Aaron McCarthy

Restoration of one of the trilithons at Stonehenge in 1958. Photo courtesy Mrs H. E. O'Neil. In G. Daniel, A Short History of Archaeology, Thames & Hudson, 1981, p209. @stoneclub.bsky.social

@dundeecitycouncil.bsky.social @anguscouncil.bsky.social @sustransscot.bsky.social @dundeecycling.co.uk

shifted some Ikea goods today 30km between Dundee + Arbroath with a Bullit + Carla - 90% totally fine - some speed gate issues and daft parking - Arbroath's Places For Everyone Scheme will be fantastic when completed - shame Dundee hasn't got something similar in the city centre/ Perth Road

Israeli attacks on Palestinian heritage amount to war crimes, UN report finds

The independent UN investigative body released the findings last week

buff.ly/voMGX1x

A major danger of LLMs is that humans are SO predisposed to attribute knowledge to any entity that uses natural language fluently. We cannot imagine that a machine that outputs natural-seeming speech/text doesn't have cognition. Brilliantly articulated by @emilymbender.bsky.social et al. (2021).

ORGANISER(S): Izzy Wisher and Derek Parrott AFFILIATION: Aarhus University CONTACT: Izzy Wisher, izzywisher@cas.au.dk ABSTRACT: Art was, and continues to be, an active agent in societies. The first traces of artistic behaviour can be glimpsed in etched patterns produced nearly 100,000 years ago, and flourished into the rich, material culture visible in a wide array of both prehistoric and historic societies. It has the relational power to build new connections between individuals, generate cultural identities, or exert political or religious authority over a population. There have been significant efforts in recent years to shift away from “grand theories” of art – whether typological or narrative in nature – to instead appreciate the dialogical, multisensorial, and distributed engagements of art making and reception. Yet there remains a central challenge. In the fragmentary archaeological evidence of past artistic actions, how can we visualise individual artisans? In this session, we intend to bring together a diverse range of perspectives that examine art from a range of spatial and temporal contexts to identify the actions of individual artists in the past. We particularly encourage submissions that have developed new theoretical and high-resolution methodological approaches to address this challenge. Our session will not be limited in period or object type – the organisers themselves specialise in Palaeolithic art (IW) and Viking Age art (DP), but share a common theoretical thread in their conceptions of art. Themes could therefore include, but are not limited to: Material engagements in artistic practices Art and agency perspectives Craft networks and the role of the artisan High-resolution digital modelling Archaeometric approaches to art

How can we visualise the agency of art and artists in past societies? Mine and @dparrott.bsky.social's session at @tag2025york.bsky.social intends to bring together exciting new research to explore this question! Interested? Why not submit an abstract!✋ 🎨🖌️🏺

Dialogues Across Time? Conceptualising the Temporal Relationships of Palimpsests in the Upper Palaeolithic Cave Art of El Castillo (Cantabria, Spain) - Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Cave sites were frequently reused throughout the Upper Palaeolithic, with many sites within south-western Europe having deep chronologies of activity. The repeated engagement with the same caves, or s...

Why did Palaeolithic artists decide to produce art on the same walls that someone else had decorated? Do rock art palimpsests reflect dialogues that occurred across tens-of-thousands of years? My new OA paper develops a conceptual framework to explore these dimensions! 👇🏺

doi.org/10.1007/s108...

The car made pedestrians second-class citizens. Don’t let driverless vehicles push us off the road altogether | Adam Tranter If we want autonomous tech to succeed it must be designed to share space with us, rather than forcing us to adapt to it, says former cycling and walking commissioner Adam Tranter

We can allow history to repeat itself, and powerful interests to shape our streets in one way.

Or we can remember that cities are places where walking, cycling and public transport should be prioritised.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Important thread from Adam here. Public space - especially in towns and cities - isn't just there for the fast, efficient movement of motor vehicles and we mustn't let that motonormative thinking enable another generational landgrab as automated driving slides in

moved some sculptures with the #cargobike last week from @vadundee.bsky.social to #Arbroath - new bike infrastructure along NCN1 was fantastic
@dundeecitycouncil.bsky.social @anguscouncil.bsky.social @sustransscot.bsky.social

This is from CAPITAL IS DEAD, five years ago
www.versobooks.com/products/887...

The Vectoralist Class - Journal #65 …

Anything by McKenzie Wark - her Gamer Theory, Hacker Manifesto and Raving are all definitive works in their respective fields :) diving into her work on information capitalism and the 'vectoralist' class at the moment - www.e-flux.com/journal/65/3...

#CritcalMass #Dundee Good turnout!

Next @cyclingscotland.bsky.social to be held in Sunny #Dundee this September!

Edinburgh's Transport Planning Society have a new report out on how they think motonormativity could be tackled in the city tps.org.uk/public/downl...

Miami Beach Cinema Targeted by Mayor Speaks Out: “We Don’t Want To Leave” The city is threatening to close O Cinema after it refused to cancel screenings of No Other Land, the Oscar-winning film about Israel’s displacement of Palestinians.

“A small arthouse cinema on Miami Beach faces the possible cancellation of its lease + the loss of $80K in grant $ promised by the city after refusing to cancel screenings of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land (about 🇮🇱’s displacement of 🇵🇸) following rptd intimidation attempts by the mayor.”

I think people underestimate how quickly a city can change from a place where cycling feels too dangerous, to a place where it feels safe enough.

Middle Ground Project graphics. Bullitt cargo bike against the backdrop of a mountain.

Middle Ground is a new, roaming artist residency series based on a cargo bike, starting in summer 2025.

Its goal? To bridge divides, bring people together and counter polarisation.

🧵👇

Art and Archaeology masters degree enrolling now for September start - Archaeology Orkney We are now accepting students for our MA in Contemporary Art and Archaeology programme, which starts in September 2025.

We are now accepting students for our MA in Contemporary #Art and #Archaeology programme, which starts in September 2025.
#postgraduate #ThinkUHI #Art&Archaeology
archaeologyorkney.com/2025/03/13/a...

Will Dundee’s economy withstand the university’s job cuts hammer blow? The Courier's business editor Rob McLaren reacts to the devastating jobs news.

The impact of an actual university failure on a city like Dundee would be catastrophic. One in seven of the termtime population is a student. The uni job losses in this round alone are already on a scale similar to when the Michelin factory in 2020. www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/business-...

Two Key Safe Cycling Routes Show Massive Increase in Use Recent traffic data from Cycling Scotland shows the success of two central cycle routes in Glasgow and Edinburgh

Two Key Safe Cycling Routes Show Massive Increase in Use.
momentummag.com/two-key-safe...

A smiling white woman wearing jeans and a black jacket rides a bright pink bicycle on a city street.

New episode ! We talked with the delightful British journalist and author Laura Laker about her odyssey on the UK's National Cycle Network, what makes good cycling infrastructure, and her work in setting standards for how reporters & cops talk about traffic crashes. thewaroncars.org/2025/03/11/e...

My unpopular opinion is that driving a car destroys your personality.

Learn more about postgrad/research creative programmes - including our MA Art and Archaeology - Archaeology Orkney Another online event on March 25, will focus on the UHI’s Postgraduate and Research Creative programmes, including our MA Contemporary Art and Archaeology.

Another online event on March 25, will focus on the UHI’s Postgraduate and Research Creative programmes, including our MA Contemporary Art and Archaeology.
#ThinkUHI #Art&Archaeology #Postgraduate
archaeologyorkney.com/2025/03/03/c...

New Campaign: Ministers must restore public interest duties to Great British Railways consultation The Association of British Commuters, Disabled People Against Cuts, National Pensioners Convention, and National Federation of the Blind of the UK have made their first challenge to the Secretary o…

Deeply concerning issues with the next round of rail consultations- we need @heidialexander.bsky.social to act NOW
We simply cannot allow people to continue to be #DisabledByTheRailway - it’s PUBLIC TRANSPORT!

abcommuters.com/2025/02/28/n...

The Great British Bike Divide: Why are so few women and girls cycling? | ETA women cycling

The gender gap in cycling isn’t about preference - it’s about safety, infrastructure, and a country that has somehow managed to make the act of riding a bike on many roads feel as appealing as volunteering as a human traffic cone on the M25.
www.eta.co.uk/news/the-gre...

Book cover: background depicts a clock face, on top of which is layered cardiographic and geometric diagrams. The book title is written in white metallic text on a black circle; it reads: dismantling the masters clock: on race, space, and time.

Feb 24, 8pm, online: “Join AK Press and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics to celebrate the launch of artist and advocate Rasheedah Phillips’s expansive new book, Dismantling the Master’s Clock: On Race, Space, and Time (AK Press 2025).”

dismantlingmastersclocklaunch.splashthat.com

It’s time to depoliticise sustainable transportation How roads became 'Technical' and bike lanes became 'Political', and what to do about it.

A brilliant article on how promoting road schemes (dualling, extensions, bypasses) appear as logical technical solutions but sustainable transport schemes are framed as political choices.

open.substack.com/pub/omerbor/...

Episode two is now live! 🎙️

We're joined by Aaron McCarthy, Frank McElhinney, Becky Little & Tom Morton and together they discuss their work on how environments adapt and show resilience in the face of environmental, social and economic change.

Listen here: va.scot/3X7ToTs