2024
The third night in a row I could barely sleep. Turns out that the turn out drove my anxiety—my body predicting.
Time for mobilization, more European collaboration, ditching the austerity politics in Germany, left populism, I suppose. I cannot stand four years of over-attention on the US, once again.
Vom Eisenbahnnetz im Kaiserreich bis hin zu faszinierenden Zuglandschaften, historische Eisenbahnlinien auf der ganzen Welt
Doku-Stimme auf Dauerschleife. Nur ein Beispiel dafür, warum die Kürzung von #3Sat ein absurder Fehler wäre. #ÖR
Everything and everyone is “prompting” and “generating” nowadays, even in qualitative methods. I refuse and turn to the good old terms of stimulus, experiment or, behold, … “to discuss.”
#AI #sociology #AcademicChatter
Here’s a detective thriller on semi-legal #semiconductor shipments to #Russia via #India and #Malaysia. #Bloomberg reporting
The (shipped) servers, known as PowerEdge XE9680, contain high-end processors optimized for artificial intelligence made by Nvidia
“Your manuscript had been submitted”, nice. We have prepared a sweet volume on shaping platforms. #sociology #valuationstudies
As always with these publications, the layout takes so much time and will definitely raise trouble in the PDF proofing. A devilish joy to push this through
Publication formats: Maybe you need do decide what side you're on, GenAI or Zine?
A situated lexicon of #virtuality: We have written a volume on an underappreciated term
It was a lot of fun (and work) to get this ready as a co-editor. It was also a risky adventure, a different way of representing knowledge. Get the open access version very soon (download incoming).
www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-837…
We’ll be sharing the concept and some artwork during today’s evening event,you can grab the Zoom link here. Later we will also publish videos of the exhibition.
We we also freakish enough to write (and review) this volume entirely through Markdown (#Obsidian) text files, leaving Microsoft Office and others behind. That’s been somewhat of a success.
Trouble through a lexicon
The form of the lexicon allows us to juxtapose terms, objects and trains of thought and leave them to stand on their own without immediately assuming a connecting dramaturgy or coherence. Beyond conventional essay structures and argumentation chains, the concise form of the lexicon article allows us to address phenomena and concepts via lemmas and present them in a pointed manner. At the same time, a lexicon invites you to stroll around, to suddenly get stuck on a term or image, to gain insights into other perspectives on familiar terms or objects, to be surprised by special cases and curiosities. The reference structure of a lexicon provokes non-linear reading practices, jumping between texts and different reading and reception paths through the book. The alphabetically sorted juxtaposition of articles fans out the diversity of virtuality. However, encyclopaedias are not infrequently instruments that carry out standardizing settlements with a claim to universality and completeness. In order to problematize such movements of closure, our lexicon breaks with conventional claims in two ways: through the selection of objects and the positioning of their presentation.
On the one hand, the claim to completeness can be thwarted by not systematically going through the supposedly central concepts and contextualizing them historically. Instead, our articles deal with particular phenomena and details that gain relevance against the background of virtuality… On the other hand, and as a consequence of this, we understand our lexicon as situated, insofar as it aims neither at completeness nor objectivity in the classical sense, but recognizes the multiplicity and fluidity of experiences and practices. We follow Donna Haraway’s (1995) proposal to produce situated knowledge that subverts the panoptic gesture and the “conquering gaze from nowhere” (ibid.: 80) of classical lexicons.
The #Nvidia stock is going bonkers again. Analysts applaud a cooperation with Foxconn. New chips to come, data centres are ready to grow.
Fittingly, Paris Marx starts a series on vampires aka data centres. Exceptional recordings, #TechWontSaveUs
Here’s the final stage of my solar-powered #Fediverse experiment. This is the story of my failure and infrastructural limitations. I tell it through the lens of an #energy stack, a battery. #sts #Mastodon
This photo essay turns to the infamous #ewaste site Agbogbloshie, and it takes the workers seriously. Local migration and repair culture meet toxic fumes.
#sts #ecology #waste
Cory Doctorow with a few new banger lines on #enshittification.
Platform capitalism, or
“keeping customers so angry that they’re almost ready to take their business elsewhere (but not quite).”
I am looking at historical documents of our brutalist university, as gathered recently by excellent students. A vanished body of water.
By chance, this is a demonstration of the power of focal length.
#photography #infrastructure #bochum
Stop what you’re doing and start the electric #zine maker. alienmelon.itch.io/electric-…
Seriously. This designs our guide for the infrastructure walk during the upcoming annual conference of the CRC Virtual Lifeworlds. www.virtuelle-lebenswelten.de
#sts #academicchatter
Deutsche #Soziologie meets glühender Rotstift.
Sätze aufbrechen, Einschübe tilgen, Verben zusammenziehen, Adjektive streichen, ein Verb einstreuen, – vielleicht sogar ein gewagtes, lyrisch gehaltvolles Verb.
Es bleibt Beton.
Wolf Schneider #KI for the rescue? reporterfabrik.org/wski-edit…
When I achieve a little monster task and it includes a neat long summary email, I like to look at the message after sending, again and again. Goodbye my friend 🫡
@academicchatter@a.gup.pe #AcademicChatter
Recovering from storm #Yagi means dealing with flooding and trees gone wild. But it also means facing economic losses. This might disrupt #ClimateChange policies in #Vietnam. Maybe.
The #Intel investment in #Magdeburg is postponed. An expected turmoil. One of the many interesting notes now casually emerging:
The wastewater plant for the planned #semiconductor production facility … would consume as much water as half of Magdeburg.
We just finished a wonderful trip to #Japan, but wonder why #Osaka scores so well in liveability rankings.
An unfair rant.
It’s a congested and child-unfriendly city, with the tourism industry trying hard to shove meaty food down your throat.
Not hating on the thriving alternative cultures tho
Tofu woman meets coffee dude while the barber goes hiking. And the photo store guy is ready for etching.
#Kyoto stories. #streetphotography w/ old Japanese gear
#Japan #photography
Train ring #photography, #Japan.
Shot with a charming 1965 Asahi Super-Takumar 55mm.
#streetphotography #Tokyo
