Preliminary conceptualization for THE SOLAR GRID video game is looking good. There's a high probability we'll be exploring things that were only touched upon in the [already elaborate] graphic novel, building upon the book rather than copying it as is. Which is exactly how a video game adaptation ought to be in my opinion.
Travels lined up for Amman (workshop) and Qatar (lecture + workshop + class visits) next month, which will cross out about 2 weeks of studio time for me, so I'm trying to get as much work done as I can in the meantime.
Getty Images is filing for bankruptcy. Their model was extortionist anyway, so fuck 'em, but this may just mark the first big profile blow to a field as a direct result of the emergence of AI.
I have yet to read any Karl Ove Knausgård, mainly because I am not typically attracted to the kind of narcissism that compels someone to write so indulgently about their own life, but interviews with him keep popping up in my feeds and I am now finally intrigued. This Vice interview with Knausgard is very good.
Generally speaking, I oscillate between two modes of aspirational existence: working with a dynamic team in a cool-as-fuck space, and being the hermit at the end of the world who lets out a signal every once in a while. The latter is in fact what has dominated most of my life, but this video of Margaret Howell's operation makes the former look sexy as hell.
Inbox 96, RSS 343. Dishes and laundry have also piled up. Not cool.
#journal #work #radar
The chair that was eagerly awaited for so long remains underutilized, because we are back in the throes of the 1000mph club where I will likely stay until the end of the year.
Alas, settling into my old age will have to wait.
Chain used to hang my floorlamp has been replaced with a rope, which I think looks much nicer now.
Okay, back to work.
#journal
Book launch/signing for THE SOLAR GRID hardback tentatively lined up... in Denmark! Probably around early-summer next year.
Social media campaigning has been spreading me a little thin. You'd be surprised by the amount of time that goes into shooting and editing a 30 second reel. I'm gonna need to pull away and focus on finishing up writing, drawing, and designing TIMES NEW HUMAN, which—as per my agreement with EUNIC—will need to be launched, at least locally, before year's end.
Look at me excel-sheeting my journal to track progress for Christ's sake. Also got a couple of fantastic-looking advance-reader copies of things friends sent me that I need to read.
The thing with social media is you can't rely on having just the one “ad” and repost. You gotta vary your “content” for sustainable engagement. Traditional promotion has been flipped over its head. It's why film studios don't just give us the trailer anymore; no, they give us clips of Christopher Nolan talking about some of his latest filmmaking techniques and Tom Cruise joking about how much fun he had performing in a fat suit. Easier done of course when you're a juggernaut with immense resources, but it doesn't absolve everyone else from needing to use somewhat similar strategies to get noticed. And here's the thing; if a giant like Christopher Nolan—who is notoriously known for not even having a smartphone of his own—understands that being visible on social media is imperative to the success of his already-well-promoted film... what makes us little guys think we can get away with having no social media presence at all and still make a living?
It's hard though when you're doing everything yourself. The mental shift from creating to promoting and back again is, admittedly, a little too much for me to handle. So I'm gonna need to land on a system that won't fuck with my head too much. Maybe dedicate one single day a week to shooting and preparing material and scheduling it in advance, so the rest of the week is free to write and draw. Something like that.
I like systems. Systems are good.
#journal #work
Samsung's Z Flip3 has been my phone of choice for the past 5 years. Good battery life, sturdy construction, great camera, and compact when its folded and not in use.
After a couple days of failing to find a replacement in the Z series (they just don't have them out here, anywhere), I settled for the S26. A flat slab of a phone, which I loathe, but it was the lightest and smallest 2026 phone I could find. Battery life is good, as is the camera.
I actually considered digging out my old battered S8 to use as a temp, at least until my next trip where I could get the latest Z Flip.
Okay, I did more than just consider it; I did indeed dig it out and even managed to transfer all the data from my dead Z to it (which took many, many, many hours), until it became evident that its pitiful condition extended to more than just the exterior.
The S26 is fine. I'll probably still nab a Z Flip on my next trip anyway, and keep the S26 as backup.
#journal
Shit, I can hardly log in to anything right now. Almost everything is set up for “two-factor authentication” whether you like it or not.
I feel like I'm witness to the doom that is soon to come to many.
#journal
DIGGER is phenomenal. Groundbreaking on multiple levels and may just be the best thing I've seen in the last decade.
The first retail order for THE SOLAR GRID hardback came in from the fine people at Partners and Son. Orders overall have passed the 100 mark. This is actually a very good metric given that I only posted about it 4 days ago. Compared to the Kickstarter campaign I ran way back when, which ran for two whole months and only managed to attract interest from around 400 people.
In other news, phone decided to roll over and die an eternal death out of the blue while I was out, forcing me into a mode of existence I haven't experienced since the 90s. Wherever I look, the phone model I like to use—or anything remotely like it—seems to be completely absent from retailers around here, so it looks like I'ma have to learn how to survive like a caveman for a little longer.
#journal
Delightful morning. Spent the first few hours of the day sat on the new reading chair with a cup of coffee and a book by Ahmed Khaled Toufik on storytelling. I'm alternating between that and Boroughs' NAKED LUNCH. Tiger hopped on my lap and curled against my belly in silence.
I'm hoping to stick to a system of only two books at a time, one fiction and one non-fiction. Oddly enough, I find that I've been enjoying non-fiction far, far more lately. The more fiction I read, the more it becomes apparent that the bulk of it actually has very little to say.
Before A.I. slop, an onslaught of human slop has always been around.
Today will hopefully be the last day of podcast notes.
#journal
Studio has been cleansed, garden plants washed, and newsletter scheduled for Saturday.
And! New “invisible” floating shelf installed:
Back to podcast-notetaking.
#journal
The Retro Sci-Fi: GIF Edition reminded me of all the animated gifs I had once created for the first iteration of TIMES NEW HUMAN, the format of which was web-based. Most of those gifs are now lost to history for some reason. I've never been good at adequately archiving my output, something I've been working towards changing, and partially why Ganzeer.com is built to function as a genuine archive of all the work rather than a mere web brochure with a handful of samples. The latter being what is dominant in the field. I haven't quite managed to make it a “genuine archive of all the work”, but it's certainly more in that direction.
I wonder why I ever thought to take the animated gif route for those TIMES NEW HUMAN illustrations, given that a print edition was kind of the end goal all along. Seems like added unnecessary working hours. I suppose it's partially because animated gifs lend themselves so well to the web as a medium, and rather than copy-paste something as is across all media, the “purist” in me would like every iteration of a thing to be tailored perfectly to its own medium.
But really, how necessary was it? Seems like so much time gone to waste now.
Today is Tidy-the-Studio Day. I choose Wednesdays because the weekend seldom works. If I finish early enough, I might just get to drafting the newsletter. But first, email. Inbox is now at an unruly 43.
Overextending? Probably.
#journal #work
I am a terrible multitasker. I thought I'd be able to alternate between writing and taking podcast notes, but when I'm in the writing zone (indeed in any zone), I find it very difficult to pull away and do something else. Even if I designate the something else towards the tail-end of the day.
So today I will attempt to power through 6 episodes, half the season we recorded. Now, each episode is quite long; an hour or more in some cases, which means more video-watching than I can handle. Basic logic would dictate spreading the episode-watching and notetaking across several days to ease the blow of the task at hand, but that would necessitate employing the kind of mental gearshift that I sorely lack.
Why am I like this?
#journal #work #podcast