Ray Verrall
@rayverrall.bsky.social
Architect. Educator. PhD researcher at Newcastle University. Artist into maps, landscape, and surrealism. Cardiffian. Dad. Autistic.
https://www.ncl.ac.uk/apl/students/pgr-students/ray-verrall/
https://www.ncl.ac.uk/apl/students/pgr-students/ray-verrall/
Pinned
Ray Verrall
@rayverrall.bsky.social
· Aug 26
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers | RGS Journal | Wiley Online Library
An exploration of the relationship between geography and mapping, explored through past RGS-IBG conference addresses/themes and three cartographic genealogies: family trees; disjunctures; and formall....
doi.org
Thank you Stephen Legg for prominently featuring (and describing) my artwork 'Atlas' in your recent paper! Your reading of its themes and intentions is spot on. Great article about cartography's power to help re-shape and re-present our understanding of this messy world.
doi.org/10.1111/tran...
doi.org/10.1111/tran...
Reposted by Ray Verrall
If you think artificial intelligence is bad - wait till you see artificial grass.
September 12, 2025 at 6:10 AM
If you think artificial intelligence is bad - wait till you see artificial grass.
Reposted by Ray Verrall
There’s a Gerhard Richter quality to these video grabs of the sycamore being felled.
May 1, 2025 at 8:03 AM
There’s a Gerhard Richter quality to these video grabs of the sycamore being felled.
Reposted by Ray Verrall
I just spent three minutes trying to construct an amusing reply to a post on here, decided it wasn’t working, deleted it and started writing this instead, which I’m sure everyone will agree is a far more valuable contribution to the cut and thrust of online discourse
April 13, 2025 at 6:17 PM
I just spent three minutes trying to construct an amusing reply to a post on here, decided it wasn’t working, deleted it and started writing this instead, which I’m sure everyone will agree is a far more valuable contribution to the cut and thrust of online discourse
Every year, when February rolls around, I forget how bleak and useless a month it is. Feels particularly grey and grim this year. Up there with November. Any redeeming features?
February 12, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Every year, when February rolls around, I forget how bleak and useless a month it is. Feels particularly grey and grim this year. Up there with November. Any redeeming features?
Reposted by Ray Verrall
An entirely new financial settlement is needed in Higher Education - as many of us have been saying all along. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on campus cuts: academics pay a high price for Westminster’s mistakes | Editorial
Editorial: The government should not stand aloof as a crisis unfolds in our universities. A new settlement is needed
www.theguardian.com
February 11, 2025 at 7:06 PM
An entirely new financial settlement is needed in Higher Education - as many of us have been saying all along. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Well, here it is folks. The PhD thesis is submitted! Everything you (n)ever wanted to know about the RIBA’s 1958 Oxford Conference. It’s a bit of a chunky beast.
January 22, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Well, here it is folks. The PhD thesis is submitted! Everything you (n)ever wanted to know about the RIBA’s 1958 Oxford Conference. It’s a bit of a chunky beast.
Reposted by Ray Verrall
What worries me is not government use of AI per se but the slightly credulous way that the government talk about it, which makes me suspect they will be taken for rubes by the tech companies selling their services.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
‘Mainlined into UK’s veins’: Labour announces huge public rollout of AI
Plans to make UK world leader in AI sector include opening access to NHS and other public data
www.theguardian.com
January 13, 2025 at 7:58 AM
What worries me is not government use of AI per se but the slightly credulous way that the government talk about it, which makes me suspect they will be taken for rubes by the tech companies selling their services.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
I might be taking the "typing up" phase of the PhD a bit too literally.
December 24, 2024 at 7:41 PM
I might be taking the "typing up" phase of the PhD a bit too literally.
Reposted by Ray Verrall
One thing you will never think after reading a great book or listening to a great album or seeing a great piece of art is, “I’m really glad this person remained cautious while they were making this and guarded against being perceived as weird.”
December 6, 2024 at 6:38 PM
One thing you will never think after reading a great book or listening to a great album or seeing a great piece of art is, “I’m really glad this person remained cautious while they were making this and guarded against being perceived as weird.”
Reposted by Ray Verrall
A couple of weeks ago I wrote an essay about the reality of working in a UK university 'system' that may be broken beyond repair. It evoked quite the reaction! If you haven't read it already, it's here: voicesofacademia.com/2024/04/05/i...
It’s Not Your Fault That Academic Life is Getting Harder by Glen O’Hara
Universities are in trouble, and it’s not just money we’re talking about. They are living through something of a crisis of confidence, even of trust and faith. More and more, I find myself, and my col...
voicesofacademia.com
April 15, 2024 at 7:48 PM
A couple of weeks ago I wrote an essay about the reality of working in a UK university 'system' that may be broken beyond repair. It evoked quite the reaction! If you haven't read it already, it's here: voicesofacademia.com/2024/04/05/i...
Reposted by Ray Verrall
Looking for radical histories on Bluesky?
We've made a Starter Pack of people & organisations who stretch our idea of what history is, who it is made by & what it is for.
Please share and let us know if you'd like to be added.
🗃️ & ✊🗃️
go.bsky.app/Bb57VmV
We've made a Starter Pack of people & organisations who stretch our idea of what history is, who it is made by & what it is for.
Please share and let us know if you'd like to be added.
🗃️ & ✊🗃️
go.bsky.app/Bb57VmV
Radical Histories
Join the conversation
go.bsky.app
December 3, 2024 at 9:24 AM
Looking for radical histories on Bluesky?
We've made a Starter Pack of people & organisations who stretch our idea of what history is, who it is made by & what it is for.
Please share and let us know if you'd like to be added.
🗃️ & ✊🗃️
go.bsky.app/Bb57VmV
We've made a Starter Pack of people & organisations who stretch our idea of what history is, who it is made by & what it is for.
Please share and let us know if you'd like to be added.
🗃️ & ✊🗃️
go.bsky.app/Bb57VmV
Reposted by Ray Verrall
“What are we saving the world for? If the solution involves abandoning our humanities, are we imagining a future for humanity?”
🗃️
williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2024/11/18/d...
Doing History at the end of the World (1)
In a recent piece in the Guardian George Monbiot imagines an all-seeing eye scanning the dying earth, and concludes humans are a species ‘that knows it is destroying itself but is too greedy …
williamgpooley.wordpress.com
November 18, 2024 at 1:45 PM
“What are we saving the world for? If the solution involves abandoning our humanities, are we imagining a future for humanity?”
🗃️
williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2024/11/18/d...
Reposted by Ray Verrall
We've written a Researcher's Guide to Bluesky!
It's a bit like all those other useful guides to Bluesky, but with several useful insights from University of York academics about using the platform, and we'd love it if it was reposted far and wide...
>> blogs.york.ac.uk/library/2024...
🧵 below
It's a bit like all those other useful guides to Bluesky, but with several useful insights from University of York academics about using the platform, and we'd love it if it was reposted far and wide...
>> blogs.york.ac.uk/library/2024...
🧵 below
The Researcher’s Guide to Bluesky – The Library, Learning, Archives and Wellbeing Blog
blogs.york.ac.uk
November 13, 2024 at 12:17 PM
We've written a Researcher's Guide to Bluesky!
It's a bit like all those other useful guides to Bluesky, but with several useful insights from University of York academics about using the platform, and we'd love it if it was reposted far and wide...
>> blogs.york.ac.uk/library/2024...
🧵 below
It's a bit like all those other useful guides to Bluesky, but with several useful insights from University of York academics about using the platform, and we'd love it if it was reposted far and wide...
>> blogs.york.ac.uk/library/2024...
🧵 below
Reposted by Ray Verrall
Childhood isn’t just something that children have to get through on the way to adulthood. Childhood is children’s lives. Children deserve playgrounds and other public spaces.
“Whilst scaling back children’s services might seem like a way to balance budgets, it ultimately has a lifetime cost for a generation of children."
Cuts to include “reductions in playground maintenance”, when so many have already been lost, vandalised, not repaired etc www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Cuts to include “reductions in playground maintenance”, when so many have already been lost, vandalised, not repaired etc www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Children must not pay price of council cuts says Rachel de Souza
Local government experts say councils made all the
www.bbc.co.uk
October 14, 2024 at 7:22 PM
Childhood isn’t just something that children have to get through on the way to adulthood. Childhood is children’s lives. Children deserve playgrounds and other public spaces.
Reposted by Ray Verrall
This is surprisingly comforting.
October 4, 2024 at 1:03 AM
This is surprisingly comforting.
Posted this a month ago. I'm pretty invisible here so I don't expect much interaction, but if you're seeing this, and like all things mappy and colourful, please have a read of Professor Legg's article in which he discusses my artwork 'Atlas'. It's a sophisticated essay on why maps are really cool.
Thank you Stephen Legg for prominently featuring (and describing) my artwork 'Atlas' in your recent paper! Your reading of its themes and intentions is spot on. Great article about cartography's power to help re-shape and re-present our understanding of this messy world.
doi.org/10.1111/tran...
doi.org/10.1111/tran...
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers | RGS Journal | Wiley Online Library
An exploration of the relationship between geography and mapping, explored through past RGS-IBG conference addresses/themes and three cartographic genealogies: family trees; disjunctures; and formall....
doi.org
September 28, 2024 at 3:43 PM
Posted this a month ago. I'm pretty invisible here so I don't expect much interaction, but if you're seeing this, and like all things mappy and colourful, please have a read of Professor Legg's article in which he discusses my artwork 'Atlas'. It's a sophisticated essay on why maps are really cool.
Reposted by Ray Verrall
No jail terms for those running companies that knowingly damage the environment and with repercussions which will cost vastly more than repairing a frame
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Just Stop Oil protesters jailed for throwing soup on Sunflowers
Just Stop Oil activists Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland threw tomato soup over Van's Gogh's piece.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 27, 2024 at 1:31 PM
No jail terms for those running companies that knowingly damage the environment and with repercussions which will cost vastly more than repairing a frame
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Ray Verrall
When you’re writing, sometimes less is more, but sometimes more is more and, from time to time, too much is not enough.
September 27, 2024 at 1:26 PM
When you’re writing, sometimes less is more, but sometimes more is more and, from time to time, too much is not enough.
Reposted by Ray Verrall
“Libraries will only exist for as long as we borrow from them. Consider it your civic duty”
Excellent here - written in Aus but applies everywhere.
Don’t forget borrowing is not just physical books - huge selection of digital audio, ebooks, magazines too.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Excellent here - written in Aus but applies everywhere.
Don’t forget borrowing is not just physical books - huge selection of digital audio, ebooks, magazines too.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Libraries will only exist for as long as we borrow from them. Consider it your civic duty | Jodi Wilson
In a world as noisy as ours, we need the quiet space of libraries. They are community hubs that serve whoever walks through the door
www.theguardian.com
September 27, 2024 at 9:41 AM
“Libraries will only exist for as long as we borrow from them. Consider it your civic duty”
Excellent here - written in Aus but applies everywhere.
Don’t forget borrowing is not just physical books - huge selection of digital audio, ebooks, magazines too.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Excellent here - written in Aus but applies everywhere.
Don’t forget borrowing is not just physical books - huge selection of digital audio, ebooks, magazines too.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Ray Verrall
Watch the National Theatre production of "Nye" starring Michael Sheen for free on 7 November.
A wonderful celebration of the NHS, and an overdue tribute to a Welsh hero
youtu.be/GNqtupRGSW0?...
A wonderful celebration of the NHS, and an overdue tribute to a Welsh hero
youtu.be/GNqtupRGSW0?...
Nye | Watch for Free | National Theatre at Home | Official Trailer
YouTube video by National Theatre
youtu.be
September 24, 2024 at 10:51 AM
Watch the National Theatre production of "Nye" starring Michael Sheen for free on 7 November.
A wonderful celebration of the NHS, and an overdue tribute to a Welsh hero
youtu.be/GNqtupRGSW0?...
A wonderful celebration of the NHS, and an overdue tribute to a Welsh hero
youtu.be/GNqtupRGSW0?...
William Golding's approach to writing. Lovely description around 1:15 of visualising a narrative spatially: 'I see it in the air as a kind of boundless shape about... so long... from here to here.'
Equally empowering demonstration of single-finger typing at 5:17 too!
www.bbc.co.uk/videos/cqxrw...
Equally empowering demonstration of single-finger typing at 5:17 too!
www.bbc.co.uk/videos/cqxrw...
Lord of the Flies author William Golding on how he writes a novel
William Golding talks candidly about the process of writing a novel and the painstaking craftsmanship that he brings to his work.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 20, 2024 at 4:44 PM
William Golding's approach to writing. Lovely description around 1:15 of visualising a narrative spatially: 'I see it in the air as a kind of boundless shape about... so long... from here to here.'
Equally empowering demonstration of single-finger typing at 5:17 too!
www.bbc.co.uk/videos/cqxrw...
Equally empowering demonstration of single-finger typing at 5:17 too!
www.bbc.co.uk/videos/cqxrw...
Reposted by Ray Verrall
Really wish more people grasped that "Luddite" does not mean "afraid of technology," it means being skeptical/critical about who controls + benefits from technologies
September 18, 2024 at 3:40 AM
Really wish more people grasped that "Luddite" does not mean "afraid of technology," it means being skeptical/critical about who controls + benefits from technologies
Reposted by Ray Verrall
Who among you exhalted brainboxes in the #phdsky community is doing research into #adhd #neorodiverse informed research-practice/education, or can point me at some current lit?
Sorry I know I've already met some of you but I'm following too many feeds and squirrel brain can't keep track!
Sorry I know I've already met some of you but I'm following too many feeds and squirrel brain can't keep track!
September 11, 2024 at 9:04 AM
Who among you exhalted brainboxes in the #phdsky community is doing research into #adhd #neorodiverse informed research-practice/education, or can point me at some current lit?
Sorry I know I've already met some of you but I'm following too many feeds and squirrel brain can't keep track!
Sorry I know I've already met some of you but I'm following too many feeds and squirrel brain can't keep track!
Reposted by Ray Verrall
Found this really interesting re neurodivergent conversation styles.
Will be really helpful if you or the person you are talking to kind of freezes up when asked a very general question like "how are you" or "how was your day"
neurodivergentinsights.com/blog/object-...
Will be really helpful if you or the person you are talking to kind of freezes up when asked a very general question like "how are you" or "how was your day"
neurodivergentinsights.com/blog/object-...
Social vs. Object-Based Conversations: A Neurodivergent Perspective
This article explores how social-based and object-based conversations
affect connection for neurodivergent people, particularly Autistic people.
I explore reasons social-based conversations can be d...
neurodivergentinsights.com
September 9, 2024 at 8:32 AM
Found this really interesting re neurodivergent conversation styles.
Will be really helpful if you or the person you are talking to kind of freezes up when asked a very general question like "how are you" or "how was your day"
neurodivergentinsights.com/blog/object-...
Will be really helpful if you or the person you are talking to kind of freezes up when asked a very general question like "how are you" or "how was your day"
neurodivergentinsights.com/blog/object-...
Reposted by Ray Verrall
Every so often I have to stop and marvel at the strange and melancholy menu music from Ocean software's Robocop game. There's such a sense of ennui, as if all that serving the public trust, protecting the innocent and upholding the law is getting him down.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGIK...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGIK...
RoboCop Gameboy Title Theme (best quality)
YouTube video by Prizm
www.youtube.com
September 6, 2024 at 10:09 AM
Every so often I have to stop and marvel at the strange and melancholy menu music from Ocean software's Robocop game. There's such a sense of ennui, as if all that serving the public trust, protecting the innocent and upholding the law is getting him down.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGIK...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGIK...