reading
The second in a periodic series called "Reading," today's text covers a seminal academic article you might like, but find long and dense. I break down Langdon Winner's 1980 article, "Do Artifacts Have Politics?" and explain why it matters.
bookpile
Bookpile is short posts on Fridays about what I’m reading now and what I’m liking about it. This week, The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow.
AI
Computer vision is everywhere, but gets less public discussion than the other, louder forms of "AI" currently in vogue. Being aware of CV and its assumptions matters.
bookpile
Bookpile is short posts on Fridays about what I’m reading now and what I’m liking about it. This week, The Birth of Computer Vision by James E. Dobson.
work
It's something different this week: a very short essay about why there is no essay. In the context of the heat wave Europe has been baking through, I reflect very briefly and slightly personally on why things can't always be okay.
participation
Research which centres the experiences of people who are under-represented is not new, but is increasingly important as power imbalances grow more stark. Participatory research is a good place to start.
do
“Do” is a new series on Fridays. Elsewhere in my Friday posts, I focus on ways of trying to stay creative and focused in a distracting world. “Do” is practical interventions for specific tasks. Today's “Do” is about my imaginary interlocutor, Jim.
Critical technoscience, human readable
This week, I’m distilling some things we can learn from Marc Levinson’s 2006 (or in the second edition, 2016) book, The Box. The Box tells the story of the intermodal shipping container, an object you may not even know you should care about.
“Do” is a new series on Fridays. Elsewhere in my Friday posts, I focus on ways of trying to stay creative and focused in a distracting world. “Do” is practical interventions for specific tasks. The first “Do” is about reading aloud and recording as a part of editing my writing.
Roller derby (a team sport on roller skates) is embedded in a culture of self-organization, inclusion, and openness. What can other values-led communities learn from a sport that's made a virtue of inclusion?
In what will ideally not be the beginning of a new series, I give the bookpile treatment to a hot new document from the European Commission. The "Communication on European Tech Sovereignty, accompanied by an EU Open Source Strategy" isn't all great, but offers some specific hope.
There seems to be a growing undercurrent of despair and disempowerment in discourse around "AI." The belief that the horse has left the barn encourages apathy and acceptance. But I'm to ready to give in just yet.
Coping is short posts on Fridays about coping methods for doing creative and focused things in an unfocused world. In Coping 13, carving out room for joy in one's work.
Software choices are about both capacity and self-perception. When we decide on a certain tool, it is not just a choice about accomplishing a task, but also about using tools that resonate with who we think we are.
Coping is short posts on Fridays about coping methods for doing creative and focused things in an unfocused world. In Coping 12, reading the world instead of the news when out and about.
Rotterdam is defined by its port, one of the largest in the world. What does it mean for a city to be so closely entangled with global shipping?
As I continue to work on a project about urban pigeons, I've been struggling with the human-pigeon relationship. More than anything else, I've been wondering: what is it that humans find so wrong with pigeons?
The last five years have done a lot, in terms of "AI" and its impact on the world. The things I love on the internet are being hollowed out by the effects of scrapers and hyperscale data centres. Education is struggling with a race to the bottom, academic publishing is in the same boat. Now what?
Coping is short posts on Fridays about coping methods for doing creative and focused things in an unfocused world. In Coping 11, doing related tasks in parallel.