- You donât owe anyone anything. If you need to rest and step back, THAT is OK. Also, rest is an important part of the work, research, and creative process. Perhaps youâve been feeling burnt out, well, your body is probably telling you to take it easy.
- Productivity is challenging for so many people. Whether you live on your own, with family, and/or a partner, there is a lot of shifting going on. Be open to the shifting that is happening and be still for it (and delve into whatever practices bring you ease and comfort).
- If youâre the type that really feels compelled to do or make something, reach out to a friend or someone you trust and discuss your ideas and be open to vulnerability at this time.
- Try your best to not feel guilty if youâre making. Iâve been seeing some really negative things out there bashing on folks for creating at a time like this. This is what we say to haters đđžđđžđđž and thank you đđž
- Comparing, at a time like this, well, please try to refrain from this activity as it will only cause you distress. Nobody has the skills or experience you have in the particular way you do. So, itâs not that productive to compare yourself especially now.
- Create ritual(s) for yourself. Find activities that enable you to ground yourself. These things are equally if not more important than whatever youâre making! THIS IS REAL. Trust. As someone who is survivor of severe traumas, my rituals have saved me.
- If youâre just wanting/needing inspiration, try making a list of your favorite things using good ole pen/pencil and paper! Be silly, make it fun, and/or as deep as you want/need. Writing is such an embodied experience that many of us donât do anymore.
- Donât feel compelled to do what you see on social or any other place for that matter. Just because everyone is doing this and that doesnât mean you have to do it too. Unless you really want to. Again, you donât need to do, make, or produce anything as proof of your existence!
- Also, making, doing, and producing (AT ANY TIME) is hard AF, but itâs extremely difficult at a time like this. If you want to make and NOT share with the world, thatâs OK too. Do what is best for you. But also, see #5.
- PLEASE, if youâre experiencing serious challenges, difficulties, and/or distress, reach out and ask for help. Feel free you share your thoughts too and yes, reach out if #10 is where youâre at. I will do what I can to assist, support, and/or connect you to a resource. âĽď¸
Image description: Gray book cover with geometric block shapes of different colors. The text on the cover reads Lurking How a Person Became a User Joanne McNeil.
Event date and time: Friday, May 22, 2020 from 11:00 AM – 12:00 pm PST / 2:00 PM â 3:00 PM EDT
For this afternoon Open Hours, Eyebeam welcomes Eyebeam Alum and writer, Joanne McNeil in conversation with artist, writer, and educator, Dorothy R. Santos who will lead a discussion diving into McNeilâs new book, Lurking: How a Person Became a User released this year by MCD.
Lurking: How a Person Became a User is available for purchase on Eyebeamâs Bookshop Affiliate page.
Bios
Joanne McNeil is a writer interested in the ways that technology shapes culture and society. She is the author of Lurking: How a Person Became a User. She received the inaugural Arts Writing Fellowship Award for an emerging digital arts writer from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation. She is a 2019 Logan Nonfiction Program fellow. She was an Artist-in-Residence and an Impact Resident at Eyebeam. She collaborated with Eyebeam on OurNet, developing student workshops on networks. She was one of the founding editors of The Message, the technology-focused opinion magazine published by Medium. Her essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, The Baffler, Filmmaker, Domus, Dissent, Frieze, Modern Painters, Wired, The Los Angeles Times, Saturated Space, Dirty Furniture, The Boston Globe, n+1/Occupy Gazette, and other web and print publications. Her writing appears in books by AND/The Piracy Project and Space Caviar. She contributed to Art and the Internet (Black Dog Publishing, 2014) and a number of catalog essays. Formerly the editor of Rhizome at the New Museum, she transitioned the institutionâs blog into a daily publication. She edited and developed all content published on Rhizome News and the Rhizome blog. (2011, 2012 roundups.) Through Rhizome and with FACT, she co-curated online programming for the 2012 Liverpool Biennial. Earlier, she founded and edited the blog The Tomorrow Museum. An essay of hers was listed in The Vergeâs âBest Writing of 2013.â She studied economics at George Mason University, where she was a University Scholar. She met the Philip K. Dick android before it lost its head.
Categories
Emotional Materiality Across Mixed Realities
Join me on Friday, May 1, 2 pm PST / 5PM EST as I moderate a panel discussion with Well Now WTF? artists Laura Hyunjhee Kim, Tiare Ribeaux, and Carla Gannis, and Telematic Gallery director Clark Buckner.
Each of the artists on the panel have created work that explores different kinds of representations of the body, embodiment in virtual space, and the non-human subject. The conversation will unpack how emotions are rendered and mediated by digital technologies, and how different affective experiences unfold across mixed realities to inform newfound modes of being born in contemporary media landscapes.
To learn more, please click here to visit the Silicon Valet website and read about the online exhibition Well Now, WTF? curated by Faith Holland, Lorna Mills, and Wade Wallerstein.
Pardon the redundancy, but in 2020, I will be posting on my site a lot more this year since I’m trying to moderate my use of social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. For those that have seen this on my Instagram account and reading it again, thank you. For those that haven’t seen this list, please feel free to share your lessons learned. đ
Ten things Iâve learned from the past decade:
10) Be humble.
9) Patience really is a virtue.
8) Healing takes time, it canât be rushed and when you attempt to rush it, well, youâre making things more difficult for yourself.
7) Things are not always what they seem. Take time to learn (see #9).
6) Life is hard and strange, yet filled with a lot of wonderful and unexpected things.
5) Sleep, eat well, and hydrate on a regular and consistent basis.
4) Your real friends and chosen family are the ones you can have difficult conversations with and still feel love (probably more so than before the tough conversation).
3) Expect change and check-in with yourself on a regular basis.
2) Itâs perfectly OK to ask for help and support when you need it.
1) Follow your gut, your intuition, and steer clear when everything in you tells you to do so.
A decade ago, I was going through some really painful moments in my life (such as, coming close to death). So, Iâm not surprised that the past few years have been challenging and sorrowful for different reasons. Working on yourself never goes away, no matter your circumstances. As the hierophant reminds us, there is more than what you see before you. Please remember that, life beyond any screen is so much more than what we see. So, please, donât compare yourself or think you havenât achieved anything. If you were in pain, sick, in danger, compromised in anyway, please know I see and hear you. There is so much more we donât see in the world. Whoever you are, reading this, I hope youâre kind to yourself today and hereafter. Youâre so much more than mere images. âĽď¸
I’ll get right to it…I’m quickly approaching my work anniversary with the Processing Foundation. As of March 2020, it will be two years with this extraordinary organization. I’ve had the pleasure and honor of working with an epic group of artists and educators. While every endeavor has taught me the intricacies of non-profit life and brought on some impostor syndrome, it’s been such an incredible learning experience.
As the Foundation’s program manager, Iâm often behind the scenes (helping run social media, writing newsletter, helping keep things running, and supporting projects, just to name a few of the things I do). I wanted to share the #SupportP5 campaign I worked on these past few months as well as highlight the artists who generously donated artwork for the campaign – Maya Man, Cy X, Kate Hollenbach, and Saskie Freeke. This is also the most ambitious fundraising campaign I’ve ever worked on. My hope is that you, yes you, reading this…help spread the word about the campaign. We can use ALL the support and help raising funds to help us continue the work that makes the Processing Foundation such a special place for artists, writers, technologists, creative coders, and educators around the world. Please click here to access our Donorbox page and contribute what you can. If you’re feeling generous, starting at the Objects level ($50+), you will receive artwork. The more you give, the more artwork you will receive! đ Quite the win, if you ask me. Check out the gallery of work donated to the campaign below.
Not a picture but an event (2019) by Maya Man, Riso print #3, 11″x17″ 
Geometric Shapes Processing Edition 2019 by Saskia Freeke, 12″x12″ 
Computer Visions 10.18.2019 (2019) by Kate Hollenbach, 5″x7″ 
A Coding Train Zine (2019) designed by The Coding Train community managerÂ
Cy (signed by Dan Shiffman)
Visit our Donorbox page to contribute to the #SupportP5 campaign!
About Reclaiming the Future
“What is at stake for the human animal in this critical moment in our evolution? Will we survive this âtechnological adolescenceâ? How can we reclaim optimism in the face of future technology? On August 17, 2019, a group of creative thinkers and makers will assemble to consider these questions in a radical new conversation format.
Unfiltered. Unmoderated.â
A Long Conversation is a relay of two-person dialogues for a set period of time, unified by a common prompt. Each speaker brings one idea to the stage about how to reclaim optimism in the face of future technologyâa trend, an artwork, an innovation, a breakthrough, a movement.”
Learn more and buy tickets for the event here.
I’m excited to share that I’ll be showing my work Press 1 to be Connected. I’ve been working on this piece for the past year, but realized its physical form (and became obsessed with telephone technology, systems of care, and telecommunications) during my Stochastic Labs residency. I feel incredibly honored to be among extremely phenomenal artists, writers, scientists, and cultural producers at Reclaiming the Future.
And, suffice it to say, I’ve got a thing for the future as well đ
Dorothy R. Santos 
