p r o j e c t i n g   l i f e

If there are equal amounts of steamed milk and coffee, both of us (Elliott and Gijs) would have the perfect cup. Lots of cloudy milk with a dash of coffee for Elliott; a strong cup cut with a splash of milk for Gijs.

Maybe it echoes another ratio: of how in touch we are with our inner child and inner adult. (Elliott slightly rebels, which to Gijs proves the point, which is a very adult thing to think so in itself also proves the point.) This is another way of saying we can probably help each other, complement each other, collaborate from our own expertise. When we decided to do so for this newsletter, we realised we had done so earlier this year as well.

If we plotted XP members on an inner child/adult over milk/coffee compass.

Adult-child mixes aside, in planning for the Future we both are maybe a bit immature and naive. Last newsletter Emma wrote about trying to be more grown up about the future of XP (and ending up as children), but it’s not like the two of us have it figured out individually. We often find ourselves jumping from thing to thing. Things that seem interesting, exciting or just bring in money. Invoice to invoice, dust to dust. But long-term plans, commitments or relations are rare. While it’s those that typically allow for grown up things like a house, a car and a family, or even just for sustaining kidlife.

So, this holiday-special newsletter brings you:

• Elliott and Gijs' project to project life 
• Footage of everyone from XP trying to overcome our Life Challenges 🧗
• Life news, updates more or less related to our Life Projects
• Lots of events in January 🍿💻🗓️💸📨
  

p r o j e c t i n g

Last winter we were trying to be more adult about worklife and bought a domain name called projecting.life. Projecting refered to how it feels like to have a life full of little projects and saying yes to everything to keep the train going. But is it even going where we want life to go?



Projecting is also a name for extrapolating, for picturing a future. Without a Vision, how else to know what things to say no to? Didn’t we choose this freelance life so we could be more purposeful about where we’re heading? Are all these small projects not an escape from bigger dreams? Do we even want to spread ourselves so thinly, or would we get bored with only a single project?

l i f e - t y p e s

We projected two types of lives, Life-Types: 

1. Sometimes life is just too full of things – what we called Project Life mode. 
2. Other times life might be consumed by one thing – Life Project mode. (Just one thing may sound like a bit of a myth but it's a quite useful one when floating or drowning in Project Life mode. Life Project mode is an imaginary zoom out, an attempt to project a Project so good it's – as Elliott would say – worth falling for. Aka a Life Project. Not to be confused with The Life Project, it's just a stepping stone.)

In both Life-Types you can get lost; in both you may want to be in the other. When I (Gijs) wrote that I’m leaning more Compass than Map (see Compassion newsletter), that perhaps foreshadowed that I would find myself in Project Life mode. A compass is a useful navigational tool to consult whenever a new project lures you to jump in – does it align with the direction I want to go into? Living in Life Project mode takes a Map – an overview of where to go and what obstacles to overcome.

But before getting to how to navigate Life, we needed to answer a simple question: what kind of Life do we want?

p r o j e c t i n g   l i f e   

Projecting is also climbing jargon. When you fall from a rock, you can do two things: leave it or project it. You turn it into a ‘project’, committing to trying it for an hour, day, month, year, life, until you're up. 

Wietske projecting a climb, while being spotted

With many of us into climbing, could we tempt our inner monkey children to help our inner adults out? (Maybe you remember how last year it helped us to feel at home in the mountain or valley of life.) Could we project our Lives like we climb a rock?

So this is what we tried last spring. For this final newsletter of the year we thought – in the spirit of Elliott’s go back to go forward – that it’s a nice moment to revisit how this Life Projecting went, and where we’re at now. 

s e s s i o n  o n e 

In April, we invited our studio mates to join us on a session of identifying a life challenge to project. Follow along:

Step 1 - What Life do you Want?

On a scale from #projectlife mode to #lifeproject mode, trace a line of where you were in the past, are in the present, and where you want to be in the future. The difference between the present and the future is what harbours your current Life Challenge.

Our projected timelines through Project Life and Life Project mode

Curiously we all had the desire to move closer to Life Project mode. Maybe it says something about the fractured nature of freelance life, or the life phase of the early 30s, or it's a coincidence. But it's nice we align.



Step 2 - Draw your Life Challenge

Identify the main obstacle in between your Present Life and your Future Life, and draw it as a Rock. Mark the start and the end of the climb. Name them. Projecting-protocol tells us to: 1. know all moves. 2. be able to do each move. 3. do all moves in one sequence. So start breaking down the climb into smaller parts: the heavy part, the precise part, the crux, the zone, etc. Name or describe these as well. Great, now you have a map to your Life Challenge.

a landscape of our collected Life Challenges





s e s s i o n   t w o

The second session took place during our climbing trip in Fontainebleau in May.



Step 3 - Climb your Life Challenge

Go into the world and use the drawing to find the incarnation of your Life Challenges in solid sandstone. (other climbable solids are also possible) Once you found it, forget the drawing, forget Life, and get ready to climb it. (Just make sure to film it)

Elliott filming Emma projecting

Then our idea was to have a third session and look at those videos to draw lessons. We kind of forgot.

So we decided to ask our studiomates how they relate to their Life Challenge now. Is it still relevant? Did you make steps? And mostly:



Step 4 - Draw your Life lessons

What can you learn from how you climbed your Life Challenge? What were unexpected parts? What were unexpected moves? Where did you fall? What help would you need? Watch your climb and record a voice note of your reflections.



On projecting.life you can see and hear: Jack contemplate three different routes towards stability, Elliott reflect on the pleasure of repeating one thing, Emma consider taking on a challenge usually done by 'big strong men', Gijs realise his biggest challenge in finding a role within a research context, Ben anticipate the tricky steps to a dream project, and Kirsten ruminate on the importance of minding the body.

Emma watching Elliott projecting

l i f e   n e w s

So how are we doing now in Life? There's actually quite some signs that we're projecting, small steps of getting closer to Life Project mode.

Besides designing money bills for a time banking initiative and teaching another workshop series with MU, Emma is passionately working with sisters Isabelle and Renée to create plans for a farm they are destined to start together.. They’re also planning a second Regenerative Dinner on Feb 2, on a very special location this time, so save the date and keep an eye on @reneesfarm on IG for the signup details 🌾

🇳🇱 Attention aspiring Dutch speakers in Rotterdam! Your new years resolution could be “Nederlands leren”! Emma is keeping her promise and finally starting to set up her long awaited experimental Dutch course pilot. It will be fun and playful and hosted at Extra Practice. If you are or know someone interested in joining, or want more details, please check/fill out this form so we can start planning the first session in Jan 2025!!! 🌧️🥛🚲

Kirsten has been living a busy project life and is looking forward to closing the KS-OS dashboard for the holidays. Stay tuned though for a potential workshop at XP around how to do to-do’s in the new year...

Ben and Kirsten’s Coding in Situ method has been featured in the latest Future Observatory forecast of Design Museum London: https://fojournal.org/interactive-essay/weird-worlding/

In Life news, Gijs has been continuously updating his research Life Project proposal-in-progress called Subject Matter. A site to help him reach out 🧗to research contexts. In short, it's about the influence of things on our self-model, our conception of our place in the world. If you'd have any thoughts or leads, very welcome. And if it sparks your interest, in the coming year I want to do some kind of research-with-me workshop/reading room series, stay tuned. 

Gijs also worked on a text for Tubelight magazine with Critical Inquiry Lab students, called Teasing Structures. They explore if art reviews can learn from the tease, as a subtle form of critique that embeds trust rather than suspicion. Read the teases in the magazine which you can pick up for free in most Dutch art institutions.

Elliott has been busy in work work mode, projecting this very newsletter, projecting.life, and organizing his server (inspired by ben and kirsten). He has been dreaming about swimming during the summer, taking a holiday somewhere warm, and climbing outside.

extra practice will have another day to think about our future. Meanwhile we're in new year resolution vibe, making plans for: consulting befriended studios about their association structure (more soon), developing self-hosted digital infrastructure, cleaning our storage, and becoming better equipped for hosting events. Talking about which:

e v e n t s

In January there is quite some XP programming:

Jan 3, 14-17h - first digital maintenance day. We're starting a series on digital maintenance, led by Kirsten. Think cleaning your Desktop and Download folder, organising file structure, email folders, calendars, and sharing to do's and note-taking practices. The first one will be Jan 3. Perfect for new years resolutions. Stay tuned on our IG for updates.

Jan 8, 15, 22, 29, from 20h - XP KINO, every Wednesday evening we'll screen something. Could be a film, but also a curated selection of Youtube videos (on climbing in case of Elliott), someone's draft edits, or Ben playing a game You can subscribe to the calendar here, and receive updates on what will be shown. Or just come by.

Jan 14, 14-17h. The quarterly taxes! Theme and info coming up (if you have theme ideas or would want to co-host, reach out!).

Wishing you your favourite blend of peace, kinship and a dash of existential Life reflections during the winter break & see you in 2025 <3

y o u r s    o n    b e l a y    i n    p e r p e t u i t y ,