A source material tracker. I don’t always know how a thing will influence me until I get further down the road. This is a post to reference later, not to show off. Maybe some accountability—am I pursuing good inputs?
Guidelines: Don’t note the reasons someone else might like it. Say why I picked it up and what I’ve found interesting. How it bumped into other stuff, how it spun into something, and what I tucked away or was surprised by.
Thinking about this because I’m ramping up output as I create art for a solo show this December. My inputs spills into the work I create, so I’d better be taking care with what goes in!
Books
Amish Crib Quilts from the Midwest
Do I need to visit the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, NE? Thinking about interactive displays, and I’d like to see how they approach it. Coziness as the vibe. Cozy but some prickliness. It’s not all sweet.
The Mountain in the Sea
It took me maybe three chapters to get into this, then I was hooked. I like a weird book. Consciousness, language, octopus civilization, an AI being, a person trapped on an autonomous slave ship. It’s a wild list. Read because Robin Sloan recommended it.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles
I picked this up because of the 2025 Tournament of Books. (Also a Sloan mention. I find a source that resonates and keep trusting it! For a long time, that was Austin Kleon, but he blogs less now, and his Substack isn’t quite the same energy.) The book itself was zippy, and interesting, but not one that I wanted people to read so I could talk about it, the way I feel about The Mountain in the Sea.
Art
I love these frames + photos by artist Gabe Schneider. The ones with video inside the frame (swipe to slide 3) feel extra special to me. Usually I’m kind of a video skeptic, and then I see a thing like this and want to try my hand at it.