I am endeavoring to translate my mostly analogue reality to the internet.

Hello.

I am endeavoring to translate my mostly analogue reality to the internet. A place where I can share ideas, pictures, events, find clients and collaborators, and be a part of the cultural fabric of the digital town square.

The early promise of social media seemed to be just that. However, I think we can all agree, nefarious ends are being met on sharing platforms. A new era to conceive of the commons, digital and otherwise, is here. This site is one of my ways of playing with it.

I am doing this site for self-expression and fun, but I am serious as snakes about the issues I talk about here. The corrosion is accelerating, even as a better world is coming into clearer focus. The struggle of our time is for time itself.

I modeled this site to combine two concepts I love: '90s café/punk rock venue cork boards, and commonplace books.

In the '90s, cork boards were our pre-internet classifieds: poetry readings, piano lessons, massages, lost pets, fliers for shows, ads for psychics, tear-off phone numbers for anyone interested, etc.

A commonplace book is a personal journal of quotations, memorabilia, notes and thoughts — sometimes thematic, sometimes a hodgepodge. They're nothing new, a few examples: Topoi ("topics" Greek, Aristotle), loci ("commonplaces" Roman, Marcus Aurelius), biji ("notebooks" Chinese, 3rd century).

Essentially, the site is supposed to be the cork board, and the content is supposed to be the commonplace book entries. You can decide for yourself how well I pulled it off. Everything will be findable on the Commonplace page, with the latest posts on the main page.

The writing page is where my cultural critiques, blog-style posts, and the like will live. I write a lot for myself, and I never share it. So, this is a way for me to publish, which might help me focus on finishing some of my essays.

I've also included a page on the kind of work that I do in the world, and the kind of work I'm hoping to do. I am open to taking on a limited number of new clients now, and in my dream scenario, there are folks who find this site, and like what they see, and want to talk, collaborate, or partner.

The reading page is self-explanatory. It's some of what I've been reading. Book reviews, article reactions, and other thoughts will be linked from the reading page, and in the writing page. Everything will be available from the Commonplace page.

This is the first time out of the gate, so it's rough and it doesn't have much content yet, but I'm going to keep working at it.

Sincerely,
Emma

Damn the man. Save the empire.