Nick Murray

First Panel: I've got a record. I was Zero Cool. Second Panel: Zero Cool crashed 1,507 systems in one day. Biggest crash in history. Third Panel: Front page New York Times, August 10, 1988.

Happy Zero Cool Day to all who celebrate.

Post from "The Rundown" July 18 at 5:30 PM · DuckDuckGo has introduced a new feature allowing users to filter out AI-generated images from search results, addressing growing concerns over synthetic content overwhelming authentic visuals online. The filter can be activated through a dropdown in the Images tab, search settings, or by using a dedicated AI-free domain: noai.duckduckgo.com. The system relies on curated blocklists, including uBlockOrigin’s Huge AI Blocklist, to detect and suppress AI-generated imagery. While not perfect, it significantly reduces synthetic content visibility. This move sets DuckDuckGo apart from competitors like Google and Bing by giving users direct control over their exposure to AI-generated material. Source: TechCrunch

DuckDuckGo has added a feature to filter out AI images from search results.

Wonderful to see that philome.la is still up and running!

If you use AI you’re accelerating climate crisis, polluting deprived communities, burning through water, giving bosses excuses to reduce workers rights and wages. It’s a moral and ethical degradation.

my painting of British lads hit each other with chair …

A wonderful world building workshop hosted by @cassettewitch.bsky.social 🤩😍 @amazefest.bsky.social

This is an incredible use of Bitsy. It's a messy and scrappy document of a brilliantly unexpected jamming method. I think watching the process was the best part of this, to the point where I reckon with a bit of production it could make a really cool audience event.

What are the video game equivalents? Flatgames comes to mind as something with similar rules/goals. Or maybe Overboard/Expelled?

Screenshot of the front cover of the digital zine "DIY web archiving", which has large-sized text stating: "Things disappear from the internet. Care about stuff on the web? You need to act to archive it. Anyone can do it—this zine shows you how."

#ICYMI folks w/deep experience re:crisis web archiving (@sucho-org.bsky.social)+building tools for it (@webrecorder.net) made a free zine teaching how anyone can archive the things you love on the web before they go away: zinebakery.com/homemade-zin... & why you shouldn't expect others will do so

This is a very cool idea! It's Iike geocaching but for stories.

The full report by the Tony Blair Institute is out, in which they detail how copyright should be "rebooted" in the AI age. It reads like a big tech lobbying document. I hope they will be asked serious questions at its launch in London today.

Some very brief highlights:

🧵 1/8

I'm excited to announce my new game: Treeplanter 💚

Discover the magic of trees! Create a peaceful interactive woodland! Watch as it evolves through the changing seasons 🌱🍃🍂🌳

As time goes by, an ecosystem of animals, plants and insects will make your creation their home 💚

Right?! It's followed me around for a while so I wanted to bring it into the show.

I'm testing a local server prototype as part of the show. It's a chance to play around with digital archiving and sharing experiences without being tied to the internet.

If you'd like to come and see the show. It's on from the 26-30 March at ACAVA Studios Barham Park, Wembley Central. nickmurray.horse/return-to-dr...

I have a little work-in-progress show on next week. It's the culmination of a socially-led residency with ACAVA. Here's a little video where I say a bit about what's on.

Thanks @futureeverything.bsky.social for putting on the workshop!

Inspired by @miss-sammie.bsky.social's incredible temporary archive workshop, I had another go at my local-only digital archive AND IT FINALLY WORKS! Running a program called Shareboxx, it's a local WiFi network for sharing and archiving digital stuff during real space meeting.

It's a work in progress show of some of the things I've been thinking about while artist-in-residence at ACAVA, Barham Park. It's also a spiritual sequel to my narrative game Dial 55555 (formerly Dreamphone). I'm still looking for that place just past the horizon. www.acava.org/news/nick-mu...

A photo of an old slide viewer. It has a slide in it and it's illuminated so you can see the image on the slide, which is a ghostly construction site seen from across a large lake. There are branches in the foreground as though the viewer is standing in a wood. Alongside this photo is some graphic text giving the details of the exhibition it's part of: Return to Dreamphone, 26th to 30th of March, Barham Park Studios, Wembley.

I'm putting on my first solo exhibition!
A mix of interactive installation, game-making and poetry, Return to Dreamphone continues my collaboration with the tributaries of the River Brent and the communities living alongside.

It's called Return To Dreamphone and is about rivers, community action, and how we make a more caring internet. As part of it I'm having an unconference event, so if you'd like to come and share literally anything with some receptive folks, that could be a nice time. nickmurray.horse/unconference/

All of this is leading up to my latest project, which is a huge personal milestone. My first solo show! I've been lucky enough to have an arts residency recently, and I am wrapping it up with a small show of some of the in-progress work. nickmurray.horse/return-to-dr...

If any of this sounds interesting, I've been trying to keep fairly up-to-date with my website. nickmurray.horse
And if this stab at visibility goes well, I'll put a bit more on here.

I put together an arcade for Somerset House's CUTE exhibition: nickmurray.horse/cute/

2025 Landing Now Play This is a festival of experimental game design running at Somerset House in London every Spring, showcasing interactive and playful work as part of the London Games Festival.

The last ten years have been mainly taken up with producing and curating exhibitions. Most prominently nowplaythis.net and playingpoetry.com

Tamagotchi Seance by Cassette Witch A seance for your old tamagotchi, wherever it is.

I have a longstanding interest in Tamagotchis as a game that deals with death in an exceptional way. This started a few years back with my game Tamagotchi Seance cassette-witch.itch.io/tamagotchise... and continued with a run of talks about Tamagotchis and Death. nickmurray.horse/tamagotchi-a...

Cut and Stick Neighbourhoods: Game Design Lab by Now Play This A series of neighbourhoods created by participants during the NPT Game Design Labs

Each version of the physical game gets recorded as a digital landscape after for new players to explore. Another iteration of it can be played here nowplaythis.itch.io/casn2

It All Flows Somewhere by Cassette Witch Explore a landscape and the folk histories within, created at NPL Poetry Day

I've been developing a map-making game/workshop called It All Flow Somewhere, which most recently played at the Southbank Centre for the National Poetry Library's Poetry Day. It invites players to consider what a community looks like and how history forms. cassette-witch.itch.io/guidetotheri...

Okay, here goes. I want to be ever so slightly more online, but intentionally so. I dropped all the socials for a while, but figure it's a good moment to try and be slightly present here. I'm Nick and at the moment I'm making games and writing poetry. A few things I've done recently:

and Now Play This, Arcadia, Overkill, Milan Machinima. A whole continent of excellent game festivals is waiting for you!