News

This page has been updated fairly regularly since 2021 (though I added some links for posterity).

03/02/2024 ↝ KARG Season 4

The Knowledge Arrangement Reading Group is back! We are restarting for 2024 with a session titled How much semanticity do we want anyway?, discussing mono- and polysemantic representation. We’ll be meeting at 4pm GMT on Friday February 9th! (as ever, everyone is welcome).


13/12/2023 ↝ Autonomous Worlds Essay

My essay A Chatroom With Legs, on the design of videogame dialogue systems is now published online on the AW website.


15/11/2023 ↝ This Cursed Machine @ Autonomous Worlds Assembly

Myself and ARB are giving a talk about the new Moving Castles game This Cursed Machine, which I helped to design the mechanics for last summer. If you’re around in Istanbul for the conference, say hi!


07/10/2023 ↝ Colloquies for Transgenerational Collaboration @ CMU

I’m in conversation with TJ McLeish as part of CMU Architecture Department’s symposium convening younger and older practitioners around systems principles. We’re talking about tools, agency and pedagogy.


01/06/2023 ↝ Siena Reading Group @ Moving Castles

GVN and I are organising a reading group on Siena as part of Moving Castles research, exploring how the fabric of the city has been shaped by consecutive games and sets of rules. Episode 1, LOTTERIES, is this Sunday 4th at 5pm GMT.


19/05/2023 ↝ inflatables @ Camberwell College of Art

Invited by the Computational Arts program to run the second annual inflatables workshop -> we had 2 days, one of the students put a tentacle on the back of Camberwell Sainsbury’s, and we ended up with a beautiful dome at the end.

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14/05/2023 ↝ Software for Alien Internet @ Kunstverein Hannover

I wrote an agent-based model of animal migration patterns for Agnieszka Kurant’s new work, Alien Internet, which will be on show in Kunstverein Hannover as part of her exhibition Uncomputables until July.


11/05/2023 ↝ talk + artwork @ Articulating Data Conference

I gave a talk (soon to be published online) On Conversational Agency, to introduce a new artwork + research on cybernetic-periphery theories of conversation and perception, bureaucracy, and the role of forgetting in computing history.


28/04/2023 ↝ I3 Summer Fellows Programme

I’m helping to organise a (paid!) fellowship programme for graduate students in innovation research, to contribute open data/code/tools to the i3 index. More details and application here.


27/04/2023 ↝ Knitted Synthesisers @ Camberwell College of Art

I ran a workshop on making diy synths with conductive textiles as part of B. Claxton and Eva Sajovic’s Hack’n the Knit workshops. We made some wild sounds!

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31/03/2023 ↝ Autonomous Worlds Book

The essay I wrote on conversation theory, stigmergy and game design after the Autonomous Worlds Symposium last November is now in print! (and soon to be online)

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27/01/2023 ↝ Cyberfeminism Index

I’ll be in conversation with Mindy Seu at the launch of her book The Cyberfeminism Index, at The Word Bookshop on Jan 30th – come by!


30/11/2022 ↝ ARRG @ Delfina Foundation

I am hosting a public session of the Agrarianism and Revolution Reading Group at the Delfina Foundation next Wednesday. If you’re in London, do come.


22/11/2022 ↝ Farming Updates

Check out this year’s tomatillo harvest


14/10/2022 ↝ KARG Season 3

The Knowledge Arrangement Reading Group is restarting for the autumn, with a session themed Knowledge Arrangement Arrangement on Friday October 28th! (if this sounds like fun to you, do join)


30/08/2022 ↝ Of All Their Possible Variations

The essay I wrote on category theory and portals for the 2022 are.na annual is now online


03/08/2022 ↝ Resident @ Delfina Foundation

I’m going to be part of the 5th Season of the Delfina Foundation’s Politics of Food programme, as a ‘UK Associate’ artist, working on a project around food bureacracies + ontologies, trade agreements, and research institutes. I’m planning to write a lot!


08/07/2022 ↝ Inflatable Sighting @ SHS Summer Party

Made a big guy in a workshop at somerset house, and showed him a good time.

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02/07/2022 ↝ george kan dot art

Finally finished making a website for my friend George. It’s very simple, apart from a nice little bit where the date seeds a different random order of the paintings.


27/05/2022 ↝ Inflatables Workshop @ Camberwell Computational Arts

I ran an inflatables workshop with the BA Computational Arts students at Camberwell, we hung a big snake out the window and then also had a very hard time putting a big pillow up in high wind (beautiful though!)

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03/05/2022 ↝ Talk/Workshop @ Schloss Solitude

Gary and I will be at Akademie Schloss Solitude next week running a workshop on food texture modification and giving a lecture called “Soft Bread, Hard Times” as part of the Fragile Solidarity, Fragile Connections festival. Come talk to us about foams!


17/03/2022 ↝ A Pandemic Notebook @ NYLA

My collaboration with the dancer+choreographer Karole Armitage is currently being performed as part of a programme of her new work, for the next couple of nights at New York Live Arts. The New York Times called it a gimmick!


22/02/2022 ↝ Talk @ Printed Matter

Myself, Federico Pérez Villoro and Tiger Dingsun gave a talk about our collaboration on the Transparencia Index (an ongoing project around Mexican freedom of information request archives) entitled “Parasitic Research and Access to Information”.


14/01/2022 ↝ Food Ontologies

I wrote about systems for thinking about food for the are.na blog, feat. this great diagram by Patrick Gunkel.


03/01/2022 ↝ Are.na Annual 2022

I contributed an essay to the 2022 are.na annual (theme: portals) about running a category theory reading group, and maths that allows you to re-encounter the world from different vantage points. It was nice to try and synthesise some of the thoughts I’d had about mathematical representation + also to read some really wonderful writing, particularly this essay by Barry Mazur.


18/12/2021 ↝ Inflatables @ FABRICA

I went to FABRICA to run a 3-day inflatable making workshop, we made some really big ones:

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10/12/2021 ↝ Carpentries Instructor

I am now officially a Carpentries Instructor, and will be organising a series of workshops in spring 2022 with KFG (intros to git, the Unix shell, and Python), dates TBC. These are open workshops – send me a note if you’d be interested in either attending or helping out!


03/12/2021 ↝ I³ Index

I presented a project I’ve been working on for a while (the I³ Open Innovation Dataset Index), an openly-editable index for research data, at the NBER’s fall technical meeting. I wrote about the project here.


03/11/2021 ↝ Inflatables Workshop @ Somerset House

I ran a short inflatables workshop at Somerset House, where 6 of us spent about an hour turning 3 packs of binbags into a surprisingly large spined snake. We took him out for a walk by the bar after.


22/10/2021 ↝ Are.na Channel Walkthrough

I took part in an Are.na Channel Walkthrough with Leslie Liu, Maya Man and Maria Gerdyman, in which I talked about collecting different knowledge organisation systems for food. Highlights include volumes 1 and 2 of Modifying Food Texture, this flavour-space and Patrick Gunkel’s treatise on sausage-forms.


05/10/2021 ↝ RuneScape Economics

As part of Trust’s New Stack research programme, I am giving a play-through and talk about the economics of the MMORPG RuneScape, exploring the in-game market economy and related effects of scams, bonds, gambling and real-world trading. The talk will be Thursday October 7th at 8pm CEST on the Trust Discord.


25/09/2021 ↝ Future Gardens

My piece for Mecklenburgh Square gardens’ exhibition is now online. Screenshot 2022-02-07 at 13 32 08


16/09/2021 ↝ Blue Sky Gardening

I’m taking part in Blue Sky Gardening: an exhibition of garden proposals and propositions, part of the Mecklenburgh Square Garden Project, with a simulation work about gardening and uncertainty. The exhibition runs from 25-28 of September, 11am-4pm.


09/09/2021 ↝ Transparencia Index

Work from my collaboration with the artist Federico Perez Villoro is on show from now until January 21, 2022 at El Museo de la Filatelia, Oaxaca, as part of the exhibition of archival and contemporary Mexican mail art Cartografías Ocultas.


25/06/2021 ↝ Lantern Strike @ 47 Canal

I helped artist Cici Wu to prototype a set of lightweight cameras that record shadows in images. Her show, Lantern Strike (Strong Loneliness), which includes the cameras and a film made using them, is on at 47 Canal until July 30th, 2021


20/05/2021 ↝ 6 Feet Apart

The project I’ve been working on with choreographer Karole Armitage was live-streamed as part of the NYLA Women:Create dance festival.


03/05/2021 ↝ CSV Conf

SJ and I ran a session at CSV Conf V6, entitled Data Collaboratives in Practice. Slides here and summary notes here.


17/03/2021 ↝ Bell Launch

We talked about the jumpsuits in a panel discussion hosted by Rhizome + Bell with the other Experiments in Art and Technology participants.


24/02/2021 ↝ Aesthetics of New AI Interfaces

I took part in a panel discussion Aesthetics of New AI Interfaces hosted by the Serpentine’s Creative AI lab. I wrote some notes on the talk I gave here, and there’s a write-up of the event here.


13/11/2020 ↝ Risk, Simulation and the Catastrophe Industry

I participated in a talk hosted by Gary around climate, risk and finance, inspired by The First 10,000 years.


16/10/2020 ↝ The First 10,000 years

Is now online!. Go buy some bonds in your browser :)