I am 64 years old. I’ve been an exhibiting artist since graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1990. I’m also a writer, currently publishing a book with Brill (Brill Research Perspectives in Popular Culture). My work lives in language, structure, rhythm, and perception.
I am autistic, and I live with a disability following a failed knee replacement, which has significantly limited my mobility. My world is smaller now, physically—but cognitively, something extraordinary just opened.
I discovered Spintronics.
Not by using it at first—just by seeing an image of it.
And something clicked.
I don’t say that lightly. I mean something reorganised in how I understand systems.
I’ve always been drawn to science. I remember pictures - formulas, diagrams, fragments—but I could never quite bridge them into a living system. Spintronics did that instantly. It made logic physical. It made time, force, resistance—real, touchable, visible.
It didn’t feel like learning.
It felt like recognition.
I now have Act One, Act Two, and I’m working through Turing Tumble (half built and already brilliant). I’ve got more on the way because these systems connect—you can expand them, combine them, build worlds out of them.
And that’s exactly what they are:
World-building systems for understanding.
I genuinely wish I had this as a child. It would have changed the trajectory of my life. I would have instantly brought them into my two daughter's loves.
But here’s the thing—it’s not too late.
This has already transformed how I think, how I see structure, and how I will work going forward.
I work with communities in Scotland, often in high SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) areas. Now based in the Scottish Highlands I explore language—Gaelic, visual systems, pattern, signal. Spintronics will become part of that work immediately. I’m already developing ways to introduce it to young people and communities—because this isn’t just a toy.
It’s a bridge.
A bridge between intuition and system.
Between play and knowledge.
Between confusion and clarity.
And finally—Upper Story’s customer service is extraordinary. Not just good—deeply human, responsive, and generous. That matters.
A lot.
Final thought:
This isn’t a product review.
This is gratitude.
Spintronics didn’t just teach me electronics.
It gave me a new way to think.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
