Julianna Yau’s blog

Last May, I ordered some stuff from Kuroten for a friend’s birthday in July. After a relatively smooth transaction with them last January, I assumed this would give me more than sufficient time to receive everything in time for my friend’s birthday. After almost monthly follow-ups, I finally received it. Today. (Okay, Canada Post left me a parcel pickup slip on Thursday, but I wasn’t able to go to the post office until today).

It’s been a very frustrating transaction, and I’m not quite sure whether I’d do business with them again. I certainly won’t if I need anything quickly, but I’m not sure they sell anything I could afford to wait on for 8 months. They did send me a “token of apology” for the delay in shipping:

It’s very cute (and, thankfully, not pink), and I’m trying to focus on the fact that they did eventually send me the order and a nice little gift, rather than the fact that I don’t really need more flash memory:

It’s probably nothing much compared to what other people have, but I really only make active use of two of those, plus the SD card in my camera.

So, what do you think? Do they get a second chance? They do source some very cool stuff.

Today, I met with a fantastic woman who will be subletting my studio and had a somewhat startling realization that I’m finally doing what I want to be doing. During the meeting, we were sharing ideas for starting another artist building in the Waterloo Region, and I was saturating her with resources for commercial Realtors, people to contact and events she should attend. In a fleeting moment, I saw myself at work and understood why people see me as a bit of a networking nut. Somehow, my natural desire to help others, interest in everything and developed skill of storing resources in my brain’s RAM (BRAM?) have merged and the result is starting to feel a little bit magical.

During 2Picas‘ launch weekend, Adriana told me I would make a mint if I could ever teach other artists how to do as much as I do. The secret isn’t really big: I just have so much going on that even when I’m procrastinating, I’m still doing something. If I’m not sculpting, I’m working on 2Picas clients. If I’m not working on 2Picas clients, I’m putting in volunteer hours with Technology in the Arts or Globe Studios. Even my “down time” of movie-watching is a mini-project for me, as I’ve been casually studying movie remakes and getting my fill of the classics and must-see movies.

So why was I still startled that I’m doing what I love? Things moved extremely quickly last year, and with everything I was doing, I didn’t leave myself much time to step back and look at what I had accomplished. The only down time I have for thought is when I’m sculpting, and lately that’s resulted in more ideas for how I’m developing my sculptures rather than reflections on what I’ve done. I’ve just been forging forward, chasing dangling carrots and having a ton of fun getting there.

Because I’m also still doing some things that I don’t enjoy, it doesn’t quite feel like I’m where I want to be yet. And getting rid of some of those final ankle weights will be difficult. I’m constantly grateful for having wonderful, supportive friends who appreciate that I need to be a little reckless and more daring than usual right now. The people I’ve met through Twitter have also been both inspiring and supportive, reminding me both directly and through simply living and sharing their lives, that jumping is like skydiving: you just need to be prepared and have a parachute.

Ma.gnolia bookmarks for January 14th, 2009 through January 17th, 2009:

• Gareth Bate: Caught between a job and a cold place –

• Artists in the middle years: Making it work –

• Artists’ earnings –

  Some basic stats

• Toronto arts: By the numbers –

• Spanish museum uses Google Earth to bring masterpieces up close –

The session proposals for the Technology in the Arts conference are due on Jan 19th, and we’re reviewing them the following week. What types of topics would you like to have covered at the conference? This isn’t a formal call for feedback, but I will definitely keep responses in mind and pass along any trends.

The conference is for cultural workers and organizations for all forms of art, including music and theatre. To my knowledge, there isn’t much of an equivalent for creators. The closest things I’m aware of are my neglected e-eAsel project (if you’re aware of a Technology for Artists equivalent, please let me know!).

The 2008 conference session information is available here, and my notes from the sessions I attended can be found here.

You can send in your feedback as comments here or you can reach me on Twitter.

Ma.gnolia bookmarks for January 4th, 2009 through January 13th, 2009:

• U.S. museums facing deep cuts because of economic crisis –

• Maddin’s My Winnipeg named best film by Toronto critics –

• TheStar.com | GTA | Textbook piracy thriving around city’s campuses –

• YouTube – LG-GD910 3G Watch Phone – It was inevitable. I'm glad it's done well.
• Iraq Vet Charged with Movie Theater Shooting | NBC Philadelphia – All the more reason to not go to the theatre
• “What are you planning to do in 2009?”, or thoughts about #lifecamptoronto | sacha chua :: enterprise 2.0 consultant, storyteller, geek –
• ze’s page :: zefrank.com: electrabel new years ad –

A few days ago, a friend pointed me to Social Innovation Generation (SiG) and its first event, Studio|Earth. I, of course, signed up for the event and somewhat precariously selected the Social Technology/#waterskool workshop. I was a bit concerned it would be tedious for someone who is already engaged in social media, but Joseph Dee, Sam Ladner, Lisa Torjman, Billie Mintz and Susanna Kislenko did a fantastic job with making the workshop closer to a Barcamp and having the participants actually work on a problem.

They talked about needing to think about an actionable step following the use of social technology, not just a click-to-join or click-to-donate model. I was very happy to hear that I was not the only person struggling to bridge click-activism with “real”/offline activism. This is something which has bothered me since the explosion of consumer advocates using e-petitions during the release of the last copyright bills.

What’s difficult is actually working on the issue, rather than preachers of the anti—social-technology and pro—social-technology groups yelling at each other.

In telling people about #hohoto, many were blown away by how the organizers were able to raise $25,000 for Food Banks Toronto in two weeks. A few (and one in particular) lashed out at me about how exclusive and un-social the event was because only people on Twitter knew about it. I’ve learnt that, in these situations, I should just let these people rant because they are mostly angry and not interested in an open dialogue.

This opinion of social technology being exclusive and un-social was again mentioned at the Social Technology/#waterskool session at Studio|Earth (and kudos to Lisa handling the criticism so well!). Here, coupled with the #hohoto complaint, it felt like people are angry and feeling left out and left behind because they choose not to participate in social technology. Its frustrating to me that they are simply disengaging, rather than changing how social technology relates to those who don’t have access to it or choose not to access it.

The (in)accessibility of social technology isn’t something noticed only by people who don’t use it. Amrita Chandra reflected on this on Twitter exactly a week ago today, which triggered an interesting conversation between her and Duarte Da Silva

The presenters at the Social Technology/#waterskool workshop recast this as a goal to use awareness to change behaviour, and to use social technology to enrichen, not replace, current methods of advocacy and action. Through the work of the breakout sessions, we found that some of the things we need to work on now are:

• connecting the different people who are involved with the same issue (e.g. the water crisis)
• reducing the noise and focusing the activity; avoiding multiple, simultaneous, converging stresses
• getting the attention of the natural leaders, online and offline

From managing Artifice and generally taking on way too much, I have a good idea of some of the major arts/tech/culture events coming up in the first half of 2009. Here are my choice picks (I am, of course, involved in most of these somehow):

Third Thursdays at Globe Studios
This is a new initiative of Globe Studios, where the building and many studios will be open to the public for demonstrations and other interactive activities. We will be bringing in some guests to fill the space too. Please take a look at the website if you want to participate.

Cinematheque Waterloo‘s screening of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Jan 18 and 20
One of the best films I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen a ton of films). I still have two free tickets to give away.

KW CultureCamp, Feb 7
Culture + BarCamps for Kitchener-Waterloo

Technology In The Arts Conference + Canada 3.0 Conference, May 10-12
This is in Stratford, and will be a wonderful mix of art and technology.

spOtlight 2009, June 5-7
The spOtlight festival will be returning to the Waterloo Region in 2009. Here is some information about how to participate.