Aaron McCarthy
@aaronmccarthy.bsky.social
64 followers 210 following 5 posts
Artist Interdisciplinary PhD: Material Transitions through Time @ RGU Cargo Bike enthusiast NE Scotland https://aaron-mccarthy.com/
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Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
dundeecycling.co.uk
Glow Ride is a family-friendly mass cycle on Friday 31 October, starting 4:30pm at Braw Tea Café and finishing Dundee Cycle Hub.

Come as you are or go full-on spooky: we’ll have prizes for best costume and best illuminated bike, tunes and a bike party! #OurRideOurRights #GlowRide

All are welcome
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
gjmichaelson.bsky.social
Restoration of one of the trilithons at Stonehenge in 1958. Photo courtesy Mrs H. E. O'Neil. In G. Daniel, A Short History of Archaeology, Thames & Hudson, 1981, p209. @stoneclub.bsky.social
aaronmccarthy.bsky.social
shifted some Ikea goods today 30km between Dundee + Arbroath with a Bullit + Carla - 90% totally fine - some speed gate issues and daft parking - Arbroath's Places For Everyone Scheme will be fantastic when completed - shame Dundee hasn't got something similar in the city centre/ Perth Road
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
theartnewspaper.bsky.social
Israeli attacks on Palestinian heritage amount to war crimes, UN report finds

The independent UN investigative body released the findings last week

buff.ly/voMGX1x
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
mixedlinguist.bsky.social
A major danger of LLMs is that humans are SO predisposed to attribute knowledge to any entity that uses natural language fluently. We cannot imagine that a machine that outputs natural-seeming speech/text doesn't have cognition. Brilliantly articulated by @emilymbender.bsky.social et al. (2021).
Text generated by an LM is not grounded in communicative intent, any model of the world, or any model of the reader’s state of mind. It can’t have been, because the training data never included sharing thoughts with a listener, nor does the machine have the ability to do that. This can seem counter-intuitive given the increasingly fluent qualities of automatically generated text, but we have to account for the fact that our perception of natural language text, regardless of how it was generated, is mediated by our own linguistic competence and our predisposition to interpret communicative acts as conveying coherent meaning and intent, whether or not they do [89, 140].”
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
izzywisher.bsky.social
How can we visualise the agency of art and artists in past societies? Mine and @dparrott.bsky.social's session at @tag2025york.bsky.social intends to bring together exciting new research to explore this question! Interested? Why not submit an abstract!✋ 🎨🖌️🏺
ORGANISER(S): Izzy Wisher and Derek Parrott

AFFILIATION: Aarhus University

CONTACT: Izzy Wisher, izzywisher@cas.au.dk

ABSTRACT: 

Art was, and continues to be, an active agent in societies. The first traces of artistic behaviour can be glimpsed in etched patterns produced nearly 100,000 years ago, and flourished into the rich, material culture visible in a wide array of both prehistoric and historic societies. It has the relational power to build new connections between individuals, generate cultural identities, or exert political or religious authority over a population. There have been significant efforts in recent years to shift away from “grand theories” of art – whether typological or narrative in nature – to instead appreciate the dialogical, multisensorial, and distributed engagements of art making and reception. Yet there remains a central challenge. In the fragmentary archaeological evidence of past artistic actions, how can we visualise individual artisans? 

In this session, we intend to bring together a diverse range of perspectives that examine art from a range of spatial and temporal contexts to identify the actions of individual artists in the past. We particularly encourage submissions that have developed new theoretical and high-resolution methodological approaches to address this challenge. Our session will not be limited in period or object type – the organisers themselves specialise in Palaeolithic art (IW) and Viking Age art (DP), but share a common theoretical thread in their conceptions of art. 

Themes could therefore include, but are not limited to:
Material engagements in artistic practices 
Art and agency perspectives 
Craft networks and the role of the artisan
High-resolution digital modelling 
Archaeometric approaches to art
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
ianwalker.bsky.social
Important thread from Adam here. Public space - especially in towns and cities - isn't just there for the fast, efficient movement of motor vehicles and we mustn't let that motonormative thinking enable another generational landgrab as automated driving slides in
adamtranter.bsky.social
Today, the Government launches plans to fast-track driverless vehicle trials in the UK.

One of the companies involved says London presents a big challenge:

“It has seven times more jaywalkers than San Francisco.”

Except… it doesn't. 🧵
The UK Accelerates Its Self-Driving Car Ambitions Jay Walker poster
aaronmccarthy.bsky.social
moved some sculptures with the #cargobike last week from @vadundee.bsky.social to #Arbroath - new bike infrastructure along NCN1 was fantastic
@dundeecitycouncil.bsky.social @anguscouncil.bsky.social @sustransscot.bsky.social
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
jarona7.bsky.social
Anything by McKenzie Wark - her Gamer Theory, Hacker Manifesto and Raving are all definitive works in their respective fields :) diving into her work on information capitalism and the 'vectoralist' class at the moment - www.e-flux.com/journal/65/3...
The Vectoralist Class - Journal #65
www.e-flux.com
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
dundeecycling.co.uk
#CritcalMass #Dundee Good turnout!
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
dundeecycling.co.uk
Next @cyclingscotland.bsky.social to be held in Sunny #Dundee this September!
cyclingscotland.bsky.social
Save the date for the 2025 #CyclingScotlandConf!

⏰ 10 Sep 2025
📍 Dundee
🚴‍♀️ Join us and organisations from across Scotland supporting more people to cycle for everyday journeys

Sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know when registration opens: orlo.uk/lfpW7
Image showing two women cycling together next to the V&A museum on Dundee's waterfront. White overlaid text reads: "Cycling Scotland Conference 10 September 2025".
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
ianwalker.bsky.social
Edinburgh's Transport Planning Society have a new report out on how they think motonormativity could be tackled in the city tps.org.uk/public/downl...
tps.org.uk
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
shannonmattern.bsky.social
“A small arthouse cinema on Miami Beach faces the possible cancellation of its lease + the loss of $80K in grant $ promised by the city after refusing to cancel screenings of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land (about 🇮🇱’s displacement of 🇵🇸) following rptd intimidation attempts by the mayor.”
Miami Beach Cinema Targeted by Mayor Speaks Out: “We Don’t Want To Leave”
The city is threatening to close O Cinema after it refused to cancel screenings of No Other Land, the Oscar-winning film about Israel’s displacement of Palestinians.
hyperallergic.com
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
aninehartmann.bsky.social
I think people underestimate how quickly a city can change from a place where cycling feels too dangerous, to a place where it feels safe enough.
signesjohansen.bsky.social
Until a few years ago I thought London’s roads were too dangerous to cycle on, now about 80% of my trips around the city are via bicycle 🚴‍♀️

Making cities more cycling-friendly is a win-win
brenttoderian.bsky.social
“Copenhagen reported that 62% of its residents are now commuting to work or school by bike — an increase from 52% in 2015 & 36% in 2012, when the City Council launched a 14-year-plan to improve the quality, safety & comfort of cycling.”

#Copenhagen chose. They keep choosing even better every year.
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
cargobikefest.bsky.social
Middle Ground is a new, roaming artist residency series based on a cargo bike, starting in summer 2025.

Its goal? To bridge divides, bring people together and counter polarisation.

🧵👇
Middle Ground Project graphics. Bullitt cargo bike against the backdrop of a mountain.
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
gsoh31.bsky.social
The impact of an actual university failure on a city like Dundee would be catastrophic. One in seven of the termtime population is a student. The uni job losses in this round alone are already on a scale similar to when the Michelin factory in 2020. www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/business-...
Will Dundee’s economy withstand the university’s job cuts hammer blow?
The Courier's business editor Rob McLaren reacts to the devastating jobs news.
www.thecourier.co.uk
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
thewaroncars.bsky.social
New episode ! We talked with the delightful British journalist and author Laura Laker about her odyssey on the UK's National Cycle Network, what makes good cycling infrastructure, and her work in setting standards for how reporters & cops talk about traffic crashes. thewaroncars.org/2025/03/11/e...
A smiling white woman wearing jeans and a black jacket rides a bright pink bicycle on a city street.
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
mckenziewark.bsky.social
My unpopular opinion is that driving a car destroys your personality.