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Masters Thesis

My Masters thesis was published in an experimental format, as part and parcel of a personal note graph to retain extra context and connections. The original format has now been archived but the content remains distributed and integrated throughout my wider notes. Below is the original abstract and conclusion, and links to more.

note - the next iteration of a wider system is in progress, so for now links below may be broken.

Resistive fragment assemblages: How do decentralised web technologies better enable collectivist para-archives?

Completed in 2025 at the Creative Computing Institute, University of the Arts London under the supervision of MJ Hunter Bruggemann. Awarded an MA with Distinction.

Abstract

Anti-capitalist work in liberating everyday information practise from the goals of monopolising tech companies is spread thin across various industry concerns and disciplinary hegemonies. By centering collectivist ideals I appeal to the digital commons and decentralised web to enable particular practices of hyperconnected personal curation that have potential for collectivist resistance. Through analysis of public assemblages of fragmented experience on existing web platforms (Pinterest and Are.na) I'll discuss the benefits that decentralised models and the semantic web could have on extra-institutional knowledge-work. This thesis is also a meta-work of self-exemplification. As a living provotype, this thesis is presented as part of a personal website indexing cues to my own self-transcendence through collectivist pedagogy and experimental tech.

Conclusion

Existing platforms allow assemblage of affective and instrumental fragments for collective future-building but deny autonomy over the resulting para-archives. By prioritising agency over data, semantic connections, and acknowledging blurred public-private boundaries, we can design for externalised selves that are more resilient and representative. Usability and community ethos are major wins for Are.na, and Pinterest benefits from sheer quantity of content, but excluding the financial imperative from these projects makes room for more radical freedoms. In this enquiry I’ve demonstrated the value of resistive fragment assemblages, well-documented on Tumblr and presented here through Pinterest and Are.na. I’ve discussed how they create collectivist counter-publics through para-archival curation, and how a decentralised, semantic model could enable them further.

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context

  • aims and objectives
  • Masters in public
  • more thoughts on format
    • index of potential
  • some definitions

study elements

  • Pinterest analysis
  • Are.na analysis
  • Are.na meta-analysis

practical element

  • proposing the combination of
    • the affordances of
      • Tumblr (source culture, threading, assemblage)
      • Pinterest (multi-purpose and general use assemblage, nice to use)
    • into the model of
      • Are.na (connected knowledge, nice to use)
    • through decentralized web technologies, eg Solid Pods

original Table of Contents

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Table of Contents
  • List of Figures
  • Introduction
    • Important Definitions
    • Structure of this thesis
  • Context
    • Instrumental and affective fragments
    • Resistive counter-publics online
    • Curating for ourselves and others
    • Intersubjectivity
    • Decentralisation and Data Ownership as Resistance
  • Methodology
    • Framings
    • Methods
    • Justification of Format
    • Indexing Potential
  • Practise
    • Forms of Resistance
    • Resistive Cultures
    • (Hyper)active Exploratory Agency
    • Reflexive Curation
    • Everything Everywhere All At Once
    • Porta(b)l(e) Memory
    • Beyond Capitalist Realism
    • Connectivity and Control through Solid
    • Semantic Links
    • Interfacing the public, private and personal
    • Design for Assertion (min-maxxing metadata)
  • Discussion
    • Methods and Formats
    • Platform Analyses
    • Further Work
  • Conclusion
  • Appendices
  • References