Axniks

Reminded again by the site stats email, I have come to post. Who are the 19 people visiting the site from the US? What might they take away? I do not know.

I do know that I was awarded a PhD on October 30th, 2024, pending minor corrections. The viva was a challenging and lovely experience, not least thanks to the examiners Airi and Ernesto, and the chair Mai.

While working through the corrections, which really are quite minor, I am applying for a German exchange grant. I am also squeezing a couple of papers out of the thesis. I might even test run some of the ideas here, and leave something for my 19 next visitors to take away.

As has been my habit I have spent the Easter half term break in the forests of Sweden, trying to get some writing done in the mornings and elsewhere around succumbing to the temptations of water in solid and fluid forms. I am also drafting a funding application for a short stay project with PIT at Uni Kassel in Germany, to follow on from an already planned visit.

I just thought I’d share some red hot draft thesis chapter text, straight from the editor:

The vignette illustrates how participatory presence, as a complement to the literal presence of a body or entity in physical space, is inscribed in the things making up the environment of the MediaCo team, and how this presence is described in the enactment of the team’s presence, and then recursively re-inscribed in the environment.

Yes, you read that right. Read it again. The agency of the collective – through an ongoing design of the environment – is present – inscribed – in the things and people making up the environment. The ‘use’ of the environment is a recursive act of design in which the agency of the collective is described and re-inscribed.

As Khujo of Goodie Mob (1995) famously rapped: ‘Listen to me now, believe me later on / In the future, look it up.’

Axel Niklasson, 2024

I am missing a citation here, to Orlikowski, Suchman and Latour, but at least I got one in to Goodie Mob. The forest air and water is clearly inspiring. I would love for Khujo to make it through to the thesis but I, probably wisely, lack the confidence to share the joy that way.

This is the worst blog – and the only blog – I’ve ever written. Not only is it sparsely populated, it is also exclusively made up of excuses and posts teasing future achievements. Here’s another one.

I am writing up my thesis. I have the discussion chapter laid out on my kitchen table and I just noted in green felt tip pen that addressing a lack of “epistemological maturity” within UK tech and AI policy making was an implication of my research. Watch this space.

I received a WordPress email with visitor stats today. There were very few visitors, probably just the one. And it might have been me. Either way, this WordPress email made me think an update was due.

I transferred from MPhil to PhD in early 2022, with a transfer report, presentation and examination. And I submitted a draft of my thesis for review last week and yesterday I formally transferred to writing up. I worked quite hard on assembling the draft and I am trying to keep the pace up, producing weekly chapter drafts.

I did promise updates and work in the last post. It did not happen for 18 months but maybe, maybe, as I am revising the chapters, some findings, insights and implications will see the light here. That would be nice, right?

I ran into some difficulties in my PhD work at the end of 2021. For various reasons I was not able to present my work, and my transfer from MPhil to PhD was postponed. I have done a first ethnographic study in my PhD work (more about that in later posts) and I am now starting a second study, dealing with public material. So I thought I might develop the study in public.

I do not know if this is a good idea, I have not really consulted anyone. I have wanted to set up a blog for a while and now I had a reason and purpose. I also attribute some of the difficulties and stress at the end of 2021 to working in isolation. By continually publishing work I get to focus on something I want to learn to do better; writing and communicating.

I am not sure how strictly I will keep to my PhD work in this blog. I might also cover my current engagements in dishwasher repairs, wood treatments and parenting by way of bike repairs. Maybe some day I will try to promote this blog and then maybe you will read it. If you do, please feel free to suggest a topic.