This week two major developments have happened over here at No Fun, which I can finally share with you all.
Many of you will be familiar with the book Offline Matters: The Less-Digital Guide to Creative Workthat came out last year.The response has blown me away and since its release we have had reading groups, discussions, amazing personal dialogues (hi to everyone who mailed me!) and window take-overs in various spots around the world.
Also shout out to dearest Maekan* (Charis, Eugene and Nate) and The Pen Name LA (Jim Padlow and the Captain) for their exceptional support and ideas on how to explore the themes in the book further.
*We still have an ongoing collaborative interview series: The Offline Matters Interview Series – scroll down for an overview – talking with a diversity of ‘creatives’ on how they are navigating this phase of increased blurring between on-and offline in their lives and work.
Introducing: The Offline Matters Cards
Since the book’s release, myself and the incredible designers/minds Joachim Baan and Jordi Carles have created a tool for breaking out of the ‘digital-first’ expectations of creative work today: The Offline Matters Cards.
A double-pack of cards designed for prompts, breakouts, fresh starts and problem solving. In groups or individually. 📸: Tim Wettstein
These first two decks are based on the classic game Truth or Dare?As you can see from the sides of the pack, they are the first duo of what will be a six-pack set to collect.
We deliberately wanted to make something that was low-key and thrashable. Rather than a design object that gets a pretty place on a shelf in the agency library and is never touched again, the hope for these bad-boys to be used/played/deployed to death.💀
Let them get crumpled whilst in use. Love them and pass cards on to friends. There are some blanks included for you to add your own truths and dares.Don’t be precious with them. Make ‘em yours.
How To Use The Cards
There are a bunch of different ways to use the cards—as a game, as a prompt tool, in groups, or by yourself. You can play with both decks together, or just go for Truth, or Dare, alone.
Full instructions are included in each pack on all the ways you can use them to FrReAk oUt.
The Truth Pack
The black box at the front is the Truth Edition. These cards give creative thinkers, makers, and collectives a tool to provoke alternative ways of doing, through the minds of others.
In a variety of quotes from thinkers across time and discipline, this deck is for snapping us out of our go-to approaches to turn towards the possibility of other worlds.
The Truth Cards: 50 perspectives for developing your idea/problem/task/practice
The Dare Pack
The Dare cards are my personal favourite. Years ago I discovered Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies, which he made to push his music making into unexpected directions via different prompts.
At first, he wrote them as a list. Then he noticed when experimental prompts are in a list-form, one’s eye tends to be drawn to those that we like best, or find ‘easiest.’ Instead he tried putting them onto cards and would place them face-down in a pile, and said there was one rule, “the one you draw must be applied.”
The Dare Cards: 50 prompts and 2 to make your own
Like Eno’s musical Oblique Strategies, the Offline Matters Dare Cards are designed to inspire acts and outcomes that drive us outside our usual (screen-focused) practices through a series of surprising prompts—suitable for all disciplines and pursuits.
tHeY’re Out NoW!
The Offline Matters Cards: Truth or Dare editionscame out this week! They are available internationally—with the exception of North America, where they will be available from Fall. Below is a link to online retailers, and think about supporting your local independent bookstore.
BIS Publishers are offering a discount deal for No Fun readers on both the Offline Matters Cards, and a special combo of the cards and book together – if you want Mama & Baby together.
A new research lab on burnout with the School of Commons
In collaboration with the School of Commons, I have launched a research lab that will be studying the burnout condition/ phenomenon/ experience for the next 10 months.
Band of Burnoutsis an experimental and transdisciplinary study of the burnout that undertakes a multi-perspective, multi-voiced exploration of experiences. Check out our Ways & Workingshere.
The School of Commons is calling for contributions for an experimental print publication sharing experiences of burnout.
The following types of new, ongoing, or previously published works are welcome. Contributions can be:
• WRITTEN
Including personal essays, auto-theory, short or long anecdotes, fragmented writing, poetry, prose, interviews, transcribed conversations, diary or documentary style, reflective stories, or embodied writing – to name but a few. We are open to all!
• VISUAL
Including drawings, self-made memes, illustrations, comics and graphic novels, typographical interventions, etc., or
• AUDITORY
As an experimental print publication we welcome the creative integration of audio works. These could be songs, spoken word pieces, soundscapes, recorded conversations and interviews, collages of found material, etc.
✨We encourage work that is transdisciplinary, genre-defying, and intersectional.
No Fun will run a sub-newsletter all about burnout and the Band of Burnouts project. This way you can stay up to date with the published writings, visual essays, printed zines, and upcoming opportunities for digital writing residencies and makers meet-ups.
In the future, you’ll see Band of Burnouts news dropping into your inbox via this newsletter. If you would like to get involved in any capacity (design, written contributions, joining the collective, etc.) send a mail to jess@schoolofcommons.org
Keep you posted! Take care and thanks for all the l0ve,
