User:Barbs/PersonalReader: Difference between revisions

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<span style="font-family: Lucida Console; font-weight: bold; font-size: 28px; color: rgb(255, 174, 87); text-shadow: 1.5px 1.5px 0px rgb(172, 66, 94); margin-bottom: 10px;">THE TERROIR</span><br>
<span style="font-family: Courier New; font-weight: bold; font-size: 28px; color: rgb(255, 174, 87); text-shadow: 1.5px 1.5px 0px rgb(172, 66, 94); margin-bottom: 10px;">THE TERROIR</span><br>
<span><i>"Terroir's direct translation is 'a sense of place', and what it means is the sum of the effects of a localized environment, inasmuch as they impact the qualities of a particular product. Yes, that can mean wine, but what if you applied these criteria to thinking about <s>Area X</s> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 174, 87);">my personal reader</span>?"</i><br>
<span><i>"Terroir's direct translation is 'a sense of place', and what it means is the sum of the effects of a localized environment, inasmuch as they impact the qualities of a particular product. Yes, that can mean wine, but what if you applied these criteria to thinking about <s>Area X</s> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 174, 87);">my personal reader</span>?"</i><br>
- Jeff Vandermeer, Authority (& me)</span>
- Jeff Vandermeer, Authority (& me)</span>


----
----
==<span style="font-family: Lucida Console; font-weight: bold; font-size: 20px; color: rgb(216, 195, 246); text-shadow: 1.5px 1.5px 0px rgb(149, 133, 193);">To Annotate</span>==
==<span style="font-family: Lucida Console; font-weight: bold; font-size: 20px; color: rgb(216, 195, 246); text-shadow: 1.5px 1.5px 0px rgb(149, 133, 193);">Want To Read/Annotate</span>==
'''Interactive'''<br>
⟢ Chants of Senaar - Rundisc<br>
⟢ Patchwork Girl - Shelley Jackson


'''Fiction'''<br>
'''Science-Fiction'''<br>
⟢ Annihilation - Jeff Vandermeer<br>
⟢ https://github.com/frnsys/speculating_futures<br>
⟢ Always Coming Home - Ursula K. Le Guin<br>
⟢ A Few Rules for Predicting the Future: An Essay - Octavia Butler<br>
⟢ Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements - adrienne maree brown & Walidah Imarisha


'''Non-fiction'''<br>
'''Games'''<br>
⟢ The Queer Games Avant-Garde - Bonnie Ruberg<br>
⟢ Rise of the Videogame Zinesters - Anna Anthropy<br>
⟢ Hamlet on the Holodeck (The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace) - Janet H. Murray<br>
⟢ Game Poems - Jordan Magnuson<br>
⟢ Everything to Play For (How Videogames Are Changing the World) - Marijam Did
 
'''Feminism'''<br>
⟢ Zeros and Ones - Sadie Plant<br>
⟢ Zeros and Ones - Sadie Plant<br>
⟢ Technofeminism - Judy Wajcman<br>
⟢ Glitch-Feminism - Legacy Russell<br>
⟢ Situated Knowledges - Donna Haraway (already read/annotated but should document!
'''Technology'''<br>
⟢ Computer Lib / Dream Machines - Ted Nelson<br>
⟢ Computer Lib / Dream Machines - Ted Nelson<br>
⟢ Staying with the Trouble - Donna Haraway
'''Video'''<br>
⟢ [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yVs2E4aldg Bad Graphics - Jacob Geller]


'''Design'''<br>
⟢ Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming - Anthony Dunne, Fiona Raby


<!--INTERACTIVE-->
<!--INTERACTIVE-->
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Puzzle platformer without combat - The ecosystem can both be friendly or hostile to you, and I don't blame the hostile creatures as I am interfering with their living space. I like that I don't retaliate, I just have to evade their attacks to reach my goal of solving a puzzle.
Puzzle platformer without combat - The ecosystem can both be friendly or hostile to you, and I don't blame the hostile creatures as I am interfering with their living space. I like that I don't retaliate, I just have to evade their attacks to reach my goal of solving a puzzle.


I felt soooo bad for the Ostrich stuck in a wheel that I had to drop into the water!!! It's such a sad fate
The only enemies you ever kill are an ostrich and the final boss (which was horrifying). I felt soooo bad for the Ostrich stuck in a wheel that I had to drop into the water!!! It's such a sad fate.
 
====The Making of Animal Well - Documentary====
⟢ '''Source:''' [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tffo3U4owwE YouTube]
 
</div>
 
 
<!--Mina the Hollower-->
<div style="border: 1px dashed rgb(149, 133, 193); border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: rgba(109, 75, 181, 0.241) 5px 5px 2px; margin: 5px; padding: 15px;">
 
===Mina the Hollower - Yacht Club Games (2026)===
⟢ '''Played:''' 05/2026<br>
⟢ '''Source:''' Steam
----[[File:Minathehollowerspecs.png|thumb|On the Steam store page, the required minimum specs needed to run the game say you can run it on Windows 8. However, Steam itself doesn't support Windows 8 anymore??]]aaaaaa
 
 
</div>
</div>


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==<span style="font-family: Lucida Console; font-weight: bold; font-size: 20px; color: rgb(216, 195, 246); text-shadow: 1.5px 1.5px 0px rgb(149, 133, 193);">Fiction</span>==
==<span style="font-family: Lucida Console; font-weight: bold; font-size: 20px; color: rgb(216, 195, 246); text-shadow: 1.5px 1.5px 0px rgb(149, 133, 193);">Fiction</span>==


<!--Story of your Life - Ted Chiang-->
<!--Story of your Life - Ted Chiang-->
<div style="border: 1px dashed rgb(149, 133, 193); border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: rgba(109, 75, 181, 0.241) 5px 5px 2px; margin: 5px; padding: 15px;">
<div style="border: 1px dashed rgb(149, 133, 193); border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: rgba(109, 75, 181, 0.241) 5px 5px 2px; margin: 5px; padding: 15px;">
===Story of your Life - Ted Chiang (1998)===
===[[User:Barbs/PersonalReader/StoryOfYourLife|Story of your Life - Ted Chiang (1998)]]===
⟢ '''Read:''' 11/10/2025<br>
⟢ '''Read:''' 11/10/2025<br>
⟢ '''Source:''' Physical copy
⟢ '''Source:''' Physical copy
----
----
====SUMMARY====
====Summary====
Story of your Life is a science-fiction novella.<br>
Story of your Life is a science-fiction novella.<br>
The entire story takes place in one moment: When Gary asks protagonist Louise if she wants to have a baby together.
The entire story takes place in one moment: When Gary asks protagonist Louise if she wants to have a baby together.
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I had read the story before a few years ago, along with watching the movie adaptation Arrival, but wanted to reread and annotate it for [[Writing Machines–Protocols–Feedback|SI28]], as the linguistic relativity and free will themes feel very relevant to the project.
I had read the story before a few years ago, along with watching the movie adaptation Arrival, but wanted to reread and annotate it for [[Writing Machines–Protocols–Feedback|SI28]], as the linguistic relativity and free will themes feel very relevant to the project.
----
</div>
====EVALUATION====
'''Heptapod physics'''<br>
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_principle <code>Fermat's principle of least time</code>] = the path taken by a ray of light between two given points is the path that can be traveled in the least time.


* Human physics are <code>causal</code>:
** A difference in the index of refraction caused the light to change direction.
** Experience events in an order, and perceive their relationship as cause and effect.
* Heptapod physics are <code>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleology teleological]</code>:
** Light minimized the time needed to travel to its destination.
** To satisfy goal of minimizing & maximizing, they need to know initial & final states to meet that goal.
** Heptapods experience events all at once, and perceive a minimizing/maximizing purpose underlying them all.
Both are valid ways of parsing the utterance of a physical event.


'''Heptapod linguistics'''<br>
<!--The Author of the Acacia Seeds - Ursula K. Le Guin-->
Their bodies have no "forward" direction, so their writing doesn't either. They use a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semasiography <code>semasiographic</code>] writing system, conveying meaning without reference to speech, using a visual syntax.
<div style="border: 1px dashed rgb(149, 133, 193); border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: rgba(109, 75, 181, 0.241) 5px 5px 2px; margin: 5px; padding: 15px;">
They make use of the two-dimensionality of writing: the utterance is visible all at once. Speech limits them, as it has to be put in chronological order.


As Louise becomes fluent in the Heptapod's written language over the course of the story, it alters her perception of time.<br>
===The Author of the Acacia Seeds - Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)===
* Human consciousness is <code>sequential</code>
⟢ '''Read:''' 28/10/2025<br>
** Enacting freedom of choice makes it impossible to know the future
⟢ '''Source:''' PDF
* Heptapod consciousness is <code>simultaneous</code>
----
** Knowing the future makes you never act contrary to that future, including telling others.
</div>
** Knowing the future evokes sense of urgency and obligation to act precisely as you know you would, an instinct you feel right in following.


'''If the heptapods already know everything they say or hear, what is the point of their using language at all?'''<br>
* Human spoken language is used as a transmission of information.<br>
* Heptapod spoken language is a realization of a plan, to actualize.
** [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performative_utterance <code>Performative utterance</code>]: The speaker can perform the action only by uttering the words. Saying equals doing.
** Louise describes the sensation of conversing when you know what will be said feels like performing in a play.


'''Heptapod motivations'''<br>
<!--The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin-->
To see, to observe. They act to create the future, to enact chronology. They never announce their motivations as to why they came or why they're leaving.<br>
<div style="border: 1px dashed rgb(149, 133, 193); border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: rgba(109, 75, 181, 0.241) 5px 5px 2px; margin: 5px; padding: 15px;">
Gary describes it as a <code>non-zero-sum game</code> = a situation in which the interacting parties' aggregate gains and losses can be less than or more than zero.


'''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic%20relativity <code>Linguistic relativity</code>]'''<br>
===[[User:Barbs/PersonalReader/TheDispossessed|The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)]]===
Is one of the major themes of the story. It asserts that language influences worldview or cognition. The theory has had many different versions across history.
⟢ '''Read:''' 04/04/2026 - 22/06/2026<br>
⟢ '''Source:''' Physical copy
----
----
====INTERPRETATION====
====Summary====
Looooved the amount of science in this fiction! Ted Chiang spent a lot of time researching both the linguistics and physics that were the basis of this story. This is also why my evaluation is SO DAMN LONG lmao all of it was so interesting. He made the difficult theory very graspable, because physicist Gary and linguist Louise had to explain their research to each other and collaborate. I loved that their cross-referencing helped both characters further along in their own research.
A utopian sci-fi novel which takes place on two planets, Urras and Anarres. Urras has a capitalist society similar to our own, while Anarres houses a colony that split off from that society 200 years prior to the events of the story. The colonists are anarchists called Odonians. The two societies have been completely cut off from each other, there is barely any communication between them. The protagonist is an anarchist physicist who becomes the first person in 200 years to visit the capitalists to progress his research on time. The novel switches between chapters set during Shevek's life growing up on Anarres, detailing how the anarchist utopia functions, and chapters set during Shevek's visit to Urras, which show an anarchist point of view of experiencing a capitalist society like our own.


Changing perspectives through learning from the more-than-human is a theme that I've been very fascinated by and trying to navigate in my own work and it's so difficult to find answers to the How of it all. I really enjoyed this interpretation that communication and language shape our realities and we can change others by sharing those knowledges. Though our thoughts and perceptions are also influenced by a lot of other things than just language.. I dug into the linguistic relativism theory a little more and like that it's very much still in dispute and there are widely different interpretations.
====Relevance to my practice====
It has also been used in a racist way, seeing other languages as intellectually "lesser" than others. The book is able to avoid this, Louise states multiple times that both the human and heptapod experience of the world are both valid and equal, just different.
I'm really interested in writing utopian science-fiction and have dabbled often in genres like Solarpunk, but I've grown a bit sceptical of its tendencies to show a very specific aesthetic of what a utopia should look like, and not addressing where the resources for those beautiful landscapes and architecture come from or how the societies function, it has a tendency to lean towards greenwashing practices. I've been wondering how to sketch aspirational, utopian futures but also show that those will come with friction and discomfort to let go of the extractionism and colonialism that are foundational to our current system.
I am curious how Le Guin tackles these subjects and also how she weaves anarchist and taoist theory into her fiction, which I heard is very present in this novel.


The temporalities of it all!!! I love you non-linear storytelling. After the last paragraph I had to put the book down and stare at the ceiling for a bit because OUGH.  
====Reflection====
So far I am very impressed by how well Le Guin weaves anarchist theory into fictional conversations between characters, full of nuanced opinions and perspectives.  


'''Links'''
* Rule and Constraint - Marcel Bénabou
** Writing under constraint (like Heptapod B) allows Louise to go beyond her assumed rules of linguistics, and lets her explore new virtualities both of language itself and her own perception of time. It alters her reality.
* A Cyborg Manifesto - Donna Haraway
** Made me think of her cyborg theory on writing: "Haraway's cyborg calls for a non-essentialized, material-semiotic metaphor capable of uniting diffuse political coalitions along the lines of affinity rather than identity" "Feminist cyborg stories have the task of recoding communication and intelligence to subvert command and control"
</div>
</div>




<!--The Author of the Acacia Seeds - Ursula K. Le Guin-->
<!--Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler-->
<div style="border: 1px dashed rgb(149, 133, 193); border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: rgba(109, 75, 181, 0.241) 5px 5px 2px; margin: 5px; padding: 15px;">
<div style="border: 1px dashed rgb(149, 133, 193); border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: rgba(109, 75, 181, 0.241) 5px 5px 2px; margin: 5px; padding: 15px;">


===The Author of the Acacia Seeds - Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)===
===Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler (1993)===
⟢ '''Read:''' 28/10/2025<br>
⟢ '''Read:''' 07/2026<br>
⟢ '''Source:''' PDF
⟢ '''Source:''' Physical copy
----
----
====SUMMARY====
====Summary====
TBC
The book was written in the 90’s and is set in a dystopian California in the years 2025-2027. The United States have been ontregeld by rapidly worsening climate change, drug use and violence. Main character Lauren lives in a walled community struggling to survive and the first half of the book details her daily life there. Halfway through, the community is attacked and burned. Lauren is one of the few survivors and decides to travel north, trying to find a safer place to settle.
----
 
====EVALUATION====
The book is written as Lauren’s journal entries throughout the 3 years. In it, she details her developing ideas for Earthseed. It is a philosophy/religion centered around the idea that “God is Change”.
TBC
 
----
<blockquote> All that you touch<br>
====INTERPRETATION====
You Change.<br><br>
TBC
All that you Change<br>
Changes you.<br><br>
The only lasting truth<br>
Is Change.<br><br>
God<br>
Is Change.</blockquote>
 
====Relevance to my practice====
I’ve been on a big Ursula K. Le Guin reading spree and I wanted to diversify by reading other female sci-fi authors. Butler has been on my radar for a while especially after listening to adrienne maree brown speak about how much Butler’s work inspires her.
 
Parable of the Sower especially interested me because of it being a dystopian climate future in combination with a developing utopian ideology named Earthseed. I was curious how the main character would develop her utopian vision while facing such a bleak world.
 
====Reflection====
I found this book kind of hard to get through at times because of the bleak dystopia and violence. As someone who grew up loving young adult dystopias this kind of surprised me, what is the difference between this book and reading about children murdering each other in The Hunger Games that makes this so much harder to stomach? I think it’s Butler’s choices in worldbuilding, the world really isn’t much different from our own, except the problems we face today (climate change, poverty, prejudice) have been allowed to become exponentially worse. It feels extremely close to home.
 
Something the book made me reflect on is my own idealism and privilege in the world we live in now. In a few decades, will I be just like the older adults in this novel, holding on to an old world that is long gone, unable to adapt and change because they think things will “get better again”? Or will I be able to cut ties with that illusion? Even now, I have an incomplete emergency pack at home, feeling discomfort at listening to the government’s warnings, doubting if it’s maybe just fearmongering. Lauren’s emergency precautions saved her life. Maybe I should get back to it..
 
I’m not sure yet how I feel about Earthseed.. it took me a bit to warm up to it being a religion and not a philosophy or ideology, especially as an ex-catholic, building a utopian politics around religion makes me feel icky. But I like that their God is not a person but an idea, a concept.
 
Especially Earthseed’s Destiny being to “take root among the stars” was something I felt conflicted about. In terms of survival of the humanity in the story, I understand why it is their goal, as the Earth is becoming increasingly uninhabitable for humans, although the climate on other planets probably will be even less ideal? But as a blueprint for utopian thinking in our world, how does that separate itself from billionaire longtermist ideology.. there wasn’t any thought about HOW to become a spacefaring species in a way that is not harmful or extractive, and what to do once we reach that goal. I remember there was one character criticizing Lauren for Earthseed being vague and up to interpretation and I find myself agreeing with them.
 
====Links====
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/theres-nothing-new-sun-new-suns-recovering-octavia-e-butlers-lost-parables/
 
https://sulbooks.com/site/2022/9/30/the-most-dangerous-story-ever-told-interstellar-progress-and-human-destiny
 
</div>
</div>
<!--NON-FICTION-->
==<span style="font-family: Lucida Console; font-weight: bold; font-size: 20px; color: rgb(216, 195, 246); text-shadow: 1.5px 1.5px 0px rgb(149, 133, 193);">Non-Fiction</span>==




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⟢ '''Source:''' Physical copy
⟢ '''Source:''' Physical copy
----
----
====SUMMARY====
Link situated research of Tsing to unique immersion games offer as media ??
</div>
 
 
<!--Beyond awareness: Climate games as invitations to care for the future - Carien Moossdorff, Joost M. Vervoort-->
<div style="border: 1px dashed rgb(149, 133, 193); border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: rgba(109, 75, 181, 0.241) 5px 5px 2px; margin: 5px; padding: 15px;">
 
===Beyond awareness: Climate games as invitations to care for the future - Carien Moossdorff, Joost M. Vervoort (2026)===
⟢ '''Read:''' 08-02-2026<br>
⟢ '''Source:''' https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328726000029
----
TBC..
</div>
 


<!--Glitch Feminism - Legacy Russell-->
<div style="border: 1px dashed rgb(149, 133, 193); border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: rgba(109, 75, 181, 0.241) 5px 5px 2px; margin: 5px; padding: 15px;">
===[[User:Barbs/PersonalReader/GlitchFeminism|Glitch Feminism - Legacy Russell (2020)]]===
⟢ '''Read:''' 05/2026<br>
⟢ '''Source:''' Physical copy
----
----
====EVALUATION====
TBC..
TBC
</div>
 
 
<!--Permacomputing Aesthetics-->
<div style="border: 1px dashed rgb(149, 133, 193); border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: rgba(109, 75, 181, 0.241) 5px 5px 2px; margin: 5px; padding: 15px;">
===[[User:Barbs/PersonalReader/PermacomputingAesthetics|Permacomputing Aesthetics: Potential and Limits of Constraints in Computational Art, Design and Culture - Aymeric Mansoux, Brendan Howell, Dušan Barok, and Ville-Matias Heikkilä (2023)]]===
⟢ '''Read:''' 05/2026<br>
⟢ '''Source:''' [https://limits.pubpub.org/pub/6loh1eqi/release/1 PDF]
----
----
====INTERPRETATION====
TBC..
TBC
</div>
</div>


<!--A Non-Euclidean View of California as a Cold Place to Be-->
<div style="border: 1px dashed rgb(149, 133, 193); border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: rgba(109, 75, 181, 0.241) 5px 5px 2px; margin: 5px; padding: 15px;">
===[[User:Barbs/PersonalReader/NonEuclideanColdCalifornia|A Non-Euclidean View of California as a Cold Place to Be - Ursula K. Le Guin (1982)]]===
⟢ '''Read:''' 06/2026<br>
⟢ '''Source:''' EPUB
----
<blockquote>“''One need not smash one’s typewriter and go bomb the laundromat, after all, because one has lost faith in the continuous advance of technology as the way towards utopia. Technology remains, in itself, an endless creative source. I only wish that I could follow Levi-Strauss in seeing it as leading from the civilization that turns men into machines to “the civilization that will turn machines into men.” But I cannot. I do not see how even the almost ethereal technologies promised by electronics and information theory can offer more than the promise of the simplest tool: to make life materially easier, to enrich us. That is a great promise and gain! But if this enrichment of one type of civilization occurs only at the cost of the destruction of all other species and their inorganic matrix of earth, water, and air, and at increasingly urgent risk to the existence of all life on the planet, then it seems fairly clear to me that to count upon technological advance for anything but technological advance is a mistake. I have not been convincingly shown, and seem to be totally incapable of imagining for myself, how any further technological advance of any kind will bring us any closer to being a society predominantly concerned with preserving its existence; a society with a modest standard of living, conservative of natural resources, with a low constant fertility rate and a political life based upon consent; a society that has made a successful adaptation to its environment and has learned to live without destroying itself or the people next door. But that is the society I want to be able to imagine–I must be able to imagine, for one does not get on without hope.''”</blockquote>
</div>


<!--ARTICLES/BLOGS-->
<!--ARTICLES/BLOGS-->
Line 179: Line 247:
⟢ '''Source:''' [https://web.archive.org/web/20251214092352/https://www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/alternative-games-from-the-fringes-of-cyberspace-fighting-for-art-and-something-better-in-this-dystopian-digital-world Link]
⟢ '''Source:''' [https://web.archive.org/web/20251214092352/https://www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/alternative-games-from-the-fringes-of-cyberspace-fighting-for-art-and-something-better-in-this-dystopian-digital-world Link]
----
----
====SUMMARY====
TBC..
TBC
</div>
 
 
<!--Utopiyin, Utopiyang-->
<div style="border: 1px dashed rgb(149, 133, 193); border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: rgba(109, 75, 181, 0.241) 5px 5px 2px; margin: 5px; padding: 15px;">
 
===Utopiyin, Utopiyang - Ursula K. Le Guin (2015)===
⟢ '''Read:''' 06/07/2026<br>
⟢ '''Source:''' [https://www.ursulakleguin.com/blog/97-utopiyin-utopiyang Link]
----
----
====EVALUATION====
====Summary====
TBC
A blog post in which Le Guin compares well-known science-fiction utopia's to the philosophy of yin and yang.
----
 
====INTERPRETATION====
<blockquote>''My guess is that the kind of thinking we are, at last, beginning to do about how to change the goals of human domination and unlimited growth to those of human adaptability and long-term survival is a shift from yang to yin, and so involves acceptance of impermanence and imperfection, a patience with uncertainty and the makeshift, a friendship with water, darkness, and the earth.''</blockquote>
TBC
</div>
</div>


</div>
</div>

Latest revision as of 10:51, 28 July 2026

THE TERROIR
"Terroir's direct translation is 'a sense of place', and what it means is the sum of the effects of a localized environment, inasmuch as they impact the qualities of a particular product. Yes, that can mean wine, but what if you applied these criteria to thinking about Area X my personal reader?"
- Jeff Vandermeer, Authority (& me)

Want To Read/Annotate

Science-Fiction
⟢ https://github.com/frnsys/speculating_futures
⟢ Always Coming Home - Ursula K. Le Guin
⟢ A Few Rules for Predicting the Future: An Essay - Octavia Butler
⟢ Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements - adrienne maree brown & Walidah Imarisha

Games
⟢ The Queer Games Avant-Garde - Bonnie Ruberg
⟢ Rise of the Videogame Zinesters - Anna Anthropy
⟢ Hamlet on the Holodeck (The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace) - Janet H. Murray
⟢ Game Poems - Jordan Magnuson
⟢ Everything to Play For (How Videogames Are Changing the World) - Marijam Did

Feminism
⟢ Zeros and Ones - Sadie Plant
⟢ Technofeminism - Judy Wajcman
⟢ Glitch-Feminism - Legacy Russell
⟢ Situated Knowledges - Donna Haraway (already read/annotated but should document!

Technology
⟢ Computer Lib / Dream Machines - Ted Nelson

Design
⟢ Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming - Anthony Dunne, Fiona Raby


Interactive

Patchwork Girl - Shelley Jackson (1995)

⟢ Played: Not yet because I haven't figured out how to emulate an older Windows aaaaaa but I watched a video walkthrough
⟢ Source: Internet Archive

To be linked to the chain of existence and events, yes, but bound by it? No. I forge my own links, I am building my own monstrous chain, and as time goes on, perhaps it will begin to resemble, rather, a web.

I love you Frankenstein's monster I love you cyberfeminism I love you nonlinear storytelling I love you body horror

Links:


Animal Well - Billy Basso (2024)

⟢ Played: 18/01/2026
⟢ Source: Dion's Nintendo Switch

Puzzle platformer without combat - The ecosystem can both be friendly or hostile to you, and I don't blame the hostile creatures as I am interfering with their living space. I like that I don't retaliate, I just have to evade their attacks to reach my goal of solving a puzzle.

The only enemies you ever kill are an ostrich and the final boss (which was horrifying). I felt soooo bad for the Ostrich stuck in a wheel that I had to drop into the water!!! It's such a sad fate.

The Making of Animal Well - Documentary

⟢ Source: YouTube


Mina the Hollower - Yacht Club Games (2026)

⟢ Played: 05/2026
⟢ Source: Steam

On the Steam store page, the required minimum specs needed to run the game say you can run it on Windows 8. However, Steam itself doesn't support Windows 8 anymore??
aaaaaa



Fiction

Story of your Life - Ted Chiang (1998)

⟢ Read: 11/10/2025
⟢ Source: Physical copy

Summary

Story of your Life is a science-fiction novella.
The entire story takes place in one moment: When Gary asks protagonist Louise if she wants to have a baby together. It then switches between her memories of the past, working as a linguist in first contact with the alien species Heptapods and her process in learning their language, and her memories of the future, their yet unconceived daughter growing up until her untimely death at 25 years old.
The use of tenses in the future memories is strange. Louise remembers her daughter in future tense: "I remember I will.."

The story's themes are language and communication, linguistic relativity, free will and determinism, teleology, child loss, first contact with alien beings.

I had read the story before a few years ago, along with watching the movie adaptation Arrival, but wanted to reread and annotate it for SI28, as the linguistic relativity and free will themes feel very relevant to the project.


The Author of the Acacia Seeds - Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)

⟢ Read: 28/10/2025
⟢ Source: PDF


The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)

⟢ Read: 04/04/2026 - 22/06/2026
⟢ Source: Physical copy

Summary

A utopian sci-fi novel which takes place on two planets, Urras and Anarres. Urras has a capitalist society similar to our own, while Anarres houses a colony that split off from that society 200 years prior to the events of the story. The colonists are anarchists called Odonians. The two societies have been completely cut off from each other, there is barely any communication between them. The protagonist is an anarchist physicist who becomes the first person in 200 years to visit the capitalists to progress his research on time. The novel switches between chapters set during Shevek's life growing up on Anarres, detailing how the anarchist utopia functions, and chapters set during Shevek's visit to Urras, which show an anarchist point of view of experiencing a capitalist society like our own.

Relevance to my practice

I'm really interested in writing utopian science-fiction and have dabbled often in genres like Solarpunk, but I've grown a bit sceptical of its tendencies to show a very specific aesthetic of what a utopia should look like, and not addressing where the resources for those beautiful landscapes and architecture come from or how the societies function, it has a tendency to lean towards greenwashing practices. I've been wondering how to sketch aspirational, utopian futures but also show that those will come with friction and discomfort to let go of the extractionism and colonialism that are foundational to our current system. I am curious how Le Guin tackles these subjects and also how she weaves anarchist and taoist theory into her fiction, which I heard is very present in this novel.

Reflection

So far I am very impressed by how well Le Guin weaves anarchist theory into fictional conversations between characters, full of nuanced opinions and perspectives.


Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler (1993)

⟢ Read: 07/2026
⟢ Source: Physical copy

Summary

The book was written in the 90’s and is set in a dystopian California in the years 2025-2027. The United States have been ontregeld by rapidly worsening climate change, drug use and violence. Main character Lauren lives in a walled community struggling to survive and the first half of the book details her daily life there. Halfway through, the community is attacked and burned. Lauren is one of the few survivors and decides to travel north, trying to find a safer place to settle.

The book is written as Lauren’s journal entries throughout the 3 years. In it, she details her developing ideas for Earthseed. It is a philosophy/religion centered around the idea that “God is Change”.

All that you touch

You Change.

All that you Change
Changes you.

The only lasting truth
Is Change.

God

Is Change.

Relevance to my practice

I’ve been on a big Ursula K. Le Guin reading spree and I wanted to diversify by reading other female sci-fi authors. Butler has been on my radar for a while especially after listening to adrienne maree brown speak about how much Butler’s work inspires her.

Parable of the Sower especially interested me because of it being a dystopian climate future in combination with a developing utopian ideology named Earthseed. I was curious how the main character would develop her utopian vision while facing such a bleak world.

Reflection

I found this book kind of hard to get through at times because of the bleak dystopia and violence. As someone who grew up loving young adult dystopias this kind of surprised me, what is the difference between this book and reading about children murdering each other in The Hunger Games that makes this so much harder to stomach? I think it’s Butler’s choices in worldbuilding, the world really isn’t much different from our own, except the problems we face today (climate change, poverty, prejudice) have been allowed to become exponentially worse. It feels extremely close to home.

Something the book made me reflect on is my own idealism and privilege in the world we live in now. In a few decades, will I be just like the older adults in this novel, holding on to an old world that is long gone, unable to adapt and change because they think things will “get better again”? Or will I be able to cut ties with that illusion? Even now, I have an incomplete emergency pack at home, feeling discomfort at listening to the government’s warnings, doubting if it’s maybe just fearmongering. Lauren’s emergency precautions saved her life. Maybe I should get back to it..

I’m not sure yet how I feel about Earthseed.. it took me a bit to warm up to it being a religion and not a philosophy or ideology, especially as an ex-catholic, building a utopian politics around religion makes me feel icky. But I like that their God is not a person but an idea, a concept.

Especially Earthseed’s Destiny being to “take root among the stars” was something I felt conflicted about. In terms of survival of the humanity in the story, I understand why it is their goal, as the Earth is becoming increasingly uninhabitable for humans, although the climate on other planets probably will be even less ideal? But as a blueprint for utopian thinking in our world, how does that separate itself from billionaire longtermist ideology.. there wasn’t any thought about HOW to become a spacefaring species in a way that is not harmful or extractive, and what to do once we reach that goal. I remember there was one character criticizing Lauren for Earthseed being vague and up to interpretation and I find myself agreeing with them.

Links

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/theres-nothing-new-sun-new-suns-recovering-octavia-e-butlers-lost-parables/

https://sulbooks.com/site/2022/9/30/the-most-dangerous-story-ever-told-interstellar-progress-and-human-destiny


Non-Fiction

The Mushroom at the End of the World - Anna Tsing (2015)

⟢ Read: 28/01/2026
⟢ Source: Physical copy

Link situated research of Tsing to unique immersion games offer as media ??


Beyond awareness: Climate games as invitations to care for the future - Carien Moossdorff, Joost M. Vervoort (2026)

⟢ Read: 08-02-2026
⟢ Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328726000029

TBC..


Glitch Feminism - Legacy Russell (2020)

⟢ Read: 05/2026
⟢ Source: Physical copy

TBC..



A Non-Euclidean View of California as a Cold Place to Be - Ursula K. Le Guin (1982)

⟢ Read: 06/2026
⟢ Source: EPUB

“One need not smash one’s typewriter and go bomb the laundromat, after all, because one has lost faith in the continuous advance of technology as the way towards utopia. Technology remains, in itself, an endless creative source. I only wish that I could follow Levi-Strauss in seeing it as leading from the civilization that turns men into machines to “the civilization that will turn machines into men.” But I cannot. I do not see how even the almost ethereal technologies promised by electronics and information theory can offer more than the promise of the simplest tool: to make life materially easier, to enrich us. That is a great promise and gain! But if this enrichment of one type of civilization occurs only at the cost of the destruction of all other species and their inorganic matrix of earth, water, and air, and at increasingly urgent risk to the existence of all life on the planet, then it seems fairly clear to me that to count upon technological advance for anything but technological advance is a mistake. I have not been convincingly shown, and seem to be totally incapable of imagining for myself, how any further technological advance of any kind will bring us any closer to being a society predominantly concerned with preserving its existence; a society with a modest standard of living, conservative of natural resources, with a low constant fertility rate and a political life based upon consent; a society that has made a successful adaptation to its environment and has learned to live without destroying itself or the people next door. But that is the society I want to be able to imagine–I must be able to imagine, for one does not get on without hope.”


Articles/Blogs

Alternative Games From The Fringes Of Cyberspace - Nathalie Lawhead (2025)

⟢ Read: 16/12/2025
⟢ Source: Link

TBC..


Utopiyin, Utopiyang - Ursula K. Le Guin (2015)

⟢ Read: 06/07/2026
⟢ Source: Link

Summary

A blog post in which Le Guin compares well-known science-fiction utopia's to the philosophy of yin and yang.

My guess is that the kind of thinking we are, at last, beginning to do about how to change the goals of human domination and unlimited growth to those of human adaptability and long-term survival is a shift from yang to yin, and so involves acceptance of impermanence and imperfection, a patience with uncertainty and the makeshift, a friendship with water, darkness, and the earth.

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