66 — Algorithm-free choices

David Hockney said “In a way, on the iPad, or the computer [as opposed to newspapers], the individual becomes an editor, you start choosing.” The choosing tho, is hard work.

Still from Perfect Days, a film by Wim Wenders

This past week I made active choices. I didn’t click the ‘for you’, or ‘up next’ buttons on Netflix, I didn’t use Spotify radio to listen to music, I didn’t open the ‘recently uploaded’ tab on the podcast app. I didn’t dwell on Substack notes. I didn’t open any news app, I actually deleted them from my phone, I also deleted Tiktok and logged on Instagram only from my computer - as it turns out, surprise-surprise, it doesn’t give the same dopamine hit as the mobile phone does, rendering the experience unsatisfactory only after a couple of minutes.

In talking about the state of media, social media, and newspapers, I read that the artist David Hockney said “In a way, on the iPad, or the computer [as opposed to newspapers], the individual becomes an editor, you start choosing.”
The choosing tho, is hard work.

You can’t zone out and just let it happen to you, whatever the medium you are consuming. You have to ask yourself questions, think, research, be curious, feel your feelings, and then make choices based on all these factors. So I did. I spent the whole week making choices, and now I feel high as if I’d just accomplished something huge, like climb a mountain, but that’s for sure what it felt like - climbing a metaphorical mountain.

The first days were tough. If I had an available hour, I spent most of it trying to find paths that piqued my interest, but inevitably as time went by, I slowly started to enjoy the process (Look at me talking about these revolutionary concepts!) As an example: I’d search for interviews or news on a specific director/author/creative I’ve admired; I’d follow the lead to a podcast; on that podcast I’d hear them mention a TV series so I’d make a note of it to then read about it and decide wheter to watch it or move on. The same happened with books, and articles. I made notes on topics, references, or anything that I found interesting to then follow up on the research for the possibility of some creatively fertile ground.

But I don’t want to mislead you, and paint an idyllic picture of all the time you’ll gain against the countless chunks spent mindlessly scrolling and passively consuming content. As it happens, the chances are that most of these references are not mainstream. Fun fact. Interesting people are interested so you’ll end up spending quite a decent amount of time trying to find these references/books/TV shows/movies and even end up considering a VPN subscription because ‘the content is not available in your region’, nonetheless, when you find a way, the experience becomes even more enjoyable. Just as much as when you decide to ‘rent a movie’ and see for yourself if you like this dark comedy, just as you imagined you would.

In return, I found myself being more curious, receptive, and recharged from the consumption instead of drained as every choice I made was carried out from a place of intention. I expanded my knowledge and found the freedom to formulate my own opinions instead of assimilating the current discourse through social media and I might not know anything about the top ten shows in Sweden today, not even about the latest inspirational meme going around, but I can reassure you, it’s been a wonderfully creative week.

Here’s a selection of the algorithm-free choices I made last week:

Movie: Perfect Days by Wim Wenders
Beautiful and poetic, calm and meditative, it is the story of an older Japanese man who cleans toilets in Tokyo. We get to follow him every day through the routines he has carefully crafted for himself, from the care he puts in his job, to the small moments of joy he experiences. The quietness of the film is interspersed with some of the most iconic 70s music. I found it moving. Just another reason to continue loving and admiring Wim Wenders.

Music: NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts with Fred again…
The creative collaboration between Brian Eno and Fred again… in the album Secret Life might be one of my most favorite ones to date. Before that release I had no idea who this Fred was, but since then I’ve gained an immense amount of respect for his craft and this NPR session proves just that: what an incredible talent he is.

TV Show: Escape at Dannemora
This TV show dates back to 2018 and is directed by Ben Stiller. I guess that because it never reached mainstream audiences, I’d never heard of it before. What a miss! In this limited crime drama series, Patricia Arquette and Benicio del Toro play roles that are inspired by the true story of two convicted murderers who escape a prison facility. You can see how Stiller had an opportunity to experiment before Severance.

Podcast: Adrian Tomine with Debbie Millman
At some point I will tell you the story of how I came to learn about Tomine’s work in 2009, but for now, know that I love his work and this podcast episode is not just for his fans, but for anyone who has an interest in creativity. The podcast did a good job in making me interested in his latest project, even if it’s a departure from graphic novels. It’s a book of questions and answers which derived from a writing residency he did on Substack - an interesting finding in itself.

Book: An exhibition always hides another exhibition
A series of essays written by friends, collaborators, admirers, and inquisitors on the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. If you are familiar with him and his work, this book will not provide new insights, regardless, I still enjoyed reading about him from those who crossed paths with him. There were also a few anecdotes that I found particularly hilarious, especially the ones where he is being humanized!