Sign in

Craig Robertson

@craigrobertson.bsky.social
724 followers 421 following 56 posts

thinking about the work needed to make paper work as paperwork; histories of the passport and filing cabinet bit.ly/2RMo1Qa; from Aotearoa; part-time Chris Knox biographer

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Craig Robertson
the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
this is out now -- a man worth knowing & knowing about.
28312
Reposted by Craig Robertson
byron coley @byroncoley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
rec of the day: CRAIG ROBERTSON Chris Knox: Not Given Lightly (Auckland University Press tpb) deeply researched, sprawling & profusely illustrated bio of the key figure of New Zealand's musical underground. a great read for any fan of the modern kiwi beat. bookshop.org/p/books/chri...
bookshop.org
Chris Knox: Not Given Lightly
The story of the man, the music, the art, the attitude. Chris Knox: Not Given Lightly tells the story of one extraordinarily creative man's journey from the obscurity of punk rock to the heart of New ...
1327
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
PSA: Sarah is back in Portland
051
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
No James Bond. No Dr. Who. No PM. Has England ever played a football game under such uncertainty? Go the Black Stars! (tomorrow).
011
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
No James Bond. No Dr. Who. No PM. Has England ever played a football game under such uncertainty? Go the Black Stars! (tomorrow).
011
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
New Zealand have never won a game at the Word Cup but in 2010 they were the only unbeaten team (3 draws in group play; Spain won the final but lost a group game).
040
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Marc Masters 🌵 @marcissist.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Love this story from Craig Robertson's Chris Knox bio about how an Auckland punk band learned to play "Anarchy in the UK" by taping the short bits that aired in a news segment off of the TV and just playing those parts. (Try to explain this to a young person today haha)
17018
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Simon Grigg @opdiner.com · 07/10/2025
I said I'd write a few words about Craig Robertson's much-anticipated Chris Knox bio, which I love. These are personal reflections on what will likely be the definitive history of a man who changed indie/alt music globally opdiner.substack.com/p/cause-when... #aotearoa @audioculturenz.bsky.social
opdiner.substack.com
'Cause, when it all comes down to dust
Can I say that Craig Robertson's bio of Chris Knox is anticipated? It is, and it's arrived.
22713
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
In hindsight not a great idea to have your hobby be writing a book when your day job is writing books but a decade in the making my bio of Aotearoa NZ musician Chris Knox is coming out in a few months.
190
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Philip Matthews @secondzeit.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
What a year for the legends of NZ music. The Don McGlashan doco. The Shayne Carter doco. And now the Chris Knox biography, out in Oct. aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz/chris-knox/
aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz
Chris Knox: Not Given Lightly
The story of the man, the music, the art, the attitude.
1101
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Startling Lady of Gore @postnatodepression.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
"Not This Way- Knot This Way!" Internal GPO poster advising on the correct knotting method. Unknown artist, September 1964. Ref POST 110/1569, Royal Mail Archive
Not this way (package of letters tied higgledy-piggledy) -knot this way! (package tied neatly and in order of size).
06214
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Some more background on the history of passports & free Black people pre 14th Am. States could issue passports & abolitionists exploited this to use ppts to argue for citizenship. And while numbers are low the State Dept did issue more than 2 passports (1)
103
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
This is content you need - an Instagram account devoted to poles www.instagram.com/polesofcambr...
041
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
This is content you need - an Instagram account devoted to poles www.instagram.com/polesofcambr...
041
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
I don't know why I hadn't heard before about Jan Banning's Bureaucratics project — documenting the material culture of civil administrations in Bolivia, China, France, India, Liberia, Russia, the United States, and Yemen janbanning.com/2022/07/01/b...
Screenshot of the website with a description of the project and a photo of a woman sitting at a large wooden table, looking at a few file folders while, behind her, stand several wooden cabinets with messy mounds of paper on top
2487
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
As many of you know Jonathan Sterne is in hospice. If you would like to send a message to Jonathan and Carrie please send an email to heyjonandcarrie@gmail.com Carrie is receiving these messages and sharing them with Jonathan
03813
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
If a passport is an ID document for citizens you don’t need to include gender. But a passport has always been a tool to manage citizenship & behavior of citizens that’s why it has a gender marker. (see quotes) www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/u...
nytimes.com
Transgender Americans Challenge Trump’s Passport Policy in Court
The A.C.L.U. filed a lawsuit after the president’s administration stopped issuing passports that reflect the gender identity of transgender and nonbinary people.
141
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
If a passport is an ID document for citizens you don’t need to include gender. But a passport has always been a tool to manage citizenship & behavior of citizens that’s why it has a gender marker. (see quotes) www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/u...
nytimes.com
Transgender Americans Challenge Trump’s Passport Policy in Court
The A.C.L.U. filed a lawsuit after the president’s administration stopped issuing passports that reflect the gender identity of transgender and nonbinary people.
141
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Dirt/Night Gallery's books of assorted iPhone notes: the 21st-c version of the epistolary novel - meets - commonplace book - meets- critical edition (considering a lot of iPhone notes are *drafts* of things people bang out cathartically but never send :) nightgallery.metalabel.com/notes?varian...
nightgallery.metalabel.com
Notes
Notes is the first book collaboration between Dirt and Night Gallery. A tribute to the humble iPhone note, the collection features 100 phone notes from 100 creative contributors. Ranging from packing ...
0183
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Robyn Caplan @robyncaplan.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Doesn't this feel familiar? @craigrobertson.bsky.social writing on the dominance of the passport as a governing technology (and why many of us fear online age identity verification is a trojan horse w/ implications for all internet users).
051
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
A powerful review of Pagan’s new book on the history of the rape kit.
011
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
A powerful review of Pagan’s new book on the history of the rape kit.
011
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Marketplace @marketplace.org · 14/12/2024
Offices look different now than they did a few years ago, which is to say many of them are a lot emptier. But, other than humans, something else has disappeared from the modern office space: filing cabinets.
mktplc.org
How did filing cabinets revolutionize data storage? - Marketplace
Craig Robertson, a media historian at Northeastern University, is the author of "The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information."
0101
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
@marketplaceapm.bsky.social asked me to talk filing cabinets for their new series on short takes on overlooked tech www.marketplace.org/2024/12/09/f...
marketplace.org
How did filing cabinets revolutionize data storage? - Marketplace
Craig Robertson, a media historian at Northeastern University, is the author of "The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information."
0188
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
@marketplaceapm.bsky.social asked me to talk filing cabinets for their new series on short takes on overlooked tech www.marketplace.org/2024/12/09/f...
marketplace.org
How did filing cabinets revolutionize data storage? - Marketplace
Craig Robertson, a media historian at Northeastern University, is the author of "The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information."
0188
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 05/11/2024
As they say there’s always a local angle: for identification technology scholars
030
Reposted by Craig Robertson
Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 30/12/2023
oooooooo! Nick Popper's book on #earlymodern archives coming up! 🗃️ press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
press.uchicago.edu
The Specter of the Archive
An exploration of the proliferation of paper in early modern Britain and its far-reaching effects on politics and society.   We are used to thinking of ourselves as living in a time when more informa...
37226
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 22/11/2023
And Diana Kamin is now here - @dianakamin.bsky.social
161
Craig Robertson @craigrobertson.bsky.social · 21/11/2023
Diana Kamin’s fantastic book is out! I happily wrote a blurb “In this remarkable book, Kamin shows how 20thC social networks of paper & touch shaped today's digital image economy. An invaluable perspective and a major contribution to media & info studies.” Open access! direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...
direct.mit.edu
Picture-Work: How Libraries, Museums, and Stock Agencies Launched a New Image Economy
How the image collection, organized and made available for public consumption, came to define a key feature of contemporary visual culture.The origins of today'
25522