iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

University of Illinois RBML @illinoisrbml.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Thanks to y’all’s help & some more research, my list of video games that include printing presses is growing I think I’ve found a student who wants to work on this project with me, so any other suggestions—particularly from the 80s & 90s—would be most welcome I can’t find an existing list anywhere

Sid Meier's Colonization (1994)
* Anno 1404 (2009)
* Deus Ex Human Revolution (2011)
* Dishonored (2012)
* Assassin’s Creed 3 (2012)
* Anno Online (2013)
* Bioshock Infinite (2013)
* Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015)
* Fallout 4 (2015)
* Civilization 6 (2016)
* Graveyard Keeper (2018)
* Anno 1800, Empire of Skies DLC (game 2019, DLC 2022)
* Hitman 3 (2021)
* Pentiment (2022)
* Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023)
* Esoteric Ebb (2026)
* The Sinking City 2 (forthcoming)
* Stop the Press! (forthcoming)

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Congratulations to our Velde Graduate Fellowship recipients for 2026-2027! Read more about their projects in our new blog post (link below).

Graphic with text: "Meet our 2026-2027 Velde Graduate Fellows. Megi Mecolli, Camellia Paul, Sophie Weinberg."

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Amanda Wyatt! Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

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Good editors & a good journal. (JEP is where I wrote the article of mine I like best, largely bc special editor @katinalynn.bsky.social's inspiring CFP, & her+journal team, supported me experimenting w/article format+voice in ways that felt true+urgent to me.)

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Sophie Weinberg @sophie-rose-reads.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The saga continues; our colleague’s just written that they’ll be “killing 5 lambs in the morning”, and wants to know how many hides we’ll want… not sure I can keep pretending now 🫣

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As someone who’s been using agents for “low stakes” programming, I agree with this thread e.g. I love thinking up systems for, say, the smart lights in our house to operate by rules that—in my mind—will make life easier My systems fail the instant my family want to—you know—live in our house

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I know undergrads don’t have context to understand why letters of recommendation can be a burdensome ask—it's some combination of the quantity of requests + the tailoring required This is me seeing this year’s 1st “can you write a letter for next week” & wishing for grace as we move into the season

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Melanie Walsh @mellymeldubs.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Create an unnecessary sequel by adding an -er to a book’s title. The Scarleter Letter

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The American Constitution isn’t looking too hot, am I right

Boat that says American Constitution on the back and is starting to corrode with visible rust

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cmrn knzlmn @ckunzelman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If you are a graduate student in the humanities (construed as broadly as possible), what is the MOST EXCITING book published in the last five years to you? Please repost if you’re not a graduate student!

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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 27/09/2026

This post is justifiably ratio’ed there’s nothing I love more than when engineering students come into @skeuomorphpress.org—they’re fascinated by our collections in ways distinct from history/humanities students & their responses enrich learning for everyone Education should be broad, not narrow

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I just saw that “Paid for by the US Government” propaganda video during the football game & while I’d heard lots about it, encountering it in the wild was more unsettling even than I imagined

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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 27/09/2026

Overall I’m really enjoying Control Resonant—it’s the same weird world I loved in Control, but radically reimagined into a different kind of game With that said: currently it crashes on my Xbox every 30 mins or so, which makes it hard to give top marks. Very frustrating @remedygames.com

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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 26/09/2026

My colleague Carson Koepke has been laser-cutting different woods for printing the full deck of this late-medieval tarot set @skeuomorphpress.org Today we tested a small plate for an upcoming event @illinoisrbml.bsky.social, printing on our Book Beetle—from @josefbeery.bsky.social—it looks great!

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Today Craig—the retired Iowan printer we bought ~250 cases of type from last year—visited @skeuomorphpress.org with his family. @sophie-rose-reads.bsky.social & I really enjoyed showing them the press & chatting about the history of Craig’s press we inherited & hope to pass on to the next generation

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A lovely 🧵 about a new typewriter-focused BookLab brewing #DHMakes

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Finally couldn’t deal with the longer hair anymore & cut it today Was feeling uncertain about it but then the very GenZ stylist declared, mid cut, “damn bro this is looking dapper as fuck!” I’ll take it

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Everybody talks about the soybeans, nobody talks about the economic trade advantage against China we have in the education sector.

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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 24/09/2026

pretty much every conversation here is about mitigating the devastation from losing international students It’s not just students who can’t get visas—international applications are way down across the board It’s a generational self own—deliberately killing a (literally) world-renowned industry

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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 24/09/2026

I just want to acknowledge there’s a new Control game out & today really should have been a holiday because this working thing is no good when I could be throwing shit around Manhattan with my *mind*

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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 24/09/2026

how wild that you could open an article about the most dramatic, public contrast between political visions in 2026 with a discussion of the ballroom vs. the opera

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Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Taught the Fugitive Slave Act for the first time in a few years. Man, my head was spinning as I uttered my familiar refrain about how the FSA radicalized Northerners who maybe never thought much about slavery until they saw people being snatched off the street right in front of them...

static.klipy.com

Euphoria Wait Is This Fucking Play About Us

Alt: Euphoria Wait Is This Fucking Play About Us

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DJT 100% believes that Ford’s Theater, where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, is named after Gerald Ford

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yet another American icon bulldozed by this administration (& I mean this genuinely, no tongue in cheek. Texas brisket is one of the great achievements of this nation)

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Steven Van Impe @svanimpe.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This whole thread is wild & a reminder that the worst part about being locked into the @americanair.bsky.social ecosystem—because they’re the only ones who fly to Champaign—is that so many of their European connections require British Airways

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Reminder: one more week to apply for the Nottebohm fellowship for #BookHistory research in Antwerp! For an idea of some of the research conducted using this travel fund, check out the recording of last week's Nottebohm Talks on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA2L...

youtube.com

Online Nottebohm Talks September 15 2016

YouTube video by Museum Plantin-Moretus

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It’s barely after seven pm, it’s pretty dark outside, & I just need us to acknowledge together that is some bullshit

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Objectivity and Distant Reading | Ryan C. Cordell

9 years ago I wrote about parallels between the idea of “mechanical objectivity” outlined in Daston & Galison’s book Objectivity & the rhetoric of “distant reading” in DH Prepping for today’s class discussing Objectivity, it strikes me that LLMs are forcing culture writ large to confront this myth

ryancordell.org

Book history, digital humanities, old newspapers, and information sciences

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scott b. weingart @scottbot.net · 22/09/2026

Dwight D. Eisenhower at the podium: “Everyone has been calling these machines ‘computers,’ but I hereby declare their name will be, henceforward and for every person on earth, ‘Gee Willikers Gizmos’”

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Join my team! Help us figure out how to be as careful stewards of today's born-digital archives of state as we've been for physical archives over the last 200 years. Seeking experience in digital archives/collections/preservation, or related cultural heritage work. Due 10/6. Up to $91k.

jobs.virginia.gov

Born-Digital Collections Coordinator #00220 - Richmond, Virginia, United States

Title: Born-Digital Collections Coordinator #00220 State Role Title: Library Specialist III Hiring Range: Commensurate with experience up to $91,080 Pay Band: 5 Agency: The Library of Virginia Locatio...

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Just about ran across campus to be an hour early for something, because I read the clock wrong Today’s going awesome

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This is my favorite bible verse

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Posted this thread late(ish) last night—I discuss using Claude Code to resurrect a long-dead Omeka/Neatline exhibit for the Viral Texts project—& in the process create a lightweight app for publishing “scrolly text” image-annotation exhibits—as an example of “low-stakes programming” with LLMs

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She’s going to get onto me for sharing but I can’t resist—an old teacher sent this picture of me & @eviedc.bsky.social in high school with two of our friends & it’s maybe the most 90s photo of all time Also realizing precisely how much our 15-yo looks like me—it’s a little scary

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