# COMPOST Issue 03 Editorial Meeting

####### `compost`

## Issue 03 Pitch Selections

### Mai
**1 - Musseled Out (Working Title) -- Dolly Church & Niall Tessier-Lavigne**
NOTES: Dolly is a great writer; Niall has experience building games; Playable browser-based game; Both seem like they're very interested in co-op building

**2 - Crying Mountains -- Marcela Guerra , representing Portal sem Porteiras (PSP)**
NOTES: Marcela was a DWeb Fellow; Comes from community network; Layout/format is a little undefined

**3 - Every Drop -- Olu Niyi-Awosusi**
NOTES: Web accessibility expert; Writer; Youtuber; Connection of water to every aspect of network tech – log-form piece that gets at the crux of this seems good; Maybe a creative way to present it? More feeling?

**4 - We are an Ocean: Atlantic and Swahili-Indian Ocean Whirlpools -- Hiba Ali, Simone Johnson**
NOTES: NAC, “what does the ocean say”?

**5 - Of Ripples and Heartbeats (very much a working title) -- Nereya Otieno**
NOTES: General piece about water and bodies; Seems like an experienced writer

**6 - Restoring traditional water bodies for flood resilience in urban India -- E Jayashree Kurup**
NOTES: Flooding, climate change, IT hub cities in India

**7 - Water Clock (WIP) -- Erica Whyte**
NOTES: Fiction piece on giving bodies of water personhood

**8 - Pen Pals Alexandra Kumala**
NOTES: Interesting idea; want to see samples of writing spec fiction

### Kola (unranked)
**1 - Pen Pals -- Alexandra Kumala**
NOTES: This sounds like a great idea for a speculative fiction piece, though like Mai said I'd love to see some samples of Kumala's relevant work.

**2 - watershed -- riley wong**
NOTES: An ambitious hybrid form project, really intriguing to me. Though I'd like to get a stronger grasp on the scope, and how riley plans to incorporate water stewardship practices from such a wide range of places/people.

**3 - the sky is beautiful everywhere -- Vinh Nguyen**
NOTES: Would be cool to have a 3D project such as this in the issue. I also like the sources that Vinh is drawing on. Main concern is the amount of work this would require for them, since they're new to this medium and to the NAC platform.

**4 - Every Drop -- Olu Niyi-Awosusi**
NOTES: Could be complementary to something like Kurup's project, an analysis of digital infrastructure's relationship to water bodies. My main concern is how much of the research required for this has been done already, since this would be a hefty project to start from scratch and complete in a handful of months.

**5 - Restoring traditional water bodies for flood resilience in urban India – E Jayashree Kurup**
NOTES: Similar concerns to the Every Drop project, though equally excited about both.

### Liaizon (unranked, number doesnt mean anything)
**1 Water Under the Bridge -- Caitlin Cooper**
NOTES: I liked their idea of exploring the legends of these bridge devils

**2 Love at Subsea Level -- Ciara McLaren-Thorpe**
NOTES: "submarine telecommunication cable installation and a long-distance love story." I liked how the talked abou their story and I want to read it

**3 suffusions -- Erin McCoy**
NOTES: I am biased cause I was the one to tell erin they should try to submit something to this open call, but I think they would do a great job illustrating this issue

**4 Water and Its Gods Protect Nature -- Fiske Serah Nyirongo**
NOTES: this person wants to do go out and do origonal research and interviews into zambian mythology, seems like it would be interesting

**5 Sometimes You Find What You're Looking For: A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Story -- Katharine Tyndall**
NOTES: the phrase "What could a wild metaverse look like?" caught my attention and I wanted to hear the answer

**6 Climate change droughts knock off Zimbabwe's hydro and thermal generation -- Andrew Mambondiyani**
NOTES: direct knowledge of Zimbabwe life while offline due to blackouts and how that effects life sounds like quite a perfect fit for this magazine

**7 Pen Pals -- Alexandra Kumala**
NOTES: I think I just really want to explore Jakarta so a piece about it sounds enticing and I liked the way they described their story

### Shafali

1. Musseled Out (Working Title)
2. Coatí: el videojuego
3. giving free reign to mischief
4. Pen Pals
5. Waterscapes of Bidar : Oral Histories of Lived Ecologies
6. RIPPLES (ECO-GRIEF AND UTOPIA)
7. A River Runs Through It: Race, Displacement and Drowned Towns
8. How rivers spread the music of the oppressed
9. Drinking the Ocean in

First choices:

1. Pen Pals (fiction, place-based— Jakarta)

2. Musselled Out (interactive fiction game, place-based— Europe)

3. Drinking the Ocean in (non-fiction, eDNA)

4. Waterscapes of Bidar: Oral Histories of Lived Ecologies (interactive media nonfiction)

5. Crying Mountains (multimedia nonfiction + short videos, place-based— Brazil)

6. Water Clock (fiction, place-based— Quebec)

7. suffusions (illustrations— based on each piece?)

Considering:

giving free reign to mischief (multimedia, place-based— Ireland) - https://shanefinan.org

Every Drop (nonfiction)

Of Ripples and Heartbeats (nonfiction)

Restoring traditional water bodies for flood resilience in urban India (journalistic, place-based)

Technologies as Climate (interactive media nonfiction)

Other ideas for pieces to highlight:

Catherine interview Jacob as part of eDNA highlight

Curated COMPOST NAC show:

We are an Ocean: Atlantic and Swahili-Indian Ocean Whirlpools

Brazil: the future

the sky is beautiful everywhere

How would we think about water differently if we think about personhood/spiritual beings/gods of it? Centrality of water to life + culture?

Water and Its Gods Protect Nature (longform writing)

RIPPLES (poetry)

Governing the commons? How necessary cooperation led to the Dutch 'waterschappen (longform writing)

## Participants
Micah, Kola, Margaret, Tal, Liaizon, Mai, Shafali

## Agenda

11am -- 12:15 ET

**To do post-meeting:** everyone is going to send top picks to Tal + Mai by Wednesday the 23rd. anyone can communicate in Signal chat about pieces, etc.

**Agenda**: for the next hour, talk about each piece, consider feedback, and then Mai + Tal will pull everything together this comiing week.

**One word** **check-in!**

Mai: tired

Kola: busy, but beginning of break :)

Margaret: here

Shafali: happy Monday is over

Liaizon: cold and tired but happy that awake

Tal: despairing but happy to be here lol

**General thoughts about pitches?**

- Margaret here mostly to listen

- Kola: a lot are impressive in what they're attempting to do, but because it is a pitch ability to balance time/resources to do it is a tension

- Shafali: enjoyed being part of review process

- Mai: some pieces seem very ambitious and some are works that are already made— does it make sense to highlight those works in other ways (newsletter, etc.)?

- Liaizon likes this idea above^ — two tracks: pieces already done that can be highlighted by magazine itself, and then bigger scale projects that need to be done still. Mai adds that we wouldn't compensate for "development" of piece because it's been developed, but Tal and them can help with editing, etc.

- Kola: pros + cons of having entire piece, we don't know fully what a lot of these pieces look like. would be nice to have finished piece and really give clarity, but this is maybe a big burden on the artist. not only what is this person's writing style, but what is their writing style for this piece--> this is a problem! but maybe can't be "fixed" !

**What pieces did you like and why?**

Musseled Out

- Mai: about shrimp navigating conservation and borders! loves angle, not just about a body of water but geopolitics. both contributors seem to have a lot of experience both in medium + coop work

- Kola: seems really cool. have we been thinking about difference in tone and atmosphere across pieces?

- Shafali loved as well

Coatí

- Mai: sounds very aligned with COMPOST but also misaligned in terms of voice (ie criminal prosecution of polluters). perhaps this is one we help promote + give feedback but they're not part of cohort? how much is it about the story/angle and how much is it about story + methodolgy?

- Liaizon had follow up question about why, and Mai offered that maybe this is a question around what COMPOST is about? what is our tone? "positive"? points out they're developing with Sutty, which is a really cool project, but mb has questions around carceral parts of this project. the questions around COMPOST's values need to be answered. _what are our tools and what does this say about compost as a collective?_

- Kola has similar questions. how do we actually incorporate this and give it focus it needs? this feels like a separate and important conversation, about our shared values, both helpful for this and going forward

- Margaret likes content but unclear about actual software

- Tal: it's definitely a carceral project, and that raises questions for me about COMPOST's politics + shared vision

Every Drop

- Kola: curious! interesting but wonders why people are so hyped abt it specifically

what if it all just came out in the wash

- Kola: likes specificity of archeology lab + really interested in details of how this could be achieved

Pen Pals

- Kola: really exciting but just wanted to see draft to see how this person would actually tackle it (fiction is all about prose). seems like a classic compost piece and in line with a lot of pieces we've done + interested in epistolary form

- Tal: Very much agree -- takes a long time to look into their writing/experience with the medium

Uncovering the hidden wonders of our water bodies

- Kola: AI intelligence model about reading the whole internet. this was so weird are we being made fun of i don't even care, it was hilarious.

Excerpt from Panacea Prophecy (also sometimes called: WetLand Warrior)

- Margaret: has a question about how to see writing/accessibility of submission process of the writing of Jack's that was submitted. feels Jack's advocating in north Florida is unique and exciting and Jack's writing is really good. (He is having trouble finding a publisher bc the power that be)

- Mai: he is an incredible advocate and expert in issue we are tackling in this next issue. worried he wouldn't be able to contribute as a cohort member because he is so busy, and similar to some other pieces, this work is already completed— could we interview or otherwise promote book as part of issue, but perhaps not take on entirely?

**More notes**

- Mai rated some higher even if not fleshed out if it seems someone has experience/connection/ability to create something exciting

- [who asked this? sorry note-taking lapse]: how many are we choosing? Mai: 10-12 of tight cohort of contributors, plus the other pieces that are essentially done that we want to support/highlight via interviews, newsletters, office hours, etc. [this is up for debate/change/just an idea !]

- Shafali: likes this idea of different tiers/cohorts. Pitches that stuck out were pieces related to place-based setting. jakarata piece, ireland piece, etc.

- Tal: One way to ground the issue is make it more place-based, focused on different localities

- Mai: yes! maybe 7-8 place-based and others more abstract. [tal agrees with this! probably not all place-based. we need variation]

- Liazion: and paying attention to *where* people live how can we un-center people living in rich countries, like the us?

- Tal: Coatí piece and shared values; One piece that came from white american expat in LATAM; who is writing from what place

- Mai: we want people speaking from not for communities

**Other big picture points? media formats? etc.**

- Liaizon: submission from Austin Wade Smith; but involved in blockchain/DAO project threw them off

- Shafali: Coatí medium is really interesting (interactiveness in piece). there is both the place-based question and also the question of different mediums

- Margaret: beyong the themes of water, there are other objectives that are important to be conveyed. the voices that are being elevated through the work, etc.