WHY COMPOSITION? The essay series takes you through my philosphical encounters with the questions, ‘What is “the composition?” What makes it artful?’
To make an honest study of this, I made my best efforts to go outside of my box. To dive into a study of composition through the year.
In the summer, I went to artist residency in Japan to invite people to meet and talk and made Speaking in the Spaces, for example, a zine in Japanese and English.
After that, I started a zine club called Art & Copy (hybrid) to engage others in co-making in ways that weren’t just us alone working on our art.
I started to finally learn to speak, read (and not quite yet write) in Khmer, the script that inspired me to stay a while in Cambodia because it and the symmetry of aesthetics here got me curious.
Most importantly, I showed up at other people’s events. Ones that got people together to connect, such as Nerd Night Phnom Penh (after 10 years!), a retiree community’s meetup in Siem Reap, several book club meetups in Bangkok, and a ‘FIKA’ meetup event in Tokyo, too.
How were other people doing this? Gathering us. Curating some form of something that some of them called communities. I saw these as compositions. Some were more artful than others. I found out quite a lot about what works, and what I feel doesn’t, for me. (Those things aren’t in the book but I can talk about them in person, at the book launch party.) What is composition, really? What makes it good?
LAUNCH PARTY. I was on the fence about hosting another meetup, or miniparty, or book launch. It’s quite a lot of effort and I noticed there is way more social anxiety even amongst my peer group, which grew up without internet, about meeting and talking in person. The big idea for me for hosting this launch event is to share. The moments of discovery, the found and not quite solidified sparks of some reflections, by reading and talking with others together. That’s why this is an open discussion, for guests who want to talk, talk together, and meet others who care about real life exchanges and share a love for the written word.
Get The Year of Composition (Kismuth Books / 2025) here: USD 12