Welcome to Ley Lines, a new series on BlogCampaigning by Parker Mason.

It’s a follow-up from the “100 Interesting Things” series that I did over the last year, and will be mostly the same format: Five weird, odd, interesting, compelling, or unusual artefacts that I’ve come across.

I’ll still be writing longer form posts here (like this one on how AI is a consensual hallucination, or taking inspiration for critical feedback from Ursula, K. Le Guin. And I’ve also got a few bigger projects planned, like the “Trends Report” I wrote almost 6 years ago.

Anyways, here we go. Ley Lines #1:

1.1 AI Rejection Is Real If you spend as much time on LinkedIn as I do (and likely as much as you do, if you’re reading this) then you’ve probably been drowning in takes, news, and opinions on the future of work and creativity in a generative AI world.

But if you talk to actual people or look at comments on every sloppified AI ad or the news rolling out AI features on our products you can see that there is a lot less hype.

I used to follow a site called Shock Blast. It was a mid-Web 2.0 site and associated social accounts that simply collected cool and interesting images. I went to check their site a few weeks ago and saw this message:

When ever the site who started to mostly be known for posting video game and party photos is lamenting the loss of humanity in the face of generative AI you know it’s not good.

ShockBlast.Net

1.2 The Best Kind Of Networking I hate the word ‘networking’ and what it connotes. I think that we all do. But inside, I actually love networking. I love meeting people for coffee and hearing what they’re working on, what they’re excited about, and what they’re scared about. And more than that I love seeing what people are doing online via Threads (RIP Twitter), LinkedIn, blogs, and things like Substack.

The No Sleep Club Newsletter has a great recent post about what real networking looks like:

Networking events are designed for transactions. Great networks come from being pleasant and being accessible.
You accidentally fall into good connections by being around, being yourself, and not being too cool.
So, stop relying on the hotel ballroom to be your next lucky break. Skip the LinkedIn “let’s connect” spam.
Go do interesting things, share them openly, and be the person who actually follows up when it feels a little vulnerable.

This blog is part of that for me.

No Sleep Club News Letter

1.3 Agency Positioning Over the last 20 years of my career I’ve helped name, position, and define dozens and dozens of different companies and organizations. it’s not necessarily easy to do for clients. But it is infinitely harder to do when it’s your own organization. The sense of commitment is greater, the worry of getting it wrong, and the personal feelings muddling the whole thing. I’m in the process of doing this for a project right now, and because of that I’m acutely aware of how bad a lot of agencies and freelancers are at positioning themselves. But also how hard it is.

That’s why I’m always in awe of ones who get it right. And Emily court is someone who has absolutely nailed it.

The whole thing comes together perfectly: You get an absolute exact sense of who she is, what you’ll get, who she’s for, and who she’s not for.

Her site (Linked below) is probably one of the slickest Square Space sites I’ve seen and has had me digging around in some of the new futures to understand more of that parallaxing.

Emily’s Website

1.4. How Comedy Was Destroyed By An Anti-Doomsday Cult Can I talk about things more than once here? I think so. I’m not sure there are actual rules. In which case, it’s okay for me to hype up an other Elephant Graveyard video.

I’m not sure what exactly these are. They’re more than just documentaries, and are almost unique art projects themselves. But they’re also just scathing takedowns of the world’s worst people.

It’s a compelling journey that makes comparisons between doomsday cult leaders like Jim Jones and modern, dives into the meaning of Baudrillard’s simulation theory, explores the importance of a male role model for young men, and closes with a warning from Lord of The Rings. It’s the reference-heavy artefact that every Cultural Studies student wishes they could put together. Me included.

Watch the latest here.

1.5 Wanderers Go and watch Wanderers.

It’s a short film on Vimeo with visuals that were inspired by Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars books with a voiceover from an original Carl Sagan recording.

It gives me chills every time I watch it.