted.

Although Blake focuses his critique on the writings of Swedenborg specifically, Blake makes a larger point: the mentality or mindset of a writer can be important. Given recent technological advances, consider Blake's text altered to omit the phrase "man of" such that:


"any...mechanical talents may from the writings of Paracelsus or Jacob Behmen produce ten thousand volumes of equal value with Swedenborg’s, and from those of Dante or Shakespeare an infinite number."

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lettre no. 21

 

Back to BASICs.

 
 

The Tektronix 4051 Graphic Computing System was introduced in October 1975. Highlight from brochure: “The individual user can keep personal projects local and uncomplicated. There are no sign-on protocols to interrupt the train of thought and no connect charges to worry about.” Step back in time below.

 
 
 

All materials sourced via Tektronix 4051.