[amor fati ☕️] vol.3 book elders

AmorFati is a mood board of art, poetry, architecture, photography, and design that has personally inspired me.

As I write this, I’m reclining in a reading nook tucked inside a quaint cottage in Palo Alto. I’ve traveled here for the weekend as a quick reprieve from SF 40 mins north.

Due to COVID, the owner of the cottage has declined to meet, yet I see traces of her life everywhere. They’re whispering to me through the trinkets that decorate her shelves: a smooth wooden horse, a cracked porcelain vase, and brass candles that have illuminated many quiet solitary evenings.

I see her curiosities creased into the spines of yellowed books that line the walls: Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, The Hobbit.. the layers of shelves engulf my physical body and imagination. I wonder about the spurs of pain, joy, creativity, and peace that were once experienced within these walls.

It occurs to me that i’m seeking solace in a place where solace has been sought many times over. This feeling must be analogous to that of libraries, concerts and temples. Places where one moves from the self to a collective consciousness. The desire to understand ones own life through the lens of others. We only understand what it means to be human, through other humans.

The spirit of dead and alive authors pulsate invisibly around me. The thought of being lovingly watched over by these book elders releases waves of warm shivers down my spine.

And though I am alone, I am far from feeling alone.

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A R T

2,292 plants fill the audience in opening performance at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu

 Sho Shibuya paints over the front page of The New York Times with vibrant gradients that mimic the day’s sunrise.

Each of Shibuya’s works maintains the header and date of the publication. “I started to capture the moment in the newspaper, contrasting the anxiety of the news with the serenity of the sky, creating a record of my new normal,” he says.

The spirit of the project is that maybe, even after the pandemic subsides, people can continue some of the generosity and peace we discovered in ourselves and that the sky reminds us of every day with a sunrise through a small window. If one thing the news has made clear, we need generosity and peace for all people now more than ever.

Sprawling floral installations spill over garbage cans and phone booths on New York City streets

Celebrating the restorative qualities of sports and basketball’s return this past week, Victor Solomon has repaired a deteriorated court in South Los Angeles through the ancient art of Kintsugi—the Japanese method of repairing broken pottery by using metallic substances to mend the fractures.

P H O T O G R A P Y

Trendy couple sports stylish, eclectic garments left behind at their laundromat in Taiwan.

These sunset simulations are now a new feature of a widely used online tool called the Planetary Spectrum Generator, which was developed by Villanueva and his colleagues at NASA Goddard.

A R C H I T E C T U R E

The new Kadokawa Culture Museum in Japan is situated within a starkly designed structure by architect Kengo Kuma. The most alluring feature is the bookshelf theater, an eight-meter-high library that holds around 50,000 titles

Hidden in the deep forests of Tonglu in Zhejiang province, Qinglongwu is an ancient village named after a stream passing through. Atelier tao+c redesigned and regenerated this 232sqm old building by inserting a capsule hotel that can accommodate 20 people, a community bookstore and library into the 7.2-meter high two-stories space. 

Chinese architecture studio MAD has designed a library in the city of Haikou, China that is intended "to be a wormhole that transcends time and space".

D E S I G N

Visualize Value was born our of Jack Butcher’s love visualizing philosophy, technology, aesthetics, and commerce in a minimal way.

via For The Love on Gen-Z aesthetic: “It’s as if Salvador Dali took a seed round from Forerunner Ventures.” The aesthetic is characterized by disjointed, jarring imagery, including floating clouds and disembodied appendages.

Imperfectness has also been reflected in lo-fi pixel art that has been making a major comeback. Here’s a skyline by Kenze Wee of Singapore.

W O R D S

❤️,

Patricia

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Thank you for being part of  amor fati today. I have a full-time job as a product manager but curate this newsletter in my free time as a labor of love. If you’re enjoying it and want to express your appreciation, please feel free to spread the word, buy me a coffee, or lmk your thoughts/feedback ☕️

Who’s behind this newsletter?

Patricia is a curious human, product manager, virtual librarian, and carer of souls. Reach me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

I also write bi-weekly at Wellness Wisdom - a newsletter covering the mental health tech space + best resources to support your internal space.