In 2011 I was starting a new company and thinking about how to make it good. It seemed like a time of change and possibility, and I wanted to know what other people thought, so I asked for contributions to a book whose question was more or less: How does it feel to be living and making things now [then]?
2011 was a different place. We were pre-Snowden, pre-Higgs-boson proof, Occupy, Gamergate, Islamic State, new-era Beyoncé, pre-Girls and Orange is the new Black, Cosby the villain, and Ferguson, and London (where I live) was pre-Olympics. I do something else now and this has taken a while to come together, so it’s become a strange task — to make sense of my out-of-date-ideas (like an old diary) and some diverse thinking from other people that’s as great now as it was then.
It’s not a book any more, more of an online scattering that you can read a bit or all of, in any order. Thanks to Laura Potter, Rod McLaren, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Alice Taylor and Warren Ellis whose contributions make the project. They were fast and I’ve been slow.
Thanks also to Dan Hill, Matt Ward, Jack Schulze, Phil Gyford and Peter Brawne (who told me about Clause IV and “by hand or by brain”) for helpful conversations.
Other than Laura Potter’s photographs and Rod McLaren’s spreadsheets, Ottica made all the imagery for this project, using original photographs with thanks, from Matt Ward, MakieLab, Bruce Sterling, Gonzo Bonzo, Ellen J Rogers and Timo Arnall.
Beeker Northam.
This is part of By Hand & Brain, an essay by 7 people.
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