September

"There's no denying the progress of the last decades, but at the same time we´re faced with an ecological crisis on an existential scale. The planet is warming, species are dying out and the pressing question now is: how sustainable is our civilised lifestyle?" Rutger Bregman, 2021. Humankind: a Hopeful History. Bloomsbury Publishing. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC )

August

 

"(...) what was becoming clear to me was the extent to which humans, in their wish to escape loneliness, made maneuvers that were very complex and hard to fathom (...) at no stage (...) within my control." Kazuo Ishiguro (2021), Klara and the Sun. Faber. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

August

“People you love become part of you – not just metaphorically, but physically. You absorb people into your internal mental world.” When people get separated “the sudden absence represents a major departure from homeostasis. (…) when someone moves away, rejects you, or dies, your brain struggles with its thwarted expectations.” David Eagleman (2020). Livewired: the inside story of the ever-changing brain. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

August

"(...) the magic of our brain lies not in it's constituent elements but in the way those elements unceasingly reweave themselves to form a dynamic, electric, living fabric." David Eagleman (2020). Livewired: the inside story of the ever-changing brain. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

August

 

"In a world without caste, being male or female, light or dark, immigrant or native-born, would have no bearing on what anyone was perceived as being capable of." Isabel Wilkerson (2020). Caste: the lies that divide us. Penguin books. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

August

"The thrill of life is not about who we are but about who we are in the process of becoming." David Eagleman (2020). Livewired: the inside story of the ever-changing brain. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

July

"O fermento havia desaparecido do pão da terra. Uma presença de graciosidade, alegria e liberdade, uma fonte de energia eléctrica desvanecera-se. Um gato erguera-se e abandonara a sala." Karen Blixen (2003). África Minha. Público: Coleção Mil Folhas. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC )

July

"Everyday of continued exponential growth brings the world systems closer to the limits to that growth. A decision to do nothing is a decision to increase the risk of collapse." Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers & William W. Behrens III (1972). The Limits to Growth. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC )

June

The Craftsman "(...) focuses on the intimate connection between hand and head. Every good craftsman conducts a dialogue between concrete practices and thinking; this dialogue evolves into sustaining habits, and this habits establish a rhythm between problem solving and problem finding." Richard Sennet, 2009. The Craftsman.

Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC )

June

"People always said they wanted the truth, but really they were perfectly content with a facsimile." Kate Atkinson, 2018. Transcription. Painting by Jianhua Tan.

March

"The world in our heads is not a (...) replica of reality; our expectations about the frequency of events are distorted by the prevalence and emotional intensity of the messages we are exposed." Daniel Kahneman (2012). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

February

 

«In this picture, commercial surveillance is not merely an unfortunate accident or occasional lapse. It is neither a necessary development of information capitalism nor a necessary product of digital technology or the internet. It is a specifically constructed human choice, an unprecedented market form, an original solution to emergency, and the underlying mechanism through which a new asset class is created on the cheap and converted revenue. Surveillance is the path to profit that overrides “we the people”, taking our decision rights without permission and even when we say “no”. » Shoshana Zuboff, 2019. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

2021 11 14 note: See comments on rights conceded by Portuguese law in  https://www.panelfit.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Portugal.pdf 

The right to sanctuary

 

«The human need for a space of inviolable refuge has persisted in civilized societies from ancient time but it is now under attack as surveillance capital creates a world of “no exit” with profound implications for the human future at this new frontier of power.» Shoshana Zuboff, 2019. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

2021 11 14 note: See comments on rights conceded by Portuguese law in  https://www.panelfit.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Portugal.pdf 

February

 

“Home is where we know and are known, where we love and are beloved. Home is mastery, voice, relationship, and sanctuary; part freedom, part flourishing… part refuge, part prospect.” Shoshana Zuboff, 2019. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

January

“Our ways of thinking and the paths we take in life are hard to fathom, much less forecast using a reductive formula”, like an algorithm. "Listening helps you understand people’s mind-sets and motivations, which is essential in building cooperative and productive relationships as well as knowing which relationships you’re better avoiding.” Kate Murphy (2020). You’re Not Listening. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

January

“Intimacy, innovative thinking, teamwork, and humor all come to those who free themselves from the need to control the narrative and have the patience and confidence to follow the story wherever it leads.” Kate Murphy (2020). You’re Not Listening. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

December

“(…) she no longer felt she was there simply to serve the dreams of other people. She no longer felt like she had to find sole fulfilment as some imaginary perfect daughter or sister or partner or wife or mother or employee or anything other than a human being, orbiting her own purpose, and answerable to herself. (…) she was alive, when she had so nearly been dead.” Matt Haig (2020). The Midnight Library. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

Underland

“We find speaking of the Anthropocene, even in Anthropocene, difficult. It is, perhaps, best imagined as an epoch of loss – of species, of places and people – for which we are seeking a language of grief and, even harder to find, a language of hope.” Robert Macfarlane (2019). Underland: a deep journey. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

September

"Stillness presents a break or pause in the flow of habitual events, whilst illuminating temporal gaps and fissures within which alternative, even unexpected possibilities - for life - might emerge. (...) Here, stillness offers the simultaneous possibility of termination and also of a new beginning." Emma Cocker (2011). Performing stillness: community in waiting. in Stillness in a Mobile World, edited by David Bissell and Gillian Fuller. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

June

"A certain conception of «nature» has allowed the Moderns to occupy the Earth in such a way that it forbids others to occupy their own territories differently. (...) The current situation (...) is not simply a matter of economics but rather of civilization itself. (...) The new conflicts do not replace the old; they sharpen them, deploy them differently, and above all they finally make them identifiable." Bruno Latour (2020). Down to Earth: Politics in the new Climatic Regime. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).