June, in pieces
a monthly faves wrap up including the essays, podcasts, and lectures that got me thinking
However much I write, I never manage to use every single page of my monthly journal up - I always have those last few pages sat there blank…so at the beginning of this year, I started to fill those pages up with the things that gave me joy in that month and the things that got me thinking.
This post is me sharing those pages with you. A roundup of my faves of the month - and for members, the essays, podcasts and other things that got my brain ticking.
Fave Things
the random things
Anthropologie’s new mugs have got me in a chokehold! I’ve bought all of the colours but the yellow one has escaped me so every time I walk past it I pop in trying to find it. I love these they’re the perfect size for a cuppa - you know too big and it gets too cold too quickly, too small and two gulps and you’re done - plus I love the handmade look of them!
By the third day of the heatwave I had a small crisis at the wardrobe. Everything that kept me cool was hopeless for the office, and everything office-appropriate was going to cook me alive. So I did the only sensible thing and marched into Uniqlo and bought their entire linen section. I'm more or less living in their shirts and trousers now, which wash beautifully, stay soft, and aren't as spenny as they ought to be.
from the desk
Back to the usual bits and bobs. Two things from the desk this month, and I can hardly believe I'm typing the first: Louise Carmen(!) gifted me a journal for my birthday(!!). Not only the exact one I'd been eyeing for far too long, but they kindly set aside one of their embossed editions, which made it feel even more special. I adore Louise Carmen journals (and Paper Republic’s, for that matter); they bring a real luxury to my decades long journaling habit. I know, I know, I'm long overdue an updated journal-ecosystem post for you.
Fave Essays
from Substack
There were two Substack essays I went back to more than once this month. The first was "against easy definitions" by Erifili Gounari’s. She writes about how hard it is to hold our own contradictions out in the open, on social media or anywhere else. On a platform, being one legible niche helps an algorithm file you and give you to an audience and for that audience to find you.
But in a way that’s a double edged sword. For the creator and for the audience. As the creator, you get hemmed into one or two ‘niches’. Great if you wanted to find an audience only interested in those niches but do you know anyone that is only interested in one thing? I certainly don’t. This essay (and the subsequent train of thought) got me thinking about Meghan Markle (bear with me…). When she popped up with her lifestyle content, the reaction was visceral. People were berating her for being manufactured, for being inauthentic. Yet it’s exactly that manufactured and inauthentic same-y content an algorithm loves because that’s what it can use to push you and for you to find people that you want to watch and read. An algorithm that we all feed and get fed by.
Substack is no exception to this.
We as consumers of content need to see that human side of a person - it’s a basic component in how we feel connected to one another. The contradictions and complexities that can't be squeezed into a bio or a niche - that's the realness we don't get to see. And I feel like that’s exactly what we need to see more of especially when we are being served so much AI slop everywhere - not just on the social media platforms but even in our traditional media. Give me the tangent, give me the messiness, give me all your contradictions. That’s what I want to follow and support.
Then there was "The Case for Re-seeing Art," by Behind the Masterpiece which makes the case for returning to your favourite works multiple times. Beyond the statistical evidence that we engage for longer and more fully with art on the re-look, it was another part of the argument that caught my attention. The piece talks about how when we visit an exhibition, we actually aren’t able to take it all in on the first walk around. It’s like when you’re at a party, circulating the room, deciding on whether the person you’re talking to is someone you’re going to stick with for the evening:
“You’re not really listening yet, you’re building an impression, deciding whether this is someone you want to stay with a little longer or politely edge away from.”
That’s exactly why I commonplace the exhibitions I’ve been to. In the room you’re taking in everything at once: the art, the hang, the lighting, the curatorial choices. It’s only on the tube home, flicking through my photos and scribbled notes, that I get to work out what I actually thought. The party debrief, basically.
✨The rest of this post is for members of the Studio where I share more essays, articles, lectures, podcast episodes that got me thinking this month ✨
