Field Notes 20260302-20260308 - Retrospective
Where we’ve been, where we are, how it’s going.
Afternoon
- Sun: Pisces 18°
- Moon: Scorpio 22° | Waning Gibbous
- Mercury Retrograde: 20260226-20260320
Meditation
- 30 Minutes.
- Expand App, timer section, F18.
In The Beginning
This past week marks a transformation of not only Field Notes but also a quiet homecoming of Percept Index. This project began a little over a year ago with the following guiding principle: document altered states, seek clarity in experience, do the work in an open and transparent space.
Percept Index began as a section of my personal website. After outgrowing this shell, and like a good hermit crab, it scuttled off to find a new home. Very quickly perceptindex.com was stood up and the work continued. In those early days the publishing schedule was just beginning to find its legs in the form of journal entries. Soon after, the compulsion to create got the better of me and “Reverie Compendium” emerged as the collection which houses the visual representation of my consciousness exploration.
While I continued to strictly publish to the website, the next logical step in the project’s evolution began: Field Notes. This was initiated out of pure necessity as writing dedicated journal entries for every session was not efficient; a note-style publishing approach made more sense for speed and documentation.
While I had few subscribers through my own little setup, the need to add a distribution channel, an interactive and collaborative environment, and offload newsletter maintenance (I hate managing email) became the next logical step.
Traditional social media was already a source of depression and anxiety which I haven’t entertained in a while at this point. I turned to Substack specifically for what it does best: newsletter distribution and discovery mechanism where my future readers were already engaged. So, 4 months ago I retired my newsletter setup and copied a portion of my archive over to Substack.
I still haven’t moved the entire archive over and I won’t be entertaining that in the future. I’ve solidified my general vision and continue to publish to perceptindex.com first, as it is the canonical origin, with immediate publishing after that to Substack. I do jump on the “traditional” social media to share the content but the interaction in that collective swamp starts and stops with that.
Field Notes & Emblems - Moving Forward
About a month ago I noticed that Monday’s Field Notes were performing well, most consistent out of everything I publish, probably because it’s on a fixed and easily predictable schedule. One problem: these posts and emails kept growing and growing. I added sketches to each day entry, another subtle creative compulsion that was bubbling under the surface. The Monday’s Field Notes now felt big and cumbersome. The best individual entries got buried under the less exciting stuff and in general posting notes of the accompanying sketches felt disconnected and cumbersome.
Enter “Daily Field Notes”. The daily sections of the mega newsletter broke out and graduated to their own personal shells. The sketches became tiny, mini, micro illustrations and at the same time I began to track Sun, Moon, and Mercury Retrograde. The last bit of information is purely for my own purpose and documentation; I will explain and write on this in the future.
These daily Field Notes are not emailed out to everyone but rather exist as their own posts. The original publishing schedule is not disturbed; however, it has simply adapted. Each Monday morning a “Field Notes Retrospective”, such as this one, will be distributed by email. Each “retrospective” newsletter will carry my thoughts on the prior week, the length of which will remain fluid, followed by a collection of preview links to each daily Field Notes entry.
You are free to follow along as they come and/or wait until Monday morning. As a being who is piloting a human instrument, I know that choices are a very important part of a healthy human life.
What are “Emblems”? I’m glad you asked because I didn’t know either until today. Often times I find myself making limiting creative decisions when entering digital illustrations, meanwhile the desire to create with my hands continued to grow. One caveat: I don’t have a lot of time to do all of this. The solution showed up naturally and on its own. Enter Emblems — single-panel illustrations paired with daily field notes. Liminal states, anomalous encounters, altered geometries rendered as vignettes. The visual layer of the same territory.
One final note on the daily Field Notes: they are called “daily” because the intent is for them to happen daily, but I may skip here or there depending on the week. Some days I may simply miss a meditation; the days get busy, emergencies, etc. The drive is to deliver daily, that is the goal, but I will not sacrifice my family’s needs for Percept Index. Not only would that be unfair to my family but also to the quality of work that I always aim to provide.
Through The Week of 20260302-20260308
https://perceptindex.substack.com/p/field-notes-20260307-saturday
https://perceptindex.substack.com/p/field-notes-20260305-friday
https://perceptindex.substack.com/p/field-notes-20260305-thursday
https://perceptindex.substack.com/p/field-notes-20260304-wednesday
https://perceptindex.substack.com/p/field-notes-tuesday-20260303
https://perceptindex.substack.com/p/field-notes-monday-20260302