In August 2023, I piloted Felt Notes on TinyLetter with the goal to make public the work of the Just Futures Co-lab and the co-labouring worlds of research and teaching in art, design, and the digital humanities that it scaffolds and furthers at Srishti Manipal Institute and beyond. Collectively, the letter writing translates the ever so negotiated nature of this space and the discourse and scholarship on equity and justice that we produce through critical pedagogy; archival and database construction; interactive digital storytelling; and inquiries into queer-feminist media technologies and infrastructures.
With the recent announcement of Mailchimp sunsetting their TinyLetter service by the end of February 2024, I found myself thinking (yet again) in what form might the sharing of Felt Notes with both new and already subscribed readers continue into the next year. TinyLetter’s simplicity and intimate reach were what drew me to their service first in 2017 and then again five months ago in the context of the lab. Its potential to build a substantial subscriber base for free has been very helpful for this pilot—and among other details, I have loved seeing three things: 1) the red heart favicon each time I’ve opened a letter to write or read on my browser; 2) a clean email interface; and 3) people’s engagements with each month’s postings.
I am hoping that migrating Felt Notes to a new platform Buttondown keeps alive this joy of writing and sharing. The transition so far has been seamless, thanks to the ready support and instructions from Buttondown’s founder and self-described mailman Justin Duke.
Interested folx not yet subscribed to Felt Notes may sign up here or access the TinyLetter Archive to learn more the pilot via this Google document. If you are already signed up, I would love for you to share the new Buttondown link with friends and trusted networks as we make sense of our relationships to technology as well as our relationships to each other via technology. If you would like to write or co-write a letter in the future or share any announcements, please feel free to get in touch with me.
With gratitude, see you in 2024!
Image: Seminar with Dr Susan Potter (University of Sydney) at the Just Futures Co-lab, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design, and Technology, October 2023.