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4 min read 42

UofWinds 448, Week 42, 2026: Speaking for the Invisible City, Tears on a Touchscreen, Cascadia and a flag named Doug


Good morning. I am writing from my regular desk in the study. I had travelled by train to Montreal on Monday to deliver this short presentation at LVI 2026, travelled back by train all day Thursday, and I was at work yesterday. My parents are visiting this weekend. It is the busy part of Autumn.

The forecast today was originally for rain, but when I look out the window, there is a shocking amount of radiant blue sky. Perhaps I can convince my family to pick from the Empire later today.

Speaking for the Invisible City


Russel Davies recently described Kevin Slavin as the Charles Mingus of PowerPoint (complementary) and pointed to his latest video offering.

I had remembered Slavin's remarkably prescient 2011 TED Talk about How algorithms shape our world, and so I sat through the long introductory remarks of his latest presentation, Who Speaks for the Invisible City?

The video begins with a short backstory of Kevin borrowing punk albums from his local Brooklyn Public Library Branch. I will give the smallest of spoilers: it is from an album sleeve that Slavin discovers the Situationists and the art of dérive.

I don't feel bad about this slight spoiler because there is no possible way to predict where Kevin Slavin's story ends up, and my dear readers, it is worth the trip.

Tears on a Touchscreen


Earlier this month, Montreal software developer Julia Evans posted this on Mastodon:

Thinking this morning about how much of teaching is just taking the time to listen. Hearing what someone’s actual computer problem is and then addressing it is so much harder than just telling them what I think is interesting or cool.

But it's this response that I really want to bring your attention to, because it kicks off an amazing thread:

my local library has a “tech time with Jim” where this old guy just sits at the table and handles everyone’s computer problems for free. Mostly old people. I was doing some work nearby, and it was fascinating to overhear. He would patiently listen and investigate and address exactly what he’s asked, and teach. They would tell him life stories and stuff. I think it takes some strength to be able to do this daily.

This is the same work that the librarian's librarian, Jessamyn West does:

Hey hey – that is exactly what I do at my public library (for 2.5 hours a week and then once a month at the senior living place). And the library pays me! This is important work, and in many communities, there's no one really doing it. As more of our lives become mediated by technology, this should be a role that (some institution in) society plays.

And that's how I found about the game, Tears on a Touchscreen by Amy Linville & Justin Unrau.

Our library does this 3 hours a month drop-in and about 6 hours/week by appointment. It's our best use of staff time (and therefore tax dollars) by far. I made a little Twine game about the emotional labour we do in doing that kind of stuff here: Tears on a Touchscreen

Tears on a Touchscreen: An Interactive Tale About Doing Emotional Tech Support Work is a short Twine game that is both affective and effective.

Cascadia and a flag named Doug


Because I live in Onterrible, I have only recently become aware of the idea of Cascadia. I am pretty sure that I was first aware of the idea of it was when I was learning more about the FIFA-alternative, CONIFA, and found the CAFF:

The Cascadia Association Football Federation (CAFF) represents the Cascadia region of the US and Canada. They are composed of players from Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.
The stated ambition of the team: ‘To allow Cascadia as distinct cultural entity, isolated bioregion and growing society with common interests to be represented at the international level in the sport we are all passionate about.’ Cascadia FA has the mission of forming a men’s, women’s and mixed national team. The Cascadia national team is expected to have a high footballing level as Cascadia is known as “the epicenter of US football”. Many professional coaches and players have declared their interest to play for the team.

I could understand Cascadia as a bioregion, but I had not, until then, had considered the Pacific Northwest as a "distinct cultural identity." I was reminded of this subject as it was explored this week in a CBC Ideas episode called, A Map of Cascadia. I will say that the episode was disappointing to me as the producers deliberately kept the topic very light and spent more time discussing how someone from the West Coast might say the word bag than discussing the matter of those who want to create a separate political entity called Cascadia under a flag called Doug.

What I find particularly complicated and fascinating about the matter of Cascadia is that it is grounded in bioregionalism. From the Department of Bioregion:

Our vision is a world of interconnected bioregions and bioregional movements. Our mission is to develop bioregional frameworks, regenerate our bioregions, and cultivate the conditions for place-based movements, cultures, and ways of living in place to thrive.

As an environmentalist, I can get behind this particular idea.

But I what follows gives me pause:

We believe the people who live in a place are best suited to lead in caring for that place, and that they should not have to build every piece of organizational infrastructure from scratch to do it.

I searched the Cascadia Department of Bioregion website to find any mention of Indigenous nations and their existing land claims, ceded and unceded, and found none. I searched a little bit more and found this now-deleted page using the Wayback Machine. I find it very telling that in Cascadia, it appears that there is no longer any formal recognition of the existing nations of the Coastal First Nations.

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