Carolyn Yim
Teahouse
Built in the residency space.
What did you explore in your residency?
The Problem:
I was brought onto Interact 01 residency through Residency Director Alexia Bonatsos. We co-host a philosophy salon with technologists in New York, paging through Byung Chul Han, W. David Marx, and Mark Fisher. In our conversations, we often turn to the shape of humanism that can thrive inside the technology ecosystem— what are the politics of care that can be cultivated inside capital infrastructures designed for scale and efficiency? The problem outline emerged, when one night I texted her this:
How do we create products for us humans to coexist with AGI? We talk about bigger batteries and more compute, but what about humans? We need better, efficacious energy flow. Practices that help us aura farm. Fermented tea that supports mitochondrial biochemical health does that. Phytochemicals in puer reduces blue-light induced depression and restores circadian rhythm disruption, via signals in the gut-liver-brain axis. Overall increased wellbeing, sleep, and mental health. Rituals and places that shape better presence with our loved ones. In the AGI revolution, we don't just need new tech hardware or software, but better soft wares for our soft bodies: our selves. AI Soft Wares as a Service, inadvertently.
Tea Ceremony
Embodied attention through ritual.
Key insights and learnings
The aesthetic center and the practice is as, if not more, important than the puer tea itself. Rationally telling someone the puer tea is good for them is not enough.
What's next?
Find a momentum-driven, rather than perfect, way to distribute the tea, practice, and center, framed within the MAYA principle.
Favorite memory from the Residency
At the first Happy Hour, the low full moon rose. Everyone– through networked intelligence– suddenly and simultaneously howled and clapped.
How has Interact shaped your relationship to technology?
It motivated me to find creative ways to shape it towards designed delight, such as the interactive lamp.
Morning Journaling
Perfect start to the day.
About Carolyn
Carolyn Yim is a creative technologist developing a tea product and ceremonial tea practice for embodied attunement and deep attention. As tech stacks scale with bigger batteries and more compute, what upgrades our humane intelligence? Consider: puer tea from aura farms—800 year old, wild Yunnan trees—for better "software" and attention architecture for our soft bodies: our selves.
Artifacts & Links
