Archive

Hello friends. My name is Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan - a free newsletter that I send every ten days rounding up my recent creative input and output. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

I did a little work on the Loud Numbers Norns script this week, which brings data sonification to the Norns ecosystem. The original version of the script displayed your data onscreen as a bar chart that I coded by hand. But this wasn’t super flexible and I knew there was a chart library in the Norns ecosystem already, so I patched the script to use that instead. I also added support for custom CSV separators (Europeans love using semicolons) and made the ordering of files and column names a bit more predictable.

I also pushed a small update to the Loud Numbers VCV Rack module that fixes a bug where closing and re-opening the software without selecting a CSV file would display “invalid CSV”.

Hello friends, my name is Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter that I send every 10 days rounding up my recent creative input and output. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, and there’s an unsubscribe link in the footer if you’ve changed your mind.

This issue is a little unusual, in that it mostly consists of a lengthy travelogue of my train journey to Amsterdam to deliver a workshop on sonification - the first in-person work event that I’ve hosted in literally years, then down to Luxembourg to deliver a keynote at the Sound of Data conference. Then the train back to Sweden. If you’re more interested in the links to cool stuff than “what I’ve been upto”, then skip past all that - there are a few bits at the bottom, and normal service will resume next time.

I was really looking forward to my first big rail trip through Europe in a long time, but it turned out to be kind of a nightmare. The schedule wasn’t too bad. Start at 0930. Train to Copenhagen. Wait 50 minutes. Train to Hamburg. Wait two hours. Train to Osnabrück. Wait 30 minutes. Train to Amsterdam, due in about 10pm.

Hello folks, I’m an information designer named Duncan and this is a newsletter named Hello From Duncan. It’s a compilation of my recent creative input and output, and while it’s free to receive, you’re getting it because you signed up for it. I thank you for that vote of confidence. You can unsubscribe instantly with the link in the footer.

I missed it at the time it was published (last December), but this wonderful tale, of the Devon families on the front line against a termite invasion who have finally won their 27-year war, is a lovely read.

Hello folks. My name is Duncan and you’re reading the latest issue of “Hello From Duncan” - a newsletter that I sent every ten days rounding up my recent creative input and output. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

I’ve been working with Conservation International for the last couple of years on the Exponential Roadmap for Natural Climate Solutions.

It’s a guide to understanding what we need to do on wild and working lands in the next decades to keep warming below 1.5C - and what businesses, policymakers, finance and social movements can do to accelerate things.

Hello friends, my name is Duncan and you’re reading “Hello From Duncan” - a newsletter I send every ten days which rounds up the things I’ve put into the world and the things I’ve put into my brain. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, and it’s free to receive, but if you decide that your time with it has ended then you can unsubscribe with the link in the footer.

The Elevate Dataviz Learning Community that I run alongside Alli Torban, Will Chase and Gabrielle Merite is going well, and we recently launched a new initiative aimed at the public and not just community members.

It’s called the Elevate Dataviz Show, and it’s a fortnightly video chat where the four of us (and occasional special guests) get together and chat about trending topics in dataviz, creative inspiration, and the tools and techniques we’re into.

Hello friends, my name is Duncan and this is “Hello From Duncan” - a newsletter I send every ten days rounding up my recent creative input and output. It’s free to receive, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

This is a relatively short one, so I wondered if I should just combine it with the next one instead, but then I thought how much I appreciate it when people send me short emails rather than long ones, so here we are.

Over the last ten days, most of my freelance time has been spent putting the final editorial touches on Conservation International’s Exponential Roadmap for Natural Climate Solutions, which I’ve been working with, on and off, for the best part of two years now.

Hello friends. My name is Duncan, and this is “Hello From Duncan” - a newsletter that I send every ten days rounding up my recent creative input and output. It’s free to receive, but if you don’t want to hear from me any more then there’s an unsubscribe link in the footer below.

I’ve been in Sweden now for ten years. On 27 August 2012, I got on a plane and flew from London to Gothenburg - a city where I didn’t know a single person.

The original purpose of the move was to study a masters degree, after finding out that it was free for EU citizens to study in Sweden. I signed up for an MSc in Environmental Science at the University of Gothenburg - supporting myself on the side with freelance journalism. But I was very much also trying to get out of the UK - a country that I had a feeling was taking a turn for the worse. Sadly I couldn’t have been more right.

Hello. My name is Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan, a newsletter than I send every ten days rounding up my recent creative output and input. You’re receiving it because you signed up for it, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

I’ve largely finished off the sonification work that I was talking about last time, though there might be a handful more edits. That means this week it’s back to my project with Conservation International - putting together a report on natural climate solutions. We’re in the final stretch on that now, and assuming all goes well, it should get a public release in about a month or so. I’ll link here when it does.

Tonight (19 August) I’m going to be streaming a workshop on data sonification for the lines community. Tune in at 1900 Stockholm time on Twitch. There’ll be a recording after if you miss it.

Hello. My name is Duncan, and you’re reading “Hello From Duncan” - a newsletter that I send every ten days looking at my recent creative input and output. It’s free to receive, and you’re getting it because you signed up for it. But if you’d like to unsubscribe you can do so at any time with the link in the footer.

I end up having quite a lot of interactions with friends and family where I’m telling them about something I’ve done recently and they say “I know, I read it in your newsletter”. Which is great, but there’s an information imbalance - I don’t get newsletters from them. So if we’ve not spoken in a while, then hit reply and let me know what you’ve been up to lately, what’s filling your time, what you’re excited about and interested in. I’d love to hear from you!

Most of my work I’ve done over the last couple of weeks is sonification work, and it’s a delight. Not just because I like doing sonification work (I do), but because I also like the fact that paid sonification work for clients is something that it’s even possible to do.

Hello hello, my name is Duncan and this is “Hello From Duncan” - a newsletter that I send every ten days, rounding up my recent creative input and output. It’s free to receive, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

I’ve been on holiday for the last, well, ten days or so. So this is a lighter edition than normal. But hopefully you’ll still find something interesting in it.

The last few days in the UK have seen a record-breaking heatwave, with temperatures in some locations rising above 40.3C (105F). This is consistent with what we’d expect to experience as the planet warms due to humankind’s carbon emissions.

Hello there. My name is Duncan, and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter I send every ten days rounding up my recent creative input and output. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, it’s free to recieve, and you can unsubscribe whenever you want with the link in the footer.

Last year I provided a sonification soundtrack to a data animation by Valentina D’Efilippo called London Under The Microscope, created for the Museum of London. It’s one of my favourite things I’ve made in the last few years, so give it a watch/listen if you haven’t already.

I’ve just heard that it was given a “Notable Mention” in the Core77 Design Awards in the Visual Communication category this year. So that’s nice. It also qualifies it for another category - the community choice prize, which is voted for by the public. If you have a Core77 account, or if you fancy creating one, I’d really appreciate your vote!

Hello friends, my name is Duncan and this is “Hello From Duncan” - a newsletter that I send every ten days or so, rounding up my recent creative input and output. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, so that one’s on you - but you can unsubscribe any time with the link in the footer.

Kind of a short newsletter today, but that’s just how things pan out sometimes. Let’s begin.

The mini-conference I hosted this past week, Elevate Live, was a huge success. Over four hours, we hosted talks from a collection of new voices in data visualization and information design, with speakers in Colombia, Nigeria, Portugal, Canada, and more.

Hello, my name is Duncan and this is “Hello From Duncan” - a newsletter that I send every ten days rounding up my recent creative input and output. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, and you can walk back that decision at any point with the unsubscribe link in the footer.

Today, we’ve got a whole lot of output to talk about. Not quite sure how that’s happened, but things have a way of lining up I suppose. Let’s dive in.

First up, I’d like to invite you to Elevate Live - a free mini-conference featuring new voices in information design, on 28 June 2022.

Hello. My name is Duncan, and this is “Hello From Duncan” - a newsletter-shaped summary of my recent creative input and output that I send every 10 days. You’re receiving it because you signed up for it, and there’s an unsubscribe link at the bottom if you need to use it.

The last couple of weeks have been busy, so let’s get right into it.

At Possible, the solutions-focused climate charity that I work for, we just relaunched our Car Free Stories map, which includes a bunch of case studies of cities across the world reducing traffic through all kinds of systems.

Hello friends. My name is Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter I send every ten days compiling my recent creative input and output. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, and there’s an unsubscribe link in the footer if you want out.

I know I said I’d skip this issue because I’ve been travelling and wouldn’t have time to do much, but it turns out that travelling is quite good for input, so here’s a short compilation of everything I read, watched, played, etc that I felt was worth sharing. Enjoy.

Let’s start this week with a little question. What percentage of new car sales, globally, do you think are SUVs? Ponder it for a moment, write down what you think, and then find the actual answer at the bottom.

Hello. My name is Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter I send every ten days summing up my recent creative input and output. It’s free to receive, and you can unsubscrbe at any time with the link in the footer. If you like it, sign up your best friend. If you hate it, sign up your worst enemy.

Let’s get straight into things.

As you read this, I’ll be setting out for a trip back to the UK to attend a wedding and see a bunch of family who I’ve not seen in literally years at this point. I’m pretty nervous about the journey - two years of *gestures wildly around* has left me deeply uncomfortable in small metal tubes containing lots of people. But there are no travel options that don’t involve small metal tubes containing lots of people, so I’m going to have to live with it.

Hello friends. My name is Duncan, I’m an information designer, and this is Hello From Duncan - a regular newsletter that I send covering my recent creative input and output.

It’s free to receive, so if you like it then do me a favour by sharing it with someone who you think might like it too. If you want out, you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

Over the last few months I’ve been working on a report showing that of the 50-odd sustainability pledges made by the airline industry over the last twenty years, only one has been met. I did the design and dataviz in the report, the analysis and writing was done by Jamie Beevor, Keith Alexander, and my excellent colleagues at Possible.

Hello friends. My name is Duncan, I’m an information designer living in Sweden, and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter I send every ten days or so which rounds up my recent creative input and output. You’re receiving it because you signed up for it, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

Who had April 2022 on their bingo card as the month I left social media? If so, you’re a winner. I’ve been barely present on Facebook for the best part of five years now, and pretty much off Instagram for two. That just leaves Twitter - which I’ve now also decided to take some time off from.

Why am I quitting? Well, I’m not so wild about Musk’s plans to turn the site into a barely-moderated snakepit. Fifteen years ago, I too would probably have described myself as a champion of “free speech”. But I’ve learnt a lot about creating and running online communities in the time since, and the world has changed a lot, and it’s now very clear to me that creating a pleasant environment for people to hang out online means strong and active content moderation. Techdirt has a lengthy read that exposes how little Musk understands this.

Hello friends. Duncan here, with my regular “Hello From Duncan” newsletter. This, as I’m sure you know by now, is a roundup of my recent creative input and output that I send three times a month. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

My biggest creative input over the last ten days has been hiking Kullaleden - a four-day trail along the western coast of Skåne in southern Sweden. The distance is offficially listed as 70km, but with small extra bits at the start, the end, and various detours along the way, we ended up walking about 100km (62 Imperial miles, 10 Swedish miles) over the Easter weekend.

Last year, around the same time, I walked Gotaleden - and I wanted to follow that up with something similar. We had good weather, and the trail was very flat for a lot of the way, with steep bits only on the Kullaberg peninsula, which served as the half-way point along the journey.

Hello friends, my name is Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan - a regular newsletter rounding up my recent creative input and output. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, probably here, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

I’ve been feeling pretty burnt out lately, which is a consequence of having been fully-booked with work for the best part of six months. That’s great for my bank balance, which is always a consideration as a freelancer, but not so great for my mental health. So I’ve not booked any client work in for April (except for my ongoing commitments - which already account for 50%+ of my time), and I’m focusing on Loud Numbers (my data sonification project) and taking some trips instead.

Trip one is already done - five days of train travel through Norway. We rode the Bergensbanen all the way to Bergen on the Atlantic coast, stopping off in Oslo and Flåm along the way. The Bergensbanen is pretty incredible - going from the sea-level suburbs of Oslo, into the forested hills, and then up to the snow-covered Handangervidda plateau at 1,237m. If you want to get a taste of the journey, the Norwegian public broadcaster recorded a seven-hour video of the view from the front of the train, and it’s up on YouTube. Just the thing to put on in the background while you’re working.

Hello. My name is Duncan and this is “Hello From Duncan” - a newsletter I send every ten days or so, rounding up my recent creative input and output. You can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

I’m coming to the end of a large project with Conservation International which has been eating up a lot of my creative energies lately. Getting it over the line will require even more. So I’m going to skip the next issue, due on 1 April, and be back in your inboxes again on 10 April or thereabouts. Until then, enjoy this relatively short instalment.

Many of the organisations that hire me to do information design work for them are trying to communicate complex research findings to a wider audience. This isn’t something that comes naturally to many researchers. But it’s very much a learnable skill - and the other day my friend (and Elevate co-founder) Alli Torban shared this brilliant “pyramid” graphic by Jon Schwabish that lays out the tradeoffs between complexity and audience.

Hi there. My name is Duncan, I’m an information designer living in Sweden, and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter where I write about my recent creative input and output. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, and you can change that at any time with the link in the footer.

A few public appearances to share first. The first episode of my data sonification podcast, Loud Numbers, is being exhibited in the Singing Waves gallery in Hong Kong as part of its “Data Art for Climate Action” exhibition. If Hong Kong is a bit far, then you can experience the exhibition online.

Second, I guested on Jon Schwabish’s Policyviz podcast with my colleagues from the Elevate Learning Community. We talked about how and why we started Elevate, what people can learn, and why we think this approach is so valuable to the wider field of dataviz. “I think you’re really going to like this episode,” writes Jon.

Hi there, I’m Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter that I send every ten days rounding up my recent creative input and output. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

Here’s a nice bit of good news to kick things off today. My data sonification podcast, Loud Numbers, got an Honourable Mention in the Pudding Cup 2021. The team at the Pudding wrote:

Using data to make creative, yet coherent visualizations is hard enough; imagine trying to make music from it. That’s the daunting task that the makers of Loud Numbers undertake in every episode of their podcast, often with resounding success. The “Boom & Bust” and “The End of the Road” episodes are especially captivating sonifications.

Hello friends. My name is Duncan, and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter that I send every ten(ish) days, containing my recent creative input and output. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, and you can reverse that rash decision any time you like with the link in the footer.

It has been an output-light couple of weeks, at least in terms of “things to put in a newsletter”, so this is another low-wordcount issue. It’s also a few days late, and kinda downbeat. Maybe this is the “new normal”. Who knows. Either way, let’s get started.

The biggest event of the last couple of weeks for me was Outlier Conference. I was part of the team putting it together, but I don’t think I’m biased in saying that it’s one of the best online conferences out there. Unlike most Zoom-a-thons, the event platform actively encourages you to “lean forward” and interact with other participants, while the unconference sessions allow for you to meet people doing similar work and share experiences.

Hello friends, my name is Duncan and this is “Hello From Duncan” - a newsletter I send every ten days where I round up my recent input and output. You’re receiving it because you signed up for it and I like to honour my promises. If you want out, there’s an unsubscribe link in the footer.

This instalment is again on the shorter side due to my current workload. A freelancer telling you that “if I can just get to the end of this week then things will be a bit calmer” is something of a cliche, but in my case it’ll mean wrapping up two bits of for climate solutions experts Project Drawdown, having Outlier Conference and my two planned unconference sessions behind me, and also having finished a big chunky bit of report design for climate charity Possible.

One goal for start of this year was to get a clearer view of what my pipeline of work looks like, and to do that I’ve been using Cushion. Cushion is my favourite kind of software. Like Buttondown and Ghost, which are also important parts of my toolbox, it’s made by a small team, not backed by VC money, and open about development. The interface can be a little fiddly, in setting up clients and projects, but I was able to pretty much figure everything out and set it all up without needing to look at the help files.

Hello friends. I’m Duncan, I’m an information designer, and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter collecting together my recent input and output which lands with a thud in your inbox every ten days. It’s free, as in beer, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

Phew, what a couple of weeks its been. As a result, this instalment is a little shorter than usual. Do something nice for yourself in the time you’d otherwise have spent reading a longer email. Or if you’d prefer to do something nice for me, then use the time to write on social media about how much you like this newsletter, linking to the subscribe page. Totally up to you.

Good news first. I’m really happy to say that the launch of the Elevate learning community, with Alli Torban, Will Chase and Gabrielle Merite, couldn’t have gone better. We’ve hit 100 members already, it’s shaping up to be a sustainable, rewarding part of my work, and our new members are integrating wonderfully into our community.

Hello. My name is Duncan, and after a couple of weeks off this is the first 2022 edition of Hello From Duncan - a newsletter-shaped compilation of my recent creative input and output. You’re getting this email because you signed up for it, but if you’re suddenly realising that was a terrrible mistake then there’s an unsubscribe link in the footer.

First things first. For the last few months, I’ve been running a beta test of a paid membership program focused on creative information design. Together with Alli Torban, Gabrielle Merite and Will Chase, we’ve created a learning community where people can come and improve their skills together with others. The beta, with about 40 people, has gone fantastically well.

So today, we’re opening the doors to the public - anyone can sign up. You can check out what we’re offering at elevatedataviz.com, which boils down to a combination of courses, blog posts, office hours, challenges, inspiration, and active mentorship. It’s also a great way to support our work and experiments, if they’re something you want to see more of in the world.

Hello there. I’m an information designer named Duncan Geere, and this is Hello From Duncan - a regular newsletter which covers my recent creative input and output. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, and you can unsubscribe instantly with the link in the footer.

It’s that time of year when I start thinking about how I want the next year to go, and coincidentally I just came across the concept of a Depth Year - a year when you go deeper, rather than wider:

You improve skills rather than learning new ones. You consume media you’ve already stockpiled instead of acquiring more. No new hobbies, equipment, games, or books are allowed during this year. Instead, you have to find the value in what you already own or what you’ve already started. Drill down for value and enrichment instead of fanning out. You turn to the wealth of options already in your house, literally and figuratively.

Hello friends, I'm Duncan and I'd like to welcome you to the latest episode of Hello From Duncan. This, as I'm sure you know by now, is a newsletter that I sent every ten days or so about my recent creative input and output.

It's totally free and there are no "upgrade tiers". So if you like it, then the nicest thing you could do is recommend me the next time you hear about someone who needs some information design work doing. If you want out, then there's an unsubscribe link at the footer.

Tomorrow, the first episode of my new pop-up newsletter will go out. It’s called Signal Chain, and it’s a creative collaboration with photographer Oliver Holmes.

We’re going to take it in turns to send each other things every two weeks. I’m kicking off with a modular soundscape, then he’ll respond to that with a photograph, which I’ll use as inspiration for another soundscape, and so on. It’ll run for 10 episodes, then we’ll publish the whole lot somewhere on the web.

Subscribe here if you’d like to get our creative exchanges in your inbox every couple of weeks for a few months.

I’m in the UK this week for the first time in two years - a very brief visit to see close family, so won’t have time to really see friends etc. But I’m aiming to be back over by train next year, pandemic permitting, and I would love to see many of you then.

I’m mostly working from my parents’ home, but I’ll be popping up to the capital tomorrow to meet my colleagues at Possible for the first time. Kind of weird that I’ve been working there for almost a year now, and I’ve never met any of them in person. So I’m looking forward to that.

Turns out the number one thing (beyond family, of course) that I’ve missed from the UK in the last two years are crumpets. So I’ve been gorging myself on those.

Not having to walk a dog four times a day while in the UK has earnt me a bit of spare time, which I’ve been spending on developing a sonification script for my Monome Norns.

Norns scripts are written in Lua, which I’ve not worked with much before, so there’s a lot of Googling of syntax going on - but I’m slowly getting there. Lua starts counting from 1, rather than 0, which is very distressing to me, coming from Javascript and Python.

Nonetheless, this is one of the largest coding “projects” I’ve worked on for a while, with several different moving parts. First the script needs to grab a list of data files in a directory, choose one, and read it. Then it needs to parse a selected column of data out of that file, putting it in Lua data structures. Then it needs to show a visual representation of that data on the screen. Then the user needs to be able to select a scale and a root note (it only maps to pitch for now). Then they need to be able to play back the notes in sync with an internal or external clock.

Most of that is done, but I’m struggling with the file reading parts because they’re slow, and the script tries to do things with the data before the reading is complete. There doesn’t seem to be native support for asynchronous coding in Lua, so I’m exploring other options. I’ll crack it eventually, but I fear it might involve restructuring the whole codebase in the process.

My coding has been accompanied by the excellent Music For Programming - a collection of mixes put together with a lot of love by Datasette. Highly recommended as a soundtrack for work of all kinds.

When quoting a price recently, I realised that my pricing strategy has changed a bit in the last year or so. Originally I was expecting to find a magical sweet spot where I felt that a price was not too high and not too low. But the reality is that the sweet spot is when I feel like the price is BOTH too high and too low. So sketched a graphic to illustrate.

Something changed this year in the discussions around climate change that I see on the web. More and more right-wing figures are switching from denying or delaying climate action to full-throated support. Look at Boris Johnson, leading the largest right-wing majority that Britain has seen in a long time, preaching the need for cutting emissions, installing heat pumps, and abandoning coal.

In truth, this has been coming for a long time. Conservation and conservatism share more than their first 10 letters. Both are about returning to a vision of how things used to be, before they were “ruined” by modern society. Both default to less interference, rather than more. Both value the “local” over the “foreign”.

While this shift in right-wing thought should be broadly welcomed, it’s worth thinking about the battles ahead. Already, extremist politicians across Europe are attempting to use environmentalism as an argument for reducing immigration and strengthening borders, as described by Oliver Milman in this Guardian piece:

In the UK, the far-right British National party has claimed to be the “only true green party” in the country due to its focus on migration. In Germany, the rightwing populist party Alternative for Germany has tweaked some of its earlier mockery of climate science with a platform that warns “harsh climatic conditions” in Africa and the Middle East will see a “gigantic mass migration towards European countries”, requiring toughened borders. Meanwhile, France’s National Front, once a bastion of derisive climate denial, has founded a green wing called New Ecology, with Marine Le Pen, president of the party, vowing to create the “world’s leading ecological civilization” with a focus on locally grown foods.

The reality, of course, is that few climate migrants want to migrate at all. They’re being forced to abandon their homes by the extreme weather and climatic changes unleashed by the wasteful, high-carbon consumption habits of richer countries - the same lifestyles enthusiastically promoted for decades by the very same right-wing politicians who are now sounding the alarm.

What’s more, the personal carbon footprints of these climate migrants are a tiny fraction of those of people in richer countries. So don’t be fooled by anyone claiming that “population” is the real climate problem, or that the only way to protect our way of life is to enclose our homes in a ring of steel.

The least disruptive path forward is to rapidly cut emissions and reverse the destruction of natural environments, so that as few people as possible are forced from their homes by severe weather and climatic chaos.

Finally, a book recommendation. I just finished and very much enjoyed the short and sweet A Psalm For The Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers. It’s a short solarpounk novella that tells the story of a person who doesn’t know what they want, and a robot who does. It wears its solarpunk firmly on its sleeve (in fact it overdoes it a little at times), but it’s short enough that that’s not a bother. If you’re looking for a little more optimism in your reading diet, a little glimpse of a better world, then I think you’ll enjoy it.

That’s all for this week. Catch you in ten days.

- Duncan

Hello. My name is Duncan, I’m an information designer interested in technology, culture and the environment, and from a hotel in Gothenburg this is “Hello From Duncan” - a compilation of my recent input and output which I send every ten days. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, but it’s easy to unsubscribe with the link in the footer.

The beta test of my data visualization membership programme, in collaboration with Alli Torban, Will Chase, and Gabrielle Merite, is going very well, and we’ve decided it’s viable to launch publicly - which we’re planning to do in January.

If you’d like to invest in levelling your data visualization skills through a supportive, like-minded community, and gain privileged access to four mentors without needing to send a single awkward email, then grab a place at the front of the waiting list by filling in this form.

Hello friends. My name is Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter I send every ten days which collects together my recent input and output. As always, you’re getting this message because you signed up for it, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

Lots of personal news bits today, so let’s get straight into it!

Hello friends. My name is Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter I send every ten days summarising my recent creative input and output. You're getting it because you signed up for it, and you can unsubscribe with the link in the footer.

Hello friends, my name is Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter-shaped summary of my recent input and output, which I send every ten days or so. You're getting it because you signed up for it, most likely at buttondown.email/duncangeere.

You might wonder why I mention this every time I email you. It's because we all get a lot of email these days, and I don't want anyone, especially new subscribers, to be wondering "what the hell is this?". Just seems like a small kindness that's not much bother for me, and we all need a few more small kindnesses in our lives.

Hello friends. My name is Duncan and this is “Hello From Duncan” - a compilation of my recent input and output, which I send three times a month. You’re getting it because you subscribed to it at some point in the distant or recent past, and you can unsubscribe with the link in the footer.

Let’s do reading recommendations first today. I’m still really enjoying Jenny Odell’s How To Do Nothing, now that I’m a little over half-way through. Just the right mix of politics, philosophy and self-help, in that the self-help doesn’t take the form of “do this”, but “here’s a new way that you could think about this”. It’s gentle with the reader, and firm against those forces that assail the reader. It’s a book that’s in your corner.

Hello friends, my name is Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan - a thrice-monthly compilation of my recent input and output. You're receiving it becuase you signed up for it, and if you've changed your mind about that then there's an unsubscribe link in the footer.

I was a very early user of Spotify, and I think the first tech journalist to write about it in the UK. In a , I called it a “breath of fresh air”.

Hello friends, my name is Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter I send three times a month. It's a compilation of my most recent input and output. Because you can't have good output without good input.

You're receiving it because you signed up for it (probably here) and you can unsubscribe with a single click using the link in the footer.

Hello friends, my name is Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter I send every ten days about what's going on with me and what I'm finding interesting. You're getting it because you signed up for it, probably at this link. If you like it, forward a copy to a friend who you think would like it too. If you don't, then the unsubscribe link is in the footer and you're free to go.

Hello friends. My name is Duncan, and this is the newsletter I send out every 10ish days. It used to be exactly ten, but now I'm sending three issues a month on the 10th, 20th and last day of each month instead. Less decimal, more lunar. Feels right.

As always, you're getting this message because you signed up for it. You probably subscribed at buttondown.email/duncangeere, so if this email comes as a surprise then check that link and see if it looks familiar.

Okay, on to the show.

Hello folks, my name is Duncan and this is a newsletter I send every ten days called “Hello From Duncan”. It’s free, it’s healthy, and it’s carbon-neutral. What’s not to like? You’re getting it because you signed up for it, most likely here, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

Things are for me right now. I’m currently working on an extremely short-deadline sonification project for a large US company, a long-term editing job on a large scientific report for a large US charity, a deep analysis of some survey data and a map-based web design project for Possible, a bit of visualization work for a British startup, preparing for the launch of my dataviz membership programme, my usual writing commitments for Minecraft.net, and trying to progress a few little art projects in the background.

Hello folks. My name is Duncan Geere, and this is “Hello From Duncan” - a newsletter that normally arrives every ten days with a mix of things I’m working on and things I’m finding interesting.

You didn’t get one ten days ago because I was about to move house, and I’ve also spent most of the last ten days moving house, but I did get a chance to write a few notes for it so I figured it would be better to send something short than nothing at all.

Before we begin, the usual housekeeping - you’re getting this newsletter because you signed up for it, probably at buttondown.email/duncangeere. If you’ve had enough, there’s an unsubscribe button in the email footer.

Hello. My name is Duncan, and according to the banner image above, this is my newsletter: Hello From Duncan. I send it every ten days, and you’re receiving it because you signed up for it. You can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

Enjoying it? Forward a copy to a friend who’ll like it, or just hit reply and tell me what you’ve been working on lately. You will be heard - I read every email I get, and quite honestly I reply to almost all of them too. Now let’s get on with the show.

In a couple of weeks I’ll be leaving Gothenburg, my home for the last nine years. I’m moving down to Helsingborg, a town in southern Sweden close to Lund and Malmö, because my partner got a new job at the start of the year based down there and so we’ll need to move sooner or later. Right now Covid-19 case statistics in Sweden are extremely low (not much delta variant here yet), so it seems like a good time. We’ve found an apartment, and will be moving on 2 August.

Happy Saturday, friends. My name is Duncan, and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter I send every ten days, covering things I’ve been working on and things I’ve been finding interesting. It’s free, but not cheap, and you can always unsubscribe with the link in the footer.

Before we get started, another apology for sending you a Loud Numbers newsletter the other day. This is the problem with having too many newsletters. But yes - episode three of Loud Numbers is now out - and it’s an old-school jungle track, with plenty of airhorns, backspins and a phat bassline. .

Hello folks. My name is Duncan, and you’re reading “Hello From Duncan” - a newsletter I send every ten days filled with things I’ve been working on and finding interesting. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, probably on Buttondown. And you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

The second episode of Loud Numbers, my data sonification podcast, has been released. You can , or in your favourite podcast client by searching for “Loud Numbers”.

Hello folks. I’m Duncan Geere and this is Hello From Duncan, a newsletter I send every ten days about the things I’ve been working on and the things that I’m interested in. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

You know all this, of course. But I like to remind people each time because we all get too many emails these days and there’s no shame if you want to take a break for a bit.

For Clean Air Day on 17 June, Possible has released the that I created for them. A parklet is a reclaimed parking space that’s been turned into a park, and my Parklet Designer lets you design your own by placing common ingredients, like bike racks, plants, picnic benches, birdbaths, and more.

Hello friends. My name is Duncan, and this is my newsletter - Hello From Duncan. I send it every ten days or so, and it’s basically things I’ve been working on and things I’ve found interesting. You’re getting it because you signed up for it, and you can unsubscribe with no hard feelings using the link in the footer.

With that out of the way, let’s get started.

Loud Numbers, my data sonification podcast, is out! It has been a long journey up to this point, and I’ve talked about it quite a lot in the past, so I won’t go into too much depth here, but suffice to say that I was really happy with how our launch event went and the reception of the first episode so far.

Hello folks. My name is Duncan and this is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter I send every ten days about… well, about all kinds of things really. You’re getting it because you signed up at buttondown.email/duncangeere and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

The biggest news this week is that the that I’ve been working on for about 18 months, Loud Numbers, is almost ready for release! We’ve put together five episodes of the podcast, covering topics as diverse as climate change, EU bureaucracy and beer tasting. The first will be released on 5 June 2021 - that’s this coming Saturday (how is it June already?).

Hi folks, and welcome to Hello From Duncan - a newsletter I send every ten days about the things I’ve been working on and the things that have been interesting me.

I don’t have a newsletter for you today. Well - that’s not strictly true, you’re reading one right now. But for the last ten days I’ve been the guardian of a tiny puppy who has been eating a lot of my waking hours (as well as toys, treats, walls, chair legs, and anything else she can get her teeth into). I have not really had time to do much beyond the bare minimum.

So instead of a newsletter today, you just get a photo of the puppy. I hope it will suffice.

Hello, close and distant friends. This is Hello From Duncan - a newsletter I send every ten days with some bits and bobs about what I’ve been working on and what I’ve found interesting. As always, you’re getting this email because you signed up for it, and you can unsubscribe at any time with the link in the footer.

This is quite a chunky edition, because I’ve been busy. You would think that would mean a shorter email but being busy means lots of things to write about, so here we are. I feel like I have a lot of plates spinning at the moment. But nothing has crashed to the ground yet, so let’s hope that continues. On with the show.