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Dan Lockton

@danlockton.com

2K followers 5.9K following 4.7K posts

Utrecht, Netherlands + Norwich, UK Director of the new Institute for Sustainable Worlds, Norwich University of the Arts ⦿ Design—imagination—climate—futures ⦿ Imaginaries Lab http://imaginari.es ⦿ New Metaphors http://newmetaphors.com ⦿ he/him

imaginari.es

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Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · Mar 27

What should an 'Institute for Sustainable Worlds' do?

I wrote some initial thoughts about what we're trying at Norwich University of the Arts: architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2025/03/26/c...

A view towards Agricultural Hall Plain, Norwich, from the top floor of 20 Bank Plain. It is a misty morning with the sun visible through the mist. Cars are queuing to cross a junction with a Boer War memorial of a bronze angel on it.

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Reposted by Dan Lockton

Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · 40m

I'm workshopping my AI & Society course for next semester, and in particular what I've been calling the "conscientious objector" path through the class (though I've given it another name). Thoughts?

Alternative Engagement Pathway: This course recognizes that learning about artificial intelligence involves both using the technology and thinking critically about when, why, and whether to use it. Students may hold different values, comfort levels, or ethical positions regarding direct engagement with AI tools. They will be encouraged to explore and articulate these positions, and out of respect for their ultimate decisions, this course offers an Alternative Engagement Pathway for assignments that involve using generative AI. These alternative assignments will allow students to meet the same learning outcomes through analytical, observational, or reflective work rather than direct tool use.

Generative AI Reflection Project
Throughout the semester, you will engage in a sustained exploration of how generative AI tools fit into your own life (as helpers, collaborators, or maybe frustrations). You’ll select one or more everyday or academic activities where you can experiment with AI (for example: task management, brainstorming, organizing, coding, studying, or artistic creation), and you will also compare AI use versus doing tasks on your own. Over the course of the semester, you’ll keep a reflective journal documenting your process, outcomes, and insights about what AI can and can’t do well. (Note: The activities you choose cannot be related to your other coursework unless generative AI use is explicitly allowed and articulated in a syllabus statement that can be verified.)

The goal is not necessarily to help you use AI “better” but to think critically and concretely about when AI actually adds value, when it falls short, and what ethical and personal considerations shape those boundaries for you.

The alternative engagement pathway for this project will have you take on the role of a critical observer, where you analyze AI outputs created by others. This path invites you to investigate how AI functions and impacts human work without personally integrating it into your own tasks.

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Reposted by Dan Lockton

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 8h

It is laughable to think that you can neuter the far right with minor tweaks like this.

How many Conservative or Reform supporters even know that immigrants have to pass a language test? They object to immigration on emotional grounds, not because they have dry objections to eligibility criteria.

To ensure graduates contribute effectively to the economy, the maximum post-study stay will be reduced to 18 months from the current 2 years for most from 1 January 2027. It comes after data clearly showed that many holders had not transitioned into graduate-level employment as intended.
Finance requirements for student visas will also be increased for the 2025 to 2026 academic year, meaning foreign students will have to demonstrate they have sufficient funds to support themselves.

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Reposted by Dan Lockton

Sarah Brin @verybrinteresting.bsky.social · 8d

Should we be doing AI scam drills with the older people in our lives? Like when you work at a company and IT sends you fake phishing emails?

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Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 1d

Register: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/designing-... (choose "Please select this ticket type if you are a member of the Norwich alumni community or an industry partner")

Designing Sustainable Worlds

Seminar no. 1: Creative Futures in Education

www.eventbrite.co.uk

Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 1d

Join us online on Wed 22 Oct for 'Creative Futures in Education'. We have three amazing speakers: educator-researchers engaging with #futures:

↠ Grace Turtle (Monstrous Futurities, Sandberg Inst)
↠ Christian Petersen (Norwich University of the Arts)
↠ shobhan s (Purdue University & slowstudio)

A banner for the event with the same details as the post, plus photos of the speakers and their / their students' work

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Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 6d

a seattle is a turtle with a little sofa on its back

Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 6d

As far as I can tell, there’ve been two (or maybe three) different Peak brands in British petrol station history — the current Derbyshire firm is the longest-lived! www.flickr.com/photos/danlo...

Peak, Brassington nr Wirksworth, Derbyshire, 1993

Peak Oils (difficult to search for!) are still going: www.peakoil.co.uk They were Texaco distributors.

www.flickr.com

Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 6d

A very niche post for the #petrocultures historians of East Anglia, but I thought it was interesting to see “carless” as an intentional typo on the Hiscox advert, as I headed on the train towards Harwich,where for 60 years the Carless name hasn’t been a typo at all

The interior of a Greater Anglia class 745 train with the destination “Next station: Manningtree” on the display. An advert for Hiscox insurance intentionally includes the typo “carless” instead of “careless”

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Reposted by Dan Lockton

👻madeline boOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 6d

the answer to the trolley problem is not to pick who to sacrifice, it’s to dismantle the system that led to an unsafe trolley crossing.

if any part of your morality strategy involves picking a group to let die on a hill, throw the entire strategy out. it’s wrong.

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Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 6d

pretty sure the name Zafira has an Arabic origin

Reposted by Dan Lockton

Toby Earle 🇺🇦 @tobyontv.bsky.social · 7d

if you’ve ever watched the apprentice, that’s the world without arts or humanities degrees

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Petra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 7d

With yet another university hosted event closed to 'non academics' (aka those not employed by a university)* I'm just going to leave this piece by @drhelenkara.bsky.social and myself here blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

* yes I know it's utter nonsense and academics/researchers exist outside unis

Institutional affiliation should not be a requirement for doing research - Impact of Social Sciences

Universities espouse a universalist approach to creating research-based knowledge. Helen Kara & Petra Boynton argue, from the outside these claims are hollow.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

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Bloody Mary (mirror entity, not cocktail) @marygillis.bsky.social · 8d

Social media is a utility that should not be owned by private, for-profit companies run by random people who routinely go insane. It should be a publicly owned service, like the post office.

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Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 9d

Not convinced that this is really a safe crossing design. At this moment cars from the right have a green light, but because the wait is so long, and the cars on the left are visibly stopped by a red light, pedestrians decide it's probably? safe to cross. Just terrible design.

A large group of pedestrians and someone on a bike crossing the road when the "red man" figure is showing. Norwich.

Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 9d

is there anything in "repetitive beasts" as a misreading? A smiley-face t-shirted monster crying, in handcuffs, being led away by police as it apologises for telling the same story again :/

Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 9d

also: it's a shame the article does not even mention the effects of interaction design and the digital context, which have completely changed what the field of design is, the ways in which people encounter and use it in everyday life, and the corporate power structures that wield it as a tool

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Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 9d

There's definitely a lot here—but I'd argue that the "strange situation in which young designers are situated between activism, performative gesture and a residual urge to create" is exactly because they recognise that design as only "a tool to improve lives" was a naïve approach to "social purpose"

Edwin Heathcote @edwinheathcote.bsky.social · 11d

on.ft.com/46M9mXI Why designers abandoned their dreams of changing the world. Free to Read.

Why designers abandoned their dreams of changing the world

Design was once seen as a tool to improve lives — but as modernism has become marketing, that sense of social purpose has drifted away

on.ft.com

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Reposted by Dan Lockton

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 11d

New preprint 🌟 Psychology is core to cognitive science, and so it is vital we preserve it from harmful frames. @irisvanrooij.bsky.social & I use our psych and computer science expertise to analyse and craft:

Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. doi.org/10.31234/osf...

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Cover page of Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025, October 4). Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dkrgj_v1

Table 1 Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025, October 4). Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dkrgj_v1

Table 2 Guest, O., & van Rooij, I. (2025, October 4). Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Psychologists. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dkrgj_v1

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Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 10d

The “LLM AIs are actually people and you mustn’t bully them” thing is like instituting a full murder investigation into that train that got walled up in Thomas the Tank Engine because it had a face on it.

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Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 11d

Billionaires want the worst of the past (college as failson playground) with the worst of the future (everything must be private equity)

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Reposted by Dan Lockton

Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 11d

people who would sacrifice the human rights of others will get people already in the tent killed

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Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 17d

boss: you get that new john cage record for me?
me: sure did boss, just like you asked

a blank (ungrooved) side of a record on a turntable

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Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 23d

sounds like leave [to remain] doesn't mean leave [to remain]

Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 23d

Play with materials and methods designed to help you…

- Surface worldviews
- Facilitate collective imagination
- Stay with the trouble
- Unmake systems
- Embrace ambiguity

… in settings ranging from classrooms to societal dialogues.

Dan Lockton @danlockton.com · 23d

If you're in #Utrecht, come along on Friday 26 September for the launch of the Library for Transformative Play @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social

More info / register: unusualcollaborations.ewuu.nl/agenda/playi...

26/09/25, 12:00–14:00
The Playground, Vening Meinesz C Building
Utrecht University

Join us for an open jam with the newly launched…
Library for
Transformative Play
26th September 2025, 12:00–14:00
The Playground — Vening Meinesz C Building
Utrecht University
—Open to all, with free food and drinks
—Chance to take home a Roles and Relics game!
Come play with materials and methods
designed to help you…
Surface worldviews
Facilitate collective
imagination
Stay with the trouble
Unmake systems
Embrace ambiguity
… in settings ranging from classrooms
to societal dialogues.
The library is the result of a four-year
project funded by the Centre for
Unusual Collaborations: Playing with
the Trouble,with Raimon Ripoll Bosch,
Jet Vervoort, Maikel Waardenburg, Dan
Lockton, Josie Chambers, Jessica
Duncan, Joost Vervoort, Joyce Browne,
and Danvy Vu.
Contact: j.m.chambers@uu.nl

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