Running through some Elden Ring to get images for my talk at @qgcon.bsky.social this coming week. What an amazing game, maybe time for another full play-through?

International mail service to the US might be fucked, but somehow my new “A.I. Sucks” print from @sonnyross.bsky.social landed on my doorstep this morning! Great way to start the weekend :) . If you don’t know their work you should check them out and support real human artists! #antiai #fuckai

“Politics and aesthetics have an uneasy alliance. Too often, trans art—whatever it might encompass, and whatever form it might take—is on the losing end. Creating good work requires time, space, funding, and the motivation to keep showing up.”

People from all over are showing up for DC. This is not a moment. It’s a movement. We are united in our demands. We are all DC! #FreeDC

Transgender studies professor Dr. Susan Stryker tears Gavin Newsom a new one while accepting the Transgender Legacy Award from the California state legislature 🔥🔥🔥 @susanstryker.bsky.social

Me: *trying to have a normal first week of class.* Student: “Why haven’t there been any major successful lawsuits about AI and copyright?” Me: “Well the thing you have to understand is that the law in the US serves capital not the working class…”

First day of the semester hits different as a transwoman and professor in 2025 in the US. More prepared and capable than I ever have been, but also more anxious to be in public and in front of students than ever. #academicsky #academia

21 arguments against AI in education in thread form below or my post here: codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/2024/02/22/a...

Every now and again you read a book, watch a movie, hear a song, play a game etc, that fundamentally broadens what you think a medium can do or be. Last week I read @scumbelievable.bsky.social ‘s “Cuckoo” and it did just that. Seriously stunning, especially the handling of transness over time.

Media-N: Journal of the New Media Caucus, a peer-reviewed open-access journal dedicated to scholarly research and critical dialogue on new media art, has a new open call for their next general issue: iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/med... #academicsky #newmedia #opencall #academia #openaccess

🧵 (1/8) New semester new AI policy for my syllabus. Drawn from my prior policy, @melhogan.bsky.social 's very clear and concise recent post about AI's problems, and reading "Empire of AI" this summer. For context, this is for a creative coding class in an art department. #academicsky #criticalai

No big deal "It's just till we get in office ..." "It's just sports," "It's just restrooms." "It's just your pronouns." "It's just your name." "It's just your medications." "It's just your job." "It's just your kids." "It's just you."

I am just a girl, standing in a desert, throwing antifungal grenades at myself to try to cure my parasitic infection. An actual scene from a recent (Hugo Award Winning) Caves of Qud play-through. My idea didn’t work btw, I had to chop off and regrow my limbs obviously.

democrats are going to be dealing with anti-trans hate until they either - nut the fuck up and defend these people from bigoted attacks - concede to every republican attack on the issue, inevitably leading to the total eradication of trans people from all public life literally the only 2 options

Just two days of our matching donation #fundraiser! And don't forget to get your ticket (whether in person or online)! For games scholars, queer scholars, developers, gamers, GMs, and anyone with a big imagination who is curious to join us! Donations keep our tickets affordable to all.

Instead of: Those who cannot do teach. It should be: Those who cannot do prompt.

The world sucks but today I got to hang out with two of my fellow art/design colleagues and test out our new Risograph machine. I decided to print a screen capture from a recent net art work. #riso #risograph #printmaking #netart #newmediaart #contemporaryart

Big thump on my studio window, saw this little one 😍

An email landed in my inbox today promoting a faculty retreat for my college with a large time slot on "AI for productivity". I responded in part with: "I say this without exaggeration: There is no way to adopt generic AI tools (like LLMs) at an institutional level in a way that is ethical."

A work in progress screen capture from my ongoing net art project “A Walk in The Dark”. I have a new newsletter out this week featuring some of my work from the last 6 months and a little of what’s coming up (including more info about this video). You can sign up here: forms.gle/G3nRGj6eL1hN...

Just as a practical matter, consider how unheard of it is to expand an already significant federal agency by 1,000% in two or three years. WW2 mobilization or the early 60s Moon race are the right sort of analogies

Happy 14th wedding anniversary @cthompto.bsky.social We’re on very little sleep, still have packing to do and our movers arrive tomorrow… But then we’ll be in our new home together making it all our own. I can’t wait for year 15 with you. ❤️🏡

Happy pride folks I'm still fleshing out the entries, but here's a list of over 200 retro games (pre-2010) which were made by trans people or which had trans people on the dev team. We have always been here. dotmaetrix.neocities.org/classictrans...

New issue of Transgender Studies Quarterly (TSQ) on Trans Speculative Media and Fiction from is out now! I am very honored to have an artwork and statement in the issue alongside so many other talented and thoughtful folks. #transstudies #tsq #transartist read.dukeupress.edu/tsq/issue/12/1

Just finished “The Sapling Cage” by @margaret.bsky.social & everyone should read it! As a transwoman who has been out as trans for 15 years, I can honestly say this has some of the most beautiful & incisive writing about transness I have ever encountered. All alongside of a compelling fantasy story!

gender reveal, the baby is goth

As the executive editor of the open access academic journal "Media-N: Journal of the New Media Caucus", I am excited to share a new issue today! "As the World Burns: On Media and Climate" is available for free here: iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/med... #newmedia #climate #media #climatechange

In December 2024, I took part in the 1st International Workshop on Low Carbon Computing ( #LOCO2024 ). The recorded talks are now up on YouTube including mine which is on teaching sustainability in new media art: youtube.com/@loco-worksh... #lowcarboncomputing #newmediaart #sustainability

In the studio today: Mocking up an autonomous solar powered projection system for displaying new media art. Battery, inverter, etc represented as simple shapes for now. This will be built in the coming months hopefully using reclaimed wood. #newmediaart #solarpower #solarpowerart #sustainability

I took my “Creative Technologies during Climate Crisis” class to our local solid waste facility for a tour today. We learned about waste streams, mills, landfills, & a lot more. Highly recommend visiting your local waste management folks to learn more about the afterlife of the things we throw away!

I am in Bloomington Indiana as a visiting artist at Indiana University this week. A part of the visit is running a workshop. I ran a workshop on systems in studio art making and made a little website for it here: cthompto.github.io/systems-stud... Love making a new little website.

It’s transgender day of visibility but visibility as a means to security and safety is a lie. Solidarity must be built from a foundation that surpasses the visual/understandable. #tdov #tdov2025 #transartist

From the march on the Virginia Tech campus today opposing our Broad of Visitors decision to dissolve our Office of Inclusive Strategy and Excellence.

Today I got to take my art class titled “Creative Technologies During Climate Crisis” onto a rooftop to get a tour of a small solar array. The wonderful folks at facilities & in the sustainability office gave us the tour & a lot of great info about the challenges of making campuses more sustainable.

In Vancouver today for the opening of this group show I am in and for a day long event on “trans opacity”. Very grateful to be around so many other thought trans folks and to be out of the U.S.A. for a little while. #contemporaryart #transstudies #newmediaart

I need to be in a witness protection program but for work email.

A little snapshot of my notes for my talk this afternoon at #caa113 . Very excited to be in conversation with @dylanvolk.bsky.social , @blackchthonic.bsky.social , @kringelberg.bsky.social , and Sky Maggiore about trans visibility. I will be taking about my recent fog works.

In the midst of all the terribleness, I have the opportunity to talk about horror as a mode of trans resistance today at a #queerhorror conference. Talking about my work and the work of Greer Lankton and Susan Stryker.

Ok here is the thing with action/praxis/protest/showing up: Sometimes you contribute by being a megaphone. Sometimes by being a wallet. Sometimes by being a physical body. Sometimes by being fuel or being relief. If you can’t be one thing at any given moment you can almost certainly be another.

I made these in case anyone was looking for some new office art. #academicsky #donotcomplyinadvance

redesign of the piece that has gotten me restricted/suspended at least 4 times 😇

This travel page of the state department website now says “LGB” instead of “LGBT” I have long said we need to better attend to the specific political needs and realities of trans people. Make no mistake, this is meant to drive a wedge between us and weaken our coalition. Text from my TSQ 9.4 piece

We all have to be speaking up in our lives & work. Maybe it’s because as a trans person the idea of having true stability & security has always felt tenuous. So I am acutely aware of the fact that it could all go away and feel compelled to speak up with the little power I have while I have it.

Despite all of the terribleness, I am thankful to be teaching a class on creative technologies during climate crisis right now. Today we are covering the ecological and aesthetic potentials of dithering. #creativetech #climatechange #dithering #sustainablewebdev

If you are US based and have the ability, please take a moment to call your representatives and voice your opposition to the all the various fuckeries that are being introduced. This is a script generator for trans issues that might be helpful: www.tracktranslegislation.com/script-gener...

I have been thinking a lot about what this next administration will bring and about how universities can be proactive in protecting and supporting trans faculty, staff and students. I wrote about here: #academicsky #academia #transrights #transgender #lgbtq www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...

I used to work for an elected official as the person who answered their emails. I can tell you from personal experience, if even twenty or thirty people all call an official in a day, they start panicking. This stuff does help.