1. For your Friday long read, a series of essays by artist Hillary Predko about making things, waste, the global supply chain. It’s a little rambling, but it introduces the concept of “kipple,” (aka stuff–a term from Phillip K. Dick) and has so much in there that’s on my mind lately, too:
I’m worried about extraction, climate change, waste, and entropy. But leaving Yiwu, feeling convinced that the maker ideology that had inspired my work for years was politically ineffective, and feeling convinced that the designing and manufacturing of products and commodities is legitimately a bad business that has negative impact on the planet, I still wanted to work designing and producing objects. Our societies, and our daily lives are entirely shaped by material culture. Despite all my frustrations, sitting down to create something from scratch is one of the greatest pleasures in my life.
(I think I found this from Kottke? I’ve been sitting on the link for a while wanting to finish the whole series.)
2. Related, even if there’s an inescapable supply chain behind the things you use to create:
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