We’re hosting an event in London in a few weeks to launch Mapped , a project we’ve been working on over the last six months with the support of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. Mapped integrates with common organising platforms like Airtable, Mailchimp and Action Network to augment membership lists with other useful data sources. Organisers can visualise their membership lists on a map overlaid…
In December I went to the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano to teach a seminar on Transformative Work as Livelihood for the Eco-Social Design masters students. Over three days, we explored potential pathways available to socially and politically engaged designers, how to balance financial stability with meaningful work, and feminist strategies that ensure that transformative practices remain open…
Mobilising Hearts and Minds I’m just about to start the Mobilising Hearts and Minds course initiated by Max Haiven and Sarah Stein Lubrano . We’ll be exploring the question “How can we change people’s minds and create the conditions where they not only support but join the movements for radical change we desperately need?” I’ve been following Max’s work for a while and am in the middle of reading…
Very excited to read What is post-branding? How to Counter Fundamentalist Marketplace Semiotics , a book by Jason Grant & Oliver Vodeb published by Set Margins (which seems to be publishing all the good design books these days). Post-Branding empowers better design of public communication for civic and activist groups by replacing corporate branding’s predatory principles with a new set of…
I’ve just come back from an inspiring week at the Community Economies in Action practice retreat in Terragnolo, Italy. It was designed and facilitated by Bianca Elzenbaumer , Kate Rich and Flora Mammana as a practical counterpart to the Community Economies Institute’s summer/winter school. There were 24 participants with a diverse range of practices: academics and researchers, artists and…
A few weeks ago we visited Cooperativa Integral Minga , a multisector co-op in Montemor-o-Novo, about an hour east from Lisbon in the Alentejo region. They have around 100 members across four branches: agriculture, products, services and housing. These branches run as autonomous working groups using sociocracy. They also have a number of elected administrative roles that make up their board.…
Some photos from this weekend. We spent today cleaning up our garden and planting some seeds that Susana kindly gave us last weekend — tomatoes, butternut squash and zucchini — as well as some wildflowers and cat grass. The cat that regularly visits us watched us intently as we worked. Later in the afternoon, two new cats visited to investigate the changes too. We must be doing something right.…
I went to the Futuress talk by Cooperativa de Disenio last week. They’re a feminist worker co-op from Argentina. They’ve been running for 11 years and have 12 members, all women. They do a mix of product, identity and audiovisual design work for communities, cooperatives and recovered factories. It was very interesting to hear about how a different co-op is run. The way they spoke about their…
This year feels so full already and it’s only March. All the energy I would have usually spent on writing has been going towards moving country and relaunching the Common Knowledge website. Things are starting to feel a bit more settled this month though. Living in Anjos How and I moved into our new (rental) apartment in Anjos, Lisbon at the start of this month. I’m completely in love with it. The…
Lately I’ve been enjoying using Arc , a new Chromium-based browser. It’s such a joy to use: they’ve completely rethought the UI / UX design of a browser. There are big changes (like spaces; easels; a sidebar with all your tabs, including pinned tabs with previews) and little details like “mini-Arc” (which opens a small version of the browser when you follow a link in a messaging app or email). The…
We’re working with an organisation called Platform at the moment to refresh their identity and create a new website. They’re a non-hierarchical team of campaigners, researchers and artists who work on creative projects centred in eco-social justice. They’ve already been running for 40 years which, in a world of short attention spans and daily news cycles, feels unbelievably long. They’ve done so…
I came across this interview with Rick Rubin the other day, which prompted me to fall down a rick-rubin-rabbithole. What an interesting guy. Reading his new book The Creative Act , one of the things that struck me was the idea that when we’re being creative, we’re not conducting — we’re being conducted. Artists are receivers, translators, antennae. There’s a passiveness to it, a calmness. Looking…
The structures of ideas are not sequential. They tie together every whichway. And when we write, we are always trying to tie things together in non-sequential ways. The footnote is a break from sequence, but it cannot really be extended. The point is, writers do better if they don’t have to write in sequence (but may create multiple structures, branches and alternatives), and readers do better if…
This year has been a bit of a weird one because How and I still don’t have a permanent home. We spent the first three months with friends and family in Australia, three months living with friends in Camberwell, six weeks subletting a friends’ place in Hackney, six weeks of visiting friends and holidaying in Europe (Portugal, France, The Netherlands, Germany and Greece), some time at H’s parents…
It’s so nice to be in north Wales as the seasons change. The beech trees still have the most amazing orange-yellow-red leaves, but now there’s snow at the top of Cadair Idris . It’s wild to think that just three months ago we camped on top of it. There’s a legend that says anyone who sleeps on Cadair Idris’ summit will wake up as either a madman or poet. Three months on and I’m still no better at…
Wales is absolutely beautiful at the moment (and always). The autumn leaves and soft sunlight turn the whole landscape golden and warm. We visited the Centre for Alternative Technology last weekend. It’s an amazing place, built on top of a mountain of waste slate from a nearby disused quarry. The Centre was started by a group of people who moved there in the mid-70s. Their goal was to provide a…
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my routine. I’ve been trying to introduce a bit more structure into my work day… not as an attempt to be more productive, more so that I create stronger boundaries between work and the rest of the work. I can sometimes start working at 8am, forget to finish early and then feel totally wrung out by the evening. This isn’t how I want to work at all, because I…
I’m @gem@social.coop on Mastodon. I like it much more than Twitter already! I had gotten to a point where I barely posted anything on Twitter because it was too noisy and overwhelming, and reading the feed mainly made me feel depressed about the world. There sure were some good memes though. I found a tool called Debirdify that helps you find your Twitter friends on Mastodon. This article from…
I read three of Emily St John Mandel’s books in quick succession last month: Sea of Tranquility , The Glass Hotel and Station Eleven . Her work often involves parallel universes and time travel, but it’s subtle and bit different to a lot of the science fiction I read. More like narrative where the boundaries between moments in time feel shimmering and fragile. One of the interesting things about…
I’ve been enjoying listening to Overthink , a podcast about philosophy. Really engaging and accessible. One of the hosts, Ellie Anderson, is an expert in feminist approaches to love and sexual consent, particularly the work of Simone de Beauvoir. I really want to read some of Beauvoir’s journals now. Wonderful conversation between Elvia Wilk and Claire L Evans on Pioneer Works. I’m always…
The Smart Forests Atlas is a living archive and virtual field site exploring how digital technologies are transforming forests. It provides tools for researchers and other stakeholders to explore, analyse and reflect upon smart forest knowledges and technologies. The Atlas is designed to allow for multiple entrypoints into the research content. Visitors are encouraged to wander through the site…
October is mushroom season! Last Saturday was particularly bright and sunny after a few days of rain, which is perfect for mushrooms. We went to Hampstead Heath with a few friends who forage mushrooms regularly. We were lucky and found so many different varieties including honey fungus , black-staining polypores , laughing gym, curry-scented milkcap , fruity brittlegill, porcelain fungus , shaggy…
Four Thousand Weeks – that’s the amount of time you get if you live to 80. Not only does it feel like an impossibly small amount of time, it also speeds up the older you get. I really enjoyed this book by Oliver Burkeman. It’s less of a self-help book, more of a meditation on time and our relationship to it. It reminded me a bit of another all-time favourite of mine, How To Do Nothing . Most…
I’ve had quite stringent settings on my phone for a long time: no badges, barely any notifications, screen time restrictions on social media and downtime in the evening. Despite all this, I still spend around 90–120 minutes on my phone every day. Like most of us, I default to picking up my phone and doom-scrolling every time there is minute or two of empty time. I had a bit of a forced digital…
I recently read Our Shared Storm by Andrew Dana Hudson, a speculative fiction novel based on each of the five climate-modelling scenarios in the latest IPCC report. It’s got me thinking obsessing a little about solarpunk! Solarpunk is an optimistic vision of the future where we’re in dynamic balance with environmental systems. It’s polyphonic, abundant, collective, anti-capitalist and decolonial.…
We were in Athens last week, so naturally we visited the Acropolis. What surprised me was that the pathway to the Acropolis is a masterpiece in its own right. (Thanks to my dad for sharing this.) Designed in the mid-50s by Dimitris Pikionis, it’s a collage of historical references, regionalism and modernism. They build it with reclaimed stones from demolished buildings nearby, celebrating their…
Lisbon My wonderful friend Linsey made us a guide to Lisbon , filled with natural wine spots and local, seasonal food. Particular favourites were Senhor Uva and Comida Independente . We also stumbled on Bar Boca one night, a tiny natural wine bar in Alfama that does vegan tapas. One of the highlights was the Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar . I love his work, so colourful and joyful. The exhibition we…
I learn more with each weaving I make. This one is particular favourite of mine, made last month for H’s mum. It’s inspired by the colours and textures of the Welsh landscape: green hills, purple and red heather, mountains, lichen. I bought some roving from a local shop in Dolgellau – it’s incredibly soft, hand-dyed in purple, green and yellow. I also found some wool on our hike and added that in…
History is full of people who just didn’t. They said no thank you , turned away, ran away to the desert, stood on the streets in rags, lived in barrels, burned down their own houses, walked barefoot through town, killed their rapists, pushed away dinner, meditated into the light. Even babies refuse, and the elderly, too. All types of animals refuse: at the zoo they gaze dead-eyed through…
How and I went for a hike in Snowdonia last weekend. Almost 40km of walking over two days. Over the last few months we’ve gradually been collecting all the basic kit you need for multiday hikes: tent, sleeping mats and bags, backpacks, this incredibly compact wood stove . It was such an incredible hike. The weather was unusually warm and sunny – I just read that Snowdonia is one of the wettest…
Tracing the history of enclosure with Eula Biss, collecting modern stories of commoning with Future Natures, dreaming and planning for a Half Earth Socialist future, and a little bit of solarpunk. The Theft of the Commons I immediately devour anything written by Eula Biss, so was very excited to see this article by her in the Sentiers newsletter a few weeks ago. In the essay, she traces the…
How and I went back to Australia for about three months during Southern Hemisphere summer. Now we’re back in the UK, enjoying the spring, seeing friends and family and cooperators, discussing lots of books and dreaming about what to do next. Trip to Australia This was by far the longest I’ve spent back there since I left ten years ago. I feel so grateful to have a place like that to go back to, to…
A couple of super nice interviews and essays by women I admire: Alice Grandoit-Sutka, co-founder of DEEM Journal , on how to generate new possibilities : I want a practice that is both critical and generative. Sometimes we can invest a lot of energy critiquing what was, which can block or limit the potential to cultivate possibilities of what could be. Sunrise Movement’s Varshini Prakash on how…
The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently. — David Graeber Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative Last weekend we visited How We Live Now at the Barbican, an installation exploring the work of the Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative . Matrix was a women-led worker co-op that existed in London from 1980–1994. They challenged…
I did a weaving workshop last week and really loved it. I’ve been on the lookout for a new tactile hobby for a while. Tried pottery a few times but just didn’t enjoy it that much – just couldn’t get the hang of the wheel and never enjoyed the process very much. I think weaving could be the one. I’m recording some of what I learned here so I don’t forget them, but this is by no means a how-to…
I’m going through all my Pocket articles that I’ve favourited by not archived, which means that Past Gem thought they were important enough to revisit. Let’s see what I find… Statements Towards the Establishment of a Proof-of-Rest Protocol A response to the senseless wastefulness of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, which use up energy to generate artificial scarcity and profit. Rather than burning…
A couple of months ago, we decided that all co-op members should move to a four-day week at no loss of pay. We think it’s a really important demand, an idea whose time has come, and we wanted to try it out for ourselves. So far, it’s been super successful. We all feel happier and like we have a better work-life balance, yet we’re just as—if not more—productive. I’ve written a bit more about why we…
A few recent contributions to various publications: Caps Lock I spoke to Ruben Pater about Common Knowledge for Caps Lock , his new book about graphic design and capitalism. The interview was mainly centred on how Common Knowledge works on a practical level, both internally and in collaboration with others. Ruben’s done such a great job with the book, I’m really proud to be involved and glad that…
I’ve recently started using Storygraph (thanks Sonia) to track the books I’m reading. It’s a not-Amazon alternative to Goodreads. When you sign up, you’re asked you a series of questions about the kinds of books you like. It also analyses the mood, pace and genre of the books you read, and then recommends more books based on this. I never actually used Goodreads (I had some low-fi Arena channels…
A few months ago I spoke at a panel discussion for CSM students. It was a partnership with Thames & Hudson and Design Observer to accompany their new edition of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1841 essay, Self-reliance . The event aimed to explore what it means to graduate during a crisis after 1+ years of disrupted education. While I totally agreed with this premise and wanted to contribute, the essay…
Maps seem to be the most consistent thing that people ask us to do at Common Knowledge. We don’t know entirely what it is, but people love maps. Not only do organisations love them, they seem to test really well when we do usability testing as well. We have a couple of particularly interesting mapping projects on at the moment, so while I’ve been ambiently researching interesting maps on Arena for…
Happy May Day! It’s pretty wild to read about the origins of May Day . Workers had to fight so hard just to get an eight-hour day, which we now all take as given. Happy to see that it was Australian stonemasons who were the first to strike as part of the eight-hour day movement. Eighteen Black Cats Last week How had an exhibition here at Rupert, to show three of the works he’s been developing over…
This week I’m thinking a lot about Braiding Sweetgrass, because the forest floor is now covered in purple and yellow flowers (ground ivy and yellow anenome, I think). That September pairing of purple and gold is lived reciprocity; its wisdom is that the beauty of one is illuminated by the radiance of the other. Science and art, matter and spirit, indigenous knowledge and Western science—can they…
Just read Brave New Alps’ contribution to Design Struggles . The book is available online in full. Their chapter, Design(ers) Beyond Precarity: proposals for everyday action , explores how to create the social and material conditions that make critical, transformative design practice possible. I’ve done a handful of talks about my work with Common Knowledge and UVW Designers + Cultural Workers,…
Making collages out of public domain images of lichen, textiles and others bits.
I really enjoy writing alt-text, mainly thanks to the wonderful Alt-Text as Poetry project by Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan. On their website they list “three ideas from the world of poetry that we have found to be particularly helpful when writing alt-text”: 1. Attention to Language Simply by writing alt-text with thought and care, we shift the process. What words are we using? What are…
We got some film from last year developed and I love the photos so much. Friendship ended with iPhone camera! Most of these are probably taken by HM .
As of this week, I’m living in Vilnius for a few months while HM does the Rupert residency. Feeling very lucky and inspired. I’ve been drawing lots of Major Arcana cards, which indicates deep shifts and changes. Feels apt. I’m simultaneously reading a few books that feel interconnected: The Ministry for the Future I really enjoyed Kim Stanley Robinson’s writing style in Red Mars, but felt a bit…
How made me a new avatar using his Supercollager tool, featuring a couple of my previous avatars and one of his. Feeling fresh 💅🏻