Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · 4d

Just a reminder that this event with @byrontau.bsky.social is coming up soon: Wednesday, October 15 at 3pm GMT

Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · 17d

Pleased to announce this talk with @byrontau.bsky.social on his recent book "Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State." You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/means-of-c...

Means of Control, book talk and discussion with Byron Tau

Byron Tau on his recent book Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State

www.eventbrite.co.uk

Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · 17d

Pleased to announce this talk with @byrontau.bsky.social on his recent book "Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State." You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/means-of-c...

Means of Control, book talk and discussion with Byron Tau

Byron Tau on his recent book Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith

Sasha Crawford-Holland @sashach.bsky.social · 22d

"Just Evidence," the World Records volume that I edited with @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social and LaCharles Ward @blurrdblue.bsky.social, launches today! It asks: What does accountability look (and sound and feel) like? Read the intro here:
worldrecordsjournal.org/just-evidence/

Just Evidence - World Records

worldrecordsjournal.org

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Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · 22d

Pleased to share the introduction from this special issue! More articles to follow in the coming weeks! worldrecordsjournal.org/just-evidence/

Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · Aug 1

"The US was born in war and has waged a war of some sort in every year of its existence. Silicon Valley knows that war is good for business. And many of its most powerful
people want us to stop worrying about frivolities like ethics or ecology and love the bomb" www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Laleh Khalili · Collective Property, Private Control: Defence Tech

The United States was born in war and has waged a war of some sort in every year of its existence. Silicon Valley knows...

www.lrb.co.uk

Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith

Tor Krever @torkrever.bsky.social · Jun 24

Sasha Crawford-Holland, @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social, and Andrew Williams look at open-source investigation and propose tactics to counter epistemic injustice aimed at fostering pluralistic, decentralised, and solidarity-based OSI practices.

academic.oup.com/lril/article...

Law’s capture of human rights focused open-source investigation

Abstract. With new protocols emerging to regulate the field of open-source investigation, this article critiques their widespread deference to the requirem

academic.oup.com

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Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith

Tor Krever @torkrever.bsky.social · Jun 24

Our new issue of the London Review of International Law is out with articles by Tanja Aalberts, @ingovenzke.bsky.social, Gavin Sullivan, Wouter Werner, Sasha Crawford-Holland, @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social, Andrew Williams, and the Medellín Group.

academic.oup.com/lril/issue/1...

Volume 13 Issue 1 | London Review of International Law | Oxford Academic

Publishes high-quality scholarship on international law from around the world. While no area of international legal interest is excluded, the journal prioritises non-doctrinal scholarship, including t...

academic.oup.com

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Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · Jun 2

New article that critiques dominant narratives in “media forensics," arguing for a decolonial reorientation grounded in Indigenous epistemologies. Examining the work of NRO, it calls for counter-hegemonic practices that challenge settler-colonial evidentiary regimes... csalateral.org/issue/14-1/f...

Patrick Brian Smith, "Futurist Forensics: Indigenous Evidence, Cosmo-Epistemologies, and the New Red Order" - Lateral

This article critically engages with the emerging “media forensic” turn at the intersection of visual culture, new media practice, and humanitarian and political activism. This field purports to subve...

csalateral.org

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Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith

Dr Benjamin Thorne @benjaminthorne.bsky.social · May 14

'Human rights OSI frequently privileges technoscientific and criminological modes of investigation over alternative methods of identifying or tracking violence and harm.'

Dr Benjamin Thorne @benjaminthorne.bsky.social · May 14

Interesting new piece challenging some of the assumptions on OSI contributions to atrocity accountability, particularly relating to the privileging of legal deference: there is a growing risk of excluding accounts of suffering in order to appease legal practices and norms - tinyurl.com/yc4v6y9z

Law’s capture of human rights focused open-source investigation

Abstract. With new protocols emerging to regulate the field of open-source investigation, this article critiques their widespread deference to the requirem

tinyurl.com

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Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith

Dr Benjamin Thorne @benjaminthorne.bsky.social · May 14

Interesting new piece challenging some of the assumptions on OSI contributions to atrocity accountability, particularly relating to the privileging of legal deference: there is a growing risk of excluding accounts of suffering in order to appease legal practices and norms - tinyurl.com/yc4v6y9z

Law’s capture of human rights focused open-source investigation

Abstract. With new protocols emerging to regulate the field of open-source investigation, this article critiques their widespread deference to the requirem

tinyurl.com

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Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · May 23

"We were excited to have a panel accepted on the role of technology in genocide in Gaza at this year’s Computers, Privacy & Data Protection (CPDP) conference in Brussels. However, CPDP then requested that Access Now & others remove the word “genocide” from panel titles & descriptions. We declined."

Two accepted panels on Palestine were targeted after the preliminary programme was published online: Technologies at war: The role of tech companies and the EU in facilitating war crimes and genocide in Gaza, and Cyber Surveillance and Data Violence in Palestine: Protection, Practice, and Legality. CPDP approached the panel organisers and advised them to remove the word ‘genocide’ in the titles and descriptions, including references to crimes and violations of international law.

CPDP then unjustifiably singled out these two panels with a disclaimer that read: “The text of this panel represents the opinions of the Panel Organiser and not those of CPDP. The case before the ICJ regarding the categorization of Israel’s activities in Gaza has yet to be decided.” Upon the request of the panels’ organisers, the disclaimer was removed.

Discussions about human rights abuses, atrocity crimes, or genocide do not require a court ruling to be legitimate. At the core of international law and human rights work is prevention — a responsibility that also extends to private companies, which are expected to identify and mitigate risks of contributing to such abuses. These obligations are clear under the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its provisionary measures orders, affirmed the responsibility of state and non-state actors to take actions in the face of a clear and imminent risk of genocide. Multiple UN bodies and experts, genocide scholars, and leading human rights organisations have already categorised the Israeli conduct in Gaza as genocide that has met all legal elements of this crime.

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Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · May 21

This event is coming up next week! With Mark Griffiths (@casesofyou.bsky.social) and Kali Rubaii. You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/late-moder...

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Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · May 8

A new co-authored piece that critically examines open-source investigation’s increasing reliance on—and deference to—the law. Written with Sasha Crawford-Holland and Andrew Williams. doi.org/10.1093/lril...

Law’s capture of human rights focused open-source investigation

Abstract. With new protocols emerging to regulate the field of open-source investigation, this article critiques their widespread deference to the requirem

doi.org

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Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith

Conflict and Environment Observatory @ceobs.org · May 8

Those exploring the environmental consequences of conflicts throughout their lifecycle may well be interested in this event on 29 May.

Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · May 6

Pleased to share details for this forthcoming event at the Emergent Nonfiction Lab. You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/late-moder...

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Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · May 6

Pleased to share details for this forthcoming event at the Emergent Nonfiction Lab. You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/late-moder...

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Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · May 5

Over the course of the summer, pieces from the forthcoming issue of World Records, titled "Just Evidence," co-edited by LaCharles Ward, Sasha Crawford-Holland, and myself, will be released. The full issue with introduction will be available late summer! worldrecordsjournal.org/category/vol...

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Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · May 5

"Strategies of witnessing, speculating, and testifying through body and voice can stake out a political intervention... aesthetic counterforensics bypass metrics of truth-seeking that are indissociable from colonization and enslavement as they bear upon the present."

Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · May 5

Third piece from World Records Vol 9! Yasmina Price examines how Afro-diasporic artists use counterforensics—embodied, multisensory practices—to challenge colonial archives and reclaim black memory beyond the limits of evidence, law, and visual authority worldrecordsjournal.org/tongueless-w...

Tongueless Whispers and Recited Choreographies - World Records

On black memory as counterforensics.

worldrecordsjournal.org

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Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · May 5

"Strategies of witnessing, speculating, and testifying through body and voice can stake out a political intervention... aesthetic counterforensics bypass metrics of truth-seeking that are indissociable from colonization and enslavement as they bear upon the present."

Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · May 5

"How does catharsis—and our presumed right, or imperative, to attain it—operate in Western, neoliberal culture as an affective currency that connects our screens to our courts in the reproduction of a carceral common sense?"

Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · May 5

Second preview piece from the forthcoming issue of World Records, co-edited by LaCharles Ward, Sasha Crawford-Holland, and myself. Brett Story asks "Can injustice be answered by catharsis? In other words, is catharsis.. itself just, and thus a right?" worldrecordsjournal.org/no-justice-n...

No Justice, No Relief - World Records

Brett Story on the demand for catharsis in our courts and on our screens.

worldrecordsjournal.org

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Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · May 1

Had a great time presenting this paper, cowritten with Sireesh Gururaja and Lucy Suchman!

Paper draft here: arxiv.org/abs/2411.17840

Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · May 1

A recording of @davidthewid.bsky.social and @siree.sh's recent talk at the Emergent Nonfiction Lab. "Basic Research, Lethal Effects: Military AI Research Funding as Enlistment," co-authored with Lucy Suchman www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnJy...

Basic Research, Lethal Effects, David Widder and Sireesh Gururaja article talk and discussion

YouTube video by Patrick Smith

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith

Sireesh Gururaja @siree.sh · May 1

This talk was such a joy to do! If you'd like to read the paper, it's here: arxiv.org/abs/2411.17840.

Thank you for having us, @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social!

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Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · May 1

You can see archives of previous lab talks here: emergentnonfictionlab.com

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Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · May 1

The paper traces how AI research in academia is quietly shaped by military funding. Grant calls framed as “basic research” blur into warfighting aims, sidestepping moral scrutiny. A key tactic: presenting military AI as nearly solved—except for “one small problem”—to justify more investment...

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