Week 25/2026: A week of art
Week of 15 June 2026
This is a catch-up post. I seem to be doing a lot of those this year. There is so much going on and so many things I’d love to write about.
My friend Ruth had the right idea. She wrote a post about all the posts she doesn’t have time to write.
I could relate to a lot of these ideas. All the things.
I have written a couple of posts on my Substack. If you’re interested in my uni English studies or my attempts at short fiction writing feel free to take a look.
Now I have to think back to what I did two weeks ago to write this post.
This post is wholly researched and written by me, a human. I will always bring you my stories in my real human voice. I do not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in my writing. If there are any em dashes in this piece, I put them there. I do not consent to have my work used for training AI.
A week of art
I went to see some art!
Here are some cool things I saw (and the descriptions are right from the websites that I’ve linked to).
Magic Moments by Dr David Wright
“A captivating photography exhibition that celebrates the beauty of the human spirit in everyday life.” (Salamanca Arts Centre)
“Each photograph in Magic Moments is meticulously captured on 35mm film and individually hand-printed by Dr. Wright in a traditional darkroom, ensuring each is a unique and authentic artistic object.”
Walking into the South West by Olivia Hickey
“An exhibition of jewellery and photography captured whilst walking into the wilds of the Southwest of Tasmania and the South West of Western Australia.” (Salamanca Arts Centre)
This is one of Olivia’s photos of a Tingle tree. If you know, you know.
Art for Takayna
“Showcasing works from the artist residency hosted by Bob Brown Foundation in the wild and ancient forests of Takayna in north-west Lutruwita / Tasmania.” (Salamanca Arts Centre)
This work by Denise Cox was a field study that led to another of her works in the exhibition.
I loved the texture and colours in this piece by Paul Hoelen.
After the Earth
“After the Earth brings together six Australian artists whose practices engage the land as something shaped, mediated, and transformed. Across painting, ceramics, collage and photography, these works move between material and image – tracing how the earth can be constructed, suspended, eroded, and reimagined.” (Bett Gallery)
Starlings by Naoise Halloran-Mackay
Vote One Tom O’Hern
“I drew these works in the lead up to trump getting re-elected. Late night catharsis with a big dirty marker on the back of reclaimed election posters.” (Bett Gallery)
“The truth doesn’t matter, only repetition.”
NOFO
Around this time of year, Hobart turns red for Dark Mofo. That’s kind of relevant to a week of art.
Dark Mofo isn’t my thing. For me, winter is a time of hibernation (I wish) and staying home, reading books and keeping as warm as it’s possible to in my cold cold house.
Festivals and feasts and large events don’t appeal to me, really, ever, and even less so in winter. So this is one of those events where I’m aware it’s going on and I dutifully document it for my Hobart Street Corners project but I don’t go out of my way to get involved.
I call it NOFO.
(I came up with the name years ago. Way before the cathedral did this.)
I’m sure everyone who loves it had a great time.
Habit tracker
- 15 minutes morning exercise sequence (7 days): 2/7
- Walk (7 days): 5/7
- Write 15 min (7 days): 0/7
- 9.30 shutdown (5 days): 1/5 (but two were at 9.31 so that’s almost good enough)
Physio exercises
- Calf exercises (7 days): 7/7
- Hip exercise (5 days): 2/5
- Bridge exercise (5 days): 2/5
- Squats (5 days): 3/5
Summary of the week
This week I learned
If you put your bag on the passenger seat of the car it will move while you’re driving and trigger the seat belt sensor and it will start beeping and you will be driving along wondering what the hell is wrong with the car and get really stressed because there’s nowhere to pull over. Then you’ll see the “passenger” light flashing and move the bag and it will stop.
This week I noticed
Morning light on this house.
A rainbow on Kunanyi.
I scratched my shiny not-very-worn Blundstone boot somewhere and I am very sad about that.
What’s making me think?
I had this thought about how people use generative AI to do the work behind the scenes for them, to do the research, summarise things, pull threads together, all that hard, boring slog work, so they can do the more “valuable” work of producing the actual writing and not have to spend time and energy doing the preparatory work. Then they pull together the final piece that presents their arguments and their case or their recommendations, which they give to their boss or whoever. And it makes me think two things.
One. The boss always gets the final piece, which contains the result of the thinking but never the thinking itself, which you have done. If they only ever get the output, it doesn’t matter to them if AI did it or you did it, because the piece you give them doesn’t contain the deeper level thinking you did to get to the conclusions you did. So they don’t fully understand all the detailed evidence and reasoning behind why you are saying what you’re saying. They just trust that you do and if they have questions, you’ll be able to answer them from the work you’ve done.
Well. This is how I work, at least.
Two. If AI does the initial work of searching, pulling ideas together and synthesising things, and does all the thinking work that you outsource to it, you haven’t done the thinking either. So your understanding of your final output is not that much greater than your boss’s. Therefore, no one has the deeper understanding of the issues.
I continue to maintain that you (I) have to do that behind the scenes work so that I fully understand what it is I’m saying, the reasons behind my recommendations and my arguments. I will not stop doing that.
Thank you. The end.
Reading
- I Eat The Stars by Sarah Wilson
- She’s Worth the Risk by Jen Morris
- The Rose Field by Philip Pullman
Listening
- Save Me From My Shelf
- Betwixt The Sheets
Watching
- Doctor Who “Warriors of the Deep”
- Ground Up (epsiode 2)
About The Author
