Dan Lockton
Utrecht, Netherlands + Norwich, UK
Institute for Sustainable Worlds, Norwich University of the Arts ⦿ Design—imagination—climate—futures ⦿ Imaginaries Lab http://imaginari.es ⦿ New Metaphors http://newmetaphors.com ⦿ he/him ⦿ Not my employer's views
- Many thoughts about this, but as @apiln.bsky.social has detailed so well over the years, "fury at X" has become the default pattern for what was once proper local journalism. Also, imaginaries of real places as slogans/utopias/dystopias are fascinating to see in practice, from NL to Baltimore.
- I think partly what's dismaying with Airport Book Policymaking (as @ifbookspod.bsky.social @michaelhobbes.bsky.social @notalawyer.bsky.social have demonstrated so well over the years) is just how easy it seems to be to capture the minds of supposedly thoughtful, critical public figures, with what's
Airport book policy making is totally a thing. We have a live case- banning social media for under 16s. @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk hits the mark. And as with anything when you look at the actual data the picture is far more complex. Parent brain is not enough. open.substack.com/pub/joxleywr...
- not really much more than clickbait. It's like the Sir Humphrey syllogism en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politic... hybridised with with "one weird trick" endless-scroll brainrot. I feel like academics need to be much more critical of peers who take their careers down this route (Haidt, Peterson, et al).
- Imagine what Nigel Kneale could have done with this!
- NEW: An Anglo-Saxon burial site with remarkable similarities to Sutton Hoo has been discovered at the development of the Sizewell C nuclear power station www.thetimes.com/article/1528... #history #archaeology #anglosaxons
- Some interesting ideas here.
- Message in a bottle. www.designswarm.com/blog/2026/01...
- I sit, silent, cold, and armless, on the edge of my seat as the poltergeist once again levitates the mysterious laptop, book, and headphones all around me
- These birds (in snowy #Utrecht this afternoon) all eat invertebrates, such as Keir Starmer they also understand twitter better
- forbidden cupcake
- There once was a fire door in Norwich For which no-one could find a door wedge But perceiving that this old lighter Could be rammed in just a bit tighter Was a little too ironic, I really do allege
- two from the classic era
- I really support what the ERC does, but I really wish they would just publish clear, textual summaries of things like the new Plus Grants rather than expecting us to watch webinars / videos. The webinar introducing the grants was 1h30m long, with no link in the description to more details, nothing.
- Missed our webinar on ERC Plus Grants? We've got a shorter interview that walks you through the essentials. A clear overview of eligibility, funding and how the selection process will work. 👉 youtu.be/TU2ymXwm-Cw?... #ChooseEuropeforScience
- *Every single person in academia who is interested in the grants* will need to have a short summary they can send to others in their university—whether a research office or a boss or a colleague. Why would you not provide this up front? It's as if they don't understand how universities actually work
- The only "augmented reality" I want is some kind of analogue goggles that make everything look like this
- A couple of years ago I found an expired film (Trueprint Colour) and tested it out. #35mm 🎞️
- An Amoco staff uniform "fashion brochure" from c.1972–3, showing Town Centre Service Station in Feltham, Middlesex (which I think was about where the car park is outside Matalan). Is that a Triumph 1500, or a Dolomite? More info here: www.flickr.com/photos/danlo... #petrolstations #petrocultures
- Really enjoying this from @helleborezine.bsky.social! (also, intriguing to me that the first story, by Reggie Oliver, incidentally includes a character who was a member of staff at "an art school in Norwich" which is of course the position I also find myself in...)
- Exciting news! HELLEBORE’s first short story anthology is here! 9 new tales of the supernatural and the strange by Ramsey Campbell, Ally Wilkes, Reggie Oliver, Helen Grant and more, set in some of the most beguiling locations of Occult Britain. 👉🏼 Pre-order now to secure your copy: helleborezine.com
- My first Wordpress blog post was 20 years ago today architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2005/11/16/w... That blog—boosted by links from sites such as BoingBoing (thanks @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy!)—ultimately led to so many opportunities, a PhD, a job in the US, basically my whole career in academia.
- Now that em-dashes have been ruined by their overpresence in AI slop, we might as well switch to something better⸻namely Unicode U+2E3B, the 3-em dash⸺or at the very least U+2E3A, the 2-em.
- "if your politics is all about offering imaginary solutions to mostly phantasmatic problems, generative AI is the perfect tool for propaganda" — very useful thread
- There’s a growing & deeply problematic tendency to use #genAI for political and historical education Take this example from Germany, which translates as: «Hey AI, who should I vote for.» What’s typical here is that AI is not only addressed as pseudo-person but also as a kind of impartial judge 1/
- Join us online on Wed 22 Oct for 'Creative Futures in Education'. We have three amazing speakers: educator-researchers engaging with #futures: ↠ Grace Turtle (Monstrous Futurities, Sandberg Inst) ↠ Christian Petersen (Norwich University of the Arts) ↠ shobhan s (Purdue University & slowstudio)
- Register: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/designing-... (choose "Please select this ticket type if you are a member of the Norwich alumni community or an industry partner")
- A very niche post for the #petrocultures historians of East Anglia, but I thought it was interesting to see “carless” as an intentional typo on the Hiscox advert, as I headed on the train towards Harwich,where for 60 years the Carless name hasn’t been a typo at all
