Rob

New York, Forever Lost and Found When I first moved to New York in 2009, the very first night I lay down to sleep in a coffin-narrow room in Harlem, I had a maddening sense of wonderful things happening just out of my reach: all the ...

TODAY: @annamerlan.bsky.social on an extraordinary 1939 guide to New York City. “Reading the guidebook now gives the sense, not of a past city, but a parallel one, an unseen but strangely familiar river flowing just over the horizon.” flaminghydra.com/new-york-for...

There’s a moment somewhere in Culture in the Age of Three Worlds where Michael Denning says this was one of Stuart Hall’s favorite albums. Have always had in the back of my mind to pitch something like this on it and the Marcus Garvey connection, so nice to see it done much better here 💫

Resignation letters from UVA Rector and Vice Rector to Youngkin.

Too long for full alts, but will post excerpts following.

One of the things that genuinely shocked me as I read through surveillance logs for the police is how much of their energy and attention is dedicated to shutting down vigils and other ceremonies of remembrance.

as part of it, i'm going to maintain a regular blogging practice and email newsletter, please sign up if that's your thing robarcand.info/blog/why-bot... robarcand.info/newsletter

new year, new personal website robarcand.info

Are.na Annual vol. 7: Pool — Are.na Gift Shop A yearly anthology of writing from the people of Are.na. This year, the Annual is themed “pool,” as in a quiet place in a stream; a gathering of people, resources, liquid, or light; to contribute to a...

store.are.na/products/are...

To know which way the wind blows An interview between Paul N. Edwards and Rob Arcand.

it's included the new print edition of the @are.na Annual, and also ran online today at @dirt.bsky.social dirt.fyi/article/2025...

earlier this year, i had a really thoughtful conversation with the science and technology scholar Paul N Edwards about his work on the history of climate measurement, its relationship to the history of computing, and the long shadow cast over both by the military-industrial complex

Speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern, yes leadership is apparently planning to cut 50% of the faculty at the New School for Social Research in order to eliminate social research and replace scholarship with a trendy MA degree mill For the 21st Century 1/

that’s a good question! @sadiecouture.bsky.social was coordinating mailing some out early last month, she may still have a few

Intercom! Zine

I helped organize this memorial zine to my beloved doctoral advisor @jonathansterne.bsky.social. Thanks to all the contributors for their beautiful offerings. Sound ON for silly, apropos page turning sound effects.

intercomzine.com

Intercom! Zine

i was too upset in the moment to submit anything but please read all of these student and faculty reflections, each of which is incredibly special intercomzine.com

sounds like the intro to a great book

Growing the Value of Music for Artists and Songwriters - Warner Music Group AI is still in its early days. Investment is surging, talent is. . .

Warner is saying that any AI deals they'll agree to as a company will be opt-in only. That's consistent with the principles we all agreed to via Human Artistry Campaign. Even if you think gen AI music sucks, that's an important guardrail. www.wmg.com/news/growing...

❤️❤️❤️

The Same Stream Twice | Rob Arcand Two recent books, Liz Pelly’s Mood Machine and Andrew deWaard’s Derivative Media, explore the consequences of these technological intermediaries for the music, film, and television industries. While P...

what would it take to reframe debates about streaming and cultural decline in marxist terms? for @nplusonemag.com i tried to think through the current crisis (AI! VC! A24!) and what a newly militant labor movement could mean for the culture industries www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

I skipped this article for a while because I figured I'd read enough about the NYT's Mamdani coverage. I don't want to say the headline does the article a disservice - it is also very much about that - but goes well beyond as well

MAMDANI CAME OUT TO JA RULE "NEW YORK" AND IMMEDIATELY QUOTED EUGENE DEBS

really great www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/sta...

The Texan Ideology | Fred Turner The Texan Ideology reflects a century-old fusion of the oil industry and millenarian Christianity.

Fred Turner on "The Texan Ideology"

thanks emma!

"The digital image is dead, long live whatever fluid vessel has taken its place this week." @robarcand.bsky.social reviews Hito Steyerl’s new collection, "Medium Hot: Images in the Age of Heat." https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-network-of-global-incinerators/

Software Engineering Applications Software Engineering Applications Spring 2026 Code as a Liberal Art, Eugene Lang College, The New School This course gives students the opportunity to experience and critically examine the software e...

My friend @rorshock.bsky.social — CS undergrad, humanities PhD — has built a brilliant prgm @ The New School: “Code as a Liberal Art” nurtures “code + computational thinking as tools for critical + creative inquiry,” and as forces for 👍+👎 social change. His spring Software Engineering class looks 🌟

Tomorrow I start as an Asst Prof in Communication, Media and Arts at Seton Hall. Last spring, news that this opportunity would pan out coincided very closely with the passing of my advisor, Jonathan Sterne. Some overdue reflections on that, mostly on Jonathan, here: akstuhl.net/blog/2025-08...

AI_Anxiety AI_AnxietyProduced by Jordi Viader Guerrero, Dmitry Muravyov, Erica Gargaglione, Aarón Moreno Inglés, Mariana Fernández Mora, and Orestis KollyrisWith contributions by Dmitry Muravyov, Jord

i did literally nothing to bring this together except lend them an essay that i already wrote, but i'm totally geeking out about this zine.

just go look at the collection of art in the first couple of pages, i'm so enthralled right now, i love it. i desperately want to buy a physical copy.

When we lost Jonathan Sterne last spring I had made this list of Jonathanisms. Now that I'm sitting down to prep syllabi, I thought of him a bit this morning. Anyway, sharing it here too. bonpourlorient.tumblr.com/post/7783226...

Vincent Brown · What Universities Owe When challenged to justify past investment in slavery – or current investments in, say, fossil fuel extraction or arms...

‘Weren’t all Black people owed something for the dispossession that accumulated over generations? Or was the university’s primary function only to pursue knowledge about the history that gave rise to these questions?’

Vincent Brown reviews ‘Yale and Slavery’: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘No Other Land’ Co-Director Hamdan Ballal Freed, Says Yuval Abraham The filmmaker had reportedly been attacked by settlers and detained by Israeli police, sparking international outcry.

“No Other Land” Co-Director Hamdan Ballal Freed, Says Yuval Abraham

Via Deadline

Perry Anderson · Regime Change in the West? Where amid this turmoil does neoliberalism stand? In emergency conditions it has been forced to take measures –...

‘No populism, right or left, has so far produced a powerful remedy for the ills it denounces. Programmatically, the contemporary opponents of neoliberalism are still for the most part whistling in the dark.’

New: Perry Anderson on neoliberalism after the crash. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...