Writing Samples

...High up in the linguistic echelons of the ‘personal brand’ is another buzz word: mindfulness. The mindfulness business occupies a nearby position to personal branding in our 21st century lexicon. And it’s a very lucrative business indeed, attracting over $260 million in investments since 2012 according to researcher Hannah H. Kim (whose 2018 ‘Executive Summary’ questions if it is becoming more ‘McMindful’ than mindful).

Well, taking a 3,500 year old collectivist Eastern religion and plonking it into individualistic America was never going to be a smooth transition. In fact, corporate mindfulness often enthusiastically endorses the very opposite of what its distant Zen Buddhist roots intends. 

Invested in by business and tech giants alike (Google, Apple, Microsoft all included), the main goal of corporate mindfulness seems to be increased employee productivity – justified, of course, under the guise of decreased stress levels. As hedge fund manager David Ford expresses in an interview with Bloomberg News about meditation’s profound benefits,“I react to volatile markets much more calmly now.”

The profit of meditation in this context is the perfectionism of the self, the productivity of the self, and the nobility of the self. Because it’s all about being a better person, right? 

Kick those goals! Work hard, play hard! Up your game!

This language – straight from the boardroom – also demonstrates the increasing, insatiable gamification of our society in all its aspects. Driven, inevitably, by social media. 

It’s not just that you have to ‘up your game’ in the office; there’s increasing online pressure to ‘up your fitness game!’ ‘up your avo on toast game!’ and even – somewhat distressingly – ‘up your parenting game!’ #couplegoals, #pregancygoals, #bootygoals. Hashtag, hashtag, hashtag. 

It’s a profoundly more 2.0 game than the 20th century “life is a game” adage – it’s a game where not only celebrities (like in the good olden days) but everyone has the stage, and everyone is trying to get to the top. Gaining the most likes, the most followers, the most social and financial capital in all categories. Even your knitting can be turned into a side-hustle. Even my shoes can be off-brand.
Enabled by social media, we’re becoming social validation-craving businesses – but what we’re marketing is not a product but ourselves.

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....So how and why is the millennial social capital different from the pre-digital past?

It seems that what’s different now is that the ‘being beautiful, cool, etc’ is displayed for all to see, all the time. I could jump on Facebook at 3.30am any night and still be able to view the entire contents of my co-worker’s engagement party photo album from 2011.

Our identities no longer simply exist only in our three-dimensional bodies and the minds of others. We’re no longer just matter confined to a certain time, space or memory. Our identities are also ever-present now up in the cloud of cyberspace with the image being the main currency of the medium. So the idea of identity is emphasised through its omnipresence! 

No wonder it now feels so urgent.

THE IMAGE SOCIETY

Anyone out there who’s studied postmodernism in some form, you’ll probably have heard of Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle. Despite the fifty year disparity, his thoughts have some pretty clean links to this topic.

One of the most significant notions in Debord’s 1967 book is “the obvious degradation of being into having… and from having into appearing”. 

He sees our identities as more than ‘who you are’ - it’s ‘what you are’, and therefore, ‘what you have.’ So he’s simply turning what you are into something that you have. You own your beauty. You have it, and so you can use it.

And then the next part of the quote, ‘from having into appearing’, is directly addressing the power of the image. You’re using what you appear to have for social capital - all of which is communicated through an image…

That’s the image of you having brunch with your girlfriends, or the image of you pouting with your new septum piercing, or the image of your new tattoo impressively high up on your inner thigh. They’re all spectacles - they incite something in the viewer through their message of identity. They’re showing the viewer “this is who I am (these are my assets)”. Here’s my identity; here’s my individuality.

ECHO CHAMBER

Individuality could be considered to be in a bit of a pickle right now. If we take Instagram, for instance, we can see millions of people with millions of different posts. But because what’s popular is always endorsed by the app, and the people on it, users tend to gravitate to more popular content - the content that already has a large number of people posting. The algorithms, of course, control this even more.

That’s how we can see trends, of course, but then there’s always the cynical guy who I overheard walking down Smith street the other day, who remarked whilst repeatedly wiping his finger down his phone: “There are two kinds of people on Instagram: those who are posting for themselves and those who are posting for other people. Don’cha reckon?”. He’s got a point, and although the lines are pretty blurred... (If I post an illustration which I’m proud of and want to share, but that I know people will find amusing, am I posting for them or for myself? )

...what is individuality when it is so influenced by other people? 

Tit for tat, like for like. If you like this image of me and my baby at a cafe, I’ll like your image of you and your baby at a cafe in return. Like this image of me and my slightly less beautiful friend sipping mimosas in Santorini and I’ll be sure to like that throwback image of you and your girlfriend’s perfect beach bods tanning on a boat in Rottnest Island from Summer ‘17. #missthis 

Debord says (and we’ll have to excuse his sexist/cisgender pronouns here) that: “the more [the individual] accepts recognising himself in the dominant images of need, the less he understands his own existence and his own desires". 

Fremantle’s New Edition proves that bookshops are far from forgotten. Alan Sheardown is the current custodian of a tale that began 30 years ago on nearby South Terrace and he’s committed to keeping this independent retailer’s story going.

New Edition has a local, friendly atmosphere. Despite the shop’s modest size and popularity amongst bookworms, its uncluttered layout ensures it never seems too crowded. Large glass windows lead to a simple wood interior and provide plenty of light: all the better to browse the store’s thoughtfully-stocked shelves.

While the range features both fiction and nonfiction selections, books on art and design are a strong suit. This includes an elegant collection of tattoo catalogues and a whole shelf of hand-picked graphic novels. As well as international works, a healthy selection from local publishing house Fremantle House suggests that community is a prized part of the store’s ethos.

Although there is a clear focus on aesthetic and atmosphere, New Edition is largely dedicated to the quality of stock in every section.  It’s the sort of selection that lends itself to a happy afternoon of browsing, though Alan and his team are never far away if you need a well-considered recommendation.

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Hi, I'm Friska Wirya, certified Change Management professional. This 8-module program distils nearly a decade of my experience leading change efforts across the seven continents. It aims to accelerate your ability to manage change, a critical life skill today and into the future. You’ll develop your stakeholder engagement skills, and shift resistance to resilience by persuasively communicating your vision.

Welcome to module 1. This module will provide a solid foundation from which to progress through the rest of the program. I’ll explain why change is hard, the types of changes in organisations, how change management complements project management, and walk-through the ADKAR change model.

You’ve tried every carefully-worded key message to promote your change you can think of. You’ve started and stopped a dozen different change initiatives, perhaps frustrated with yourself and your inability to influence those around you. Don’t they see how beneficial this will be? You feel like no matter what you try, it’s going to fall into a heap…. Just like all the other change initiatives in the corporate graveyard.

Sound familiar?

Human brains are hardwired to resist change. When change (especially organisational change) is mentioned, it can trigger a strong fear response, which is why most of us are quite at home in our little bubble, detesting any deviation from the world as we know it.

A little neuroscience 101: upon sensing that something new is occurring, our brains immediately start comparing it with things we already know to be true and are familiar with. There’s a lot of mental gymnastics going on that takes up quite a bit of energy.

This mental fatigue can increase both our fear of the unknown, and our resistance to it. No wonder we groan, panic and are so often in denial when a new initiative is announced.

This intrinsic jerk-chain reaction and unconscious resistance to all that is foreign presents challenges in bringing about change. Imagine trying to corral thousands of people - all of whom are hard-wired to resist - each possessing different aspirations, motivations, interests, expertise, experiences, learning styles, communication preferences and personalities. Building commitment to change is not for the faint-hearted.

Needless to say, it’s a rare organisation that manages change well. Initiatives have a dismal success rate of around the 20% mark, and it’s not surprising. Humans are emotional, irrational creatures.

Let’s look at the consequences of not managing change effectively.

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Room For Ritual is an interactive design show by Sergio Mannino Studio that investigates the role of objects in our daily lives.

This year, the Sergio Mannino Studio moved into Bushwick. We wanted to take advantage of our new neighbourhood, so we threw an event during the famous art festival Bushwick Open Studios, where all the artists’ studios are open to the public.

One of the key concepts of the exhibition was a tribute to Italian architect Ettore Sottsass, who would have been 100 years old on this date.

Sergio had the chance to work directly with Ettore in 2002, who curated Sergio’s exhibition Cento storie which was designed and presented at Galleria Memphis in Milan.

The original exhibition consisted of 100 different pieces of furniture that Sergio had developed - though only a limited number of pieces were produced at the time. Room For Ritual sees a brand new piece, number 67, created from the 2002 exhibition.

Another series of pieces also from the exhibition is a collection of lamps that pay tribute to another beloved artist, John McCracken.

Room For Ritual encouraged viewers to bring in an object of their own that provides profundity in their lives, creating meaningful connections between the viewer, the designer and the object as part of the overall experience of the exhibition.

Everyday, people are exposed to vast amounts of information through new media and social networks. In part due to the advertising influence of the internet, they tend to buy more and more; ending up with masses of objects which start to mean nothing.
Room For Ritual aimed to change this, bringing back the joy and meaning inherent in objects and re-carving the space for daily rituals in our lives.

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@ home in the internet Group Exhibition précis

@ home in the internet is a group show exploring the phenomenology of digital life and self increasingly sinking into the disparate merging of IRL and online. 

We’ve been alone, together, for much of 2020. The cyber threads that connect us both frustrate and enrich through the stifling confusion of zoom meetings, angrily existential instagram posts, pixels of places we’d rather be and the faces we so dearly miss. 

We’ve learnt of the dangers of algorithms, mindless digital beliefs and the narcissistic competition of social media - but we’ve also been able to harness the internet’s goodness through niche memes, impromptu zoom parties and funny face filters. 

This show has been in the making for over 12 months. The internet is vast and I’ve only attempted to explore one small corner of it. Indeed, through the process of curating this show, I have realised that there are many themes that intersect with the internet and inevitably manifest through my work and the work of others. For me, the internet is deeply connected to faces. The internet is increasingly connected to solipsism. And the internet is connected to identity. I link these three together through feminity, queer identity, and infinite depictions of my face as an avatar to stand for the broader sense of ‘me’. This also serves to illustrate the lone wolf feeling that I’m quite confident everyone has experienced, late at night, estranged from society whilst scrolling endlessly through its digital opinions, - your face propped up by pillows and lit up with each new notification. 

Thankyou for joining us as we peer at ourselves through the darkening screen and wonder, collectively, what comes next. 

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As a founding player in the alternative-space movement, MoMA PS1 has been active as an experimental art gallery since its beginnings in the late 1970s. Exhibiting predominantly contemporary and postmodern art, PS1 aligns exactly with the general consensus that contemporary art is an avant-garde force straying from established modes of art-making.

However, it is arguably as much an institution as its father art-space, MoMA, requiring a comparable amount of funding to maintain itself. Its Long Island location reinforces both its claim to difference and the funding it requires, being a moderate distance from the majority of the modern and contemporary museums on the other side of the East River.

Over the course of summer in New York City, PS1 hosts a series of day-time, weekend parties. These parties are aimed at the city’s young and hip. They boast a wide range of sonic, primarily DJ-based talent intended to align with the innovation of the art inside the gallery itself. The stage design is one of the major visual features of Warm Up, and aims to complement the experimental, genre-blurring music performed.

Assumedly, these parties are a key source of seasonal funding for the gallery; relying on the good taste of the clientele that they endeavour to attract. PS1 is also funded by corporations and a generous medley of philanthropists. A cynical interpretation of these parties is that they are just another element of the money-focused machine that is the contemporary art market – bringing into question the gallery’s status as independent alternative art venture. Despite this, however, Warm Up has had continuous success throughout the eighteen years that PS1 have initiated the events. 

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