Leonora Carrington
I was first drawn to Leonora Carrington's paintings because they were so ephemeral and compelling. They provided me with a gateway into her written works and her biography, which I find is deeply inspirational. Learning about the lived experiences and the mistakes made by feminist women in the past often helps me to contextualise my own experiences and be kinder to myself.
This organisation works at the intersections of tech, gender, sexuality and disability. I have had the opportunity to work with them in the past and their approach to digital systems through a feminist lens has stayed with me.
Mona Eltahawy
Activist and author of the newsletter 'Feminist Giant', Mona Eltahawy has been working in the intersections of racism and feminism. She relies on a strategy of disruption for her activism, and isn't afraid of mincing her words. Her strategies to subvert oppressive capitalist patriarchal systems are particularly noteworthy.
Hito Steyerl
I was really moved by the experience of this moving image work, where there were characters that went on a quest to find a garden hidden in the future. Once the video stops, the garden behind the screen becomes visible. For me, this is a great example of elegant and impactful art.
Ed Atkins
I began to explore Ed Atkins' work after Unit 1, since I was keen to see the various ways in which I could use one character. Though I appreciate his work, I believe I appreciate his process even more, as it appears to be quite close to mine. I found his work 'Not Quite Human' very intriguing, and though I don't think I understand it properly yet, I believe the psychological atmosphere he created in this work has diffused into Maze.
Indie Games
On the left side, are pictures of some of the games that I keep taking notes from. The hope is that one day, these will materialise into the Cerebral Circus as I first imagined it to be. Games, by their very nature, is about individuals navigating systemic landscapes, which would perhaps explain why I am so drawn to them in the context of Maze and Cerebral Circus.
Each of these games are designed with simple interactions, but they are great fun and far more impactful than commercial games of course.
My Twitter Niche
I am a very active Twitter user. It is probably the only social media that I genuinely enjoy spending time on. Over time, I have discovered a very robust neurodiverse community on Twitter where people with autism, ADHD and other such conditions, speak about their experiences of learning and unlearning. In this space, we can laugh at ourselves and the idiosyncrasies that come with our conditions. I have been building an archive here to inform the ADD zine I am working on.
David Shrigley and Liana Finck
Much of my planned artwork for the ADD zine has been directly inspired by these two artists.
Books
Some new books I have encountered have been by Susan Wendell, Omar Kholeif and the Documents of Contemporary Art series by the Whitechapel Gallery. These books have helped me think through art, artists, art in digital spaces, disability and precarity.