From the techné pessimists of Ancient Greece to the computer to the loom-breaking Luddites to the firebombers of the Information Age, here's a look at the long—and fruitful—legacy of refusing the machine.
By @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social, for BITM:
Moonlight (Mondschein)
Moonlight (Mondschein) 1896
https://botfrens.com/collections/90/contents/1333229
Pause your exhausting feed and enjoy 1 minute of calm from a recent evening test flight.
Neil Gray, Take Over the City: Spatial Composition in Italian Autonomy – Common Notions, August 2026. Via @stuartelden.bsky.social
progressivegeographies.com/2026/03/18/n...
"We are training our robots to be more like humans; doing so requires that humans act more like robots." One of many insights in this excellent piece on the pace of #China 's #robot development by Chang Che...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Available today 👇
www.dukeupress.edu/matterphorics
it took some time, but the book forum on Urban Violence: Security, Imaginary, Atmosphere is now out on Dialogues in Urban Research. Thanks to Angeliki Drongiti, Moises Lino e Silva, @mitede.bsky.social and Gabriel Fauveaud for their generous/critical engagement!
journals.sagepub.com/toc/dusa/4/1
Photograph of the outside of the institute, adorned with a large poster of Helvetica letters, in yellow, stating "Beyond the Visual" and in Braille letters too
Four acrylic panels carved and illuminated such as to resemble fireworks
A Henry Moore sculpture, Mother and Child
A view of the gallery with sculptures both on plinths and hanging from the ceiling, suspended in space
Please touch the artworks - Here at the Henry Moore Institute exhibition "Beyond the Visual", "the UK's first major sculpture exhibition in which blind and partially blind practitioners are central to the curatorial process". I find myself listening to the sculptures too, via extensive audio guides.
e-Special Issue - Painting / Knowledge: Georg Simmel, 'On Art Exhibitions' - an early essay by Simmel, published in 1890, reflecting on sociological features of the phenomenon of the art exhibition in European culture at the end of the nineteenth century. (2014) journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Just published, open access: “Spatial Justice in the Data-Driven City: Toward a Non-representational Paradigm” in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Today, with AbdouMaliq Simone we are launching the renewed course of our Beyond Inhabitation Lab.
For the coming five years we aim to constitute a platform of collective study on "The Political Re-creations of the Mediterranean and Their Urbanicities."
Info: beyondinhabitation.org/our-new-prog...
Finnish Gender Studies Conference 2026: Rights, Wrongs, and Resistance
University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu campus, 26–27 November 2026.
Spring is springing in Regent’s Park
#London
Andrea Bardin, Hobbes’s Materialist Agenda: The Politics of Early Modern Science – @edinburghup.bsky.social, January 2026
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-hobbes-...
A promotional tile for the new collection in Transactions on Geographies of Responsibility, Care and Repair in Digital Worlds of AI. The graphic shows three images of the globe: a satellite image, an image with cities lit up, and a black outlined globe evocative of the world wide web symbol. This collection was organised by Jessica McLean with Louise Read, Karen Lai, Markus Breines and Sneha Krishnan, with contributions from Margath Walker, Jamie Winders, Yung Au, Katarzyna Cieslik, Nikko Stevens and Jack Jen Gieseking. The image has the Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers logo and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) logo at the top.
New in TIBG:
'Geographies of Responsibility, Care and Repair in Digital Worlds of AI' guest edited by Jess McLean et al.
This collection features four short pieces reflecting on questions of governance of and accountability for AI.
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...
The First Animation That Hayao Miyazaki Directed on His Own: Watch Footage from the Pilot of Yuki’s Sun (1972)
www.openculture.com/2024/07/the-...
Book review of “Hydrojustice” (Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, 2025) just published in “Law & Literature” www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.....
The book can be found here: www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
A hybrid talk on emotion in law and the high-stakes roles of memory and place. Drawing on 15 years of ethnographic research: what happens when there is no figure in the landscape? How do courts read remorse?
Thu 29 Jan · 15:15–17:00 (UK) · stream 15:05
Register bit.ly/4aTdI2Q
The Looki L1 AI wearable
“…continuously captures a wearer's point of view, promising to advise when to avoid another cup of coffee, to comment on places or objects around you, and to summarize each day in a comic strip.”
A white consumer drone hovers in front of the viewer
CFP, Please Share - A few days left to submit for "Critical Drone Studies: Drones in Society, Politics, and Culture" (25-26 June 2026, University of Cambridge) - Deadline for proposals: 12 January www.centrefordronesandculture.com/blog/confere...
#drone #cfp #conference #academicSky
Every year, for the past 15 or so, I have made a 'cover art' piece to mark the new year. This year's piece reflects my beloved home in the world, but which I am often away for long stretches. It offers a simple live visualisation of the local sea state racarter.itch.io/twenty-twent... #newYear
Book cover on a purple background. Red Text, white cover. These Books Do Not Exist.
One very last share - I am an inveterate tinkerer with my projects post-release, and since this one attracted more interest than expected, I've decided to update the intro text, which was really rough around the edges. richardacarter.com/these-books-...
Reminder! Call for participation, Planetary Surveillance - the 11th Surveillance Studies Network / Surveillance & Society Conference, Lille, France, 9-12 June 2026.
Deadline: 10 January 2026
#SSN2026 #surveillance
surveillance-studies.net/conference/
ssn2026.sciencesconf.org
Some People Can’t See Mental Images. The Consequences Are Profound
Research has linked the ability to visualize to a bewildering variety of human traits—how we experience trauma, hold grudges, and, above all, remember our lives www.newyorker.com/magazine/202... #Mentalimages #PhilosophySky #philsky
Still time to apply, until 19 December
👇
A fox looks up at the camera - a poor quality phone shot, but a large and healthy fox is very much in evidence
Urban encounters
Oh this is just gorgeous!
‘Data justice made tangible, spatial and actionable: An exploration of everyday data fairness through game making’ by @dimitrees.bsky.social, @resmini.bsky.social and myself. Available open access here journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
