Well, there’s certainly been a lot going on
I don’t have much to add to the commentary on the current hellscape of news in the US and around the world, other than that I am trying to be involved with mutual aid efforts in my community and strengthening local ties to cope with and prepare for an increasingly authoritarian and hostile government.
This could be another blog post entirely, but—I really believe in the resilience and autonomy possible with strong regional and local communities and institutions in the face of gutted and/or co-opted centralized ones—I find the framework of dual power (hey, get the name of this blog now?) helpful here.
From the link on dual power above:
In our view, dual power is comprised of two component parts: (1.) building counter-institutions that serve as alternatives to the institutions currently governing production, investment, and social life under capitalism, and (2.) organizing through and confederating these institutions to build up a base of grassroots counter-power which can eventually challenge the existing power of capitalists and the State head-on.
. . .
This framework of building popular power outside the governing institutions of our present system, to challenge and eventually displace those institutions with truly democratic ones of our own making, is the heart of dual power.
Feels a bit silly to be working on open-source flow batteries or yearning for a practical political theory/praxis in the face of the current mess. I believe in this framework of dual power, though, and—at time when my faith in current ruling class entities like the Democratic Party to do anything useful to fight back is at an all-time-low—I will be happy that at least I have a framework and vision to operate within in these troubled times.
Moved to Oakland, setting up my research here
I moved to Oakland with my partner, temporarily, and am getting set up to continue my work with FBRC here. I was super lucky to find Counter Culture Labs, who have agreed to let me work on my project in their microbiology-focused community wet lab (which has ample equipment for me to test aqueous electrolytes). I’ve brought along my potentiostat and flow-cell-related kit so I am preparing to do my first cycling experiments very soon.
Moving took up a ton of time/energy and required a lot of logistics, even though we didn’t bring that much stuff, so that’s why I haven’t posted in a while.
What’s next
Getting back in the open-source, open science research groove! I’m still so excited to be beginning my career outside of the normal academic structures. The current political backdrop is horrid, and moving cross-country sapped some time and energy away, but I have a place and the means to do the research I want and so I am happy about that. This post was made to kick-start me back into writing and sharing my work as I do it, so hopefully plan to hear more in the near future.
Citation
@online{smith2025,
author = {Smith, Kirk Pollard},
title = {Moved Cities, Dual Power Gives Me Hope Amidst Crises, Setting
up Research in a Community Lab},
date = {2025-04-24},
url = {https://dualpower.supply/posts/setting-up-in-oakland/},
langid = {en}
}