Changes to this Substack

I’ve made some changes to my Substack.

From now on, there are two sections: Interminable Flights for writing about art, architecture, technology, and the long history of the present, and The Florilegium for writing on native plants and the history of landscape. All subscribers are subscribed to both, but you can control which sections you receive emails or notifications for by going to this rather obscure link https://varnelis.substack.com/account?utm_source=user-menu or, if that fails, email me at kazys @ varnelis.net.

Then, choose the email notifications you want to receive (slide the slider to the right to enable notifications you want to receive or left for emails you don’t want to receive). So, if you are not into art and technology, turn off notifications for Interminable Flights, and if you are not interested in native plants and landscape, turn off The Florilegium. The top category (Kazys Varnelis) is for posts that don’t fit into either of the other categories, mainly announcements like this one. Maybe best to keep it enabled.

My original idea was that it was good to have people who are interested in native plants read about something very different (art + tech) and vice versa, and I have heard from many of you that this is something you find useful, but maybe not everyone wants to hear deep dives on topics they aren’t interested in, and I get it. I’d rather have readers read some of my posts than none of my posts.

I regret neglecting the Florilegium over the last year. In part, this is because I started writing President’s Letters to the Native Plant Society of New Jersey’s members — but that is my official voice as president of the Society, entirely different from the personal voice of the Florilegium. In part, it is because I raised the stakes a little too high with the long-form Florilegium essays. And in part, it is because AI has been moving so fast — I already slept on it too much in 2022 and 2023 — that I spent much of last year writing essays about it, which consumed my time.

So I’ve decided it’s time for some shorter, more image-oriented posts for the Florilegium. I am back in Japan, and there are many things to write about! These are starting in a day or two. There will be long-form essays this year, too. It’s 2026, which makes it the American Semiquincentennial, and that might be a good time to think about a new American landscape aesthetic.

As for Interminable Flights, there is bigger news. I am going to post the introduction to my new book, The Generative Unconscious, within a week, followed by revised versions of last year’s essays on AI and creativity as I work through them. I am hoping to do one every two weeks, but one a month may be more realistic. Along the way, there will be new content too.

Or at least, that’s the plan. We’ll see how it works out.

PS

As always, you can read my work at varnelis.net