Sup Dum babes + welcome to June.
I’ve been thinking about what knowledge I’m here to share with you as I take over the DUM airwaves. To engage you with a screen between us when I’m here to preach the opposite is—yes—ridiculous. In fact, it is the antithesis of what I am working towards. Writing this is just an introduction to the main events. Nonetheless, I will seize any convenient entrance.
Who am I? I am the director of PROJEKT KATHARINE, a UX design studio based in Los Angeles. My work at its broadest level concerns the activation of situations where radical solutions might reside. My goal is the gut of things; the deepest why. Of course, ultimate knowledge is impossible. And so I spend my illuminati days thinking about concepts, context, and reciprocal relationships. I co-founded WHOLE BEAST RAG, a publication + platform, as a way to explore these ideas (RIP). In my time since, I’ve expanded my framework and mission. I’m interested in paradigm shift. I understand and explore this two primary ways: infrastructure + activation.
Lately I’ve been thinking about what motivations underlie my daily existence and what purposes they serve. Facebook is a constant frenemy for me these days. I find the social space inundated with distraction and projections. Instant access to just about everything overwhelms the primate brain. After all, we haven’t evolved at the same pace as our computers. Technologies expand our reach but don’t replace our depleted time banks. Deciphering the noise to find what’s important takes longer than before. Things are increasingly complex and yet we have less bandwidth with which to process. I get the joke: life is a paradox.
Writing has always been an act of illumination for me, a way to make sense of complexity and see how the threads weave together. Indra’s Net is a Buddhist concept where each drop on an infinite web reflects all the others. In an ideal world, a platform is a point on the web: a place where the threads connect and thus a place of power. Platforms are where energy and information should be exchanged, where core truths are uncovered and acted upon. Thus over the course of the month I will offer several interactive meditations on place. In an age of hyper-engagement, I want to offer you a break so you can activate in other ways.
NAMASTE
Yr humble guest editor