Benjamin Becquet
On this page, I'll share a snapshot of my life from time to time.
…aaaand of course, the previous and first iteration of this 'Now' page, supposed to give some fresh news, is already one year old. I guess I should rename it 'The yearly update'…
I'm still enjoying a lot my work at the Pasqal quantum computing company. Among other things, I'm currently working on building the centralized documentation portal for all our public tools, currently scattered over many sites and formats. For this project I've decided to use Starlight, the doc-focused extension built on top of Astro. It is a great tool to tame, very well thought and already established, and at the same time fresh enough that parts of its ecosystem are still forming.
Working on the documentation aspect of things is great, a welcome change between other projects that tend to always feel the same. It requires other, often underused skills. This also requires some involvement with the actual doc content, which fits well with my goal of gaining a better grasp of quantum computing from my general computing perspective.
This is more or less the subject of a talk I submitted for the MiXiT conference. We'll see soon if it gets selected, but I have good hope its focus is uncommon enough in such a general conf to grab the attention. And it's been a long time since I haven't talked in front of an audience.
My courses at the university didn't count :) In any case, after 4 years, I'm not doing it anymore this year. I don't exclude coming back to it in the future, but for now I need a break in teaching web development this way.
Another reason I stopped was to finally enjoy my part-time day how I intended first (I'm on four-days-a-week contracts since 2020, and I'd love the society to evolve so that everyone could do the same): not doing a second job, but spending more time on art.
Speaking about it, 2024 was a good year. The two things I'm most proud of is getting more involved in the life of my print workshop, and having made my first exhibition last September (here is a little report on my French blog). It was modest but great, I sold some stuff to strangers for the first time, and it sure felt like a milestone before starting fresh things.
One of these new things is apparently monotype, which I tried on a whim two months ago, just because it's easy to test, but with doubts about whether I would like it… Boy was I wrong! I love it, and now I'm hooked, I practice it as often as I can.
The doubts I had where partly related to the spontaneity it involves, the letting go part, which is much less present in the other printmaking techniques. I feel like I've unlocked things there, I link that to the fact that I've practiced life drawing sessions very regularly last year.
Now, like one year ago, I'm still pondering where to go next with that. This first exhibition makes me want to do others, but other than that, I haven't made any progress about whether to open a web shop. Probably I don't want to turn all this into a "business" 🤷.
In the meantime, I've just opened a Pixelfed page. I've never had an Instagram account because I hated their closed view of the web (and now there are many more reasons to despise them), but the idea of a space to spontaneously (again) post just art and work-in-progress images is not bad in itself.
I'm giving a try at this "Now" page after seeing my friend Joachim so enthusiastic about the concept.
I've been working at PASQAL for 5 months now, and it's great. Doing 'just' web development in a quantum computing company may seem underwhelming, but doing it the right way is as challenging as anywhere else, and doing it among thought-provoking ideas and brilliant people is uplifting.
Still no regrets about professionally leaving the field of web cartography since I left CARTO last year. Maybe it's just a phase. I still think often about a personal project around this topic, without being able to start anything concrete. Its goal is nothing less than 'revolutionizing interactive maps', maybe it's a bit paralyzing :)
Thinking a lot also about how some parts of the dev job reached an absurd level of complexity, for constant or worse results. More generally, how complexity creeps into every code base, every CI, every feature, every team organization, and how it should be identified as the first pitfall to avoid. I'm sick of 10x engineers, I'd like to see a new kind emerge, Simplification engineer.
For the 4th year in a row, I'm about to teach web development at Sorbonne University this semester. From the start I've found this different perspective on my work interesting and rewarding. Less fun, experiencing the level of disarray and constant improvisation in the French public university is quite disheartening. And like everything related to public service, it isn't improving…
I'm still practicing etching and engraving with the same joy as 7 years ago, when I tried it for the first time. I have no doubt this will be my favorite way of expression for the rest of my life. It's not a straight path though, things can vary a lot. For example I feel like my relation to aquatint as a technique is kinda broken these days. Too many failures and frustrations with it in the past months.
On the bright side, I recently exchanged some prints with wonderful wood engravings from John Altringham, who I met through Mastodon and whose work depicting British landscapes deeply talks to me. At some point I should show the rest of the world all the pieces of art I've been given along the years by friends, family or fellow printmakers, I have a real little museum here!
I'd also like to show my own work to more people this year, and try selling prints. I have a nearly finished web shop in the works, but the remaining part is the legal and payment stuff, which can take a long time… Friends suggested that I don't bother with my own platform and just use Etsy. Probably reasonable, even if for now it sounds like a defeat.
Probably because there is an upcoming TV series, I felt an urge to re-read the Three-Body Problem trilogy, five years only after having my mind blown by it. I took this occasion to try audio-book for the first time. It's a strange experience. Nice way to be absorbed in the story but not forgiving for the sometimes very flat style of these books.
Recently I haven't played anything other than short or light videogames. Great ones for sure, but it always feels like something is missing. It's been years since I haven't been moved by a big game suddenly reaching perfection on a single detail. The sense of awe of the Mass Effect galaxy map. The light of a stormy sky in the Witcher 3. The interior designs in Dishonored 2.
Listening mostly to a British folk revival playlist that I've been building over the past few years. Now it's kind of a closed suggestion loop of bands and covers, new additions are rare but all the more precious.