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Anna and Kelly Pendergrast’s latest work is More Zeros and Ones a book they edited which is published by BWB. This book brings together essays from incredibly interesting thinkers and doers who write about environmental science, law and Te Tiriti o Waitangi and recent developments in technology. I just can’t recommend this book enough. I love this blurb from BWB:
Many of today’s digital technologies inadvertently amplify the power structures and prejudices of wider society. By examining the way digital tools and platforms are designed, built, and maintained, this BWB Text aims to identify how we can do better for everyone in Aotearoa.
Anna and Kelly are founders of Antistatic a research and communications consultancy like no other I’ve come across. I got to talk to Anna and Kelly, as Antistatic, last year about their part in the Flat Earthers exhibition/book/event. Still one of the best things I’ve ever done.
I was interested in talking to Anna and Kelly about humour and laughter for several reasons. Anna and Kelly’s work is often playful and because of this I think, is able to say some pretty profound things about some of the power structures that sit in technology. Also, Anna and Kelly do a lot of work in communications - taking very complex ideas and structuring them for different purposes. I was interested in how this deep knowledge of communication gives an insight into what makes us laugh.
Ann and Kelly brought the perfect ‘thing that made them laugh’ for this kind of conversation. The Laughter Lift is a segment on the Kermode & Mayo’s Take podcast. I loved the way this opened up a conversation about jokes and the social act of telling jokes. One of the things I loved talking about was that because we often share an idea of the structure of ‘the joke’ with the people are telling jokes to, even when the joke goes wrong it is still funny because it becomes a subversion of the form.
This gives me immense hope as I am practicing my ‘bit’ for the Verb After Hours - Beyond A Joke night Thursday 3 November, 8.30pm at Meow in Wellington. To which there are still tickets available. This is a shameless self-promotion but also, the folk who are appearing in this event are amazing!!
Ep 119: Beyond a Joke 10 - Marolyn Krasner talks with Pip Adam about Hudson Valley Ballers: Lovers
Ep 118: Beyond a Joke 9 - Rijula Das, author of Small Deaths, talks to Pip Adam about a New Yorker cartoon
Ep 117: Beyond a Joke 8 - Dominic Hoey tells Pip Adam a funny story and they talk about Poor People With Money
Ep 116: Beyond a Joke 7 - Sarah Jane Barnett talks with Pip Adam about Michael Schur’s The Good Place
Ep 115: Beyond a Joke 6 - Brannavan Gnanalingam talks with Pip Adam about Kira Muratova’s film The Asthenic Syndrome
Ep 114: Beyond a Joke 5 - Rachel O’Neill talks with Pip Adam about Pockets and Everything Everywhere All At Once by the Daniels
Ep 113: Beyond a Joke 4 - Anthony Lapwood talks to Pip Adam about ’Goethe in the Roman Campagna’ by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein
Ep 112: Beyond a Joke 3 - Jordan Hamel talks to Pip Adam about his poem ’Death Coach’
Ep 111: Beyond a Joke 2 - Jonny Potts talks to Pip Adam about Nikolai Gogol’s story ’The Nose’
Ep 110: Beyond a Joke 1 - Anna Jackson talks to Pip Adam about Anna’s book ’Actions & Travels: How poetry works’.
Beyond a Joke! Better of Read’s New Home at Substack.
Ep 109: Andy Southall : Time, Love, Memory session from Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts
Ep 108: Bridget van der Zijpp: Time, Love, Memory session from Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts
Ep 107: Elements 21 – Character. Tatyana Kulida talks to Pip Adam about Henry Miller’s ‘To Paint is to Love Again’.
Ep 106: Elements 20 - Character. Tara Black talks to Pip Adam about René Magritte‘s ‘The Treachery of Images‘.
Ep 105: Elements 19 - Character. Rachel O‘Neill talks to Pip Adam about Andrea Arnold‘s film Milk.
Ep 104: Elements 18 – Point. Kirsten McDougall talks to Pip Adam about first-person perspective.
Ep 103: Elements 17 - Point. Ebony Lamb talks to Pip Adam about a self-portrait photographed by Ebony Lamb.
Ep 102: Elements 16 - Point. Cassie Hart talks to Pip Adam about Butcherbird by Cassie Hart.
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