Face-first into the new year, last of the winter application blitz amid frost and an oscillating half-grief.

NASA gimbal rig, formally known as the Multiple Axis Space Test Inertia Facility (MASTIF)

Between funding applications and year-end reflection, these past weeks have been an exercise in maintaining orientation through multiple forms of motion. This image of NASA’s Multiple Axis Space Test Inertia Facility (MASTIF) captures this need for articulated movement, for finding ways to work with prevailing forces, while retaining the ability to pivot and respond.

Undertakings:
  • Submitted a funding application for a tiny, peri-academic group project exploring how people develop practical techniques for working with complex systems they can’t fully comprehend. Drafting the proposal required a careful negotiation of the envisaged team members’ interests and methodologies, creating interfaces between different forms of knowledge and practice.
  • Drafted and submitted a proposal for a tech art installation, including a call with a teammate in Bilbao on Wednesday, and pulses of text-wrangling with the project lead on Friday and Saturday. Getting better at submitting materials that are ‘good enough’, avoiding the drive for perfection and (in the process) leaving a bit more space for the reader.
  • Back into the Anarchive workflow (an experimental publishing project with FoAM), continuing to untangle two September-October interviews that have emerged as webs of interconnected themes and references, reflecting networks of practice and understanding. My next steps will require a careful attention to how different themes relate and intersect, as I attempt to document these patterns without flattening them.
Side-missions:
  • Completed a YearCompass workbook for 2024-25, having peer pressured a friend into doing so, and then been peer pressured back, in turn. It was bit of a slog, taking a couple of days of focused attention, but it was good to hold some time and space to look back before looking forward, and get a better sense of my current trajectory and the changes or steers required. This led me to choose ‘gimbal’ as my word for the coming year (hence the post title and NASA image) – evoking this sense of maintaining orientation through turbulence.
  • Tour of a new local coworking space, operated by a B-corp, in a former bonding warehouse adjacent to the river (tour manager was quick to point out the comprehensive floodproofing). The space is under 5 minutes from our house, so while money is tight, I’m keen to explore the possibility of a weekly anchor point for focused work and ambient human contact. The space’s ongoing development – subdividing larger areas originally intended for single companies into more flexible configurations – suggests something interesting about York’s organisational landscape: a shift toward smaller teams requiring more flexible, distributed infrastructure.
  • Couple of Frostpunk binges to shake application stress.
Next week:
  • Trial day at the coworking space, taking this as an opportunity to prototype some lightweight documentation methods and reflection protocols – with an eye to how this might support my ongoing practice. Something here about finding ways to trace and support emergent patterns without choking them.
  • Catching up on emails; less inbox management than reestablishing rhythms of connection, getting some conversations back up and running after the break.
  • Possible London trip from Friday – balancing much-needed social time with current resource constraints.

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