Announcements: HA4H and Research Gig! (Patreon)

Two big announcements today:

1. HA4H (Hand Arts for Humans) Sundays at 8pm PST

M Eifler and I are ending our VIM Live livestream and starting "Hand Arts 4 Humans", Sundays at 8pm PST, now available at the $6.28 Tau level and above! 

Bring your art supplies and have art time with us, no prior experience necessary. There will be homework and readings and discussions. Starts tonight, 1/20/2019.

Header image is from the cover of Moshe Feldenkrais' "Learn to Learn" pamphlet, which will be this week's homework for next week's discussion.

2. Research Gig

I got a sweet gig joining M doing research with Jaron Lanier at Microsoft! 

It's a short-term contract and I'm not a Microsoft employee, but I do get paid! I don't want to be a broken record always repeating not to pledge more than you feel happy and comfortable throwing my way, but y'all aren't my only source of income at the moment so it's a good time to check in again.

So what is this job exactly?

We have a few problems on our mind, like how to explain machine learning to people in a way that helps them make decisions about their own digital lives, and alternative models for social media that don't rely on preying on people's information while serving ads in return, and VR/AR interfaces, and generally things that bring power and dignity to the human experience now that the human experience is swamped with computerbits. But we're just starting, so we're not sure which of these we'll be diving into how much, or how.

If you're familiar with Jaron's work, you might be able to see why we are potentially a very good research match, and I'm excited to see where this gig goes. Whatever we end up doing will be open shareable research and I look forward to bringing y'all along on the journey!

Ok now it's time to get out of my head and into my hands and DO SOME ARTS, hope to see some of you tonight! (I will post the HA4H stream link a little before 8pm PST.)

Vi

P.S. 🐌🎨:D (I am just an excitement human and had to share an excitement again)

P.P.S. :D :D :D :D :D

P.P.P.S. I did not forget about the how to make scutoids video! I still plan to have it out in the next couple weeks. I am taking extra care to be an anti-burn-out human and not let excitement and new job trick me. I am going to be the best most functional triangle of all shapes!