iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Will Jennings

recessed.space @recessedspace.bsky.social · 1h

The recess: 04 including: ep.2 of recessed.speaks podcast / Frieze Week preview including Marcin Dudek, Catriona Robertson, Nicola Turner & Tarek Atoui / building-sized people in Salford / Photoworks book & festival recessedspace.substack.com/p/the-recess...

recessedspace.substack.com

THE RECESS 040 - FRIEZE WEEK ARRIVES

including: ep.2 of recessed.speaks podcast / Frieze Week preview including Marcin Dudek, Catriona Robertson, Nicola Turner & Tarek Atoui / building-sized people in Salford / Photoworks book & festival

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Great win in the last few minutes for Ipswich.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Maybe he means Mackems? I know there's a bit of a rivalry....

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Reposted by Will Jennings

Anon Opin @anonopin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

British people will walk past a Starbucks, Burger King, Costa Coffee, Taco Bell, Blank Street and not even notice. Then they'll see an independent shop called Al-Badr Supermarket and cry about how the UK is being taken over by foreigners.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

It was time to do that two months after he became leader. There's expertise and energy across the party and it's not been utilised because we all have to worship at the altar of Polanski, which is a stupid tactic because right wing media only need to take one person down, not a party

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Twice a month cycle to Toad Bakery for breakfast complete

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Great. We've digitalised barbarism and made it pay per view.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Which galleries in Liverpool are great? I find it a frustratingly uncultured city compared to other UK places but especially comparable eg German or Dutch cities. I like FACT and look forward to Tate re-opening. But there aren't many other galleries and there's no commercial scene.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Oh. Compared to the US, yes, the UK is very very very northern European. On a scale of the developed world, it's easy behind northern Europe. But very ahead of the US.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Great advert placement by Meta. Again.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Exactly. This stuff we keep seeing in such publications, and I include the Es Devlin mania in this, is just vibes and forms to get clicks and attention. It's kind of exhausting for those if us who actually value design in all its forms.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I often get invited to see or write about such design things and politely don't reply.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I think that "design" as a discipline, rather than eg product-, interior-, clothes- etc, is just the most tiresome discipline. It's just this kind of clickbait form-making with no interest in context or purpose. I blame Dezeen, Wallpaper* and social media.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

There was, but still not the same civic feels as mainland Northern Europe I think. The libraries I've been to in Norway, the local galleries in Germany, etc, show a very different way of modern life together.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

It's not, though, really. I know this and I get it. But the ambition shown by wider Europe blows what is possible in a UK funding and approach framework not possible I think. I just think because of neoliberalism our people are far less open to such a civic offer, and also education sadly.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I didn't know the building until I found it. I just read this by Isabelle Priest in the RIBA Journal who covers well the genesis and context of the project, though seems polite on giving any actual criticism about the design. www.ribaj.com/buildings/nl...

ribaj.com

A place to stay: The Forum in Groningen by NL Architects will attract people for a day – and to live in the city

The city, emerging from a period blighted by man-made earthquakes, wants more permanent residents. The Forum by NL Architects will help attract them

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

You can read more here & see "what you could have won". It's an exciting space if you don't suffer vertigo (the escalators go high) & is very busy, especially with youth, which is great. I feel that the architectural form traps it though. But it has a cool free greenscreen! forum.nl/nl/nl-archit...

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Externally, I think it fails. I get the "big shape" statement, especially in a Dutch context, but at ground level it's not porous & creates awkward backstreets. The roof is good, but seems like a commercial extension of a restaurant, a profit-sweating space with no greening more than a civic offer.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

It's exciting to see such a civic cultural space where all ages can come to do myriad things. Its hook & main function is the library, though the actual amount of space for books - especially nonfiction - is small. The art section was about 60 books, for a city with an art & architecture heritage.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

NL Architects beat off competition from Zaha Hadid, Foreign Office & UN Studio to get the Groningen Forum gig. It's the kind of civic multi-use space we don't get in the UK: library, mediateque, tourist info, café, galleries. It was packed, mainly young people across a variety of informal spaces.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I know we all joke that trump will be dead soon, so the worst may not happen, but he's really working hard to remove all the good global mechanisms introduced in the shadow of WW2 very quickly.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Dirk Hannema was a Dutch nazi collaborator. He was a personal advisor to Göring. He was the main NL museum advisor to Mühlmann Agency, the Nazi-run system for art stolen from Jewish people. This is how the museum built on his collection and legacy describes this.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I'm no expert, but I don't think Falcons are Living Humans.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The Woon-Werkhuis Hoogland en Versteegh by Eric de Leeuw of DAAD Architects. A sepf-build project that started in 1997 & was a design with no end or final "complete" design. They stopped building in 2007 but it could be continued if desired. www.daad.nl/ontwerp/spec...

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Yeah. That's an odd chair. The legs are in four-leg positions but there are only three. It's a bit accidental Escher maybe?

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

What a very weird way to sit on a chair

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

bsky.app/profile/film... So the BBC is getting rid of all the programmes that help people think and replacing them with Iggy, an AI agent we can talk to who will recommend things to us we can already find easily? The BBC is fucked.

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Reposted by Will Jennings

Angus Main @angusmain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The maddening thing is that the BBC can, uniquely, offer the opposite of AI algorithmic recommendation. We can get that anywhere. It’s not what people want. What’s missing is expert, human, curation. Knowledgable people you trust *telling you* that something’s worth watching. That’s what the BBC has

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

It's really nice, very young and a nice energy. Just here for a day to go to two museums.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

My kind of bar. Mout in Groningen.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

No. I'm just surprised there's a clause or something that says you can't publish your own writing. Sorry

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Tea and coffee sets designed by Richard Meier, Charles Jencks, Stanley Tigerman, Oscar Tusquets, Hans Hollein, Robert Venturi, Aldo Rossi, Michael Graves & Kazumasa Yamashita for Alessandro Mendini for Groningen Museum.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Oh. That's shit. Do they have copyright?!

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Reposted by Will Jennings

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 08/10/2026

Q: How do you define socialism personally? JD VANCE: I think in reality what it actually means in the American context is you want to replace American workers with foreigners workers, and you want boys to play in girls' sports

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I need to get up to date with it as there's a lot missing, but I tried to keep the habit of publishing everything on my own website too as I know physical stuff has less reach and online can just disappear. willjennings.info/writing

willjennings.info

writing — Will Jennings

WRITING, ESSAYS, PROSE, INTERVIEWS & COMMENT

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

So things that make people think? Brain-dead. Free Thinking can't cost much to make at all. It's a critical output for researchers & a great gateway into social sciences for public. In its fight to prove its financial value to politicians & media it has totally forgotten its worth & purpose.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

And, I have to say, it's one of the worst and least useable architects' sites I've used, which does not lead me to desire the app experience!

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Visiting a random Dutch architects' website and I get this popup. No. I just wanted to find out the year of a building, I did not want to download an app. Why would anybody?

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Too late! It was a day trip. But any Groningen tips welcome ;)

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I was here for foam, so I've done that :)

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I'm very glad that I am so out of both loops I don't know which "he" you mean

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I'm at the imminently opening De Kooning show at the Rijksmuseum to see if it can change my mind. It's a better presentation than at the Academia at the last Venice Biennale, focussing on his awful Rome paintings, but it's not moving my dial much. All I see is bad cover versions of better artists.

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Will Jennings @willjennings.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Terrible snaps of great photographs. Nadav Kander at Foam Fotografie Museum, Amsterdam.

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