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Fionnáin

fionnain@bookwyrm.social

Joined 3 years, 11 months ago

I arrange things into artworks, including paint, wood, plastic, raspberry pi, people, words, dialogues, arduino, sensors, web tech, light and code.

I use words other people have written to help guide these projects, so I read as often as I can. Most of what I read is literature (fiction) or nonfiction on philosophy, art theory, ethics and technology.

Also on Mastodon.

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Fionnáin's books

Currently Reading (View all 9)

avatar for fionnain Fionnáin boosted
Katherine Rundell: The Golden Mole (EBook)

The world is more astonishing, more miraculous and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In …

We live in a world of such marvels. We should wake up in the morning and as we put on our trousers we should remember the seahorse and we should scream with awe and we should not stop screaming until we fall asleep, and the same the next day, and the next. Each single seahorse contains enough wonder to knock the whole of humanity off its feet, if we would but pay attention.

The Golden Mole by  (Page 124)

Susannah Haslam: Infrastructuring : Four Conversations on Cultural (Paperback, 2021, Antenne Books Limited) No rating

So, does the institution always need to be only the host? If you have an institution where the members of it are also its voices [-->] and performers, could that lead to solidarities between artists and institutional workers? What happens when there's not a clear division between those positions? Would an artist we invite into the organisation then work together as a peer with the organisation?

Infrastructuring : Four Conversations on Cultural by  (Page 49 - 50)

This answer resonates with me, in response to a comment about 'institution-making' and spoken by interviewee John Bingham-Hall.

Han Kang: We Do Not Part (Hardcover, 2025, Hamish Hamilton)

One winter morning, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her …

Snowflakes don't melt

Content warning Mention of Jeju genocide/massacres

Hélène Bradley Davies, Ursula Callaghan, Maura Cronin: Are Ye Going Up Town? (Hardcover, 2020, Mary Immaculate College) No rating

‘Are ye going up town? Shops and shopping in Limerick’ is the product of a …

A unique local history

No rating

Are Ye Going Up Town is a research project by three university staff in Limerick, Ireland, who looked at the history of shopping in that city. The topic sounds a little specific, but the result presents some things I had never considered about the role shopping plays in social and urban connections. The emergence of department stores in the 19th century, and shopping centres (or 'malls') in the 20th, is something I had never considered as part of a social evolution, although this is not my field.

The book is the result of an incredibly deep project that took years to compile. It includes essays, scans of dozens of advertisements, photographs from the past two centuries, oral histories, and very concrete research. It's impressive in its depth, but it is very specific to place and field of research so may not be worth exploring unless the topics seem of interest.

Niamh Garvey: Wired Our Own Way (Paperback)

Wired Our Own Way: An Anthology of Irish Autistic Voices is the first collection of …

Wires revealed

This anthology of writers and others who have autism in Ireland features writers from many different fields and backgrounds, and with many different variations of autism and AuDHD. Each chapter gives a personal view from the writer.

With so many voices, there is space given to many different perspectives on living with autism. For someone with limited knowledge, it gave me a clearer view of the smorgasbord of personalities of autistic-diagnosed people in Ireland. The unique experiences and diverse writing styles bring a clear individuality to every story. The editing and design is really tidy and considerate, and the perspectives are clearly presented. As with any book of this kind, there is natural repetition in chapters where people with similar diagnoses write about their often similar experiences, but this takes little from the book.

Linda Coverdale, Jean Echenoz: Ravel (Hardcover, english language, 2007, The New Press)

Bum notes

I picked Echenoz' book out at random, judging it by its cover, and the adage rang true here. This biographical novel of the composer Ravel begins with some pretty clumsy patriarchal moments, and just goes downhill from there. I found it slow and dull, and skipped the last 20 pages. Even for a short book it wasn't worth it.

Amartya Kumar Sen: Development as freedom (1999, Knopf)

Development as Freedom is a 1999 book about international development by Indian economist and philosopher …

Economics from the ground up

Amartya Sen's 1999 book presents his dominant economic ideals, mostly focussed on how economic development must be coupled with social schemes and not just an influx of money. The idea seems a little obvious to anyone who reads feminist philosophy, but the evidence presented is written for people in economics who may not always encounter these ideas. It's hard to tell how radical this may have seemed in 1999, because I am not familiar enough with the school of economics.

It is presented as a layperson's book, and for the first third Sen does a good job in grounding how economic theory reached this point. Later on the chapters remain interesting but become a little dry for someone like me who is not an economist. The ideas remain sound, and the comparisons between countries and their social and economic positions, but the writing got a little too domain-specific for me.

Thích Nhất Hạnh: How to eat (2014)

"How to Eat is the second in a Parallax's series of how-to titles by Zen …

Taking a moment to eat

No rating

Thich Nhat Hanh is a gentle voice in mindfulness. This short book gives reflections and meditations, and a few nice illustrations, on the topic of food and eating. They ask us to be mindful of the complexity of our food chain and the human and nonhuman actors that make it possible for us to eat in this modern world. Like all Hanh's writing, it's a beautiful, gentle book.

Hélène Bradley Davies, Ursula Callaghan, Maura Cronin: Are Ye Going Up Town? (Hardcover, 2020, Mary Immaculate College) No rating

‘Are ye going up town? Shops and shopping in Limerick’ is the product of a …