**jms:**
*(ran /clear)*
**Claude:**
No response requested.
**jms:**
hello?
**Claude:**
Hi! I'm here and ready. What would you like to work on with the vault?
**jms:**
what were you working on?
**Claude:**
Last commit (`9148c1b`) added a new [In the Wake](200-Research/240%20-%20Primary%20Sources/20%20-%20Monographs/In%20the%20Wake.md) monograph page for Christina Sharpe's book, indexed it, and linked it from her [Christina Sharpe](200-Research/230%20-%20Individuals/Christina%20Sharpe.md) page — plus the usual Session Log entry and transcript.
Since that commit, there's an **uncommitted change** to that same file: the "The Wake" chapter section under "Notes by Chapter" has been expanded a lot — quotes, a table, definitions — looks like you've been adding your own reading notes on the first chapter directly in the editor (not something I generated). It's not committed yet.
Want me to commit that, or are you still adding to it?
**jms:**
create a 210 page for Visibility and Opticality, link to in the wake, Akira Mizuta Lippit, Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, becoming human, Christina Sharpe.
**Claude:**
Now updating the index, tag list, and the four linked pages.
Created [Visibility and Opticality](200-Research/210%20-%20Concepts%20and%20Theory/Visibility%20and%20Opticality.md) as a new `210` concept page (draft, `publish: false` per convention), built around Lippit's "shadow optics," Sharpe's "dis/appearance," and Jackson's account of antiblackness holding Black being between "human" and "animal."
Also updated, to keep it wired in both directions:
- **[000 - Concepts and Theory Index](200-Research/210%20-%20Concepts%20and%20Theory/000%20-%20Concepts%20and%20Theory%20Index.md)** — new alphabetized entry.
- **[900.010 - Tag List](900-Site%20Media/900.010%20-%20Tag%20List.md)** — registered `#visibility` (new; `#optics` and `#black-study` already existed).
- **[In the Wake](200-Research/240%20-%20Primary%20Sources/20%20-%20Monographs/In%20the%20Wake.md)** — added to Concepts and Theories (the `[[Visibility and Opticality]]` link you'd already dropped into the chapter notes now resolves).
- **[Christina Sharpe](200-Research/230%20-%20Individuals/Christina%20Sharpe.md)**, **[Akira Mizuta Lippit](200-Research/230%20-%20Individuals/Akira%20Mizuta%20Lippit.md)**, **[Zakiyyah Iman Jackson](200-Research/230%20-%20Individuals/Zakiyyah%20Iman%20Jackson.md)** — each got a Concepts and Theories bullet linking back.
One note: "Becoming Human" has no `240` monograph page yet (unlike *In the Wake*), so I linked it as an external NYU Press link in Essential Works, matching how Jackson's own page already cites it. Say the word if you want a full `240.20` stub page for it too, same treatment as *In the Wake*.
Nothing committed yet — your uncommitted *In the Wake* chapter-notes edit from before is still sitting alongside these new changes. Want me to commit everything together, or hold off?
**jms:**
*(ran /config)*
i want a 240.20 stub for it. i also want a 220 page on Claude with a section on Output Styles.
**Claude:**
Now creating the "Becoming Human" stub page, alphabetically inserted before "Cinema 2":
Now updating the pages that referenced "Becoming Human" as an external link, to point to the new page instead:
Before I create this — there's a known landmine here: back on 2026-08-13, a file at `200-Research/220 - Creative and Technical Practice/Claude.md` was found to collide case-insensitively with `CLAUDE.md` on Windows, causing Claude Code to auto-load that vault note as project instructions. It's since been removed/renamed, but a literal `Claude.md` in that same folder would very likely reproduce the bug.
**jms:**
The user answered: "What should the new 220 page about Claude be named, given the known Claude.md/CLAUDE.md case-insensitive collision on Windows?"="Claude (LLM)". Read the answers carefully — they may request clarification, changes, or that you not proceed — and follow what they actually say.
**Claude:**
Now creating the page:
These are done. Quick summary and one flag:
**Becoming Human** — new `240.20` stub at [Becoming Human](200-Research/240%20-%20Primary%20Sources/20%20-%20Monographs/Becoming%20Human.md), same treatment as *In the Wake*: verified metadata/chapter structure via [NYU Press Scholarship Online](https://academic.oup.com/nyu-press-scholarship-online/book/40737) (the old NYU Press catalog link had gone dead), added to the Monographs index, and re-pointed the two prior external-link references (Zakiyyah Iman Jackson's Essential Works, Visibility and Opticality's Essential Works) to the new wikilink.
**Claude (LLM)** — new `220` page at [Claude (LLM)](200-Research/220%20-%20Creative%20and%20Technical%20Practice/Claude%20%28LLM%29.md), named with your "(LLM)" disambiguator to avoid the Claude.md/CLAUDE.md collision. Includes an Output Styles subsection under Details listing the built-in styles (Default, Proactive, Concise, Explanatory, Learning) and noting custom output styles can be authored as their own markdown system-prompt files. Cross-linked with the existing [LLMs and Assistive Code Models](200-Research/220%20-%20Creative%20and%20Technical%20Practice/LLMs%20and%20Assistive%20Code%20Models.md) page (Related Practices, both directions) and added to the 220 index. Registered `#llm` as a new tag.
**Flag, not touched by me:** `git status` also shows unstaged changes on `010 - Concepts and Theory Notes.md`, `Black Studies.md`, `Vision.md`, and `Literate Programming.md` — small diffs, look like your own concurrent Obsidian edits (same pattern as the Visibility and Opticality / Zakiyyah Iman Jackson / Becoming Human live-edit notices earlier). Left them alone.
Nothing's committed. Given several files are still mid-edit by you, let me know when you want a commit — happy to bundle everything now or wait.
**jms:**
create a custom output style for claude code that specifies
Writing should be brief, neutral, factual, general. Descriptions of the subject, not the page — no references to what the page contains ("Bibliography on…", "Notes on…", "Collection of…"), and no framing of the page's own scope or state.
**Claude:**
Created a project-level custom output style at [.claude/output-styles/neutral-descriptive.md](.claude/output-styles/neutral-descriptive.md), named **Neutral Descriptive**.
It encodes exactly your rule: brief, neutral, factual, general writing about the subject — never about the page — with the "Bibliography on…/Notes on…/Collection of…" ban and no framing of the page's own scope or state. I pulled the good/bad example straight from the vault's existing [210.010 - Concepts and Theory Notes](200-Research/210%20-%20Concepts%20and%20Theory/010%20-%20Concepts%20and%20Theory%20Notes.md) style guidance so it's grounded in a rule you've already applied.
I set `keep-coding-instructions: true` so it layers this writing rule on top of Claude Code's normal tool-use/agentic behavior rather than replacing it outright — otherwise a fully custom style can strip out the baseline instructions that make Claude Code work as an editor/agent at all.
To use it: `/config` → Output style → **Neutral Descriptive**, then `/clear` or start a new session for it to take effect. I didn't flip your active `outputStyle` setting myself — that's a call for you to make, not something to change on the side.
One thing I did *not* do: add a mention of this style to the [Claude (LLM)](200-Research/220%20-%20Creative%20and%20Technical%20Practice/Claude%20%28LLM%29.md) page's Output Styles section, even though it'd fit there as an example of a custom style. Want me to add it?
**jms:**
yes, along with brief documentation about where it goes and what it does.
**Claude:**
Done — the Output Styles section on [Claude (LLM)](200-Research/220%20-%20Creative%20and%20Technical%20Practice/Claude%20%28LLM%29.md) now:
- Corrects the activation mechanism to `/config` → Output style (the old `/output-style` command is deprecated/removed).
- Documents the custom-style file format: project (`.claude/output-styles/<name>.md`) vs. user (`~/.claude/output-styles/<name>.md`) location, and the `name`/`description`/`keep-coding-instructions` frontmatter fields.
- Names this vault's own style, `neutral-descriptive.md` ("Neutral Descriptive"), what it enforces, and links it back to [010 - Concepts and Theory Notes](200-Research/210%20-%20Concepts%20and%20Theory/010%20-%20Concepts%20and%20Theory%20Notes.md), the existing page where that Description rule was already documented (fixed the wikilink to match that file's actual name, not a lineage-number form that doesn't exist).
**jms:**
create a 210 page on Opacity and Aporia, link to Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, link to Vampire Optics: https://intransition.openlibhums.org/article/id/16870/
**Claude:**
Now the index, tag consistency check, and back-links from Zakiyyah Iman Jackson and In the Wake:
Created [Opacity and Aporia](200-Research/210%20-%20Concepts%20and%20Theory/Opacity%20and%20Aporia.md) as a new `210` page (draft), built around Glissant's "right to opacity" read alongside aporia as a shared limit-point in thought — matching the pairing you'd already dropped as a red link into *In the Wake*'s notes. Linked and cross-linked:
- **Zakiyyah Iman Jackson** — Key Theorist on the new page, plus a reciprocal bullet added to her own Concepts and Theories.
- **In the Wake** — reciprocal bullet added to its Concepts and Theories, alongside the existing Visibility and Opticality one.
- **000 - Concepts and Theory Index** — new alphabetized entry.
**One gap, need your input:** "Vampire Optics" is in there as an Essential Works link, but I couldn't get a citation for it — `intransition.openlibhums.org` blocks automated fetching (bot-challenge page), and web search didn't surface the article by that title either. It's linked with a `%% citation unconfirmed %%` placeholder rather than a guessed author/year. Do you have the author's name, or can you tell me anything else about it (issue number, who it's by) so I can fill that in — and let me know if you also want it as its own `240.10` article stub, same as *In the Wake* and *Becoming Human* got.
**jms:**
Its a videographic essay. create a 240.50 page for it. Cameron, Allan. “Vampire Optics.” [In]Transition, vol. 11, no. 4, Dec. 2024. intransition.openlibhums.org, https://doi.org/10.16995/intransition.16870.
**Claude:**
Created [Vampire Optics](200-Research/240%20-%20Primary%20Sources/50%20-%20Videos/Vampire%20Optics.md) as a new `240.50` page, added to the [000 - Videos Index](200-Research/240%20-%20Primary%20Sources/50%20-%20Videos/000%20-%20Videos%20Index.md), and re-pointed [Opacity and Aporia](200-Research/210%20-%20Concepts%20and%20Theory/Opacity%20and%20Aporia.md)'s Essential Works bullet from the placeholder external link to the new wikilink (with a "Cited In" back-reference).
One honesty note on the description: `intransition.openlibhums.org` still blocks automated fetching (same bot-challenge as before), so I haven't actually watched the video. I built the description from Allan Cameron's published chapter of the identical title — "Vampire Optics: Projection, Diffusion, Contact" in *Visceral Screens: Mediation and Matter in Horror Cinema* (Edinburgh UP, 2021) — which reads vampire film's exposure/desaturation/superimposition effects as a shared optics of light and embodiment. Given the matching author and title, the videographic essay is almost certainly a companion piece extending that same argument, but I flagged it in-page with a `%%` comment (`hasn't been viewed directly... revise once viewed`) rather than presenting it as confirmed. Worth a look yourself to confirm/correct once you've watched it.
**jms:**
create a 240.50 page for Loophole of Retreat: Venice. _Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, Loophole of Retreat: Venice_. 2023. 17:24.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=331n2m7oanM
[Request interrupted by user]
Loophole of Retreat: Venice. _Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, Loophole of Retreat: Venice_. 2023. 17:24. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=331n2m7oanM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=331n2m7oanM).
**Claude:**
Now updating the index and the two pages that reference this video (Opacity and Aporia, Zakiyyah Iman Jackson):
Created [Loophole of Retreat - Venice](200-Research/240%20-%20Primary%20Sources/50%20-%20Videos/Loophole%20of%20Retreat%20-%20Venice.md), a new `240.50` page for Zakiyyah Iman Jackson's talk. Context I found and included: it's her recorded talk at *Loophole of Retreat: Venice*, the October 2022 Fondazione Cini symposium on Black women's intellectual/creative labor held alongside Simone Leigh's *Sovereignty* at the U.S. Pavilion (59th Venice Biennale) — and, per your own "obscure light" note on her page, likely previews her forthcoming second book *Obscure Light: Blackness and the Derangement of Sex/Gender*.
One filename fix worth flagging: the title has a colon (`Loophole of Retreat: Venice`), which isn't legal in a Windows filename, so I filed it as `Loophole of Retreat - Venice.md` and set `aliases: Loophole of Retreat - Venice` — matching the existing precedent in this same folder (*Sisters with Transistors* does the identical colon→spaced-hyphen substitution). Permalink follows that same precedent's pattern (`loophole_of_retreat_-_venice`, keeping the hyphen rather than collapsing it).
Also cleaned up the raw citations you'd dropped in as placeholders, converting them to proper links:
- **[Opacity and Aporia](200-Research/210%20-%20Concepts%20and%20Theory/Opacity%20and%20Aporia.md)** — Key Theorists' Jackson bullet and Essential Works now link the new page instead of carrying the bare citation.
- **[Zakiyyah Iman Jackson](200-Research/230%20-%20Individuals/Zakiyyah%20Iman%20Jackson.md)** — the raw YouTube URL under Visibility and Opticality now links the new page.
- **[000 - Videos Index](200-Research/240%20-%20Primary%20Sources/50%20-%20Videos/000%20-%20Videos%20Index.md)** — new entry added.
Nothing's committed yet — quite a few files are stacking up now (this session's new pages plus your own concurrent edits to Black Studies, Vision, Literate Programming, etc.). Let me know when you want a commit.
**jms:**
commit and push