Bits

There ought to be exhibitions on Myst and Surrealism; The Sims and interior design; Red Dead Redemption, Albert Bierstadt, and the American West. #videogames https://archive.ph/2FGaB

Exploring the tech behind concert led wristbands #led #lighting https://hackaday.com/2023/07/01/exploring-the-tech-behind-concert-led-wristbands/

Enslaved machine learning processes aren’t going to rise up in anger and overturn us, any more (or any less) than markets, bureaucracy and democracy have already. Such minatory fantasies tell us more about their authors than the real problems of the world we live in. #llm https://crookedtimber.org/2023/07/03/shoggoths-amongst-us/

Tiny #Awards is a small prize awarded by an equally-small selection committee of online makers to the website which we feel best embodies the idea of a small, playful and heartfelt #web https://tinyawards.net/

The programmed monopolization of possibilities disables human agency by robbing it of any alternative competency. https://www.noemamag.com/post-anthropocene-humanism/

PhD Simulator #seriousgames https://research.wmz.ninja/projects/phd/index.html

Politics & Economics

Modern propaganda does not try to convert people to a coherent ideology or make them believe that there is a utopia behind the walls of some foreign dictatorship. Instead, it makes people enraged, confused and depressed, and conclude that no truths can be known. https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2023/06/27/Education-Birth-Democracy-Will-Protect-It/

What if there is no #housing crisis, but instead a housing market working exactly as intended? https://btlbooks.com/book/the-tenant-class

B.C.’s largest wildfire on record now eclipses the entire area of Prince Edward Island #climatechange #canada https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/donnie-creek-wildfire-aftermath-1.6892294

Gap between rich and poor widens at fastest pace on record #canada https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230704/dq230704a-eng.htm

The question is: what kind of agriculture do Canadians want? Growing land inequality undermines the social, economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture. Progressive agrarian and food movements propose a different future — one based on food sovereignty. This would entail equitable access to land for farmers, sustainable livelihoods and valuing farmland for its social and ecological worth, as well as its productive value. https://thenarwhal.ca/prairies-farming-investors/

This kind of policy by Elsevier is not just aimed at Design Studies. Elsevier is already subject to various academic boycotts and editor walkouts around the world. #publishing #openaccess https://www.designresearchsociety.org/articles/the-future-of-design-studies-journal

Arguably, the craziest faction in #uspolitics right now isn’t red-hatted blue-collar guys in diners, it’s technology billionaires living in huge mansions and flying around on private jets. At one level it’s quite funny. Unfortunately, however, these people have enough money to do serious damage. https://archive.li/Idv9F