iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 1h

I mean, what's going on here? Where's the leadership?

Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 1h

It'd be easy to put it down to budgetary constraints; of course that's a factor, until you pay attention to an artist led indie space like Bridewell, who frequently put bigger, better-funded (and staffed) counterparts to shame.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 1h

As a punter first and foremost, as a critic, and as someone with a stake in Liverpool's cultural landscape, I'm walking away from some exhibitions feeling quite depressed, sometimes shocked at the lack of ambition.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 1h

I'm not going to name names - people are going to put work into exhibitions when invited. But curatorially, institutionally, it's really poor.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 1h

I'm increasingly seeing exhibitions that look like public programme outcomes. I know this sounds really sniffy. Maybe it is. But it's not good enough. Galleries: your job is to think about audiences first. Wondering why people aren't reviewing your shows? It'd feel like kicking a puppy.

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Reposted by Mike Pinnington ✍️

Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

To the middle aged vaping community: walking behind you fucking sucks.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Poetic. Sad. A treatment of time that makes clear our responsibility to the future - our own collective one, and that of the planet. boxd.it/gDoVJT

boxd.it

A ★★★★ diary entry for Time and Water (2026)

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

'audacious renewal of British spirit'. So unbelievably hackneyed.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The web page for the show reads like an ai overview. Just stops short of using the term cool brittania. Just. The 90s: Art and Fashion | Tate Britain share.google/jbonpFvuKVtm...

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The 90s: Art and Fashion | Tate Britain

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Feels like a museum show rather than a critical, intellectually engaged exhibition. Of course there's room for these things in the world - I'm just not sure Tate is the place for it.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This idea that the 90s was the last great decade, a combination of nostalgia and defeat, a lack of faith in now and the future. It's all too easy and I'd have thought Tate's curatorial team above it quite frankly.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

No criticism of the artists involved whatsoever (I'm sure in isolation there will be great stuff in there), but that 90s Art & Fashion exhibition at Tate seems the result of curatorial stagnation, no? Concept as creative cul-de-sac.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

After submitting my thesis last month and starting the academic year, my brain is telling me to write (and thank god I'm reading again). Which is great; but tricky. I'm now full-time and already have this massive 'list of things to write'. But better this than feeling like the well is dry.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Morning! Aquatic horror - sounds ace! I'm reading Jeff Young novella, Latchkey, which fits snuggly in the spatial/temporal continuum of Ghost Town, Wild Twin, and 'beat fable' Deliria.

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Reposted by Mike Pinnington ✍️

Runalong Womble @runalongwomble.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Good morning Blue Sky! Hope you’re all ok? Today I am currently reading The Siren of Groves Peak by Glenn Rolfe for some aquatic horror. What are you reading at the moment?

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

They look so deeply uncool, too. Give me marlboro red anyday 🤣

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Yeah, I know other age groups vape, but none quite so indiscriminately and selfishly, I don't think.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

To the middle aged vaping community: walking behind you fucking sucks.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Good stuff. It'll be great. I'd planned to go, then briefly forgot while it sold out.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Annoys the crap out of me that there's police with sniffer dogs at the train station. I have nothing to be concerned about - I don't smoke or have any other illegal vices, but it really winds me up.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The former represents depression/existential dread, the latter (arguably) a take on guilt, responsibility and the classic doppelganger trope. There's a decent 'anniversary of both' piece of writing in this. Heavenly bodies as deeply symbolic - both contemporary and ancient.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

A good day moon (the only kind, surely) always puts me in mind of a couple of films I love: Lars Von Trier's Melancholia; and the less celebrated - but no less thought provoking - Mike Cahill's Another Earth (both 2011, coincidentally).

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Get a bit of day moon in your October 🌕

A photograph of the moon, visible in the daytime sky, roughly 8am, UK time

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Indeed; Sean Edwards, Liverpool Biennial, this Ty Pawb show. A very good habit to keep.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It's curated by Marie Anne McQuay, who loves foregrounding a bit of prose in her exhibitions - a quality I really appreciate and enjoy.

Exhibition texts for murmur, and Anthony Shapland novel, A Room Above A Shop.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I wrote about generous, multi layered Anthony Shapland exhibition, murmur, at Wrexham's Ty Pawb 📗🐦‍⬛📽️🎨✏️✍️

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Mirror Selves: Anthony Shapland – murmur www.thedoublenegative.co.uk/2026/09/mirr...

Installation image of Anthony Shapland exhibition, murmur. Pictured here, a nest of easels, with an interested looking art critic standing to its right.

A life model stands in Anthony Shapland's film work, being bothered by a starling.

More starlings! These on a small screen in Wrexham's Ty Pawb.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A thing I love about BBC radio 4's Take Four Books is its introduction - or reintroduction - to a given author's inspirations. BBC Radio 4 - Take Four Books, Louise Kennedy share.google/m9IxBzA6ybXO...

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BBC Radio 4 - Take Four Books, Louise Kennedy

The award-winning writer on her latest novel - Stations - and its three key influences.

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Reposted by Mike Pinnington ✍️

Dan of the Year @downwithdan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

When you have no concept of how people engage with music

nicksaraev ~
@nicksaraev
X.com
I am not joking when I say this.
Spotify, Apple Music, and streaming in general is over.
Al music is now very, very good. You just don't know yet because all Al music circulating today is from ~2-3 generations ago.
Suno v6 pro et al has solved infinite personalized music.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

But: they had some amazing proposals for their nascent dissertations, so there's that.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Ill. Stayed home yesterday, dragged myself in today for first 1-2-1s with third years. Possibly not my best decision ever.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I mean, maybe it always was about that, just that its writer (of book and screenplay) Richard Matheson had an eye and ear for subtly that we lack.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Not that I'm a usual advocate for or particular enjoyer of remakes, but it seems now is ripe for a contemporary take on Shrinking Man - with a male fragility lens.

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Reposted by Mike Pinnington ✍️

Jenny Holzer @jennyholzer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

SOLITUDE IS ENRICHING

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I could just as happily hang on til one, when Film4 is showing Jack Arnold's The Incredible Shrinking Man 🎥 TV Guide | What's On Channel 4 share.google/54giwnCTqOXv...

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TV Guide | What's On Channel 4

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Taking a break from a bit of work I have a couple of film options: beginning shortly on BBC 2 is Hitchcock's The 39 Steps 🎥 BBC Two - The 39 Steps share.google/UyiYS230cDcG...

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BBC Two - The 39 Steps

A man is pursued by the police for a murder he didn't commit. Classic Hitchcock mystery.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Of course! Have read, but maybe due a re-read.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Priest's dream archipelago books are mind-bendingly amazing.

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Great list, none of which I've read, thanks 👍

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Me too really. I don't think it's very distinct, but it must be a thing.

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Reposted by Mike Pinnington ✍️

Irish Literary Times @irishlittimes.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

And now for some good news: "Visits to public libraries around Ireland have increased by two million in the last two years. New figures show that almost 16 million visits were made to Ireland's libraries in 2025, compared with nearly 14 million in 2023." www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

rte.ie

Public library visits increased by two million nationwide

Visits to public libraries around Ireland have increased by two million in the last two years, new figures show as National Public Libraries Open Day takes place nationwide.

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Reposted by Mike Pinnington ✍️

Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 27/09/2026

Talisman Heinz Hajek-Halke, c. 1930

a cat outline of wet and fogged up glass, behind long exposure light trails of vehicles in a night time street scene

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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Few would think of it as a genre story. But it is, kind of.

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