I made this book as a way to give voice to what I noticed in me
I'm having a store closing sale, and I'd love for you to read my book. Also! A mega life update, and the first few months in my new creative technology role
Join in with what I’m building and learning in creative AI ⚡ in this post:
📚 Grab a copy of my book, I'm having a store closing sale
⚗️ Musings on my first few months as a creative technologist at Google Labs
💖 Mega life update
A lot as happened in the last four months! Here’s the highlights.
📚 I made a book of drawings, I’d love for you to read it
If you’ve been curious about my book, nows your chance to grab a copy. My newsletter usually focuses on creative AI prototyping, but this issue will focus on another project of mine: a book of illustrations and words that find ways to make space for range of feelings we have, affirming them, and naming them, titled Feeling Great About My Butt:
It's sometimes hard to name a feeling you have. I made this book as a way to give voice to what I noticed in me. When I started sharing the drawings, I found others were feeling these things too. In a way, when we go deeper into ourselves, we find things that bring us closer together.
The thread that connects my work — the interactive art, creative tech work, murals, and illustrations — is the hope for positive healthy, growthful, experiences, and imagining those futures. These drawings helped me explore vulnerable places that I couldn’t in other mediums. I'd love for you to read it.
The spark that led to the book was a question — a creative inquiry — asking myself: “What is your voice in your work?” I felt like if I didn’t know, is it someone else’s voice? What about my own? What am I trying to say? With my pattern art I felt like I was hiding behind abstraction, and with the tech art I was hiding behind the tech.
So I stripped down the medium, just a pen and paper, and challenged myself to use words and literal drawings and convey ideas clearly. I opted for a simpler drawing style, so the craft of drawing itself wouldn’t be the value, it would be the ideas and messages conveyed.
I drew obsessively and filled notebooks. I put the drawings up all around my apartment and invited friends over to talk about them. Soon themes emerged, an arc formed, and I put them together into a book. I threw a book launch at Needles & Pens in the Mission. A few years later the book was accepted into Printed Matter.
Now, five years later, I’m going to close down the store. The backstory is that maintaining an independent shop with storage and fulfillment is tough, unless you’re making new material and marketing a bunch. My storage and fulfillment provider is shipping back my books, but before then I’m doing one last marketing push.
Some special deals from the shop:
I’m having a store closing sale of 25%
I especially love when I hear about the book being gifted. Since starting the sale, I’ve been seeing people grab multiple copies and I want to add some complimentary ones as a thank you. You can buy 3 and get 1 free, or 4 and get 2 free (select 4 or 6 in the store quantity and the deal should be applied)
For bulk orders and bookstores there’s wholesale discounts too — please DM.
Here’s a couple videos about the book:
Details about the store closing
The journey to making the book
⚗️ Creative Technology at Google Labs
For the past four months, I have been working as a creative technologist at Google Labs. These months have been the most creatively productive for me, and I'm thrilled about the insights and projects I've built in creative AI.
I’ve long had a hunch about the value of creative technology in new product development, but I’ve rarely found people who bridge the gap between creative tech and startups. In the last few months I’ve been able to further develop this hunch. A creative technologist's skillset involves diving into emerging tech to explore its potential through building. Without actually jumping in and playing with the tools, it’s hard to get a feel for what’s possible, so building quick interactive sketches is crucial. As I talk with other friends in the space, a pattern I notice is that this same skillset becomes useful for companies who want to find new opportunities with emerging technology.
Most of my work is currently private, and I recently gave my first talk during LA tech week sharing some of my early prototypes publicly. Stay tuned, I’ll share more on that in a future update.
A skill I'd like to cultivate is distilling insights from the work that are appropriate to share publicly. I know many folks do this, and I'm interested in it too. It seems to involve discussing the work at a higher level while still providing valuable insights. If you've done something similar — maintaining a public presence about your work while under NDA — I'd love to hear what's worked for you and how you approach this. And on that note, If you have questions about the creative technology role or what it’s like, let me know! This will inspire future posts :)
Mega life update
I proposed to my partner, and she said yes! It happened on the anniversary of the day I moved in with her, flying across the country with my cat in tow. To celebrate, we went on her favorite hike in east bay. At the top, up several steep inclines, there is a double spiral. We walked the spirals outward and then inward, meeting at the center of the two, where I proposed.
Thanks for reading
🙌 Follow what I’m up to by subscribing here and see my AI projects here. If you know anyone that would find this post interesting, I’d really appreciate it if you forward it to them! And if you’d like to jam more on any of this, you can reply here or on twitter.
🤭 I made a book. It’s called “Feeling Great About My Butt,” and is a book of illustrations and words that find ways to make space for feelings of whimsy, devastation, and growth.
📞 Book an unoffice hours conversation: We could talk about something you’re working on, jam on possibilities for collaboration, share past experiences and stories, draw together / make a zine, or meditate.