1-1 Meeting with Sarah #2 (March 2)

I had a great hour talking with Sarah. Just gonna put down a bunch of notes I wrote down during the meeting here. It can be a little all over the place.

We started with some discussion on the final proposal we just submitted. It was enjoyable to read, don’t worry about the output format of the thesis yet. Focus on how I would like to narrow down the question so it can be made into experiments. Right now, it’s more like a lifetime question to answer.  As for the feedback from other reviewers that will come back in two weeks, like all feedback, take it or leave it is fine.

How am i going to launch into the production of some sort?

-Set up 2 chunks of time per week; whatever I conduct during those two timeslots is the thesis project itself. Tie myself doing it, even if it’s painful or I do not believe in it. (Social Media exploration, many screenshots “for you” pages?)

Intrigued by the impact of geopolitical events. As for the thesis, what aspects of social media am I talking about? Can the thesis project open a group of people with different perspectives into an inviting conversation? The project aims to foster engagement, not critique. An actual activation space to think about how you are going to act.

Maybe it will help by think I will have to show some things during class meetings. Use assignments to conduct experiments.

Also, some recap on the first meeting talked about the complicated history of symbolism and really made me think about how I delivered my projects in the past. My imaginary enemy doesn’t aline with the actual audience of my project. Sometimes project itself might not feel like it takes into account and respect the different perspectives.

punching down vs. punching up; it’s all about positionality.

Revisit the reading on public and counter-public.

Artists / Works to look at (agree or not, touch on a similar topic):

Strategic Transparency Collective: https://strategictransparencycollective.net/

ITP class, social hacking: https://github.com/lmccart/SocialHacking/blob/master/readme.md

Manifestos for Creative Resistance: https://strategictransparencycollective.net/manifestos/

Jens Haaning: https://artmap.com/jenshaaning/chapter/images#_o3z6b