{"id":5287,"date":"2017-09-05T20:35:41","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T01:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/?p=5287"},"modified":"2017-09-05T20:35:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T01:35:41","slug":"implicit-art-restart-mo-gawdat-solve-for-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/05\/implicit-art-restart-mo-gawdat-solve-for-happy\/","title":{"rendered":"implicit art&#8230; restart (on Mo Gawdat&#8217;s\u00c2\u00a0Solve for Happy)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ecological aesthetics | Nathaniel Stern | TEDxUWMilwaukee\" width=\"850\" height=\"478\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DqBpG7QcVwM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>With the pending release of my new book (<a href=\"http:\/\/ecologicalaesthetics.net\"><i>Ecological Aesthetics: artful tactics for humans, nature, and politics<\/i><\/a>) in June or July of next year, and all the goings-on of the last couple of years in my life \/ the world, I&#8217;ve decided it might be time to reboot the blog I began back in Johannesburg circa 2002, and which teetered off and eventually died after two continental moves. Whereas that site began with my writings on art and politics, moved into regional discussions of aesthetics and culture and back again, here&#8230;. um, well&#8230; yeh, it will similarly be on whatever I feel like posting about, that I think is interesting.<\/p>\n<p>For now, the new tagline is &#8220;art and ecology, fiction and geek stuff, culture and philosophy, parenting and life, etc&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Forthcoming: a bit on my new book, some interesting tidbits from students in the classes I am teaching this semester (two <a href=\"http:\/\/uwm.edu\/arts\/art-and-design\/digital-studio-practice\/\">Digital Studio<\/a> courses, and <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/engineering\/business-connections\/corporate_services\/product-realization\/\">one in Mechanical Engineering<\/a>, plus some extra-curriculars), and thoughts on some great new art and books I&#8217;ve seen and read this Summer. You can expect to hear from me about once per week from now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For now,\u00c2\u00a0a briefiew <\/strong>(yeh, I just made that up, a &#8220;brief review&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0<i>portmanteau<\/i>. \u00c2\u00a0Tho I&#8217;m sure someone else\u00c2\u00a0has used it before, and it may not have gone down well. I decided against googling it, and ruining it for myself&#8230;.)<strong> on <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2wFFNFE\">Mo Gawdat&#8217;s\u00c2\u00a0<em>Solve for Happy<\/em><\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are some lovely, and funny, and sad moments in <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2wFFNFE\">this book<\/a>, about a Google engineer&#8217;s quest for contentment, where he found and lost and found happiness before and after the death of his son. Gawdat hopes to share, simply, how to live with ourselves, and others, in the moment. He has an actual equation and formula, with numbers and lists and drawings (I&#8217;m actually listening to the audiobook, so I just imagine them, tho it comes with a PDF; his voice is very soothing). Honestly, Gawdat&#8217;s outlook mostly feels like a contemporary (and geeky) take on <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2eCNK6p\">Eckhart Tolle&#8217;s <em>Power of Now <\/em><\/a>(which my mom likes way more than I do).<\/p>\n<p>In the end, overall, it&#8217;s worth your time (even if, like me, there are few self-help books you are into &#8211; non-fiction is, of course, much broader than this!). The author is likable, his stories moving, his personality generous and relatable. And I&#8217;d like to share my favorite bit, which more or less goes as follows: <em>the voice in your head is not you<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>That person, who you think is you, who criticizes the way you eat, or move, or work out? The one who replays conversations in your head (or in my case, out loud), or wonders why that person at work is being that way towards you? That voice, which questions you, or the world, or the ones you care about? Overall, your inner monologue&#8230;\u00c2\u00a0<em>That person is not you<\/em>. That&#8217;s a construct of a person, the one who got praise or punishment from parents and teachers, and followed suit; he or she is the one who performs for others. That is not the real you. <em>YOU<\/em> are the one observing that criticizer. And you do not have to listen to the voice.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve named the voice in my head Ferdinand. He is a bit of a dick, and I like to roll my eyes at, and make fun of, him. It has seriously changed things around here. So&#8230; thanks for that,\u00c2\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2wFFNFE\">Mo Gawdat&#8217;s\u00c2\u00a0<em>Solve for Happy<\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=as_ss_li_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=ecologicalaes-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=1501157558&amp;asins=1501157558&amp;linkId=0aebc97fdda041936fe488a3e80e2759&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the pending release of my new book (Ecological Aesthetics: artful tactics for humans, nature, and politics) in June or July of next year, and all the goings-on of the last couple of years in my life \/ the world, I&#8217;ve decided it might be time to reboot the blog I began back in Johannesburg [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,3,7,9,37],"tags":[63,52,56,59,62,55,57,65,64,58,60,61],"class_list":["post-5287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-art-and-tech","category-me","category-pop-culture","category-youtube","tag-aesthetics","tag-art","tag-culture","tag-digital-studio","tag-ecology","tag-engineering","tag-google","tag-mo-gawdat","tag-nathaniel-stern","tag-philosophy","tag-ted","tag-tedx"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9blZT-1nh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5972,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/30\/ecological-aesthetics-advance-copy-just-arrived\/","url_meta":{"origin":5287,"position":0},"title":"Ecological Aesthetics advance copy just arrived!","author":"nathaniel","date":"30 May 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"So excited that my advance copy of Ecological Aesthetics: artful tactics for humans, nature, and politics has arrived! Out July 3! Julian says it's a good read.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/eco-aesthetics-side.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/eco-aesthetics-side.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/eco-aesthetics-side.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/eco-aesthetics-side.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/eco-aesthetics-side.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5937,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/10\/phoney-prints\/","url_meta":{"origin":5287,"position":1},"title":"Phon\u00c4\u201cy Prints","author":"nathaniel","date":"10 May 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Some of my own work above... More than meets the eye,\u00c2\u00a0Phon\u00c4\u201cy Prints are produced using ink made from ground up smart phones - complete with glittering grit in the details. More coming soon, part of The World After Us (though not yet posted on my main site!).","rel":"","context":"In &quot;art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/32161269_10156218617316101_3357280561239425024_o.jpg?fit=1080%2C946&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/32161269_10156218617316101_3357280561239425024_o.jpg?fit=1080%2C946&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/32161269_10156218617316101_3357280561239425024_o.jpg?fit=1080%2C946&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/32161269_10156218617316101_3357280561239425024_o.jpg?fit=1080%2C946&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/32161269_10156218617316101_3357280561239425024_o.jpg?fit=1080%2C946&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5566,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/29\/syllabus-sharing-affect-art-and-politics-a-dialogical-class-at-uwm\/","url_meta":{"origin":5287,"position":2},"title":"Syllabus sharing! Affect, Art, and Politics &#8211; a dialogical class at UWM","author":"nathaniel","date":"29 September 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome back to another episode of syllabus sharing here at Implicit Art! This course provides an overview of affect theory and its articulation, activation, mediation, and utilities of manipulation in the realms of art and politics on an international scale. Beginning with a basic understanding of sensation and potential, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Stern_fig03_04-300x249.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5740,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/02\/artist-feature-jessica-fenlon\/","url_meta":{"origin":5287,"position":3},"title":"Artist feature: Jessica Fenlon","author":"nathaniel","date":"02 December 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Over six feet tall, with pinkish-purple hair and a keen interest in teaching, digital culture, and what they can mean, together,\u00c2\u00a0Jessica Fenlon\u00c2\u00a0has energy and drive that are palpable. She can easily wax lyrical about technical needs and skills (codecs and codes, arduinos and Pis, Processing and Jitter), but is far\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"jessica fenlon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/j-fe.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5535,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/20\/tops-of-2017-a-different-kind-of-year-in-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":5287,"position":4},"title":"Tops of 2017: a different kind of year in review","author":"nathaniel","date":"20 December 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This was a short-lived tradition I started almost a decade ago, and I'm stoked to reboot it. Here, I put forward four Top 5 lists of my own: The Top 5 people I newly met in 2017, The Top 5 people I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to meet because of what they did\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"De Angela Duff","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/picture-5447.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5877,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/16\/phossils\/","url_meta":{"origin":5287,"position":5},"title":"Phossils","author":"nathaniel","date":"16 February 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello world! I have a baby. And am getting married next week. So blogging has been slow.... But then, there's this new stuff I'm excited about. Phossils are, more or less, fossilized phones. Here I subject media devices to extreme heat and cold, artificial pressure and geological time, or other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Archaeology.jpg?fit=1000%2C485&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Archaeology.jpg?fit=1000%2C485&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Archaeology.jpg?fit=1000%2C485&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Archaeology.jpg?fit=1000%2C485&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5287"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5292,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287\/revisions\/5292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}