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Andrew Kingston

@harlequindork.bsky.social

97 followers 110 following 30 posts

Assistant professor of humanities and literature, dark-sky conservationist, amateur photographer, aspiring birder. Researching the aesthetics of the night. Based in Maine. Opinions my own. andrewkingston.name flickr.com/photos/201528723@N08

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Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · 21d

I wrote a piece for the Oxford Literary Review's online supplement on the cultural significance of darkness and how our relationship to the night has changed in modern times—from theology and poetry to the Copernican Revolution and the proliferation of light pollution in the contemporary world.

Jonathan Basile @jonothingeb.bsky.social · 23d

A special autumnal equinox edition of The OLR Supplement: @hantologique.bsky.social on darkness and the night sky, from St. John of the Cross and the Tao Te Ching to Pascal, Trakl, and contemporary science and technology - What has "Enlightenment" cost us? olrsupplement.com/2025/09/22/p...

Plus de lumière: A Few Words on Darkness - The OLR Supplement

For the Autumnal Equinox, a reflection on the night sky, the stars and their disappearance in religion, poetry, philosophy, science, and technology

olrsupplement.com

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Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · 4h

I'm drowning in a sea of thinkpieces on AI, but I really liked this one, on how big databases tend to homogenize knowledge, effacing traditional and indigenous ways of thinking. Reminds me of Lyotard's ideas about how the criterion for knowledge in postmodernity becomes efficiency rather than truth.

Aeon Magazine @aeon.co · 2d

The training data for generative AI is far from the sum total of human knowledge. As well as oral cultures, many languages are absent, creating significant blindspots in AI’s understanding of human experience

Generative AI has access to a small slice of human knowledge | Aeon Essays

Huge swathes of human knowledge are missing from the internet. By definition, generative AI is shockingly ignorant too

buff.ly

Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · 1d

Semipalmated Plover
#photography #instantfilm #birding #migration

Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · 2d

this will be my vibe all winter

The Birdist @thebirdist.bsky.social · 2d

Me seawatching, squinting into the eyepiece of my crappy scope with getting blasted directly in the face by a nor’easter: uhhhh there’s, like, a … gull

Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · 2d

#photography #instantfilm

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Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · 15d

broken telephone pole
#photography

Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · 17d

The northern lights with the Pleiades
#photography

Reposted by Andrew Kingston

Ade Martin @ademartindc.bsky.social · 19d

Good morning everyone. Today, in "One day, one paper", US coastal radar shows offshore bird migration is 13-20% lower and more concentrated (fewer peak nights) than terrestrial migration. These patterns enable dynamic conservation, like targeted wind turbine curtailment, to mitigate collision risk 🌎

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Andrew Kingston

Ben Lockwood, PhD @benlockwood.bsky.social · 19d

Also: journalists, writers, philosophers, and others working at the nature-society interface 👇

Ben Lockwood, PhD @benlockwood.bsky.social · 19d

A new feed for those working at the intersection of nature and society (ecologists, anthropologists, geographers, sociologists, urban planners, etc.). DM me to be added to the list, then use the 🏡 emoji to post to the feed!

🌎🧪

bsky.app/profile/did:...

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Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · 20d

a group of vultures is called a "kettle" if it's flying, a "committee" if it's landed, and a"wake" if it's feeding.
#photography #birding

Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · 21d

@darkskyintl.bsky.social
#darkskies #discoverthenight #astronomy #philosophy #poetry

Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · 21d

Jonathan Basile @jonothingeb.bsky.social · 23d

Plus de lumière: A Few Words on Darkness - The OLR Supplement

For the Autumnal Equinox, a reflection on the night sky, the stars and their disappearance in religion, poetry, philosophy, science, and technology

olrsupplement.com

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Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · 23d

Sewage plumage
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘A mythical place’: how a Melbourne sewage farm became a haven for 300 species of birds

The abundance of birdlife amid the grassy plains, marshlands and 200 lagoons of the Western Treatment Plant rivals Kakadu – and is a magnet for birdwatchers

www.theguardian.com

Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · 23d

at the Common Ground Fair in Unity, ME

Reposted by Andrew Kingston

Jonathan Basile @jonothingeb.bsky.social · 26d

From @auralflaneur.bsky.social - what can Foucault's prison activism and Derrida's anti-Apartheid advocacy tell us about lived experience testimony in the fight to abolish modern day slavery? olrsupplement.com/2025/09/19/l...

Lived Experience Testimony and Engaged Intellectuals - The OLR Supplement

Re-thinks the practice and policy surrounding lived experience testimony, drawing on Foucault and Derrida's activism

olrsupplement.com

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Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · 25d

digital double negative on instax film
#photography #instantfilm

Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · Aug 16

collage
#photography

Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · Aug 11

The non-profit I work with recently recognized Bowdoin College for installing DarkSky-approved lighting on their athletic fields. I hope other colleges follow suit!
#darksky #savethenight
www.ellsworthamerican.com/announcement...

Surry nonprofit presents Starry Skies Award to Bowdoin College

BRUNSWICK — Dark Sky Maine, a Surry-based nonprofit, recently gave Bowdoin College its Starry Skies Award for the responsible lighting design of its athletic fields.

www.ellsworthamerican.com

Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · Jul 30

in Acadia National Park
Sony a6300, TTArtisan 35mm f/1.4, instax film
#photography #instantfilm #hiking #nationalparks

Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · Jul 21

rocks, trees, #ICM lights
a6300, TTArtisan 35mm f/1.4, digital double exposure, instax film scan, cropped
#photography #abstract #instantfilm

Reposted by Andrew Kingston

Nereide @drnereide.bsky.social · Jul 15

🧵
On 14 July 2025, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration announced to have detected GW231123, a gravitational wave signal generated by the merger of the two most massive black holes ever observed.

With masses of approximately 100 and 140 times that of the Sun, these cosmic giants

🔭 🧪 #cosmology

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Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · Jul 15

ghost trees
Sony a6300, TTArtisan 35mm f/1.4, digital double exposure, instax film
#photography #nature #instantfilm

Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · Jul 13

Sony a6300, Samyang 12mm f/2, instax film
#photography #instantfilm

Reposted by Andrew Kingston

Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · Jul 6

July 5 - 6 is World Firefly Day! Like a lot of insects fireflies are threatened by our actions. 🧪🐡Check out fireflyersinternational.net to find out how you can help gather data on these magical animals & help scientists track their populations.

My #linocut print shows 3 fireflies (Photinus pyralis,

My linocut showing 3 fireflies in green grass against a dark blue starry sky. Each firefly has orange on its upper body and its lower body is surrounded by a globe of light to show it is glowing, printed in glow in the dark ink.

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Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · Jul 10

3.2-second exposure of lights reflected in water, looks like mountains
Sony a6300, TTArtisan 35mm f/1.4
#photography #ICM

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Andrew Kingston @harlequindork.bsky.social · Jul 10

Interesting stuff. I wonder what a similar study might show with regard to how artificial lighting practices driven by social and economic demands in urban areas have affected nocturnal evolutionary trends over the last century or two.

Erle Ellis @erleellis.bsky.social · Jul 10

Religion, politics & war shape wildlife evolution in cities
🙏🦌🌎🌐
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Legacy effects of religion, politics and war on urban evolutionary biology

Nature Cities - Cities affect biological evolution, but traditionally researchers focus on the biophysical influence of urban environments. Instead, this Review explores how the social processes of...