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omgknoblauch.bsky.social
@omgknoblauch.bsky.social
History of Architecture, Design + Psychology
Working on a history of ergonomics. Assoc Prof at UMich;
https://substack.com/@uglycyborg
Reposted
"By insisting on the term 'automation,' Bender and Hanna reveal that what’s sold as innovation is often just labor displacement with better branding."

Erik J. Larson discusses "The AI Con" by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-return-of-the-luddites/
The Return of the Luddites | Los Angeles Review of Books
Erik J. Larson considers “The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want” by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna.
lareviewofbooks.org
November 1, 2025 at 8:34 PM
On Expectations for Public Engagement:
As we think about how to measure responses to AI, the team had a fertile meeting with the Ginsberg Center about civic engagement. Among other useful resources... (read more) substack.com/@uglycyborg/...
Ugly Cyborg (@uglycyborg)
On Expectations: As we think about how to measure the response to AI, we had a fertile meeting with the Ginsberg Center about civic engagement. Among other useful resources, they mentioned a Spectrum...
substack.com
October 23, 2025 at 3:46 PM
I’m thrilled to be named an Advisor on the 2025 WELL Mind Advisory, working alongside experts and leaders from around the world. Together, we’ll work to identify strategies to help shape the future of WELL. www.wellcertified.com/advisories/c...
#WELLadvisor
International WELL Building Institute
WELL Certified
www.wellcertified.com
February 3, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Reposted
People who want to make the web accessible need to understand the many different ways that people with disabilities use the web. This W3C resource offers a good introduction to how disabled people navigate the web, and barriers they commonly encounter.

www.w3.org/WAI/people-u...
How People with Disabilities Use the Web
Introduces how people with disabilities, including people with age-related impairments, use the Web.
www.w3.org
January 25, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Reposted
Announcing the Labs for Liberation Summer Institute on Disability and Design! Are you a student, designer, or activist who is invested in designing a more accessible world? Join us July 9-July 18 for a virtual, free, and accessible online summer program.
January 22, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reading about synesthesia, "an internally pleasant but apparently useless trait." Though I get the sense that Richard Cytowic will shortly show us that it's quite useful for creativity and intuition. @neuromandc.bsky.social
December 13, 2024 at 8:00 PM
Reposted
Fuck this will-they-wont-they government dependence. Come out of the next 4 years with sustainable community solutions.

We keep us safe.
November 26, 2024 at 1:35 PM
Reposted
It appears a rush of small magazines have all joined bluesky and so we have gathered them in this convenient starter pack so that you can follow them all, too.

go.bsky.app/2JYffeG
November 14, 2024 at 8:46 PM
Reposted
And more wonderful #maritimehist!
Brilliant as always, here's Jack Bouchard on birds, fish, and historical methods. "Despite the watery gaze of modern historians, it is time to acknowledge that mariners in the past spent much of their time looking upward." niche-canada.org/2024/11/20/b...
Fishwork is for the Birds
Despite the watery gaze of modern historians, it is time to acknowledge that mariners in the past spent much of their time looking upward.
niche-canada.org
November 21, 2024 at 12:10 AM
Listening to Tim Spence @LifeStructures
talk about the balance of 'inboard' and 'outboard' bathrooms in hospital rooms and balancing perception of spaciousness & visibility for the care team. Seemingly small choices are much-studied yet still an art. #healthbydesign
October 17, 2024 at 1:57 PM
Reposted
'“hospitals are at the center of a massive market failure”, where consolidation is driving price hikes for patients.'

www.theguardian.com/us-news/arti...
US patients charged for ‘hospital facility fees’ – even if they don’t set foot in one
Hospitals adding charge to bills from doctors’ offices, outpatient surgical clinics and diagnostic centers they own
www.theguardian.com
June 10, 2024 at 3:09 PM
Reading about Russian ergonomics during the Cold War, and wondering if the American embrace of behaviorism really isn't a bigger problem than we admit.
June 10, 2024 at 3:23 PM
Psychology was used for ergonomics in World War I, but why wasn't there a field of Human Factors Engineering born at that time? Asks David Meister. He thinks the experience of total war was necessary to systematically push the human capacity to integrate with machines. Frown.
April 18, 2024 at 1:28 PM
January 29, 2024 at 2:20 PM
"in 2022, half of all US renters were cost burdened. This all-time high of 22.4 million renter households spent more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities." Half is a lot. Watching the recorded presentation to hear recs for fixing that... www.jchs.harvard.edu/americas-ren...
January 26, 2024 at 8:23 PM
Grading the final projects from this year's version of History of Unsustainable Architecture, and I am delighted to hear students state "comfort is destroying the future one click or hum at a time." Stay uncomfortable, future architects. Thanks to @danielbarber.bsky.social for a great text.
December 6, 2023 at 8:47 PM
Rather than an expensive masters degree on top of your professional degree, how can we coordinate a path through the degree and existing required classes that helps students specialize and create community? Design + Health info session tonight and Mon Nov 20. taubmancollege.umich.edu/event/design...
November 13, 2023 at 12:26 PM
Planning a few info sessions about the Design Health concentration in the next few weeks, looking forward to connecting with like minded designers and others.
November 8, 2023 at 3:51 PM
Reading K. Jake Chakasim's "The Consummation of Plastic Emotions" with agreement that “Due to their longstanding inferiority complex, Settler societies have yet to come to terms with their unscrupulous behavior.” A good ending for the UnSustainable Architecture course...
November 6, 2023 at 2:35 PM
I just learned what a "sacrifice zone" is. Though apparently the term was coined for West Virginia in the 1970s. It's quite the euphemism. Who sacrificed for what? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacrifi...
October 27, 2023 at 11:40 AM
The Future of Healthy Cities series takes on the timely intersection of environmental justice and health with Dr. Isabelle Anguelovski. Seems cool that the keynote is followed by a panel, hopefully in dialogue? sph.umich.edu/the-exchange/ #healthbydesign
October 27, 2023 at 11:35 AM
Reposted
Nightshade is a "new data poisoning tool" that "lets artists fight back against generative AI" www.technologyreview.com/2023/10/23/1...
This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI
The tool, called Nightshade, messes up training data in ways that could cause serious damage to image-generating AI models.
www.technologyreview.com
October 25, 2023 at 3:24 PM
Reposted
There are three funded PhD positions for artistic research on climate rights with my friend Nabil Ahmed at Trondheim University!
jobbnorge.no//en/availabl...
October 22, 2023 at 9:20 AM
Reading a history of war, noting that the US had seen its large military as a sign of greatness rather than a means to greatness. Then with WWI, Michael Sherry notes that "War in the name of the people sanctioned their mobilization and death at unimaginable levels." Lessons of history.
October 23, 2023 at 2:50 PM