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Jacob Gaboury

@jacobgaboury.bsky.social

4.1K followers 520 following 45 posts

Associate Professor of Film & Media, UC Berkeley (he/him) Media History | STS | Queer Theory | Digital Visual Culture Book: Image Objects: An Archaeology of Computer Graphics (2021) Now: Screenshot Histories & Queer Computing https://jacobgaboury.com

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Jacob Gaboury @jacobgaboury.bsky.social · Oct 24

With the exodus from the bad place I should probably post something here about what I actually do. Hi! I'm a media historian who studies digital visual culture and queer technologies.

My first book, IMAGE OBJECTS, explains how computer graphics transformed the computer into an interactive medium:

Image Objects

How computer graphics transformed the computer from a calculating machine into an interactive medium, as seen through the histories of five technical objects...

mitpress.mit.edu

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Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · Sep 9

It’s in 😬😱

Seeing Like a Supply Chain:
Data in the Circuits of Global Trade
Miriam Posner

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Systems at War in a Hostile Universe: The Informatic Roots of Logistics
2. Exploding the BOM: Digitizing Production in the Cold War
3. Phantoms, Backflushes, and the Trumpet of Doom: The Dilemmas of Just-in-Time
4. Inventing SCM
5. The Sensate Company in the Animate Cloud
6. Transferring Risk in a Calamitous World

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San Francisco Review of Whatever @sfreviewofwhatever.bsky.social · Aug 27

SAN FRANCISCO REVIEW OF WHATEVER ISSUE TWO RELEASE PARTY REMINDER! TOMORROW, Thursday, August 28, at 6 p.m. onward, at Et al., 2831A Mission Street. There will be readings with an element of chance! And pizza and beers, and whatever else turns up. See you tomorrow! Looking forward. xx

SFRW • Issue Two Release Party • Thursday, August 28 at Et al.
• Readings with an element of chance
Featuring Sophia Wang Michael Walker • Ted Barrow
• Amanda Guest • Craig Calderwood • Anne Walsh
Rose Linke • Christina Svenson • Rod Roland

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Lisa Diedrich @lisadiedrich.bsky.social · Aug 27

Prof. Susan Stryker puts on her "academic drag" & marshals the "cultural capital" of her doctoral training in gender studies to say that Gavin Newsom did not do his homework well enough & he would fail her class. 🔥🔥🔥

Mari Cohn @maricohn.bsky.social · Aug 25

Transgender studies professor Dr. Susan Stryker tears Gavin Newsom a new one while accepting the Transgender Legacy Award from the California state legislature 🔥🔥🔥 @susanstryker.bsky.social

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Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa @benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social · Aug 26

Two things that seem clear to me after listening to ppl talk about this are: 1) that there just is no good options for SCMS right now. Speaking out means taking a risk, but so does staying silent. People are already being fired, reprimanded, or self-censoring out of fear of these.

Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa @benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social · Aug 24

I want to address two criticisms of the call to boycott SCMS. One is about the board's status as unpaid volunteers, who should not be criticized by the people who are not, themselves volunteering to be on the board. I think this is a good rule of thumb when it comes to things like the food...

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Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social · Aug 25

In "Indigenomicon," @arsavium.bsky.social examines the differences between settler colonial studies and Indigenous studies by bringing video game studies into conversation with Black studies, queer studies, and Indigenous feminist critique. Read the intro for free now: buff.ly/RM90jF8

Cover of Indigenomicon: American Indians, Video Games, and the Structures of Dispossession by Jodi Byrd. The cover art features a stylized, pixelated landscape that transitions into a painted forest scene. A river runs along the bottom, where a figure sits in a canoe. In the background, a wooden palisade, tall trees, and two stork-like birds in flight are depicted.

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Jacob Gaboury @jacobgaboury.bsky.social · Aug 22

I'll be chatting on KQED this morning at 10am PST, if you'd like to tune in!

KQED Forum @kqedforum.bsky.social · Aug 22

💿 FRI at 10AM:

Physical media is having a moment again. @foundfootagefest.com's Joe Pickett, content creator @jeffrauseo.com and @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social's @jacobgaboury.bsky.social join to talk about what's driving this analog resurgence.

❓What types of physical media do you love, and why?

Physical Media Is Cool Again. Streaming Services Have Themselves to Blame

Collectors tell Rolling Stone an exhaustion with streamers is making owning physical media the next big thing — again.

www.rollingstone.com

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Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa @benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social · Aug 19

As the deadline to submit comes up, please consider whether SCMS is a venue that aligns with your values.

Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa @benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social · Aug 7

And there we have it. A call to boycott SCMS this year.

"BOYCOTI
SCMS 2026
FOR NEARLY TWO YEARS, THE SCMS BOARD OF DIRECTORS HAS REFUSED TO PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGE PALESTINE OR DECRY ANTI-PALESTINIAN RACISM AND THE ISRAELI GENOCIDE IN PALESTINE.
INSTEAD, THE SCMS BOARD HAS:
1) IGNORED THE WISHES OF OVER 700 OF ITS MEMBERS TO MAKE A PUBLIC STATEMENT
CONDEMNING THE ISRAELI SCHOLASTICIDE AND MEDIACIDE IN PALESTINE
2) ISSUED MASS MESSAGES TO DENY THE PERPETRATION OF RACISM AND HARASSMENT BY A PRO-ISRAEL AGITATOR AT THE 2025 CONFERENCE
3) DISABLED VITAL COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS FOR CAUCUSES AND SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS
4) INSTITUTED AUTHORITARIAN CHANGES TO THE ASSOCIATION'S ANNUAL ELECTION NOMINATION PROCESS WITHOUT RATIONALE OR EXPLANATION
SEND A MESSAGE TO THE BOARD.
BOYCOTT THE CONFERENCE.
Scholars of Cinema and Media
Studies in Solidarity with Palestine
(SCMSSP, formerly PSWG)"

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Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · Jul 10

Hey, hey... @sigcisconf.bsky.social [email protected]'s Special Interest Group for Computing, Information & Society--is on Bluesky!

Follow them if you're interested in #ComputerHistory or the social & political impact of digital technologies like #AI.

#histsci #histtech #histSTM 🗃️📜📚

a man wearing glasses is sitting at a desk in front of a computer monitor .

ALT: a man wearing glasses is sitting at a desk in front of a computer monitor .

media.tenor.com

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Shane Denson @shanedenson.bsky.social · Jul 15

I made a piece of software! It’s called the film|minutes video|graphic workstation. It’s pretty niche but cool if you want to take notes or do very close readings of films/videos.

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xiaochang @xiaochang.bsky.social · Jul 14

Okay, while I'm here, something sound studies and media tech history folks may find of interest: the Ray Dolby papers were recently processed and are now available for research at Stanford's Silicon Valley Archives. A bunch of stuff has been digitized too: exhibits.stanford.edu/dolby

"Copy of series of graphs showing the 'guitar' spike alone and with various Dolby SR adjustments."

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ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories @romchip.bsky.social · Jul 3

Our peer-reviewed article this issue is 📸 SCREENSHOTS OR IT DIDNT HAPPEN by @jacobgaboury.bsky.social 📺about the long history of screenshot photography within game culture 🏆
romchip.org/index.php/ro...

a photograph of a long-haired child, standing next to their TV, which displays the end screen of a video game

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Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · Jul 2

You can find almost the same use of light in AI slop. Unlike CGI renderings, AI images aren't based on a simulation of light being reflected from objects in virtual space but on a statistical distribution of color values on a flat surface, which makes them more akin to painting than photography
3/

An AI image shared by Same Altman in 2023

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Jacob Gaboury @jacobgaboury.bsky.social · Jul 2

The new issue of @romchip.bsky.social is out, and includes new work by me on the history of video game screenshots and the way we photographed our game screens to capture images of ourselves: romchip.org/index.php/ro...

The rest of the issue is fantastic, check it out!

A screen photograph of the game Paperboy (1985).

A photograph of a young girl in front of the end screen for Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988).

A photograph of a television and its domestic context, with the TV showing the end screen of Contra (1987).

A screenshot showing a raiding guild after defeating Ragnaros in the Molten Core raid dungeon of World of Warcraft (2004).

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Jacob Gaboury @jacobgaboury.bsky.social · Jul 3

Thanks Ari!

Jacob Gaboury @jacobgaboury.bsky.social · Jul 2

TLDR

This is one story of the history of video game screenshots: a transformation from a culture of vernacular documentation into a now-ubiquitous function on all contemporary game platforms, compelling us to capture and share the way we play. Yet this practice, at its origins, is much more significant if taken within the broader context of screenshot histories. Early high-score photography is one of the first moments in which users photographed their screens not simply to document the images that appeared on them, but to document a part of themselves they identified in the images they saw. In a moment that sees the simultaneous growth of personal computing and interactive games, we find a form of computational personhood that is identified with and in the screen image. While this may not be the first moment this form of identification was felt, its growth into a broad subcultural practice through high-score photography suggests a much larger shift that has only expanded in the subsequent decades. Today our screenshots no longer feel like photos of a computer, but rather images of our lives as they are lived through and with computation. Games play an essential role in this transformation, and in doing so they document and archive cultures of use that would otherwise be lost. To hold out these images as significant at once recaptures these cultures of gaming while also attending to the ways they have transformed our sense of self as and with technology.

Jacob Gaboury @jacobgaboury.bsky.social · Jul 2

Screenshots are one of the most ubiquitous visual forms of the twenty-first century. Each day billions of screenshots are created on smart phones and personal computers to document the mundane and spectacular interactions of users with their computational machines. Perhaps the most publicly visible use for screenshots today is as proof of action with or through a computer—that is, as evidence of interaction. We use screenshots to document the microworld of the computer as a space of personal identification and individual expression. In this article I argue that this practice has its origins in the video game cultures of the late 1970s and early 1980s. In this period, game publishers and magazines used screenshots to document the visual appearance of games for advertisements and publications. However, quite quickly users began to document and photograph their own experiences of play through photographs of personal achievements such as high scores and end screens. Game companies like Activision and magazines like Nintendo Power encouraged this practice, offering rewards and publishing scores to foster participation. These vernacular practices marked a shift in how users related to computational systems—not merely as tools but as expressive environments where actions were documented and identified with. Over time, these practices evolved into a broader visual culture of play, encompassing screen selfies, player portraits, and early cultures of competitive play such as speedrunning. Far from trivial ephemera, these images indexed the rise of a new computational personhood, where users saw themselves reflected in their screen interactions. In situating this history within this broader discourse, I suggest that unprofessional, everyday practices of gaming and its visual documentation reveal the social and personal dimensions of digital life. Screenshots become not only technical artifacts but also records of self, community, and computational experience.

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Jacob Gaboury @jacobgaboury.bsky.social · Jul 2

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Marc Steinberg @msteinbrg.bsky.social · Jun 20

Platforms and the Moving Image book now out! Edited by Philipp Keidl and Jana Zündel, featuring the work of many amazing scholars, and mostly junior scholars, including work on Netflix, IMDb, KaraGarga, smart homes, Disney+, ALTBalaji, and much more -
meson.press/books/platfo...

Platforms and the Moving Image › meson press

Platforms and the Moving Image offers a multifaceted look at how digital platforms shape and are shaped by economic, cultural, and political forces. The collection examines the effects of gaming, soci...

meson.press

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Jacob Gaboury @jacobgaboury.bsky.social · Jun 18

I've heard good things about Bantam Tools NextDraw but keep waffling. This is a very cool/depressing application, I like it bantamtools.com/collections/...

Bantam Tools NextDraw™

Bantam Tools

bantamtools.com

Jacob Gaboury @jacobgaboury.bsky.social · Jun 18

Ooh what plotter is this? I've been shopping around for a project on computer output

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Jacob Gaboury @jacobgaboury.bsky.social · Mar 20

Congratulations Alan!!

Jacob Gaboury @jacobgaboury.bsky.social · Mar 9

I wrote a paper on NULL markers in SQL and queer technology years ago in case it is of interest! Incredible idea for a class, as I try and also figure out my own fall PhD seminar 🙃. www.womenandperformance.org/bonus-articl...

Becoming NULL: Queer relations in the excluded middle | Jacob Gaboury (28.2) — Women & Performance

          In February 2014, the popular social media platform Facebook added the ability to select a “custom” gender for user profiles in the United States...

www.womenandperformance.org

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Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · Feb 25

Can't believe book pub day is here!! *Trans Technologies* is officially published today! Use discount code MITP30 for 30% off today only (unfortunately available only in the US) www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/777584...

Trans Technologies by Oliver L. Haimson: 9780262551861 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

How technology creates new possibilities for transgender people, and how trans experiences, in turn, create new possibilities for technology. Mainstream technologies often exclude or marginalize tran...

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

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Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · Feb 19

Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...

What’s a technology that you think is overhyped?

I’m going to give a sideways answer to this, which is that the venture capital business model needs to be understood as requiring hype. You can go back to the Netscape IPO, and that was the proof point that made venture capital the financial lifeblood of the tech industry.

Venture capital looks at valuations and growth, not necessarily at profit or revenue. So you don’t actually have to invest in technology that works, or that even makes a profit, you simply have to have a narrative that is compelling enough to float those valuations. So you see this repetitive and exhausting hype cycle as a feature in this industry. A couple of years ago, you would have been asking me about the metaverse, then last year, you would have asked me about Web3 and crypto, and for each of these inflection points there’s an Andreessen Horowitz manifesto.

It’s not simply that one piece of technology is overhyped, it’s that hype is a necessary ingredient of the current business ecosystem of the tech industry. We should examine how often the financial incentive for hype is rewarded without any real social returns, without any meaningful progress in technology, without these tools and services and worlds ever actually manifesting. That’s key to understanding the growing chasm between the narrative of techno-optimists and the reality of our tech-encumbered world.

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