Andrew C. Smith

@andrewchristophersmith.com

638 Followers 817 Following

director of the lab (sf) former director of indexical (santa cruz) composer, curator, arts worker if you ever found yourself thinking “that’s not a gong that’s a tam tam” this account might be for you

Invitation to my birthday with my address blacked out.

[typewriter sheet with the following text:]

TY CHOLINE is very pleased with his most recent
script - REINDEER EARS!
He is able to HEAR as a
REINDEER HEARS. He's just finished simulating the intricate parameters shaping the REINDEER'S auditory neuroanatomy. He LISTENS to Bach now as a REINDEER. The BIO-MUSIC script is ready to be played on the Home Consoles - to "play" the music of Bach, Mozart, Blondie, whatever music or sound is selected, or spontaneously created, as a REINDEER would HEAR it.

A couple wearing American flag head masks and their faces are also painted like American flags

a questionnaire:
Should California continue with high-speed rail? If so, what route or scope would you support?
Matt Mahan:
It shouldn’t cost more to get to Modesto than it does to get to the Moon.

A sign for the bathroom saying “men” and “animal relief”

Mobile cake truck with crazy paintings of flowers and renaissance people in it

And Mr. Back's thesis project focused on
C++ — the same programming language Satoshi used to code the first version of the
Bitcoin software.

hi Andrew, many leaders at experimental art venues struggle with client acquisition, especially in Q1.

This may be a forward question, but is The Lab, San Francisco in the same boat?

Claude error saying it is down

A bunch of code that doesn't make sense and doesn't run

A book by Theodore Gordon entitled “the composer’s black box: making music in cybernetic America”. The image is of a number of electrical patch cables interconnecting a system of panels. It is a Buchla modular synthesizer.

A package of saffron with an illustration of a small white baby crawling out of a swaddling cloth

Image of a man in a suit putting his arm into a tub with the caption “The musical bathtub”

Toy robot with a 14+ sticker covering the 8+ age recommendation printed on the box

An “experimental musician” at calarts michael bailey who writes:
welcome to the 30 year war of gentrification. And don't pretend that the Lab and Grey Area don't enable the toxic tech culture of selfish post-suburban sociopaths.

An instagram post from the kitchen in nyc stating that Legacy Russell (ED/AD of the kitchen) has been appointed to a commission by Mamdani

A toddler on a comically large chair reading Brown Bear Brown Bear (upside down) while a 39 year old dad lounges on the couch reading some other book. There are two turntables in the image, one covered playing music and the other (the toddler’s turntable) unplugged

Soon the conversation turned to a tantalizing scenario — a beautiful woman approaches a wealthy crypto trader at a bar, showing an unlikely degree of romantic interest. Unfortunately, Mr. Kayll said, these interactions could be part of a so-called honey-pot scheme designed to lure the target into divulging compromising information.
"For you guys, it'll be a female — I'd send in a girl every time," he said. It would be unwise to "tell her what you know about Bitcoin."

Mission Local article: In text exchange, new D4 supe writes of paying workers 'under the table, skimping on taxes
New texts raise more questions about Mayor Daniel Lurie's vetting of newest supervisor,
Beya Alcaraz
by JOE ESKENAZI
November 13, 2025, 5:25 pm
Mayor Daniel Lurie and his District 4 Supervisor appointee Beya Alcaraz take a merchant walk on Irving Street on Nov. 7, 2025. Photo by Junyao Yang.

An image of two beams opening into a large hall with 17 foot ceilings. The wood flooring is covered by linoleum about halfway through the space.

Cory, 31, Tenn., white, Republican, construction I believed Trump was focused on lowering drug prices, prescription drug prices. I have a chronic condition. I'm a Type 1 diabetic. And since he has taken office, my medications have tripled in price.
Again, I don't know if that's a correlation to where I live or my insurance but it's gotten to a point where, for a disease I did not cause and do not have any control over, seeing a very high increase in the prices that I'm paying.

fledgling conservatives in red states. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, said at a news conference on Tuesday that his 14-year-old son, Hunter, had called him from school the moment he heard that Mr. Kirk had been shot, anxious for news of his condition. He had been an admirer.
Conversations with his son served as "a reminder of how many young people were impacted by this death in a pretty profound way," Mr. Newsom said.

subject line: "City finally awards trash can contract"

An email:

From: Brittany Gibson
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2025, 12:36 PM
To: DL WHO Wranglers
Subject: Pool 3 - Music selection
Adding some color on the music today at the White House, correspondents have heardBowie, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Andrea Bocelli and "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables. The music is still playing.
White House did not share additional information on who
President Trump is currently with while playing the music, but said that he has policy meetings and a media interview on his schedule today.

Notes app screenshot:

Compost metrics
Key point being that these are necessarily network metrics. It is impossible to evaluate a single organization's programming in isolation.
Non-temporal metrics:
Connectedness: metric of redundancy / ubiquity of artists with other organizations or presenters. Can show strong "scene
presence"
Novelty: the inverse of connectedness in that there is a % of artists who are frequently a part of programming
Temporal metrics:
Seedlings / incubator: the first entry-point for an artist to a connected network, leading to the artist having a high level of connectedness

Just a settlement sheet showing a pretty bad turnout and bad payment too

A photo of a very small mouse inside a green translucent trap

A "coming soon" screen for Microsoft 365 Copilot with a bunch of text boxes that look warped and pixellated in crazy ways saying things like "generate a powerpoint presentation from the contents of this document" (the product doesn't exist yet)

A very medieval image of hops being harvested on a package of hops

Popular accelerationist twitter account is abundance pilled

Shirtless toddler destroying a smoothie popsicle

A title page of a book with the word FERDYDURKE on it in all caps

Pretty fine looking homebrew in a glass

Curtis Yarvin
Article Talk
Curtis Guy Yarvin (born 1973), also known by the pen name Mencius Moldbug, is an American neo-reactionary political theorist and software developer. 11121131 He is known, along with philosopher Nick Land, for founding the anti-egalitarian and anti-democratic philosophical movement known as the Dark Enlightenment or neo-reactionary movement (NRx).

$\ Control shape determines probs. of preset depending on each gang \ Willy the Goldfish swims into : VIOLIN/CLARINET \ get preset number depending on probabilities 100 choose$

(New York Times font)
The Ethicist
Is It Ethical to Buy Used Books and Music?
The magazine's Ethicist columnist on what consumers owe to artists.

Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine, who serves as the top Democrat on the House subcommittee overseeing the N.E.A., said in an interview that Mr. Trump was
"making a broad-based attack on the arts, both for form, and content." She cited his

This is to inform you that the above referenced National Endowment for the Arts award has been terminated, effective May 31, 2025.

The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation's rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President. Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities. The NEA will now prioritize projects that elevate the Nation’s HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI competency, empower houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, make America healthy again, support the military and veterans, support Tribal communities, make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, and support the economic development of Asian American communities. Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the Administration’s agenda.

Your project, as noted below, unfortunately does not align with these priorities:
Purpose: To support a residency and commissioning program.

Trump, on Tariffs, Says
'Maybe the Children Will Have 2 Dolls Instead of 30'
At the end of a cabinet meeting, the president allowed for the possibility that trade war could disrupt supply chains.

Just another garbage nyt headline:

LIVE 6m ago
President Trump Signs Orders Ramping Up Immigration Crackdown
One order instructs his administration to "pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures" against so-called sanctuary cities.
See more updates ›

A small child eating a banana whole without peeling it

A page of a book describing warty hog cave paintings

Headline: S.F.'s giant naked woman sculpture brought out the worst in our city

Mayor Daniel Lurie met with the new group 16th St. Neighbors and said that drug use in the neighborhood was "unacceptable" and that he'd make sure more resources were directed toward the Mission. He promised more foot patrols, drones, and enforcement.

Nyt headline “Harvard will make tuition free for more students” with a photo of the Harvard flag (white and black on red) hanging from a very neoclassical building

Mr. Schumer has long seen responsibility for government shutdowns as a political albatross. But many Democrats on Capitol

Twitter screenshot where I post:
yeah my work exists at the intersection of disappointing my parents and disappointing myself

My mom replies: Can I have this on a tshirt?

Middle East Tensions West Bank Operation
Biden Envoy to Fight
Antisemitism Says She Saw Surge of Hate After Oct. 7
Deborah Lipstadt said that after the Hamas-led attack on Israel and the devastating war in Gaza, antisemitism became "almost normalized."
6 MIN READ

Gazans Worry as Israeli Border Block
Sends Food Prices Climbing
4 MIN READ

Wendy Carlos, trans woman pioneer, at a mixing board

The NEA has updated its Assurance of Compliance, a required declaration for all applicants, incorporating new, chilling language in a section related to anti-discrimination that places restrictions on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and gender-related programming:

The applicant will comply with all applicable Executive Orders while the award is being administered. Executive orders are posted at: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions.

The applicant’s compliance in all respects with all applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws is material to the U.S. Government’s payment decisions for purposes of section 3729(b)(4) of title 31, United States Code, pursuant to Executive Order No. 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, dated January 21, 2025.

The applicant will not operate any programs promoting “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws, in accordance with Executive Order No. 14173.

The applicant understands that federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology, pursuant to Executive Order No. 14168, Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.

A 68 year old Japanese woman hovering over a table of blinking devices with the most terrifying noise emitting from them

Updates on National Endowment for the Arts
FY 2026 Grant Opportunities
The National Endowment for the Arts is updating its FY 2026 grant guidelines, with deadlines in March and July 2025.
These changes impact organizations applying in the Grants for Arts Projects or Challenge America categories; please see below for pertinent details.
Challenge America
The Challenge America opportunity is canceled for FY 2026. Organizations that have applied or were planning to apply to the FY 2026 Challenge America grant opportunity are encouraged to apply to the Grants for Arts Projects category at the March or July deadlines instead.
This change is to focus NEA staff resources on the Grants for Arts Projects category.

An instagram comment: “I really hate how there is little to ZERO promotion for the shows around San Francisco. Had no idea MH was coming here…”

A cemetery or shrine maybe with a large tombstone surrounded by plastic cat figurines of various sizes. All the cats are the same cat but their sizes are different.