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Fionnáin

fionnain@bookwyrm.social

Prisijungė prieš 3 years,7 months

I arrange things into artworks, including paint, wood, plastic, raspberry pi, people, words, dialogues, arduino, sensors, web tech, light and code.

I use words other people have written to help guide these projects, so I read as often as I can. Most of what I read is literature (fiction) or nonfiction on philosophy, art theory, ethics and technology.

Also on Mastodon.

Ši nuoroda atsidaro kitame langelyje

Jane Prophet, Helen V. Pritchard: Plants by Numbers (Hardcover, 2023, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc)

This open access book takes a queer, feminist, and decolonial technoscience approach to the ecologies …

Thoughtful artistic research with plants

Plants by Numbers is an edited compilation of fourteen chapters by artists and researchers who work with plants. In most cases, the plants are collaborators or contributors, and are also part of developing anti-colonial or critical narratives, using the human-plant relationship to highlight or critique human behaviours. Great credit is due to the editors, as this carefully curated selection is made up of voices that are so careful to not unintentionally exclude or diminish many peripheral voices. Throughout the book, space is repeatedly given over to these voices, and I was really grateful for this.

As in any collection of essays, there are some that resonated less with me and some that are standout. Co-editor Jane Prophet's personal chapter on colonialism, ethics and trees is one of the best chapters, as is Amy M Youngs' thoughtful works with plants and people. Sina Seifee's project on the trees of Tehran is …

Susannah Haslam: Infrastructuring : Four Conversations on Cultural (Paperback, 2021, Antenne Books Limited)

Four fascinating perspectives on a different kind of art

Four brilliant interviews unlock the thoughts of four artist/collectives that work in dynamic ways. I loved this book for its aesthetic, its perspectives, and the space it gives to each interviewee to open up on a question. It is beautiful, short, and pointed. The crux is about cultural infrastructure, be that galleries, museums, or communities. The perspectives are dynamic, thoughtful, and diverse.

Robin Wall Kimmerer: The Serviceberry (Hardcover, 2024, Penguin Books, Limited)

A gift of a book

This book was gifted to me on my birthday last year. Its words are a gift, too, as is most of what Robin Wall Kimmerer offers us.

This very short book puts forward a clear thesis arguing for a gift economy to become normalised, beginning with a gift of serviceberries from the earth and from her neighbour. It draws from Kimmerer's community and friends, from her scientific and Potawotomi knowledge, and from her explorations into economics. It's very brief and filled with quotable sections that put forward a clear and easily understood argument against scarcity economics, and toward abundance and gifting.

My only real issue is that it doesn't give over much space to the small societies exist outside of the hegemonic one, where gift economies often central (my own place is one of these). It's a small complaint though, because Kimmerer still uses peaceful and beautiful words to convey …

apžvelgė autoriaus Han Kang knygą We Do Not Part

Han Kang: We Do Not Part (Hardcover, 2025, Hamish Hamilton)

One winter morning, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her …

Snowflakes don't melt

Įspėjimas dėl turinio Mention of Jeju genocide/massacres

Hélène Bradley Davies, Ursula Callaghan, Maura Cronin: Are Ye Going Up Town? (Hardcover, 2020, Mary Immaculate College) Įvertinimų nėra

‘Are ye going up town? Shops and shopping in Limerick’ is the product of a …

A unique local history

Įvertinimų nėra

Are Ye Going Up Town is a research project by three university staff in Limerick, Ireland, who looked at the history of shopping in that city. The topic sounds a little specific, but the result presents some things I had never considered about the role shopping plays in social and urban connections. The emergence of department stores in the 19th century, and shopping centres (or 'malls') in the 20th, is something I had never considered as part of a social evolution, although this is not my field.

The book is the result of an incredibly deep project that took years to compile. It includes essays, scans of dozens of advertisements, photographs from the past two centuries, oral histories, and very concrete research. It's impressive in its depth, but it is very specific to place and field of research so may not be worth exploring unless the topics seem of interest.

apžvelgė autoriaus Niamh Garvey knygą Wired Our Own Way

Niamh Garvey: Wired Our Own Way (Paperback)

Wired Our Own Way: An Anthology of Irish Autistic Voices is the first collection of …

Wires revealed

This anthology of writers and others who have autism in Ireland features writers from many different fields and backgrounds, and with many different variations of autism and AuDHD. Each chapter gives a personal view from the writer.

With so many voices, there is space given to many different perspectives on living with autism. For someone with limited knowledge, it gave me a clearer view of the smorgasbord of personalities of autistic-diagnosed people in Ireland. The unique experiences and diverse writing styles bring a clear individuality to every story. The editing and design is really tidy and considerate, and the perspectives are clearly presented. As with any book of this kind, there is natural repetition in chapters where people with similar diagnoses write about their often similar experiences, but this takes little from the book.

Ravel (Hardcover, english language, 2007, The New Press)

Bum notes

I picked Echenoz' book out at random, judging it by its cover, and the adage rang true here. This biographical novel of the composer Ravel begins with some pretty clumsy patriarchal moments, and just goes downhill from there. I found it slow and dull, and skipped the last 20 pages. Even for a short book it wasn't worth it.

Amartya Kumar Sen: Development as freedom (1999, Knopf)

Development as Freedom is a 1999 book about international development by Indian economist and philosopher …

Economics from the ground up

Amartya Sen's 1999 book presents his dominant economic ideals, mostly focussed on how economic development must be coupled with social schemes and not just an influx of money. The idea seems a little obvious to anyone who reads feminist philosophy, but the evidence presented is written for people in economics who may not always encounter these ideas. It's hard to tell how radical this may have seemed in 1999, because I am not familiar enough with the school of economics.

It is presented as a layperson's book, and for the first third Sen does a good job in grounding how economic theory reached this point. Later on the chapters remain interesting but become a little dry for someone like me who is not an economist. The ideas remain sound, and the comparisons between countries and their social and economic positions, but the writing got a little too domain-specific for me.

Thích Nhất Hạnh: How to eat (2014) Įvertinimų nėra

"How to Eat is the second in a Parallax's series of how-to titles by Zen …

Taking a moment to eat

Įvertinimų nėra

Thich Nhat Hanh is a gentle voice in mindfulness. This short book gives reflections and meditations, and a few nice illustrations, on the topic of food and eating. They ask us to be mindful of the complexity of our food chain and the human and nonhuman actors that make it possible for us to eat in this modern world. Like all Hanh's writing, it's a beautiful, gentle book.