Researchers in performing arts subjects could find their careers “in limbo or potentially ended” due to planned changes to how the impact of academic research is evaluated, senior academics have warned.

Is culture still bad for you? In 2020, ‘Culture is bad for you’ was published. To mark the updated second edition, co-author @drdaveobrien.bsky.social, reflects on what’s happened to the cultural sector since then for @artsprofessional.co.uk: www.artsprofessional.co.uk/feature/is-c... #booksky

I've been talking to @dtmooreeditor.bsky.social and @billwearsties.bsky.social about the current trend in televised sci-fi towards retrofuturism and alt-history over stories set in our actual *future*, and why imagining the future might be harder these days... www.denofgeek.com/tv/why-has-s...

The university watchdog is braced for "cold spots" as institutions cut courses and staff in a bid to balance the books "...individual decisions might stack up to suddenly realising that we've got no modern foreign languages in a particular part of the country" @matildamartin.bsky.social reports

"Each of the administrative burdens that we are confronted with on a daily basis might seem small on their own but cumulatively they amount to a ‘mountain of small things’ that is killing academia"

Today marks 10 years (!) since I started teaching in HE 🫠

oh wow everything is bad in the US, lucky for us that we're Europeans and things are going better here, now to take a big sip of coffee and

It’s 20 years since Howard Barker published his bracing polemic on theatre and death, and the necessity of tragedy in a culture of relentless death denial. It’s a wonderful read: taut, austere, a vision of the inexhaustible theatrical image.

Spending the afternoon with a hot chocolate and @miserchristmas.bsky.social’s Symposium.

I know we all love a dose of hopium, especially now. But the take, which I see all across here, that the far right was defeated in Germany tonight because 80% of Germans voted for other parties is very misleading and unhelpful. Understanding this really matters. 🧵

The notion that Trump's "I'm king" tweet is "just trolling" or "a joke" presents an opportunity to recreate my just-joking thread (porting it over from the Bad Place): 1. I wrote my PhD dissertation on the social function of humor (in literature & film) and here's the thing about "just joking."

Also, the AfD is NOT the party of the youth. The (new) Left did significantly better than AfD among 18-24 year olds. Die Linke is also NOT the left-wing equivalent of AfD. They are more old-school social democratic than communist. Even their "populism" is debatable.

With an 84% turnout, the AfD's 20% of the vote are in fact 16.5% of the registered vote Add to that all those who can't vote for various reasons, many of whom would be directly harmed by the AfD (and others to be fair) and you see where an alliance can be created instead of moving ever to the right

As Germans head for the polls today, the stakes could not be higher for Germany‘s future and Europe. My in-depth analysis on Merz‘ huge mistakes, but also some hope that the centre will get its act together in light of what happened since Munich.

@tapra.bsky.social Conference. University of Warwick, 27-29 August 2025 Call for Proposals! #Conference #Theatre #Drama #Performance #AI #COVID #Digital 'Postdigital and AI Dramaturgies: Gen Alpha and the Politics of Care in Online Performance' lnkd.in/ebp_9nU2

the utopian ideals of a participatory web are enmeshed with the entanglements of worldbuilding within capitalism.

My first book, The Populist Style, is finally out! 🎉✨ It is available in open access (direct link to the PDF: tinyurl.com/PopulistStyl...) and there is a 30% discount code (NEW30) for those who want to get a hardback copy (edin.ac/3WIe0Sr). Here's a summary of the book's key arguments: 1/25

People often mistakenly think metamodernism equals whatever ideology they support. Left can be MM, Right can be MM. Moderate, apolitical, anti-political can all be MM. Multi-perspectival can be MM, but MM is not at all inherently multi-perspectival.

Yes it was a Nazi salute

Already fed up of marking essays vomited up by GenAI. It’s insulting.

The Deluge is one of the best and most frightening things I’ve ever read - yet prescient in a way that’s completely believable. Felt like a map of the next 100 years. Wish it could be set as required reading.

Zuckerberg wants everyone to know he's done pretending he gives a shit about what people do on his platforms. Here's what happens next. www.garbageday.email/p/zuckerberg...

Absolutely brilliant article from @pennyred.bsky.social on folk heroes and Mangione. Wonder how long it is before one of us makes a musical out of this? I won’t bother as I bet there are several US versions already underway lauriepenny.substack.com/p/guilty-ple...

20 years ago we were suing teenagers for millions of dollars because they were torrenting a single Metallica album and now billionaires are demanding the free right to every work in history, so that they can re-sell it. The law only ever serves capital.

This morning two theatre companies (Freedom Studios and Coney) have announced their permanent closure. Both 'left' the National Portfolio in 2023 and have found the climate impossible since. Their statements are heartbreakingly similar. Without massive funding reform many more will follow in 2025.

At @insidehighered.com I wrote about my concerns about this kind of technology as a threat to human instructional labor, but there's also potential pedagogical issues with introducing a 24/7 assistant that may actually hamper student learning and development.🧵 www.insidehighered.com/opinion/blog...

Can we just… call it in and end the year here?

5 x funded PhD Studentships are now available in The Centre for Performance, Technology, and Equity (PTEQ) at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. To apply, follow this link: tinyurl.com/5h3nkyx2 (selecting the PTEQ funding route). Full details available here: www.cssd.ac.uk/research/pteq

The Yard Theatre announces the final production in its current home - Jay Miller will direct a new production of The Glass Menagerie after which the theatre will close for demolition

Here is this week's issue of The Crush Bar, featuring a chat with writer and director Jack Bradfield. Poltergeist Theatre's Alice In Wonderland is at Brixton House now, and his play The Habits is arriving at Hampstead Theatre in February. thecrushbar.substack.com/p/devising-t...

The writing’s on the wall…

#theatresky. missed @dermotdaly.bsky.social and i chatting abt and experimenting with my play THE NEXT ONE HUNDRED YEARS at @miserchristmas.bsky.social Metamodern Theatre symposium? no fear. we are here! along with fab ppl. youtu.be/-spECIBfaTk?...

Just caught up on a brill article by Antoine Simms at @uparisnanterre.bsky.social about the metamodernity of @a24movies.bsky.social's horror movies (including metamodern ghosts, metamodern jumps scares and - brilliantly - metamodern merchandise)! imaginaires.univ-reims.fr/index.php/im...

Students should study the humanities not because it makes them better workers but because it rips you open and breaks your brain and changes everything you thought you knew. I *promise* you this. I *promise* it has this ability, no matter how smart you think you are. I have seen it countless times.

signs of influencer creep in the academy: one of the first lessons I learned as a contemporary academic was to "know my brand." akin to influencers, higher ed workers must align themselves within specialized frameworks that appeal to an invisible audience of many.

This looks like a significant update to Raoul Ehshelman's original Performatism book, which itself was an important neighbor to metamodernism! www.routledge.com/Transcending...

If anyone’s intrigued by the concept of “metamodern theatre”, there’s now video on YouTube of last month’s Metamodern Theatre Symposium at the University of East London: youtube.com/playlist?lis... #theatre #metamodern

The Metamodern Theatre Symposium was held at The University of East London and online on 19.11.24 to launch @miserchristmas.bsky.social's book Metamodernism in Contemporary British Theatre. Every talk now available on YouTube. #TheatreSky #MetaSymp www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Missed the Metamodern Theatre Symposium? Don’t panic! The whole event is now available to watch on YouTube youtube.com/playlist?lis... A 5 part video playlist ft. @gregdember.bsky.social @katekavs.bsky.social @csvich.bsky.social @dermotdaly.bsky.social and more! #academicsky #theatresky #MetaSymp

Grateful to @zdscomposer.bsky.social for introducing me to some wonderful examples of metamodern contemporary music, including the extremely fresh 'SERENITY 2.0' (2021)—a glitchy, interrupted guided meditation that composer Ben Nobuto imagines as ultimately "reaching towards some kind of human 2.0":

‘The Britain he claims must be rebuilt has never existed’ 👏 Been thinking a lot, too, about weaponisation of nostalgia for a fiction/alised history - in part driven by all the AI slop created for Remembrance Sunday that offers HD rewrites of horror in favour of a glorified GREAT British history

Yes Temi Majekodunmi!! 🤞 🤞 🤞 🤞 🤞

500 followers! It took me over a decade to get to that over on the other place. So far, bsky has been lovely, invigorating, supportive & actually full of theatremakers/scholars and other brill people I've been able to find out about / connect with (and not fascists/ brainrot videos). A v. + place.

A brilliant blog post by @josielenadavies.bsky.social on the urgent factors in current community-focussed performance practices that underpin the PhD she is now undertaking. So glad that someone like Josie has the time, space and support to interrogate such issues and build new approaches.

This is a brilliantly written article, and reflection on the legacy of Cabaret by Joel Grey. 'Are these the hollow, uneasy laughs of an audience that has retreated into the comfort of irony and detachment? ... A collective shrug of indifference?'

For any new followers, I'd love to introduce you to HOAX, a radical online, print and IRL platform for all forms of creative work incorporating text – which I'm very proud to have co-curated since its 2020 lockdown relaunch, alongside the platform's founder, the incomparable @lulununn.bsky.social ✨

Such an important article! Especially as we are gearing up for the next cluster programmes. Data often doesn’t tell the whole story.

The final Artist Surgery of the year - Fri 6 Dec - is now open for bookings. Slots are free and in-person in our Café. Topics include producing, fundraising, marketing, career, or anything a 20min chat with our team over a cuppa might help. More info: newdiorama.com/for-artists/...