iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Preorder-able, $10 @uminnpress.bsky.social A book influenced by Ursula Le Guin's dark insights, eg "...I hope you will remember that darkness is your country, where you live, where no wars are fought and no wars are won, but where the future is. Our roots are in the dark; the earth is our country."

catalog entry for ways of seeing after dark; the book cover is followed by descriptive copy that reads: Rethinking darkness through the politics and possibilities of vision Darkness is widely misunderstood, argues Kyle Parry. We take darkness as the enemy of sight, yet we can’t see without it. We call the worst parts of our lives dark, yet we wouldn’t be here without wombs, skulls, oceans, the moon, and other shadowed places. Ways of Seeing After Dark contends that darkness is not absence but presence, shaping how worlds are sensed, inhabited, and understood. Darkness brings peril, but it is also a fundamental, if increasingly threatened, condition of living together on this planet. Tracing links between John Berger’s influential Ways of Seeing and his more poetic later writings, Parry recasts contemporary conditions defined by light pollution, digital mediation, and racialized regimes of seeing. In dialogue with artists, critics, and astronomers, Ways of Seeing After Dark examines how fear of darkness is built rather than universal and how such training intersects with broader social structures, including racism and capitalism. Showing how “felt darkness displaces physical darkness” and “brighter nights bring darker days,” Parry reveals the dark as a multifaceted phenomenon with political and perceptual significance, calling for new ways of seeing with the night.

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

It's official! Out this November. I've loved working with @uminnpress.bsky.social and @lpennywark.bsky.social a second time. www.upress.umn.edu/978151792214...

cover of the book Ways of Seeing After Dark by Kyle Parry, the cover in midnight blue, the title in white, and the author's name in yellow

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Excited to join v cool fellow panelists for the Curationist Metadata Summit on "subversive, unconventional, and unexpected approaches to metadata creation and use." I'll talk on ideas from my essay "Metadata Is Not Data About Data." www.curationist.org/news/save-th... 9/18 noon EST online/open

Curationist 2025 Metadata Summit Metadata Outside the Box

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

v late to this slightly awkward task, but made a webpage for the book kyleparry.info/a-theory-of-... my new book is now in peer review 🤞🏼

A screen capture of the webpage for A Theory of Assembly, with words from reviews at the top and part of the cover at the bottom

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

i like the lines these masts make

reflected masts in wavy marina water, making for squiggly lines, about 7 of them

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

i like the lines these pearl peppers make

a collection of pearl peppers in a tray with a spoon

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

_orbital_ has me seeing this puffy blanket both better and from further above

a view of a puffy blanket of clouds with a spectrum of pools of shadow, as seen from a commercial plane

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

slightly afraid to fully embrace this message from oblique strategies

form oblique strategies, a card that says don’t be frightened to display your talents

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

how had i not come across this jeff wall photograph “night” from 2001 wish i could see in person

night by jeff wall, a puddle, a reflection, people sleeping, a city

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 04/06/2024

wrote a v short essay called “A New Way of Looking at Memes” for The Humanities Institute this essay: - starts w secret third thing - is meant to be v readable - is a quick intro to my take on memes in my book aka discrete and distributed assembly thi.ucsc.edu/technology-s...

A New Way of Looking at Memes
One of my favorite memes started with a picture of a blue dog. Someone got the idea to place an odd bit of personal testimony over the dog’s seemingly very intense face: “i’m neither joking nor serious but another secret third thing.” The “secret third thing” concept proved inspiring; it became what is known as a “snowclone,” or a simple verbal formula open to endless variation. People started to tweet their own versions, only now without the dog picture, and not always polite: “not an alcoholic nor sober but a secret third thing,” “not polyamorous or monogamous but a secret third thing,” “u are not a more secret complicated third thing you are 32.”

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 16/03/2024

it really was! accession tags, a tree that spewed fire after a lightning strike, absurdly compelling light

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 08/03/2024

I forgot to do a 1 year anniversary post for the book! It's been a great 1.1 years, with thought-provoking book talk Q+As + reviews from film/visual/media/communication studies with fun / kind words like essential, expansive, timely, truly impressive. www.upress.umn.edu/book-divisio...

The book is called A Theory of Assembly: From Museums to Memes. It sits in front of some ceramics.

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 06/10/2023

connectivity within brains, connectivity between brains

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 04/10/2023

i also thought this leo lionni book haha, the biggest house in the world

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 25/09/2023

maybe you’ve been seen this praise at green apple @shannonmattern.bsky.social but maybe you haven’t? :)

a glowing recommendation for a city is not a computer in front of a copy of the book

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Kyle Parry @kyleparry.bsky.social · 25/09/2023

4 year old discovers emoji, sits quietly tapping

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