OpenLoops.07

My mother has no blinds on any of the bedroom windows in her home. In Barcelona where I live, that would normally drive me crazy. Spanish days starting long after the sun has risen and end long after it sets. But on the island where my mother lives, in Canada, I’ve noticed that I’m unbothered by a more natural clock. Here everything moves slowly. We sleep early and wake early.

I walked 45 minutes into town the other day just because I was up and I could! It was a really nice unhurried early morning walk to one of the tiny town’s only two cafés. It opened at 7am, right when my boyfriend and I arrived. Along the way, we saw wild turkeys roaming the streets, a few deer too, and a total of three cars drive by.

I’d initially expected to put OpenLoops on hold while I was on holiday here, but ever since we’ve arrived I’ve been swimming in creative ideas. I’m reaching for my sketchbook without a second thought, and playing around with sound ideas in my head. The creative activities that are usually the first to fall away during more “productive” periods, that can feel like one more to-do to get to, are suddenly occupying my time in the most natural of ways.

For me productivity traps tends to manifest as anxiety around whether what I’m creating/learning/engaging with is the “best use” of my time. See also: feeling the need to create non-stop and in high volume, and the pull to only showcase work that highlights certain specific “useful” skill sets. (A lot of air quoting this week, possibly to remind myself all of this is BS.) These two other traps seem to follow me and my friends (thankfully I’m not alone,) everywhere. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, especially with AI executing certain skills and techniques increasingly well.

In a recent post to the feed, I mentioned that I’ve been compiling thoughts from artists and curator friends on the topic.

Selfishly, I’m doing this as a way to cross check the internal conversations I’ve been having with myself on the topic. I wanted to compare and contrast the opinions of people from a variety of creative backgrounds to see if there is any nuance to surface. Conversations online often lean really hard in one direction or another which turns the conversation into more of a quest to pick a right side rather than to actually look at what’s going on with any amount of curiosity. So far I’ve spoken with artists from the 3D space, web based creative coding, large scale real-time A/V show production, design, and curation. I’m excited to share the common themes I’m noticing, because there are a few and they make me pretty hopeful.

a quote

From an interview between journalist Ezra Klein and Brian Eno from October 2025. Here Ezra Klein reflects on facts versus feelings and how Brian Eno frames art. You can listen to the quote as a short clip here with Podcast Magic, or find the full conversation linked below at the end of the printed quote.

We think feelings lie and we think facts don’t ​And I’ve come to believe that’s a very simplistic way to think about both feelings and facts… ​To make form into content here while you talk, I have this whole list of questions, and in a rational, coherent, factual way, I know what the next question should be. What I’m actually doing is watching a feeling that is moving around in my chest while you speak… There’s a moment when I know that you said something that’s at the next place we should go and it’s not the thing on my sheet of paper.

…No great interviews are logical… we’re working in a medium that doesn’t work that way. Conversation doesn’t work logically. And I do think we’ve degraded our relationship, our attunement to what we feel, and that’s actually a mistake. ​I understood one argument you’re making about art which feels true to me, is that it’s a way of practicing our attunement to our feelings.
— Ezra Klein | A Breath of Fresh Air with Brian Eno

a reminder

I was recently talking to some friends about these slower summer months, and people feeling nervous about taking time off sharing, or wanting to keep sharing but not having things to share that speak directly to the types of things they usually share and feeling nervous about that. And what we settled on was that the blessing of the curse of the never ending flux of info that we’re all swimming in is that if you choose not share for a little while, no one will really notice because there’s so much other stuff out there to fill up an space you might leave in your absence. But also, if when you create, you create from a place of conviction and experience and pleasure, your people will be excited or at the very least curious for your what you have to share. Most people are just recycling old content during these summer months anyways, so anything you’re excited about sharing that’s freshly made willt be interesting for people.

an interview and a YT channel

I really enjoyed hearing how Li Yilei explains her inspiration and shares her every day life reflections. In particular what she had to say about why she left visual art for sound art because of how sound flows up and out of her body. She didn’t really get that from making visual art despite her time in art school. In general I always love hearing about other artists processes, so if that’s something you enjoy too, definitely check out the channel behind that produced this video, hometownjournal. There are many more episodes available there.

an article

My internet twin, digital BFF and Curiously Minded co founder (RIP) has just written about her journey developing and keeping an almost daily practice coding shaders. 6 years and counting of coding and sharing GLSL shaders! This is definitely a long read, but a really inspiring one too. Admittedly I’m super biased, but ilithya is incredibly talented and thoughtful about her work. She goes over how and why she’s kept at it, the different themes she’s explored through the years as well as some tips on how to get your own regular practice going and some news on an upcoming shader workshop series.