Paul Conigliaro
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coni.gs
Paul Conigliaro
@coni.gs
280 followers 130 following 290 posts
creative director, art director, motion designer, board gamer, GM, nerd… that kind of stuff ✅

MPLS | he/him

👋🏻 https://coni.gs
🎨 https://conigs.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Paul Conigliaro
brendelbored.bsky.social
It’s hard to believe but there was a cartoon about an immigrant mouse and it was seen as totally fine and not controversial and not woke because it was an aspirational and nice thing about America that people could come here and find a better life
An American Tail poster with lil ol mouse immigrant Fievel
November 5, 2025 at 9:08 PM
coni.gs
I love when things are done the hard way for the sake of the craft.
basicappleguy.com Basic Apple Guy @basicappleguy.com · 8d
Wait, the new Apple TV intro was real & not CGI?!
November 6, 2025 at 7:43 PM
coni.gs
Look what I just resurrected! hilariously the date only goes up to 2020. Next step is to see if the time Flip Mino HD sensor has any exposed pins to circuit bend…
Holding a Flip Mino HD pointed at a computer screen to show it’s working
October 24, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by Paul Conigliaro
ironnatalia.bsky.social
Yo! I’m at lightbox, boothing with MAKE, a studio from MN. I’m also giving a talk about directing Sunny Side Down on Saturday at 1:30. Say hi!
October 24, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Reposted by Paul Conigliaro
thespaceshipper.com
I've said it before, but this video on VFX is truly amazing. @tvaziri.com describes this work in such an educational and joyful way. And with lots of space movies, which is a nice bonus.

Thanks @adamlancegarcia.bsky.social for this video 👍
ILM Visual Effects Artist Breaks Down Hidden VFX | Vanity Fair
YouTube video by Vanity Fair
www.youtube.com
October 20, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Paul Conigliaro
rob-sheridan.com
Nine Inch Nails “Art is Resistance” flyer (2007), with some thoughts on what it means today that came up in my recent Q&A. #NoKings ✊
Nine Inch Nails "Art is Resistance" flyer, 2007. The Art is Resistance flyer, designed by 42 Entertainment with art direction by Trent Reznor and me, was plastered around cities to draw players of the NIN “Year Zero” ARG to real-world gatherings, secret meetings of “the resistance” in the Year Zero fiction, but also a very real mechanism to plant the seeds of real-world activism into a story about what the future might look like if more people didn’t “wake up and give a shit.” Unfortunately, the future turned out almost exactly like what we imagined in Year Zero, but the message - that art is resistance, and you have a voice - is more important than ever. Question (u/tiktock34): What do you think is the most powerful combination of art and music today, given our political climate? Im thinking of movements similar to the "Art is Resistance" type of message. Lots of music and lots of artists but its clear you are passionate about the blend. Also, thanks for the years! Huge fan Rob Sheridan: I think about this a lot, and wonder what the role of art should be in this particular moment of resistance. It's weird to look back at the NIN Year Zero ARG and "Art is Resistance" campaign from 2007 and see that the future took the bad path anyway, almost eerily to a tee. Not that I expected an album to change the future or anything, but at the bleakest of times I couldn't help but second-guess if art did matter anymore in terms of actually affecting change; if I should have been more involved with organizing or with direct action, if we were deluding ourselves in thinking we were doing anything more than a cool art project. But then, year in and year out, again and again, right now included, fans tell me - more than any other project I ever worked on, by far - how much Year Zero meant to them, how much the Art is Resistance campaign inspired them, how it changed the way they viewed the intersection of music and politics. They show me the AiR flag tattoos, their numbers from the ARG, the friends they made through the process, the paths they took after - some even met their future spouses! And it reminds me that yeah, what we did mattered, because a lot of fans were radicalized by that experience to be more politically-aware and think more like activists, and a lot of artists were emboldened to speak out more. 1/3 Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1o89qtx/comment/njtmeg9/ These days artists/celebs are expected to have an opinion on everything and will even get called out for not speaking up on some things, but back in the early 2000s there was this real cynicism about music being "political." Bands would get so much backlash and told to "stick to music" if they voiced political opinions. I'm proud I helped NIN be one of the bands of the era to really break through that barrier on With Teeth and then demolish it completely on Year Zero, and help a lot of fans come around to how fundamentally intertwined art and politics have always been. And today? I don't think there's any right or wrong way to combine art / music with message, because I think just making art - any kind of art - is a crucial part of the resistance we need right now. At the core of the fascist project is the removal of intellectual and artistic freedoms, and that tells you all you need to know about how much art matters. Between the billionaire techbros & CEOs showing how much they revile creators by racing to gut their livelihoods, and the grotesquely ugly, unfunny, uncreative anti-aesthetics of the right-wing movement, a systemic disdain for the arts and sciences is stronger than it's ever been. In a moment like this, we all have to keep making human art and connecting around human art, whether it's aggressive music that calls the fuckers out directly or just cute drawings of cats that make people smile. I know artists who are making very direct and provocative protest art; speaking truth to power loudly and directly is important, but it's not everyone's lane and it's not the only way to use art right now. 2/3 Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1o89qtx/comment/njtmeg9/ I also know musicians who are just carrying on with their shows without really speaking out specifically, because they know how many vulnerable people are in their audiences going to their shows for strength and community, and they don't want to put additional targets on those peoples' backs. Protecting your community matters, too. For my own part, thinking about all of this over the past year was a big motivation in doing my art book right now. The feeling of not being sure who I should be or what I should say as an artist in this moment, how much it matters, and finding along the way that some of the art I was making that was really connecting with people and helping them, was art that wasn't literal with a specific message, it just honestly evoked the way I was feeling and the way I think a lot of people are feeling. The catharsis of feeling together, of knowing you're not alone in the way you feel, of seeing artists who matter to you also feeling the same thing; that gives strength, and strength is power. It's okay to check out to take care of yourself. And it's okay to find joy in music, art, movies, games, books, sports right now. I'd say it's crucial to find joy, more than ever. They're counting on you sacrificing joy, because then you lose hope, and then you lose the strength to fight back. Art is resistance, and joy is defiance. If your little drawing of a cat brought you or someone else some joy today, that matters. They want you to give up. Keep. Making. Art. Rob Sheridan, 16 Oct 2025 Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1o89qtx/comment/njtmeg9/
October 18, 2025 at 8:19 PM
coni.gs
The worst dark design patterns are in school photo and yearbook ordering sites. Ordering a year book and “upgrades” are spread across three different confirmation pages, all of them selected by default and would have added over 50% to the price.
October 9, 2025 at 8:50 PM
coni.gs
I forgot about tumblr. Looks like one of mine is still up at least, and set up as a subdomain on my site because of course I would do that.

micro.conigs.com
ryansarnowski.bsky.social Ryan Sarnowski @ryansarnowski.bsky.social · Oct 8
I still have a Tumblr account? Hmm...
October 8, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by Paul Conigliaro
cabel.panic.com
the one thing i like about generative ai is when it is wrong. because it is always very, very funny. it is so confident and so enthusiastic while failing, like the very best clown.

so, i'm here to tell you that there MAY be NOTHING FUNNIER than asking ai to do ASCII drawings.

here's donald duck:
"please make an ascii art drawing of donald duck" "here's a cute lil' donald-inspired ascii (sailor hat, pouty beak and all)" an absolutely incomprehensible ascii art drawing of what seems to be a… maybe a robot with a baseball cap and long arms, with another… telephone robot on his head? i don't even know. there's a space ship underneath? maybe? what is this
October 8, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Reposted by Paul Conigliaro
cabel.panic.com
i don’t like or understand ai. but it’s wild to see this person, who clearly DOES understand it and obviously knows a LOT about it, be repeatedly told they are stupid?

i think a lot of bluesky thinks the simple solution to discomfort is bullying

which is so weird given we were all surely bullied??
then: you don't need to "understand how the human mind works" on any level in order to make a computerized map of the connectome including every protein and cell. this is similar to how we do not currently understand how LLMs work but we can run them using opaque frozen weights. bluesky: We do know how LLMs work. What the fuck are you talking about? Lmfao. them: this is a common misconception about modern ai systems. they are grown, and not crafted; we understand the process that builds them but lack a paradigmatic understanding that answers the question "how do these 1 trillion floating point numbers do ‹x>". this has been the case since the DL revolution them: the way it actually works is that we initialize 1 trillion random floating point numbers as activation weights and biases in an enormous multilayer artificial neural network, give it tasks, and use vector calculus to update those 1 trillion neurons based on empirical task performance source: i am literally one of the engineers/ research scientists who builds and optimize them: and when i say "we update the neurons based on empirical task performance", , the “we" is not any human at all, it is an automatic process called gradient descent the job of these engineers is to make the framework that grows the neurons and feed the pipeline that executes, measures, and backpropagates task pertormance geoffrey hinton won the nobel prize in physics in 2024 for his contributions that helped make this possible bluesky: i think you maybe unwell
October 5, 2025 at 3:34 PM
coni.gs
If you missed out on the hardcover for @rob-sheridan.com’s glitch art book, there’ll be 75 more hardcover copies on Tuesday 10/7! I barely made it in for one of the 200 signed hardcovers, so it’ll go fast. But softcover is still available too!
The Glitch Art of Rob Sheridan: Definitive Art Book
Unseen works, insights, and iconic visuals from the glitch visionary behind NIN, Pearl Jam and more, in a landmark hardcover debut.
www.kickstarter.com
October 3, 2025 at 5:01 PM
coni.gs
Post a movie you like with a terrible Rotten Tomatoes score.

Seems fitting since yesterday was the 30th anniversary.
Screen shot of Hackers from Rotten Tomatoes showing a 33% on the tomato meter and 68% on the popcornometer. Header image shows Dade Murphy (Johnny Lee Miller) standing in front of Kate Libby (Angelina Jolie).
September 17, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Reposted by Paul Conigliaro
coni.gs
On this day in 1995 “Hackers” hit theaters. For whatever reason it’s become part of my identity (just ask anyone on the @nicemoves.org discord). I wrote down a few thoughts on the 30th anniversary: coni.gs/posts/hacker...
Hackers at 30
Our only crime was curiosity… I’m not sure of the exact date, but it was the fall of my 8th grade year in 1995. There were maybe four or five of us out on a Friday night. Tickets were cheap enough tha...
coni.gs
September 15, 2025 at 1:51 PM
coni.gs
On this day in 1995 “Hackers” hit theaters. For whatever reason it’s become part of my identity (just ask anyone on the @nicemoves.org discord). I wrote down a few thoughts on the 30th anniversary: coni.gs/posts/hacker...
Hackers at 30
Our only crime was curiosity… I’m not sure of the exact date, but it was the fall of my 8th grade year in 1995. There were maybe four or five of us out on a Friday night. Tickets were cheap enough tha...
coni.gs
September 15, 2025 at 1:51 PM
coni.gs
Finishing up a new personal blog post about a certain film on it's 30th anniversary to release on Monday…

#Hackers #HackThePlanet
screen shot of note properties in Obsidian for a blog post on Hacker’s at 30
September 11, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Paul Conigliaro
prolost.com
Hey so, no.

www.theverge.com/news/768842/...
Dolby Vision 2 goes beyond HDR with more AI and ‘authentic motion’ smoothing
But is it worth upgrading your TV for?
www.theverge.com
September 2, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Paul Conigliaro
dps952.bsky.social
Remember when the entire internet was niche, flawed websites full of a self-selected set of smart, funny, and creative people, instead of every website needing to take over all human social interactions or be deemed a failure? Man, those were the days!
September 2, 2025 at 6:48 PM
coni.gs
Got IKEA or pretty much any flat pack furniture? Get a bike tool like this. It has almost all the different hex sizes used along with Philips, flathead, and a few sockets & wrenches. No need to have a drawer full of random IKEA pack-in tools for random fixes.
Bike multi-tool with allen wrenches, driver heads, and wrenches fanned out
August 31, 2025 at 7:38 PM
coni.gs
Never used Premiere this early but it reminds me of Media100 with the A/B track and the only way to make transitions was between them.
retrotechdreams.bsky.social Retro Tech Dreams @retrotechdreams.bsky.social · Aug 24
This is what Adobe Premiere looked like in 1994
August 24, 2025 at 10:28 PM
coni.gs
If you DM/GM any TTRPG, at least get Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master! It’s a great prep philosophy. Then take a look at all the other Lazy DM books and Forge of Foes.
slyflourish.com SlyFlourish.com @slyflourish.com · Aug 11
Sly Flourish Summer Sale! 20% all books (except City of Arches) and free US shipping for orders of $60 or more! Discounts applied at checkout.

shop.slyflourish.com

#ttrpg #dnd
Sly Flourish's RPG Bookstore
Award-winning and best-selling books to help you run awesome tabletop roleplaying games!
shop.slyflourish.com
August 11, 2025 at 9:01 PM
coni.gs
I don’t know AJ… but they get it.

Also Hackers will have been released 30 years ago on September 15th. Perfect opportunity to watch it for the first or 100th time!
August 11, 2025 at 3:15 AM
coni.gs
QCP 2035, pretty sure with this faceplate, in 2000. I was jealous of my Nokia friends with Snake. All I had was Brick Attack.
Quallcomm 2035 with a blue faceplate on white background
August 6, 2025 at 11:07 PM
coni.gs
TIL Dexter Holland, the lead singer of The Offspring, finished his PhD in molecular biology 8 years ago, after pausing his post-graduate studies to focus on the band. His doctoral thesis was directly related to recent HIV research.

“I find math just as exciting as I do punk rock.”

More of this!
Dexter Holland - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
August 1, 2025 at 5:05 PM
coni.gs
Said me in the last ≈12 hours:

“This is what the whole internet used to be, and should be again.” -@rob-sheridan.com

“The new tools are trying to summarize everything but this is rebellion.” -Adam, @battleaxedotco.bsky.social

“Not clever, but you’re adorably dumb.” -wife

I accept all of them.
August 1, 2025 at 4:57 PM
coni.gs
“And on a personal blog, no less! Kids, this is what the whole internet used to be, and should be again.”

Rob gets it
rob-sheridan.com Rob Sheridan @rob-sheridan.com · Aug 1
I love this idea, writing a piece-by-piece breakdown of all the art on your walls as a way to share the artists you enjoy and also as motivation to finally get stuff out of tubes and into frames. And on a personal blog, no less! Kids, this is what the whole internet used to be, and should be again.
coni.gs Paul Conigliaro @coni.gs · Aug 1
My wall finally has art! A couple months ago I painted my office wall painted and put up most of the art prints I own. Here’s a write-up of what’s on the wall including appearances by @rob-sheridan.com, @heikala.bsky.social, Kevin Dart, and David Fincher.

coni.gs/posts/whats-...
August 1, 2025 at 4:11 PM