First of all, apologies for last week’s newsletter which on re-reading seemed hurriedly put together and let’s just say…uneven at best. So much so that I revised the web version that is archived here in the hope that for some of you accessing it online it might read a little better. I hope that I can make amends this week and provide you with something so much tastier and appetizing.
Here’s a quick news blast!
Happy Lunar New Year! Since I arrived in Pittsburgh, I’ve been so lucky to number so many Asian American and Immigrant Asian friends in my circle and so wonderful to share in their culture and traditions. This is the year of the Tiger, a lucky sign, Tigers like to get things done and are known for their strong intuitive nature and quick thinking.
In Pittsburgh, we were shocked to see images of the collapsed bridge over Frick Park, it’s a route that I’ve taken countless times. I hope that the people injured recover soon, it must have been so frightening for them, and little consolation to them that the rest of us are so grateful that the collapse didn’t lead to fatalities. President Biden was scheduled to be in Pittsburgh and visited the site to see the wreckage first hand.
Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and predicted another six weeks of winter, although, in the last ten years, he has only been right 40% of the time, so no immediate panic.
oh hang on, this was the scene at 10 am this morning…
Spaces to Connect
I’m working on a new student project to design an immersive experience, this will be an asymmetric installation, where two players/users collaborate in real-time. One person will wear a VR headset and their partner will share information via a screen that surrounds them both. This is similar to some VR escape room games where information is distributed, but we’re looking at ways that this might work as a storytelling device.
The challenge for students is finding an engaging story, that will explore the themes that we’ve settled on, in this case, climate change and river culture, and will fit the mechanics of the experience. This is a tricky juggling act, where one element can quickly overpower another. It’s no good for instance having a fascinating story if the user is primarily a spectator, and an experience that is overladen with interactivity might detract from the content itself. As always I encouraged the team to move from words to pictures and start storyboarding as early as possible, I don’t enjoy the abstraction of potential, but love making decisions.
I’ll keep you up to date on the development, it’s a lovely team, fantastically skilled, with great energy and I’m looking forward to the next few weeks of work as we start to shape and hone our story into an experience that we can share with our audience.
Talking of games, I’m so proud to announce the launch of Lost Recipes, a historical cooking simulator for VR produced by Schell Games. My wonderful colleagues Sebastien Dubreil, Gang Liu, and I are credited as consultants. I’m so pleased to have been able to help, even just a little bit, this is the coolest thing!
Life Lessons
I finished reading There, There by Tommy Orange, these stories, woven into a tapestry, recalling the writing of Raymond Carver, told with energy and anger. We are introduced to a cast of characters, their stories told through moments in their lives while hurtling unstoppably towards a terrible and electrifying ending. It is a wry, honest book, set not in the reservations and plains of America, rather, it is a story of urban Natives, in Oakland, California, we’re reminded that “Being Indian has never been about returning to the land. The land is everywhere or nowhere.”
It is a powerful novel and I was moved to hear these voices, each coming to terms with a history lived, shared, and suffered. Although it is bleak in parts, there is compassion and hope in the shared experience, when it seems there is only violence, cycling through the centuries, shattering lives, there is love.
“We are the memories we don't remember, which live in us, which we feel, which make us sing and dance and pray the way we do, feelings from memories that flare and bloom unexpectedly in our lives like blood through a blanket from a wound made by a bullet fired by a man shooting us in the back for our hair, for our heads, for a bounty, or just to get rid of us.”
Tommy Orange - There There
Interval
We had a quiet week, enjoyed a film at our local cinema where I always make a special trip downstairs to the restroom. This place is so accidentally David Lynch, I couldn’t help it, clicking my fingers and dancing backward…
I watched David Lynch The Art Life, a documentary focussing on his painting, a passion that developed in childhood and nurtured through his college years and after. It’s his first love, and he came to films as “…a way to make paintings move”. I’ve always enjoyed hearing Lynch’s reflections on creativity, with all his talk of snowflakes and fishing. Sometimes it feels as if there’s an invisible hand holding the paintbrush and after time you learn to trust it. It is wonderful watching him work, the application and concentration are incredible.
Lost and Found
There are a few articles that caught my eye.
The US Minister for the Interior Deb Haaland is working to rename many public landmarks with those given before colonization. Many of these names and words are lost, we will never know what they were called. This is important work, many of the colonial names are racist and derogatory, oppressive.
We’re learning more about long covid and how to treat it, so many people are still suffering from conditions and symptoms following sickness. This article in the Atlantic suggests that Omicron should make us all rethink our understanding.
My linguist friends will adore this take on the complexity of love and relationships in a second language (via Malaka)
I fell in love with Monica Vitti when I was a teenager and discovered a section of the university film library dedicated to Italian cinema, one of the greatest screen actors to ever be framed in celluloid.
I enjoyed a few films this week, everyone is so tired around 9 pm that I have time to put on my headphones and watch something just before I succumb to sleep’s rapture. This week I watched Judas and the Black Messiah, with incredible performances from a great cast, in the fascinating true story of Chairman Fred Hampton of the Black Panthers betrayed by an undercover informant and gunned down by the Chicago police on the orders of J.Edgar Hoover.
I’ve started a list of what I’m reading, listening to, and watching, it’s a bit rough and I need to remember to add a few things, but if you’re interested then you can take a look.
Winter Trees
All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.
Thank you
Here is a cup of Orange and Ginger Tea for you, it kept me warm and soothed my throat a couple of weeks back when I wasn’t feeling very well.
A big winter storm came through last night, rain turned to ice and snow. It is still snowing this morning as I tidy up this newsletter. Everyone is at home, it looks beautiful outside, the deer are sheltering in the conifers and the snowplow is rumbling down the road, chipping the surface and sending up sparks.
I’m looking forward to the weekend, yes - I’ve also caught the wordle bug and just in the service of professionalism here’s a list of wordles in other languages. I like what it does to my brain, I find it less frustrating than a sudoku or crossword, seems I’m not alone, it is a phenomenon.
Have a good weekend, I have Six Nations rugby to enjoy and probably a snowman to build.