James Bridle
@jamesbridle.bsky.social
Artist, author of New Dark Age (2018) and Ways of Being (2022). Free Palestine, Protect Trans Kids, for ever and ever. https://mastodon.social/@jamesbridle / jamesbridle.com
Pinned
James Bridle
@jamesbridle.bsky.social
· Sep 12
Please stop being surprised and make a plan.
No cheating, reskeet with the most recent photo of your pet.
January 1, 2026 at 6:54 PM
No cheating, reskeet with the most recent photo of your pet.
Reposted by James Bridle
... finishing the year with this, (and still bothering my wife with whole pages I excitedly want to share).
A non-fiction book that lights the world brighter and more beautiful with great intelligence and care.
#amreading #booksky 📚💙 @jamesbridle.bsky.social @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social
A non-fiction book that lights the world brighter and more beautiful with great intelligence and care.
#amreading #booksky 📚💙 @jamesbridle.bsky.social @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social
James Bridle @jamesbridle.bsky.social WAY OF BEING is 💥incredible💥, been on my shelf for over a year but if I'd had any idea it would be this fascinating... Now can't stop reading parts out to my wife, to friends, colleagues...
#booksky 📚💙 #amreading #nowreading @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social
#booksky 📚💙 #amreading #nowreading @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social
December 31, 2025 at 10:57 AM
... finishing the year with this, (and still bothering my wife with whole pages I excitedly want to share).
A non-fiction book that lights the world brighter and more beautiful with great intelligence and care.
#amreading #booksky 📚💙 @jamesbridle.bsky.social @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social
A non-fiction book that lights the world brighter and more beautiful with great intelligence and care.
#amreading #booksky 📚💙 @jamesbridle.bsky.social @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social
As midnight approaches in EEST, and I drink the whisky, and eat the carrot, your reminder that the Richard D James Album is 100% a Christmas Album.
December 24, 2025 at 9:52 PM
As midnight approaches in EEST, and I drink the whisky, and eat the carrot, your reminder that the Richard D James Album is 100% a Christmas Album.
Amidst everything, a lone flamingo visited us today, on the shore just below our house. So we sat with them awhile, because they are the most magical of birds.
December 23, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Amidst everything, a lone flamingo visited us today, on the shore just below our house. So we sat with them awhile, because they are the most magical of birds.
Reposted by James Bridle
Out today: a major new essay by former Artforum editor David Velasco, fired over a pro-Palestine open letter, surveying 2 years of turmoil in the art world, which was "practically designed to celebrate and aestheticize every rebellion" -- except Gaza. www.equator.org/articles/how...
How Gaza Broke the Art World • EQUATOR
The former editor of Artforum, fired in the wake of 7 October, reckons with two years of division, fear and silence
www.equator.org
December 22, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Out today: a major new essay by former Artforum editor David Velasco, fired over a pro-Palestine open letter, surveying 2 years of turmoil in the art world, which was "practically designed to celebrate and aestheticize every rebellion" -- except Gaza. www.equator.org/articles/how...
"This ain't no technological breakdown / Oh no, this is the road to Hell... This ain't no upwardly mobile freeway / Oh no, this is the road to Hell." Rip Chris Rea
December 22, 2025 at 5:29 PM
"This ain't no technological breakdown / Oh no, this is the road to Hell... This ain't no upwardly mobile freeway / Oh no, this is the road to Hell." Rip Chris Rea
Reposted by James Bridle
Qesser Zuhrah: the student who could soon become the UK’s youngest hunger striker to die bit.ly/4j51Z34
Qesser Zuhrah: the student who could soon become the UK’s...
Now into her 50th day of refusing to eat, the jailed Palestine Action protester Qesser Zuhrah is in mortal danger
bit.ly
December 22, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Qesser Zuhrah: the student who could soon become the UK’s youngest hunger striker to die bit.ly/4j51Z34
Harvested mistletoe in the forest today. The Nameless Day approaches. Remember that everything is possible.
December 19, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Harvested mistletoe in the forest today. The Nameless Day approaches. Remember that everything is possible.
Writing all day in a near-empty village in the Peloponnese, the only soundtrack the screams of Greek Air Force jets doing low altitude circuits of the mountains...
December 18, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Writing all day in a near-empty village in the Peloponnese, the only soundtrack the screams of Greek Air Force jets doing low altitude circuits of the mountains...
The split between public perception, interested opinion, and corporate/government policy - I count three camps - on everything, from tech (particularly AI), to human rights, to international policy and conflict, feels so overwhelming it feels like it needs new words, new structuring ideas.
December 17, 2025 at 7:02 PM
The split between public perception, interested opinion, and corporate/government policy - I count three camps - on everything, from tech (particularly AI), to human rights, to international policy and conflict, feels so overwhelming it feels like it needs new words, new structuring ideas.
Cracked my phone screen because it fell off the woodpile while I was stacking logs / built a solar oven and made baked beans for lunch with the sun
December 17, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Cracked my phone screen because it fell off the woodpile while I was stacking logs / built a solar oven and made baked beans for lunch with the sun
Reposted by James Bridle
Slovakia rewrote its Constitution to erase rights for LGBT+ people and reject international human rights protections. The EU has opened an infringement procedure – but stronger action depends on us. Add your name now. a.allout.org/s/v0qyx/
Defend equality and LGBTI+ lives in Slovakia
Slovakia rewrote its Constitution to erase rights for LGBT+ people and reject international human rights protections. The EU has opened an infringement procedure – but stronger action depends on us. A...
a.allout.org
December 16, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Slovakia rewrote its Constitution to erase rights for LGBT+ people and reject international human rights protections. The EU has opened an infringement procedure – but stronger action depends on us. Add your name now. a.allout.org/s/v0qyx/
Reposted by James Bridle
ChatGPT, a project of digital extractivism, also manifests the legacy of colonialism:
"The machine, in its quest to sound authoritative, ended up sounding like a [Kenyan] graduate who scored an 'A' in English Composition. It accidentally replicated the linguistic ghost of the British Empire."
"The machine, in its quest to sound authoritative, ended up sounding like a [Kenyan] graduate who scored an 'A' in English Composition. It accidentally replicated the linguistic ghost of the British Empire."
I try to avoid linking to Substacks but this essay is FASCINATING
I'm Kenyan. I Don't Write Like ChatGPT. ChatGPT Writes Like Me.
I'm calm. I'm calm. I promise.
marcusolang.substack.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:08 PM
ChatGPT, a project of digital extractivism, also manifests the legacy of colonialism:
"The machine, in its quest to sound authoritative, ended up sounding like a [Kenyan] graduate who scored an 'A' in English Composition. It accidentally replicated the linguistic ghost of the British Empire."
"The machine, in its quest to sound authoritative, ended up sounding like a [Kenyan] graduate who scored an 'A' in English Composition. It accidentally replicated the linguistic ghost of the British Empire."
"Top to toe in tailbacks / Oh, I got red lights all around / But soon there'll be a freeway, yeah / Get my feet on holy ground" - Chris Rea / / "All ground is holy ground. Every bush is a burning bush." - John Moriarty
December 13, 2025 at 3:09 PM
"Top to toe in tailbacks / Oh, I got red lights all around / But soon there'll be a freeway, yeah / Get my feet on holy ground" - Chris Rea / / "All ground is holy ground. Every bush is a burning bush." - John Moriarty
First public meeting for our energy community tonight: aphaia-energy.com Sometimes the revolution starts with a dozen people in a chilly studio trying to understand net metering, right?
December 12, 2025 at 7:42 PM
First public meeting for our energy community tonight: aphaia-energy.com Sometimes the revolution starts with a dozen people in a chilly studio trying to understand net metering, right?
I feel like so much good writing is going on behind substack/etc paywalls, which would once have been on free and open blogs. I know how we got here, but I don't get how its sustainable. I simply can't afford to pay a hundred people a monthly subscription.
December 12, 2025 at 9:26 AM
I feel like so much good writing is going on behind substack/etc paywalls, which would once have been on free and open blogs. I know how we got here, but I don't get how its sustainable. I simply can't afford to pay a hundred people a monthly subscription.
"There is hope - but not for us." Ewen Mcaskill on the so-called West Bank, twenty years after this last visit www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
I used to report from the West Bank. Twenty years after my last visit, I was shocked by how much worse it is today
The long read: Among the many people I met, there was a pervasive feeling of hopelessness and a sense that resistance is slowly becoming a memory
www.theguardian.com
December 11, 2025 at 6:12 AM
"There is hope - but not for us." Ewen Mcaskill on the so-called West Bank, twenty years after this last visit www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Yesterday the Israel occupying forces attacked Birzeit University (near Ramallah), as well as al-Quds University (near Jerusalem), as well as mounting numerous raids across the West Bank www.newarab.com/news/israeli...
Israeli forces step up West Bank raids, target universities
Israeli forces raided Birzeit University as settlers attacked Palestinian homes in Masafer Yatta and abducted a farmer near Bethlehem.
www.newarab.com
December 10, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Yesterday the Israel occupying forces attacked Birzeit University (near Ramallah), as well as al-Quds University (near Jerusalem), as well as mounting numerous raids across the West Bank www.newarab.com/news/israeli...
My morning alarm tune these days is Pharaoh Sanders' Harvest. I was worried about ruining it, but it's the one piece of music that is never painful, always insistently alive and full of joy. And then I make the mistake of looking at the internet. I need a morning info equivalent of Harvest.
December 10, 2025 at 6:39 AM
My morning alarm tune these days is Pharaoh Sanders' Harvest. I was worried about ruining it, but it's the one piece of music that is never painful, always insistently alive and full of joy. And then I make the mistake of looking at the internet. I need a morning info equivalent of Harvest.
Still haunted by last night's dream image: on my mother's kitchen table, a copy of The Times printed on pink, glistening slices of processed ham, a foot high and broadsheet wide, lying in a slick plastic tray. Whatever can it mean?
December 6, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Still haunted by last night's dream image: on my mother's kitchen table, a copy of The Times printed on pink, glistening slices of processed ham, a foot high and broadsheet wide, lying in a slick plastic tray. Whatever can it mean?
Publishing/book friends: what's the best way to get a clean, editable text out of a physical book, non-destructively, these days? Are there scanning/OCR/typing services? Are there any in the UK? Thanks.
December 4, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Publishing/book friends: what's the best way to get a clean, editable text out of a physical book, non-destructively, these days? Are there scanning/OCR/typing services? Are there any in the UK? Thanks.
As an institution you don't have to just be sad about stuff. You can also refuse to comply, go to court, fight, or shut yourself down.
December 3, 2025 at 5:27 PM
As an institution you don't have to just be sad about stuff. You can also refuse to comply, go to court, fight, or shut yourself down.
Today I am mostly thinking about May Savidge, who spent 23 years rebuilding her tudor house 100 miles away. gestingthorpehg.co.uk/blog/f/the-s...
December 3, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Today I am mostly thinking about May Savidge, who spent 23 years rebuilding her tudor house 100 miles away. gestingthorpehg.co.uk/blog/f/the-s...
I'm really enjoying all the Tom Stoppard bits, but also this. It's really hard to see how otherwise apparently perceptive and honorable people can be on the wrong side of this. And it matters so fucking much.
December 2, 2025 at 11:28 AM
I'm really enjoying all the Tom Stoppard bits, but also this. It's really hard to see how otherwise apparently perceptive and honorable people can be on the wrong side of this. And it matters so fucking much.
Reposted by James Bridle
December 2, 2025 at 8:48 AM