Image credit: https://photomoodblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/photo-mood-124-mountains-landscapes-lake-2.jpg
Images
‘An art of the moment’
The idea of beauty-seeking and an appreciation for the aesthetic of what nature creates, as well as what humanity can, moved our team to collage this unique collection.
It is natural to make: to discover, try things, explore, express… and of course to shake our heads with wonder, dreaming up still new questions after the fact. As such, the artists gathered for this co-created zine are four very curious people.
Art, natural patterns, and words intertwine in a collaboration between them.
Here’s a link.
Thanks ;)
DK
#46
It was on a hotel lobby’s shared computers, that happened to have Illustrator loaded onto them, that I first made this image:
DK / Bangkok 2014
Was 2014. Was in Bangkok. Was a long, long road, since then. The concept, however, for connecting people from new and different backgrounds in something called S P A C E, which I didn’t have a name for back then, but today I do (S P A C E, like), well yeah. That was born out of this image.
And today the evolutions since have led to new things, new openings, new doors that open other doors. I need to really thank E. for this last last door. Thank him for asking me the big question that until then, I realized, no one in my community had ever asked me. Or wanted to, I think. Or maybe it was just cool to meet in person in real life organically without all the trappings and expectations that the internet jumbles us up with, when we don’t know each other. I like fresh pages. First steps. New programs. But also, I like to build on what I’ve learned from previous versions. What’s next is kind of like the above, but a version 5.5, or something.
So that might be why. Why, I mean, why I’m doing ‘AoTM.’ Over at DK: it’s this.
This post is for E.
#tothejourneys #grazie
Internet conversations
I’ve been writing a monthly column for a magazine back in the US.
You can find some of the writings from the road at the magazine’s website:
Some of the works plus a few new pieces, set with photos and art from my time in Vietnam, will be part of this new book.
#hanoi #vietnam #nostalgiacaphe
Kismuth & The Way
Today I’m very pleased to share this new zine, S P A C E | Brooklyn, ‘Art 4 Art’s Sake.’
This is probably my favorite, to date. Because it does the work of going and seeking people and stories, playing in the conversation space, then interconnecting people who I find truly gifted and inspiring to learn from.
It’s a magical collaboration that somehow managed to make its way onto the digital page, this week, in, uh… Dropbox papers? (I know, right? What is that about?) I have so much more to say about the conversations and interweaving, asynchronous and international shapes of S P A C E that are beginning to converge in the current issues. It’s all starting to feel exactly right, now. It takes time, right? Art. Takes. Time. Well, well. Here we are.
L’art pour l’art
ABOUT ISSUE #43. One contributor is an editor in Finland. Another is DK | S P A C E’s former culture editor, who is based in Cambodia. More about them is in this blog post. I also included a short story of my own, ‘Continuations.’
You can download the issue all this week here.
The conversations in S P A C E
‘Please pay now.’
‘Oh-kay…. there you are.’
‘…’
‘Thank you.’
‘ Welcome to our new place. We just opened three months ago.’
‘Great.’
‘Are you from India?’
‘No.’
‘No??’
‘…’
‘…’
‘…’
‘Okay, then…. Switzerland?’
‘Switzerland??!!’
‘Switzerland’
Finishing touches.
This is going to be published on 18 November. I’m kind of excited.
There’s been a lot to write about and share about, and it’s finally coming into a solid shape.
#shapeofspace #nostalgia #spacethejourney
Work in progress: A book about travels to and from an unlikely home
Difficult people are a buzzkill
Researching a pscyhology character’s profession, for a new commission.
The week included much reading, and now, I am learning about gaslighting, difficult people, narcissists, and sociopaths.
This came into my focus…
“A relationship with a person who has no regard for others and is using manipulation to selfishly gain advantages in the relationship should be ended immediately.
… and I wanted to share the full piece. Lachlan Brown‘s article: Here is the link..
Letting go
Plus:
If you’re already in a manipulative relationship, it may be more difficult for you to pull away, as sensitive people often have a mixed bag of anger, loyalty, guilt, and insecurity tied up in these relationships. Barrie Davenport, at this post.
Both spell it out about the kinds of people you want to show to the EXIT in your life.
Do it ! It’s so great.
Rid yourself of emotional manipulators
A weekly e-mag.
The lead story, ‘A Shift of Phase,’ centers on an intimate, refreshingly blunt conversation between two childhood friends.
This special issue is co-created with Sinxloud‘s Saqib Jan.
https://gumroad.com/l/space-dubai/
thanks ;)
S P A C E | Dubai, ‘Heart to Heart’
Collected short stories from Rīga, Latvia
This special set is a project of Design Kompany’s Dipika Kohli.
DK’s new writings from Latvia, made in Rīga, from April-May, 2019.
Honesty, connection, discovery and trusting the process led to the writing, design and layout of these 16-page PDFs. Checkit.
https://gum.co/kismuth-thisisthis
thanks ;)
Today !!!
D: ‘… and that’s it. So I think he needs me to be an ocean of calm.’
A: [Laughs uncontrollably]
D: ‘What’s so…’
A: ‘You? An ocean of calm?’
D: ‘…’
This and that
[Developmental psychology professor] Monisha Pasupathi says. If you don’t tell, “your memory for that event may be less flexible and give you less chance for growth.” This is basically the premise of talk therapy.
Just as there are consequences to telling, there are consequences to not telling.
If someone is afraid of how people might react to a story, and they keep it to themselves, they’ll likely miss out on the enrichment that comes with a back-and-forth conversation. A listener “may give you other things to think about, or may acknowledge that this thing you thought was really bad is actually not a big deal, so you get this richer and more elaborated memory,”
Read the full story here >
Consequences
It started with ‘The Forum.’
Writing with others. In shared spaces.
This was an outtake of the design to talk about that. It wasn’t quite right. It was too… formal. We are not.
We write and talk.
Quietly, asynchronously, internationally. But most important: conversationally.
#trusttheprocess
Trust the Process, Day 5
Discoveries. Sharing the things, in the online journal. Attentively. Creatively. And… selectively.
The opt-in conversations are so, so good.
#trusttheprocess #spacethezine
Trust the Process, Day 3
The journal begins. For registering guests, meet me in the online forum.
Trust the Process, Day One
From 2014-2017, I hosted an online writing project, something called ‘Cojournaling,’ over here at Kismuth.
Now, I’m doing this.
#trusttheprocess #shapeofspace
‘DK, you know what you do? You show up.’
Almost done.
Will launch it in early October in Saigon.
Pre-order here.
#amwriting #amediting #ampublishing
Something different
I’ve been procrastinating the finishing of This is This for too long.
Now, I’m gonna really write.
#longhand
This post is for K.
Slow moment
So many updates.
Posting here about the things posting in the e-post.
Zines on Tuesdays
This below note is one, I just sent it to my supporters for S P A C E. It has really been fun.
Honestly, I’m not sure how long I’ll keep it going but for now, so far, so good. Sustainability is an issue, as always, but I appreciate the people who appreciate me.
Somehow, I feel a handful of people who have been at this blog, when it was a WordPress site before and now it’s this, following Kismuth from the very start, and who even took part in things here and there ought to be included in this communication. About appreciation. And… since I stopped emailing so much (I know, right? Can’t quite believe it myself, either. But… quality. Means… selectivity. And opting-in. I can’t just keep emailing all over the universe, can I ? That’s quite dull, anyway. The conversation, after all, is what intrigues me. I design for that.)
You can read the comment on the site, but I’ll just put this screenshot here…. click it to see what the context is, the crowdfunding page which, really, is more like a sign up to get S P A C E page, more than anything. ;)
…
S: You link to your crowdfunding campaign everywhere!
D: So!!??
S: …
D: [Thinking: You should be glad you were not on my email list(s). Sheesh.]
…
A new start
I got this link from L.
I’m just listening and like, ‘What the…’
I wonder what you’ll think.
This is really…
More when I have more.
(Or maybe not. Let me not overthink it.)
This post is for J.
‘Overthinker’
Wrapping all my best-of’s from Latvia into a new short eBook, This is This.
Set to launch 15 October.
Work in progress
The rain came.
The rain stopped, momentarily.
It was one hell of a rain, just now. And I got stuck at a cafe. I got stuck because it was raining so hard I didn’t want to dash even the less-than-four-minute route it would take to get from that spot to this one, where I am, thanks to the spell of a breeze and some sun.
Before the rain
Meantime, while waiting, I chatted someone up and it was incredibly dull. I mean, really dull. I should probably refrain from even saying that because, well, it’s dull and that’s that, right? But as much as I give out about being the way I am (occasional curmudgeon, fully admitted, and antisocial, etc), the truth is, when four plus days pass, having packed everyone off for their own adventures so as to FOCUS and WRITE SOMETHING, and I haven’t spoken to anyone in real life I get a little… wigged out.
A sunny spell
This story began in 1999.
I went to Sheffield to finish it, in 2015.
But I didn’t really get finished until I met the kind of people who reminded me, in a. flurry of accents, mostly, that there were things to go back to, things to express.
More about Briefly: see it in our store, here >
Briefly in Sheffield
For the last two years, I took a break from Kismuth and my personal projects.
I wanted to see if I could collaborate.
Like, for real. With new people. In foreign lands. Maybe where I didn’t know anyone. Definitely where I didn’t speak what they did.
Art is conversation
I guess I had it in mind that it could be a cool, beautiful and interesting way to see what else is ‘out there,’ and co-create with people I had yet to discover, and learn from.
Hrmmmm.
Idealistic. Idyllic. And totally off.
This was a mixed bag.
I can’t stand blogs that go into the whole, ‘I’m so vulnerable’ and silly jazz like that, so I will refrain. But the short awakening was: I can’t work with too many people, and I know that, and I’ve known that for a long time.
Which. Was why. Of course it was why. I had started here. Writing Kismuth.
People would go, ‘Not everyone has the time and luxury to write and travel, like you.’
[Deleted]
12-set ‘Philosophy of the Moment’ zines. Available at DK’s crowdfunding page >
Writing is all sharing
But yeah. I’m writing more here now. I’ve put together the new issue of Briefly in Sheffield. I loved this story and how people reacted to the zine version of it, which many of us in design like to think of as ‘prototyping’. Although, yeah. Some people think I want to be a ‘zine master.’
No.
I just want to quickly flesh out a story, print it, let people read it, see if they like it. If they do, ask why. If they don’t, ask why.
And iterate.
What else is there?
These are the books and zines, so far.