Sparks
@scarlettsparks.dev
I make art, I make tech, I make art with and about tech
Pinned
Sparks
@scarlettsparks.dev
· 18d
Where is the cone winder? a search, a quest, an essay
YouTube video by Sparks' Curiosity
youtu.be
My most recent video went up last week. It’s nominally about shipping a niche knitting tool but it’s really about: being online under the tyranny of frictionlessness; feeling lost and trying to regain a sense of creative clarity; struggling to apply measures of “good” design to a personal project.
Reposted by Sparks
ai is how capital washes its hands of anyone who isnt perfectly average
November 24, 2025 at 2:08 PM
ai is how capital washes its hands of anyone who isnt perfectly average
Reposted by Sparks
I admit: I was kinda hoping for some knitting drama.
do you have any idea how much you have to piss somebody off to make them change their gauge
#Finland will begin to #Russia - proof its rail network, integrate with EU train infrastructure.
The Finnish government has announced the conversion of its rail network from Russian gauge (1,524 mm) to European standard (1,435 mm).
www.trenvista.net/en/news/flas...
The Finnish government has announced the conversion of its rail network from Russian gauge (1,524 mm) to European standard (1,435 mm).
www.trenvista.net/en/news/flas...
November 24, 2025 at 3:24 AM
I admit: I was kinda hoping for some knitting drama.
Reposted by Sparks
This is right up there with Tom Holland's "Umbrella" lip sync performance. When it comes up in your feed you must stop what you're doing and indulge.
I don't make the rules.
I don't make the rules.
Ok palate cleanse time. In case you missed it, here's my most popular post ever
4 yrs ago today, a family member managed a truly spectacular own goal, splintered his domestic bliss, & in the process, united the world for a day.
On popular request, I shall now recreate the livetweet thread from that day
So gather around children, for this is the tale of The Rice Truck Saga
On popular request, I shall now recreate the livetweet thread from that day
So gather around children, for this is the tale of The Rice Truck Saga
November 24, 2025 at 1:19 AM
This is right up there with Tom Holland's "Umbrella" lip sync performance. When it comes up in your feed you must stop what you're doing and indulge.
I don't make the rules.
I don't make the rules.
I can’t decide whether I need to watch it again immediately or sit and stare at the wall for an hour (complimentary). Gorgeous and unsettling filmmaking from Lily, as usual.
It's also, of course, on Nebula, where there's no sponsor segment interrupting the ending, and where I got to deploy the sickest needle drop of my whole career
Lily Alexandre — The Psychic Burden of Being Watched
“Look for anything in your surroundings that appears disturbed, out of place or odd. Be wary of anything with an inexplicable hole in it.”
nebula.tv
November 23, 2025 at 8:21 PM
I can’t decide whether I need to watch it again immediately or sit and stare at the wall for an hour (complimentary). Gorgeous and unsettling filmmaking from Lily, as usual.
Look at this glorious bastard.
November 23, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Look at this glorious bastard.
Reposted by Sparks
"a technology that emerged against an ongoing denial of collective trauma, adapted to a historic moment in ways that persist beyond it"
What was ChatGPT? Now nearly three years old, we can look at OpenAI's LLM as a product of its time, optimized ever since to its earliest uses. While this period of deep disorientation and social isolation has been obscured from public memory, it remains embedded within the interface.
What Was ChatGPT?
A Chatbot Optimized for Social Distance
Three years after the launch of ChatGPT, we can finally speak in hindsight about what it was and how it came to be. Its meteoric rise shocked the world, gather...
mail.cyberneticforests.com
November 23, 2025 at 3:18 PM
"a technology that emerged against an ongoing denial of collective trauma, adapted to a historic moment in ways that persist beyond it"
Reposted by Sparks
this is how you lose the dish war
November 22, 2025 at 4:22 PM
this is how you lose the dish war
Attempted to make rough puff pastry and accidentally tapped a deep well of rage I didn’t realize I’d been suppressing. 🫠
November 21, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Attempted to make rough puff pastry and accidentally tapped a deep well of rage I didn’t realize I’d been suppressing. 🫠
Reposted by Sparks
If you aren’t willing to publicly embarrass yourself by loving something but being bad at it and doing it anyway, then you should shut up, probably
November 21, 2025 at 4:52 PM
If you aren’t willing to publicly embarrass yourself by loving something but being bad at it and doing it anyway, then you should shut up, probably
Reposted by Sparks
This week I want to hold in mind some work that I love, as inspiration and guide. I’m reposting a love letter to the precarious objects of Chilean poet and artist Cecilia Vicuña.
salrandolph.substack.com/p/cecilia-vi...
salrandolph.substack.com/p/cecilia-vi...
Cecilia Vicuña's Precarios
Considering what it means to hold a work of art in memory
salrandolph.substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:53 PM
This week I want to hold in mind some work that I love, as inspiration and guide. I’m reposting a love letter to the precarious objects of Chilean poet and artist Cecilia Vicuña.
salrandolph.substack.com/p/cecilia-vi...
salrandolph.substack.com/p/cecilia-vi...
Reposted by Sparks
I don’t want to seem out of touch but I don’t actually understand the economy anymore.
November 18, 2025 at 3:23 AM
I don’t want to seem out of touch but I don’t actually understand the economy anymore.
Reposted by Sparks
i will never forgive sam altman for how much damage he’s inflicted upon the em dash enjoyer community
November 17, 2025 at 5:52 AM
i will never forgive sam altman for how much damage he’s inflicted upon the em dash enjoyer community
Reposted by Sparks
For @vittles.bsky.social, I wrote about what happens food photography - a practice steeped in stagecraft - meets the synthetic horrors of AI images. Gorgeous original illustration by Ibrahim Rayintakath. www.vittlesmagazine.com/p/you-want-t...
'You want to imagine what this tastes like? Fuck you, says AI'
Georgina Voss on how AI-generated images impact the way we look at photographs of food. Illustration by Ibrahim Rayintakath.
www.vittlesmagazine.com
November 17, 2025 at 10:42 AM
For @vittles.bsky.social, I wrote about what happens food photography - a practice steeped in stagecraft - meets the synthetic horrors of AI images. Gorgeous original illustration by Ibrahim Rayintakath. www.vittlesmagazine.com/p/you-want-t...
Reposted by Sparks
Reposted by Sparks
For the fifty billionth time: I don't want society to shut down. I want you to mask at the fucking hospital, bus, airport, school, and grocery store, if you can.
If you cannot, I want everyone else to, to protect you.
If you cannot, I want everyone else to, to protect you.
November 16, 2025 at 4:58 AM
For the fifty billionth time: I don't want society to shut down. I want you to mask at the fucking hospital, bus, airport, school, and grocery store, if you can.
If you cannot, I want everyone else to, to protect you.
If you cannot, I want everyone else to, to protect you.
Reposted by Sparks
Alice is the gold standard of what Twitter was when it was great - how you could just find these brilliant, remarkable people with the kind of voices that rarely get platformed or taken seriously, and hear about their lives in their own words without intruding on them or demanding emotional labor
Watching disabled people around the world mourn Alice is a reminder of the good aspect of the internet. 30 years ago, few people outside of SF would ever have known Alice existed. I never would have met her. The internet connected us all. Let’s honor Alice’s memory by using that power and community.
My social media is wall-to-wall love for the incomparable Alice Wong, and I need more words. What captures sadness and/also affection for a community that knows what's been lost?
November 16, 2025 at 5:29 AM
Alice is the gold standard of what Twitter was when it was great - how you could just find these brilliant, remarkable people with the kind of voices that rarely get platformed or taken seriously, and hear about their lives in their own words without intruding on them or demanding emotional labor
Reposted by Sparks
Some inspiring words on cinema in the streaming era from the Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
November 15, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Some inspiring words on cinema in the streaming era from the Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
Reposted by Sparks
From masks & wider public health to virtual meeting options, sure is hard to get square with how fully & fundamentally this society has toddler-screamed "NO!" at everything that made things even marginally more accessible in the early days of this pandemic because thinking about it makes them scared
August 14, 2025 at 8:54 PM
From masks & wider public health to virtual meeting options, sure is hard to get square with how fully & fundamentally this society has toddler-screamed "NO!" at everything that made things even marginally more accessible in the early days of this pandemic because thinking about it makes them scared
Reposted by Sparks
Give me the gift of Twenty Five Airplane Bottles of Malort this Christmas. You surely will not regret leaving me unsupervised with Twenty Five Airplane Bottles of Malort
November 15, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Give me the gift of Twenty Five Airplane Bottles of Malort this Christmas. You surely will not regret leaving me unsupervised with Twenty Five Airplane Bottles of Malort
Reposted by Sparks
"Malort advent calendar" is already such an unhinged concept but every little window just having Malort in it really pushes it over the edge into something transcendently funny
November 15, 2025 at 12:54 AM
"Malort advent calendar" is already such an unhinged concept but every little window just having Malort in it really pushes it over the edge into something transcendently funny
Reposted by Sparks
THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent sheep I have met on walks.
You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.
You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.
November 14, 2025 at 9:48 AM
THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent sheep I have met on walks.
You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.
You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.
Reposted by Sparks
“Don’t let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.”
November 15, 2025 at 6:15 AM
“Don’t let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.”
Reposted by Sparks
like, sure, you CAN dose your foot with two orders of magnitude more x-ray beam than is needed for the job, or you can bear the inconvenience of taking your shoe off to measure it
November 14, 2025 at 3:14 PM
like, sure, you CAN dose your foot with two orders of magnitude more x-ray beam than is needed for the job, or you can bear the inconvenience of taking your shoe off to measure it
Reposted by Sparks
PORN IS ART, PORN IS GOOD, PEOPLE MAKING PORN IS A SIGN OF A HEALTHY SOCIETY
There has been a noticeable reticence in left and liberal circles to voice full-throated support for pornography, even as it's become increasingly clear what the open end goals of the censorship movement are
In a lot of ways other leftists chose this path folks. They shrugged and didn’t care when Patreon banned a ton of hypnosis and TF creators, or when YouTube started their ASMR crackdown. Now it’s coming for queer porn creators, more and more. Who will stand up?
November 13, 2025 at 11:59 PM
PORN IS ART, PORN IS GOOD, PEOPLE MAKING PORN IS A SIGN OF A HEALTHY SOCIETY
Reposted by Sparks
When you don't have time for the full freakout
November 13, 2025 at 11:09 PM
When you don't have time for the full freakout