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explorations in iphone notes

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2023/06/05

June 5, 2023
A rowboat that appears to be hovering in the air in a thick fog. There are two figures in the rowboat: one smaller and hooded in the back, and a tall robed figure holding a staff in the front. Below the boat is the suggestion of a horizon and some blurry dark shapes that could be either trees or mountains. Above are hazy clouds.

2023/06/04

June 4, 2023
A large, egg-shaped, furry creature with two horns. The entire front of the creature's body is a mirror, in which is reflected a blurry figure wearing a coat.

2023/06/03

June 3, 2023
A tall, very narrow, white building of approximately two or three stories that looks a little like a church. There's a regular door at the base of the building—more like a closet door than what you'd expect the doorway of a church to be—and a fancy arched window at the top. It's a clear, starry night. The building has a crosslike ornament at the pinnacle of the roof, and three abstract figures carved into the front of it. The door has the same crosslike symbol. Fastened to the right side of the building, in the most haphazard way possible, is an extremely crudely-constructed shack: an irregular concoction of boards and scraps with a rope ladder dangling from it. A television aerial sticks out of the roof of the shack. The window is illuminated, suggesting that someone is home, but no one is seen.

2023/06/02

June 2, 2023
A small, grassy hill, far out in the middle of a forest. It's early evening on a damp, foggy night. The sky is a deep blue, not black. There is a full moon wrapped in fog, with a blurry tree line in the background. On top of the hill stands a pink, glowing vending machine (the soda kind, not the food kind). On top of the vending machine sits a cat.

2023/06/01

June 1, 2023
A person stands in a barren, empty area, juggling three huge boulders and an assortment of smaller rocks and debris (also known as "multitasking").

2023/05/31

May 31, 2023
A huge, somewhat robotic-looking figure, arms stiffly at its sides, hands balled into fists. It looks like a large person wearing an unremarkable pair of pants and coat. Where the figure's head would be sits a person on a chair, watching a boxy, old-style television. The background is indeterminate: suggestions of clouds, and a blurry horizon.

2023/05/30

May 30, 2023
On the left of the drawing, a stark, perfectly vertical cliff wall, interrupted only by a doorway set in the wall, a small deck with a railing jutting out from it. It's night; stars on a slate gray sky. Above the doorway is a glowing spherical lamp, similar to a streetlamp. Next to the doorway is a red train signal. Pulled up to the deck is what looks like a subway car, except it is floating in space and doesn't have wheels.

2023/05/29

May 29, 2023
An aerial view of a small, mostly wooded island. In the center of the island, dominating it, stand the crumbling remains of what looks like a high-rise apartment block or hotel. The uppermost stories especially are coming apart, as though from a fire. Elsewhere on the island are scattered outbuildings: a small boxy building next to a helicopter landing strip, a lighthouse at the northern tip of the island, the remains of an antenna to the south, and a rusting shipwreck in a small cove. In the top left is a compass symbol. This island has no name, and the few that even know if its existence are happy enough not to speak of it. There is little left to attract visitors: just woods, ruins, and an uneasy sense that perhaps this forgotten place is not as uninhabited as it appears.

2023/05/28

May 28, 2023
A figure with three legs and a face made of two masks, each mask itself half a face. It looks as though one three-legged person—or maybe one one-legged person next to a two-legged person—are standing behind two giant half-faced masks, holding them together. The eyes of both masks are empty; one seems to be a hole with light behind it, one is totally dark. This bizarre assemblage stands outside, the suggestions of grass and cloud around it.

2023/05/27

May 27, 2023
A giant pair of what roughly resemble legs and a torso. It looks like a cross between something carved from stone and a giant machine: craggy, cracked, with strange contours and bolts and pipes sticking out of it. On top of this sits a person playing a tuba-like musical instrument. This is placed in the middle of nowhere, with weeds around and on it, and the vague suggestion of clouds above.

2023/05/26

May 26, 2023
An old-style telephone booth stands on a small hillock at night, overlooking the ocean. The full moon is high in the sky. The sky is clear, filled with stars. No one is in the booth. Perhaps no one has been for quite some time.

2023/05/25

May 25, 2023
A black, furry, slightly hunched over creature dances while juggling balls. The creature is wearing a mask that looks vaguely like a jester's face and cap, except more minimal and eerie: blank and white, with black holes for eyes and a mouth.

2023/05/24

May 24, 2023
A tiny concrete house sits, perched on top of a large boulder. The house has one arched window that takes up most of the wall, and a conical, pointed, shiny roof. To the right of it is a small balcony; the sun blazes overhead in a way that could be construed as hellish. But perhaps the most striking feature is the fact that the boulder the house is on is balanced incredibly precariously on a stack of three other boulders, some large, some small, similar to a hazardously constructed cairn. It looks as though the slightest breeze could send it all toppling.

2023/05/23

May 23, 2023
A portrait-style close-up of a figure with a wrench for a head. Basically it looks like a wrench is wearing a collarless shirt. The wrench is one of those ones with a square mouth, tilted at about 45°. Inside the mouth of the wrench sits a small figure holding out a phone as though it is taking a selfie.

2023/05/22

May 22, 2023
An imposing figure sits in a high chair on trusses, similar to a lifeguard's chair. The figure is wearing a suit and has a long-necked desk lamp for a head. Below the figure sits a person in a normal-sized chair, reading a book. The scene is at night; the desk lamp person casts a light over the person sitting in a chair reading a book.

2023/05/21

May 21, 2023
A faceless figure staggers along, a large salad bowl (or maybe a wok) balanced on its head. Inside the bowl is a collection of large, heavy, unrecognizable bits and pieces. Most look like industrial detritus; one looks like a boulder with an eye.

2023/05/20

May 20, 2023
A large, high-ceilinged room with an old-style mainframe computer in it. The room is somewhat dismal, containing a wall clock, bucket, and mop. The computer has a data cassette on the front, and a steel-framed door and window below it. The computer has many large pipes coming out of it, as though it is a furnace. Below the computer room, in a basement area, the base of the computer extends into a large concrete fireplace with a fire burning brightly inside. The basement is dark; there's no light except for that cast by the fire. A figure stands next to the fireplace holding a shovel. The effect is of a large computer with a door that opens into a coal burning furnace below.

2023/05/19

May 19, 2023
A large person wearing a shirt, a tie, a vast overcoat, and heavy military boots stands alone. The person's head is shaved; they have an analog clock for a face. Pinned to the overcoat is a wild, ostentatious array of various medals, pins, and badges.

2023/05/18

May 18, 2023
A person sitting in a car seat and holding a steering wheel. Both the seat and the steering column are fused into the earth, not part of any vehicle. Above the person is a traffic light dangling down from the sky, not fixed to any visible source. The light is green, but nobody seems to be going anywhere.

2023/05/17

May 17, 2023
At first glance, a small, shed-like building with a weathervane on top. The sky is gray and dark; the orange sunlight from an unseen sun comes in at an oddly low angle, as though the sun is either rising or setting. But the strangest thing is the building itself. The perspectives just don't add up. A staircase descends from the right side, extending past the left wall, which is either facing outward or inward, depending on which part of it you're looking at. At the top of the stairs on the right wall stands a small figure, reflecting the sunlight. Peering out of an archway on the left wall stands a very large figure. This took me way too long to do, even longer to explain, and even though I loved Escher as a kid, I'm pretty sure he never attempted any of this on an iPhone.

2023/05/16

May 16, 2023
An evening scene out in the woods. A giant telescope is mounted on a conical cement base planted on a small grassy promontory. The telescope seems to be in a clearing, with shadowy trees in the background. Above the telescope is a blazing, four-pointed star. However, the telescope is not pointed towards the star, but towards the ground behind it, and light streams from the end of the telescope, as though it's a spotlight. A person is caught in the spotlight beam.

2023/05/15

May 15, 2023
A huge object of rock and soil floating in oblivion, as though someone ripped an asteroid-sized chunk from the earth. On top of the object, which has a flat surface, sits a gas station. A truck is in one of the bays; a figure walks casually from the store to the truck. Above is a full moon in a cloudy sky.

2023/05/14

May 14, 2023
A single person stands on top of a large, crumbling, concrete tower of indeterminate purpose. The tower has a large number 3 stenciled on the side, the remains of antennas on the top, and two narrow windows on the side. There is also a concrete porch with a tattered chicken-wire fence on it, as well as a pole that seems to have a light or security camera on it. The tower is alone, with no suggestion of a landscape or surrounding natural features. It might as well be in the desert. Above, a few wispy clouds surround it, with a few hawks circling overhead.

2023/05/13

May 13, 2023
A map of two islands, a large one and a small one. The large one has forests, mountains, a tower, and pathways. At the north end of the island is a well-like opening to a tunnel or tube. On the smaller island, which is totally barren, stands a monster that looks like one of the Pac-Man ghosts. This monster has a face and a ragged lower edge. In the lower-left side of the map is the letter N with an arrow pointing up, signifying that, as on all well-drawn maps, North is up.

2023/05/12

May 12, 2023
A broad, desert expanse; the heat of a desert afternoon. Mountains shimmer in the distance. You're standing on a grassy hilltop overlooking a plain. Placed on the hill, for no apparent reason, is a tall, weathered sign with the word "diner" on it. A bird perches on the sign; a vulture circles overhead.

2023/05/11

May 11, 2023
A large, shadowy figure with huge eyes and a head that doesn't look quite human stands in the moonlight. The silhouette of a person is visible in one of its eyes, as though someone is standing inside the head, looking out. From one of its hands dangles an overhead light, like something you'd find in a kitchen. The light illuminates a person sitting at a table, using a laptop. The light is white, and inhumanly bright; more like a spotlight than a house lamp.

2023/05/10

May 10, 2023
A person stands on a barren hilltop on a gray, cloudy night. Next to the figure is a phosphor-green bonfire, pouring smoke; the smoke forms an enormous figure looming overhead, wearing a formal hat. The person is holding a phone and seems to be looking up in surprise at the figure. This is not what DoorDash deliveries typically look like.

2023/05/09

May 9, 2023
A view from the surface of a moon. Not necessarily ours. A vast, barren, rocky landscape with a crater or two. A mountain range is dimly visible in the background. On the right is a cliff, with a few structures on it: something like a lighthouse, or smokestack, and a construction of iron girders. In the sky over the landscape hangs a large planet that is clearly occupied, given the visible outlines of continents formed by pinpoints of light. Another, smaller planet is visible farther away. The sky is filled with stars, forming a Milky-Way-like strip.

2023/05/08

May 8, 2023
A humanoid figure with its back facing us. The profile of its face is visible; one eye glows white. The figure is strangely sinewed, almost as though it is a machine. In the center of its back is a round, green window, through which a shadowy figure looks. Blurry silhouettes in the background suggest numerous similar figures, also with glowing windows on them.

2023/05/07

May 7, 2023
A strangely shaped, pipe-like turret rises from the ocean floor. It's covered with seaweed that stands up like grass in a meadow. In the top-right, the sunlight reflects off the depths of the water. Although the turret appears malformed and broken in some parts, it has a closed, intact window on it, as well as a mailbox fixed to it via a pipe. Someone clearly lives here. No life is seen, ocean or otherwise.

2023/05/06

May 6, 2023
A furry, slightly disheveled creature, wearing suspenders and a sandwich board with an icon on it that looks like a vague blend of the bitcoin symbol and a dollar sign. The creature's face is covered by a sinister smiley-face mask with perfect teeth and empty eyes. The creature is doffing a top hat with a clown horn affixed to it via a spring, and also ringing a bell, like a carnival barker. The creature is slightly hunched, trudging along a barren landscape with sparse grass. This is totally not a passive-aggressive reference to the crypto scammers who have been making a particular nuisance of themselves lately.

2023/05/05

May 5, 2023
A lonely, sharp mountain top on which stands a small, twisted tree with few branches and no leaves. Hanging from the tree is a mailbox and a red decorative sphere. Built into the branches is a small, spherical dwelling that looks a little like a wasp nest. The dwelling has a circular window in it, brightly lit. Also built into the branches is a platform with several brown cardboard boxes stacked on top of it; the kind that would be delivered from Amazon.

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    All work © Chris Silverman