Seth Giddings

Hand holding a copy of "Toy Theory: Technology and Imagination in Play" on a white background. The cover is white and includes three images of children's toys: a model horse, a model airplane, and a model racecar.

"An original perspective and [a] fascinating read, consistently rooted in the dynamics of play, but also informing a range of media studies through the characteristic ‘mode of relationality’ of toys."

@neural-mag.bsky.social reviews "Toy Theory":
neural.it/2025/06/seth... @sethgiddings.bsky.social‬

Nice to meet you (sort of) Holly! Good luck with the book, I look forward to reading it

Friday lecture - Jesper Juul talk on the C-64 computer Welcome to this Friday lecture by Dr Jesper Juul on the classic C-64 computer, drawing on his new book Too Much Fun: The Five Lives of the Commodore 64 Computer.

Speaking about my C64 book in Aarhus this Friday March 21st!
cc.au.dk/aktuelt/arra...

Shout out to our friends at @mitpress.bsky.social who donated all these incredible game history books for our fundraiser! We'll be raffling them off every hour during our Feb 22 charity stream!

(love seeing @jzagal.bsky.social @jesperjuul.bsky.social @chaimg.bsky.social and other friends in here!)

The Routledge Companion to American Film History Presenting new and diverse scholarship, this collection brings together original essays that explore American film history from a fresh perspective. Comprising an introduction and 34 chapters written ...

Routledge Companion to American Film History - out today! Incredible to be in such great company. I wrote chapter 1, about cinema and toys.

AI systems could be ‘caused to suffer’ if consciousness achieved, says research Experts and thinkers signed open letter expressing concern over irresponsible development of technology

Whose suffering should we care about? Palestinians, trans kids, Afghan women and girls... or a putative future version of glorified predictive text? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Why are politicians talking about the destruction of Gaza as if it’s some random disaster?

They know the truth: they spent 15 months rejecting our calls to stop arming Israel.

Gaza must be rebuilt for Palestinians — and those responsible for its demolition must face justice.

Ofcom, stop GB News broadcasting hate *CW: Homophobia, hate speech GB News is no stranger to spouting hatred and toxic lies. They take pride in it, and pretend the rules don’t matter. But they do. And they must be enforced. On 22 January,...

More than 43,000 have now used our tool to complain to Ofcom about this loathsome GB News clip. We are approaching the 58,000 that would make it the most complained about ever segment of TV news. action.goodlawproject.org/ofcom-stop-g...

I've built a machine that can be Confidently Wrong. It can also make pictures that all look a bit the same, as well as make a video of you kissing any celebrity or person you know. In payment, I'd like to boil the world's oceans dry, & steal all literature. For some reason, my head is not on a spike

This Friday Feb 7 at 2PM EST, I will speak about my C64 book "Too Much Fun" on the @romchip.bsky.social Twitch channel. See you there.
tickettailor.com/events/romch... #c64

Here’s a shocking finding, gen Z: democracy isn’t perfect | David Mitchell According to a new poll, half of our 13- to 27-year-olds can’t see the point of all those time-wasting elections and parliaments. Why do they not know that authoritarianism is worse?

This Govt has raised tuition fees, won't reopen Erasmus, is killing their trans friends, isn't serious about climate change, won't tax the rich, and has done nothing on housing. And it's elected and pretends to be left. And you ask why Gen Zs don't like democracy? www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Attacking trans people isn't a distraction that fascists are using to hide what they are up to, transphobia is a core part of their ideology and enforcing patriarchy is an important step in creating the world they want

Goodbye to the lost children of Gaza. You were loved, you are remembered, you did not deserve it | Nesrine Malik There is no way to rationalise the horrors inflicted on Gaza’s innocent children. Now is the time to mourn them fully For the past week, Palestinians in Gaza have been returning to their homes, now mostly reduced to rubble – and to their dead who still…

Goodbye to the lost children of Gaza. You were loved, you are remembered, you did not deserve it | Nesrine Malik

My new Playdate game is out now as part of Global Game Jam 2025 - check it out on itch.io - adamprocter.itch.io/capture-c… 👾

What happens in Gaza will not stay in Gaza. The brutality, cloaked in the complicity of the 'civilised' West, cannot be contained. Like a deadly virus, it will spread unless humanity acts to cure it. But humanity is ready to move on. Resistance must also fight against amnesia!

Can Labour cut welfare spending and still be seen as a party of social justice? Labour’s embrace of plans to reduce the incapacity benefit bill by £3bn has the potential to trigger a backbench revolt

As the old adage puts it: if a headline asks a question, the answer is most likely ‘no’
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

I watched the programmes first, and have started reading the books - they're remarkably close in atmosphere and characterisation.

Monstrosity in Games and Play Monsters fascinate us. From ancient folklore to contemporary digital games, they are at the core of the stories we tell. They reflect our fears, deepest desires, and the monstrosity hidden within ours...

The book rooted in the 2021 Spring Seminar of Game Studies, "Monstrosity" is now out - expertly edited by Sarah Stang, Mikko Meriläinen, Joleen Blom, and Lobna Sameer Hassan. - "Monstrosity in Games and Play" (Amsterdam University Press).

www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...

Looking forward to speaking about Good Pictures in the History dept at #BristolUni tomorrow — join us! www.bristol.ac.uk/arts-law-soc...

Image of First page of article called Keeping out the Fog: Atmospheric Contamination and Control in the Industrial Darkroom

I wrote an article for this special issue on Darkrooms last year and it’s available open access www.eshph.org/journal/phot...

Censoring humor, carnival and play is a telltale sign of a fascist regime, as the history of my home country taught us.

Environmentally friendly ‘e-textiles’ technology Environmentally friendly ‘e-textiles’ technology

Researchers at Winchester School of Art and UWE Bristol have designed and tested a sustainable, biodegradable electronic textile.

e-textiles embed electrical components in fabric and can be worn to monitor a person's vital signs.

Find out more 👉 brnw.ch/UoS_News_env...

Journal of Games Criticism has a new issue out! Special issue on videogames and the post-Anthropocene, posthumanism and the post-apocalypse, edited by @larrymay.me and @poppywilde.bsky.social. Plenty of exciting new papers. Check out Larry's thread below.

List of article titles and authors on the journal website: Global Localities of Game Production Chris J. Young, Emilie Reed and Brendan Keogh Game Design for a Fiverr: Precarity, Regionality, and Platform-Mediation in the Gig Economy Scott DeJong and Michael Iantorno Globalization and Heterogeneity: Locating the Malaysian Indie Game Production Culture K.T. Wong Situating Platform-Based Precarity: Platformization and the (Dis)embedding of the Dutch Game Industry (1980-2022) Anne Heslinga Independent Game Production in Southern China Hugh Davies

Incredibly excited to announce this special issue of Media Industries Journal that I co-edited with Chris Young and @dayofthemutants.bsky.social on the topic of LOCAL DIGITAL GAME PRODUCTION.

journals.publishing.umich.edu/mij/issue/31...

Louise Siddons’s Good Pictures Are a Strong Weapon | The Brooklyn Rail This book recontextualizes Laura Gilpin’s photographs of the Navajo (Diné) people. Weaving together new archival findings, skillful visual analyses, and cultural theory from queer and Indigenous studi...

"An excellent example of an intersectional art-historical monograph, impressive for its incredibly productive dialogue between queer and Indigenous studies." Great review of @lsiddons.bsky.social 's GOOD PICTURES ARE A STRONG WEAPON at The Brooklyn Rail: brooklynrail.org/2024/12/art_...

Front cover of PJ Harvey 7 inch single showing drawing of bird in black on off-white background

Back cover of PJ Harvey 7inch single showing Friendly Records and War Child logo

I designed the (front) cover for this PJ Harvey live limited edition 7” record for Friendly Records - all proceeds to War Child. A/ I inside the Old Year Dying B/ The Glorious Land. Drawing by Polly Jean Harvey, mixed by John Parish and Oliver Baldwin.

Fun and Children’s games - francisalys.com/category/… - Francis Alÿs

Great title!

I can now announce my book A Dirty History of Photography: Chemistry, Fog and Empire is going to be published by University of Chicago Press in Fall 2025.