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Heartbreak Welkin

@umabreakdown.bsky.social

800 followers 1.1K following 2.3K posts

Artist, writer, game designer, doctor of horror. www.umabreakdown.com https://linktr.ee/Umabreakdown

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · Nov 16

For new follower: I'm an artist/researcher/writer/game designer based in north east England. My interests are mostly between ludology, horror studies, and ecriture feminine. Long term foci are trans readings of Cixous, + TTRPG manuals as experimental literature and model for audience agency in art.

Uma photo In hallway mirror. She is a white woman wearing a denim shirt, a blue silk scarf and a black skirt.

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Reposted by Heartbreak Welkin

VOIDCON @voidcon.bsky.social · 1d

VOID
TOMORROW

SEE YOU SOON

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 13h

It's great to be confident in your opinions, but it's also important to read a little on the history you're making claims about.

Reposted by Heartbreak Welkin

Chris 🎃 DevPods.gg gamedev community @chrisdeleon.bsky.social · 1d

Portland protestor frog costume: What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge pepper balls?

Morpheus from Matrix movie: No, Frog. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to.

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Disco Elysium Quotes @discoelysiumbot.bsky.social · 1d

YOU - Where the hood, where the hood, where the hood at?

SHIVERS - HAVE A BROTHER IN THE CUT. WHERE THE WOOD AT?

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 1d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Bloody Disgusting @bloody-disgusting.com · 1d

A streaming release is finally heading to the big screen. PREY and this year’s brand new movie PREDATOR: BADLANDS will play in AMC Theatres as a special Predator Double Feature on November 5:

‘Prey’ Will Play in Theaters for the First Time With ‘Predator: Badlands’ Double Feature

When it was released back in 2022, the one bummer about Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey is that it was a straight-to-Hulu release rather than a theatrical release, with many fans still begging to be able to e...

bloody-disgusting.com

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 1d

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Teams Warriors

Courtney 🐙 Lovecraftian 🐙 Actually @hexadecibelle.fyi · 1d

IT Follows

OnlyFangs @onlycans.bsky.social · 1d

Agile Walks Home Alone at Night

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The Grave of St. ÐøøM @doomprophet.bzky.team · 2d

quoted post plus post directly under it, amongus with mad bulge

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Reposted by Heartbreak Welkin

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 3d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 2d

Slop👏 is👏 a👏 slur👏

carrion🐛 @carrion.bsky.social · 3d

the wise admins of bluesky have decided that creating a moderation list of AI slop posters is a no no

Hi there,
Your Bluesky account
(@carrion.bsky.social) has created a list called "Al Slop Posters" that may violate our Community Guidelines. We've temporarily hidden this list from other users because it contains one or more of these issues.
- Harmful language such as insults or slurs
- Unverified claims
- Appears intended to shame or abuse users

Reposted by Heartbreak Welkin

undeadeleine 🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸 @webway.bsky.social · 2d

“dwayne johnson, smashing machine”
“emily blunt, smiling politely”

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 2d

Since discovering that rolling is the same speed as sprinting in Space Marine 2, I've noticed more and more players quitting mid-game

Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 2d

Reposted by Heartbreak Welkin

lilli @toomanymouths.bsky.social · 3d

a rat king of all the balls removed via orchiectomy. a Nut Shoggoth

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PISS_SHITTER @amiyatzin.bsky.social · 3d

by next year this type of shit is gonna be sent to you by push notification like an amber alert

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 3d

Thanks! Yeah they really suck. Made it very clear that I shouldn't have been included. Member of staff gave an individual tour of the exhibition to a writer and in the final review I was the only artist who's work is absent. Like not even 'also shown'.

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 3d

The academics made a huge deal about empowering the public and engaging with class via with this gameshow style commissioning process, but they're apparently completely unaware that artists can be working class, and indeed are also human beings.

Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 3d

Academics also wanted the artists to 'engage in conversation' in the same public space. Like what? 'i should get the commission'?

Again, degrading and insane.

Anyway,
hosting.northumbria.ac.uk/bxnugamecall...
I registered my complaints and the academics told I was wrong.

Learn More - BxNU Website

Gamecall is a public-interest arts commission to be awarded by a citizens’ jury randomly assembled from members of the general public in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. The jury invites proposals from people working in any creative discipline worldwide. The commission is part of an inter-university research project entitled, The Spirit of Fascism in the Arts and the Prospects for Cultural Democracy (Testing a Randomised Jury Model).

hosting.northumbria.ac.uk

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 3d

It's kind of normal to have a referee who can approached for job (Its very rare for commissions). But to after the fact say they now need to write publicly their recommendations is nuts. That is not what was agreed when the referee was approached, and it's utterly degrading anyway.

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 3d

All 12 were the 'shortlist'. And those referees now had their names and contact details published without consent on the website, and were required to 'engage in conversation' (argue why their artist should get the commission) publicly on a guestbook under each proposal.

This was not on the call!

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 3d

So I we wrote proposal, created support materials/sketches, budget got two professional references to 'vouch for the authenticity of the application'.

And then, when they got a total of 12 applications, they changed the rules of the process.

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 3d

The assumption is that the audience is just average folks with know knowledge of games, art, or the study of fascism. Which makes the pseudo-essay invitation text even weirder.

in was going to skip it, but it was clear they weren't gonna get many apps (poorly advised, opaque), and it was £8k

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 3d

Then theres for format. Proposals are huge (1500 words plus supporting material). Days of unpaid work. It's also for selection by 'citizen jury'. Details were hidden, and artists where no present or informed how the jury process was chaired. So proposal is written for an unknown audience.

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 3d

It's also full of weasel word like 'others have argued' and 'some gaming enthusiasts'. And 'critically compares power, domination and the glorification of violence in the invented worlds of gaming' is an absolutely loaded position. No game scholars on the academic team writing this

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Heartbreak Welkin @umabreakdown.bsky.social · 3d

This is callout text. Nothing is cited, but discourse is very "pre-gamergate" (2014), pre games eligibility for Baftas (2004), and very Columbine era game panic (1999).

It's also very rambling and unclear how this is to inspire a art/game proposal. waffle. I emailed for clarification, got none.

The jury wishes to support a public-interest creative project that critically compares power, domination and the glorification of violence in the invented worlds of gaming with everyday life and reality. Are malevolent invented worlds a consequence of a lack of control and collective material investment in the physical world we inhabit? How far do the invented realities of gaming actually underpin social isolation and ecological catastrophe?

Some gaming enthusiasts have pointed out that software cannot simulate human qualities such as grace, or being a good loser, or the richness of real conversation. Many commercially successful games reproduce dystopian fears and anti-social notions of power and violence. Yet computerised games are also regarded as a new art form demanding aesthetic critique and development. As a means of popular expression gaming has also been compared to dancing, and may therefore be subject to equally compelling historical changes and social developments.

(cont)
Others have argued that a dynamic relationship between systems that simulate action and narratives which stimulate action is neglected. What would it mean if the wide spectrum of human experience, moral perception and knowledge was all to be simulated, translated and reduced to the field of gaming? These are some of the background issues the jury considered in selecting gaming as a public-interest theme for commissioning.

The commission is open to individuals or groups working across all areas of the arts and design internationally, including visual arts, literature, music, performance and game design itself. The recipient/s of this award will be decided by members of the randomly assembled jury only

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