August Updates

NYT, Road trip pics, foraging

Dear readers,
I’m back from being on the road and writing to update you on both professional and personal news.

Let’s start with professional:
1. Meg Miller wrote a piece for the New York Times about my project I knew that if I walked in your footsteps, it would become a ritual (completed as part of my residency with Ada X). Dann and I were stuck with a broken AC in the middle of heatwave in Nebraska when I was surprised with a couple text messages about how the article was actually featured as an editor’s pick at some point (screenshot proof below)! A big thank you to Meg Miller for interviewing myself and my mother for this piece :) (and a thank you to my mom for participating in both the interview and in my video piece!)

2. This semester I will be part of the cohort at the ITP/IMA project residency at NYU where my faculty point person will be Allison Parrish. I am so grateful for this opportunity and look forward to writing updates as the semester progresses. I’m also a huge fan of Allison Parrish’s work and have found myself drawn to this particular article of hers while thinking about my relationship to machine learning.

As for personal updates, I basically just have a lot of road trip pictures to share. It’s in moments like these I actually find myself really missing social media. I miss sending indirect updates to and getting indirect updates from my friends. But I made my choice and I will stick to it! Instead, I’ll just use this newsletter to show off pics of Dann and Papaya in various places :)

So our actual itinerary ended up like this:

New York -> Johnson City, Tennessee
Johnson City, Tennessee -> Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Alabama -> New Orleans, LA
New Orleans, LA -> Austin, TX
Austin, TX -> El Paso, TX
El Paso, TX -> Pheonix, AZ
Pheonix, AZ -> Joshua Tree, CA
Joshua Tree, CA -> Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles, CA -> The Bay Area [Oakland, Berkley, SF, Point Reyes], CA
The Bay Area, CA -> Crescent City (camping in the redwoods), CA
Crescent City, CA -> Chemult, Oregon
Chemult, Oregon -> Boise, Idaho
Boise, Idaho -> Island Park, Idaho
Island Park, Idaho -> Sheridan, Wyoming
Sheridan, Wyoming -> Sioux city, Iowa
Sioux city, Iowa -> Champaign, IL
Champaign, IL -> Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio -> Ohiopyle, PA
Ohiopyle, PA -> Rockland County, New York
Rockland County, New York -> New York City

phewwwwww that was a long list.In addition to camping we also, motel-ed, airbnb-ed and stayed with people. A big thanks to all the friends and family that hosted us! Below is a mini list of highlights in no particular order (couldn’t fit it all in this post!)…

Panorama of the van

The smith river was my favorite swimming experience (look at how clear it is!)

Wall of VHS tapes at Whispering Pines Motel in Chemult, Oregon

Dann carrying papaya in Joshua Tree

Made several tinctures while camping. I picked up a serious foraging hobby on the trip! * If anyone else is into foraging and wants to discuss, let me know :)

Papaya got some much needed socialization in New Orleans!

ohiopyle

Papaya tearing up a dead starfish (it was already dead, and it was probably the happiest I’ve ever seen her)

The Pearl in New Orleans :]

Charred trees in Oregon :(

Papaya and Dann in the Redwoods

Papaya on ice when our ac broke

Joshua Tree

Family in IL

My friend Lauren Malkani’s horse in Austin

And that’s all I can fit in this post according to substack. Thanks for reading!! :)

P.S. The van is Dann’s and he’s also a man with a van at https://www.instagram.com/dannwithvannyc/ (moving company)