In this (sixth) Some Times issue, we trace the slow pulses and tangled contradictions of Seasonal Computing. A year haped by breakdowns and recalibrations, by small gatherings and structural questions. We start with a member text, Ode to Our Discomfort, that unsettles the tired gospel of “growth through discomfort,” naming the violence in asking the already-exposed to shed more safety. What does comfort mean when some never had it? What does risk require, and of whom?

The issue continues with reflections from the 2024 program. Common Dirt (Homebrewing seed) listens to stubborn, scrappy life pushing through toxicity. In Homemade Computer Club (Homebrewing seed), computing becomes something slower: tender, timeful and collective. Less tool, more companion. Supermarket Surveillance (Counter-Coloniality seed) cracks open the clean promise of AI, exposing extractive labour and old violences beneath the interface. And Doodle Dabble (Access seed) asks how children might enter, reshape, and trouble our space, teaching us the grace of mistranslation and the joy of making do.

You can get a copy in Varia, or download it here: https://varia.zone/documents/SomeTimes_number_6.pdf

SomeTimes

Issue: 6
Date: Autumn 2024 to Spring 2025
Editor: Yoana Buzova Designers: Benjamin Earl, Cristina Cochior Writers: Czarina Calinawagan, Chae Young Kim, Yoana Buzova, Benjamin Earl, Cristina Cochior, Sofia Boschat-Thorez, Sanne Stevens Tools: Octomode https://git.vvvvvvaria.org/varia/octomode
Fonts: Combine by Julie Patard, Movement by María Ramos and Noel Pretorius, Ductus Mono by Amélie Dumont, and Authentic-Sans by Christina Janus and Desmond Wong
License: All content is licensed under CC4r. The CC4r articulates conditions for re-using authored materials. This document is inspired by the principles of Free Culture – with a few differences. You are invited to copy, distribute, and transform the materials published under these conditions, and to take the implications of (re-)use into account.
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