Jacob Badcock

good morning @maxrushden.bsky.social, long time @footballweekly.bsky.social listener here. i don’t “skeet” often, but i just came here to gloat. your boat rowers took one hell of a beating yesterday. i fear that Ryan Loft may need some of Mrs Holloway’s sage if you are to reach your lofty ambitions

well, football never really went away did it? a dog darn shame about the result though

Aritz Aduriz, surely?

didn’t Wilson lose the 1970 election on the back of Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” and outwardly racist anti immigration sentiment?

Soup and sunflowers: the unwilling role of art history in climate activism This seminar session explores the role that art history might play in understanding the targeting of works of art as a form of protest.

Please do come along if you find yourself in London.

Sign up below 👇🏻

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/soup-and-s...

Next Thursday (6-7pm) I’ll be chairing an important discussion between Esme Garlake and Dr John Paul Stonard on art history and climate activism. The event is being hosted by @anthropoceneucl.bsky.social and promises to be a fascinating discussion.

To the Vatican with Red Flags In 2014, Pope Francis met Alexis Tsipras and Walter Baier, representatives of the European Left, along with Franz Kronreif of the Christian Focolare movement. With Bergoglio’s agreement, a process of ...

On 10 January 2024, Pope Francis received a private audience with a delegation of people who had been participating for several years in a dialogue between Marxists and Christians. Michael Löwy, who was in attendance, recounts the experience in detail.

Birmingham bin strike latest: Army experts called in to help The government says office-based military experts will help because of the

the securitisation of waste… a reality in Lagos, Accra, Dar es Salaam, and now Birmingham

solidarity with striking bin workers

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

very grateful for the wonderful contributions to “Burning Matters” @forarthistory.org.uk, papers addressing contemporary Canadian art and indigenous rituals of fire, Piero di Cosimo’s wildfire paintings, Steve McQueen and the Grenfell Fire disaster, and photography and forged wildfire narratives

Benjamin Mehigan, Royal College of Art

“Forging Wildfire Narratives”

Esme Garlake, University College London

“Representing fire with animals: Piero di Cosimo’s The Forest Fire (c.1505)”

Hope to see you there!

Speakers:

Joëlle Dubé, Concordia University

“Burnt Matches and the Performed Refusal of Audie Murray in Token Generosity (2024)”

Clara de Massol, Kings College London

“Slow Violence and Toxic Geographies: Commemoration, Hauntings and Grief in Grenfell by Steve McQueen (2023)”

These papers will address modern and contemporary or historical topics including but not limited to the aesthetic politics of fire, fire and non-human agency, fire and environmental politics, fire and conflict, the language of fire and burning, and burnt matter as art and/or testimony.”

What does studying burnt matter and fire-affected objects reveal about the wider social causes of disaster, both contemporary and historical, and what challenges do they present to the art historical method?

How do artworks conflict with and appease the boundaries of representation? Is it possible for burning to be a generative and transformative process, as well as a destructive one?

This panel considers the role of representation in a “world on fire.” When the flames abate, they leave behind a world changed, but this change needs nuance. How are images of fire deployed in art and media and what are the limits of these images in representing this new reality?

(…) crucial to understanding a world caught in the throes of environmental crisis and unrest.

“In the context of rising global temperatures, raging wildfires, blazing conflict in the Middle East, and ever more incendiary political speech in Western liberal democracies, the politics and aesthetics of fire have become an increasingly important area of study (…)

if you’re coming to the @forarthistory.org.uk conference in York this week do join Elsa Perryman Owens and I for “Burning Matters: The Limits of the Image in a World on Fire” (9 April) where we’ll be discussing the role of art history in grappling with present day and historical fire disasters

likewise Eva! was a pleasure

wrote this short essay on sanitation, urban space, and state violence in Accra for The Polyphony, a really neat platform for research in the critical medical humanities based out of @durhamimh.bsky.social. check it out 👇🏻

Agbogbloshie: Resonances in the Colonial Archive Jacob Badcock elucidates the parallels between 19th century colonial notions of sanitation and urban space and the recent demolition of an e-waste scrapyard in Accra (Ghana).

Jacob Badcock elucidates the parallels between 19th century colonial notions of sanitation and urban space and the recent demolition of an e-waste scrapyard in Accra (Ghana).

thepolyphony.org/2025/04/03/a...

Quakers condemn police raid on Westminster Meeting House Police broke into a Quaker Meeting House last night (27 March) and arrested six young people holding a meeting over concerns for the climate and Gaza.

You think the arbitrary arrest of political dissenters cannot happen in the UK? It already does. www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...

Where’s Half Man Half Biscuit when you need them?

turgid. Kilkenny for MOTM as he looked like the only player on the pitch who wanted to play a game resembling football. sad to say, but i think i’ve finally given up on Glatzel

a reminder that it’s so often people doing local, on the ground community organising and climate action with the most valuable insights

well, this was great! learned so much from the audience. it was great to hear from grass roots activists, people who run electronics repair/reuse workshops, and other climate concerned residents with all kinds of other knowledge and expertise (from plastics, to mining, to water quality)

poor showing from us today, but we don’t know when we’re beat…

Holloway has saved our skin this season but some of his selections still baffle me — MOTM has to be Smith who was just a complete and utter nuisance for their backline

a case of what could have been these past few weeks…

These are a really great series of events organised by climate concerned residents that “aims to be a discussion forum and a focus for building community which is resilient and thriving in the midst of pending adversity.” Past speakers include Molly Scot Cato (Green Party) and Dr Halid Abu Bakar 🌿 💻

Next week I am speaking as part of the Highworth Climate Talks. Do come along if you’re local!

(www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/e-waste-th...)