Books, Design, Technology

“We need a powerful storm of angry kindness”

Among other things, I’ve spent some time this year trying to understand what is going on with climate change, trying to understand the situation, and trying to develop a point of view.

Here’s a recent talk by futurist and philosophical designer Jenny Grettve on Feminist Economies, and my sketchnote about it.

Fiction is also a great way to have a nuanced perspective on something. The Ministry for the Future is one such book that takes the current situation and creates a cast of characters around it who approach our current situations in their different ways. It was so real, so evocative, and speaking to the times we have lived through this year – heat waves needing to be national emergencies, a national election, floods, global apathy. Though criticism of the book has said that it depicts our current economic situation and tries to find solutions in the world we live in, to me, that was its strength – it was significantly close to us as readers to make us really “feel” what is going on and move us to action.

Here’s another interesting book that I read years ago that’s been on my mind: The Gift by Lewis Hyde. I wonder how that would work, in today’s world of AI’s creative appropriation (or simply stealing).

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Comic Strip, Design

Comics workshop

I’ve been slowly working on my graphic novel story and comic strips over this year. My goal is to publish in 10 years – hopefully before my fingers lose their agility and my sight deteriorates.

As I went through the various phases of design, I got stuck in the craft so often that I realised I needed to invest some dedicated time to learn the skills.

So a few days ago I designed a Comics workshop for myself, and it was a blast! Learned a lot in the process too. My goal was to complete 5 strips of varied lengths, but I only reached 2. Still I have a list of ideas to work on further.

Meanwhile here’s what the workshop was like.

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