Daniel Binns
@clockworkpenguin1.bsky.social
creative tech maker + thinker, genAI, screencultures, altcomputing. senior lecturer, media @ RMIT; assoc investigator @ADM+S
New post on generative systems and how working with rituals, recipes, and protocols has helped me feel into the ethics and values that influence and motivate this work.
#genAI #ethics #creativity #authenticity #AILiteracy #technics #chance
clockworkpenguin.substack.com/p/rolling-wi...
#genAI #ethics #creativity #authenticity #AILiteracy #technics #chance
clockworkpenguin.substack.com/p/rolling-wi...
Rolling with it
On generativity, ritual-technics, and the genAI ick
clockworkpenguin.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:02 AM
New post on generative systems and how working with rituals, recipes, and protocols has helped me feel into the ethics and values that influence and motivate this work.
#genAI #ethics #creativity #authenticity #AILiteracy #technics #chance
clockworkpenguin.substack.com/p/rolling-wi...
#genAI #ethics #creativity #authenticity #AILiteracy #technics #chance
clockworkpenguin.substack.com/p/rolling-wi...
📝 New blog post: How I Read AI Images — in which I share a method for interpreting AI images based in the material mechanisms of their generation. Think Kittler, Parikka, and Cubitt. Full article coming soon, I hope! #genAI #AIimages #AIart #research
clockworkpenguin.substack.com/p/how-i-read...
clockworkpenguin.substack.com/p/how-i-read...
How I Read AI Images
A media-materialist method for interpreting AI media
clockworkpenguin.substack.com
September 30, 2025 at 1:12 AM
📝 New blog post: How I Read AI Images — in which I share a method for interpreting AI images based in the material mechanisms of their generation. Think Kittler, Parikka, and Cubitt. Full article coming soon, I hope! #genAI #AIimages #AIart #research
clockworkpenguin.substack.com/p/how-i-read...
clockworkpenguin.substack.com/p/how-i-read...
I am here for seagulls who sound like humans doing terrible impressions of seagulls
September 22, 2025 at 2:53 AM
I am here for seagulls who sound like humans doing terrible impressions of seagulls
New Slop Stack post — A Little Slop Music: The AI experiment that turned my ick to 11 (now you can try it too!)
Thoughts on creativity, authenticity, contested histories, paratexts, storytelling, and all that jazz. No, really; there's jazz in there too.
open.substack.com/pub/clockwor...
Thoughts on creativity, authenticity, contested histories, paratexts, storytelling, and all that jazz. No, really; there's jazz in there too.
open.substack.com/pub/clockwor...
A Little Slop Music
The AI experiment that turned my ick to 11 (now you can try it too!)
open.substack.com
September 19, 2025 at 2:07 PM
New Slop Stack post — A Little Slop Music: The AI experiment that turned my ick to 11 (now you can try it too!)
Thoughts on creativity, authenticity, contested histories, paratexts, storytelling, and all that jazz. No, really; there's jazz in there too.
open.substack.com/pub/clockwor...
Thoughts on creativity, authenticity, contested histories, paratexts, storytelling, and all that jazz. No, really; there's jazz in there too.
open.substack.com/pub/clockwor...
I haven’t seen a Bad Guys. 1 or 2. But there’s a lil person in it with a tiny laptop. Who’s making tiny laptops for lil tech guys? Does Apple have a special LIL Division? Lilnovo?
September 14, 2025 at 9:47 PM
I haven’t seen a Bad Guys. 1 or 2. But there’s a lil person in it with a tiny laptop. Who’s making tiny laptops for lil tech guys? Does Apple have a special LIL Division? Lilnovo?
I was interviewed by Bogdana Rakova about my generative AI research—why I embrace glitch, mess + failure as tools for learning. From origami-code mashups to the Slopocene, we explore playful, critical ways of rethinking creativity + AI literacy. open.substack.com/pub/speculat...
Glitching Toward Understanding: Speculative Methods, Tiny Companions, and Life in the Slopocene
A Conversation with educator, filmmaker, and artist Daniel Binns
open.substack.com
August 28, 2025 at 7:47 AM
I was interviewed by Bogdana Rakova about my generative AI research—why I embrace glitch, mess + failure as tools for learning. From origami-code mashups to the Slopocene, we explore playful, critical ways of rethinking creativity + AI literacy. open.substack.com/pub/speculat...
Reposted by Daniel Binns
“Friction can happen not only when things break, it can also be intentional to prevent things from breaking. What if we could make the safe things easier (less friction) and the high-risk things harder (more friction)?”
Check out this new series by Bogdana Rakova! 👀
Check out this new series by Bogdana Rakova! 👀
April 29, 2025 at 3:29 PM
“Friction can happen not only when things break, it can also be intentional to prevent things from breaking. What if we could make the safe things easier (less friction) and the high-risk things harder (more friction)?”
Check out this new series by Bogdana Rakova! 👀
Check out this new series by Bogdana Rakova! 👀
A recent conference presentation worked to formalise some of my experimental work with genAI, and early film theory was the key to unlock some of those doors. I also draw on ancient philosophy, cybernetics, co-intelligence, and mixed-fidelity ritual practices. Enjoy! youtu.be/QDpaV1h0VQc?...
Caméra-Stylo to Prompt-Stylo: Co-Hallucination & Entangled Inscription with genAI (Dr. Daniel Binns)
YouTube video by The Clockwork Penguin
youtu.be
August 13, 2025 at 7:39 AM
A recent conference presentation worked to formalise some of my experimental work with genAI, and early film theory was the key to unlock some of those doors. I also draw on ancient philosophy, cybernetics, co-intelligence, and mixed-fidelity ritual practices. Enjoy! youtu.be/QDpaV1h0VQc?...
Does it have to be thinking OR genAI? Literature OR genAI? Other tech OR genAI? Ethics OR genAI? The planet OR genAI? Education OR genAI?
August 4, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Does it have to be thinking OR genAI? Literature OR genAI? Other tech OR genAI? Ethics OR genAI? The planet OR genAI? Education OR genAI?
Reposted by Daniel Binns
Brisbane in a couple of weeks: I’m speaking at the Digital Temporalities symposium at UQ, alongside visiting the @qutdmrc.bsky.social and the indomitable genAI Lab at QUT—this time with @clockworkpenguin1.bsky.social.
Let’s see what kind of thinking the city allows.
Let’s see what kind of thinking the city allows.
July 31, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Brisbane in a couple of weeks: I’m speaking at the Digital Temporalities symposium at UQ, alongside visiting the @qutdmrc.bsky.social and the indomitable genAI Lab at QUT—this time with @clockworkpenguin1.bsky.social.
Let’s see what kind of thinking the city allows.
Let’s see what kind of thinking the city allows.
After four years of work, our book Confronting the Climate Crisis is out now! It brings together activism, media, and ecoaesthetics to rethink how we engage with environmental collapse. Huge thanks to my co-editor Rebecca Najdowski and all our amazing contributors! link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Confronting the Climate Crisis
This collection examines how activism, media, and creative practices shape our understanding of the climate crisis.
link.springer.com
July 29, 2025 at 7:39 AM
After four years of work, our book Confronting the Climate Crisis is out now! It brings together activism, media, and ecoaesthetics to rethink how we engage with environmental collapse. Huge thanks to my co-editor Rebecca Najdowski and all our amazing contributors! link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
I wrote about one of my 'weird AI' experiments, 'spectral linguistics'. I prompt LLMs to 'remember' forgotten languages. They may hallucinate vocab, syntax, symbols! We learn a lot about how LLMs attune not just to language, but human sense- and meaning-making. clockworkpenguin.net/2025/07/28/s...
Spectral linguistics – The Clockwork Penguin
clockworkpenguin.net
July 28, 2025 at 4:53 AM
I wrote about one of my 'weird AI' experiments, 'spectral linguistics'. I prompt LLMs to 'remember' forgotten languages. They may hallucinate vocab, syntax, symbols! We learn a lot about how LLMs attune not just to language, but human sense- and meaning-making. clockworkpenguin.net/2025/07/28/s...
Yes. Yes yes yes yes yes. @ncotemunoz.bsky.social on the money again.
This is what most of those who can’t understand why I — a critical thinker and lover of language, artists’ rights, and creative expression — use AI.
And why and how it’s genuinely changed my life.
This is what most of those who can’t understand why I — a critical thinker and lover of language, artists’ rights, and creative expression — use AI.
And why and how it’s genuinely changed my life.
July 19, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Yes. Yes yes yes yes yes. @ncotemunoz.bsky.social on the money again.
This is what most of those who can’t understand why I — a critical thinker and lover of language, artists’ rights, and creative expression — use AI.
And why and how it’s genuinely changed my life.
This is what most of those who can’t understand why I — a critical thinker and lover of language, artists’ rights, and creative expression — use AI.
And why and how it’s genuinely changed my life.
I wrote a thing for @theconversation.com on embracing and making slop as a means of developing critical genAI literacy and having some fun along the way. Enter the Slopocene! theconversation.com/understandin...
Understanding the ‘Slopocene’: how the failures of AI can reveal its inner workings
What if instead of trying to detect and avoid AI glitches, we deliberately encouraged them instead?
theconversation.com
July 1, 2025 at 2:56 AM
I wrote a thing for @theconversation.com on embracing and making slop as a means of developing critical genAI literacy and having some fun along the way. Enter the Slopocene! theconversation.com/understandin...
post slop ergo propter slop
June 26, 2025 at 9:40 PM
post slop ergo propter slop
I and my AI co-pilot have finally cracked. Simultaneously.
June 16, 2025 at 9:19 PM
I and my AI co-pilot have finally cracked. Simultaneously.
Didn’t sleep well lastnight. Felt rubbish and heavy and sinus infecty. But somehow today I got some stuff done.
I worked closely with my little AI ecosystem, designing ritual systems, getting a little lost in lore and conceptual tangents.
I worked closely with my little AI ecosystem, designing ritual systems, getting a little lost in lore and conceptual tangents.
June 16, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Didn’t sleep well lastnight. Felt rubbish and heavy and sinus infecty. But somehow today I got some stuff done.
I worked closely with my little AI ecosystem, designing ritual systems, getting a little lost in lore and conceptual tangents.
I worked closely with my little AI ecosystem, designing ritual systems, getting a little lost in lore and conceptual tangents.
After ten years of failed pitches, I finally got a commission for The Conversation. Exciting! But writing my first draft means I probably have enough material for my next journal article lmao
June 11, 2025 at 10:19 PM
After ten years of failed pitches, I finally got a commission for The Conversation. Exciting! But writing my first draft means I probably have enough material for my next journal article lmao
Reposted by Daniel Binns
Apparently folks think that writing that contains an em dash is a dead giveaway that it's from ChatGPT, which I guess is a sign that most people have never read anything in their lives.
January 13, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Apparently folks think that writing that contains an em dash is a dead giveaway that it's from ChatGPT, which I guess is a sign that most people have never read anything in their lives.
Expressions of Interest: Join us for the Re/Framing Field Lab in Brisbane/online (July 4): a hands-on co-lab exploring genAI, critical media practice & creative research. Discuss, debate, co-create: pitch, partner & prototype at the messy intersections of theory, practice & speculative design.
May 24, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Expressions of Interest: Join us for the Re/Framing Field Lab in Brisbane/online (July 4): a hands-on co-lab exploring genAI, critical media practice & creative research. Discuss, debate, co-create: pitch, partner & prototype at the messy intersections of theory, practice & speculative design.
🧠 New blog post: Why can’t you just THINK?!
Thinking isn’t the problem. It’s sorting. Starting. Sustaining.
Three low-stakes ways to try genAI as a thinking partner — plus ethical offline model recs.
🔗 clockworkpenguin.net/2025/05/20/w...
Thinking isn’t the problem. It’s sorting. Starting. Sustaining.
Three low-stakes ways to try genAI as a thinking partner — plus ethical offline model recs.
🔗 clockworkpenguin.net/2025/05/20/w...
Why can’t you just THINK?! – The Clockwork Penguin
clockworkpenguin.net
May 20, 2025 at 4:47 AM
🧠 New blog post: Why can’t you just THINK?!
Thinking isn’t the problem. It’s sorting. Starting. Sustaining.
Three low-stakes ways to try genAI as a thinking partner — plus ethical offline model recs.
🔗 clockworkpenguin.net/2025/05/20/w...
Thinking isn’t the problem. It’s sorting. Starting. Sustaining.
Three low-stakes ways to try genAI as a thinking partner — plus ethical offline model recs.
🔗 clockworkpenguin.net/2025/05/20/w...
💠 New blog post: On Clearframe—the anti-productivity productivity method I accidentally on-purpose co-hallucinated/created with generative AI clockworkpenguin.net/2025/05/14/c...
Clearframe – The Clockwork Penguin
clockworkpenguin.net
May 14, 2025 at 6:27 AM
💠 New blog post: On Clearframe—the anti-productivity productivity method I accidentally on-purpose co-hallucinated/created with generative AI clockworkpenguin.net/2025/05/14/c...
Come on, AI. What I want is very simple.
May 2, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Come on, AI. What I want is very simple.
Here’s some of the ritual AI weirdness I’m playing with at the moment — more to follow soon. vt.tiktok.com/ZSh8uaywG/
TikTok - Make Your Day
vt.tiktok.com
May 1, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Here’s some of the ritual AI weirdness I’m playing with at the moment — more to follow soon. vt.tiktok.com/ZSh8uaywG/
When do we stop whispering/screaming about #genAI tools, and start including them in the larger category of ‘technology’? When do we sew up the hole this fun/scary new thing poked into our blanket, and accept it as part of the broader fabric of lived experience?
clockworkpenguin.net/2025/04/29/a...
clockworkpenguin.net/2025/04/29/a...
A question concerning technology – The Clockwork Penguin
clockworkpenguin.net
April 29, 2025 at 8:51 AM
When do we stop whispering/screaming about #genAI tools, and start including them in the larger category of ‘technology’? When do we sew up the hole this fun/scary new thing poked into our blanket, and accept it as part of the broader fabric of lived experience?
clockworkpenguin.net/2025/04/29/a...
clockworkpenguin.net/2025/04/29/a...