April production diary (Patreon)

Welcome back to my ~tw1st3d m1nd~...

My new video came out a week ago, and what a week it's been! It seems to be doing really well. It feels weird to celebrate the success of something so dark – I don't exactly like that it's resonating with people, but I hope people are finding it helpful.

After wrapping up the video, I plunged into something even more intense – writing nearly a video's worth of content in THREE DAYS 😱 I committed to giving a talk on March 29th, and had an hour-long spot to fill but next to nothing prepared. I have no idea how I got it done, I guess I entered some sort of fugue state and emerged with 4000 words and a 60-slide presentation.

Pic by my friend Stushi

The talk was titled "Can Art Change the World? Video Essays for Social Change". It was about how video essays spread information, the unique opportunity presented by the medium, and whether art can have a meaningful role in political movements. It was live-streamed to ticket holders (which I would've shared with you, had I known it was happening 😅), and I'm hoping I can snag a VOD to share on here soon. I think it went well!

So well, in fact, that I'm considering expanding on the script, and turning it into a video for next month. Since 2021, when I became a professional "artist who talks about politics", I've been alternating between contemplation and utter panic about how I should be using my platform. I think video essayists have an interesting conflict of interest: we make money by "raising awareness", so we're incentivized to talk about that as a viable political strategy, but what if it's not? What if video essays divert energy from better strategies that can't make us money (like shutting down weapons factories)?

Artists have shaped or responded to too many political movements to count. I'm curious what we owe the people who engage with our work, and I have some suggestions that people might find compelling.

When I ran a poll on what videos I should make this year, some of you expressed excitement about videos on the topics of public art, transcendence, and greed. To clarify, I haven't abandoned these ideas – I'm excited to make the first two in particular – but they involve lofty ideas that I need to let percolate for a little longer.

On the other hand, "Can Art Change the World?" would be fun and disproportionately easy to make, since the script is halfway written. I haven't taken on an easy video in a year... sounds really nice! Especially knowing how hefty some of these other videos will be. I'm not even telling you about my July one yet, because there's a chance it takes me until next July.

TL;DR (the Time Lily Does Reviews)

I have exactly one thing to recommend you today. It's a podcast:

Never Post

Over the past couple years, nearly every podcast I held dear has gone on hiatus, ended its run, or been cancelled outright by the vultures at Spotify. I have pretty particular taste in podcasts – tightly written, deeply reported, fun roster of producers telling stories – and with the recent layoffs in the industry, I figured that type of show just wouldn't get made anymore...

Then Never Post launched and made me feel like a BIG DUMB BABY!!

It's the new show from Mike Rugnetta, who was behind the iconic PBS Idea Channel back in the day. As a "show about the internet", Never Post has a lot in common with Reply All (🪦), but so far, it's more interested in exploring the sociological/philosophical side of tech. Not unlike my "Millions of Dead" videos.

One episode gives a linguist's take on "influencer voice", their latest introduced me to the MEGADUNGEON theory of the internet, and offers a compelling theory as to why some creators purposely record terrible audio.

The show is clearly working with a smaller budget than Reply All or Heavyweight (🪦), but their selection of topics has been universally interesting, and it's clearly produced by audio nerds striving to make something exciting to listen to. An undeniable labour of love.

Closing remarks

See ya!