Good feeling being invited to talk about your project by a funder to newly funded projects, must have done something ok

Bit of a long shot this - but I'm looking for science/social science researchers who might be willing to give some thoughts on how their field of research might have shaped their views on life, death and grief. I've made a short survey here which can be done […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

Bits and bobs from the week. Big quick jellyfish sketch with Sumi ink (over a metre), a 10 min hand from 2h life drawing session just on hands, and some etching tests swatches learning spit bite, white ground and sugar lift.

Refurbishing this pattern matrix for Ellen Harluzius-Klück, who we worked with on her Penelope project. Getting it working with the browser based warp weighed loom simulation. #weaving

Little wood engraving carved for a friend's very loved whippet Colin who left our world this week, now flying amongst the stars. Hoping to print from it in a few days. #dogsofmastodon #printmaking #printmaker

⭐ Cocoon Residences - Open Call ⭐ We have funded residencies for autumn, themed on moths and their viruses. These are based at our studio in Cornwall, with our support, and working with our long-term collaborator @b_longdon We have tried to make the […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

New rockhounding phrase for me: "heft in the hand": the apparent density of a material.

Got approximately two minutes today to play with someone's airbrush, hooked.

Still providing support for people using Betablocker DS - if you want to make software with longevity, make it work on the oldest tech you can get your hands on! #permacomputing https://thentrythis.org/projects/betablocker/

people trying to convince me that "you have reached your token limit" is an expected and normal state of affairs; smh

Head of UK Palantir is "the grandson of Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s" https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/17/has-peter-mandelson-finally-run-out-of-spin

I forgot I had an "AI project", it ran on ZX Spectrum, I should perform it some time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt7JqoPInlg

Having a bit of a local situation after 110mph winds, lots of power and water problems, towns cut off by fallen trees (& no reporting on this nationally). Our MP is talking about the fragility of digital comms, which is something I've wondered about over the last couple of days: "what is […]

Ok gang ideas needed. This microwolf lost her little bestie just over a year ago after his long decline with dementia. As he got very unwell and then after we lost him, she started getting very anxious and aggressive with other dogs, she was fine up until then […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

Made a series of prints, one for each chapter of an essay submitted today on 'illustrating complex information'. Still hate writing papers, still love making prints. Turns out I really like doing spot illustrations in an editorial style to fit with the text 🖤 This first one is the cover pic...

Happy solstice! Little wood engraving made this morning ✨

Final mailout of the year is set to go out at noon UK time, get yourself on there if you fancy receiving (roughly quarterly) studio news and info on open calls as and when they happen 💫 https://view.flodesk.com/pages/63c07d7c2fd941fe62206344

Noting the wealthy local university advertising residency positions paid at less than HALF the artist union suggested rates https://www.artistsunionengland.org.uk/rates-of-pay/

!!!Album release!!! "220 under adit (techno from mine waste)" All proceeds will go to the Panzi Foundation, supporting victims of sexual violence in conflict mining areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an illegal exploitation that ends up filling our laptops and mobiie phones. Please […]

Just had a contract from a university that bans the use of any open source software. Have flagged it - new one on me.

With at least one powerful acceleratorist ai corporation looking to fund/partner with open source live coding projects, I wonder if anyone will take the bait

Sometimes I just get an idea and it won't go away

If you consistently downplay the importance of understanding the world via material, non-human entities and scientific process - you lose perspective and get an unhinged kind of world where AI has a future.

A little bit smug about finally getting round to animating our logo 😎 https://thentrythis.org/

Took a while to find this, and it's affected me somehow. A hidden and forgotten place that could instead be an important destination to explore what it means to be part of human society. In 1967 an oil tanker sank off the coast of Cornwall called the Torrey […] [Original post on post.lurk.org]

Spotted today in a freezing cold outdoor toilet block that smelled of old cigarettes

SmogOff in the news (only just found out about this from June, but good seeing them out in the wild being used and people taking ownership!) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y8y18m88xo

Set myself up a little printing press out of a slightly modified old pasta machine, kind of works! Not the result you'd get from the tonnes of pressure from the real presses, but still not too shabby :)

Our new studio looking exactly as cosy as it is this evening

Writing an absurd amount of scheme code to simply try and figure out how to continue this pattern I started a few months ago (and after several studio moves) lost an important piece of paper... #weaving #tabletweaving

In September we took over Sheffield's Wintergarden with knots and woven robots with @Khipumancer and @yaxu as part of the @alpaca Festival You could create knot patterns based on Inca/Andean Khipu technology that would program the robots remotely, and […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

I really think that people who haven’t been poor should not give money or frugality advice to poor people. The problem with poor people isn’t money management or knowledge, it’s the insufficiency of money. This goes for anyone who wants to help people on food stamps navigate this situation […]

[uk politics] Somebody I know who clearly reads the Daily Mail dropped a comment the other day about the NHS struggling because of illegal immigration and "all the boats". They then said something like "but it's strange, I never see any of them anywhere". A lot to unpack there, but I wonder […]

Pro VAT tip - printing is zero rated but paper is 20%, so if you send blank images to printers you get the paper tax free #boredwhiledoingaccounting

We had a lucky break in the weather yesterday morning to get out with Cornish artist Libita Sibungu to Nangiles mine with our DIY mineral sound recording rig (contact mics and a electromagnetic sensor). As well a sounds, we collected lots of minerals […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

A bit annoying that free/open source communities are almost all hosted by a closed source platform owned by microsoft AI who use it to IP-wash all those projects by training LLMs.. While also supporting genocide etc.

Burning 1000 tonnes of fossil carbon, or emitting 4000 tonnes of CO2, causes the premature death of a future person from effects of anthropogenic global warming. It follows that for every hour that you fly, you typically steal from a future person: - one day if you are seated in economy class - […]

I hadn't really seen the manosphere stuff as an MLM scheme but of course. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2025/oct/21/why-the-manosphere-clicked-for-young-men-a-visual-deep-dive

Have LLM's created any new patents? This would seem like a low bar, as genetic programming did years ago.

We've built a special type of loom designed by Peter Collinwood to create the amazing illustrations in his book "The Techniques of Tablet Weaving". This is to help us closely examine the patterns and mathematics behind this weaving technique on the […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

So with absolutely zero singing experience I somewhat rashly joined a male voice choir a couple of months ago (wonderfully named "Many Men Soundsystem"). Last night we finally finished learning a new song (my first song) - a cover of "Chop Suey" by System Of A Down! The moment when it came […]

Organised Atoms Fun Palace 2025! We smashed rocks, found crystals and raved out in the rock lab. Thanks go to the Royal Society of Chemistry for supporting this kind of thing! https://thentrythis.org/notes/2025/10/08/organised-atoms-2025-fun-palace-events/

2006: "Data is the new oil" 2025: "AI is the new microplastics"

I got home today to a package with some beautiful art by @amberfirefly 🤩 Mastodon and #fedi made magic happen and a conversation we had contributed a tiny bit to the conception of these (and a series of others) beautiful artworks.

Does anyone remember the Reinhart-Rogoff affair? The paper that was widely used to justify austerity policies, but where the main result was only an artifact due to the researchers screwing up their Excel formulas? So yeah, can't see how putting the random number generator called "AI" in Excel […]

Pre-pre-pre-announcement that around the end of the year/early spring we'll be announcing some new funded residencies, based at our new studio in Cornwall to run around Aug/Sept 2026. The theme this time is moths and their viruses - as part of a bigger research grant on how viruses and their […]

Had a very convincing scam attempt on our business bank account yesterday. Had one of those fraudulent transaction query answer Y/N texts (with a totally made up payment to Adidas) which I quickly answered because I was out walking the dog. This led to a series of texts saying they were going […]