Trading Maps

A register of curiosity

[tradingmaps]

[tradingmaps]

Six Quick Lessons in How to Read a Landscape

<br> Play with boundaries — treat the borders that define "a landscape" as tools and historical artifacts rather than given truths; have students zoom in and out, blur edges, and historicize how a place became what it is. Look near; see far — attend to the mundane infrastructure of daily life (bike paths, tree-lined streets, rail lines) and read it as part of regional and national systems that connect people, citing environmental histories of cars and U.S. infrastructure. Look up, look down — notice the usually-invisible systems overhead (wires, poles) and underfoot (manhole covers, storm grates), asking what sustains daily life. Compare then and now — use historical aerial photos and topographic maps (lots of Wisconsin and USGS digital archives) to surface drivers of change over time. Make and interpret maps — treat maps as stories and map historical events (e.g., the Dust Bowl) to put weather, land use, and economy in spatial context. Particularize — push students past chamber-of-commerce clichés about a place toward the specific, personally observed details (the tracks they walked, the view from a cabin) that make landscape-reading meaningful.

[infulleffect]

"Twain Tree" Giant Sequoia Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Historical dates:

550 Tree Began Growing 570 Mohammed Born 640 Alexandria Library burns down 732 Saracens defeated at Tours 800 Charlemange crowned 896 Alfred the Great frames laws 1000 Lief Ericson lands on American Coast 1066 Battle of Hastings 1147 The Second Crusade 1215 Magna Carta Signed 1302 Mariner’s Compass in Europe 1429 Joan of Arc 1492 America Discovered 1588 Spanish Armada Destroyed 1620 Landing of the pilgrims 1750 Franklin discovers electricity  1776 Declaration of Independence signed 1815 Battle of Waterloo 1861 Civil War 1891 Tree cut down

[tradingmaps]

Things I’ve learned about life from a year of distance running

Showing up consistently is the most powerful thing in the world. I learned this a while ago with writing but discovering exactly the same thing with distance running has led me to realise how this is true of pretty much everything. It’s far better to show up consistently, even with lacklustre performance, than it is to wait until you feel inspired and/or see the conditions as optimal.

Pacing is a really intricate psychological activity. I was really interested to realise that I’m instinctively conservative in my pacing. I assumed it would be the opposite. But starting with a sense of what you can maintain over time before inferring the outcome on that basis is utterly life changing. I formerly fixated on what I wanted to achieve and then just imagined I would magically do it.

Everything difficult in life should have a victory lap. The upside of conservative pacing is that when you realise you’ve got energy left at the end, it’s possible to come in strong and really luxuriate in the experience. This feels so good in a competitive race but I think it’s more broadly true as well.

What you feel you can do is pretty radically malleable. You need to understand these limits in order to pace yourself. But if you consistently push them in a sustainable way then what you feel you can do changes radically. I was vaguely annoyed with myself that I just missed my 2 hour target for this morning’s half marathon. Then I realised that even just six months ago that entire thought process would have felt utterly implausible to me.

There’s something deeply existential about pushing yourself to your limits. The better you get at pacing, the more feasible it is to do this without messing up. I’m fascinated by what happens to the preconscious in this state. If you let yourself free associate all sorts of memories and images surface in a way that can be profoundly therapeutic depending on how you respond to them.

Falling into rhythm feels amazing. There’s a certain point after about an hour where I find my stride and a deep sense of peace takes over, particularly if the sun is shining. I was really surprised to discover something similar happens with other people, a kind of lowkey connection that comes from the wordless attunement of falling into pace with each other. Everything in life should have a rhythm. Indeed I suspect it does, it’s just hard to find and even harder to maintain.

[tradingmaps]

Untitled

These are some of our favorite art projects. We've referenced them countless times in our teaching and in conversation. We've collected them here to share with you and our future forgetful selves.

These are some of our favourite art projects

[tradingmaps]

The Ones

These are some of our favorite things.

[tradingmaps]

Principles of CW&T In 2017, 8 years after we started this studio, we finally decided we should write down our guiding principles. It's a nice little document that we can check in with once in a while to make sure we're still on the right track (or maybe it's time to fork off onto a new track). Anyways... here they are. (subject to change always and forever)     🏢 🏠 🏢 Stay Small We’re just two people making lots of stuff. We like it that way and don’t want to grow. Growing means being responsible for the livelihood of more people. That’s more overhead, more managing, and less fun. With all the incredible software and hardware out there, we’re in a golden age of getting things done.  Two people can get a lot done. More importantly, two people can move from concept to product faster than a boardroom full of gremlins.     ✌️ Share Everything It’s important for us to share because we value transparency in our work and our lives. We like products, processes and systems that are legible. When we make something you buy, we want you to feel like it’s really yours. As an owner, you should know how the thing arrived into this world.     🎟🎟🎟 Buy lots of lottery tickets We’re not suggesting you should gamble, but launching a project often feels like rolling dice. Hard work doesn’t always pay off. There’s no correlation between how much time is spent working on a project and the ultimate payoff. That’s why we try lots of things. We make tons of stuff. And once in a while we get lucky. (Watch this talk by Darius Kazemi about buying lottery tickets) Privilege is also a form of luck. The two of us come from supportive families that fed us, educated the shit out of us, and made us feel safe enough to chase dreams.   🔨❤️ Make What You Want We’re not devoted to any particular medium or way of making. If we want something, we figure out how to make it. We’re medium agnostic. There are so many resources out there to learn whatever skill you need to get something done.     ⚙️ The Proof is in the Prototype The only way to truly tell if something is worth making is to hold it in your hands. Our workshop is built to be as friction free as possible so ideas can easily take shape. We often have a proof of concept within a few hours of sketching an idea. Everything in our studio gets prototyped a million times before a product release - if any. We almost never generate renderings, because renderings are like crack.  It tricks your brain into thinking you finished building the thing and when you finally get around to building the thing, you’ve already crashed from your high and the prototype doesn’t quite get you as high anymore. You can't replace the real thing with anything but the real thing.     👍 Make it Good If you’re going to bother making something, make it properly. Pick the right tools for the job. Don’t cut corners. We’d rather make it the right way once than spend energy and time making it the wrong way only to realize later that we should have made it the right way the first time.     🕰 Make it Last Everything should be over engineered. It feels better, it works better, and it will last longer. Value engineering is often short sighted. Products can and should last more than a lifetime. That’s what we want to see in this world, so we strive to make things that withstand time. The things we make are designed, engineered and manufactured to last forever.      👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 Keep it Real We’re a business, but we’re also a family. It’s just the two of us working every part of our operation, and there’s no hiding that. We’re not a big company and we're not trying to act like one. If a baby ends up in a meeting or on a conference call, that’s just how it’s going to be.     🚷 Never Exit We’re never going to sell out. This is our life, our work, and our passion. We don't really think about what we do as a choice. It's who we are. And we hope to keep this going for as long as we can.    Hi there! You made it all the way here! Did you read everything? Well, if you did. Thank you! And as a small gesture to say thanks, here's a 10% discount code off anything in our shop.  Code: PRINCIPLES   XOXOoooxoxXXo CW&T

Principles – CW&T

[tradingmaps]

Earth Clock

A digital clock assembled from views of Earth from above that resemble numbers.

[tradingmaps]

Life Goals • Blake Boles dot com

I started this goal list at age 20, inspired by Jim Wiltens. Completed goals are in red. A few notes about my method: I only post big, exciting, and slightly intimidating goals—not the little stuff. I may retroactively add goals I’ve already completed, even if they weren’t “goals” to begin with. I may remove goals that become […]

[tradingmaps]

Methods of Art – Archive of Artists Interviews

[tradingmaps]

Resource Directory Map

Together, we are advancing the Self-Directed Education movement and creating a world where children are truly free to learn on their own ter

[tradingmaps]

YAM WATER 1963

[tradingmaps]

Making and Being Card Game

[tradingmaps]

[tradingmaps]

[tradingmaps]

The Scores Project: Experimental Notation in Music, Art, Poetry, and Dance, 1950–1975

A unique digital compilation of experimental scores, audiovisual materials, and source documents from the postwar avant-gardes, interpreted by experts on art, music, dance, and poetry.

[tradingmaps]

https://teaching.uic.edu/cate-teaching-guides/syllabus-course-design/backward-design/