Impulse / intention
Also: stats, soil, schools, swimming pools, road signs and jam
I found myself making jam this weekend, for the first time in my life.
You will find yourself wondering what relevance this has in a newsletter about technology, culture, sustainability and play. Is it time to unsubscribe?
Roger Federer, the silkiest of tennis players, was in reflective mood this summer and his one particular revelation was quickly rehashed by stock market investor bros and Insta gurus. The stat: he won 80% of his matches, as you’d expect of a champ, but only 54% of the points he played, which might as well be a coin toss. The beautiful thing about these numbers is they can be spun into all kinds of lessons about riding your luck, fine margins and embracing failure.
Federer’s lesson is to quickly let go, move on and focus only on what’s in front of you. Or “be more goldfish”, to quote another great sports figure, Ted Lasso.
Here’s Daniel McKee doing something brilliant with sound, animation and …road signs. To be filed alongside Ambient ScotRail Beats.
Six Inches of Soil has been premiering in pubs, tents and cinemas around the UK since its official January release. There are plenty more screenings coming up and you can buy the film or host your own community screening using their handy toolkit.
Related, is this £20k Climate Action Together fund (application deadline 31st July!) for filmmakers that need support distributing their work. Two films will be selected.
Next time you feel yourself falling into the scroll hole or accidentally ordering something on Amazon, let this sentence rattle around your brain instead:
…digital technologies now privilege our impulses over our intentions.
James Williams, “Stand Out of Our Light” (2018)
And whilst we’re on philosophical tidbits, I love-hate this sharp take on knowledge and the resulting paradox (by chance, from another 2018 book):
“If your ambition is to maximise short-term gain without regard to the long-term cost…you are better off not knowing the cost. If you want to preserve your personal immunity to the hard problem, it’s better never to really understand those problems. There is an upside to ignorance, and a downside to knowledge. Knowledge makes life messier. It makes it a bit more difficult for a person who wishes to shrink the world to a worldview.”
Michael Lewis, “The Fifth Risk” (2018)
Some quick links
A very weird but kinda compelling hack-toy-gadget that does, basically, everything and nothing. Flipper Zero.
A particularly satisfying online art game from Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art.
I adore these “mechanical masterpieces”. Their interpretative value is questionable, but they are the highest grade of gateway drug.
Two lovely projects from the BBC’s “People Fixing the World” podcast.
“Culture Vitamins” started as a three year initiative in Denmark in 2016 and has since been extended indefinitely. Participants were prescribed culture in various forms, and it won’t come as a surprise to anyone that they reported:
…increased energy level, increased self-esteem, more joy in life, less panic attacks, increased motivation, a better understanding of own needs, an increased level of self-care and, in addition, some of the participants said that they felt more aligned to the labour market.
Culture Vitamins - an Arts on Prescription project in Denmark (2019)
I particularly like the idea that “arts and culture makes space for emotions”.
The second stand-out episode was “The school run by kids”. I’ve become fascinated by the structures (as opposed to the platitudes) by which organisations enact genuine co-design (we’re trying to do that with the Critical Action Lab).
Some examples: the kids hire the teachers and run the morning assembly; the kids do the shopping and serve the meals; the kids review bad behaviour and can even issue expulsions.
The school is free but students — and their families! — commit to 400 hours of community service each year. Adults still teach the central Thai curriculum but the big decisions and day to day running of the school is handled by 10 student subcommittees: purchasing, safety, discipline, vegetable growing and so on.
Other schools are adopting the model. Sharing control can be scary but the right framework for shared responsibility can totally transform the experience for everyone involved.
Ah yes. Jam.
I have been intending to scrump some of the cherry plums in Haggerston park for the last three years but have succumbed to other impulses until now. I try not to be noticed, casually popping the odd fallen gloop of plummy sugar into a Co-Op bag. I shake the trunk and a few orbs thunk satisfyingly to the ground around me. An old lady emerges from the undergrowth and lays down a large stick and insists I use it. She disappears and I stare at the stick. I poke a few colourful clumps and fail to catch a single thing that falls. Back on the ground, I scan for unspoilt spheres amidst the crushed pulp. Four black wheels trundle into view and stop. I raise my eyes and clock the Hackney branding. How do you cook them, he asks. Uhm. Bit of sugar, bit of water? He’s worked here 32 years and knows every fruit tree for a quick summer snack. We natter a little longer and then he’s off, calling back: now I know how to cook ‘em! I head home feeling far less shifty than I did before two almost wordless interactions with fellow plum fans. Nature’s bounty. Not just the sticky fruit, but the echo of our hunter-gathering ways, quietly appreciating each other’s company in search of sustenance.
Thanks for sticking around!
Tell someone else about this newsletter so I can tickle their braincells every few months.
Bye for now,
B.
PS - Be there and be square. LOL. There’s an IRL Minecraft experience! It’s in the US. Not content with being a library for forbidden books and modelling the great fire of London, Minecraft is going “immersive”. Very little detail exists. One can only hope it’s not a repeat of the spartan, AI-rendered Willy Wonka car crash.
PPS - Dans le bains! New levels of immersion from Moment Factory - check out this gnarly water park in France. I’ve always expected Futuroscope (a 1990s technology resort) to slide into obscurity but this 6,000 sqm pool-plus-projection space is yet another reinvention to keep it on the map.
