funontheupfield

As predicted, this entire week I've been buried in work and study, a stark contrast to the week prior, when I engaged in a myriad of artistic engagements. As part of my doctoral studies, I've powered my way through the University of Chicago's content on climate modelling. The professor, David Archer, understands the physics, the modelling, and even the trickier issues involved in translating one to the other, especially given the handful of uncertainties and modelling challenges at scales. His book, "Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast" is a worthwhile introduction to the subject. I have not yet decided what my major paper will be for this study; although I must mention that my paper "Energy Production Under The Paris Agreement: Options for Developing Pacific Island Countries" from the course "Global Energy and Climate Policy" has been accepted for The Intergovernmental Research and Policy Journal; I just have to clear up some formatting issues (one day, we'll all use Markdown).

One fortunate side of my work in supercomputing is the access to some particularly big iron, which might be useful in these situations. The University's own system, Spartan, has grown from being an innovative experimental system on a shoestring budget to become one of the world's top supercomputers. But another part of my role is working with the West Australian Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, home of Setonix, Australia's most powerful system (named after the quokka, you know). This week, we had a visitor from WA, from Pawsey, to discuss the system, and I was involved in wrangling a lecture theatre full of Spartan researchers to come along and hear about how to get access to this grander system. It was a bit of a highlight for the week, as I'm also organising a major project which includes a couple of major transitions which I strongly disagree with on a technical level, which I know will come back and bite us in the future. But I have long been an advocate of not letting work decisions upset me, and I am all too familiar with people acting as if technical limits are negotiable.

I rather suspect that next week is going to be a bit like the past week; the combination of full-time work and full-time study often means there are periods when my social life suffers quite a lot, and this is one of those times when the pointy end of multiple deadlines is looming. It is times like these that I feel a great deal of gratitude for the especially calm and studious Rookery I've built for myself, and for finding myself in a profession where extended periods of solitude are highly beneficial for output. I guess in the past people found themselves in a secluded hermitage; instead, I find myself in the midst of a vibrant city with the plentiful beauty of art and nature, and it takes some willpower to stay focused.

Since my return from China and, as a decidedly non-artistic introduction, a version of my post on visiting the Wuxi supercomputing centre has been published on the Wuxi city website. However, aside from that, my non-work, non-academic time has been almost entirely focused on artistic experiences this week, including one movie, two comedy shows, and three gallery visits. The movie was with Nitul to see "Project Hail Mary", a high-stakes alien-contact film with drama, feel-good vibes, and probably a lot of explanatory lore behind the scenes. It was quite good, but rather overrated. The following evening I spent with Robbie K., and we took the opportunity to go to Hamer Hall to see Daniel Sloss perform his latest show, "Bitter"; and he has good reasons for that sentiment. He certainly delivers insightful content with natural talent, creativity, and sincerity, and that's what makes him a great artist.

Nitul and I caught up again the following night for the opening night of German artist Julius von Bismarck presenting his multimedia and installation pieces with a climatological edge, "This is Not The Storm" partly sponsored by the Goethe-Institut. The place was packed to the rafters, but I did get to talk with my old uni friend and author, Claire Coleman, whom I hadn't seen in twenty years. Today I decided to go back to the exhibition, hoping for a quieter visit, only to discover the artist was giving an explanatory tour of their works. This time, I managed to get a pretty thorough conversation in about climatological issues, Antarctica, and Zurich, and, curiously, I foresee future collaborations.

Further, B is visiting from interstate and last night we went to the comedy festival show, "Nosferatu Looking For Love" at the Motley Wherehouse (reminds me of a place in Sydney I used to frequent), also meeting up with Erica, Chiara, and Susie. The show was delightfully corny, as expected, and there was plentiful engagement with the small audience. I honestly don't care for much comedy, but the two scales of events this week, Rhiannon McCall and Daniel Sloss, were both very enjoyable experiences. Today we caught up again, this time to visit the basement beneath the State Library and to see the current exhibit, Rebel Heart; the latter is certainly worthwhile.

It has all been quite an exciting week, and it furthers my considered assessment that artistry, screening out the lack of context, depends very much on the creativity, talent, and sincerity of the artist, with the latter, the ethical component, often quite overlooked. I would rather discuss this matter a lot more, but alas, I will have to leave that for another day. As others prepare themselves for the rest of the weekend, I have to cloister myself to catch up with various climatological research, which I have fallen behind a little. But that will certainly make the bulk of the next post.