iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"Macron baise tes profs pas les nôtres" wins the best sign of the protest so far imho (Amazing photo by Sarah Meyssonnier, Reuters)

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Preparing a guest lecture where I get to share my academic concerns and why I do the work I do. For a final slide, I asked ChatGPT to surprise me with an image that condenses me and my work. This is what it came up with. Honestly I'm not mad

An image generated by ChatGPT that is based on what it knows about me and my work. Shows a scholar surrounded by books, and the image is filled with important words like Cities, Mega-Events, Geopolitics, Sustainability, Authoritarianism, Everyday Life, Spatial Justice. It's actually not badly done at all.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

There's a part of me that thinks he must be trolling, that this can't possibly be in earnest. But then I remember who we're dealing with, and yes, that's the (somehow) president sharing a Star Wars Evil Empire / legit Nazi SS uniform for the USA

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

"Because [the master] believes in himself, he doesn't try to convince others. Because he is content with himself, he doesn't need others' approval. Because he accepts himself, the whole world accepts him." Tao Te Ching, 30 And: "The Master doesn't try to be powerful, thus he is truly powerful", 38

An image of USAmerican presidents, shared by the Aspiring American Autocrat, that lists "Failures" (Biden, Obama, Grant, Harding, Carter), "Below Average" (Tyler, Coolidge, etc.), "Average" (Clinton, Adams, etc.), "Near Great" (Teddy Roosevelt, Grover Cleveland (??), etc.), Great (Lincoln, Washington, etc.), and The Greatest. Naturally, being pathologically narcissistic and deeply weak of character, he feels the incessant need to bluster about his greatness, so he's put himself at the top, as the greatest. It is a nauseating picture shared by a morally deficient and deeply unintelligent man, drunk on power and enabled by cowards, and is overall just a very disturbing image of imagined hierarchy and grossness.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

It's 2026 and I find myself in agreement with Bill Kristol, the Pope, and Sepp Blatter Also irony is so long dead i don't even know where we go from here

Statement on the FIFA red card controversy by former FIFA president and moral compass Sepp Blatter. Irony is long dead.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

He was talented, funny, brilliantly gross, moral, and brave. They murdered him yesterday in the street, gunning him down in a small city in the EU. I don't have any words. Rest in peace, artist. Светлая память Семёну.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

And this is the artist himself, Robert Kuzovkov / Semyon Skrepetsky, a few days ago in Berlin, on "Russia Day". This was his protest. His art features Uncle Stalin in the famous pose of holding a child - but this time Putin. The halo mirrors an Orthodox icon, as before.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Here's Hitler and Stalin making a heart emoji over Putin, on the background of a concentration camp, as he feeds men into a meat grinder. The iconography here stems from the famous and very moving Soviet poster "The Motherland Calls". This one gives me chills.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

This is Putin trying to stand in Stalin's boots, outside the Kremlin wall. Also pretty clear and no interpretation necessary, but note the prisoners praying to Putin nonetheless

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

That's Putin in the outhouses on top of the mental patients, direct into the brains. I don't think this one requires much explanation. His work was often scatological, which reveals pretty clearly what he thought of Putin and those who follow him.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Here's Skrepetsky's depiction of the 9 May victory parade from 2022. Putin as a Russian grandmother, carrying the Soviet flag, leading a parade of mutilated zombie fascists. One of the legless veterans carries an icon of Stalin. It says "Kill Everyone". The man was fairly uncompromising.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Skrepetsky often invoked the visual grammar of Orthodox icons. Here's Putin as Mother of God, cradling a nuclear bomb as Christ the Infant. The writing on the bomb is scatalogical puns. The abbreviations at top (typically explaining who's in the icon) say Putin Khuylo, his opinion on the dictator

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

I for one am mighty tired of world leaders bearing gifts to the One Special Boy, in hopes of avoiding his wrath. Say what you will about Infantino (and I have) but at least Gianni understood that it has to be gold and gaudy. Ya think Orange Mussolini gives a golden toot about die Mannschaft?

Starmer, Merz, and Trump. With Merz gifting Trump a German football jersey, with his name on it. It is an appalling picture.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Hopp Schwiiz! If we were back home (in our other home I mean) we’d be at the game, 100%. A mere 1 hour from Berkeley, or like 3 hours in traffic

A picture of our living room, showing the opening of Qatar vs Switzerland in the men’s football World Cup. Also, I hate Trump and Infantino and all their enablers with a fiery passion. What should be a chance for the USA finally finally to be a better part of the world. But no, the country is fighting and maybe succumbing to autocracy and it will take god knows how long to recover

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Hello from beautiful Gdańsk, Poland. May the right paths open for you, and may today be a day when you realize how much your dreams and your reality are one and the same

A drawbridge opening in Gdańsk, Poland - used as a metaphor for possibility

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Our train Paris - Zurich hit a cow. We limped to a tiny station. Currently waiting for a regional train to take us to Dijon. Then many many switches to Zurich. It’s a day.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

US Ally Turkmenistan (AND MANY OTHER COUNTRIES SOON) built incredible statues honoring your Favorite President (TRUMP). Many say these are the best statues the World has ever seen, even better than the "Golden Calf"! Wait for the TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY Thank you for your attention to this matter

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

We're hiring two PhD students at University of Neuchâtel! Please spread the word. I'm looking for someone who wants to work on bordering and identity formation during spectacular transformations, whether disaster or celebration. It's hard and crazy times out there. Come make sense of it.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Some days it is good to ignore the news and simply let all things in all senses just speak for themselves

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Bonus pic from @theguardian.com's excellent live updates from the draw (www.theguardian.com/football/liv...) Love the caption: "US president Donald Trump and his faithful lapdog the Fifa president Gianni Infantino..." A+

A screencap from the Guardian, showing American autocrat Donald Trump and FIFA sycophant Gianni Infantino

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

So I'm reading The Guardian's editorial on why income inequality is the core of so many of our problems (www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...). They cite the G20's first-ever income inequality report. I click through, and it takes me to this nightmare: Wut. Again, INEQUALITY REPORT.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

"Can he be stopped?" and "Should the West arm Ukraine?" as front page articles from February 2015. Yes, 10+ years ago. To keep in mind when talking about "making a deal". The Russian state and army will not stop, unless they are stopped. "Deals" like these are the worst bad faith argument

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Today I learned: Tsundoku (Japanese term) - piling up books with the promise that I'm reading them. Really, I am. I just read slower than I acquire them. Antilibrary (Taleb) - this process is great because the unread books remind us of all the things we still have to learn. I feel seen.

A screencap that defines the Japanese term Tsundoku - the concept of a pile of unread books.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

I am usually just complaining on here but this morning I wanted to share something small and pretty. Commuting through Zurich main station in the early morning, you hear gentle piano music. That’s a conscious decision. Someone decided that music makes things better, and they’re right.

A view of the Zurich central train station in the early morning. Not captured here is the gentle piano music that gives my early mornings a quiet but noticeable lift

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

“At first the regime tried to recruit my father, but he refused because he believed in truth and accountability…” Carine Kanimba at Play the Game with an incredibly powerful and important story about state repression, authoritarian politics, and sport. Rwanda: Football and Repression.

Carine Kanimba talking about the intersection of sport and state repression, with a photo of the Congo national team standing in protest

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Am about to go live at Play the Game 2025. It’s always an honor and a pleasure. I’m pretty excited about this discussion

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

This here is gonna be a spicy evening session at Play the Game. Transgender athletes in sport.

Evening session on trans athletes in sport

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Play the Game is always exciting, provocative, engaging, educational. Here’s a pic of some excellent speakers sharing important work they’ve done on some of the problems with Saudi Arabia and their colossal investments into sport. I recommend looking up this work.

A photo of the main stage at the Play The Game conference, showing four of the speakers who just presented on the problems of Saudi Arabia’s sports endeavors

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Rural Albania is pretty spectacular

A view of spectacular mountains and valley in northern Albania

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Aspiring Dictator 101: Destroy the free press. Trump attacks the media as easily as breathing: "Did they have anything to do with your network, Antifa?" "No" - answers NPR reporter "OK, well we're going to find out."

A clip from the Guardian that demonstrates again how easily Aspiring Dictator Trump threatens the press. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/sep/18/jimmy-kimmel-charlie-kirk-comments-show-cancelled-suspended-monologue-trump-us-politics-live

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

I ventured onto X to see the other side of the mirror and found something freaky: Grok AI is scraping tweets and creating summary headlines and summary articles. Tiny disclaimer about verifying info is laughably insufficient. Garbage in, garbage out. Confirmation bias machine in action

Headlines created by Grok AI on X, summarizing misinformation and presenting it as fact

Expanded summary article created by Grok AI on X, creating false article Be there soon scraping misinformation tweets and presenting as fact

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Sans télécharger de nouvelles photos, où en es-tu mentalement?

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Russian govt says that EU troops in Ukraine would be FOREIGN INTERVENTION. Breathtaking gall. Even after all these years, I am somehow still shocked. Do you need a clearer sign that Russian officials don't consider Ukraine a sovereign state? The foreign intervention is the Russian army, hey.

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Reading through old gold cartoons from @tomtomorrow.bsky.social and thinking: 1) how you could change only the barest few details and this could be published today (if anything tho it’s gotten worse) 2) I really miss paper books (water damage and all)

One of the many fabulous Tom Tomorrow anthologies that used to exist on the regular down at your local bookstore

Brilliant old cartoon from Tom Tomorrow that suffered water damage in a flood like 15 years ago

To update this classic cartoon, you’d just have to put masks on the Patriotism Police and make them ICE agents

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

741 vs an unreliable promise of 10

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Bill Pullman is still my president. Happy 4th y’all

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

On this day in 1991, the Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_...

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Not a fan of Google’s AI summaries. I searched for publications at my old Uni’s public repository, and learned that apparently: 1) I never finished my PhD, 2) I have a secret career working on the perception of Wolves at Swiss parks

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

I just got a paper copy of my new book! It’s a good day. Even though I’m thrilled about the open access digital version, I guess I’m a bit old fashioned and it feels more real to me somehow to hold it in real life…

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

I’m very happy to report that the City Collaboratory is alive and well. Here we are learning about the urban development of historical Geneva on one of the tours

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Sven Daniel Wolfe @sdwolfe.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

My 2nd book came out today! Together with colleagues and friends, we wrote about mega-events like the Olympics and what they do to cities and societies underneath the intoxicating glow of the spectacle. It's free to read and has some really great work: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

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