Are.na ✶✶ TCI: How do you use the internet mindfully?

Welcome to the Library of Practical and Conceptual Resources, a new collaboration between The Creative Independent and Are.na exploring the question, How can we use the internet more mindfully?

More than ever, creative people find their attention pulled in many directions by many different apps and digital tools. Staying up-to-date on social media and responsive to so many forms of online communications often feels mandatory in order to keep working. But, it can be both exhausting and dispiriting to build a creative practice while “extremely online.”

The Library of Practical and Conceptual Resources is intended to create space for healthy reflection on our online habits, as well as to spur creative thought and action. The Library will be composed of a series of digital collections, each one gathering ideas, links, references, and other useful internet-based ephemera compiled by participating artists around a theme of their choice. Each collection will take the form of an Are.na channel, with an introductory essay written by the channel’s creator and published here, on The Creative Independent.

Accompanying this note as the inaugural channel in the Library is a collection of practical and conceptual resources compiled by The Creative Independent and Are.na, entitled How do you use the internet mindfully? Some of the channel’s contents are quotes from past TCI interviews, in which working artists have shared wisdom about their own approaches to spending time online. Some are simple ideas or tools for cutting down on anxiety and #fomo, or links to websites where you can spend time using the web to read, learn, and explore. If there are other resources, ideas, or websites you’ve found helpful in your own quest to be be more intentional and creative online, we welcome you to add to the channel—just click “Add block” to contribute (note: you must be logged in to Are.na to do this).

In addition to the collection created by TCI and Are.na, today we’re launching the Library with resource collections contributed by artists Jenny Odell and Fei Liu. And, like any good collection, our Library will expand and evolve over time. As we move into the future, we’re looking forward to debuting collections from Lucy Siyao Liu, Tega Brain, Melanie Hoff, Ida Benedetto, and more participants still to be announced. If you have an idea for a collection of resources that you’d like to contribute, you can send us a note at arena@thecreativeindependent.com.

Explore all channels in the Library of Practical and Conceptual Resources on Are.na here, or subscribe to one of our newsletters to find out as new resource collections are added to the Library.

Essay Series:

✶✶ Visual artist, Writer Ingrid Burrington on sand in the gears