2015 is finally ending

This year was my first entirely spent employed as a writer. From January to July, I blogged for Fast Company’s Co.Design blog, and from July to December I’ve been lucky enough to write and edit at the fantastic Hopes&Fears.

I still read the New Yorker every week and wonder if I’ll ever be able to do what their writers do, but as this year ends I think I’m closer than ever before. I’m still a total novice, learning journalism, editing, and writing all at once. I can’t believe how rad my life is that I get to experiment and learn on one of the most promising and exciting sites on the internet.

So yeah, I wrote some things this year.

How Old VHS Tapes Helped Save Early Web Design, Co.Design

Nearly a year ago I interviewed Waxy’s Andy Baio about his collection of internet documentaries on VHS from the early 90s. There is little to no documentation of web design from before the advent of the Internet Archive in the mid-90s, so these tapes give us a rare peek into the early internet. I wrote about the importance of documentation and what’s fueling our early-web nostalgia.

Why Google’s Neural Networks Look Like They’re On Acid, Motherboard

I’m a huge, huge neuroscience nerd, and when Google’s Deep Dream neural network images first began filtering through the web, I was mesmerised. For Motherboard, I spoke to some of the foremost researchers on the neuroscience of psychedelics about how our brains process images and why we hallucinate the way we do.

Haribo: Shrieking Outside the Box, Village Voice

As I wrote on Tumblr, though I’ve identified as a “music person” for years, music hasn’t been my primary artistic interest this year. Haribo is one of the exceptions. Watching their explosive, unhinged performance at Trans-Pecos, I immediately knew I needed to write about them. Haribo is the rare project that feels genuinely unique. I’m so glad I got a chance to see them perform and find out a little bit about their process.

Feeling the internet: how people with visual disabilities surf the web, Hopes&Fears

For my first ever Hopes&Fears piece, I looked into how people with visual disabilities use the web. I learned a ton, and as with so many things on our site, the end result looked great.

“It’s not enough”: A roundtable discussion on music venue accessibility, Hopes&Fears

One of the biggest perks of working at Hopes&Fears is having the resources and support to take on subjects I would be nervous to touch elsewhere. It was awesome to be able to give a platform to activists taking on the issue of ableism in the music community.

Rolling Stone reviews I liked: Alex G, Beach Music, Chelsea Wolfe, Abyss