{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2024-10-04T09:00:00-07:00",
"url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/blog/9689-Bandcamp-Friday-October-2024",
"category": [
"bandcamp friday",
"bandcamp",
"music"
],
"name": "Bandcamp Friday, October 2024",
"content": {
"text": "Hey y'all, it is Bandcamp Friday, a good time to buy independent music while Bandcamp opts to release their share of the purchase price.\n\nAs always, I have my latest released album, and the share also applies to preorders of Transitions. Or you might consider checking out some of my other many albums that you might not already be familiar with, such as:\nAlt-rock songs about cats and feelings and mental health\nElectropop songs about feelings and cats and mental health\n\nEDM songs about feelings and mental health (no cats on this one sorry)\nA variety show in which Radiohead takes turns with comedy showtunes\nChill lo-fi music inspired by various coffee grinders\nAn audio diary from the month when I almost died of a pulmonary embolism\nBut also this isn\u2019t just me shamelessly self-promoting. I\u2019m shamelessly other-promoting, too! Here\u2019s a list of some of the albums I\u2019ll be buying myself:\n\nBeatober \u201823, You Know, and Preserves '23 - Vol I by err:rawr\n\n\nA New Beat by Ulysses Owens Jr.\n\n\nDemo by Comfort Object\n\n\nCity Slicker by Ginger Root\n\n\nConstellation of Souls and Turning the Tables by lowercase t\n\n\n\u2026 on reflection and September 23 by William Basinski\n\nAnd, on the last one I preordered when air collapsed within by our dear friend, the medic, which was also released very recently.\n\nAnyway. Support independent musicians by buying their music! It\u2019s good for you, and even better for them.",
"html": "<p>Hey y'all, <a href=\"https://isitbandcampfriday.com\">it is Bandcamp Friday</a>, a good time to buy <a href=\"https://sockpuppet.us/\">independent music</a> while Bandcamp opts to release their share of the purchase price.</p><p>As always, I have <a href=\"https://sockpuppet.us/album/notions\">my latest released album</a>, and the share also applies to <a href=\"https://sockpuppet.us/transitions\">preorders of Transitions</a>. Or you might consider checking out some of my other many albums that you might not already be familiar with, such as:</p>\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://sockpuppet.us/album/radio-ready\">Alt-rock songs about cats and feelings and mental health</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://sockpuppet.us/album/foodsexsleep\">Electropop songs about feelings and cats and mental health</a></li>\n<li>\n<a href=\"https://sockpuppet.us/album/refactor\">EDM songs about feelings and mental health</a> (no cats on this one sorry)</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://sockpuppet.us/album/songs-of-substance\">A variety show in which Radiohead takes turns with comedy showtunes</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://sockpuppet.us/album/novembeat-2021-lo-fi-beats-to-grind-coffee-to\">Chill lo-fi music inspired by various coffee grinders</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://sockpuppet.us/album/novembeat-2017\">An audio diary from the month when I almost died of a pulmonary embolism</a></li>\n</ul><p>But also this isn\u2019t just me shamelessly self-promoting. I\u2019m shamelessly other-promoting, too! Here\u2019s a list of some of the albums I\u2019ll be buying myself:</p>\n<ul><li>\n<a href=\"https://err-rawr.bandcamp.com/album/beatober-23\">Beatober \u201823</a>, <a href=\"https://err-rawr.bandcamp.com/track/you-know\">You Know</a>, and <a href=\"https://err-rawr.bandcamp.com/album/preserves-23-vol-i\">Preserves '23 - Vol I</a> by <a href=\"https://err-rawr.bandcamp.com/\">err:rawr</a>\n</li>\n<li>\n<a href=\"https://ulyssesowensjr.bandcamp.com/album/a-new-beat\">A New Beat</a> by <a href=\"https://ulyssesowensjr.bandcamp.com/\">Ulysses Owens Jr.</a>\n</li>\n<li>\n<a href=\"https://comfortobject.bandcamp.com/album/demo\">Demo</a> by <a href=\"https://comfortobject.bandcamp.com/\">Comfort Object</a>\n</li>\n<li>\n<a href=\"https://gingerroot.bandcamp.com/album/city-slicker\">City Slicker</a> by <a href=\"https://gingerroot.bandcamp.com/\">Ginger Root</a>\n</li>\n<li>\n<a href=\"https://lowercaset.bandcamp.com/track/constellation-of-souls\">Constellation of Souls</a> and <a href=\"https://lowercaset.bandcamp.com/album/turning-the-tables\">Turning the Tables</a> by <a href=\"https://lowercaset.bandcamp.com/\">lowercase t</a>\n</li>\n<li>\n<a href=\"https://williambasinski.bandcamp.com/album/on-reflection\">\u2026 on reflection</a> and <a href=\"https://williambasinski.bandcamp.com/album/september-23rd\">September 23</a> by <a href=\"https://williambasinski.bandcamp.com/\">William Basinski</a>\n</li>\n</ul><p>And, on the last one I preordered <a href=\"https://ourdearfriendthemedic.bandcamp.com/album/when-air-collapsed-within\">when air collapsed within</a> by <a href=\"https://ourdearfriendthemedic.bandcamp.com/\">our dear friend, the medic</a>, which was also released very recently.</p><p>Anyway. Support independent musicians by buying their music! It\u2019s good for you, and even better for them.</p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "fluffy",
"url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/",
"photo": "https://beesbuzz.biz/static/headshot.jpg"
},
"post-type": "article",
"_id": "42446653",
"_source": "2778"
}
Having found so many for the month I created an “October” page on the #IndieWeb wiki to document them all (and in case folks find others to add): * https://indieweb.org/October
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2024-10-03 16:04-0700",
"url": "https://tantek.com/2024/277/t2/october-blogtober-indieweb",
"category": [
"Blogtober",
"IndieWeb",
"100PostsOfIndieWeb",
"100Posts"
],
"content": {
"text": "Happy October!\n\nFor some reason this month has a plethora of daily blogging or other creativity prompts. Here\u2019s a list of the ones I found so far:\n\n* #Blogtober (consider this post my first for this, retroactively day 1)\n* Inktober \u2014 https://inktober.com/\n* LOLtober - https://weblog.anniegreens.lol/2024/10/loltober-2024\n* Looptober \u2014 https://looptober.com/\n* Mathober - https://mathober.com/\n* Viztober \u2014 https://www.instagram.com/evalottchen/p/DAiNm3ZtuTj/\n\nHaving found so many for the month I created an \u201cOctober\u201d page on the #IndieWeb wiki to document them all (and in case folks find others to add):\n* https://indieweb.org/October\n\nOctober is also a very popular month for seasonal blog styling:\n* https://indieweb.org/Halloween\n\nDo you have a custom Halloween theme for your personal site? Add it to the wiki!\n\nThis is post 23 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts\n\n\u2190 https://tantek.com/2024/247/t4/w3c-link-checker-before-federating\n\u2192 \ud83d\udd2e",
"html": "Happy October!<br /><br />For some reason this month has a plethora of daily blogging or other creativity prompts. Here\u2019s a list of the ones I found so far:<br /><br />* #<span class=\"p-category\">Blogtober</span> (consider this post my first for this, retroactively day 1)<br />* Inktober \u2014 <a href=\"https://inktober.com/\">https://inktober.com/</a><br />* LOLtober - <a href=\"https://weblog.anniegreens.lol/2024/10/loltober-2024\">https://weblog.anniegreens.lol/2024/10/loltober-2024</a><br />* Looptober \u2014 <a href=\"https://looptober.com/\">https://looptober.com/</a><br />* Mathober - <a href=\"https://mathober.com/\">https://mathober.com/</a><br />* Viztober \u2014 <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/evalottchen/p/DAiNm3ZtuTj/\">https://www.instagram.com/evalottchen/p/DAiNm3ZtuTj/</a><br /><br />Having found so many for the month I created an \u201cOctober\u201d page on the #<span class=\"p-category\">IndieWeb</span> wiki to document them all (and in case folks find others to add):<br />* <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/October\">https://indieweb.org/October</a><br /><br />October is also a very popular month for seasonal blog styling:<br />* <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/Halloween\">https://indieweb.org/Halloween</a><br /><br />Do you have a custom Halloween theme for your personal site? Add it to the wiki!<br /><br />This is post 23 of #<span class=\"p-category\">100PostsOfIndieWeb</span>. #<span class=\"p-category\">100Posts</span><br /><br />\u2190 <a href=\"https://tantek.com/2024/247/t4/w3c-link-checker-before-federating\">https://tantek.com/2024/247/t4/w3c-link-checker-before-federating</a><br />\u2192 \ud83d\udd2e"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Tantek \u00c7elik",
"url": "https://tantek.com/",
"photo": "https://tantek.com/photo.jpg"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "42441342",
"_source": "2460"
}
Last week I participated in #w3cTPAC 2024¹ in Anaheim, California. It was quite packed, and often started early, from 8am informal breakfast meetings at a nearby IHOP, to Working Group, Community Group, and other small group meetings every day (but Wednesday) til 18:00.
Midweek at TPAC was the usual Breakouts Day where a record 87 breakouts² were proposed³ and run by members of the community, deftly organized into rooms, timeslots, and a handful of themes⁴ by the W3C Team. In the evening there was an open Plenary Session⁵ open to all instead of an Advisory Committee (AC) meeting, where the result of the recent W3C Board Election⁶ was announced. Congratulations to the newly elected W3C Board of Directors!
I’m still compiling my own notes and observations. For now, the minutes of (nearly?) all the meetings and breakouts are available if you know how to find them.
Hint: W3C minutes URLs have the form (without spaces):
https:// www . w3 . org / YYYY / MM / DD-IRCNAME-minutes . html
E.g. to find the second day (2024-09-24) of CSS Working Group (which just uses "css", all lower case, as their IRC channel name) minutes, you would go to: * https://www.w3.org/2024/09/24-css-minutes.html
Every Working Group and Community Group links to its IRC Channel (all lowercase), and breakout proposals link to the channel used for each breakout. Thus the minutes links to specific groups on specific days are left as a web discovery exercise for the reader.
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2024-10-03 15:02-0700",
"url": "https://tantek.com/2024/277/t1/w3ctpac-2024",
"category": [
"w3cTPAC"
],
"content": {
"text": "Last week I participated in #w3cTPAC 2024\u00b9 in Anaheim, California. It was quite packed, and often started early, from 8am informal breakfast meetings at a nearby IHOP, to Working Group, Community Group, and other small group meetings every day (but Wednesday) til 18:00.\n\nMidweek at TPAC was the usual Breakouts Day where a record 87 breakouts\u00b2 were proposed\u00b3 and run by members of the community, deftly organized into rooms, timeslots, and a handful of themes\u2074 by the W3C Team. In the evening there was an open Plenary Session\u2075 open to all instead of an Advisory Committee (AC) meeting, where the result of the recent W3C Board Election\u2076 was announced. Congratulations to the newly elected W3C Board of Directors!\n\nI\u2019m still compiling my own notes and observations. For now, the minutes of (nearly?) all the meetings and breakouts are available if you know how to find them.\n\nHint: W3C minutes URLs have the form (without spaces):\n\nhttps:// www . w3 . org / YYYY / MM / DD-IRCNAME-minutes . html\n\nE.g. to find the second day (2024-09-24) of CSS Working Group (which just uses \"css\", all lower case, as their IRC channel name) minutes, you would go to:\n* https://www.w3.org/2024/09/24-css-minutes.html\n\nEvery Working Group and Community Group links to its IRC Channel (all lowercase), and breakout proposals link to the channel used for each breakout. Thus the minutes links to specific groups on specific days are left as a web discovery exercise for the reader.\n\nLast year: https://tantek.com/2023/262/b1/w3c-technical-plenary-tpac\n\n\u00b9 https://www.w3.org/wiki/TPAC/2024\n\u00b2 https://www.w3.org/2024/09/TPAC/breakouts.html#grid\n\u00b3 https://github.com/w3c/tpac2024-breakouts/\n\u2074 https://github.com/orgs/w3c/projects/57/views/1\n\u2075 https://www.w3.org/2024/09/26-tpac-minutes.html\n\u2076 https://www.w3.org/2024/09/26-tpac-minutes.html#x215",
"html": "Last week I participated in #<span class=\"p-category\">w3cTPAC</span> 2024<a href=\"https://tantek.com/#t5ZK1_note-1\">\u00b9</a> in Anaheim, California. It was quite packed, and often started early, from 8am informal breakfast meetings at a nearby IHOP, to Working Group, Community Group, and other small group meetings every day (but Wednesday) til 18:00.<br /><br />Midweek at TPAC was the usual Breakouts Day where a record 87 breakouts<a href=\"https://tantek.com/#t5ZK1_note-2\">\u00b2</a> were proposed<a href=\"https://tantek.com/#t5ZK1_note-3\">\u00b3</a> and run by members of the community, deftly organized into rooms, timeslots, and a handful of themes<a href=\"https://tantek.com/#t5ZK1_note-4\">\u2074</a> by the W3C Team. In the evening there was an open Plenary Session<a href=\"https://tantek.com/#t5ZK1_note-5\">\u2075</a> open to all instead of an Advisory Committee (AC) meeting, where the result of the recent W3C Board Election<a href=\"https://tantek.com/#t5ZK1_note-6\">\u2076</a> was announced. Congratulations to the newly elected W3C Board of Directors!<br /><br />I\u2019m still compiling my own notes and observations. For now, the minutes of (nearly?) all the meetings and breakouts are available if you know how to find them.<br /><br />Hint: W3C minutes URLs have the form (without spaces):<br /><br />https:// www . w3 . org / YYYY / MM / DD-IRCNAME-minutes . html<br /><br />E.g. to find the second day (2024-09-24) of CSS Working Group (which just uses \"css\", all lower case, as their IRC channel name) minutes, you would go to:<br />* <a href=\"https://www.w3.org/2024/09/24-css-minutes.html\">https://www.w3.org/2024/09/24-css-minutes.html</a><br /><br />Every Working Group and Community Group links to its IRC Channel (all lowercase), and breakout proposals link to the channel used for each breakout. Thus the minutes links to specific groups on specific days are left as a web discovery exercise for the reader.<br /><br />Last year: <a href=\"https://tantek.com/2023/262/b1/w3c-technical-plenary-tpac\">https://tantek.com/2023/262/b1/w3c-technical-plenary-tpac</a><br /><br /><a href=\"https://tantek.com/#t5ZK1_ref-1\">\u00b9</a> <a href=\"https://www.w3.org/wiki/TPAC/2024\">https://www.w3.org/wiki/TPAC/2024</a><br /><a href=\"https://tantek.com/#t5ZK1_ref-2\">\u00b2</a> <a href=\"https://www.w3.org/2024/09/TPAC/breakouts.html#grid\">https://www.w3.org/2024/09/TPAC/breakouts.html#grid</a><br /><a href=\"https://tantek.com/#t5ZK1_ref-3\">\u00b3</a> <a href=\"https://github.com/w3c/tpac2024-breakouts/\">https://github.com/w3c/tpac2024-breakouts/</a><br /><a href=\"https://tantek.com/#t5ZK1_ref-4\">\u2074</a> <a href=\"https://github.com/orgs/w3c/projects/57/views/1\">https://github.com/orgs/w3c/projects/57/views/1</a><br /><a href=\"https://tantek.com/#t5ZK1_ref-5\">\u2075</a> <a href=\"https://www.w3.org/2024/09/26-tpac-minutes.html\">https://www.w3.org/2024/09/26-tpac-minutes.html</a><br /><a href=\"https://tantek.com/#t5ZK1_ref-6\">\u2076</a> <a href=\"https://www.w3.org/2024/09/26-tpac-minutes.html#x215\">https://www.w3.org/2024/09/26-tpac-minutes.html#x215</a>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Tantek \u00c7elik",
"url": "https://tantek.com/",
"photo": "https://tantek.com/photo.jpg"
},
"post-type": "note",
"_id": "42439108",
"_source": "2460"
}
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2024-09-29T22:45:00-07:00",
"url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/blog/11993-Rock-on-Stream-on",
"category": [
"music",
"vrchat",
"concert"
],
"name": "Rock on! Stream on!",
"content": {
"text": "If all went well, my concert is now underway. In theory, here is the VRChat instance (but if nobody\u2019s there check the VRC group). And in theory, the stream should be live.\n\nIn practice, I am probably currently scrambling to get everything working at this very moment.",
"html": "<p>If all went well, my concert is now underway. In theory, <a href=\"https://vrch.at/0pq4z3ay\">here is the VRChat instance</a> (but if nobody\u2019s there check <a href=\"https://vrc.group/MUSIC.1138\">the VRC group</a>). And in theory, <a href=\"https://live.sockpuppet.us/\">the stream</a> should be live.</p><p>In practice, I am probably currently scrambling to get everything working at this very moment.</p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "fluffy",
"url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/",
"photo": "https://beesbuzz.biz/static/headshot.jpg"
},
"post-type": "article",
"_id": "42395133",
"_source": "2778"
}
{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2024-09-29T11:40:22-07:00",
"url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/blog/14770-Concert-reminder",
"name": "Concert reminder!",
"content": {
"text": "I\u2019ll be performing in VRChat tonight at 9 PM PDT. Join my VRChat music group for the instance link.\n\nIf you can\u2019t join via VRChat, I\u2019ll also be streaming on my Owncast instance, and I\u2019ll try to engage with the stream chat although historically that hasn\u2019t worked out so well.\n\nAnd if the time doesn\u2019t work, the stream recording will eventually go on my YouTube channel.\n\nFor this concert I\u2019ll be trying out a new performance setup for improved sound, hand tracking, and audience engagement, and also a different venue than last time for better environmental factors.",
"html": "<p>I\u2019ll be performing in VRChat <a href=\"https://time.is/compare/2100_29_Sep_2024_in_Seattle?Sockpuppet_@_VRChat\">tonight at 9 PM PDT</a>. Join <a href=\"https://vrc.group/MUSIC.1138\">my VRChat music group</a> for the instance link.</p><p>If you can\u2019t join via VRChat, I\u2019ll also be streaming on <a href=\"https://live.sockpuppet.us/\">my Owncast instance</a>, and I\u2019ll try to engage with the stream chat although historically that hasn\u2019t worked out so well.</p><p>And if the time doesn\u2019t work, the stream recording will eventually go on <a href=\"https://youtube.com/@realfakesockpuppet\">my YouTube channel</a>.</p><p>For this concert I\u2019ll be trying out a new performance setup for improved sound, hand tracking, and audience engagement, and also a different venue than last time for better environmental factors.</p>"
},
"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "fluffy",
"url": "https://beesbuzz.biz/",
"photo": "https://beesbuzz.biz/static/headshot.jpg"
},
"post-type": "article",
"_id": "42391835",
"_source": "2778"
}
{
"type": "entry",
"author": {
"name": "Jared White",
"url": "https://jaredwhite.com/",
"photo": null
},
"url": "https://jaredwhite.com/articles/you-need-a-portfolio",
"published": "2024-09-25T09:08:27-07:00",
"content": {
"html": "<img alt=\"\" src=\"https://res.cloudinary.com/mariposta/image/upload/w_1200,c_limit,q_65/art-gallery.jpg\" /><h2>Somewhere along the way to becoming Extremely Online, we\u2019ve lost the art of curation. It\u2019s time to reclaim our artistic truths.</h2>\n\n<p>On occasion, truth be told, I\u2019m not so swift on the uptake. You see, it <em>finally</em> came to me as I sat musing on the nature of the work I\u2019ve been focusing on a great deal this year across several unrelated disciplines. When I list out these efforts all together, you\u2019ll immediately spot the pattern\u2014hence my sudden <em>smack-that-forehead</em> moment of epiphany:</p>\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https://theinternet.review/\">The Internet Review</a>, my rebooted & coalesced blog combining over 25 years of writing on tech topics</li>\n <li><a href=\"https://yarred.bandcamp.com/album/subterranean\">Subterranean</a>, my album release of newly-freshened electronic music compositions spanning 20 years</li>\n <li><strong>Essential Life Photography</strong> (currently in the works!), my curated portfolio of photographs taken over the past seven years I\u2019ve lived in Oregon.</li>\n</ul><p>Obvious, isn\u2019t it? And yet these were all <em>separate</em> efforts which I didn\u2019t give much thought to in terms of their conceptual <em>interconnectedness</em>\u2026<strong>until now!</strong></p>\n\n<p>If I might put a theme on it, I could call it <strong>Rebel Without a Timeline</strong>. In all of these cases (perhaps least obvious for The Internet Review which is still primarily a blog format), the primordial desire is to break out of the confines of the \u201creverse-chronological timeline\u201d and showcase work which encompasses months, years, and even decades of effort in a curated fashion. Fact is the Internet isn\u2019t so good at that\u2014not any more at least. The validity of the \u201cdeath of the homepage\u201d narrative has been hotly contested for a long time, and I don\u2019t wish to litigate that here, but it\u2019s hard to deny that the <em>primary format</em> by which people consume content online is\u2014as Netscape once established\u2014<strong>What\u2019s New</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>No matter which social media platform you use, no matter which email newsletters you subscribe to, no matter how you choose to bookmark and follow creators\u2014it\u2019s all about <strong>What\u2019s New</strong>. Even algorithmic timelines which are somewhat non-linear nearly always favor recency. You might see a post from a day or two ago, but you certainly won\u2019t see something from months or years ago\u2014unless that\u2019s been intentionally shared by an individual. <em>Maybe</em> something older will surface in a \u201crelated\u201d section (most notably on YouTube), but it\u2019s an exception to the rule.</p>\n\n<h3>Streams Makes Sense, But They\u2019re Also Missing Something</h3>\n\n<p>Content streams, feeds, whatever you want to call them\u2014they make sense. They really do. There\u2019s a reason that\u2019s what publishing on the Internet is built around, by and large.</p>\n\n<p>But streams miss out on a vital aspect of creativity. Streams are lacking in <em>context</em>. Streams are lacking in <em>legacy</em>. And streams are lacking in <em>relationships</em> between disparate pieces of content.</p>\n\n<p>When you visit an art gallery, <strong>you\u2019re participating in multiple layers of experience</strong>. The most basic and obvious layer is when you\u2019re looking at one piece of art at a time, which I might call <em>singular attention</em>. This painting. That sculpture. This photograph. That projection.</p>\n\n<p>But beyond that, you\u2019re experiencing the layer of <em>comparison</em>. This painting <strong>as compared to</strong> that sculpture <strong>as compared to</strong> this photography <strong>as compared to</strong> that projection.</p>\n\n<p>But at a higher level still is the layer of <em>compilation</em>. All of the art in the gallery has been compiled together into an exhibit. And the exhibit itself could be considered a form of art. Why did the curator choose these pieces, and not other pieces? Why are they placed where they are placed? What is the larger story being told through this collection of created artifacts?</p>\n\n<p>The unfortunately reality of online streams is that the layer of comparison is completely random, and the layer of compilation is missing entirely. When you open Mastodon, or Threads, or YouTube, or whatever: sure, you\u2019re seeing a bunch of different works compiled together, but <em>nobody is doing the compiling</em>. It\u2019s either the <strong>almighty algorithm</strong>, or <strong>mere recency</strong> based on who you follow. That\u2019s it. Thus there\u2019s no meaning to the compilation. There\u2019s no \u201creason\u201d I\u2019m seeing this post next to that post. Sometimes there is humor to be found in the accidental contrast\u2014people may post screenshots of how two posts next to each other afforded a moment of happenstantial comedy. But it was never <em>designed</em> to be that way.</p>\n\n<h3>What\u2019s Worth Curating?</h3>\n\n<p>It could be argued that few posts on social media would even ever rise to the level of warranting curation in a particular gallery-style collection in the first place. And that\u2019s fair. But some of what we post on social media <em>is</em> art, straight up. We post our paintings, our songs, our sculptures, our knitted sweaters, our poems, our prose essays, our dance moves, and on and on and on. Yet who is compiling any of this art? How can we compare things in a way which brings a higher sense of meaning?</p>\n\n<p>This <em>loss of meaning</em>, <em>loss of fidelity</em> in the experience of \u201cart in digital spaces\u201d has been weighing on me. <strong>A lot.</strong> I think it may be subconsciously contributing to my growing unease that simply \u201cbeing very online\u201d is rather bad for my mental health. Even while I\u2019m compelled to <em>post, post, post</em> my creative works online, I often lack the satisfaction I think I will get out of it.</p>\n\n<p><strong>On social media, we\u2019re all just shouting in the wind.</strong></p>\n\n<p>And so I <em>crave</em> a more curated experience, and in many cases a more \u201cmeatspace\u201d experience. I find myself going out to listen to live music more often. I find myself wanting to visit art galleries and museums IRL. I find myself wanting to attend meetups in which I can converse with just a few people about <strong>real ideas which make sense in the real world</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>But what can we do, beyond all that, to make our online experiences of art better?</p>\n\n<p>As a starting point, I think we can attempt to reorient ourselves around the concept of the <strong>portfolio</strong>.</p>\n\n<h3>A Portfolio is a Gallery of One</h3>\n\n<p>Some forms of art lend themselves to portfolio-making better than others. For example, an album is essentially a portfolio of music from a particular epoch. A non-fiction book could be considered a portfolio of related essays.</p>\n\n<p>But no matter what kind of art you create, <strong>you need a portfolio</strong>. (And probably several at least!) This is what I\u2019m beginning to realize more and more as I evaluate all of the different projects I\u2019m involved in. The \u201creverse-chron\u201d format of blogs and social media is beginning to <strong>crush my spirit</strong>, and I desperately want to start focusing on how I can surface various collections of thematically-similar creations.</p>\n\n<p><strong>First of all, you\u2019ll almost certainly need a professional website.</strong> Your Instagram profile is not a photography portfolio. Your \u201ctop posts\u201d category on your blog is not a writing portfolio. And your Bandcamp homepage is not a musical portfolio.</p>\n\n<p>Secondly, you\u2019ll need to start diving into the different themes of your work over the years. You might need to set aside some time to review past work and jot down ideas of what you like or don\u2019t like about different pieces (as well as what stand out in terms of \u201ckeywords\u201d). Sure, maybe you\u2019ve taken lots of photos of flowers over the years, but what <em>kinds</em> of flowers? Are there certain colors you gravitate to? Are there certain angles? Certain photographic styles? Certain species? Expand your thought processes beyond the rote work which goes into each piece, and start to approach your work as if <em>you</em> were the curator of a gallery. How might you put an exhibit together? What would it <em>say</em>? What would it <em>mean</em>? Which conscious decisions would you make as you separate the wheat from the chaff? How might you be showcased <strong>as an artist</strong>?</p>\n\n<p>One aspect of this I sometimes think about is how the \u201cstream\u201d often prompts us to want to put out only \u201cpretty\u201d art. Because if you were to post a single artwork which is \u201cugly\u201d in some confrontational or countercultural or aesthetic way, it might just get \u201crejected\u201d in the constant flow of online content which tends to promote conformity to norms. Case in point: if I simply mentioned \u201cthe Instagram look\u201d in photography, you\u2019d know <em>exactly</em> what I\u2019m talking about\u2026</p>\n\n<p>But in a curated collection, you could put a pretty piece and an ugly piece side-by-side\u2014the <em>contrast</em> between the two being of primary importance. Some of Phil Collins\u2019 solo albums come to mind here: I noticed the tracklist often ping-pongs between a \u201chit single\u201d which is palatable to the masses, and a \u201cweird song\u201d which nobody would ever suggest is Top 10 Radio material. In a world where a Phil Collins is just posting clips of singles on TikTok or whatever, I\u2019m not sure the \u201cweird songs\u201d would land all that often. When I listen to some modern albums where every song sort of just sounds the same and nothing stands out in any particular way, <strong>I wonder if this sort of dynamic is at play</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>So I\u2019d recommend being a bit bold in your portfolio selection process. I\u2019m just starting this process with my photography, so I\u2019m excited to see what kind of contrast I can bring out, which sorts of <em>non-sequiturs</em> I can put on display. I fear my own work has trended \u201cpretty\u201d over the years because I\u2019m always thinking of what might land on social media, rather than what I could say that\u2019s provocative or even distasteful. <strong>It\u2019ll be a challenge certainly, and quite probably inform how I approach my craft going forward.</strong></p>\n\n<h3>Outatime</h3>\n\n<p>One of the enduring tropes of sci-fi stories is the <em>fish-out-of-water</em> sensation of time travel. I think we love time travel scenarios because it wreaks havoc on our sense of linear progression. We typically live our lives with a this, then this, then this, then this, then this mindset. Once you time travel, you have to completely reorient yourself around a new narrative of what <em>was</em> true, what <em>is</em> true now, and what <em>might be</em> true tomorrow.</p>\n\n<p>A portfolio is in essence a demonstration of artistic time travel. On my new album <a href=\"https://yarred.bandcamp.com/album/subterranean\">Subterranean</a>, that is doubly true, as the origin point for the compositions stem from 2004, 2008, and 2015\u2014with new elements and arrangements mixed in across the last several years. I can\u2019t think of any other music project I\u2019ve ever worked on which \u201cspanned decades\u201d quite like this, and it was <strong>enormously fun</strong>. I almost lament having to start on my next album project composing in a typical linear fashion. Perhaps I\u2019ve been spoiled by <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/about#musician\">my past life performing in folk and classical music settings</a> where you\u2019re always re-interpreting compositions and styles from quite literally hundreds of years ago. There\u2019s a sublime humanist joy to that I can\u2019t quite capture anywhere else.</p>\n\n<p>But I digress. My takeaway here is for you to <strong>enjoy some time travel of your own</strong>. Get familiar once more with your older work, with additional styles and ideas you might have once pursued. Look for points of contrast between styles, eras, and moods. See what sorts of stories you might tell with your work when these contrasting elements come together in a new and unique fashion. Publish an artistic experience online that\u2019s more than simply fuel for the social media streams. And then repeat this process from time to time, forging new <em>compilations</em> as your career progresses.</p>\n\n<p>The art of curation has in many ways been lost to those of us who are Extremely Online\u2122. <strong>We need to reclaim our artistic truths, and thereby reclaim our creative power.</strong></p>\n\n<p><br /></p>\n\n<p><em>Photo credit: <a href=\"https://unsplash.com/photos/person-looking-at-painting-jqh0GEvuNBY?utm_content=creditShareLink&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash\">Antenna on Unsplash</a></em></p>\n\n\n\n <br /><p>\n \n <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/tag/lifehacks\">#lifehacks</a>\n \n <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/tag/creativity\">#creativity</a>\n \n </p>",
"text": "Somewhere along the way to becoming Extremely Online, we\u2019ve lost the art of curation. It\u2019s time to reclaim our artistic truths.\n\nOn occasion, truth be told, I\u2019m not so swift on the uptake. You see, it finally came to me as I sat musing on the nature of the work I\u2019ve been focusing on a great deal this year across several unrelated disciplines. When I list out these efforts all together, you\u2019ll immediately spot the pattern\u2014hence my sudden smack-that-forehead moment of epiphany:\n\nThe Internet Review, my rebooted & coalesced blog combining over 25 years of writing on tech topics\n Subterranean, my album release of newly-freshened electronic music compositions spanning 20 years\n Essential Life Photography (currently in the works!), my curated portfolio of photographs taken over the past seven years I\u2019ve lived in Oregon.\nObvious, isn\u2019t it? And yet these were all separate efforts which I didn\u2019t give much thought to in terms of their conceptual interconnectedness\u2026until now!\n\nIf I might put a theme on it, I could call it Rebel Without a Timeline. In all of these cases (perhaps least obvious for The Internet Review which is still primarily a blog format), the primordial desire is to break out of the confines of the \u201creverse-chronological timeline\u201d and showcase work which encompasses months, years, and even decades of effort in a curated fashion. Fact is the Internet isn\u2019t so good at that\u2014not any more at least. The validity of the \u201cdeath of the homepage\u201d narrative has been hotly contested for a long time, and I don\u2019t wish to litigate that here, but it\u2019s hard to deny that the primary format by which people consume content online is\u2014as Netscape once established\u2014What\u2019s New.\n\nNo matter which social media platform you use, no matter which email newsletters you subscribe to, no matter how you choose to bookmark and follow creators\u2014it\u2019s all about What\u2019s New. Even algorithmic timelines which are somewhat non-linear nearly always favor recency. You might see a post from a day or two ago, but you certainly won\u2019t see something from months or years ago\u2014unless that\u2019s been intentionally shared by an individual. Maybe something older will surface in a \u201crelated\u201d section (most notably on YouTube), but it\u2019s an exception to the rule.\n\nStreams Makes Sense, But They\u2019re Also Missing Something\n\nContent streams, feeds, whatever you want to call them\u2014they make sense. They really do. There\u2019s a reason that\u2019s what publishing on the Internet is built around, by and large.\n\nBut streams miss out on a vital aspect of creativity. Streams are lacking in context. Streams are lacking in legacy. And streams are lacking in relationships between disparate pieces of content.\n\nWhen you visit an art gallery, you\u2019re participating in multiple layers of experience. The most basic and obvious layer is when you\u2019re looking at one piece of art at a time, which I might call singular attention. This painting. That sculpture. This photograph. That projection.\n\nBut beyond that, you\u2019re experiencing the layer of comparison. This painting as compared to that sculpture as compared to this photography as compared to that projection.\n\nBut at a higher level still is the layer of compilation. All of the art in the gallery has been compiled together into an exhibit. And the exhibit itself could be considered a form of art. Why did the curator choose these pieces, and not other pieces? Why are they placed where they are placed? What is the larger story being told through this collection of created artifacts?\n\nThe unfortunately reality of online streams is that the layer of comparison is completely random, and the layer of compilation is missing entirely. When you open Mastodon, or Threads, or YouTube, or whatever: sure, you\u2019re seeing a bunch of different works compiled together, but nobody is doing the compiling. It\u2019s either the almighty algorithm, or mere recency based on who you follow. That\u2019s it. Thus there\u2019s no meaning to the compilation. There\u2019s no \u201creason\u201d I\u2019m seeing this post next to that post. Sometimes there is humor to be found in the accidental contrast\u2014people may post screenshots of how two posts next to each other afforded a moment of happenstantial comedy. But it was never designed to be that way.\n\nWhat\u2019s Worth Curating?\n\nIt could be argued that few posts on social media would even ever rise to the level of warranting curation in a particular gallery-style collection in the first place. And that\u2019s fair. But some of what we post on social media is art, straight up. We post our paintings, our songs, our sculptures, our knitted sweaters, our poems, our prose essays, our dance moves, and on and on and on. Yet who is compiling any of this art? How can we compare things in a way which brings a higher sense of meaning?\n\nThis loss of meaning, loss of fidelity in the experience of \u201cart in digital spaces\u201d has been weighing on me. A lot. I think it may be subconsciously contributing to my growing unease that simply \u201cbeing very online\u201d is rather bad for my mental health. Even while I\u2019m compelled to post, post, post my creative works online, I often lack the satisfaction I think I will get out of it.\n\nOn social media, we\u2019re all just shouting in the wind.\n\nAnd so I crave a more curated experience, and in many cases a more \u201cmeatspace\u201d experience. I find myself going out to listen to live music more often. I find myself wanting to visit art galleries and museums IRL. I find myself wanting to attend meetups in which I can converse with just a few people about real ideas which make sense in the real world.\n\nBut what can we do, beyond all that, to make our online experiences of art better?\n\nAs a starting point, I think we can attempt to reorient ourselves around the concept of the portfolio.\n\nA Portfolio is a Gallery of One\n\nSome forms of art lend themselves to portfolio-making better than others. For example, an album is essentially a portfolio of music from a particular epoch. A non-fiction book could be considered a portfolio of related essays.\n\nBut no matter what kind of art you create, you need a portfolio. (And probably several at least!) This is what I\u2019m beginning to realize more and more as I evaluate all of the different projects I\u2019m involved in. The \u201creverse-chron\u201d format of blogs and social media is beginning to crush my spirit, and I desperately want to start focusing on how I can surface various collections of thematically-similar creations.\n\nFirst of all, you\u2019ll almost certainly need a professional website. Your Instagram profile is not a photography portfolio. Your \u201ctop posts\u201d category on your blog is not a writing portfolio. And your Bandcamp homepage is not a musical portfolio.\n\nSecondly, you\u2019ll need to start diving into the different themes of your work over the years. You might need to set aside some time to review past work and jot down ideas of what you like or don\u2019t like about different pieces (as well as what stand out in terms of \u201ckeywords\u201d). Sure, maybe you\u2019ve taken lots of photos of flowers over the years, but what kinds of flowers? Are there certain colors you gravitate to? Are there certain angles? Certain photographic styles? Certain species? Expand your thought processes beyond the rote work which goes into each piece, and start to approach your work as if you were the curator of a gallery. How might you put an exhibit together? What would it say? What would it mean? Which conscious decisions would you make as you separate the wheat from the chaff? How might you be showcased as an artist?\n\nOne aspect of this I sometimes think about is how the \u201cstream\u201d often prompts us to want to put out only \u201cpretty\u201d art. Because if you were to post a single artwork which is \u201cugly\u201d in some confrontational or countercultural or aesthetic way, it might just get \u201crejected\u201d in the constant flow of online content which tends to promote conformity to norms. Case in point: if I simply mentioned \u201cthe Instagram look\u201d in photography, you\u2019d know exactly what I\u2019m talking about\u2026\n\nBut in a curated collection, you could put a pretty piece and an ugly piece side-by-side\u2014the contrast between the two being of primary importance. Some of Phil Collins\u2019 solo albums come to mind here: I noticed the tracklist often ping-pongs between a \u201chit single\u201d which is palatable to the masses, and a \u201cweird song\u201d which nobody would ever suggest is Top 10 Radio material. In a world where a Phil Collins is just posting clips of singles on TikTok or whatever, I\u2019m not sure the \u201cweird songs\u201d would land all that often. When I listen to some modern albums where every song sort of just sounds the same and nothing stands out in any particular way, I wonder if this sort of dynamic is at play.\n\nSo I\u2019d recommend being a bit bold in your portfolio selection process. I\u2019m just starting this process with my photography, so I\u2019m excited to see what kind of contrast I can bring out, which sorts of non-sequiturs I can put on display. I fear my own work has trended \u201cpretty\u201d over the years because I\u2019m always thinking of what might land on social media, rather than what I could say that\u2019s provocative or even distasteful. It\u2019ll be a challenge certainly, and quite probably inform how I approach my craft going forward.\n\nOutatime\n\nOne of the enduring tropes of sci-fi stories is the fish-out-of-water sensation of time travel. I think we love time travel scenarios because it wreaks havoc on our sense of linear progression. We typically live our lives with a this, then this, then this, then this, then this mindset. Once you time travel, you have to completely reorient yourself around a new narrative of what was true, what is true now, and what might be true tomorrow.\n\nA portfolio is in essence a demonstration of artistic time travel. On my new album Subterranean, that is doubly true, as the origin point for the compositions stem from 2004, 2008, and 2015\u2014with new elements and arrangements mixed in across the last several years. I can\u2019t think of any other music project I\u2019ve ever worked on which \u201cspanned decades\u201d quite like this, and it was enormously fun. I almost lament having to start on my next album project composing in a typical linear fashion. Perhaps I\u2019ve been spoiled by my past life performing in folk and classical music settings where you\u2019re always re-interpreting compositions and styles from quite literally hundreds of years ago. There\u2019s a sublime humanist joy to that I can\u2019t quite capture anywhere else.\n\nBut I digress. My takeaway here is for you to enjoy some time travel of your own. Get familiar once more with your older work, with additional styles and ideas you might have once pursued. Look for points of contrast between styles, eras, and moods. See what sorts of stories you might tell with your work when these contrasting elements come together in a new and unique fashion. Publish an artistic experience online that\u2019s more than simply fuel for the social media streams. And then repeat this process from time to time, forging new compilations as your career progresses.\n\nThe art of curation has in many ways been lost to those of us who are Extremely Online\u2122. We need to reclaim our artistic truths, and thereby reclaim our creative power.\n\n\n\n\nPhoto credit: Antenna on Unsplash\n\n\n\n \n\n \n #lifehacks\n \n #creativity"
},
"name": "You Need a Portfolio (and So Do I)",
"post-type": "article",
"_id": "42352740",
"_source": "2783"
}