iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

On the Baltic with the husband, keeping things spicy with some role-playing. I‘m Caspar David Friedrich, he’s Monk by the Sea.

Man in black seen from behind at a distance on a snowy beach with dark waters and largely cloudy sky

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

The sad departure of Bud Cort reminds me of this poster I saw years ago for a production of Harold and Maude in Athens. "So what if – hear me out – they were the same age?!"

Poster with Greek text showing a woman with short grey hair and glasses and a man in a purple velvet blazer who could be Jon Pertwee if you squinted

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Just had a whole-ass tree in a box turn up on my doorstep with no indication of sender and am concerned it’s some kind of underworld warning. Nice tree though.

Ficus alli tree wrapped in plastic with two bamboo supports and the tall box it came on floorboards against a light sage wall

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Czarna, 2011–2026. The best girl.

A black dog with a red harness panting with a pink tongue against bright green grass on a sunny day

Interior shot against Christmas lights of a put-upon looking older black dog with grey around its muzzle and a Santa hat

Old black dog with grey muzzle and grey-and-black harness in snowy forest, sniffing a fallen tree

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Can't remember ever seeing the Spree this frozen. No one venturing out on it, thankfully; there is a limit to even the Berliner's folly.

Under a very grey sky, the frozen River Spree in Berlin with a layer of snow, looking toward the ornate red-brick towers of the Oberbaumbrücke, behind it office blocks.

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Reposted by James J. Conway

University of Toronto Press @uoftpress.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Originally published in 1894 and now available in English for the first time, Antisemitism features a range of interviews with prominent figures across Europe, revealing attitudes towards anti-Jewish hatred during a pivotal moment. Read more: bit.ly/4nAEJdU #History #JewishStudies #JewishHistory

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

A few days ago, this old, half-blind dog was so ill that when I took her to the vet, I wasn’t sure I would be bringing her home again. And now here she is, running through the forest on a beautiful autumn morning like a furry little Lazarus. ❤️

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Reposted by James J. Conway

James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Berliners! Next Wednesday (15/10) at @curiousfoxbooks.bsky.social: hear @brookfiles.bsky.social talking about his new Magnus Hirschfeld bio, The Einstein of Sex, and me re my translation of Hirschfeld’s Berlin’s Third Sex, moderated by @ajbwells.bsky.social www.curiousfoxbooks.com/events

A pink information panel headed “An evening with Magnus Hirschfeld” above the book covers for The Einstein of Sex by Daniel Brook and Berlin’s Third Sex by Magnus Hirschfeld, to the left the details “15 October/20:00/Doors 19:39/Free entry”, to the right “with Daniel Brook & James J. Conway in conversation with Alexander Wells”

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Monte Verità, looking down on Ascona and Lago Maggiore.

A mountaintop with fir trees to the left and right of the frame, in the top left a dramatic sun casting rays onto the lake below, with buildings just visible on the far shore.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

You know the feeling: you’re on a train deep in the Gotthard Tunnel but you MUST have risotto rice. Swiss railways got ya covered.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

It was closing time at Staatsgalerie Stuttgart but this caught my eye on the way to the exit. “Magic Scene” 1740/1 by Andrea Locatelli – a macabre, occult scenario that really rewards close examination (death has not halted the hanged man’s indignities...). Fantastic custom frame, too.

Against a mulberry coloured wall, a carved silver-plated frame in portrait format topped by an owl on a stack of books within a pediment, with plants and flowers at the bottom left and right. The oil painting within the frame shows a sorcerer in a blue cloak reading from a book on the ground, tracing a sigil into the dirt within a gloomy half-ruined building, with columns holding up a vaulting ceiling, although one column is broken and topped by plant life. Around him are presumably the apparitions he has summoned. In the foreground is the skeleton of a dog, still standing, alongside broken jugs, and the skeleton of a man lying down. Above the broken column is a man hanged in a noose from a beam; a cat standing on the beam is defecating on the dead man’s head. Also hanging from the beam are monkey, and an owl watches from a perch attached to a column. Above the sorcerer a naked man is riding a flying goat through a hole in the wall toward the moonlight, behind the sorcerer we see demons, bats, a naked woman and flying snakes emerging from the pits of hell.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

@brynstole.bsky.social‬ in The Berliner on August Endell’s The Beauty of the Metropolis (trans. me, pub. ‪@uoftpress.bsky.social‬): “a meditation on aesthetics, shot through with musings and engaged in turn-of-the-century debates” www.the-berliner.com/books/the-be...

the-berliner.com

The Beauty of the Metropolis: August Endell in praise of the unpretty city - The Berliner

August Endell’s The Beauty of the Metropolis, newly translated by James J. Conway, finds unexpected wonder in Wilhelmine Berlin’s smoke, steel, and bustle.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Me: I’ve got a package coming today. Husband (hopefully): Is it negative books?

An open box showing a book with the title "Die Lebensreform/Entwürfe zur Neugestaltung von Leben und Kunst um 1900" in green against an oil painting showing a naked young man flanked by a bare-breasted young woman with long auburn hair and green cloth blown by the wind and a blue skirt, and a dark-haired woman with an orange top and red skirt with her head turned away. They look to be striding into a better future.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

@johncoulthart.com, I saw one of these in the wild* and thought of you. * the Stefan George Museum in Bingen, which was actually pretty wild. Lots of Melchior Lechter designs.

In a curved glass case, a book in a Jugendstill design with the title MAXIMIN in gold within a gold design with thin vertical lines, a triangle and flame-like motifs against an ivory-coloured background. To the right of the book, a label: "'Maximin'/Ein Gedenkbuch/Herausgegeben von/Stefan George/Berlin 1907"

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

I may have found the most bizarre structure in Germany! Even the journey there is weird. Starting out from Mannheim, the grid city that has blocks with Battleship coordinates rather than street names, you catch a tram which crosses the Rhine to Ludwigshafen …

On a corner, two street signs in blue enamel with white text announcing this block in Mannheim as “N7”. Below it is a pedestrian traffic light on red, above it a sign saying “BÄCKER”.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Toys at the Bauhaus Museum, Weimar, including spinning tops designed by Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, one of the original Bauhaus Weimar cohort who later emigrated to Australia and became an art teacher, where his pupils included my Dad.

Stringed puppet figure with a dark red spherical torso, bulbous pink thighs and orange upper arms, stick forearms and lower legs, black hair with eyes agog, against a pick background

Toy figures in a cabinet; a conical black-clad figure in the foreground, a spherical figure out of focus further away against a green and yellow background

Looking down on a glass-covered display case with a dusty pink base, showing three children’s spinning tops with patterned discs, one evenly divided between black and white, another with wedges of red, purple, blue, black, yellow and orange, and the third with uneven concentric circles of white, yellow, red, blue and black.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

*Jan Brady voice* Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Nietzsche!

Selection of busts and statuettes of Friedrich Nietzsche in a museum on stepped black pedestals. Close to the viewer, a standing statuette in grey plaster, behind out of focus largely white busts.

White plaster statuette of the infirm Friedrich Nietzsche in an armchair with a blanket over his legs

Close up of Friedrich Nietzsche's death mask in grey/white plaster

Yellow rubber überduckie styled as Friedrich Nietzsche, with bushy eyebrows and moustache.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Receiving fresh copies of a book you’ve worked on – it never gets tired. Berlin‘s Third Sex by Magnus Hirschfeld, published by @uoftpress.bsky.social

Cardboard box open to reveal two stacks of the same book. The cover of the book has a backdrop the colour of a green carnation, with two colourised photos showing the same individual in two different exposures, one in masculine-coded clothing from the early 20th century, and one in feminine-coded clothing. On the left the individual is wearing a suit coloured mid-blue with a white starched collar and purple tie and waistcoat and a black hat. On the right the individual is wearing a pink overcoat with wide sleeves over a light-blue blouse and a purple skirt, as well as a purple broad-brimmed hat with a blue ribbon. The text at the top reads MAGNUS HIRSCHFELD/Translated and with an afterword by James J. Conway/BERLIN’S THIRD SEX

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Berlin, Saturday. Outside: meh. Inside: unfiltered sunshine from the other end of the world as Australian & New Zealand writing folk freely share their work and their thoughts in an all-day symposium. Looking forward to it!

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

TIL there is an online map of *every single tree in Berlin*! I see this tree on my dog walks and I always loved it but I had no idea what it was. Turns out it is a Dreidorniger Lederhülsenbaum, or honey locust (how is that not a shoegaze band?). experience.arcgis.com/experience/7...

A yellow-green tree with a pleasingly rounded crown amid other trees, including conifers, against cloudy sky.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

Next week! A whole day dedicated to Aus/NZ literature in Berlin. I'm looking forward to some great panel discussions with others who have wandered far from home. stadtsprachen.de/de/event/par...

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

It was on this day that Magnus Hirschfeld was born (1868) and died (1935), so it’s a good time to tell you my translation of his utterly groundbreaking 1904 study of sexuality and gender, “Berlin’s Third Sex”, has just been reissued by @uoftpress.bsky.social. This is also good timing because … 🧵

A book cover with a backdrop the colour of a green carnation, with two colourised photos showing an individual in two different exposures, one in masculine-coded clothing from the early 20th century, and one in feminine-coded clothing. On the left the individual is wearing a suit coloured mid-blue with a white starched collar and purple tie and waistcoat and a black hat. On the right the individual is wearing a pink overcoat with wide sleeves over a light-blue blouse and a purple skirt, as well as a purple broad-brimmed hat with a blue ribbon. The text at the top reads MAGNUS HIRSCHFELD/Translated and with an afterword by James J. Conway/BERLIN’S THIRD SEX

The cover of the book Berlin’s Third Sex by Magnus Hirschfeld with the original German title in old script enclosed by a wild cat with a garland below it in green and black, all against a pink-beige background.

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Reposted by James J. Conway

Brandy Schillace @bschillace.brandyschillace.com · 13/05/2025

LAUNCH DAY! THE INTERMEDIARIES weaves together 3 stories: A history of science and the discovery of hormones, a #history of political machinations + how Nazi weaponized hate and fear, and best of all, a history of #trans woman Dora Richter and others like her who lived lives of joy and resistance.

bookshop.org

The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story

A Weimar Story

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Artist Ilna Ewers-Wunderwald was born 150 years ago today. She provided illustrations for a number of husband Hanns Heinz Ewers's books; the scandalous pair were the ultimate bohemian duo of Wilhelmine Germany. In 2021 I was lucky enough to translate a bio of Ilna E-W www.zagava.de/shop/the-art...

Sepia photograph of a smiling dark-haired woman who appears to be sitting on a pebbly beach in a dark hat and light-coloured early 20th century dress with ruffles, showing her bloomers bare legs with dark socks underneath

Highly detailed colour drawing of an owl against a dark outdoor scene with a hint of silvery light on the horizon

Book cover featuring an illustration of a chameleon with hand-lettered text against a red field: Alraune/die Geschichte eines lebenden Wesens/Roman/von/Hanns Heinz Ewers

Highly detailed drawing of a green and red parrot with its head cocked backwards against an indeterminate brown/beige background

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Reposted by James J. Conway

Nothings Monstered @nothingsmonstrd.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Portrait of a Lady with Cigarette - Oskar Zwintscher, 1902

painting of a woman in a black dress against a black background, so all we see are her hands and her face giving us an intense stare.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Looking forward to being Antipodean in fascinating company

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

From the exhibition Para-Moderne: Lebensreformen um 1900, Bonn: gustaf nagel roamed early 20th-century Germany (and as far as Jerusalem) in a kind of Jesus LARP, barefoot even in the snow, and sold postcards of himself in messianic poses. Mad – possibly. Eccentric – definitely. But ...

A selection of around 15 postcards, largely black and white, showing a man with long wavy hair, a beard, dressed as Christ in simple tunics or loin cloth, in some cases with a woman by his side in similarly biblical get-up.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

Goshka Macuga: Madame Blavatsky, 2007. From the exhibition "Para-Moderne", Bonn

A woman dressed in a black hooded cloak lying across two chairs on a white platform against a strié background in orange, green and blue

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Memorial for St. Edith Stein, Cologne. Bizarrely I was at the Vatican ceremony when she was canonised, on my first trip to Rome in 1998. It was controversial at the time because it was seen as the Catholic Church co-opting the Holocaust.

Verdigris memorial showing woman in nun‘s habit holding a figure of Christ on the Cross, behind her another female figure hold a star of David

Verdigris plaque that reads "09.08.1942 Tod in der Gaskammer
Auschwitz Birkenau
01.05.1987
Seliggesprochen in Köln durch
Papst Johannes Paul Il
11.10.1998
Heiliggesprochen in Rom durch Papst Johannes Paul Il."

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Flashback to an Easter trip to Turin, featuring Nietzsche, Christ, Lucifer, a pharaonic bachelor pad, a Polaroid amazon army and the Countess de Castiglione, with a seasonally appropriate leitmotif of resurrection. strangeflowers.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/p...

A clear blue sky with a monument in the bottom right quadrant featuring a verdigris winged male figure, nude except for a cloth around his waist, atop rough hewn stone blocks, the topmost of which has an illegible inscription.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

“Do not invent miracles or a second world above the clouds, for here in your world you have the kingdom of Heaven.” - Architect and theorist August Endell, who died in Berlin 100 years ago today.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

For the 1972 film “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant”, director Rainer Werner Fassbinder hoped to cast UFA screen star Sybille Schmitz as Petra’s mother. There was one small problem …

Black-and-white photo postcard printed in brown tones of a woman's face, with full lips, thin eyebrows, swept back hair and a dark top, looking directly at the viewer. Captioned as "Sybille Schmitz"

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Book covers by Daniela Comani currently showing in an exhibition of Der Blaue Reiter at the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Tonight: the great Angela Winkler embodying the great Else Lasker-Schüler in a concert interpretation of ELS‘s correspondence with Gottfried Benn

Two women and four men being applauded on a stage set with music stands, behind them a grand piano

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

For years it has baffled me that there is no English-language biography of Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Switzerland’s very own androgynous, gay, anti-fascist writer and adventurer, who set out from Geneva for a drive and ended up in Kabul as WW2 broke out … so I‘m v excited to read Padraig Rooney‘s book

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Going shopping, you guys want anything?

Google maps extract with label that reads "Intermarché SUPER Bitche"

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Strong showing against the far right in Munich today

Person with short hair from behind with Pride flag round their shoulders, beyond a large crowd and the Bavaria statue on the Theresienwiese, Munich

Crowd under blue skies, flag with slogan GEGEN NAZIS, in front a sign that says GEN X GEGEN NAZIS

Crowd holding Pride flags and red flags under a blue sky, in the distance a church

In a crowd of people under a blue sky, a man holds a sign that says I‘M SO MAD I MADE A SIGN

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

The great German-Jewish writer and artist Else Lasker-Schüler died in Jerusalem 80 years ago today, having spent much of her adult life in Berlin. If the name means nothing to you, let me getcha all caught up. vimeo.com/690183355

vimeo.com

Else Lasker-Schüler in 3 minutes

A very brief introduction to the life and work of Else Lasker-Schüler, the 20th-century German-Jewish writer and artist. Belatedly fêted in her homeland,…

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

I can guarantee you are NOT ready for what is going on behind this bland façade in Schöneberg, Berlin, but take a look anyway. The enormous top-floor apartment is on sale for 2.3 million yo-yos, and it is described by the realtor as a "one-off". Uh-huh.

A bland, concrete, five-storey post-war building, with seven groups of four windows each on each of the upper floors, retail space on the ground floor. The top storey is outlined in red.

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Solidarity with the dog owners tonight. This is how wasted we have to get just to make it through the night.

Glassy-eyed small black dog in a hallway

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Berlin is unrelievedly grey. I have forgotten what colour looks like so I went in search of my favourite blue sky images from throughout the year, mostly from various research trips in Germany.

Dark stone statue of a man in 18th-century frock coat and tricorn blowing a metal horn against a blue sky with wispy blue clouds

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James J. Conway @jamesjconway.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

The husband bought me slippers and while they’re very comfortable, from the knees down I‘m basically a Dr. Seuss character.

Feet in black-and-grey striped socks and wide teal slippers on a wooden floor.

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