Working on and thinking about

• I’m deep in the trenches at my job guiding the design organisation through a significant platform transition and AI transformation. It’s simultaneously exciting and exhausting, but we’ll get through it together.

• I’ve been ruminating on the idea of information as material and making the invisible visible through form, whether that’s design, art, craft, sound, or movement. It’s a thread that’s run through my entire adult and creative life, but it’s taken me a bit to clearly articulate it and put it together. In particular, I’m becoming more and more interested using data to bring visibility to things that are otherwise painful or detrimental when hidden. It’s starting to take shape as a complete thesis.

• Speaking of data physicalisation, I’m working on tracking analog habits right now, and encoding each month’s outcome in data art and jewellery

• I just started my third course in my MICA grad school program: Exploring Data where I’ll be getting deeper into R and plan to explore D3 and Observable as well.

• I submitted 10 ideas for my grad school capstone project, and have to figure out something final in the coming semester. I have a lot of ideas. Refining and editing down to one will be the hard part.

Reading

• It’s autumn in Melbourne, so that means it’s cosy mystery season. Current read: A Fatal Encounter in Tuscany by Vivian Conroy.

• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt has been on my nightstand for a while, and it’s a hefty one, so I’ve been taking my time on working through it.

• I just finished Phosphorescence by Julia Baird, and it’s got me thinking about how this concept can be applied to my data art practice and thesis of making the invisible visible. Early thoughts rolling around in my head about this, but I’ll likely be able to better articulate them soon.

• I’ve also got several data science-related books for grad school are on the reading rotation right now

Wellbeing

There’s something about finding your places when you move somewhere new: your salon, health/self-care extras, even your cast of physicians. I found my physician care team pretty quickly when I moved to Melbourne three years ago: ophthalmologist, dentist, primary care, retina specialist (because I’m the lucky winner of a twice-detached retina), but beyond a salon to keep my hair in shape, I hadn’t found any other places. And I figured now may be a good time to change that.

• My right shoulder has been rebelling because regular daily activities inflict outsized injuries after you reach a certain age, and it’s been three years since I had a massage. I wish I started them sooner because two sessions in, I’m already seeing improvements.

• I also started getting regular skin peels. I had never even had a professional facial before this, but I’m not getting any younger, so I guess it’s time to start extra maintenance. I was pretty pleased with the results; my skin felt smoother and brighter, and I felt less like a tired troll.

• I finally broke down and started wearing reading glasses, at least when I’ve got my contacts in. Progressives still don’t work for me when I’m wearing my regular distance glasses. But I’ve been teetering on the edge of needing reading glasses for a while, and I think I finally tipped over it. I’m just using this as excuse to build out a mini wardrobe of stylish reading glasses and the corresponding lanyards so I don’t lose them.

Clearly, I’ve recently unlocked some new level of aging.

Located

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

• We’ve had an absolutely beautiful autumn here in Melbourne with many +20C days. It’s hard to believe winter is approaching.

• I’m headed to Sydney for a few days this month. While I’ve been to several other places in Australia since moving here, I haven’t been to Sydney, so I’m excited for this trip. On the agenda: seeing The Lion King, hitting up Cafe Sydney, and a visit to Luna Park (because my son is obsessed with rides and loves the one in Melbourne).

This page is inspired by Derek Siver’s /now.