itp taught me how to make things. people pushed me to make things well. i never succeeded; no one really does; but we end up with a half-decent body of work anyhow.
and, so, when we graduate, we are expected to make things. all of us came into this making stuff; all of us will leave making stuff. we’ll all have day jobs & night practices.
the days will earn you money; the nights will take you somewhere exciting. that is our life.
i wonder why we make things. i wonder why i make things. or made things.
what is it about spending exorbitant quantities of time; pushing — failure after failure — to make this thing that no one cares about?
many people say it’s the process; i say it’s the process. people find it fun; people use it to escape.
the process of making is an escape.
what are we running away from?
at the slightest clue of discomfort, we pick up a gadget. a book calls us ‘the anxious generation’.
prachi once said that i like the computer because it can’t talk back. how strange — the feeling of speaking into the void (the internet) makes me feel heard; yet ever so lonely (it is a void after-all).
i keep wondering about the validity of my enquiries; even at the recurse-center. if something is interesting to me, and i’m pulling a thread there from where i am, why is that not enough?
if it's interesting to you, it's interesting. that's all that matters.
i wonder:
in a technology program, must my thesis be about technology?
i paraphrase from the history of itp:
we ask students: how can technologies enrich the lives of people? how can we make lives beautiful; efficient; safer; easier; more meaningful?
and i ask myself:
how can i use