Do Not Research

Do Not Research is a multidisciplinary publication exploring contemporary issues through art, essays, and analyses. It covers internet culture, digital and political art, technology's impact on society, and the evolving relationship between humans and digital media. Themes include the critique of consumer culture, digital legacy, and speculative futures.

Internet Culture Digital Art Technology and Society Consumerism Mental Health Political Art Digital Legacy Speculative Futures Environmental Impact of Technology Human-Computer Interaction

The hottest Substack posts of Do Not Research

And their main takeaways

Do Not Research: Over-Hyphenated Platform Capitalism Futures

0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
🕹 Technology AI Blockchain Cryptocurrency Virtual reality Digital Platforms
  1. Participants in a reading-group meeting created speculative scenarios based on the themes of Platform Capitalism.
  2. The scenarios included themes like post-capitalism, decentralized protection, and even an AI ending capitalism.
  3. The speculative scenarios portrayed a future where technology, AI, and social structures intertwine in complex and sometimes dystopian ways.

DJ Meisner: Burning Houses and How to Paint Them

0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Visual art Emotions Creativity Literature
  1. Discussion on various topics like supply chain issues affecting medication availability, AI in drone strikes, therapy for mental health, and personal experiences.
  2. Reflections on art, vulnerability, and how creative expressions can capture intense emotions and loneliness.
  3. Exploration of complex societal issues like surveillance, mental health, climate change, and capitalism, leading to introspection and unanswered questions.

Erik Simkins

0 implied HN points • 15 Sep 21
🎭️ Culture Art Social media Aesthetics Self-help Community
  1. Economic pressures, mismatched art institutions' values, and lack of political agency outlets can lead people to social media for expression.
  2. A posting style like STARSEED phenomenon can bypass platform moderation while conveying messages without direct political claims.
  3. Content encouraging gains-seeking can be redirected for community benefit, highlighting the importance of strength-building strategies in different contexts.

Do Not Research: Lindy

0 implied HN points • 21 Jun 21
🎙 Podcasts Discussion Interview
  1. The podcast discusses the 'Lindy Effect' and why you should eat 36 raw eggs a day.
  2. David Y, Holly, and Margo from the DNR community researchers are part of the discussion.
  3. The post emphasizes the importance of understanding the Lindy Effect.

Sean Kennedy: Interfaces for Dead Dreams

0 implied HN points • 19 Oct 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Digital Art Sculptures Architecture Capitalism American culture
  1. America is depicted in various ways in art and culture, showcasing the complexity and diversity of the country's landscapes and people.
  2. Interfaces for Dead Dreams is a collection of digital sculptures representing an evolving America, blending old architectural elements with modern digital techniques.
  3. The sculptures in the series highlight the changing priorities of American capitalism, shifting from beauty and longevity to efficiency and cost cutting, reflecting the eras they represent.
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Breadtube Glossary

0 implied HN points • 18 Mar 21
🎭️ Culture Internet culture Media Analysis Influencers Political Commentary
  1. Breadtube emerged after the 2016 election and features video essays as a quick way to share key political ideas.
  2. There are various video essay types within Breadtube, including slideshows, theatrical videos, and streamed lectures.
  3. Breadtube personalities encompass characteristics like Theater Kid Energy, Cross-platform Influencers, and the process of Deradicalising.

Hamzat Raheem: Nude Self Portrait (DNR Mode)

0 implied HN points • 16 Oct 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Visual art
  1. The post is about a nude self-portrait by Hamzat Raheem in DNR Mode, created in 2022.
  2. The self-portrait has a unique approach and style, as it is depicted in a DNR Mode.
  3. The post encourages sharing on various platforms like Facebook and Email, indicating that the content is meant to be spread and discussed.

Max Dauven: Esoteric Memes

0 implied HN points • 15 Oct 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Memes Photography Abstract
  1. Max Dauven explores the visual language of memes through a photographic perspective
  2. The showcased artworks form a triptych depicting abstracted memetic symbols from the esoteric and spiritual meme subculture
  3. The pieces include 'Samsara Wheel,' 'Allegory of the Cave,' and 'Pondering / My green Pill,' all presented in inkjet-print with black aluminum frames

Reuben Dendinger: Review of Gillian Wearing: Wearing Masks

0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibition Identity Postmodernism Social Commentary
  1. Gillian Wearing's art explores individual self-expression, but it also raises questions about collective identity and political content.
  2. The postmodern period's emphasis on fluid identity and masks reflects a shift towards extreme individualism and consumer-focused culture.
  3. Wearing's work challenges the depoliticized view of identity and highlights the importance of recognizing class-based exploitation and collective struggle.

Rachel Jackson: Chris Chan’s Gift to Mia Hamm: No More Virgin With Rage

0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
🎭️ Culture Internet culture Art History
  1. Chris Chan's gift to Mia Hamm to end his 'virgin with rage' status was unique and detailed, showcasing his unusual taste.
  2. The existence of the gift basket itself serves as a mysterious, tangible symbol of an event in Chris Chan's life recorded only in text.
  3. The attempt to recreate the gift's physical form on a 3D printed bowl highlights the challenges and distortions in translating virtual items to reality.

Do Not Research: Bang Reviews

0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
🎭️ Culture Reviews
  1. The post is about 'Do Not Research: Bang Reviews' by Donotresearch on Substack.
  2. The post was shared multiple times on various platforms like Facebook and email.
  3. The main focus seems to be directing readers to the Donotresearch Substack account.

S. Posner: The Perils of Decentralization: The Internet-as-Protocol

0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
🕹 Technology Decentralization Digital control
  1. The internet's decentralization has given rise to a method of control called Protocol, which has allowed tech giants like Google and Facebook to exert significant influence over user behaviors by subtly shaping beliefs and actions.
  2. The concept of Protocol has extended beyond the digital realm into real-world applications, leading to a shift from traditional forms of control to more flexible, adaptive systems that govern various aspects of society.
  3. Algorithms and self-modifying mechanisms within decentralized networks, orchestrated by companies such as Google and Facebook, have enabled precise monitoring and manipulation of user behavior, contributing to a vision of totalizing control within the digital landscape.

News/Acc: News. Accelerated.

0 implied HN points • 15 Sep 21
📰 News Media Analysis
  1. News/Acc provides a quick overview of corporate media messaging without getting caught up in any propaganda, typically not taking longer than 5 minutes.
  2. The project was made possible by the support, encouragement, and enthusiasm of the DNR community.
  3. You can stay updated with News/Acc on their Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter accounts.

Any Angel: People, Grass Clippings, Even Manure

0 implied HN points • 15 Sep 21
🕹 Technology AI Artificial Intelligence
  1. The conversation 'People, Grass Clippings, Even Manure' is an illustrated video transcript based on an essay by Vilem Flusser. It was generated using GPT3 and narrated by a text-to-speech engine.
  2. GPT3 is an autoregressive language model created by Open AI in 2020. It can produce text that closely resembles human writing.
  3. The illustrations accompanying the conversation were created by the artist using Art Breeder.

David Noel: Loli No Knock

0 implied HN points • 20 Apr 21
🎨 Art & Illustration Visual art Narrative Digital Art
  1. David Noel is exploring an emergent warrior culture with a focus on firearms and tactical equipment through a visual narrative.
  2. He has been collecting thousands of images from online spaces to share on social media since 2018.
  3. The video 'UtopiaExit.mov' is a key part of his re-presentation of these images based on his experiences as a veteran and online gun community participant.

Jak Ritger: The MLM Project Log 1: What is Multi-level Marketing?

0 implied HN points • 19 Mar 21
💼 Business Marketing Capitalism Entrepreneurship Policy Critique
  1. Multi-level Marketing (MLM) relies on a non-salaried workforce to sell products and often results in financial troubles for participants.
  2. Studying MLMs can help critique capitalist structures and push for anti-capitalist actions beyond elitist perspectives.
  3. The aim is to create an off-ramp from MLMs and work towards abolishing this pyramid-shaped industry.

Jak Ritger: The MLM Project Log 3: Zombie Capitalism

0 implied HN points • 19 Mar 21
🎭️ Culture Society Economics Technology History Psychology
  1. MLMs can lead to transformation of social relationships into a zombified version, causing participants to accumulate unsold products, reflecting a zombie form of capital logic.
  2. Historical examples like the Dust Bowl and modern instances like the Human Futures Market show how zombie capital drives extraction beyond limits, resulting in ecological disasters and social anxieties.
  3. MLMs and markets like the Human Futures Market reflect a post-human desire for more accumulation, pushing past logic and exhausting resources.

Any Angel: Realness Scars

0 implied HN points • 15 Oct 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Neural Networks Illustrations Text Simulation
  1. The video essay 'Realness Scars' was written and illustrated by neural networks, with the script by OpenAI's GPT-3 and images by Midjourney.
  2. The text explores a landscape where representation is overshadowed by 'realness scars,' reflecting on traces of simulation absorbed by infrastructures.
  3. The collaboration between AI models like GPT-3 and artists like Midjourney can lead to innovative and thought-provoking creative projects.

Andrea Karch: In de Duysent Vrees (Amid the Thousand Fears)

0 implied HN points • 15 Oct 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Visual art Performance art Political art Cultural critique Film
  1. Andrea Karch's performance explores the connections between neoconservative and liberal critiques, revealing how extreme beliefs thrive on fears of crises and collapse.
  2. The title 'In de Duysent Vrees' references a fabricated enemy that symbolizes racial paranoia, prompting a reflection on the motivations behind embracing drastic political views.
  3. The piece raises questions about the nature of meaningful antifascist movements today and how they could be envisioned.

Matt Shaw: Net Architecture

0 implied HN points • 15 Oct 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Architecture Digital Design Technology
  1. Architecture is evolving with technology like game engines, leading to the emergence of Net Architecture that explores digital social space.
  2. The shift to digital spaces allows for experiencing architecture in new ways, breaking free from physical constraints like gravity and traditional design norms.
  3. Game engines are transforming the architectural landscape by enabling interactive social projects and blurring the lines between representation and reality in online environments.

Laura Gede: Lurker

0 implied HN points • 15 Oct 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Visual art
  1. The post is about Laura Gede and her cyber-existence as a lurker.
  2. The content includes links and shares to the post on different platforms like Facebook and Email.
  3. The post provides a brief guide to Laura Gede's cyber-existence as a lurker.

Nick Vyssotsky: (Cobwebs Spun Back & Forth In The Sky)

0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Social media Digital Art Media Consumption Internet culture
  1. The artwork 'Cobwebs Spun Back & Forth In The Sky' is a montage of videos gathered from social media platforms and set to music from a film.
  2. The artist compiled the videos not purposely, but by liking them on various social media networks, inadvertently creating an archive of their online experiences.
  3. The piece serves as a representation of the artist's online life and the broader internet landscape, revealing how users interpret and create meaning from the content they encounter.

Sam Stewart: Roblox Valkist Visualization

0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Visual art
  1. The post discusses a broad far-right Roblox community faction called the Valkists.
  2. The content is likely about Sam Stewart's 'The Rise and Fall of The American Valkist Party.'
  3. There is a focus on a contextual map detailing the Valkist community within Roblox.

Benjamin Hall: Compasses

0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Interactive art
  1. Compasses is a series of conversations in a videogame with NPCs using political compasses logic and D&D character alignments to explore love, care, and connectivity.
  2. The game was shown at various art festivals in London and Athens, featuring a soundtrack by Ben Boswell-Jones and photogrammetry by Mohamed Abdelaziz.
  3. The immersive experience in Compasses involves interacting with monsters, ghosts, salesmen, and ex-lovers to see how they respond based on player choices.

Trent Crawford & Stanton Cornish-Ward: LOCK

0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Film Digital Media Speculative
  1. LOCK (2021) is a speculative film about decentralized personal-development movements and peer to peer therapy called LOCK.
  2. The film merges film production stock footage with artificial intelligence techniques like DeepFakes, Image Breeding, and SPADE to explore contemporary cinema fueled by web 3.0.
  3. The project aims to spark conversations about digital isolationism, presenting a hybrid reality of decentralized, autonomous, and radicalized individuals through immersive video installations.

Andy Bennett: Subjects and Objects

0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
🎭️ Culture Art Film Literature Psychology
  1. The subject's agency emerges in the space between the individual and the environment, influencing their actions and thoughts.
  2. Objects can influence people through hoarding behaviors, affording actions, and even emotional connections.
  3. Interactions with art and objects can evoke strong physiological and emotional responses, blurring the lines between viewer and artwork or subject and object.

Grace Menninger: Archive at the End of History

0 implied HN points • 15 Sep 21
🎭️ Culture Archives History Literature
  1. Archives hold the voices of the dead, preserving their stories and impact on history.
  2. Archiving involves confronting challenging materials, like racist documents, and making decisions on what to preserve.
  3. The role of an archive is to secure, contain, and protect historical artifacts, preserving them for the future despite the impossibility of saving everything.

Ryan Seffinger: The Creative Spirit and the Horizon of the Possible

0 implied HN points • 15 Sep 21
📖 Philosophy Political Philosophy Social Critique Existentialism
  1. The left must be wary of getting caught up in protests and demands without a clear alternative political-economic model to capitalism.
  2. Engaging with capitalism while criticizing it creates a paradox - we need to deeply understand and question the systems we're part of.
  3. To envision true innovation beyond the constraints of capitalism, we must broaden our collective imagination and seek solutions outside the current system.

Carmelo Pampillonio: Excellent Information: Episodes 4 & 5

0 implied HN points • 15 Sep 21
🎙 Podcasts Internet Conspiracy Content creation Current Events
  1. The podcast 'Excellent Information' explores the connection between internet content creation and conspiratorial thinking, focusing on the shared goal of relevance and entertainment.
  2. Conspiracy content often lacks narrative coherence but utilizes enough rhetorical continuity to captivate listeners, leading them into an impressionable state.
  3. The show features a mix of speakers and experts who interpret current events, offering unique perspectives on our networked future and encouraging listeners to follow along.

Eamon Levesque: Big Game for Someone with Such a Small Truck: Media Conglomerates Vs. Everybody

0 implied HN points • 15 Sep 21
🎭️ Culture Media Entertainment Content Creators
  1. Corporate mottos are often either laughable or unsettling, like Google's 'Don't be Evil' which they eventually dropped.
  2. Media mogul Sumner Redstone's 'Content is King' philosophy was central to his success, reflected in his ruthless acquisitions and control over various industries.
  3. The rise of user-generated content (UGC) poses a threat to traditional media conglomerates, as platforms like YouTube and TikTok excel in personalized, cheaper content delivery.

Ohii Katya: Cannibal Buffet

0 implied HN points • 25 Jan 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Performance art Visual art Experimental
  1. The performance 'Cannibal Buffet' by Ohii Katya showcases a ritual of food consumption that is both erotic and disgusting, unfolding a grotesque story in an abandoned monastery.
  2. The choice of the abandoned monastery as the setting is significant, linking back to ancient pagan rituals associated with cannibalism and the symbolic tradition of eating the body of Christ in Christian churches.
  3. The production credits for 'Cannibal Buffet' include authorship by Ohii Katya, production by Ohii Katya and Oleksandr Radomskyi, costumes by Ohii Katya and Tilde Kay Snyder, performers, and photography contributors.

Erik Simkins: OVERKILL

0 implied HN points • 20 Nov 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Performance Music Video Collaboration Event
  1. A 63-minute audio-video collaboration titled OVERKILL took place in Seattle in 2023 at the old Rainier Brewery, combining music by DJ DataPagan and video editing by 0erik1.
  2. The event featured the work of Carlin Kramer and Emma Wheeler, bridging early and late dance performances in a unique artistic space.
  3. The collaboration showcased a blend of creativity and performance in a visually striking presentation.

DJ Meisner: The Conspiracy was a Resume

0 implied HN points • 16 Nov 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Mixed Media Paintings Contemporary Art
  1. The conspiracy involved connections to Gilead, Searle, and Pfizer, revealing a complex web of pharmaceutical companies.
  2. The artwork and writings explore deep themes like grief, contemporary mythmaking, and the desire for a hopeful future.
  3. The artist's practice has evolved positively, focusing on creating art that brings joy and thoughtful reflection.

Travis John Ficarra: Chocolate Goblin

0 implied HN points • 28 Sep 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Gallery Artist Exhibit Painting Sculpture
  1. Travis John Ficarra's 'Chocolate Goblin' is a unique sculpture made of steel, fiberglass, paint, and clear coat, exhibited in Melbourne, Australia.
  2. The sculpture is described in vivid detail, evoking images of a surreal and fantastical world with elements like cellophane boulderstones, a lagoon of sour water, and a chocolate goblin with unique characteristics.
  3. The text accompanying the sculpture adds depth to the interpretation, hinting at themes of refinement and mystery in the artwork.