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Sonja Drimmer

@sonjadrimmer.bsky.social

11K followers 950 following 4.6K posts

Associate Professor, History of Art & Architecture, UMass Amherst. http://sonjadrimmer.com/about-forte (She/her)

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · Apr 1

For the latest issue of Artforum I wrote about the culture of “AI” in my sector of academia, arguing that a focus on what it does distracts attention away from examining the exploitative conditions that the hopeful rhetoric of its promise upholds. www.artforum.com/features/gen...

MACHINE YEARNING

Sonja Drimmer critically examines art historians’ recent embrace of generative AI as a tool for humanities research.

www.artforum.com

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Melissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · 22m

Yes it is hard to convince students to do the hard work when they can hit the easy button, but even harder is convincing them to trust that their own ideas are better than anything produced by the resource-guzzling predictive text algorithm their university keeps selling them as THE FUTURE.

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 1h

The palpable relief of reading a syntactically awkward student paper nevertheless brimming with ideas they’re trying on after having to consume the stale cardboard generalities of a Chat GPT essay.

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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 1h

Mamdani talking lucidly and passionately about trans rights and history in a video that should frankly shame every politician who has hemmed and hawed and triangulated and said, "Well, but sports..." It's not that hard to tell the truth and stand for what's right. www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEvV...

Until It's Done: Sylvia Rivera

YouTube video by Zohran Mamdani for NYC

www.youtube.com

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 31m

I’m unsurprised but saddened nevertheless.

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 1h

LLM extruded essays are like being cornered by the most boring person at a party while they monotone monologue small talk at you, convinced that they’re pronouncing something profound.

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 49m

Same.

Reposted by Sonja Drimmer

Faisal فيصل @faisalhamadah.bsky.social · 1h

Non-ironically my favorite genre of writing these days is a syntactically awkward student paper that is nevertheless brimming with ideas they’re trying on

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 1h

The palpable relief of reading a syntactically awkward student paper nevertheless brimming with ideas they’re trying on after having to consume the stale cardboard generalities of a Chat GPT essay.

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 1h

LLM extruded essays are like being cornered by the most boring person at a party while they monotone monologue small talk at you, convinced that they’re pronouncing something profound.

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 1h

The palpable relief of reading a syntactically awkward student paper nevertheless brimming with ideas they’re trying on after having to consume the stale cardboard generalities of a Chat GPT essay.

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 2h

Armitage Shanks is not allowed. That dude’s British.

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 2h

Everyone has a Scandinavian Weightlifter name based on a household appliance or fixture.

I’m Delta Scaldguard.

An old school shower faucet. The band above where hot and cold and indicated reads “delta scald guard.”

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 5h

You can argue (De Hamel certainly does) that the revived fashion of lectern Bibles made the production of them a tantalizing prospect, but you’re not gonna make money that way. Churches needed liturgical books, private lay folk needed books of private devotion; not big chonky Bibles.

Reposted by Sonja Drimmer

Trans* Book History @transbookhistory.bsky.social · 5h

In type specimen book they’ve always been called indices or fists. I think there are important use and material differences between drawn and printed pointy hands. Drawn pointy hands (manicules) signify reading practices of a reader. 2/n

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 17h

Holy shit TIL about the internet that believes Jewish identity was manufactured by Zionism. I liked it better when I didn’t have this shit shingle in my brain.

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Dr. Rachel Schine @rachelschine.bsky.social · 1d

Institutionally, Jews were invested (sometimes paternalistically and hierarchically, granted) in the fates of Jews in other parts of the world *as Jews* and there are travelogues and educational/charitable networks that attest to this throughout the 17th-19th century. I teach abt some in my classes.

פינחס יוסף מונד @pymundgenealogy.com · 1d

Yes. The only people who have difficulty understanding this are people who know nothing about the Jewish world.

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 17h

davidgraeber.org/articles/on-...

David Graeber
=
as suffused with the sacred. What anarchists regularly try to do is to level a systematic and continual challenge to the right of the police, and the authorities in general, to define the situation. They do it by proposing endless alternative frameworks - or, more precisely, by insisting on the power to switch frameworks whenever they like.
Puppets are the very embodiment of this power.
What this means in the streets is that activists are trying to effectively collapse the political, negotiating process into the structure of the action itself. To win the contest, as it were, by con-tinually changing the definition of what is the field, what are the rules, what are the stakes - and to do so on the field itself.
139] A situation that is sort of like nonviolent warfare becomes a situation that is sort of like a circus, or a theatrical performance, or a religious ritual, and might equally well slip back at any time.

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 18h

A similar pattern can be seen in the history of printing in Scandinavia. In 1482, Johann Snell was commissioned to print the Odense Breviary, but before finishing this work he printed De obsidione et bello Rhodiano, on the siege of Rhodes, which was a pamphlet against the Turks.

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 18h

People think the first thing Gutenberg printed was the Bible. This is false. The first things he printed were a political prophecy, propaganda about the Turks’ threat to Christendom, & a popular school text. If you want a parallel to AI, that’s it: making $ from conspiracies, racism, & school slop.

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 1d

really nice piece on this btw from @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/...

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 18h

I think this marks the first time anyone ever got me to laugh about Gutenberg. Well done.

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 18h

I half feel bad about calling Donatus school slop!

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 18h

The Bible was a loss leader. Nice to have in the window (at the trade fair) but not the money maker.

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 18h

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 1d

really nice piece on this btw from @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/...

"The Printing Press Democratized Knowledge": When Slogans Masquerade as History — Sonja Drimmer

The phrase is said so frequently it seems, like the mechanism it celebrates, to mechanically replicate itself.  It's become a favorite catchphrase among tech boosters of any sort (see my post on...

sonjadrimmer.com

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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 21h

The Daily show also interviewed "father" of effective altruism William MacAskill & promoted his book.

The billionaires gave him millions to promote his book so a PR person probably got him on the show.

All mainstream media shilling propaganda for the corporations claiming to build machine gods 🙄

The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart @weeklyshowpodcast.bsky.social · 1d

In this week’s new #TheWeeklyShow episode, Jon & Geoffrey Hinton discuss ⬇️:

>> AI 101
>> AI Threats & Regulation
>> Ping, Ping, Ping
>> Always Angry Trump & Pardons

NEW YouTube video out now.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrK3...

AI: What Could Go Wrong? with Geoffrey Hinton | The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart

YouTube video by The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart

www.youtube.com

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 22h

But he was supposed to be tHe j0E R0Gan oF thE lEft!

It's like people can't conceptualize a robust public sphere without a dick-swinging jeremiad-monger to follow.

Defector @defector.com · 2d

Bill Burr keeps cycling through excuses for doing the Riyadh Comedy Festival: defector.com/bill-burr-ke...

Bill Burr Keeps Cycling Through Excuses For Doing The Riyadh Comedy Festival | Defector

By default, Bill Burr exists in a state of his ass being chapped, but clearly it’s been feeling more chapped than usual. The comedian has continued to address his decision to perform at the Riyadh…

defector.com

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 22h

I lifted it from a site selling those ferns! I'm the worst and just wanted to shitpost my bad joke.

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 23h

No punching up my comedy!

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 23h

UGH. *with

I ruined a perfectly great joke.

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