Blakey French
@blakeyfrench.bsky.social
(Act III) field philosopher (nascent) #Lostness #Doubt #Degrowth
… slatey immigrant, likely to repost pictures of hares.
ProfilePics: Big beard, straw hat & shades; with a vista of daunting hills.
… slatey immigrant, likely to repost pictures of hares.
ProfilePics: Big beard, straw hat & shades; with a vista of daunting hills.
Urban windmills, why not?
November 24, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Urban windmills, why not?
Reposted by Blakey French
💥 New publication out on the alignment of AI & authoritarianism 💥
We argue that AI is not simply extending, but actively modulating, key dynamics of authoritarianism, and present a flexible analytical framework to account for these changes.
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
We argue that AI is not simply extending, but actively modulating, key dynamics of authoritarianism, and present a flexible analytical framework to account for these changes.
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
November 24, 2025 at 9:39 AM
💥 New publication out on the alignment of AI & authoritarianism 💥
We argue that AI is not simply extending, but actively modulating, key dynamics of authoritarianism, and present a flexible analytical framework to account for these changes.
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
We argue that AI is not simply extending, but actively modulating, key dynamics of authoritarianism, and present a flexible analytical framework to account for these changes.
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
First proper overnight frost; shifting back to older ways:
November 21, 2025 at 7:35 AM
First proper overnight frost; shifting back to older ways:
"I had a hard time imagining what we could offer people in a war situation… and here we come with our music, pretending it matters,"
Amsterdam's most uncompromising band proves that experimental music can be cerebrally challenging + viscerally thrilling.
Six Musicians + Zero Compromise = Spinifex:
Amsterdam's most uncompromising band proves that experimental music can be cerebrally challenging + viscerally thrilling.
Six Musicians + Zero Compromise = Spinifex:
Six Musicians + Zero Compromise = Spinifex
'Undrilling the Hole,' the new album from Amsterdam's most uncompromising band, proves that experimental music can be both cerebrally challenging and viscerally thrilling.
www.thetonearm.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by Blakey French
New Masters in Public Environmental Humanities starts Fall 2026 in Stavanger.
Registration for students from outside of EU is open now, with deadline Nov 30. So jump on it!
Need more info? We have an online session coming up Friday, Nov 21. See 👇
www.uis.no/en/studies/t...
#envhum #environment
Registration for students from outside of EU is open now, with deadline Nov 30. So jump on it!
Need more info? We have an online session coming up Friday, Nov 21. See 👇
www.uis.no/en/studies/t...
#envhum #environment
November 19, 2025 at 10:26 PM
New Masters in Public Environmental Humanities starts Fall 2026 in Stavanger.
Registration for students from outside of EU is open now, with deadline Nov 30. So jump on it!
Need more info? We have an online session coming up Friday, Nov 21. See 👇
www.uis.no/en/studies/t...
#envhum #environment
Registration for students from outside of EU is open now, with deadline Nov 30. So jump on it!
Need more info? We have an online session coming up Friday, Nov 21. See 👇
www.uis.no/en/studies/t...
#envhum #environment
Reposted by Blakey French
CFP: Order and Disorder in Global Intellectual History
There are a few travel bursaries for those who need it.
👇
fass.sabanciuniv.edu/tr/ISIH
There are a few travel bursaries for those who need it.
👇
fass.sabanciuniv.edu/tr/ISIH
November 19, 2025 at 12:14 PM
CFP: Order and Disorder in Global Intellectual History
There are a few travel bursaries for those who need it.
👇
fass.sabanciuniv.edu/tr/ISIH
There are a few travel bursaries for those who need it.
👇
fass.sabanciuniv.edu/tr/ISIH
Reposted by Blakey French
Keys found embedded in jam sandwich. Apologies.
November 19, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Keys found embedded in jam sandwich. Apologies.
'With the pace of change accelerating by the year, the world appeared ever less God-like ... ever less eternal, impervious, intractable. It assumed instead an ever more human form, becoming more in 'man's image' - protean, fickle and flickering, whimsical and full of surprise.' Zygmunt Bauman
November 19, 2025 at 10:49 AM
'With the pace of change accelerating by the year, the world appeared ever less God-like ... ever less eternal, impervious, intractable. It assumed instead an ever more human form, becoming more in 'man's image' - protean, fickle and flickering, whimsical and full of surprise.' Zygmunt Bauman
Reposted by Blakey French
This piece was greenlit and then killed by a British newspaper, so I’ve decided to publish myself instead.
Trans People Deserve Better.
"Gender critical" feminism doesn't help women but it does help the far right
open.substack.com/pub/wellread...
Trans People Deserve Better.
"Gender critical" feminism doesn't help women but it does help the far right
open.substack.com/pub/wellread...
Trans People Deserve Better
"Gender critical" feminism doesn't help women but it does help the far right
open.substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:36 AM
This piece was greenlit and then killed by a British newspaper, so I’ve decided to publish myself instead.
Trans People Deserve Better.
"Gender critical" feminism doesn't help women but it does help the far right
open.substack.com/pub/wellread...
Trans People Deserve Better.
"Gender critical" feminism doesn't help women but it does help the far right
open.substack.com/pub/wellread...
Reposted by Blakey French
🌍 42.5m refugees
Over 70% of them are hosted by low- and middle-income countries.
🇬🇧 548k refugees
= 0.78% of the UK population.
It is not refugees who tear our country apart, it is the mainstreaming of far right policies. And that’s a risk to all of us.
My letter to my MP.
#asylum #Mahmood
🧵
Over 70% of them are hosted by low- and middle-income countries.
🇬🇧 548k refugees
= 0.78% of the UK population.
It is not refugees who tear our country apart, it is the mainstreaming of far right policies. And that’s a risk to all of us.
My letter to my MP.
#asylum #Mahmood
🧵
![Dear [my MP’s name],
As the Home Secretary prepares to announce sweeping changes to the UK’s asylum system, I see it as both my duty as a citizen and responsibility as a migration expert to do all I can to urge policymakers to oppose the proposals—not only for what they will do to refugees, though that is the first concern, but also for what they will mean for all of us and the future society we live in.
That is why I am writing to you as my MP. This letter explains why I consider the need to oppose the Home Secretary’s proposals urgent and, at the most fundamental level, in the national and your constituents’ interest.
I was born in Germany, a country whose history taught me how quickly societies can go down dark paths; how quickly our leaders can fail in the choices they make. But the history of the displacement of people that the Nazi regime was responsible for also shaped my understanding of why refugee movements occur—and why our response to any of them can never compromise what are, and must always be, universal human rights.
Which is why what is happening in the UK now is so deeply alarming.
A manufactured crisis
As of June 2025, there were 42.5 million refugees globally. Over 70% of them are hosted by low- and middle-income countries; most of them immediate neighbours. Overall, five countries—Colombia, Germany, Türkiye, Iran and Uganda—host a third of the total number of refugees; Germany is the main host in the EU, hosting 2.7 million.
The UK hosts 548,000 refugees; that is 0.78% of the UK population. About 110,000 people are in receipt of asylum support; that is 0.15% of the UK population.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bru4h6s37w4hfmwhetu7veye/bafkreidmewc5timbx7nh57qyq7lm7gmhvclzidmloqhwgckpnegnddoicq@jpeg)
November 16, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Oh my, the Lage Lund Quartet ... at the Bimhuis; fits & starts & leaps & bounds; most excellent - special dues to Danny Grissett on piano:
November 16, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Oh my, the Lage Lund Quartet ... at the Bimhuis; fits & starts & leaps & bounds; most excellent - special dues to Danny Grissett on piano:
Left behind, not forgotten #1 - Jimmy Raney "Guitaristic" (1963 but unissued till 1974); just a blinder, unreal chops.
November 15, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Left behind, not forgotten #1 - Jimmy Raney "Guitaristic" (1963 but unissued till 1974); just a blinder, unreal chops.
If BlueSky suspends someone, natural justice requires, surely, that they be given some explanation? @jay.bsky.team #sarahkendzior
November 11, 2025 at 5:04 AM
If BlueSky suspends someone, natural justice requires, surely, that they be given some explanation? @jay.bsky.team #sarahkendzior
What he said👇; moved to tears at times, cutting edge: @maryhalvorson.bsky.social
Mary Halvorson sextet! #BIMhuis
Geweldig concert weer van een van de absolute topbands in de jazz op dit moment.
Mary Halvorson gitaar, Jonathan Finlayson trompet, Jacob Garchik trombone, Patricia Brennan vibrafoon, Nick Dunston bas, Tomas Fujiwara drums
Special guest Ketija Ringa Karahona fluit
Geweldig concert weer van een van de absolute topbands in de jazz op dit moment.
Mary Halvorson gitaar, Jonathan Finlayson trompet, Jacob Garchik trombone, Patricia Brennan vibrafoon, Nick Dunston bas, Tomas Fujiwara drums
Special guest Ketija Ringa Karahona fluit
November 8, 2025 at 12:05 AM
What he said👇; moved to tears at times, cutting edge: @maryhalvorson.bsky.social
"... it is not, after all, really a question about whether you can know the unknown, arrive in it, but how to go about looking for it, how to travel." Rebecca Solnit #lostness
November 7, 2025 at 2:30 PM
"... it is not, after all, really a question about whether you can know the unknown, arrive in it, but how to go about looking for it, how to travel." Rebecca Solnit #lostness
Reposted by Blakey French
"Perhaps the role of the philosopher, the role of philosophy at present, is not to be a theoretician of totality, but the diagnostician, if you will allow me to use this word, the diagnostician of today."
― Michel Foucault
#BookSky Raymond Aron & Michel Foucault, Dialogue.
― Michel Foucault
#BookSky Raymond Aron & Michel Foucault, Dialogue.
November 6, 2025 at 1:29 AM
"Perhaps the role of the philosopher, the role of philosophy at present, is not to be a theoretician of totality, but the diagnostician, if you will allow me to use this word, the diagnostician of today."
― Michel Foucault
#BookSky Raymond Aron & Michel Foucault, Dialogue.
― Michel Foucault
#BookSky Raymond Aron & Michel Foucault, Dialogue.
Reposted by Blakey French
![A mysterious knight is wearing elaborate golden armour while holding a sword and a large spiked sheild. A text box like those seen in rpg’’s or text adventures says ‘you have encountered [redacted] the unknowable’ a second text box has ‘attack, flirt, dance, flee’ in descending order. Flirt is selcted.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jg23z6h3tznj5wsefwste6xl/bafkreibwxs4ryx36qh6jcakgjxsmfxmmkxj2j37sarx3v4bg2p5yslge6a@jpeg)
Reposted by Blakey French
CFP: “Embodied Knowledge Practices in the Early Modern World”
Conference at the University of Amsterdam
Monday, 15 June 2026
How do material conditions shape how & what we know about the natural world?
#earlymodern #C18L
1/6
Conference at the University of Amsterdam
Monday, 15 June 2026
How do material conditions shape how & what we know about the natural world?
#earlymodern #C18L
1/6
October 31, 2025 at 3:11 PM
CFP: “Embodied Knowledge Practices in the Early Modern World”
Conference at the University of Amsterdam
Monday, 15 June 2026
How do material conditions shape how & what we know about the natural world?
#earlymodern #C18L
1/6
Conference at the University of Amsterdam
Monday, 15 June 2026
How do material conditions shape how & what we know about the natural world?
#earlymodern #C18L
1/6
Woven with joyous startles; such a deft & soulful player: @marcribot.bsky.social at the Bimhuis, here in A'dam:
November 2, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Woven with joyous startles; such a deft & soulful player: @marcribot.bsky.social at the Bimhuis, here in A'dam:
We can't see them, but we're told they are there ... hence, an obligatory repost of hares:
A Rather Grey Morning. 14°C and mild. Hares in the fields.
November 1, 2025 at 7:40 AM
We can't see them, but we're told they are there ... hence, an obligatory repost of hares:
Michel de Certeau (on AI?): "The presence and circulation of a representation (taught by preachers, educators, and popularisers as the key to socioeconomic advancement) tells us nothing about what it is for its users." - AI mania may deflate, with a farty 'phut' not a bang, just through banal usage.
October 28, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Michel de Certeau (on AI?): "The presence and circulation of a representation (taught by preachers, educators, and popularisers as the key to socioeconomic advancement) tells us nothing about what it is for its users." - AI mania may deflate, with a farty 'phut' not a bang, just through banal usage.
It is essential, in days like these, to rip into political parties who claim to be 'left' whilst swinging hard-right; Zack Polanski leads the way:
“The idea that the Labour party are on the left is completely incoherent"
Zack Polanski challenging the tired narrative of the mainstream media is a thing of beauty.
Zack Polanski challenging the tired narrative of the mainstream media is a thing of beauty.
October 26, 2025 at 11:50 AM
It is essential, in days like these, to rip into political parties who claim to be 'left' whilst swinging hard-right; Zack Polanski leads the way:
That eternal hope thing seems to be bubbling up again on BSky; mood swing:
October 25, 2025 at 8:54 AM
That eternal hope thing seems to be bubbling up again on BSky; mood swing:
Reposted by Blakey French
“I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested. I'm 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak. ... The other day, somebody wrote me an email, said, ‘What is your stance on AI?’ And my answer was very short. I said, ‘I'd rather die.’” 🫡
Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro says 'I'd rather die' than use generative AI
Del Toro's new Frankenstein adaption reimagines Mary Shelley's 1818 Gothic novel. Frankenstein was like a tech bro: "creating something without considering the consequences," he explains.
www.npr.org
October 23, 2025 at 10:08 PM
“I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested. I'm 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak. ... The other day, somebody wrote me an email, said, ‘What is your stance on AI?’ And my answer was very short. I said, ‘I'd rather die.’” 🫡
Well this is wonderful ... and not available on easy stream (via Platenzaak, Eindhoven):
October 24, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Well this is wonderful ... and not available on easy stream (via Platenzaak, Eindhoven):