Curiosity Killed Itself.

Did you fit everything in you wanted to do this summer? No, me neither.

Well, I don’t know where you are in the world, but here at the KIOSK it feels like we’re pulling down the shutters on summer and gazing ahead into the gloom of winter.

It’s hard not to reflect on what I failed to achieve in those fleeting summer months. Every year I have such modest plans and I even create lists, but then the cold and the dark creeps in and I realise that the thing I planned to do every week, I only did once, and that one thing that was definitely going to happen, didn’t.

It’s hard not to feel disappointed in oneself, but in the interest of sanity and logic, I’ve been trying to look at it a bit differently. Everyone tells you that the older you get the quicker times passes, and it certainly feels like that’s the case, but of course we all know a year is exactly the same length, so what has actually changed?

I don’t feel like I squandered my summer. Sure, I could have been more efficient, we all feel that in hindsight, but I don’t recall huge swathes of times where I sat around doing nothing. I was never bored, I was happy and busy and only wish I could have done more of it all.

My explanation for this is ‘interest’. The older I get the more interested in things I become. I don’t mean MORE interested, that hasn’t wavered, it’s the breadth of things I am interested in. But the space and time to fit this ever expanding thing remains the same. My interests ranges from the academic (another mammoth book on the horrors of colonialism, anyone?) to the frivolous (a few more games down the local pétanque piste?) and they’re all important to me. It’s all valid, but it still has to fit within quantifiable parameters. So, to allow in a new interest, even just for a day, means that a previous one gets edged out, and I end up feeling like I'm falling short.

So, like I say, we all could be a bit more efficient. I know I don’t need to scroll though an inane selection of auto-playing Instagram bullshit, as that doesn’t really help anyone, but we all need rest and space, and then we fit in what we like, and what we can, around the edges and try not to be too hard on ourselves for what gets cut.

Remember the lockdowns? It became something of a running joke where people revealed the hobbies they took up, then quickly dropped when ‘normal’ life returned. Which goes to show that it was time that was the factor people needed, not for want of things to fill it.

I feel very lucky to have have continued a few of my lockdown hobbies into my current life set up, but I know they’ve come at the expense of some things I did before and now don’t seem to have space in the week to pick up again. So yes, I do get sad at some things taking a smaller role in my life, but I don’t ever want to stop being curious about new things. It all takes up time, but what else is time for? At the very end of the day, we all get shaken like a cosmic Etch-A-Sketch, and everything we have done, created or consumed is erased. And that’s okay. I just want to get better at being happy doing the things I am managing to do.

No, I didn’t do everything I wanted to do this summer, but I did do some nice things and I hope you did too. Here are a couple of bits of work I did recently, and some other things I managed to fit in between.

SCHiM.

Some of my favourite jobs in recent times have been games related. For this, I was asked to do the cover for the physical editions of a game called SCHiM for the Nintendo SWITCH and the PS5. The game is isometric in style and the central mechanic is traversing between shadows, so how could I not?!

The PS5 version had a night time variant. You can find out about it HERE.

Leather.

A friend let me hang out in her place of work recently. It was a leather workshop that had been there since the 1970s, and it was so great to be around and use the ancient machinery and tools. I took a modest project with me, and now I have a new shoulder rest for the strap of my satchel. I was quite pleased with it.

Modernism, Inc.

Took myself to a matinee at the Bertha DocHouse, to indulge one of my other interests. This was a great little film about the development of corporate modernism, for good and ill. It had a lovely poster too.

Tray Factory.

Some might have chose a sexier destination, but for Open House London this year, I went to a local aluminium tray factory. It was, tres bon.

Wyndam Research Institute.

A friend of mine, James Buchanan, creates a whole array of music and sound explorations. He even did the music for the trailers for my books, British Ice and The Hard Switch, for which I am very grateful.

His most recent work can be seen below and I had the pleasure of getting to create the cover image and logo. Go listen to his work if your not familiar, particularly if you have a game or film project in the works, his soundscapes are truly transportative.

Check him out at: J.G.Sparkes.bandcamp

Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum - It Will End In Tears

Saw this great exhibition at the Barbican Curve Gallery. It was all drawn on plywood, which was also used to create set like structures, and as you traversed though them, different pieces became framed in different ways. The images were really great, and explored elements of (you guessed it!) colonialism, but through a noir narrative lens.

The Big Sleep

And keeping it noir. Not a hot pick this one, as it came out in 1946, but I always loved the book since I read it as a kid, and for some reason had never got around to watching the film. Worth it for the strange inclusion of this great bookshop scene, and the line, ‘You begin to interest me. Vaguely.’

On the subject of bygone eras, not many people roll with the business card these days, but I occasionally like to print up a batch. You can take one for your wallet if you like, I keep a stack on the KIOSK counter.

Thanks for dropping by, I do enjoy the company, especially as the nights draw in. As the various social medias self-destruct, I have to say that I enjoy writing these the most, and you've all been very kind about them since I started. So, thanks again, and I look forward to seen you again soon.

Owen D. Pomery.