empiricalparty

[empiricalparty]

overdue brain overflow

hello good sir, 

Writing you a letter has been on my list for simply too long so I must do it even though I can’t promise content of any real value. In any case, I hope you are doing well and that everything you are hoping for, happens. 

Big fan of the workshops zinedabaad has been doing along with the toilet sign instagram!! You are always an inspo and I would put you on my vision board if I had one. 

I’m at quite a new and interesting place in life right now, or that’s how it feels. I’m living a life I never could have imagined for myself and of course that is GR8 but now after the initial high of actually being paid to do non standard things for about a year or so and being my own main boss, I find myself asking a few questions. The first is just quite simply, how do I even attempt to present or quantify what I have been doing? How do I prove that I am someone who knows how to do things? I am trying to build a portfolio, but as with all things that centre around myself this is a big challenge. It’s also difficult because I have to go back to the other question of what am I even seeking now. Making a list of things I have done made me more sad than proud because seeing them written as just a little list doesn’t at all capture the time, energy, and love that went into most of them. Where do you put that? How do I show that, that is actually what I’m good at and have experience with? How do I highlight process and not results? How do I build on what I have done and do I even need to? Now that I have things I’m proud of, how do I make sure people see them (and me!) for what they are? Was also wondering what this was like for you while applying for Masters? It feels funny to me to do this without a template, format, or guide from any institution. This portfolio is my oyster and all that.

After asking 288264 questions after claiming it was just 1, we are on to the second question. If everything has been done before, what is there to be done? Does it matter if someone else has done something similar if you do your own version in your own space? I feel both disheartened and excited when I see other people doing work that’s similar to mine. I’m excited to see what they’ve done, how they approached it, and everything else, but it also makes me think well I may as well quit then right? It’s already out there. I really want to work with food and facebook groups. But everyone is working with food, everyone has stories about food. How do I find the ones that haven’t been told yet and should I even? Once side food project Gijs and I are working on from the Spring is eating seasonal vegetables in the Netherlands but cooking them by modifiying Indian recipes. Maybe that’s the only way to do something new, have it be inherently linked to me and my specific background and situation. We’ll see how it goes! Here’s another cool project that reminds me of all the mapping I have been doing across my projects and makes me ask the question of is there a point in me doing what I’m doing when it has already been done.

https://www.subjectiveeditions.org/atlases/p/subjective-atlas-of-amsterdam

I know these are both quite standard questions but for the first time i’m approaching them not in a state of panic and desperation and that’s making it almost harder to figure out what my next steps should be. The options are endless! So for the first time in a long time I really need to think in a biiit longer term way, what do I want to be doing? Maybe work as a cook in a cafe? Maybe go back to interactive tech and work at my own pace with it? Maybe learn some new skills? Maybe start a new big community project? Maybe apply for a grant for a research ish project? Maybe just make some money somehow?Who knows? 

I’m feeling optimistic, intimidated, but also confident that it’ll be something cool, just don’t know what it is yet. 

How have you been? How do you engage with these questions? What are you most looking forward to? 

Sending love to all!!

[empiricalparty]

Dear Madam chA4otic,

Emails have been easier to do lately, so here goes. [I have copy-pasted this life update email, because that’s how easy I need life to be right now.]

Working, reading, writing, traveling, sleeping, living, loving, sab ho raha hai. My job has basically been most of my days, it has kept me engaged with exactly the kind of messy stuff I need to be learning to do and make right now. I don't know if you read my most recent story about Boni, a footballer and person with intersex variations. I felt it could've been better with more editorial changes, suggested on my part, or maybe this is what one feels with something close to home that has been published. It's never really finished even though it has been officially carried on the internet somewhere. What I am taking from this is that there is no point in being intimidated in dealing with editors and I need to just learn to say what I feel -- however inarticulate and awkward things sound coming out of my mouth. A large part of the last two months have been travel. I traveled to rural parts of West Bengal, Bihar and a river island in Assam, called Majuli. You probably saw me gush on the Whatsapp group. Majuli is one of the longest river islands in Asia, and maybe one of the most beautiful parts of India I have had the chance to see. This is the idyllic part of what my work looks like, to be able to travel, immerse and learn more about where I am from; burst the Bombay bubble and witness all of it -- the inequality, resilience, love and more. I love making photos and writing, especially the slow kind of long-form work that allows a story to emerge at its own pace. Of course, PARI has its flaws and I see them too. For now, it's difficult to find a space and team that broadly aligns with one's values, and I'm grateful to be here. There are days when all the stereotypes about journalism come true though; everything is last minute, usually chaotic and definately hectic; people treat me with suspicion and sometimes outright dismissal. In some spaces, men have had trouble looking me in the eye and shaking my hand. In others, there is so much warmth and joy. Reminds me of something Raghu Rai said: ‘If people can connect with my pictures and enjoy them that is enough for me. It‘s like you are walking down the street and you smile at someone and they smile back. There is nothing given and nothing taken. It is just like a little nudge, a recognition of humanity and life. That is what photography means to me.’ That's my work right now, but frankly, since I'm not trained as a journalist, there is a long way to go. I'm at that sweet spot where I know a little more than a fresher but enough to be able to recognise how much more I have to experience and learn. I am able to do this work, and travel to remote parts, only with the support of a solid team. It includes people from PARI, of course, but friends and family too. Oorna and Aanya from school have been lifelines; AP is supportive as heck, and able to hold me accountable when I need; and really a lot of friendships have been crucial to cutting through the noise and to just sit by a stream and listen. What have you been thinking about? Tell me anything.

Love,

Riya

[empiricalparty]

a love letter, a poem, whatever you want to call it ma cherie

Testimony by Rebecca Baggett (for my daughters) I want to tell you that the world is still beautiful. I tell you that despite children raped on city streets, shot down in school rooms, despite the slow poisons seeping from old and hidden sins into our air, soil, water, despite the thinning film that encloses our aching world. Despite my own terror and despair. I want you to know that spring is no small thing, that the tender grasses curling like a baby's fine hairs around your fingers are a recurring miracle. I want to tell you that the river rocks shine like God, that the crisp voices of the orange and gold October leaves are laughing at death, I want to remind you to look beneath the grass, to note the fragile hieroglyphs of ant, snail, beetle. I want you to understand that you are no more and no less necessary than the brown recluse, the ruby- throated hummingbird, the humpback whale, the profligate mimosa. I want to say, like Neruda, that I am waiting for "a great and common tenderness", that I still believe we are capable of attention, that anyone who notices the world must want to save it.

[empiricalparty]

Hey hey sexy good at everything and more, 

We just spoke over WA and you told me you’re living with flu. Hope you’re feeling better when you get to reading this letter. Sending strength, always. 

I felt so warm when I read your letter. Thank you for making time to write to me. Thank you also for involving me in the writey gamey (wtf is this name) group -- it’s a sweet bunch of us in an unconventional arrangement so beautifully enabled by technology. Makes me feel like connection over the internet can also be good. 

kiara’s lino page is also a reminder that internet discoveries can be good and RADICAL and INSPIRING! I was so so so proud to see you make, market and sell your art. It’s SO IMPORTANT TO SHARE YOUR WORK AND YOU’RE DOING IT AND IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY!!!! I’m glad you’re finding artists online who are pushing boundaries with their work. What you said about kiara’s rebellious move away from what lino has usually been used for - the content of the print but never the form. i never thought this intricacy could come through from a form like lino. also, i want a fucking shirt that says ‘eat with your hands’. or like haat se khaane ka mazza he kuch aur hai. but also i don’t need another tshirt. ok this aside, the poem is also something i need to sit with for longer. ‘we choked on your english’ oof. 

gaaaah. writing that renews my gratitude for this space we have made for our friendship. it’s intimate and warm and always fertile grounds for ideas to grow. it makes me happy. another of kiara’s linos that fits well into this paragraph. i loooove the invertedness of it all too (yay about your mirror sounds handy af). 

kiara and cpai loving aside, i’ve shared a link for a newsletter that i now look forward to reading. this link leads to an edition i read today. it resonated with ideas i’ve been having about growing up (i’m writing from noida, in ap’s parent’s house, which is where i’ve spent the last month) and the markers we create for ourself about becoming more adult. and of course, the markers and expectations pushed on us. i cannot wait to hear your thoughts about her writing. 

other than this, i’m really feeling a bit emotional to know that zinedabaad is celebrating a year next month. you’ve been such a cheerleader man. and have made this ride so much more fun and chA4otic (in the best way possible). a celebration is in order! I WISH WE COULD GET TERRIBLY DRUNK TOGETHER. oo maybe this could actually be possible -- what you doing march 3? 

love you miss you kiss you,

rb

[empiricalparty]

hello my dear ridiculous risktaker <3

how have you been? as much as i enjoy seeing u in writey gamey meetings it’s been a long time since we just had a heart to heart. in the middle of the million things we are both constantly doing, it’s hard to find the space but i’m going to try and make the effort again. there’s always so much to share and i want to keep this portal to your life and resources open for as long as possible. <3 

speaking of the million things, thought i’d tell you a bit more about how and why i suddenly returned to and had the general courage to attempt something bigger and more interesting on lino. :)

I’d made the small stamps from my tiny circular lino pieces but never really got past that. the small stamps were quick, clean and didn’t allow the fact that i’m not an ‘artist’ to clearly shine through. bigger canvases were so intimidating because how and what and it would never work! i had started following a few lino printing pages before but though many were beautiful and individual a lot still had a similar vibe to them. like they allowed the medium to dictate what was possible. and this just didn’t feel super exciting to me???

and then i think little over a month ago i came across kiara’s print page on instagram. she’s bristol based and i think may know lily from grapevine. maybe that’s why she was suggested to me? her page was very new, just a few posts and prints. but i really loved the first one i saw so i followed her. 

and this was such a good decision bc with every post she opened my eyes more to how malleable lino really is and how you can really try anything!! i really love her sampaguita and eat with your hands it’s good for you series’. they capture more than i ever thought possible. 

the post linked here is a poem she had written for something else that she first wrote in it’s entirety, inverted and in cursive. and then carved it. i love everything about this. feels like a sort of stubbornness like ‘this isn’t what this is for but i want to do it and so i will’ haha and that’s what i’ve been choosing to bring to this now. a general attitude of i have a vision and i won’t know if it sucks till i try so i just have to. i even bought a mini desk mirror which was more for quick morning eyeliner before zoom meetings but is now coming in handy while checking if my inverted letters will read right hahah.

the poem itself i also really enjoy. i read it first when i was already thinking about language and communication in general, like i wrote about in my letter. something about the line “what you don’t understand is never just noise” has stuck with me. just thought i’d share. 

as usual i hope u know i miss you love you and are proud of you constantly 

yours now and always 

- ԳƆ

[empiricalparty]

Speculative Everything

My wholesome Paichart, 

After our conversation this afternoon (for me), I realised we are both interested in (broadly speaking) design stuff. Perhaps we should learn with each other about it. 

Here is a book called sPECULATIVE EVERYTHInG: DEsIGn,FICTIOn, AnD sOCIAL DREAMInG. I found it because AP was telling me about his projects and I realised I am

1) really interested 

2) and want to know more to ask better questions 

I found this free book on the interwebs, asked him if he could recommend it and he said it’s the first one he read when he joined Quicksand. I’ve only read till the second chapter and thought it might be interesting for us to read together and share quotes in the comment section + thoughts in general (whenever time permits obv). 

To start us of, here are some words that resonated from the first chapter: 

“It is hard to say what today’s dreams are; it seems they have been downgraded to hopes—hope that we will not allow ourselves to become extinct, hope that we can feed the starving, hope that there will be room for us all on this tiny planet. There are no more visions. We don’t know how to fix the planet and ensure our survival. We are just hopeful.

As Fredric Jameson famously remarked, it is now easier for us to imagine the end of the world than an alternative to capitalism. Yet alternatives are exactly what we need. We need to dream new dreams for the twenty-first century as those of the twentieth century rapidly fade. But what role can design play?” 

Thank you for sharing RadioooOOooO with me. I added some songs by Faiz Ahmed Faiz but I do not know if they have been accepted yet. It says they are in the pipeline. I hope it goes up :) 

As always, I’m yours and only yours. 

Riya

[empiricalparty]

Hello my Rimarkabehl Rokstar,

Thank you for your links I really did appreciate them. Also I’m glad that soon after, we did have a small conversation about what we really are doing. Even though it basically is that we are unsure but we are trying and at some level we will both always spend our time in ‘unusual’ ways. 

It has been a strange few weeks to say the least, I’ve been stressed but also I got to travel! (these things could also be linked)

This link is in some ways related to traveling through time and space(s)! Use the musical time machine to find songs from all sorts of times and places and curate your own adventure at home! For a fun extra you can try out different dance styles as well. Maybe we could do this together online, where everything lives and happens nowadays. 

Thinking of you always, 

a piece of your (c)heart 

[empiricalparty]

My loving cutiePAI, 

It’s wonderful how I do not completely understand what you’re job or conventional ‘real life’ skills are and actually have no idea what you’re upto with that aspect of life. There is just a vague idea that looms in my head about what exactly you’re doing, what you plan to do, what you’re looking for, what you have done. I do not know if these are things I should know. If yes, I am doing a hopelessly bad job of finding out. 

I do not know also if you know these things about me or want to know. It’s a bit confusing to explain and I am also confused about where to start and what to say, so I am happy to not talk about this at all. Or at least until it is absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, we can read McSweeneys bizarre series about what people can get paid for and have hope. 

An excerpt from an interview with Will Quam, part time brick research, photographer and middle-school theatre teacher: 

“Normally I lead walking tours about brick architecture in Chicago but during COVID I’m doing them virtually. I do commercial photography for a brickyard and various architecture firms as well”.

Yours truly, 

daddy dearest

[empiricalparty]

Dear sweetums, 

It’s been a hard few days. I know what I have to do when I wake up in the morning, but falter everyday at order and consistency. There are also ‘productive’ distractions, or so I tell myself. 

Years ago, I created a bookmarks bar called “calm, intimate spaces”, and this artist’s work found a place there. Hope her work reminds you to unclench your jaw, relax your shoulders, and continue humming that song you heard and can’t get out of your head (not that you want to either -- what’s the fun in that?)

Love,

ur LOVER

[empiricalparty]

To my dearest Ribbit,

I often find myself going back to pictures of us from the glorious times that are now in the past. So many of them are blurry photos from house parties where the alcohol really was flowing quite freely. 

A few weeks ago I watched a lunchtime talk on the Pervasive Media Studio’s Youtube channel (they have a talk very friday, all are very interesting and i fully recommend https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbP2rruaw4OvyHmG5tYtqgtJ67xIJ5rOf). It was about curating playfully online and one of the things she talked about was how she hosted a house party in a google spreadsheet! It is a wild but exciting concept and is one way we could create some new blurry photo type memories in these strange times. 

Sending all my love and i hope to see you in a google sheet sometime soon. 

always yours, 

Checkers

[empiricalparty]

To my beloved Ribbel Chips,

I fully enjoyed both your resources and yes men really do suck. Water Wets and Fire burns is something I will go back to often.

What I have for you today is an album. I haven’t listened and loved a whole album in a long time, but Fiona Apple changed that. In Pitchfork’s review of the album they call it ‘a wild symphony of the everyday, an unyielding masterpiece.’ but they seem to mostly be talking about the music. The music is definitely something else but what fully made this album a winner to me was the lyrics! 

They just really somehow also are a wild symphony of the everyday and put down frustrations that I haven’t seen in songs before in such a nice way with the right amount of angst!! 

Wish we could jump around your room in Ashoka while listening to this. Till we find a new shared physical space, this will have to do. 

My current favourites on the album are - Shameika, Under the Table, Newspaper, Ladies, Heavy Balloon, Cosmonauts and Drumset. 

Hope this can keep you company till I can. 

hopelessly devoted to you, 

Chet Pie Baker

#fetch the bolt cutters #fiona apple

[empiricalparty]

Dearest Chatty Pai, 

Men suck. It has come to the point where love letters begin this way. A pity -- for them. Because we’re making space for ourself, and this fontastic website is one instance of it. 

“Created in 2018, this collection aims at giving visibility to libre fonts drawn by womxn designers, who are often underrepresented in the traditionally conservative field of typography.

They are generously published for free, feeding an ecosystem of sharing and collaborations. To support the designers, you can plan in the design budget of your project some money to donate to the designer directly, commission them with custom font designs, invite them to give a lecture and spread the word about their great designs!“

You heard em, spread the word! 

Word.

Love, 

Ribel

#womxn womxndesigners fonts fontdesign designresources

[empiricalparty]

Dearest Paithon, 

My heart aches to get a lick from your forked tongue. Seeing that this might not be the wisest idea during a global health crisis, my next best offering to you comes in the form of a zine I really liked in the past few days. Your Python side of the brain might find interest in how it was made: 

“Salil Parekh created an algorithm that spits out random headlines and then imagined the rest by writing the most absurd content. It is written so well that it's almost believable. Alongside him, Nirmal Ravisyam makes a variety of mixed-media illustrations that both complement and contradict the headlines giving us an impression of something between a newspaper and a comic book. I'd sign up for this newspaper any day of the week”. - from thisis(now)online’s newsletter. 

Until we can hiss at people together again. 

Yours truly, 

Belly

[empiricalparty]

welcome to the empiricalparty empire gm

cp