I tire of reading about this year, thinking about this year, considering what this year “means” in the broader historical context of this bewildering project known as The Human Race. But, alas, it would be unfair to my future self to not document my lived experience while inhabiting this particular fold of temporality.
One thought I cannot shake: things are going to get objectively worse, for a long while, before they get objectively better. Just today:
World Health Organization experts have warned that even though the coronavirus pandemic has been very severe, it is “not necessarily the big one”, and that the world will have to learn to live with Covid-19.
The “destiny” of the virus is to become endemic, even as vaccines begin to be rolled out in the US and UK, says Professor David Heymann, the chair of the WHO’s strategic and technical advisory group for infectious hazards.
“The world has hoped for herd immunity. […] It appears the destiny of SARS-CoV-2 [Covid-19] is to become endemic, as have four other human coronaviruses, and that it will continue to mutate as it reproduces in human cells, especially in areas of more intense admission. […]”
Despite a record high number of sleepless nights, “Is this real life?” moments, and other existentia, this year was a creative renaissance for me. I haven’t had a year like this since that golden summer of 2009 when Endless Field Studios burst onto the scene.
This year, I got involved with the monome community. Learned Lua. Started learning modular. Made dronecaster, arcologies, Yggdrasil, and other scripts. I wrote and released the first Northern Information (sans “movement”) album. I mobilized The First Arclogists. I made lots of videos, conducted workshops, contributed to podcasts, and gave talks.
I read a lot of books and discovered a ton of new music.
We successfully navigated Highland through what was perhaps the company’s most complex season in its 21 year history.
I moved to California.
The most unexpected phenomenon of this time is how many new friends I’ve made. The norns study group has been a true joy and source of geniune connection and learning.
On NYE we shall celebrate with the 4th Lines Community Stream.
These images of plants are screenshots from my last script of the year. It cycles through the seasons, playing generative music. Oddly, it fills me with incredible hope seeing the years tick up.
One day we may look back on this and say, “that was all a dream.”
Let’s cut out the middle man.
This is a dream. We’re all dreaming each other and our dreams got all tangled up.
So please, hang on to each other, it’s a desert out there.