Weeknotes for 2025 Week 35: Staying with the Trouble

Weeknotes are a type of thinking-in-public writting and planning. The idea is to explore ideas without worrying about them being perfect. They are meant to be riddled with errors and provisional.

This week I am in Revelstoke with my partner for a few days of hiking before the semester starts. I have not escaped my sabbatical however, and this week is also seeing me struggle / stay with the trouble of keeping this project interesting / joyful while also something that I can do / is for me to do.

Interesting because it is meant to be weird and provocative. Its meant to be generative not explanatory. It should create more possibilities, for myself and others.

And it should be joyful. This shouldn’t be painful. Turns out that is easier said than done. Because it is also ambitious. Every part of it is a stretch for me. Conceptually, practically, physically: every part is new or almost new. Lots of connections with my interests and experiences, but everything built of new cloth.

But then the contradiction: It needs to be all those things while also being something I can do. In the time I have left, with the resources I have.

And then the second sense of mine to do: I need to be the right person to do this project. I am not an artist, designer, philosopher of technology, geographer, etc. I am interested in all these things; they have taught me do much. But I can’t do this project from any other perspective and stance than my own.

That means it needs to be pragmatic. In the image of philosophy but re-arranged practically. cut from critical perspectives but closer to the needle.

One realization is that kin-making as primary frame. it has been from the start. It’s the idea that forces this beyond sustainability. It gives it ethical weight. It also gives it a purpose. It makes this not-just-recycling (ethical beyond sustainability as neoliberal band-aid) but also not-philosophy because it calls for a practical result.

The other realization is that the bags have a duel role as research output. They always have, but I have been muddling these roles.

Exemplar: the bags are my attempt as showing how to explore kin-making using the pedagogies and values of my learning space.

Toolset: the bags are also meant to be a set of tools for thinking about kin-making in learning spaces like mine.

I’ve realized that doing both of these things is not feasible/advisable in a single physical bag. One bag cannot both be a bag for relating to place, for example, and a bag for thinking about how learners can relate to place. That is too much to try to physically build into the bag.

But, going back to making sure this project is one that is mine to do, I am a librarian. The digital representation of the bags can essentially be annotated bibliographies that share the influences, tools, resources, theories, background, etc that went into the bag.

Also been thinking about if this is meant to be an art object, a design object, or something else.

Definitely something else.

Again, this needs to be something I can do, and is for me to do. My primary purpose is not to create an art object. My primary purpose is to explore ways I can help learners engage more with the world through making. The object is secondary. Its a method for me to get there, and an example for others. But its not the point.

Finally, the three (four, actually) bags that I am currently working towards:

• A bMethodology bag: the first bag I will make. A bag for completing this project and enjoying my sabbatical. A carrier for methods. Microphones. Books. Laptop. Water bottle. A bag for walking. A bag for taking breaks. A bag that will change as I use it.
• A bag for making kin with non-human species.
• A bag for engaging with a physical place and community.
• A bag for engaging / making kin with technology