Inside-Out
Phenomenal World
Renewable energy, the future of mining, and the re-localization of harm
Francis Tseng
Recent Posts
Writing
Covid-19 made 'unthinkable' reforms a reality in the US – now make them stick
The Guardian
On Covid-19 emergency responses that point towards long-standing radical demands
The Art of the Meta-Scam
Rhizome
Can the momentum of institutional scams be used against them?
Decentralize What?
Phenomenal World
What do technologists mean by decentralization?
Who Owns the Stars: The Trouble with Urbit
Distributed Web of Care
A look at p2p, ownership, sovereignty, and a troubling political philosopher
The World Any Other Way: Simulation and the Expansion of Political Possibility
The V-A-C Foundation: Time, Forward!, 58th Venice Biennale
The counterfactual politics of simulation, inspired by radical cartography
Monkeywrenching the Machine
Logic
Sabotage in the age of machine learning
Particular Universals
The New Inquiry
An interview with Helen Hester on Xenofeminism
Work
-
Half-Earth Socialism
game, simulation
A planning game that accompanied the book, Half-Earth Socialism, by Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettesse. Play as a planetary planner and guide the world into ecological utopia...or nightmarish ruin. Includes a simple planetary economic model which calculates resource impacts and GHG emissions from production. View the trailer; See here for a full list of credits.
-
dust
music, composition, tool
A terminal application for assisted chord progression composition. Helps with "blank canvas syndrome". Outputs MIDI so can be used to drive a DAW (tested with Live 11).
-
Journalism Ecosystem Model
journalism, simulation
A model of journalism and social media, considering publisher motivations, attention, media literacy, and values. Developed as part of a project with The New School's Journalism+Design program.
-
News Desert Model
journalism, simulation
A model of how "news deserts" can form, based on publisher motivations, wealth distribution, bankruptices, consolidation, and subsidies. Developed as part of a project with The New School's Journalism+Design program.
-
"The Hate Store: Amazon’s Self-Publishing Arm Is a Haven for White Supremacists"
research, data collection, data analysis
Research and analysis for a piece by Ava Kofman & Moira Weigel on Amazon's use as a publishing platform for white supremacists.
-
doma.play
housing markets, game, simulation
A game and simulation of housing markets in fictional cities. The cities can be designed with an included web tool. This is a multiplayer experience to contrast how housing affordability evolves with the dominant landlord model vs a proposed co-ownership alternative. Made for DOMA.
-
hyperdocs
tool, p2p
A proof-of-concept for p2p collaborative text editing using the Dat protocol, so groups can work together without relying on Google. Currently only supports plain text editing; rich text support is experimental/unstable
-
cell.farm
blockchain, simulation
A whitepaper describing a collective computing project for the atomic simulation of a single human cell and distributing subsequent medical research revenue, w/ Sean Raspet for Rhizome's Seven-on-Seven (2018, NYC)
-
Transit Demand Simulation
transit, simulation
A transit demand model for the Institute for Applied Economic Research, part of the PolicySpace model. Simulates public transit and private vehicle usage given a city's GTFS feed and available OpenStreetMap data
-
PolicySpace
economics, geospatial, simulation
An open agent-based model with three markets and a tax scheme that empirically simulates 46 Brazilian metropolitan regions, developed with Bernardo Furtado at the Institute for Applied Economic Research.
-
Bail Bloc
crypto, blockchain, abolition
A Monero miner for using excess computing power and crypto-speculation to collectively post bail for low-income people, developed with Grayson Earle, Maya Binyam, JB Rubinovitz, Sam Lavigne, Rachel Rosenfelt, Madeleine Varner, Devin Kenny, and the rest of Dark Inquiry. Download here
-
Cybernetics Conference
conference
A conference and library in NYC, 11/18/2017, on cybernetics, informatic systems, and social organization; organized with Sam Hart, Melanie Hoff, Sarah Hamerman, David Isaac Hecht, Dan Taeyoung, Charles Eppley, and Alexis Convento
-
White Collar Crime Risk Zones
prediction, crime
A predictive policing app for white collar crime. "Unlike typical predictive policing apps which criminalize poverty, White Collar Crime Risk Zones criminalizes wealth." Collab w/ Sam Lavigne & Brian Clifton for The New Inquiry
-
Speculating Futures
reading list
A reading list around speculative fiction, technology, and politics
-
Humans of Simulated New York
simulation
A participative agent-based economic simulation for speculating alternative economies, w/ Fei Liu
-
The Founder
video game
A dystopian business simulator - found a startup, pursue unbounded growth, and accidentally dystopia. Play here
-
AI Notes
notes
A large set of notes introducing people with modest math backgrounds to artificial intelligence
-
Designing Digital Communities
notes, teaching
Digital community design notes for the Coral Project and taught as a New School Journalism+Design course
-
News Automata
teaching
A New School Journalism+Design course on journalism, algorithms, and automation
-
Machine Learning for Artists Guides
guides, teaching, machine learning
A collection of introductory machine learning guides, w/ Gene Kogan
-
Serve the People
music video
The video for Handsome Furs' "Serve the People", from their album Sound Kapital (Sub Pop)
Previously
- Rhizome Seven-on-Seven (2018, Beijing) participant
- Fellow at the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) working on spatial economic simulation and transit demand modeling
- Rhizome Seven-on-Seven (2018, NYC) participant
- Part-time faculty at The New School, teaching about simulation, systems thinking, and game design
- Co-publisher of The New Inquiry
- Artist-in-Residence at SFPC
- Researcher-in-Residence at NEW INC
- IdeasCity Athens fellow
- DBRS Innovation Labs Researcher-in-Residence
- Knight-Mozilla OpenNews Fellow at The New York Times/Washington Post/The Coral Project
- Visiting faculty at the New School's Design+Journalism program (Fall 2014, Fall 2015)
- Knight Foundation Prototype Fund grantee
- Interaction designer & developer at IDEO