iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 5h

TILT (via Tōno Yoshiaki's book) Jasper Johns is such a different figure than I realized. He grew up an hour from where my mom grew up, went to college for a year and a half in the same SC city my mom spent her first year of college in, and invited Tōno to the same local beach my family frequented.

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Reposted by Nina Horisaki-Christens

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

NO, NYC PUBLIC LIBRARIES ARE NOT "FULLY FUNDED" despite what the influencers on social media are regurgitating. Our libraries remain UNDER-FUNDED. Library workers need to be paid MORE MONEY, we need more funds for collections, we need more funds for programming & for capital expenses.

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404 Media @404media.co · 25/09/2026

Meta announced that its new AI agent, Muse could call businesses for you to do things like make reservations. But in reality, Meta is testing having these calls being made by human beings in call centers, 404 Media @jasonkoebler.bsky.social learned. www.404media.co/meta-tests-m...

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

OMG I've figured out why I find Italian Brain Rot so irritating. It sounds like an Italian Futurist poem! Design is totally different, but the "machine futurism" part is creepily similar.

Cover of Marinetti's Zang Tumb Tuuum from 1914. Yellow-orange paper with black text of variying sizes, thicknesses, angles, and arcs reading (approximately): "F.T. Marinetti Futurista, Zang Tumb Tumb, Adrianopoli Ottobre 1912, Tuuumb tuuuum tuuuum tuuuum Parole in Liberta, Edizioni Futuriste di "Poesia: corso Venezia 61 - Milano 1914"

Twenty Italian Brainrot characters, in color against a black background, in a grid. In order, from left to right and top to bottom: Tung Tung Tung Sahur, Chimpanzini Bananini, Lirily Larila, U Din Din Din Din Dun Ma Din Din Din Din Dun, Bombardiro Crocodilo, Tralalero Tralala, La Uaca Saturno Saturnita, Ballerina Cappuccina, Trulimero Trulicina, Blueberrinni Octopussini, Brr Brr Patapim, Trippi Troppi Troppa Trippa, Cappucino Assassino, Girafa Celestre, Boneca Ambalubu, Bobrito Bandito, Orangutini Ananasini, Trippi Troppi Troppa Trippa, Burbaloni Lulitolli, Cocofanto Elefanto.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

As someone who buys a lot of rare used Japanese books, this is just so depressing.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I keep getting these annoying ads saying to vote "no" on CA Prop 40 because public workers are against it. But as far as I can tell, the breakdown appears to be more like: No: Newsome, Tech and Business types, Newspaper editorialists Yes: Unions, many Democrats, teachers, healthcare workers

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Uuuugggggh. I am trying to make my slides accessible, so I attended a few sessions at different places assuming they'd offer slightly different focus, but instead they directly contradict each other. How are we supposed to do this?

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Literally in the midst of writing an essay on the Japanese translator of Gloria Steinem. Went on here for a quick break, and was confused for a moment about why everyone was discussing her.

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Japanese American Citizens League National @jacl-national.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Please read our response to troubling remarks on a recent podcast suggesting the incarceration of Chinese Americans in a hypothetical future war. This rhetoric shows why we must learn our history, especially lessons from the Japanese American experience. Full statement here: buff.ly/P9F3pT9

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Reading this 1968 collection of essays by Tōno Yoshiaki, I learn that he was put to work as a fifteen year old during the last stage of WWII to help manufacture the bombing balloons that were sent over the Pacific. Apparently many theaters in Tokyo were converted into balloon factories.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I am in the process of moving books and needed a few more than my last move two years ago, which I got from the same store as last time. Both are heavy duty, small, and 16x12x12 in. So, pray tell, why are they different sizes? The new ones look to be almost an inch shorter.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

I'm still on FB because there are people who I want to keep in touch with who don't email, but OMG it's become such a cesspool of right-wing propaganda. I mean, it's now an anti-abortion, tradwife, incel, election conspiracy, pro-AI, pro-Jan 6 toxic miasma. It's almost as bad as Twitter 2.0

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Today in things I learned in physical therapy: My diaphragm was likely damaged during pregnancy. I've been having trouble with deep breathing for years. Discussing this with my PT today, she noted it's not an uncommon pregnancy complication. Since kiddo kicked me there repeatedly during labor...

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Part 4: Video and Media Theory “Against Japanese Video: Process, Discourse, and Translation in 1970s Tokyo” Dr Nina Horisaki-Christens Moderator Dr Miryam Sas Center for Japanese Studies, University of California, Berkeley April 16, 4pm, 3401 Dwinelle Hall Pic: Kobayashi Hakudō, "Earth," 1974.

Image of electronically recolorized analog video detail of the Earth from space set within a bright yellow digital noise background with chromakey green border and electronic blue text. Image from Kobayashi Hakudō's "Earth" of 1974.

Part 4: Video and Media Theory
“Against Japanese Video: Process, Discourse, and Translation in 1970s Tokyo”

Dr Nina Horisaki-Christens
Moderator Dr Miryam Sas

Center for Japanese Studies, University of California, Berkeley
April 16, 4pm, 3401 Dwinelle Hall

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

I want someone to do a deep comparative analysis of Hideyoshi vs Trump as leaders. I mean, the gold obsession, tacky aesthetics, failure at foreign invasions, unwarranted self-confidence...I feel like the parallels warrant some deeper consideration...

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

NEW THREAD: March here will be Critical Media March. I'll be posting about Japanese and Japanese American anti-war and anti-imperial films and videos from the 1970s-'80s. Teaser Stills: NDU, To the J**ps: South Korean A-Bomb Survivors Speak Out, 1971 (L) Nobuhiro Aihara, Shelter, 1980 (R)

Four black-and-white stills from NDU's 1971 color film "To the J**ps: South Korean A-Bomb Survivors Speak Out." Counterclockwise from the upper left, the images depict hands examining a large skin sore an arm just below the elbow; a group of people standing and squatting in front of a brick building with a sign written in Hangul; a village of rooftops for what look like wooden homes, with the roof covering weighted down with rocks rather than consisting of tile or thatch; and a young child looking toward the camera while facing to the side, holding some kind of stick while standing outside a wooden structure.

Still from Nobuhiro Aihara's film "Shelter" (1980). Green foliage is speckled with white and pink paint splatters, and the overall image is distorted by a fish-eye lens.

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Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー @tomaashby.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

Now is a moment to reshare this video

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Send help y'all! AI autocaptioned all my mini-lectures for one of my remote courses and now I have to go back and manually revise all instances of "Dong Cheech and Chong" to "Dong Qichang." #AIfail

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 03/01/2026

Moulton: "When we had briefings on Venezuela, we asked, 'Are you going to invade the country?' We were told no. 'Do you plan to put troops on the ground?' We were told no. 'Do you intend regime change in VZ?' We were told no. So in a sense, we have been briefed, we've just been completely lied to"

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

I once almost ran headlong into Ted Danson in a near-blizzard as he was headed out of the Maritime Hotel into a black car and I was headed from the subway to my gallery job in Chelsea. This is how I first learned his hair had gone white, before he started showing back up on television.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

We've lived together twenty years and my partner is still learning how to cook in an American kitchen. Convo this evening: Partner: Can you cook the apple pie? It seems too complicated. Me: You literally heat it up for maybe ten minutes in the oven. P: Ovens are too complicated. And...

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

Sorry, just watching "Dynamite Kiss" and when they get to the "opun mindu" scene, I can only think of Sean Solo. Was this the writers' intention?!?! #crossoversIneverimagined #kdrama

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Please, don't make a left from the right turn lane, crossing in front of two lanes of traffic in your direction when oncoming traffic has right of way at a major intersection in LA during rush hour. You don't just endanger yourself but all of the rest of us who are at that intersection.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Aaaaargh! I couldn't sign into a system I should already be registered in no mayter what I try, so I wrote to IT. Within 24hrs I get an email saying I have received a reply that can be viewed on the ticket system. The ticket system is only viewable if you sign into the account I can't access. 🤦

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Finding it amusing this article claims university economics departments largely avoided major scandals. Departments, perhaps, but not journals. See: International Review of Law and Economics re: Mark Ramseyer's major citation issues as documented by a variety of academics: apjjf.org/2023/21/11/c...

apjjf.org

Scholarly and Public Responses to “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War”: The Current State of the Problem, A Report by Concerned Scholars - Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus

[…]

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

My first experience of Japan was of living with a host family, and my host mother—who worked at home because her husband died young and she had kids to raise—had a set of evening dramas she would watch regularly. One of those was the long-running TBS drama 3年B組の金八先生 www.tbs.co.jp/kinpachi/

tbs.co.jp

3年B組金八先生ファイナル～「最後の贈る言葉」4時間SP｜TBSテレビ

32年、240人の卒業生を送り出してきた金八先生が、この春、3年B組の生徒とともに定年退職という卒業を迎える。

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

So Larry Summers is "deeply ashamed" for deciding to "continue communicating with Larry Epstein," but has no comment on trying to abuse his connections to coerce a mentee into sleeping with him while referring to her by a racist term and describing her in crude sexist language. Got it.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

5年も遅れてるとは分かりますが、「ハケンの品格2」のこのセリフは一体何なんですか？「桜を見る会」ネタの次は「日本沈没」？そのために主人公がずっとあの本を持っていたのですか？

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

OMG the inability of people to think beyond binaries. You can happen to agree on a particular issue for dramatically different reasons. That doesn't mean you are allies, but just that your opinions align for a brief moment. You can't understand politics if you assume there are only 2 camps. *

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 10/10/2025

Pepperdine University, a private Christian college in Malibu, closed an exhibition ahead of schedule following withdrawal requests from at least 12 artists after the school removed or altered art it considered “political.”

hyperallergic.com

California School Shutters Exhibition After Altering "Political" Art

Pepperdine University abruptly closed the show as at least a dozen artists asked to withdraw in protest of what they called an act of censorship.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

My partner signed us up for alerts from 在ロサンゼルス日本国総領事館 when we moved to LA, and the funny thing is, I learn more about what emergencies are happening in the region from those emails than from any City of LA or California State alert systems.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

I really can't believe it's been 20 years. I still remember the shock of the TV images of water pouring into the city. I learned so much from this disaster about the corruption of various levels of government and the economic/insurance systems that have, predictably, led us into a darker future.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Honestly, I can't help but read the ongoing hostile stance of the university toward student workers—their refusal to bargain in good faith since the Obama era, and their apparent current intention to cut most grad student preceptorships—as directly related to their acquiescence to GOP bullying.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

Summer News I: Technically spring news, but my "Between Galapagos and Archipelagos: Institutional Tensions in Japanese Contemporary Art," came out in "Verge: Studies in Global Asias" in March! dx.doi.org/10.1353/vrg.....

dx.doi.org

Project MUSE - Between Galapagos and Archipelagos: Institutional Tensions in Japanese Contemporary Art

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Every class I teach, I ask students what they get out of it. The answers I've received include "learning to observe and describe more accurately so I can be a better nurse," "learning how unequal access to certain archives shapes histories," and "understanding how to make a compelling case."

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

The past six months are essentially as if venture capitalists swooped down and sold off anything of value that remained in the US. Just as all those healthy businesses were bankrupted by venture capital firms, the US is being pushed into a grand unnecessary depression that it may never recover from.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

Bait and switch is the tactic of a warmongering coward. If he was serious about protecting the US, he would have used his two-week self-imposed limit to work on negotiations. But he's never legitimately negotiated a thing in his life. Bullied, yes, but not negotiated. So we get the bully's solution.

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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 20/06/2025

Judge: And so given all those factual findings, I'm going to exercise the discretion I have to ORDER THE RELEASE of Mahmoud Khalil

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

What is common knowledge in your field but shocks outsiders? With a handful of exceptions that usually still don't cover the full cost of labor, artists don't get paid for their time preparing for museum exhibitions. If anything gets covered, it's usually just production costs.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

I figured there'd be some Stephen Miller callouts at No Kings Santa Monica and I was not disappointed. Guy next to me said his kid disliked Miller in high school. One sign said Santa Monica High rescinds Miller's affiliation. The sign shown here was the only one I managed to remember to photograph.

Photo of No Kings protest crowd in Santa Monica. Apartments and palm trees in the background, crowd in middle ground, sign in foreground reads "TrumpStephen PTSD Collective Trauma Emotional Scars Chronic Stress Fueled by Cruelty"

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

The downside of living near a theater: when they have a violently loud performance that includes going out of the building and banging and cursing from outside, you get to hear it on repeat several nights a week for weeks on end.

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

After listening to a Japanese news analysis on the Nippon Steel deal (which seems a pretty bad deal for Nippon Steel), I decided to see what the English language press was saying and it seems like it's all spin and very little discussion of the actual deal? What is this mess of a news cycle?

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The New York Groove @nygroove.nyc · 05/06/2025

proposing Elon Musk as the savior of the subways, creating (then abandoning) a fake "women's equality" party, using the IDC to keep republicans in charge of the state for years, and more greatest hits from the guy who "can get stuff done" nygroove.nyc/a-list-of-50...

nygroove.nyc

A list of 50 things Andrew Cuomo has ‘gotten done’

The disgraced former governor loves to tout his long record in public life — so let's actually take a look at it

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Nina Horisaki-Christens @ninahorisakichr.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

Screening in LA! "Asia is One" Directed by Nihon Documentarist Union, Japan, 1973, 16mm transferred to digital format, 96 minutes Fri June 6 2025, 6:30 pm Dodd 147, UCLA, Open to the Public In Japanese, Chinese, and Atayal with English Subtitles by Keung Yoon Bae, Kimberley Sanders, and Mayako Liu

Poster advertising a screening of "Asia is One," Directed by Nihon Documentarist Union, Japan, 1973, 16mm transferred to digital format, 96 minutes

Friday June 6 2025, 6:30 pm, Dodd 147, UCLA, Open to the Public
In Japanese, Chinese, and Atayal with English Subtitles by Keung Yoon Bae, Kimberley Sanders, and Mayako Liu

Sponsored by the Yanai Initiative, affiliated with UCLA Art History, and distributed by Kobe Planet Film Archive

Design features three stills from the film: a black and white image of people in light colored indigenous dress with headbands dancing with arms and legs raised on one side, a black and white image of people in kimono and haori carrying things on their heads marching in three rows and a color image of a child outside a faux-stone building with American and Japanese flags flying above her.

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