WV13 On ‘listening’, ‘shapeshifting’, alternative photographic processes, and the world’s most stunning water tower among other things.
2025 Reading Log, Edition 02, Feb. 01-07
01
Such a beautiful post on ‘listening’ as a poetically conscious practice by Faith Lawrence. Also introduced me to so many different thinkers that I went into a rabbit hole of reading and referencing and bookmarking…the best thing about literary internet.
“Listening is the dark matter of conversation, a mysterious activity that shapes the cosmos of any society or relationship. A friend who is a good listener can turn an ordinary conversation into a life-changing one, though we’re more likely to recall what they said (the evidence of their listening) than the listening itself. We shout, we sing, we whisper, we rhyme, but describing our listening is difficult, and its lexicon less obvious. What if we thought of ourselves as ‘listening’ animals, equipped and adapted to receive language, rather than as animals that talk? Would we talk about listening more precisely? Would we want to?”
The Listening Gift
https://aeon.co/essays/rilke-and-the-art-of-listening-as-a-way-to-shape-the-cosmos
02
“Equatic is among a wave of start-ups exploring how the ocean could be harnessed to capture and store carbon. But not everyone is sure it's such a good idea.”
The controversial machine sending CO2 to the ocean and making hydrogen
03
Read about photographer Constantine Manos through this post on Magnum. This quote below is what I aspire to do as an artist, not only in terms of photographs, but whatever I end up creating…I do hope it is poetry.
"I hope I can create a book of photographic poems, each unique yet all connected. "
Composing his photographs with patience and serenity, Manos always sought to capture the magic of life as it is lived. “I am a people photographer and have always been interested in people,” he said. The Bostonians, his document of the diversity and dynamism of life in the city, was one such project, preoccupied with people. “Going out into the city with a small camera and making hundreds of pictures of people doing hundreds of things is a dizzying odyssey,” he said. “It’s like gathering the bits of an intimate mosaic.”
Remembering Constantine Manos (1934–2025)
https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/remembering-constantine-manos-1934-2025/
04
Read this interview with Oriana Confete and got introduced to alternative photographic approaches.
“I hope to expand our perception of how photography can be done and who (or what) can be involved in the process. Art allows us to rehearse possibilities. Another future is possible if we work together.”
Rethinking Photography Through Nature and Sustainability
https://www.featureshoot.com/2025/01/rethinking-photography-through-nature-and-sustainability/
05
For the last installment of 2024, Kristin Houser looked back on the 10 greatest space stories of that year. From a first-of-its-kind spacewalk to the recovery of a rocket that could one day take people to Mars, here’s what she found.
T-Minus: Counting down the top 10 space stories of 2024
https://bigthink.com/the-present/top-space-news-2024/
06
An article which resonated with me…struggling with the same glut of OTT choices I happen to while away whatever little time I do get to watch TV mindlessly surfing the various choices and end up frustrated. A few months back on a visit to another city, I stayed in a hotel room with very little choice in terms of TV content…ended up watching the Expendables movie series for three nights in a row. It was the perfect end to my stressful work days because I was free from making at least few more choices.
“Call it escapism. Call it nihilism. I don’t care: I call it self-care. It’s likely going to be a strange year, so I’m going to do everything I can to provide some cushioning for my brain. And I’m going to start by uncutting the cord and resubscribing to cable TV.”
You have enough subscriptions. It’s time to uncut the cord
https://www.fastcompany.com/91253191/you-have-enough-subscriptions-its-time-to-uncut-the-cord
07
Discovered Lidia Yuknavitch in her interview with Cheryl Strayed. Interesting personality, kindred spirit, had never heard of her and yet something resonated within reading these words. I’m also on a journey of finding these micro miracles of everyday life these days.
“I don’t know how everyone else feels about this idea, but lately I’ve been profoundly moved by something small inside the question of personal transformation and change. What I mean is, I’ve been meditating on and noticing the micro movements in my life, little non-events within daily living, small flashes or moments in the periphery of the drama of our lives. And I am certainly drawn to art and writing by people—living and dead—that zooms in on this smaller world. For example, Willem de Kooning’s idea that content is in fact tiny, not dramatic or large, or Virginia Woolf talking about “little daily miracles” or “moments of being” that are barely noticeable next to the big dramatic events in one’s life, which she hilariously calls wool.”
Lidia Yuknavitch tell us about shapeshifting
https://open.substack.com/pub/cherylstrayed/p/lidia-yuknavitch-tells-us?r=ga5th&utm_medium=ios
08
“…a coastal city south of Gothenburg, built what may be the world’s most stunning water tower. Cast in stark concrete and perched atop a small hill, the water tower has the unusual form of a long and narrow rectangle propped up on nine slender pillars. Scalloped along its lengths with subtle curves that recall waves of the nearby coast, the water tower is a radical departure from the bulbous and cylindrical tanks found in cities around the world.”
Sweden just turned the humble water tower into art
And talking about beauty in everyday, here’s the
Poem of the Week
Coconut Oil
“When suddenly, this hair oil that gave me such grief
comes back for wellbeing’s bright new age.
No longer smelling funny, a great white commodity
marked up for organic food shops. All the rage.”
-Roshni Goyate
From the collection of poems that is ‘Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems To Open Your World’ edited by Padraig O’ Tuama
“Roshni Goyate’s poem evolves from a classroom chant to a cultural exposé. It is, in a certain sense, an adult voice speaking back to their childhood self, saying that yes, what was experienced in the playground was not only the usual taunts of school years, but the embodied voice of whiteness telling you that you’ll only fit in if you pass the arbitrary standards for inclusion: now you’re one of us, now you’re not; now you’re foreign, now you’re fashionable.”
Read the full poem here:
https://www.aloksaini.in/dhai-aakhar/coconut-oil
Thanks for taking the time. Hope you like to go through these links as much as I enjoyed sharing them.
-Alok