The Clothworkers Textile Project have been looking at two 'Pua Kumbu' textiles from Sarawak. Collected a century apart in 1908 & 2019, they were made using a combination of ikat dyeing and backstrap loom weaving, a technique unique in its use of fibres and dyes endemic to the jungles of Borneo.

I'm writing a study of a social/economic system that makes a better future by storing wealth in relationships. Soon I'll start a new job leading human-centered research to make aged care in Australia safer and better.

"Hey you know that bit in the Name of the Rose where he talks about how great lists are?!"

Indonesia rn

Start your sunday with this

I just came within a hair's breadth of telling my actual son to "measure once cut twice" @dungeonsanddads.bsky.social

Hello, I'm an anthropologist in a film. I am grossly appropriative and condescendingly academic, and I have a moral relativism the audience finds disgusting. The heroes will see my support for my community as both foolish and traitorous.

Anyone who was part of the conference, it'd be great to see your thoughts in the replies ⬇️ #AusSTS25

To really really close, @carinatruyts.bsky.social leads a reflection on the conference: I heard I saw I felt I made #AusSTS25

Closing us out, it's @wombatscholar.bsky.social (University of Sydney), with "noise as an attention ecology, or hauntology" #AusSTS25

Up next, Kari Lancaster (University of Bath) with "Shitty signals: wastewater epidemiology, addicted fish, and an ecological wrong-turn." Some wild entanglements here. #AusSTS25

Now it's Christopher O’Neill (Deakin University), as part of the closing plenary panel, which starts from Foucault's 1966 essay, "message or noise?" #AusSTS25

Finally we have "Filtering Sustainability Signals: Navigating Noise in the Coffee Industry," by Kestity Pringgoharjono (UTS) #AusSTS25

Now we've got "Increasing Military Interest in the Electromagnetic Spectrum: A Painter's Guide," by Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox (University of Queensland) #AusSTS25

Up next, "Thinking-with microbes on planetary scales," by Jianni Tien (University of Sydney). #AusSTS25

Last panel of the conference, starting with "‘A map they could all understand:’ Beyond cartographic distortion with Web Mercator," by Gethin Rees (King’s College London). How can the history of cartography help us to work with web maps? #AusSTS25

Next up, "Signals and noses" by Kylie Dolan (ANU). How does smell fit amongst the other signs people use to understand their environment, and especially signs of danger? Based on ethnographic work with an Aboriginal community in northern Australia. #AusSTS25

Now it's "Songs, Silence, and Noise: Exploring Sonic Narratives of Bushfire Recovery," by Scott Webster (University of Sydney) and Kuai Shen (University of Lisbon) #AusSTS25

Ok, up next is "Listening to the Noise: Soil Bioacoustics and Prosthetic Entanglement," by Sophia Dacy-Cole (ANU). #AusSTS25

It's hard to overstate the importance of sharing unfinished work -- and the necessity of a community of practice that will support that kind of sharing. Taking and giving feedback, including across disciplines and methods, are crucial skills that lead to better work. #AusSTS25

Next, "Noise and Futures" by Zane Pinyon, from Monash University, looking at the subfield of "futures anthropology." #AusSTS25

Next, James Parker from Melbourne Law School with "What did wake words do?" Wake words = words that activate devices like an Echo, e.g. "Hey Alexa..." #AusSTS25

Up next: Lorenn Ruster from ANU school of cybernetics: "Building an intuition for doing responsible AI: through the lens of signals and noises." #AusSTS25

(I personally love the Agile Manifesto website as a relic of an earlier web, and one that's now an eerie omen of the digital world of today -- and the ways tech governance has spilled into the "real" world.) #AusSTS25 agilemanifesto.org

Now it's V. Chitra and Adam Sargent (who contributed but isn't here) from the School of Arch and Anth at ANU, on "Audio fields and signal vision." #AusSTS25

Next, Lauren Kelly, a researcher with RMIT and also a union organizer, asks: "Does noise help or hinder the worker struggle against algorithmic management?" #AusSTS25

Up next, a panel on "attention," starting with @clockworkpenguin1.bsky.social from @admscentre.org.au, with "Websites that go bump in the night: AI slop, dead internet theory, and exploring digital ruins" 👻 #AusSTS25

Really enjoyed this talk, and came away asking: How might this exchange of display for medical care fit with the medical crowd-funding of today? #AusSTS25

Manifest #41952 from █████ ███████ ██ (Q CLEARANCE) 1. Blessed Parade of Radios 2. Hegemonic Silence

Checking in! I probably won’t be as noisy on here as I was last year, but will be sharing as I can, especially starting tomorrow. #aussts25

This time next week is #AusSTS. If you can't make it in-person, join for the keynotes, which we're streaming. Includes this one on Infrastructures of Noise, with @digitaldang.bsky.social, Fabian Offert, @katemannell.bsky.social & @ranjodhdhaliwal.com: www.youtube.com/live/ZGBAJWT...

Post an unusual sign if you feel like it

Calling rad academics who would like to move to lovely Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Monash EMERGE is actively recruiting folks impacted by global events. #academicsky www.monash.edu/research/eme...

Tagging Pete Alonso #LGM

NPS scores in action, ladies and gentlemen #CX

Authors, if you see this, post the first line of your book. (Or in my case, a line I'm adapting to start my book in progress.) “Of the very wealthy it is said, ngai mocé vae béré, 'rich as a running stream;’ his life flows easily as a running stream; everything that he wishes for comes to him."

“What is at stake, then, is not so much the biological make-up of the actor at any given time, but the qualities he or she represents.” Howell (1996) Many contexts, many meanings? Gendered Value among the Lio

Madison Keys won that final point and I leapt to my feet and threw my hands in the air!

AI Images as Infographics: My own text, "How to Read an AI Image" (minus the section on how diffusion works). As part of the class, students will generate an image and attempt their own analysis to see what they can infer about the biases in the dataset. www.cyberneticforests.com/news/how-to-...

Live-tweeting (skeeting?) conferences and events matters, #academicsky. I was about to write basically this, but it already exists, so thanks @culanth.bsky.social! culanth.org/fieldsights/...

People who make decisions (policy-makers, corporate honchos) are using bullet-point "insights" extracted from grey lit and one-off, small-bore research.

2024 in books I actually finished #booksky Hobb: Rain Wild series Choo: Ghost Bride Murakami: 1Q84 (reread) Hobb: Fitz & the Fool series Lu: Ghost Cities Moshfegh: Year of rest & relaxation Enard: Compass Lu: Whitewash Goenawan: Rainbirds Aoyama: What yr looking for is in the library Grann: Wager

I'll just be here Down Under, doing the Soto shuffle #LGM

I’m reminded of a senior scholar in a fancy seminar setting who told everyone, without shame, that she asked ChatGPT to produce a quote from Fanon, and it didn’t seem right, so she asked her research assistant to look for it, and it didn’t exist, and so she had her RA re-read Fanon

WOAH! @fossheim.bsky.social has just published the single-best piece I've *ever* seen on how to apply principles of accessibility to data visualization. My jaw is on the floor. Seriously, if you only ever read a single thing for accessible visualization, let it be this: fossheim.io/writing/post...

Here's one for the #STS / #HCI crowd 👇

Seen on a Facebook community page from Indonesia, where it was posted with no caption or context. Can anyone help me unpack this? I'm spinning out #ngada #indonesia

Looks like literally *nobody* is tweeting (skeeting?) from the Australian Anthropological Society conference in Perth? Can somebody put out some updates please? It's great for community-building, inclusion for those who can't be there, and other very good reasons #AusAnth #AAS2024Perth #anthrosky