Aaron McCarthy
@aaronmccarthy.bsky.social
Artist
Interdisciplinary PhD: Material Transitions through Time @ RGU
Cargo Bike enthusiast
NE Scotland
https://aaron-mccarthy.com/
Interdisciplinary PhD: Material Transitions through Time @ RGU
Cargo Bike enthusiast
NE Scotland
https://aaron-mccarthy.com/
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
Every private vehicle on the roads is a policy failure. A car means that there wasn't a bus, tram or cyclepath that could get a person where they were going, and that's a problem that could be fixed if the political will existed.
"my least woke opinion is---"
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 14, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Every private vehicle on the roads is a policy failure. A car means that there wasn't a bus, tram or cyclepath that could get a person where they were going, and that's a problem that could be fixed if the political will existed.
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
Glow Ride is a family-friendly mass cycle on Friday 31 October, starting 4:30pm at Braw Tea Café and finishing Dundee Cycle Hub.
Come as you are or go full-on spooky: we’ll have prizes for best costume and best illuminated bike, tunes and a bike party! #OurRideOurRights #GlowRide
All are welcome
Come as you are or go full-on spooky: we’ll have prizes for best costume and best illuminated bike, tunes and a bike party! #OurRideOurRights #GlowRide
All are welcome
October 8, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Glow Ride is a family-friendly mass cycle on Friday 31 October, starting 4:30pm at Braw Tea Café and finishing Dundee Cycle Hub.
Come as you are or go full-on spooky: we’ll have prizes for best costume and best illuminated bike, tunes and a bike party! #OurRideOurRights #GlowRide
All are welcome
Come as you are or go full-on spooky: we’ll have prizes for best costume and best illuminated bike, tunes and a bike party! #OurRideOurRights #GlowRide
All are welcome
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
Aerial archaeology began not in neutral curiosity but in the violence of colonial Syria.
Benjamin Thomas White (@btwhite.bsky.social) traces its entanglement with empire.
Benjamin Thomas White (@btwhite.bsky.social) traces its entanglement with empire.
The Bomber's View of the Past
Discover the influence of Antoine Poidebard on aerial archaeology and his complex role in French colonial history.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
September 11, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Aerial archaeology began not in neutral curiosity but in the violence of colonial Syria.
Benjamin Thomas White (@btwhite.bsky.social) traces its entanglement with empire.
Benjamin Thomas White (@btwhite.bsky.social) traces its entanglement with empire.
Reposted by 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
June 22, 2025 at 8:02 AM
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
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
June 19, 2025 at 1:35 PM
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
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
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
The independent UN investigative body released the findings last week
buff.ly/voMGX1x
June 18, 2025 at 1:01 PM
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
The independent UN investigative body released the findings last week
buff.ly/voMGX1x
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
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).
![Text generated by an LM is not grounded in communicative intent, any model of the world, or any model of the reader’s state of mind. It can’t have been, because the training data never included sharing thoughts with a listener, nor does the machine have the ability to do that. This can seem counter-intuitive given the increasingly fluent qualities of automatically generated text, but we have to account for the fact that our perception of natural language text, regardless of how it was generated, is mediated by our own linguistic competence and our predisposition to interpret communicative acts as conveying coherent meaning and intent, whether or not they do [89, 140].”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:uj2g526vwfe3qnpuskjexeyp/bafkreiappchidtcrrumnegykz4uq6chvznuu6fg4pbutw5y7yjaab2iczu@jpeg)
June 17, 2025 at 3:33 PM
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).
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
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!✋ 🎨🖌️🏺
June 17, 2025 at 11:44 AM
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!✋ 🎨🖌️🏺
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
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...
doi.org/10.1007/s108...
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...
doi.org
June 12, 2025 at 11:15 AM
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...
doi.org/10.1007/s108...
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
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...
Or we can remember that cities are places where walking, cycling and public transport should be prioritised.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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
www.theguardian.com
June 12, 2025 at 10:24 AM
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...
Or we can remember that cities are places where walking, cycling and public transport should be prioritised.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
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
Today, the Government launches plans to fast-track driverless vehicle trials in the UK.
One of the companies involved says London presents a big challenge:
“It has seven times more jaywalkers than San Francisco.”
Except… it doesn't. 🧵
One of the companies involved says London presents a big challenge:
“It has seven times more jaywalkers than San Francisco.”
Except… it doesn't. 🧵
June 10, 2025 at 11:50 AM
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
@dundeecitycouncil.bsky.social @anguscouncil.bsky.social @sustransscot.bsky.social
June 7, 2025 at 1:50 PM
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
@dundeecitycouncil.bsky.social @anguscouncil.bsky.social @sustransscot.bsky.social
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
This is from CAPITAL IS DEAD, five years ago
www.versobooks.com/products/887...
www.versobooks.com/products/887...
April 3, 2025 at 12:26 AM
This is from CAPITAL IS DEAD, five years ago
www.versobooks.com/products/887...
www.versobooks.com/products/887...
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
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...
The Vectoralist Class - Journal #65
…
www.e-flux.com
March 31, 2025 at 4:02 PM
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...
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
Next @cyclingscotland.bsky.social to be held in Sunny #Dundee this September!
Save the date for the 2025 #CyclingScotlandConf!
⏰ 10 Sep 2025
📍 Dundee
🚴♀️ Join us and organisations from across Scotland supporting more people to cycle for everyday journeys
Sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know when registration opens: orlo.uk/lfpW7
⏰ 10 Sep 2025
📍 Dundee
🚴♀️ Join us and organisations from across Scotland supporting more people to cycle for everyday journeys
Sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know when registration opens: orlo.uk/lfpW7
March 31, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Next @cyclingscotland.bsky.social to be held in Sunny #Dundee this September!
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
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...
tps.org.uk
March 30, 2025 at 10:22 AM
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...
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
“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.”
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.
hyperallergic.com
March 17, 2025 at 12:24 PM
“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.”
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
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.
Until a few years ago I thought London’s roads were too dangerous to cycle on, now about 80% of my trips around the city are via bicycle 🚴♀️
Making cities more cycling-friendly is a win-win
Making cities more cycling-friendly is a win-win
“Copenhagen reported that 62% of its residents are now commuting to work or school by bike — an increase from 52% in 2015 & 36% in 2012, when the City Council launched a 14-year-plan to improve the quality, safety & comfort of cycling.”
#Copenhagen chose. They keep choosing even better every year.
#Copenhagen chose. They keep choosing even better every year.
March 17, 2025 at 10:33 AM
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.
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
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.
🧵👇
Its goal? To bridge divides, bring people together and counter polarisation.
🧵👇
March 15, 2025 at 7:48 PM
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.
🧵👇
Its goal? To bridge divides, bring people together and counter polarisation.
🧵👇
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
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...
#postgraduate #ThinkUHI #Art&Archaeology
archaeologyorkney.com/2025/03/13/a...
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.
archaeologyorkney.com
March 13, 2025 at 11:40 AM
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...
#postgraduate #ThinkUHI #Art&Archaeology
archaeologyorkney.com/2025/03/13/a...
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
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-...
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.
www.thecourier.co.uk
March 12, 2025 at 9:38 AM
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-...
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
Two Key Safe Cycling Routes Show Massive Increase in Use.
momentummag.com/two-key-safe...
momentummag.com/two-key-safe...
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
momentummag.com
March 11, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Two Key Safe Cycling Routes Show Massive Increase in Use.
momentummag.com/two-key-safe...
momentummag.com/two-key-safe...
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
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...
March 11, 2025 at 11:50 AM
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...
Reposted by Aaron McCarthy
My unpopular opinion is that driving a car destroys your personality.
March 9, 2025 at 7:47 PM
My unpopular opinion is that driving a car destroys your personality.