Shannon Mattern

@shannonmattern.bsky.social

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director of creative research @ the metro ny library council; faculty @ a conglomerate (2004-22: @thenewschool)

architecture, archives, art, cities, dogs, infrastructure, libraries, maps, sound++

philly + nyc

wordsinspace.net

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Shannon Mattern

The thing that's obvious to everyone and that nobody can actually write in the press is that the American (and yes, I'm sure elsewhere too) right wing is led by bad people and the object is to make more people extremely bad in basically every respect. It's anti-society

This Lilly ad in today’s Times 🤔 Not sure about the rhetorical justification for all that anaphora. And the fragmented parataxis. I wonder what the copywriter was thinking?

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IN 150 CHARACTERS OR LESS Everything is on fire, but everyone I love is doing beautiful things and trying to make life worth living, and I know I don't have to believe in everything, but I believe in that. From these are the words by Nikita Gill (Macmillan Children's Books, 2022)

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Artificial scarcity is an existential part of the Republican Party. Convince the working classes they must fight each other for pieces of the needlessly-small pie, while the GOP gets busy cutting taxes & creating new subsidies for billionaires.

The governors of a dozen Republican-led states — AL, AK, FL, GA, IA, MS, OK, SC, SD, TX, UT, WY — opted out of a new federal food assistance program, leaving about 9.5 million students without the aid this summer

Republican-led states are blocking summer food benefits for hungry familieswww.usatoday.com Money for food is especially tight for families in a dozen states where Republican lawmakers declined to accept federal food assistance.

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“Dozens of Palestinian civilians are killed and wounded after Israel’s air force attacked another school sheltering the war-displaced.” “Another day. Another month. Another school hit,” UNRWA’s chief says.”

Dozens of Palestinian casualties after Israel attacks another Gaza schoolwww.aljazeera.com Facility sheltering 2,000 war-weary civilians is targeted a day after a school attack killed at least 16 people.

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Shannon Mattern

What's weird is how much coverage there was of the surging right and a collapsing center and but no attendant deep coverage of the left? Not even to explain why news orgs seemed to be ignoring it other than stories accusing antisemitism b/v of opposition to Israel policy. So frustrating.

BREAKING NEWS: Voters turned out in numbers not seen in decades to stop the far-right National Rally from taking power in the French National Assembly. Polls predicted a first-place finish for National Rally, which instead came in third in initial results as polling stations closed.

Projections in France's election show voters rejecting the far rightwww.npr.org Voters turned out in numbers not seen in decades to stop the far-right National Rally from taking power in the French National Assembly. Polls predicted a first-place finish for National Rally, which ...

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Shannon Mattern

Look how fun shutting down fascists is. I want this for us, too

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Shannon Mattern

I've been obsessed with the term invitation for a while. MK helped me think about "radical invitation" as a way to organize. I wonder if it's useful to think about invitation into harmful stuff. I think, at some level, people are invited to participate in various harmful actions and sentiments.

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Shannon Mattern

"the real flourishing of Black studies that everybody thought might have been occurring in the 80s or thought might be occurring now, that it will occur when Black studies makes its move back from the university and back into our communities."--Fred Moten www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFTk...

Left of Black with Fred Motenwww.youtube.com Left of Black host Dr. Mark Anthony Neal is joined in the studio by Dr. Fred Moten.Moten is a poet and a scholar. He's a Professor in the Department of Perfo...

Among my college friends, Dear You was a divisive Jawbreaker album — but I loved it. I had a long drive yesterday, and Accident Prone popped up in the playlist, which reminded me of how much 1995 me loved that bridge (3:43 > 5:15 [esp 4:08 > end])

Accident Proneyoutu.be Provided to YouTube by Universal Music GroupAccident Prone · JawbreakerDear You℗ 1995 Geffen RecordsReleased on: 1995-09-12Producer: Rob CavalloProducer: Jaw...

Climate change mitigation — stormwater resilience, flood sensors, permeable pavers — in Greenwood Cemetery. Would it be great if we also addressed root causes to prevent the flooding itself?

How One Cemetery Is Preparing for Climate Changewww.nytimes.com

“The vast majority of the people in the community did not want these bike lanes and do not want the bike lanes,” he said. “They were just put up there against our will.” Sorry if you were conditioned to believe that you’re entitled to freely use public space to store your private property

One Neighborhood’s ‘Bizarre Culture War’ Over Bike Laneswww.nytimes.com A kerfuffle erupts over sharing the street in Queens, New York, where new bike lanes have replaced some parking spaces in residential areas.

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Shannon Mattern

Pointing again at my US Blue State Challenge. If you live in a "blue state", pick the red state you hate the most and the issue you care about the most and find a group in that state working on that issue and support them.

One thing I don’t understand is why, when people are outraged by some injustice or affront — like book bans — they don’t first look to see who is already tracking the issue, who’s already working on education + organization. “We need to do something!” People *are*. Find them. Help them.

There’s an opening program tonight at UnionDocs! Featuring “a collection of artists working through the stewardship of public space in their work” - and asking ?’s about “presence and absence, neglect, stewardship, the growthful, the decaying, and the fallow”

"The Fallow Frames Biennial is an upcoming public art festival that will be held [in Ridgewood, Qns] on July 13th and 14th, where local artists are invited to use 24 abandoned tree beds to stage site-specific installations and performances." www.fallowframes.org

UnionDocsFallow Frames: An Exhibition, Program & Neighborhood Biennial <br> <br><br><br>uniondocs.org How can we cultivate a decaying commons?

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Shannon Mattern

I report on art crime and business issues in the art industry. Sometimes I pitch general interest stories. What are things about the art industry you'd like me to look into or a reported explanation on?

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Shannon Mattern

My current experimental #NuclearEmbroidery. I am working to improve my skills & stitch repertoire which also involves improving my materials. A notional Teller-Ulam thermonuclear explosive design on a linen-cotton blend. Interstage is my first serious long-and-short attempt & it came out ok.

A fantastic Arena Channel, featured in today's newsletter. Nice connections to @loriemerson.bsky.social's work on "other networks," David Benqué's "diagram studies," and all the "poetic web" stuff www.are.na/julieta-cola...

For more on pneumatic tubes :) Me: wordsinspace.net/puffs-of-air... Molly Steenson: missourireview.com/a-series-of-... Holly Kruse: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Yes! Ha ha ha, YES!!

“A Series of Tubes” by Molly Wright Steenson | The Missouri Reviewmissourireview.com Starting in the mid to late nineteenth century, pneumatic tube postal services linked post-telegraph offices with each other in every major financial hub in the world.

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Shannon Mattern

"The roadway once carried between four and six lanes for motor vehicles, despite 88 percent of people in the area traveling on foot and squeezing into 30 percent of the space." And now Adams wants to give it back to cars?

Mayor Adams May Nix Sidewalk Expansions on Bustling Eighth Ave. - Streetsblog New York Citynyc.streetsblog.org Mayor Eric Adams cast doubt on years of city efforts to give pedestrians more space to walk on overcrowded Eighth Avenue.

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Shannon Mattern

“Now that we know felons can be white, we’re massive fans of crime.”

I don’t even know where to begin with this.

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As the daughter of a Black Vietnam vet who suffered life long pain from a service related injury but was constantly turned away from care by the VA I can’t even bring myself to read this. My father eventually died of a treatable condition at 62 b/c he was sent home to take ibuprofen by a VA doc.

A 2017 internal Veterans Affairs report shows Black veterans were more often denied benefits for PTSD than their white counterparts. The analysis crunched claims data from fiscal year 2011 through 2016. And disparate treatment started after WWI when it was still called shell shock. It continues.

Black veterans were denied VA benefits for PTSD more often than whiteswww.nbcnews.com “Ever since I came back from Vietnam, I knew that I had a problem, but I didn’t know what it was," said one Black veteran.

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Shannon Mattern

Google’s emissions are up 48% in 5 years. Microsoft’s are up 30% since 2020. Those soaring figures are being driven by mass investments in data centers to power AI tools. Generative AI is a climate disaster and data center expansion must be stopped.

Generative AI is a climate disasterdisconnect.blog Tech companies are abandoning emissions pledges to chase AI market share

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Shannon Mattern

For the people who don’t have time, here’s your Readers Digest version. You’re welcome.

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Shannon Mattern

Well this is grim

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Shannon Mattern

The robot is not a bargaining unit member and must not be given bargaining unit work. Faculty unions should be looking over their contracts right now, figuring out exactly how to grieve or otherwise oppose the introduction of these systems.

Also known as “training your replacement.” 😩

Morehouse to be the first university to use virtual AI teaching assistantswww.axios.com The Atlanta HBCU will have AI teaching assistants this fall.

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Shannon Mattern

Reply to

🇬🇾🗽Sydette The Dreaded Gorgon🗽🇬🇾

To your point: Ford and Mellon won’t even fund projects that don’t originate at elite colleges.

"The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania today announced a major investment to drastically scale its research and teaching capabilities in the areas of artificial intelligence and data science.... This innovation marks the first such collaboration between a business school and OpenAI"

One thing that gets me here is faculty signing on to brand partnerships with startups whose model depends on them devaluing the kind of work that faculty do in order to make the product seem at all viable

The Wharton School Makes Strategic Investment in Artificial Intelligence Research and Teachingnews.wharton.upenn.edu School establishes Wharton AI & Analytics Initiative, announces first business school collaboration with OpenAI PHILADELPHIA, May 29, 2024—The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania today an...

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Shannon Mattern

Also known as “training your replacement.” 😩

Morehouse to be the first university to use virtual AI teaching assistantswww.axios.com The Atlanta HBCU will have AI teaching assistants this fall.

...and ensuring that there's no next generation of teachers, since teaching assistantships (despite their pedagogical and political-economic problems) are the primary means by which *tomorrow's* university faculty gain experience (and, if they're lucky, mentorship)

Also known as “training your replacement.” 😩

Morehouse to be the first university to use virtual AI teaching assistantswww.axios.com The Atlanta HBCU will have AI teaching assistants this fall.

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Shannon Mattern

Also known as “training your replacement.” 😩

Morehouse to be the first university to use virtual AI teaching assistantswww.axios.com The Atlanta HBCU will have AI teaching assistants this fall.