Life in Common

@arthursmid

Writer and illustrator in Portland, Oregon Open for commissions and illustration projects: arthursmid.com

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Life in Common@arthursmid· Jul 4

"Fruit of the Sixties documents the beginning of the Oregon Country Fair and its deep roots in the activism of the 1960s, when many young people embraced an emerging, alternative culture." Fruit of the Sixties: The Founding of the Oregon Country Fair by Suzi Prozanski www.suzipro.com/index.shtml

Book cover of Fruit of the Sixties: The Founding of the Oregon Country Fair, by Suzi Prozanski

Life in Common@arthursmid· Jul 3

"So-called 'business friendly' policies are a subterfuge for 'low road' economic strategies that aim to boost business profits by exploiting workers." Why the minimum wage matters: cityobservatory.org/why-wages-ma...

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has just received a report of her Prosperity Council, a group dominated by wealthy business people. The Council, perhaps unsurprisingly, has said the route to prosperity depends largely on enacting a series of tax breaks for wealthy households and big businesses. It’s heartening that in a message released to coincide with the latest annual increase in the state’s minimum wage, Governor Kotek reiterated her long-standing support for Oregon’s strong minimum wage law. It has had, and continues to have a measurable effect on the Oregon labor market, boosting wages for those at the lower end of the labor market. The lowest paid ten percent of Oregon workers (the bottom decile), earn about a dollar and a half (about ten percent) more per hour than the average bottom decile worker in the United States.

Oregon has a higher minimum wage than most other states

For more than a decade, Oregon has had one of the highest minimum wages in the nation. While the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 per hour since 2010, Oregon has been raising its wage. The state’s minimum wage is now $15.05 (and is set even higher in the Portland Metro area ($16.30).

Life in Common@arthursmid· Jun 23

"The petitioners allege that the city, along with Washington County, improperly issued key approvals needed for property tax breaks associated with 17 data center applications." 1000 FRIENDS OF OREGON: friends.org/news/2026/6/...

Life in Common@arthursmid· Jun 11

I drew this to celebrate the costume made by Portland-based artist Kaylee Kotkins, displayed in the following Instagram video:

A woman in a bat costume, drawing by Arthur Smid.

Life in Common@arthursmid· Jun 3

"Crucially, this influence operates without the visibility that characterized earlier media systems: there is no shared discourse to analyze, no stable corpus to audit, and no public arena in which claims can be collectively contested." Identifying a new media ecosystem: osf.io/preprints/so...

Towards a
Post-Social
Media Studies
Petter Törnberg
University of Amsterdam
Richard Rogers
University of Amsterdam
Abstract
For two decades, “social media” has been the master lens through which scholars have
understood digital communication—an era defined by user-generated content, networked
publics, and participatory culture. That era is drawing to a close. This paper argues
that three interrelated dynamics are dissolving the social media paradigm: an algorithmic
shift from social-graph-based to interest-based recommendation, which is remaking the
active “user” into a passive “viewer”; the generative AI revolution, which is replacing
user-generated content with synthetic media and decoupling platforms from any dependence
on human participation; and an exodus from public platforms toward private, closed spaces.
Together, these dynamics are giving rise to three distinct post-social formations: algorith-
mically governed broadcasting platforms, semi-private spheres and micro-communities,
and AI-mediated communication as a new media form in its own right. Understanding
this transformation demands a fundamental reorientation of the field—new conceptual
tools that move beyond networked publics and participatory culture, new methods suited to
synthetic and ephemeral media environments, and renewed attention to the political stakes
of communication systems that no longer require human participation.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 27

Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: A Reporter's Notebook on Alien Abduction, UFOs, and the Conference at M.I.T. ia803206.us.archive.org/26/items/Dav...

Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: A Reporter's Notebook on Alien Abduction, UFOs, and the Conference at M.I.T.

by C. D. B. Bryan

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 11

Pencil drawing of human figures dancing. Made by Arthur Smid, 2003.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 11

Page from a comic I made in 2003.

Woman places a lit candle on her altar and meditates.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 11

Drawing of a man in winter outside a small house, chopping wood.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 11

This is a photograph of the comics page in the Portland Mercury, November 18, 2004.

The Theme of the Week Funnies: Seven panel comic strip, 1. fishing bobber moves on the surface of the water, 2. a man tugs at the line from the shore, his little dog barking, looking out at the bobber, 3. the little dog jumps in the water, man yells "Jimbo!", 4. a crocodile swims under the fishing line, 5. man with knife wades into the water, 6. underwater crocodile wrestling, the man knifes the animal, a ribbon of blood in the water, 7. the previous six panels are color, this last panel is in black and white to suggest a photograph: the man with his small dog under his arm stands beside the crocodile hung by its mouth from a tree.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 8

The hoary bat normally roosts alone on trees, hidden in the foliage, and on occasion has been seen in caves with other bats. It prefers woodland, mainly coniferous forests, but hunts alone over open fields and lakes. Its main food source is moths. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoary_bat

Black and white illustration of a hoary bat drawn by Arthur Smid. The bat hanging upside down from a branch, wings folded, mouth open, it looks up and toward the viewer.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 8

"Wind turbines are a big concern for this species; unless things change, wind turbines are expected to contribute significantly to the northern hoary bat’s decline in the next 50 years." www.batcon.org/the-ten-most...

Study of the face of a hoary bat, drawing by Arthur Smid.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 8

"Bats play a huge role in agricultural pest control and they save farmers billions of dollars a year, every year, in that pest control and also by reducing pesticide usage." www.opb.org/article/2024...

Studies from photos of bats, three illustrations by Arthur Smid.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 7

OREGON HABITAT CONSERVATION STAMP, all art must be 13 by 18 inches (landscape or portrait), traditional material, and feature one of the eligible species--so many to chose from! Brown Pelican is the 2026 winner. 2027 Entry Form: www.dfw.state.or.us/conservation...

2026 winner: Habitat Conservation: Brown Pelican (California)
by Ryan Kniss of Johnstown, PA

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 7

"We really need dedicated funds for nongame conservation in order to make sure that we are preserving biodiversity within our state. "We're at the edge of pretty irreversible declines." - @myodfw.bsky.social conservation strategy director Emily VanWyk OREGON BATS www.axios.com/local/portla...

Black and white illustrations of hoary bat by Arthur Smid.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 4

The Wildlife Garden: Townsend's Chipmunk (Tamias townsendii) | Oregon State University Extension Service extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/extd8/... 11/11

Black and white illustration of a Townsend's chipmunk on the forest floor. Drawing by Arthur Smid made using Clip Studio Paint and Intuos 4.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 4

Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org/accounts/Tam... 10/

Townsend's chipmunk in a shrub, collecting berries, a black and white illustration made by Arthur Smid.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 4

RESOURCES: Guide and Outfitter Recognized Professional Oregon Coast 101 Species List blogs.oregonstate.edu/coastaltouri... 8/

Study of the Townsend's chipmunk, drawing from photographs.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 4

They will make alarm calls to warn other chipmunks; and since this compromises their own survival, it can be considered a form of altruism. 7/

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 4

In the course of their activity, Townsend's chipmunks disperse seeds and fungi, helping trees to thrive. 6/

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 4

When foraging they can fill their cheeks like reusable grocery bags and carry food back home to stockpile for winter. 5/

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 4

Underground fungi emits a strong odor and seems to be a favorite food, especially during winter. They enjoy berries in summer and seeds in fall. Chipmunks also eat insects. 4/

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 4

They spend more time on the forest floor than squirrels and live in burrows with tunnel systems extending as far as thirty feet. Outside of mating and a few months in youth, the Townsend chipmunk is solitary and an individual lives in a single burrow. 3/

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 4

Compared to the Eastern gray squirrel and fox squirrel that make their homes in trees of neighborhood streets in Portland, Oregon, the Townsend's chipmunk is tiny. 2/

Drawing from photographs of Townsend's chipmunk.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 4

Townsend's chipmunk is a member of the squirrel family. I saw one pause at the base of a tree along the trail through the forested hillside of Powell Butte Nature Park in East Portland. Its small size and attractive stripes are adorable. 1/

Illustration of a Townsend's chipmunk on the forest floor. Drawn by Arthur Smid using Clip Studio Paint and an Intuos 4.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 4

Townsend's chipmunk sings Cold War

Black and white illustration of anthropomorphic chipmunks based on the movie poster for Cold War (by Paweł Pawlikowski) drawn by Arthur Smid.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 3

Townsend's chipmunk in a shrub, collecting berries, an illustration made by Arthur Smid.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 3

Illustration of a Townsend's chipmunk on the forest floor made by Arthur Smid using Clip Studio Paint.

Life in Common@arthursmid· May 3

Jill Carter's Oregon Country Fair 2026 Poster Reveal jillcarterdesign.com/illustration/

Life in Common@arthursmid· Apr 30

Why is pop culture obsessed with battles between good and evil? ESSAY: aeon.co/essays/why-i...