iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Stephen Cornford

Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.assemblag.es.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

This afternoon, we went on our own #fungi #forage returning home with a bumper crop of boletes.

A kitchen table looked down from above covered with bowls and baskets containing chopped and cleaned mushrooms. A woman is sat opposite the camera, her hands bury preparing a mushroom.

A beautiful bolete with a curved leg protruding from the moss.

A tiny fresh bolete mushroom held by fingertips in front of an out of focus forest

A tall shaggy ink cap mushroom among grass and leaves.

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Reposted by Stephen Cornford

Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.assemblag.es.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

This morning I read Jumana Manna’s wonderful text ‘Where Nature Ends and Settlement Begins’ about foraging for za’atar and ‘akkoub in Palestine, the Israeli ban on foraging these ingredients, food appropriation, and the accidental species erasure of […] [Original post on assemblag.es]

Front cover of a red book whose title is A Grammar Built with Rocks.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.assemblag.es.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

#Bristol - Coming up in November at the Cube: Forest Ecologies, Colonial Legacies This screening brings together three artist films that explore postcolonial, speculative and scientific understandings of forests. Journeying between Colombia, Germany, and Indonesia, we hear from the diverse […]

assemblag.es

Original post on assemblag.es

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Reposted by Stephen Cornford

Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.assemblag.es.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Tonight Stumbling Over Stones returns to the airwaves with a mix of Music for Plants and music from Okkyung Lee, Sung Tieu, Hototogisu, and Trabant. Tune into Noods online or on DAB from 10pm (UK time)

An archive photo of an interior with banjos and palm plants sharing the space.

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Reposted by Stephen Cornford

Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.assemblag.es.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026

"Stripped of all revolutionary meaning, sovereignty becomes little more than a sad imitation of the Californian ideology wrapped in nationalist robes.21 In practice, it serves to legitimise expansions in domestic surveillance, projects of mass displacement, and an endless expansion in mineral […]

assemblag.es

Original post on assemblag.es

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Reposted by Stephen Cornford

Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.assemblag.es.ap.brid.gy · 31/08/2026

Two years ago I published a handmade book including this page as a proposed 'instruction score'. Yesterday I decided to try to make it. In 2026 one language has become extinct and 35 new submarine cables have become ready for service. What took me by surprise […] [Original post on assemblag.es]

A graph showing the historic increase in the
total length of intercontinental communication
cables, plotted against the number of living
‘languages,

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Reposted by Stephen Cornford

Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.assemblag.es.ap.brid.gy · 31/08/2026

Recent #cosmosgram drawing showing the number of anthropogenic objects in earth orbit, compared with the number of natural satellites (moons) and planets in the solar system. (The ratio of satellites to moons is currently ~37:1)

Pen drawing on polar graph paper. Coral red dots and dashes swirl in multiple overlapping orbits around the central circle, in which text reads 18686 Active Satellites in Orbit
1861 Rocket Bodies 29313 Anthropogenic objects 8766 debris fragments 468 known moons 9 dwarf planets 8 planets.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

For those few of my followers here who are actually interested in following what i post, please follow @stephen-cornford.assemblag.es.ap.brid.gy which will now bridge my posts from Mastodon. If anyone reading knows a way to merge or migrate this account to my bridged account please link me up!

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Next week my partner, Lenka Vrablikova, will become a liver donor to her identical twin Katka. They are raising money to cover the costs this life-saving surgery . Please donate if you are able to: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-katka...

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

Come work with us! New Lecturer in Art & Media Technology job announced, to contribute to teaching on BSc Creative Computing and MA Fine Art. Join a growing department with excellent colleagues and good research allocations! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOZ192/l...

jobs.ac.uk

Lecturer in Art and Media Technology at University of Southampton

Searching for an academic job? Explore this Lecturer in Art and Media Technology opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Question for the contemporary art people: What are the most definitive student-friendly texts on / by the artist placement group?

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

even less when it's used in the plural.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Just received an email from the publisher of my first artist book: Petrified Media that it is sold out from them (unless you buy it with a limited edition print). I still have copies available direct from me, should anyone be interested.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

Meanwhile my 11yo son’s friends are already actively choosing their pronouns, do the people writing the guidance even talk to children?

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Reposted by Stephen Cornford

Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

"Universities have become increasingly dependent on a proliferation of outsourced services, database providers + info mgmt systems, w/ spiraling costs... Understanding [the uni as an infrastructure stresses] that the tech it chooses to adopt follow a colonial + extractivist model...

culturemachine.net

CM Vol 25 CfP University as Infrastructure

Culture Machine Vol. 25 Call for Papers: University as Infrastructure Guest-edited by: Alexandra Anikina, Johannes Bruder, Megen de Bruin-Molé, Stephen Cornford, Kwame Phillips & Geoff Cox …

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Reposted by Stephen Cornford

Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Call for Papers: Culture Machine, Vol. 25: University as Infrastructure culturemachine.net/vol25-cfp-un... Please forward to your networks of jaded academics, precarious researchers, redundant faculty, and surveilled students.

culturemachine.net

CM Vol 25 CfP University as Infrastructure

Culture Machine Vol. 25 Call for Papers: University as Infrastructure Guest-edited by: Alexandra Anikina, Johannes Bruder, Megen de Bruin-Molé, Stephen Cornford, Kwame Phillips & Geoff Cox …

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

culturemachine.net

CM Vol 25 CfP University as Infrastructure

Culture Machine Vol. 25 Call for Papers: University as Infrastructure Guest-edited by: Alexandra Anikina, Johannes Bruder, Megen de Bruin-Molé, Stephen Cornford, Kwame Phillips & Geoff Cox …

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Reposted by Stephen Cornford

Tom Abba @tomabba.studio · 27/06/2025

@bookhaus.bsky.social’s owners are retiring, and the manager - the brilliant Darran McLaughlin (alongside the equally brilliant Phil Wrigglesworth) are crowdfunding to buy the bookshop - they deserve all your support: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/bookhaus--...

crowdfunder.co.uk

bookhaus - Bristol's radical home

I have managed bookhaus since the beginning. The owners have decided to retire, and I am raising the funds to buy it and carry on our legacy

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Reposted by Stephen Cornford

Keith Fitzgerald @keithfitzgerald.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Worth a watch: Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

not directly related, but I once noticed that the inside of the of the seal peeled off supermarket milk smelt exactly the same as a fresh circuit board 😱

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Train prices in the UK are so ridiculous that I’ve just heard an American couple discussing the relative cost of an Uber from Bristol to Heathrow.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Sadly found out this weekend that this fox who has made a home in my garden for the last few months has now got quite bad mange, so I’m on a mission to treat it. Phase 1 - purchase meat and convince it to eat what I throw to it. (Hopefully this is the easy bit!)

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Thanks to Michaela Büsse and Johanna Mehl for all their work organising a brilliant day of presentations, and to Theo Stanley, discussions with whom have informed much of my thinking on forests and carbon.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

I discuss the applications of remote sensing to methane emissions monitoring and global biomass mapping, thinking about how these complimentary imaging techniques raise the potential of a regime of carbon governance, specualting how this might be used in climate justice campaigns.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

The text from my talk yesterday in Dresden is up on my blog now for anyone interested enough and unable to be there, or tune in online. stephencornford.net/blog/2025/06...

two uperimposed data visulisations on a black background. The first is a square of plantation forest, rendered in 3D and saturated colours from blue at the earth through the rainbow to red at the top of the canopy. On top of this three plumes of gas, rendered in similar colour scheme.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Respect to the young woman sitting behind me on my flight, who was clearly reading Mbembe over my shoulder and left the plane with a photo of the cover for reference. 💅🏾

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

With all the crazy numbers of follows on this particular site I am finding the addition of a Mutuals timeline essential. It’s like walking into a quiet room of familiar faces after a long day battling the hordes.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Off to Dresden to speak at Planetary Experiments. I’ll be presenting recent research on the imaging techniques used to measure carbon —in both industrial emissions and forestry absorption— and how these techniques present the possibility to use remote sensing in carbon governance and marketisation.

3D visualisation of a square of forest floating on a black background. The colours are a saturated height ramp in heatmap colouration: the ground is deep blue, the tops of the trees bright red.

Satellite view of Cape Town with an emissions visualisation of methane from a landfill site superimposed. It looks like a pixelated bright splat of paint, or a puddle of digital vomit.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Thanks also to Siobhan Angus whose invitation to contribute to a journal stream on rare earths led to me putting this video together. And to Arjan Dijkstra for the amazing access to his Spectral Geology lab, which was central to the realisation of this work.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

So I’ve decided to maintain something akin to Open Access to recent work, for as long as server space remains viable. I am thankful to Ben Byrne of Avantwhatever, whose initiative made me consider this option & whose peer tube will accommodate my work on the most sustainable server space available.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

I have long been frustrated by the lack of availability of moving image artworks. Of course, in many cases this protects the artist’s capacity to earn money from screenings and exhibitions of their work, in my case where the work is supported by my academic salary, this model seems irrelevant.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

ηEarth considers the role of rare earth metals in our energetic futures & astronomical explorations. The work draws connections between applications of multispectral remote sensing across different disciplines and fields, specifically spectral geology and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

Two PC monitors sit side by side in a darkened science laboratory, they show specialist software used fo spectral geology.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Next week, as part of the Planetary Experiments conference in Dresden, a recently finished video work, ηEarth, will get its first public outing. The video is available online here: avantwhatever.xyz/w/ehoUNzadTM...

A still from a video, a black background with three digitally rendered 3D objects floating in space. Two of them are kaolinite refinery ponds, wide concrete dishes with rotating arms hung in their centre, the third is a lump of mine waste.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Yesterday afternoon and evening I spent 4 hours lying on my back listening to the wonderful music of the sadly late Steve Roden. I know his music well and yet to spend this time with little else in my perception was extraordinary. Thanks to everyone who supported and released his music.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Clearly everyone should flood the submissions with proposals for Hannah Arendt statues.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Programme online & resistragtion open for Planetary Experiments: Environments by Design at TU Dresden on June 13. planetary-experiments.dgtf.de Looking forward to participating and to contributions from Open Weather (Soph Dyer), Orit Halpern, Thomas Pausz & many others, thx to Michaela Büsse.

planetary-experiments.dgtf.de

Planetary Experiments – DGTF German Society for Design Theory and Research

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

I was at an artistic research conference recently where AI was a major thread. I was left wanting to ask when a new tech is too toxic to even work with ‘critically’ — because for me AI is that. And it feels like even this critical work contributes to recuperating the tech as socially acceptable.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

This is so true. I’m blessed with damaged enough ears not to hear it, but I have made a couple of shows that inadvertently tortured their younger audiences.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

BERLIN: tomorrow evening Openhaus at ZK/U includes some research and early footage from our film about Visual Cultures of Forest Carbon with Theo Stanley. (sadly I will be missing it as parental duties call)

Poster advertising the event taped up on a graffitied notice board. A list of artist names in bold design of black/ white / yellow.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

This is a Turkish Grocers appreciation post. In every city I have ever lived in, or visited for a long time, the Turkish groceries are unsurpassed for price and quality.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

I am going to need a bigger tripod at this rate..

Tripod head with timelapse motor, Sony DSLR, and GoPro style drone camera all stacked vertically on top of one another

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

More timelapse experiments in the Grünewald today.

A vertical shot of a dry, brown forest. In the centre out of focus is a timelapse motor: a black plastic box, with a turntable on top. On top of this a rectangular mirror which reflects the split trunk of a dead oak tree.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Oh no! I just found out that Jonathan Sterne passed away. His writing was such a massive influence on my thinking and practice for most of my career. A sad loss.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Dinner this evening in an absolute gem of Berlin: Seerose vegetarian buffet. Prices and vibe of last century, wonderful hearty dinner for €7.50 a plate. 😍

Restaurant interior: A round table in front of two buffet servers stands with a chandelier hanging above

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Spent today with forest scientists discussing and filming the terrestrial laser scanning process which is used to measure biomass, carbon storage, and growth.

A LiDAR Scanner standing in a forest landscape.

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Petrified Media, the artist book I made with Carel Fransen of The Eriskay Connection, was reviewed in the latest issue of Art Monthly. Thanks to Michael Hampton for his thoughtful engagement with it! (I still have some copies of this, if anybody wants one hit me up)

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Stephen Cornford @stephen-cornford.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Starting to dig into the German Colonial Bundersarchiv today, for precedents to the LiDAR image regimes of contemporary forestry:

Colour photograoh of forestry taking place in Laos in 1975. In the foreground the stump of a large tree. Indigenous workers stand around. A white man in a sunhat with a camera around his neck is at the centre of the photo.

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