Richard A Carter
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richardacarter.bsky.social
Richard A Carter
@richardacarter.bsky.social
3.8K followers 700 following 1.8K posts
Academic in Digital Culture, University of York, UK. Exploring digital art, literature, and storytelling; ecology, materiality, and the more-than-human. Glider pilot. https://richardacarter.com/
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Richard A Carter @richardacarter.bsky.social · Nov 7
An introduction for new followers! I am an academic interested in exploring the relationships between digital systems and the environment. My research practice engages a wide variety of technologies, formats, and modes. You can see more, inc. many free books, at my site: richardacarter.com/work/
a screenshot of a yet-to-be-released artwork. A video feed of overhead clouds has a synthetic circular overlay, showing lines and arrows and text that moves with the clouds. a black and white photograph of a moorland tor, overlaid with a constellation of brightly coloured boxes featuring poetic text. a book cover. Black and white overhead photo of a wave. the title waveform by richard a carter, is overlaid in a plain outlined box. a screenshot of a game. it resembles a hand-drawn isometric landscape on artsinal grainy paper. The word "agentia" is overlaid in bright green, semi-transparent letters.
Reposted by Richard A Carter
richardacarter.bsky.social
Critical Drone Studies: Drones in Society, Politics, and Culture
25-26 June 2026 at University of Cambridge.

CFP Link: www.centrefordronesandculture.com/blog/confere...
A conference hosted by the Centre for Drones and Culture Sponsored by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Dates: Thursday 25 June - Friday 26 June 2026 Venue: Jesus College, University of Cambridge From agriculture to logistics, from journalism to delivery, from war to peacebuilding: drones continue to impact the ways we live, work, tell stories, relate to one another, and imagine the future. Debates continue to surround more risky drone developments, such as drones' integration into autonomous, Al-driven warfare, and their illicit use for drugs and weapons delivery into prisons. However, alternative deployments show promise, including unmanned delivery of medicines to remote geographies, surveying of humanitarian crises and environmental disasters, and the creation of fresh visual idioms in photography, cinematography, gaming, and other forms of entertainment. Although the types of drones used in these spaces can be quite different, they often involve imaginaries of situational awareness, technological autonomy, and "distant intimacy" - of humans being physically apart from another person, object, or milieu while robots remain relatively close, at times even enabling affective feelings and cognitive impressions of access and intimacy. While drone studies has tended to treat the use of drones in these spaces separately, the ambition of this conference is to engage in boundary work which moves the field towards a more heterogeneous, as well as normative, understanding of drones in society, politics, and culture: towards a critical drone studies that acknowledges both how individual motivations and creativity shape what a drone is and does, and how such engagements are also influenced by institutions and power. To this end, this is a reflexively interdisciplinary conference that encourages exploratory perspectives on drone pasts, presents, and futures, with a focus on probing the logics and narratives underpinning drone development, proliferation, and acceptance. Research on broad topics related but not limited to the following are very welcome: Drone wars: algorithmic and Al-enabled violence; drones as justified or non-justified forms of organized / disorganized violence; "new" drone wars, drone-on-drone warfare, Drones and civil liberties: policing; surveillance; predictive politics; protest; regulatory politics; atmospheric commons Drone humanitarianism: "Drones for Good"; drones in rescue and disaster relief; drone use by non-governmental organizations; drones, human rights, and accountability Drone ecologies: climate-human-technology relationships; conservation; biomimetics; environmental monitoring Drones and political economy: commercial drone applications; drone bases, supply chains, logistics, materialities Drone labour: lived experiences involving drones; drone praxis (including ethnographies and autoethnographies); drone technology and constructions of human ability / disability Drone aesthetics: artistic, speculative, and experimental imaginaries regarding unmanned and/or autonomous artefacts; popular drone culture including photography, marketing, filmmaking, drone racing, light shows Contributions from the humanities, social sciences, and beyond are very welcome, as are contributions from those working outside of academic institutions, including practitioner communities, non-profit organizations, government and policy-making organizations, think tanks, as well as artists and creators. Details for Proposals: There are three formats for presentations; please indicate which one you are applying for on the online application. Individual research presentations (max. 15 minutes) Panel presentations (max. 3 speakers x 15 minutes) Creative Showcase presentations: There is limited room for research-grounded creative contributions as part of the conference programming. At this time, we can only accommodate screen-based / touchscreen-based outputs. Deadline for Proposals: 12 January 2026
November 10, 2025 at 12:40 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
Ouch.
November 10, 2025 at 8:44 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
Critical Drone Studies: Drones in Society, Politics, and Culture
25-26 June 2026 at University of Cambridge.

CFP Link: www.centrefordronesandculture.com/blog/confere...
A conference hosted by the Centre for Drones and Culture Sponsored by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Dates: Thursday 25 June - Friday 26 June 2026 Venue: Jesus College, University of Cambridge From agriculture to logistics, from journalism to delivery, from war to peacebuilding: drones continue to impact the ways we live, work, tell stories, relate to one another, and imagine the future. Debates continue to surround more risky drone developments, such as drones' integration into autonomous, Al-driven warfare, and their illicit use for drugs and weapons delivery into prisons. However, alternative deployments show promise, including unmanned delivery of medicines to remote geographies, surveying of humanitarian crises and environmental disasters, and the creation of fresh visual idioms in photography, cinematography, gaming, and other forms of entertainment. Although the types of drones used in these spaces can be quite different, they often involve imaginaries of situational awareness, technological autonomy, and "distant intimacy" - of humans being physically apart from another person, object, or milieu while robots remain relatively close, at times even enabling affective feelings and cognitive impressions of access and intimacy. While drone studies has tended to treat the use of drones in these spaces separately, the ambition of this conference is to engage in boundary work which moves the field towards a more heterogeneous, as well as normative, understanding of drones in society, politics, and culture: towards a critical drone studies that acknowledges both how individual motivations and creativity shape what a drone is and does, and how such engagements are also influenced by institutions and power. To this end, this is a reflexively interdisciplinary conference that encourages exploratory perspectives on drone pasts, presents, and futures, with a focus on probing the logics and narratives underpinning drone development, proliferation, and acceptance. Research on broad topics related but not limited to the following are very welcome: Drone wars: algorithmic and Al-enabled violence; drones as justified or non-justified forms of organized / disorganized violence; "new" drone wars, drone-on-drone warfare, Drones and civil liberties: policing; surveillance; predictive politics; protest; regulatory politics; atmospheric commons Drone humanitarianism: "Drones for Good"; drones in rescue and disaster relief; drone use by non-governmental organizations; drones, human rights, and accountability Drone ecologies: climate-human-technology relationships; conservation; biomimetics; environmental monitoring Drones and political economy: commercial drone applications; drone bases, supply chains, logistics, materialities Drone labour: lived experiences involving drones; drone praxis (including ethnographies and autoethnographies); drone technology and constructions of human ability / disability Drone aesthetics: artistic, speculative, and experimental imaginaries regarding unmanned and/or autonomous artefacts; popular drone culture including photography, marketing, filmmaking, drone racing, light shows Contributions from the humanities, social sciences, and beyond are very welcome, as are contributions from those working outside of academic institutions, including practitioner communities, non-profit organizations, government and policy-making organizations, think tanks, as well as artists and creators. Details for Proposals: There are three formats for presentations; please indicate which one you are applying for on the online application. Individual research presentations (max. 15 minutes) Panel presentations (max. 3 speakers x 15 minutes) Creative Showcase presentations: There is limited room for research-grounded creative contributions as part of the conference programming. At this time, we can only accommodate screen-based / touchscreen-based outputs. Deadline for Proposals: 12 January 2026
November 10, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Reposted by Richard A Carter
literaturegeek.bsky.social
Early early ASCII art rocks. A "how did they make that?" for historical (& very current, as here!) technology—letterpress for "drawing" art #DHmakes
starshapedpress.bsky.social Starshaped Press @starshapedpress.bsky.social · 2d
Wrote about the complex process of building a 7-color print from metal type & ornament. www.starshaped.com/blog/2025/11...
Close up of a print called Urbs in Horto (text is in a tree form in print). Multiple colors create a modular take on the city of Chicago.
November 10, 2025 at 9:12 AM
richardacarter.bsky.social
So Blue Prince won best video game at Aesthetica - no surprises there! Glad to have my own title featured during the festival, and, for a few days at least, being a lanyard-toting Game Developer. I'm not sure when I'll have something game-like enough to submit again, but maybe one day. #gameDev
richardacarter.bsky.social Richard A Carter @richardacarter.bsky.social · 6d
I'm now an Official Game Developer* at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival! I will be giving a talk shortly on "Agentia" before using Developer privilege to see the game in situ later today.

*Question is, do I get to retain this status after the festival is over?

#gameDev #gaming #indieDev #games
Aesthetica Tote Bag and Game Developer Festival Pass
November 9, 2025 at 8:45 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
A passing thought - I'm still mildly bemused by the fact that so much 'generative digital art' remains captured by NFT infrastructure - as if somehow the art cannot be presented or made accessible in any other form.
November 9, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Richard A Carter
lu.is
Love James Bridle’s notion of “Actually Existing #solarpunk ”. Rhymes with Erik Olin Wright’s Real Utopias and The New Aesthetic… and googling for a link for TNA I realize it is also Bridle 🤯

booktwo.org/notebook/act...

#sharegoodnewstoo
Actually Existing Solarpunk | booktwo.org
November 7, 2025
booktwo.org
November 8, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Richard A Carter
marianajlopez.bsky.social
We have just released a new episode of the #DARCI Podcast reflecting on the DARCI Conference. Both the audio and the transcript are available. A great episode with lots of insights on the field and lots of tips on how to organise inclusive and accessible events enhancingaudiodescription.com/darci-23
November 7, 2025 at 12:00 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
Can confirm that poor old Agentia is still not rendering useably at Aesthetica! The perils of browser based game design (although I've noticed a couple of the other games are also not coming up well on their system either).

#gameDev #gaming
November 7, 2025 at 1:25 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
Dad sent these photos from the shores of home this evening, and, honestly, I find it harder to be away from it during the Autumn more than anything else - the light is something to behold.
A sunset over the sea The sun gone, the cliffs set against the glowing sky, as the ocean waves roll in
November 6, 2025 at 11:01 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
This absolutely horrible project - a product of naked egotism - deserves every failure that can come its way. The delusional hype that surrounded this was, I forward, even more infuriating than that of AI. The very image, a line imposed across the desert, speaks for itself. ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled
Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance
ig.ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:37 AM
richardacarter.bsky.social
And there it is! Agentia unfortunately doesn't render very well on the demo systems - essentially a closed Steam browser - so perhaps a blessing that few will ever try to play it, but it is nice to have it here 😅
Agentia on the screen Agentia on the screen
November 5, 2025 at 3:32 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
Waiting patiently for a seat at the Games Lab - Agentia is there!

#gameDev #indieDev #soloDev #gaming
Agentia on the screen in the games lab
November 5, 2025 at 2:56 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
I'm now an Official Game Developer* at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival! I will be giving a talk shortly on "Agentia" before using Developer privilege to see the game in situ later today.

*Question is, do I get to retain this status after the festival is over?

#gameDev #gaming #indieDev #games
Aesthetica Tote Bag and Game Developer Festival Pass
November 5, 2025 at 11:09 AM
richardacarter.bsky.social
I know, if I had it my way, that I would probably never write another academic article ever again, and would instead explore and articulate ideas with forms that are not only more durational in their expression, but are seasonal - changing with each passing day, responsive to tides and the planets.
November 4, 2025 at 1:34 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
This week! "Agentia" will be available in the Games Lab at the
Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York! I'm planning to speak on Wednesday as part of the Makers Forum too. asff.co.uk/games-and-vr... #gameDev #indieDev #indieGame #soloDev #poetry #nature #gaming
Aesthetica Short Film Festival Poster A screenshot from agentia showing a hand drawn isometric landscape with the words "agentia" overlaid in green serif font. Aesthetica Short Film Festival official selection laurels present.
November 3, 2025 at 11:04 AM
richardacarter.bsky.social
Further to yesterday's aerial adventures, a reminder that this now exists and you're most welcome to try it out!
richardacarter.bsky.social Richard A Carter @richardacarter.bsky.social · 18d
New digital piece available in the latest issue of "The Lit Platform"! "Flight Diaries" is the latest iteration of my ongoing work in finding ways of visualising and poetically narrating my experiences as a glider pilot theliteraryplatform.com/stories/flig...

#art #poetry #digital #flight #data #dh
A screenshot from Flight Diaries. A traced glider flightpath over a map. A popup box with statistics relating to a particular moment of the flight. A poem at the bottom. "A little upwind of the field / a matter of luck / a gentle landing".
November 2, 2025 at 3:29 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
Enjoying a peaceful morning 🦢

#photography #nature #swan #autumn
A swan on a lake on a sunny morning
November 2, 2025 at 10:55 AM
richardacarter.bsky.social
Caught sight of Orion for the first time this season, having been denied a view by nightly clouds for many weeks. Always a welcome sign.
November 2, 2025 at 12:15 AM
richardacarter.bsky.social
One more from today - the low sun made still photography difficult, but this one, early on in the tow, worked out quite well.

#photography #aviation #gliding #nature #autumn #sky
A glider cockpit sails over green fields in a late Autumn evening. Large banks of cloud in the near distance
November 1, 2025 at 10:11 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
1/ A rare chance for me to fly as a passenger today, so why not ride along with us, as we search for lift on a fine Autumn evening. First of all - takeoff! We're using the trusty Eurofox towplane and there is a good headwind to get us off the runway smoothly.

#gliding #aviation #sky #sun #autumn
November 1, 2025 at 5:51 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
Love the light and shadow of late Autumn. Not a fan of the cold and the wind, mind...
Gliders sit on the runway below a cloudy sky, patches of blue, dark light and much shadow
November 1, 2025 at 12:11 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
These two spooky scenes from Agentia were developed more or less this time last year. A meditation on ghosts and a meditation on the contemporary unknown, respectively racarter.itch.io/agentia

#gaming #gameDev #halloween
An owl sails above a sparse autumn forest. Hand drawn isometric tileset. The text at the bottom reads: "the signs and symbols / the shape of an owl / the branch of a tree". A UFO sails above a desert. Hand drawn isometric tileset. The text at the bottom reads: "the mysterious light | an indistinct blur | a silvery metallic sheen "
October 31, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Richard A Carter
zannavanloon.bsky.social
Spilled my coffee travel mug in my backpack this morning - can you imagine the horror - so let’s just say some time with these wonderful #earlymodern miniature books was very much needed!

1) Gregorian Calendar (1585)

#rarebooks #bookhistory 💙📚📜

/1
Close up of a very small book bound in a fragment of a medieval liturgical manuscript on parchment Yellow-black pencil for scale next to the miniature book which is with a parchment cover of medieval manuscript fragments Close-up of the title page of the book: a Gregorian calendar printed in red and black.
October 31, 2025 at 12:07 PM
richardacarter.bsky.social
Perhaps sensing that this afternoon was proving rather too much at my end, the 2025 Digital Media Tamagotchi has now returned to the sanctity of cyberspace. Fare thee well, until next year.
A Tamagotchi device, showing the "Angel"(?) screen for a pet that has gone to cyberspace
October 30, 2025 at 10:24 PM