Hello,

Happy New Year. Hope everyone is doing well and excited about 2022. In the past I've created resolutions but this year I'm not sure I will continue this tradition. I feel like resolutions can often become expectations and I am curious to see what 2022 will bring on its own. Instead of resolutions I might instead write about what I've learned this year (which is a lot).

I wanted to go through some of the projects I created this year. Many of them I never told anyone about and I'd like to get in the habit of publishing everything, so here we go...

Last year I wrote about wanting to become a resident artist at a company. Two architects from Montreal reached out and I become their resident artist for several months. I'm so grateful for their support and hands-off approach. I learned so much about their practice and approach to architecture/life. The residency become this sandbox where anything could occur.

The first project I created for my residency with QDPG was called Earth Boxes.

Here's a short passage I wrote about Earth Boxes at the time...

Magicians often use boxes as a means of creating the illusion of teleportation. The box becomes a tool/technology for transition. It was interesting to consider the shoebox as a portal. Websites are also portals, moving information from one architecture to another. I decided that as an initial project, we should build shoebox portals. I named this project Earth Boxes because I imagined our portals would be departing from Earth and arriving on some alien planet. The objects inside the Earth Boxes were there as a means of describing life on earth to an extraterrestrial life form.

You can read more about it Earth Boxes here.

During the latter part of my residency, I focused on another object that we had talked about in our first meeting: doorknobs!

I've always found doorknobs to be these beautiful accessories to a room that get very little attention. I've always found the wear and tear that accumulates overtime on a piece of technology to be quite beautiful. Unfortunately, most computers and phones are not built to last. Doorknobs (at least the older ones) can last lifetimes. It's pretty cool to think about all that history/use embedded in each doorknob!

Seán's doorknob

I asked people to take photos of their doorknobs and created a Doorknob Index. Thank you to all that submitted! While putting this index together, I realized that doorknobs are perfect circular avatars. I welcome you to change your avatar on social media to your doorknob.

Orange Mode

I created a simple browser extension that adds an orange filter to your browsing experience. It's kinda like wearing sunglasses while you browse the web.

Let it Spin

I wrote a simple Twitter plugin that spins everyone's avatars. We are currently spinning on this planet and just don't notice it so why not make this more apparent.

Tour of a Sunday Afternoon on the Island

I visited Chicago for the first time. I made this little walking tour of the SAIC. My grandmother studied there and I imagined her wandering the halls being inspired by the art.

Idea of Shop

I really wanted to learn more about crypto and NFTs and fully understand why web3 isn't the next web0 so I made an NFT project that is a continuation of a project I began back in 2019. This new version expands the shops inventory to include more thought-objects. I learned that NFTs are interesting if you try to use them as a medium. I also understood where and how things are stored and that NFTs are nothing but a hyperlink that could easily change. I noticed how the best part of working on this project was creating the website (written in HTML).

web0

As the year came to a close, I began to get critical of web3 again but in a different way. I'd love to see the same energy that is going into the web3, going into something that already exists: HTML, handmade websites, and self publishing in a sincere way. I call this web0. It's cool because everything is already built and just works! All we need to do is remember that it's there. It's a little like view source. web3 websites often times obfuscate the source through minification. web0 is all about returning to the source to find clarity. Here's a meme to help...

So the question is who wants to join and help perpetuate this movement? I've had a lot of ideas but I can't do it on my own. Who wants to join the web0 movement?