Time to update the reading list. Two new volumes have arrived. The first one I’ve begun to read is Barry Lopez - Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World. Anisha recommended Barry Lopez to me when I mentioned that I was interested in writing about landscapes. I picked this book in part because it was his final work, tying together threads of contemplation from throughout his career, and it had a wonderful introduction by Rebecca Solnit. I’m sure the work that has given him acclaim, like his writing on the arctic, would also be worth reading but for now I’ll start with these essays and plan to read them with an attentiveness towards how it can inform my Algorithms in the World and the overall practice of taking field notes.
Collated SJ Recs from an earlier conversation as texts I’d like to revisit soon to build out a greater conceptual foundation. Some of the discussion on social worlds could be particularly fruitful to my own understanding of the social processes of meaning-making that this project itself is trying to play with. Becker’s work on Art Worlds seems particularly promising in how it portrays art as a collective activity. In a way, it seems obvious to encourage a sociological approach to the arts, as this book does, but what I wonder is how it will blend media studies with sociology to both understand the visual and media-based nature of art alongside it’s wider sociological functioning.