Dear supporters.

I hope you've been well.

This is a very difficult time for everyone. I hope you and your loved ones are safe.

I wrote an essay for p5.js zine titled Oddkins. I hope you enjoy it. An excerpt.

"Media and design researcher Shannon Mattern’s essay “Maintenance and Care,” published in Places Journal in November 2018, offers “a working guide to the repair of rust, dust, cracks, and corrupted code in our cities, our homes, and our social relations.” Mattern connects care-work in relation to the practice and concept of maintenance to reveal that “the distinctions between these practices are shaped by race, gender, class, and other political, economic, and cultural forces.” Inspired by her provocation, I want to ask some questions regarding the maintenance of technology and the tech industry. How can we distinguish between humane, unintentional errors within the systems of oppression that make a global impact? How can we scale the practice of care to a global network of solidarity towards social and environmental justice?

Should we train machine learning algorithms with a better data set to be less biased? Or should we not train the machines if the algorithms can be appropriated for malicious uses? If current algorithms contain biases of white male engineers, should POC engineers train machine learning algorithms to be more inclusive of their data and perspectives? Unlearning the biases we’ve been taught and undoing wrong are very difficult. Things get complicated, especially regarding restorative justice in the context of a Capitalist society. When we cooperate with those who’ve committed social ill in the past, what is the real cost of their redemption? By greenwashing, diversity-washing and care-washing, are we maintaining a system of injustice? Sure, no money is clean, but we decide how to get it. The conversation about ethical grayscale is highly contextual, but are there some things that are just wrong and should not be tolerated? If the true meaning of care is to take responsibility, are there some things that must be divided through binary determinism? In other words, are there some people or organizations we should not consider working with at all?"