jan-april 2022
Over the last 2 years I’ve written a monthly summary, to keep track of my favourite photos, the places I’ve been, the best things I’ve read and listened to, and the culture I’ve enjoyed the most. I have spent good chunks of this year thus far holed up doing university work or recovering from COVID, but if I don’t write one of these I won’t remember any of it by next year. I am very bad at remembering. Most of my online activity is focussed around trying to remembering.
places I went and things I did
I went to Glasgow for the weekend (it rained); I went to Bath/Bristol for a weekend (it rained); I went to Kent for a weekend (it rained); I went to Portugal for a weekend (I caught COVID). I spent a glorious first-of-the-magnolia weekend in Oxford which does not change no matter how much I do, and sunny ones in Brighton and London. I turned 29, I went dancing, swimming, I ate a lot of very delicious food. I struggled to take many pictures, and conducted an extended battle with customs on importing German film who I refuse to ever deal with ever again. I’ll fly there myself to develop it for gods sake.
things I read and things I wrote about
Most of my time has been spent on reading for my deadline crunch and exam term at university, and it is lucky that this is all very interesting. I read and wrote about digital technologies’ transcendence and embedding of colonial knowledge systems, algorithmic violence across platforms and contexts, NHS data-sharing with the Home Office, and contemporary labour relations in a remote working world.
I did my first ethnography, on cold water swimmers at the ladies’ pond, and had a wonderful time talking to people about doing something they love. Balancing work with post-graduate study is very challenging and also very rewarding, and I’m glad to be doing it as an adult and not fresh from my undergraduate degree; I’m excited to spend the summer thinking about my dissertation and reading about utopian and dystopian futures in the digital.
Books I enjoyed beyond digital anthropology include Lee Lai’s graphic novel Stonefruit, lesbian submarine drama Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield, Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis and a handful of other slim novels for an over-saturated brain.
things I watched
The Truffle Hunters, a documentary about old Italian men and their beautiful dogs that hunt for truffles in the traditional way in the Italian forests. A simply perfect film. Additionally The Steam of Life, a Finnish documentary about sauna culture for which we could find no subtitles enjoyed nonetheless. And After Love, about grief and deception and with incredible shots of the Dover cliffs and Joanna Scanlan’s face. I also watched every nationality of Love Is Blind, of which Japan is the most interesting of the bunch.
things I looked at and listened to
Art highlights include Paula Rego’s abortion series at Bristol’s Arnolifini, and Eric Watt’s photographs of Glasgow at Kelvingrove. I have listened to about twenty podcasts regularly and some great longform series. The storytelling on This American Life, NPR’s Throughline, Tortoise’s Sensemaker and Your Undivided Attention top the list.