💥 New review! First no. 17: Research for People Who Think They Would Rather Create by Dirk Vis
(with bonus review of BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions)
www.first-and-fifteenth.co/first-17-res...
#FirstAndFifteenth #BLKNWS #uxmichaelco
Four Forbes business magazines, each with celebrated tech CEOs who have in different ways disgraced their companies.
Fifteenth no. 16: On the Men (and sometimes Women) Who Corrupted Hadleyburg.
Shady CEOs, Sianne Ngai's Theory of the Gimmick, why gimmicks are natural accessories of the tech industry, and a short story by Mark Twain.
Link below. 👇🏾
#FirstAndFifteenth #TheoryOfTheGimmick #uxmichaelco
New review! First no. 16: The AI Con by @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social
www.first-and-fifteenth.co/first-16-the...
#FirstAndFifteenth #CriticalAI #uxmichaelco
Photo of the book” The AI Con: How To Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create The Future We Want”, by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna. The cover a plain white cover with the word “The” in giant black letters, “AI” in giant red letters, and “Con” in giant black letters, and the book is shot close up and top down on a light green textured wool covered sofa material.
First #16 on The AI Con by @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social — “a wonderful riposte to the magical thinking propelling the indiscriminate deployment of generative AI.”
S/O @hypestudies.bsky.social for capturing its spirit. Link below 👇🏾
#FirstAndFifteenth #CriticalAI #uxmichaelco
Next stop, Scotland! 🏴
I will be delivering a keynote to open day 2 of @uxscotland.bsky.social
Wed 10 – Thu 11 June. Over thirty talks, workshops, and case studies across four tracks.
Discounts for freelancers. Scholarships also available.
uxscotland.net
#UXScotland #UXScot #uxmichaelco
First and Fifteenth returns in 2026. New website, new schedule. 💁🏾♂️
www.first-and-fifteenth.co
#FirstAndFifteenth #uxmichaelco
ffconf an independent web dev conference in Brighton at the Duke of York cinema
Back again 🤗 #ffconf #uxmichaelco
Royal coat of arms and logo for the Royal College of Arts, one of the top arts universities in the world here in London. The white logo and text is superimposed on a dark purple-grey filtered photo of the Dyson building campus.
Couple of weeks to go before I’ll be doing a guest lecture at the RCA for their Design Ethics class, part of the Design Futures masters MDes. 🤗 #RCADesignFutures #DesignFutures #HumanDecentredDesign #uxmichaelco
Fungi inspired promotional poster "Fungi as Your Futurist: A playbook for symbiotic futures” by sporesight studio.
“Fungi as your Futurist” a limited edition print zine about regenerative design, opened to showing the 18 cross-disciplinary contributors.
A hand pressing open “Fungi as your Futurist”, a limited edition print zine about regenerative design, to the pages listing “12 fungi principles”.
New publication!🚨 Fungi As Your Futurist by @sporesight.bsky.social
12 fungi-inspired design principles, with contributions from 18 global voices across multidisciplinary design and research (inc. me!)
sporesight.co/fungi-futures
#FungiAsYourFuturist #RegenerativeDesign #uxmichaelco
What a day @webdevconf.com #WDC2025 #uxmichaelco
A thread 🧵
Human Decentred Design (2025 edition): A trilogy in four parts, presented at @contentrising.bsky.social earlier this year at @rbgkew.bsky.social in Wakehurst. 🍃 💚
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTlz...
#FirstAndFifteenth #ContentRising #uxmichaelco
Top-down photo of a critical technology non-fiction book published in French by éditions divergences, on plain white table, called APOCALYPSE NERDS by Nastasia Hadjadji and Olivier Tesquet. The book has plain bright yellow cover with both the title and authors in large text and the rest of the cover taken up with a blurb in French.
nouvelle arrivée dans ma bibliothèque: APOCALYPSE NERDS écrite par @nastasiahadjadji.bsky.social et @oliviertesquet.bsky.social publié par @divergences.bsky.social
#FirstAndFifteenth #PremierEtQuinzième #uxmichaelco #CriticalAI
Michael Kibedi, a tall Black man wearing a rather fetching yellow black and white striped sleeveless knitted top, onstage at The Conference 2024, delivering a talk in the cavernous Slaghuset venue space in Malmö. It was a two day conference and, I've got to be honest, a career highlight. It was such a vibe!
Throwback and reminiscing The Conference, Malmö in 2024: Human Decentred Design, 15 minutes.
#HumanDecentredDesign #uxmichaelco #CriticalAI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRdW...
Hype Studies party in the Sants neighbourhood of Barcelona, a small club lit with red light and lots of hypers having after hours getting down!
@hypestudies.bsky.social is/was a conference with a difference. Non-hierarchical, welcoming and stimulating. After party at a cool little club, and many other (serious) memories. 🕺🏾 👨🏾💻 #FirstAndFifteenthOnTheRoad #uxmichaelco
Photo of a redbrick building that has been newly renovated so that it contains a glass front and modern interior, which is one of the buildings of Universitat Oberta de Catalunya in Barcelona.
Pulling up to @hypestudies.bsky.social at UOC Barcelona #uxmichaelco #TomorrowsEssaysBeingWrittenToday
Friday 10 October, I will be speaking at @webdevconf.com in Bristol.
Tickets and lineup: webdevconf.com
My talk “Death, and how tech forgot about mortality” explores digital existence, archival capture, and the fragility of our technological infrastructures.
#WebDevConf #WDC2025 #uxmichaelco
A dimly lit gallery space with spare interior fittings with a fluorescent light tube leaning against the two side walls that lights the room with an eerie blue-grey light. In the middle of the gallery, is a raised platform with a series of steel pipes, running in fixed track formation with occasional bends, that range from the ceiling to the floor in the middle of which are a number of small flat screens with graphical displays.
New essay. First & Fifteenth. 1 August 2025.
In which I discuss Meshwork by Merve Mepa, an installation at Salt Galata, untangling the connections between ancient weaving practices and complex technological infrastructures.
#DefyCategorisation #EthnoMathematicsMadeMeDoIt #uxmichaelco
Picture of a book titled “Eaten by the Internet” edited by Corinne Cath on a textured cotton tablecloth with thick off-white and light blue stripes. The cover is vertically bisected half blue and half black, with the title and the names of its contributors on the cover. White text overlays the picture stating “First #12: Eaten by the Internet. The many impacts of internet infrastructural invisibility. Available December 1st, 2024 at UXMICHAELCO.SUBSTACK.COM”.
In December, my thinking turns to internet infrastructures and the contentious question of their control.
On 1st December, read my review of Eaten by the Internet, edited by @ccs.bsky.social
Link in bio to subscribe! 🔗
#BlackSky #Sociotechnical #uxmichaelco
A large portrait painting of an eighteenth century white man in formal shirt and dark suit; however, the painting creates the illusion that the fabric of the portrait is being pulled aside to reveal the partially dressed figure of a young enslaved Black girl who stares directly at the viewer with a sad look. White text is overlaid stating “Fifteenth #11: On reclaiming futures. Bespeaking our desired futures into existence. Available November 15th, 2024 at UXMICHAELCO.SUBSTACK.COM”.
My next essay is experimental, as it addresses my theoretical, poetic and speculative influences to articulate what alternative technological futures can mean.
Subscribe to get Fifteenth no. 11: On reclaiming futures.
It arrives Friday 15th November.
uxmichaelco.substack.com
#uxmichaelco
