October Updates, Events 🐌 (Patreon)

Hello Good Humans! 

It's been an exciting time here at Vi Hart Headquarters. Time for an update on what I'm up to, plus some events you might be interested in!

1. Updates

Remember back at the beginning of September when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life? (There was a helpful poll and everything.) And then I made a million billion scutoids and then went on a vacation to clear my head.

Well, since then I've been looking at possibilities, particularly at the intersection of technology and learning. I've been talking to some different folks and have visited the SF bay area a couple times as well as other places.

I've written and rewritten and scrapped and revisited a pile of different visions. I've been reading and talking and meeting and basically spending a lot of time trying to get a new picture of what's up in the tech/learning/media/vr/ai/education space these days, and what work is missing and needs to be done, and what am I well suited to make happen?

I'm closing in on a couple ideas and following a couple strong leads for interesting projects that, if they happen, I'll be very excited to tell you about.

But for now I get to spend some time in my favourite place, which is HOME, because I am a snail that likes to snail-up cozy and safe into my hermitage among the trees while I figure out my next move.

Wherever else my ambitions take me, I suspect that making videos is something I will do from time to time for the rest of my life. I'm pretty good at backburnering projects only to have them return stronger than ever to be completed later (sometimes many years later), so don't worry about current projects being abandoned forever!

2. Events

Celebration of Mind

Firstly, we're nearing the end of October, which means Celebration of Mind season! In honor of Martin Gardner's birthday on Oct. 21st, people and institutions all over the world host parties with puzzles, games, math, and magic.

You can see if you can find one near you here: https://www.celebrationofmind.org/map 

Particularly, in the SF Bay Area this weekend, Henry Segerman (who I collaborated with on 4D and hyperbolic VR stuff) and fellow Math YouTuber Brady Haran of Numberphile, plus some other cool folks I know, will be a part of this big Celebration of Mind event: http://www.msri.org/general_events/23463 

I won't be there, but I recommend it. Martin Gardner is part of my lineage and these people are my people. And I WILL be at some events in November! 

Future of Reality Summit

I haven't done events in a while because I am a hermit snail, but for my not-yet-defined new project I figured it's about time I went to some conferences and got a feel for what the cool kids are doing these days.

First, I'll be speaking at the Future of Reality Summit in Winston Salem, NC, on the 5th/6th: https://www.uncsa.edu/metl/future-of-reality-summit/ Looks like the event is invite-only but you can apply to be invited? Not sure how that works. edit: looks like there's a site to buy tickets here? I don't know, you'll figure it out I'm sure!

Anyway I'll be spending almost two weeks in North Carolina to do the summit, teach a couple UNCSA classes, meet with some museum and library folks, and generally spend some time getting a feel for what learning spaces are thinking about these days.

ThinkerCon

Then I head over to Alabama to meet with a pile of other online educator types at ThinkerCon! 

There is a public event on Nov 17 which I may or may not do something at, but if you follow the educational YouTube scene you'll find a lot of familiar faces attending (besides myself), plus many folks who do non-video online education stuff too (including Parable of the Polygons co-creator Nicky Case).

In the days before the public event we've scheduled lots of time to meet amongst ourselves, and I'm pretty stoked to get some inside views on kinds of online educational content I'm less familiar with.

You can get a ticket for the public event here:  https://www.thinkercon.com/ 

It's fairly expensive though, so use this secret coupon code to get an entire 30% off: ThinkerPatrons

3. What Even Am I Doing

I don't know? Wow do I have a busy month ahead of me. I also just realized I haven't Lens'd in forever. Hello! I hope you are doing well! Thank you for supporting me while I flail about with my flaily snail eyes, searching for a thing to climb!

Vi

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