cameron tonkinwise
@camerontw.bsky.social
transition design, service design, design philosophy, finitude
- most of my occasional thinking these days takes advantage of the slightly longer form afforded by the truly awful linkedin, sorry: https://au.linkedin.com/in/cameron-tonkinwise-80a5987
- most of my occasional thinking these days takes advantage of the slightly longer form afforded by the truly awful linkedin, sorry: https://au.linkedin.com/in/cameron-tonkinwise-80a5987
A designer posted this and all I can see is the pile of short-life things people put on the kerb on household bulky waste clean-up day. A career in landfill.
November 19, 2025 at 6:42 AM
A designer posted this and all I can see is the pile of short-life things people put on the kerb on household bulky waste clean-up day. A career in landfill.
Use AI to make traffic elsewhere - or, you know, you could take active/public transport
November 5, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Use AI to make traffic elsewhere - or, you know, you could take active/public transport
Change Radio to GenAI in this Brecht polemic:
www.nyklewicz.com/brecht.html
www.nyklewicz.com/brecht.html
October 19, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Change Radio to GenAI in this Brecht polemic:
www.nyklewicz.com/brecht.html
www.nyklewicz.com/brecht.html
The Design Team at @microsoft.com: do we care? we do not - let the shitshow continue
September 27, 2025 at 1:44 AM
The Design Team at @microsoft.com: do we care? we do not - let the shitshow continue
On the other hand, cake-mix-based recipes... Gunther Anders complained about that aspect of the US, likening it to their version of history back in the 1930s
September 14, 2025 at 11:46 PM
On the other hand, cake-mix-based recipes... Gunther Anders complained about that aspect of the US, likening it to their version of history back in the 1930s
I don't want to make light of authoritarian racists, but I can't look at Reform UK/anti-immigration rallies without seeing Tim Brooke-Taylor. Given the YouGov poll indicating its mostly young boomers & old Gen Xers, I'd have thought Goodies-based embarrassment would be a deterrent.
September 14, 2025 at 10:09 AM
I don't want to make light of authoritarian racists, but I can't look at Reform UK/anti-immigration rallies without seeing Tim Brooke-Taylor. Given the YouGov poll indicating its mostly young boomers & old Gen Xers, I'd have thought Goodies-based embarrassment would be a deterrent.
It's of course a very incoherent speech. Earlier on it celebrates 'finding yourself a partner...'
September 11, 2025 at 1:48 AM
It's of course a very incoherent speech. Earlier on it celebrates 'finding yourself a partner...'
so, Microsoft, you keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means - so give me a goddam way of making sure that your version of design never, ever again interrupts me - nothing is going to happen between now and when I restart your shitty program
September 10, 2025 at 1:23 AM
so, Microsoft, you keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means - so give me a goddam way of making sure that your version of design never, ever again interrupts me - nothing is going to happen between now and when I restart your shitty program
TIL: if you 'win' a Good Design Australia award, you get a sizable bill (on top of the entry charge) - do design awards in other countries run this way? good-design.org/australian-g...
July 24, 2025 at 10:45 AM
TIL: if you 'win' a Good Design Australia award, you get a sizable bill (on top of the entry charge) - do design awards in other countries run this way? good-design.org/australian-g...
This is why you don't let the all-hail-market-Abundance people allow job-readiness to run education
May 20, 2025 at 4:10 AM
This is why you don't let the all-hail-market-Abundance people allow job-readiness to run education
I find these and-the-kitchen-sink diagrams exasperating, but I do agree that there is quite a lot of artless and unstrategic Future Studies according to this diagram, but to my mind that is because it is too technological, which this diagram denies
May 4, 2025 at 12:16 PM
I find these and-the-kitchen-sink diagrams exasperating, but I do agree that there is quite a lot of artless and unstrategic Future Studies according to this diagram, but to my mind that is because it is too technological, which this diagram denies
The fatuous theme-ing of Cumulus Conference has always irked me: I like that this one makes clear that design has till now just been unethical followship - but the coloniality of 'frontier' FFS
May 1, 2025 at 10:10 AM
The fatuous theme-ing of Cumulus Conference has always irked me: I like that this one makes clear that design has till now just been unethical followship - but the coloniality of 'frontier' FFS
Whilst the content makes me go 'happy happy joy joy,' it is unnerving just how many mixed metaphors are used to convey this content...
April 27, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Whilst the content makes me go 'happy happy joy joy,' it is unnerving just how many mixed metaphors are used to convey this content...
Interestingly, this post, despite the AI generated illustration, is not about the (wasteful land-use) crisis that results from persisting with individuated mobility technologies - it's about charging cars at work. It pays to use person-based visual communication design.
April 27, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Interestingly, this post, despite the AI generated illustration, is not about the (wasteful land-use) crisis that results from persisting with individuated mobility technologies - it's about charging cars at work. It pays to use person-based visual communication design.
Embarrassed by how surprised I am learning just now how very undemocratic the US presidential system is. It is ridiculous to most far-from-perfect other democracies to imagine that any individual would be able simply to declare that what he thinks is unnecessary should therefore be disappeared.
March 17, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Embarrassed by how surprised I am learning just now how very undemocratic the US presidential system is. It is ridiculous to most far-from-perfect other democracies to imagine that any individual would be able simply to declare that what he thinks is unnecessary should therefore be disappeared.
@melhogan.bsky.social Mel, I feel like you might know of things to help with this question? www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
March 11, 2025 at 9:24 AM
@melhogan.bsky.social Mel, I feel like you might know of things to help with this question? www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
in relation to this 'Band Camp, all too Band Camp' album review, I do wish my taste regime politics had resistant agency and not just escapist non-agency
February 28, 2025 at 1:12 AM
in relation to this 'Band Camp, all too Band Camp' album review, I do wish my taste regime politics had resistant agency and not just escapist non-agency
A useful tip: Whenever I read some stupid take by a Venture Capital type (e.g., Mark Cuban), without even wanting to I remember Jullian McCullough on This American Life doing a bit about burst appendix saying: "My dad owns like [pfff!]" - see www.thisamericanlife.org/439/a-house-... at around 39mins
February 18, 2025 at 2:31 AM
A useful tip: Whenever I read some stupid take by a Venture Capital type (e.g., Mark Cuban), without even wanting to I remember Jullian McCullough on This American Life doing a bit about burst appendix saying: "My dad owns like [pfff!]" - see www.thisamericanlife.org/439/a-house-... at around 39mins
my university's library saying 'it is what it is' when the supplier of their catalogue system installs a very low quality AI 'research assistant' as the most salient feature on the search page - the first thing students see when going to a library search page to do actual research
![screenshot of bluesky post that reads: "[in the faculty meeting] listen, this new technology is here to stay, and it's useless to fight against it. if we want to prepare our students for the jobs of the future, we *must* teach them how to (responsibly and ethically) purchase and consume up to five Taco BellⓇ Naked Chicken Chalupas™ each day"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:v3zyku5p2m2scmoi42vmrykd/bafkreigi7v7tpbvwsxrampyzjomrkndqasslynlzfh7u4lbm4qtbnujdg4@jpeg)
February 13, 2025 at 9:54 PM
my university's library saying 'it is what it is' when the supplier of their catalogue system installs a very low quality AI 'research assistant' as the most salient feature on the search page - the first thing students see when going to a library search page to do actual research
Musk's Eichmanns www.wired.com/story/elon-m...
February 1, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Musk's Eichmanns www.wired.com/story/elon-m...
some pertinent Kurt Vonnegut (_Bluebeard_)
January 27, 2025 at 5:33 AM
some pertinent Kurt Vonnegut (_Bluebeard_)
solidarity www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
January 27, 2025 at 3:23 AM
solidarity www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...