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Yannick Trapman-O'Brien

Yannick Trapman-O'Brien

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Yannick Trapman-O'Brien posts

October Reading List; “What’s in the Cards?”


Somehow, October is already here one third over, despite no one having consulted me. I’ve shared some pieces of what a difficult Summer I had on this platform; as I dust myself off and begin the work of sketching out the next few months, I’m challenging myself to not rush straight back to full-tilt production. Instead, I’m...

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Reading Excerpt - "The Heat Will Kill You First"

Reading Excerpt - "The Heat Will Kill You First"

Here now, finally on Wifi - a sample of Jeff Goodell's book. Some bleak to kick off your month!

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Archive Highlight; "Real Vanilla"

Archive Highlight; "Real Vanilla"

This past summer I gave remarks at the wedding of some treasured friends. It was a beautiful ceremony, and came at a time when I'm thinking pretty deeply and heavily about the ways that "Love" is a term we all use but carry different beliefs for. It had me thinking about my "True Love Story" library I used to run in public spaces in NYC, whe...

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September Reading List; “Too Damn Hot”


If you like me had the misfortune of spending the Summer in Washington DC, you likely sweated a lake and found no relief. Even if your location was more fortunate, chances are good no matter where you are (in the Northern Hemisphere at least) you saw unexpected highs in your forecast. As I continue to think about what stories ex...

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Reading Excerpt; "The Gift" by Lewis Hyde

Reading Excerpt; "The Gift" by Lewis Hyde

Conversation is a commerce, and when we give speech we become a part of what we speak with.
- Chapter 4; The Bond. 


The Gift by Lewis Hyde is a fruitbasket delivered to your door; full of wonderful and almost prophetic one liners like this, with fascinatin...

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Guest Highlight; Jessica Creane

Hey All,

As I close out a month in Washington DC working on Monument Lab's contribution to the Pulling Together exhibition, I'm replacing this month's Archive Highlight with a new test feature. I have many collaborators that I adore, and I'd love to occasionally introduce you to them and their work.

I'm very lucky to start with...

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August Reading List - "It's Giving"

Another difficult month in the books - I appreciate your patience and grace as I support loved ones in my personal life, and go all-hands-on-deck in DC. Thank you.


In Fair Trade (link), Jessica Creane and I invited participants to co...

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Reading Excerpt; National Monument Audit

Reading Excerpt; National Monument Audit

BEFORE YOU HIT PLAY - I've got an offer for you:

In 2020, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation launched the “Monuments Project,” a $250 million investment designed to “transform the way our country’s histories are told in public spaces and ensure that future generations inherit a commemorative landscape that venerates and reflects the ...

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July Archive Highlight - “Reject Park; Monument Lab Footnotes (pt. 1)”

July Archive Highlight - “Reject Park; Monument Lab Footnotes (pt. 1)”


Monument Lab is a nonprofit public art and history studio that cultivates and facilitates critical conversations around the past, present, and future of monuments.

While my work with Monument Lab this Summer will take me to the National Mall in DC ...

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July Reading; “Unearthing the Next Generation of Monuments”


First off, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who reached out with messages of support after my post last month. Starting in 2020, as we moved through many phases of pandemic, I was struck by how much empathy and humanity was extended to employees in the companies I worked for—mostly because there was suddenly an abunda...

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June Reading + Excerpt - "Things Unsaid"

Hey everyone,

The more chronological amongst you may have noted that it is quite late in June for reading lists or any such updates.

Full transparency: it's been an unexpected and difficult few weeks, personally, so I'm taking a slow month on these reading lists and highlights to recover. In the coming months, I've got a lot that ...

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Reading Excerpt: "Weather"

Reading Excerpt: "Weather"

This month, I featured Jenny Offill's phenomenal book "Weather." Take a listen for a sample !

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May Archive Highlight - “Eventually Something Will Become Clear”


All this talk in the news about AI and “datasets” has got me thinking about the way I relate to “Creative Data;” when I helped build a BFA at Tisch Open Arts, our conversations about Creative Research became a major force in shaping how I approach projects. Some of this data can be fairly straightforward; you can see the exh...

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Overdue Reading Excerpt: "Upstream"

Overdue Reading Excerpt: "Upstream"

Remember a few months ago when I said things were so hectic that I was re-reading Mary Oliver's collection of Essays for some peace?

Anyway, here's Wonderwall.

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May Reading List - “How’s the Weather?”


If you’re asking generally on the East Coast this week, then I’d say “pretty good.” But if you’re asking about Jenny Offil’s novel “Weather”—then boy oh boy do I have a reading list for you.

2023-05-11 02:50:10 +0000 UTC View Post

Archive Highlight: "Theatrical Snacks" with Jeff Evans

Archive Highlight: "Theatrical Snacks" with Jeff Evans

Hey there!

Things are all-hands-on-deck on the high-seas, with Undersigned's appearance at Overlook Film Festival barely behind us, and Fair Trade heading to the 2023-04-13 22:33:47 +0000 UTC View Post

Posting Delays

Posting Delays

Hey everyone,

Just dashing off a quick note of thanks for your patience - reading excerpts for last month and updates for this month will be arriving in a few days as I wind down the run of Undersigned in New Orleans. As the photo above clearly shows, it's been a grueling ordeal, and not at all a wonderful-joyous-strange-and-wild...

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March Archive Highlight - “Pay Up - pt 5; “On Your Terms"”


This is the fifth in a series of posts about my experiments in different payment Systems across my projects The Telelibrary, 2023-03-16 21:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post

March Reading list; “Waldeinsamkeit”

March Reading list; “Waldeinsamkeit”

If you’ve been with the Patreon forever, you may remember that I had wanted to read this book a year and a half ago, but lost it for a while. Now that I’ve hands on it again, and since I’m once again staring down the barrel of a busy season (with Overlook almost here, and exciting updates for Fair Trade to come), I felt the need to gro...

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Reading Excerpt: The Extended Mind

Reading Excerpt: The Extended Mind

“Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin?” So begins the academic paper that inspired Annie Murphy Paul’s book (and will probably churn it’s way into being a piece of mine someday, being as it is so exceptionally on brand). As Murphy Paul summarizes:

“Clark and Chalmers initially focused their analysis o...

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February Archive Highlight; "Accumulate Birds"

This month I I had the lucky chance to catch my collaborator and friend Jacob Ford for a conversation, which he very kindly offered to record. As such, we’re gonna take a break from writing in the confines of my own small, cramped mind to jump into far-reaching conversation we shared about museums, curation, community, civic practice, designin...

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February Reading; “Mind Extension”


“Get out of your head” is every acting teacher’s favorite shouted command (and a sure-fire way to trigger theater-school-trauma from any graduate). But Anna Murphy Paul has a much broader vision for what that means.


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Reading Excerpt: "The Creative Habit"

Reading Excerpt: "The Creative Habit"

Shopping for some good tools and tricks in your creative practice? Well, there are quicker books than Twyla Tharp's "The Creative Habit," and there are more enjoyable books too — but as a center of a few Venn Diagrams, Twyla does alright, and we review a few choice excerpts here.

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January Archive Highlight - “Pay Up - pt 4; “To Put a Price on It”


To Put a Price on It

This is part 4 in an ongoing series on the different ways people pay for my experiences, and the second half of two highlights about the pay-what-you-wish after-the-fact set up of the Telelibrary. If you're just starting now, you'll want to start at least with 2023-02-01 02:39:22 +0000 UTC View Post

January Reading List; “New Habits”

January Reading List; “New Habits”


As I continue to look critically at my creative practice in the ongoing Archive Highlight Series, I’m riding the wave of introspection with some reading to inform my general practice.

2023-01-06 21:19:56 +0000 UTC View Post

Seeking Input for Research about "The Telelibrary"

As some of you may have seen in the most recent Archive Highlight, I'm halfway through a review of the data on the payment structure for the Telelibrary. While I've mostly completed running the hard numbers, I think an equally important dataset to generate is...

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Reading Excerpt: Immersive Entertainment Industry Report Update

Reading Excerpt: Immersive Entertainment Industry Report Update

There’s a quote I’ve always liked, which goes something like; “if I had more time, I’d have written you a shorter letter.” Very much that spirit, today I bring you perhaps the longest reading excerpt yet, whose contents are overwhelming not reading excerpts at all but rather me unspooling on the topics of content warnings, inv...

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December Archive Highlight - Pay Up - Part 3

Pay Up - pt 3; “Pay If/As You Wish/Like/Feel

This is the third in a series of posts about my experimental Payment Systems across my projects: The Telelibrary,2022-12-31 21:52:00 +0000 UTC View Post

December Reading List; “E for Everyone?”


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Reading Excerpt - Inciting Joy

Reading Excerpt - Inciting Joy

Timing Note: If you're on the West Coast, please kindly inform everyone else that it is still in fact November, and I'm definitely not LATE or anything. If you're on the East Coast (or even East-er) ... go to sleep.


Yes, late in coming but seasonally just in time, we're reading an excerpt from Ross Gay's book Inciti...

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