#panopticon — Public Fediverse posts

I don’t know what’s up with our dear readers around the world, but in this lion’s den, it’s hotter than an unshaven sheep in a bread bakery. It’s hotter than Steel‘s withering gaze every time Dear Hollow gives good reviews to deathcore. It’s hotter than your sexy crush telling you her parents completely approve of you, and that she wants a wholesome marriage and a family. My AC has been broken for over a month now, which means my only companions are sweat, misery, and the promo pit. Consequently, my personal enjoyment of much more wintry (or even fall) black metal has fallen by the wayside, as bands like Coldworld or Panopticon just don’t hit the same way when you spend every night praying for sleep and basting in your own juices. As if a spiritual answer to my cries, new outfit Sunscorched have arrived with a dollop of Old-West-themed, Arizona-originated atmospheric black metal. Needless to say, one glance at that name had me snatching this one up immediately, so saddle up your horses and get ready to circle the wagons as we see just how bad these bloody lands are.

The Blood of the Badlands sound is that of a slightly more straightforward Wayfarer album as produced by Nechochwen. While the compositional approaches lend themselves to comparisons with the seminal American Gothic, the chord progressions are more straightforward, and the production much more raw. The Heart of Akamon has itself all over the actual sound, with full chords which ring out in treble-heavy presentation but never lose themselves in tinny warbles, still sounding thick and full. The drumming of Rory James is well articulated, with good thunk and clang in his kit as he alternates between his fills and rolls, with a lot of fun to be had in his hi-hat and china beats which often evoke the galloping of wagons cascading down the hills. Vocalist Austin Kruger has an excellent bellowing shriek, mixed between the arpeggios and tremolos and containing enough reverb to evoke the mood of long-forgotten souls wandering the hills. Remarkably light on the expected gimmicky instrumentation—beyond the bookending instrumentals, which feature smatterings of acoustic guitars among what sounds like unplugged electric—Sunscorched wield their songwriting skills to suit the mood and atmosphere of the Badlands.

In those songs, Sunscorched manage to paint a vivid aural picture without ever doing anything out of the ordinary. “Vultures that Circle my Grave” transitions into a delightful major chord progression which sounds optimistic in the face of oppression and daily struggle without losing an ounce of its moshability. Highlight “Slaughter at Camp Grant” features a punk-infused main refrain which sounds violent while evoking the vastness of an Old West starry sky, transitioning from rapid-fire melodies to a progression which comes with brute force and necessary antagonism. “The Gallows Tree” features a depressive lead which does most of the talking before the vocals ever kick in. While repetition is a major tool in the box of Sunscorched, the majority of these riffs and melodies justify running themselves back as they emphasize the all-encompassing nature of the violence and exploration of that time period. Every single song comes decorated with a key melodic theme, from the inevitability of “Gallows…” to the full-speed-ahead onslaught of “Slaughter…”, firmly evoking a narrative to the listener which would be just as serviceable were Blood of the Badlands served as an instrumental piece.

There’s only one thing stopping Sunscorched from landing on true greatness in their first outing: Both penultimate track “Thousand Year Drought” and the instrumental title track “Blood of the Badlands” are far too repetitive and self-referential, and it’s genuinely disappointing. In the case of the former, there’s what seems to be a melodic reference1 to the Styx song “Renegade”, with a very familiar tune coded in the main lead, which is dope, but is promptly beaten right into the desert sand. Additionally, the main chugging climax features the exact same root notes as the one found in “Slaughter…”, making it smack of the earlier riff, but somehow more violent and less interesting. Closing track “Blood of the Badlands” is gorgeous, mood-setting, and eerie, but repeats itself an unneeded amount of times without genuinely evolving into anything.

Normally, an album is held down by an overall lack of quality. My saying “these last two songs don’t pass muster” only speaks to the sheer quality of all that comes before, and is by no means a major detraction in the overall experience. Sunscorched have made me ready to join their posse on my first listen, enduring the sweltering radiation and pavement-amplifying heatwaves with their soundtrack of melancholy by my side. Some course corrections on their repetitive habits will have their pistols loaded and ready to strike gold and oil, and I, for one, have gleefully hitched my wagon up to see where we will explore from here.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 11 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: The Bölverk Collective
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: August 28th, 2026

I don’t know what’s up with our dear readers around the world, but in this lion’s den, it’s hotter than an unshaven sheep in a bread bakery. It’s hotter than Steel‘s withering gaze every time Dear Hollow gives good reviews to deathcore. It’s hotter than your sexy crush telling you her parents completely approve of you, and that she wants a wholesome marriage and a family. My AC has been broken for over a month now, which means my only companions are sweat, misery, and the promo pit. Consequently, my personal enjoyment of much more wintry (or even fall) black metal has fallen by the wayside, as bands like Coldworld or Panopticon just don’t hit the same way when you spend every night praying for sleep and basting in your own juices. As if a spiritual answer to my cries, new outfit Sunscorched have arrived with a dollop of Old-West-themed, Arizona-originated atmospheric black metal. Needless to say, one glance at that name had me snatching this one up immediately, so saddle up your horses and get ready to circle the wagons as we see just how bad these bloody lands are.

The Blood of the Badlands sound is that of a slightly more straightforward Wayfarer album as produced by Nechochwen. While the compositional approaches lend themselves to comparisons with the seminal American Gothic, the chord progressions are more straightforward, and the production much more raw. The Heart of Akamon has itself all over the actual sound, with full chords which ring out in treble-heavy presentation but never lose themselves in tinny warbles, still sounding thick and full. The drumming of Rory James is well articulated, with good thunk and clang in his kit as he alternates between his fills and rolls, with a lot of fun to be had in his hi-hat and china beats which often evoke the galloping of wagons cascading down the hills. Vocalist Austin Kruger has an excellent bellowing shriek, mixed between the arpeggios and tremolos and containing enough reverb to evoke the mood of long-forgotten souls wandering the hills. Remarkably light on the expected gimmicky instrumentation—beyond the bookending instrumentals, which feature smatterings of acoustic guitars among what sounds like unplugged electric—Sunscorched wield their songwriting skills to suit the mood and atmosphere of the Badlands.

In those songs, Sunscorched manage to paint a vivid aural picture without ever doing anything out of the ordinary. “Vultures that Circle my Grave” transitions into a delightful major chord progression which sounds optimistic in the face of oppression and daily struggle without losing an ounce of its moshability. Highlight “Slaughter at Camp Grant” features a punk-infused main refrain which sounds violent while evoking the vastness of an Old West starry sky, transitioning from rapid-fire melodies to a progression which comes with brute force and necessary antagonism. “The Gallows Tree” features a depressive lead which does most of the talking before the vocals ever kick in. While repetition is a major tool in the box of Sunscorched, the majority of these riffs and melodies justify running themselves back as they emphasize the all-encompassing nature of the violence and exploration of that time period. Every single song comes decorated with a key melodic theme, from the inevitability of “Gallows…” to the full-speed-ahead onslaught of “Slaughter…”, firmly evoking a narrative to the listener which would be just as serviceable were Blood of the Badlands served as an instrumental piece.

There’s only one thing stopping Sunscorched from landing on true greatness in their first outing: Both penultimate track “Thousand Year Drought” and the instrumental title track “Blood of the Badlands” are far too repetitive and self-referential, and it’s genuinely disappointing. In the case of the former, there’s what seems to be a melodic reference1 to the Styx song “Renegade”, with a very familiar tune coded in the main lead, which is dope, but is promptly beaten right into the desert sand. Additionally, the main chugging climax features the exact same root notes as the one found in “Slaughter…”, making it smack of the earlier riff, but somehow more violent and less interesting. Closing track “Blood of the Badlands” is gorgeous, mood-setting, and eerie, but repeats itself an unneeded amount of times without genuinely evolving into anything.

Normally, an album is held down by an overall lack of quality. My saying “these last two songs don’t pass muster” only speaks to the sheer quality of all that comes before, and is by no means a major detraction in the overall experience. Sunscorched have made me ready to join their posse on my first listen, enduring the sweltering radiation and pavement-amplifying heatwaves with their soundtrack of melancholy by my side. Some course corrections on their repetitive habits will have their pistols loaded and ready to strike gold and oil, and I, for one, have gleefully hitched my wagon up to see where we will explore from here.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 11 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: The Bölverk Collective
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: August 28th, 2026

I don’t know what’s up with our dear readers around the world, but in this lion’s den, it’s hotter than an unshaven sheep in a bread bakery. It’s hotter than Steel‘s withering gaze every time Dear Hollow gives good reviews to deathcore. It’s hotter than your sexy crush telling you her parents completely approve of you, and that she wants a wholesome marriage and a family. My AC has been broken for over a month now, which means my only companions are sweat, misery, and the promo pit. Consequently, my personal enjoyment of much more wintry (or even fall) black metal has fallen by the wayside, as bands like Coldworld or Panopticon just don’t hit the same way when you spend every night praying for sleep and basting in your own juices. As if a spiritual answer to my cries, new outfit Sunscorched have arrived with a dollop of Old-West-themed, Arizona-originated atmospheric black metal. Needless to say, one glance at that name had me snatching this one up immediately, so saddle up your horses and get ready to circle the wagons as we see just how bad these bloody lands are.

The Blood of the Badlands sound is that of a slightly more straightforward Wayfarer album as produced by Nechochwen. While the compositional approaches lend themselves to comparisons with the seminal American Gothic, the chord progressions are more straightforward, and the production much more raw. The Heart of Akamon has itself all over the actual sound, with full chords which ring out in treble-heavy presentation but never lose themselves in tinny warbles, still sounding thick and full. The drumming of Rory James is well articulated, with good thunk and clang in his kit as he alternates between his fills and rolls, with a lot of fun to be had in his hi-hat and china beats which often evoke the galloping of wagons cascading down the hills. Vocalist Austin Kruger has an excellent bellowing shriek, mixed between the arpeggios and tremolos and containing enough reverb to evoke the mood of long-forgotten souls wandering the hills. Remarkably light on the expected gimmicky instrumentation—beyond the bookending instrumentals, which feature smatterings of acoustic guitars among what sounds like unplugged electric—Sunscorched wield their songwriting skills to suit the mood and atmosphere of the Badlands.

In those songs, Sunscorched manage to paint a vivid aural picture without ever doing anything out of the ordinary. “Vultures that Circle my Grave” transitions into a delightful major chord progression which sounds optimistic in the face of oppression and daily struggle without losing an ounce of its moshability. Highlight “Slaughter at Camp Grant” features a punk-infused main refrain which sounds violent while evoking the vastness of an Old West starry sky, transitioning from rapid-fire melodies to a progression which comes with brute force and necessary antagonism. “The Gallows Tree” features a depressive lead which does most of the talking before the vocals ever kick in. While repetition is a major tool in the box of Sunscorched, the majority of these riffs and melodies justify running themselves back as they emphasize the all-encompassing nature of the violence and exploration of that time period. Every single song comes decorated with a key melodic theme, from the inevitability of “Gallows…” to the full-speed-ahead onslaught of “Slaughter…”, firmly evoking a narrative to the listener which would be just as serviceable were Blood of the Badlands served as an instrumental piece.

There’s only one thing stopping Sunscorched from landing on true greatness in their first outing: Both penultimate track “Thousand Year Drought” and the instrumental title track “Blood of the Badlands” are far too repetitive and self-referential, and it’s genuinely disappointing. In the case of the former, there’s what seems to be a melodic reference1 to the Styx song “Renegade”, with a very familiar tune coded in the main lead, which is dope, but is promptly beaten right into the desert sand. Additionally, the main chugging climax features the exact same root notes as the one found in “Slaughter…”, making it smack of the earlier riff, but somehow more violent and less interesting. Closing track “Blood of the Badlands” is gorgeous, mood-setting, and eerie, but repeats itself an unneeded amount of times without genuinely evolving into anything.

Normally, an album is held down by an overall lack of quality. My saying “these last two songs don’t pass muster” only speaks to the sheer quality of all that comes before, and is by no means a major detraction in the overall experience. Sunscorched have made me ready to join their posse on my first listen, enduring the sweltering radiation and pavement-amplifying heatwaves with their soundtrack of melancholy by my side. Some course corrections on their repetitive habits will have their pistols loaded and ready to strike gold and oil, and I, for one, have gleefully hitched my wagon up to see where we will explore from here.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 11 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: The Bölverk Collective
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: August 28th, 2026

I don’t know what’s up with our dear readers around the world, but in this lion’s den, it’s hotter than an unshaven sheep in a bread bakery. It’s hotter than Steel‘s withering gaze every time Dear Hollow gives good reviews to deathcore. It’s hotter than your sexy crush telling you her parents completely approve of you, and that she wants a wholesome marriage and a family. My AC has been broken for over a month now, which means my only companions are sweat, misery, and the promo pit. Consequently, my personal enjoyment of much more wintry (or even fall) black metal has fallen by the wayside, as bands like Coldworld or Panopticon just don’t hit the same way when you spend every night praying for sleep and basting in your own juices. As if a spiritual answer to my cries, new outfit Sunscorched have arrived with a dollop of Old-West-themed, Arizona-originated atmospheric black metal. Needless to say, one glance at that name had me snatching this one up immediately, so saddle up your horses and get ready to circle the wagons as we see just how bad these bloody lands are.

The Blood of the Badlands sound is that of a slightly more straightforward Wayfarer album as produced by Nechochwen. While the compositional approaches lend themselves to comparisons with the seminal American Gothic, the chord progressions are more straightforward, and the production much more raw. The Heart of Akamon has itself all over the actual sound, with full chords which ring out in treble-heavy presentation but never lose themselves in tinny warbles, still sounding thick and full. The drumming of Rory James is well articulated, with good thunk and clang in his kit as he alternates between his fills and rolls, with a lot of fun to be had in his hi-hat and china beats which often evoke the galloping of wagons cascading down the hills. Vocalist Austin Kruger has an excellent bellowing shriek, mixed between the arpeggios and tremolos and containing enough reverb to evoke the mood of long-forgotten souls wandering the hills. Remarkably light on the expected gimmicky instrumentation—beyond the bookending instrumentals, which feature smatterings of acoustic guitars among what sounds like unplugged electric—Sunscorched wield their songwriting skills to suit the mood and atmosphere of the Badlands.

In those songs, Sunscorched manage to paint a vivid aural picture without ever doing anything out of the ordinary. “Vultures that Circle my Grave” transitions into a delightful major chord progression which sounds optimistic in the face of oppression and daily struggle without losing an ounce of its moshability. Highlight “Slaughter at Camp Grant” features a punk-infused main refrain which sounds violent while evoking the vastness of an Old West starry sky, transitioning from rapid-fire melodies to a progression which comes with brute force and necessary antagonism. “The Gallows Tree” features a depressive lead which does most of the talking before the vocals ever kick in. While repetition is a major tool in the box of Sunscorched, the majority of these riffs and melodies justify running themselves back as they emphasize the all-encompassing nature of the violence and exploration of that time period. Every single song comes decorated with a key melodic theme, from the inevitability of “Gallows…” to the full-speed-ahead onslaught of “Slaughter…”, firmly evoking a narrative to the listener which would be just as serviceable were Blood of the Badlands served as an instrumental piece.

There’s only one thing stopping Sunscorched from landing on true greatness in their first outing: Both penultimate track “Thousand Year Drought” and the instrumental title track “Blood of the Badlands” are far too repetitive and self-referential, and it’s genuinely disappointing. In the case of the former, there’s what seems to be a melodic reference1 to the Styx song “Renegade”, with a very familiar tune coded in the main lead, which is dope, but is promptly beaten right into the desert sand. Additionally, the main chugging climax features the exact same root notes as the one found in “Slaughter…”, making it smack of the earlier riff, but somehow more violent and less interesting. Closing track “Blood of the Badlands” is gorgeous, mood-setting, and eerie, but repeats itself an unneeded amount of times without genuinely evolving into anything.

Normally, an album is held down by an overall lack of quality. My saying “these last two songs don’t pass muster” only speaks to the sheer quality of all that comes before, and is by no means a major detraction in the overall experience. Sunscorched have made me ready to join their posse on my first listen, enduring the sweltering radiation and pavement-amplifying heatwaves with their soundtrack of melancholy by my side. Some course corrections on their repetitive habits will have their pistols loaded and ready to strike gold and oil, and I, for one, have gleefully hitched my wagon up to see where we will explore from here.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 11 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: The Bölverk Collective
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: August 28th, 2026

I don’t know what’s up with our dear readers around the world, but in this lion’s den, it’s hotter than an unshaven sheep in a bread bakery. It’s hotter than Steel‘s withering gaze every time Dear Hollow gives good reviews to deathcore. It’s hotter than your sexy crush telling you her parents completely approve of you, and that she wants a wholesome marriage and a family. My AC has been broken for over a month now, which means my only companions are sweat, misery, and the promo pit. Consequently, my personal enjoyment of much more wintry (or even fall) black metal has fallen by the wayside, as bands like Coldworld or Panopticon just don’t hit the same way when you spend every night praying for sleep and basting in your own juices. As if a spiritual answer to my cries, new outfit Sunscorched have arrived with a dollop of Old-West-themed, Arizona-originated atmospheric black metal. Needless to say, one glance at that name had me snatching this one up immediately, so saddle up your horses and get ready to circle the wagons as we see just how bad these bloody lands are.

The Blood of the Badlands sound is that of a slightly more straightforward Wayfarer album as produced by Nechochwen. While the compositional approaches lend themselves to comparisons with the seminal American Gothic, the chord progressions are more straightforward, and the production much more raw. The Heart of Akamon has itself all over the actual sound, with full chords which ring out in treble-heavy presentation but never lose themselves in tinny warbles, still sounding thick and full. The drumming of Rory James is well articulated, with good thunk and clang in his kit as he alternates between his fills and rolls, with a lot of fun to be had in his hi-hat and china beats which often evoke the galloping of wagons cascading down the hills. Vocalist Austin Kruger has an excellent bellowing shriek, mixed between the arpeggios and tremolos and containing enough reverb to evoke the mood of long-forgotten souls wandering the hills. Remarkably light on the expected gimmicky instrumentation—beyond the bookending instrumentals, which feature smatterings of acoustic guitars among what sounds like unplugged electric—Sunscorched wield their songwriting skills to suit the mood and atmosphere of the Badlands.

In those songs, Sunscorched manage to paint a vivid aural picture without ever doing anything out of the ordinary. “Vultures that Circle my Grave” transitions into a delightful major chord progression which sounds optimistic in the face of oppression and daily struggle without losing an ounce of its moshability. Highlight “Slaughter at Camp Grant” features a punk-infused main refrain which sounds violent while evoking the vastness of an Old West starry sky, transitioning from rapid-fire melodies to a progression which comes with brute force and necessary antagonism. “The Gallows Tree” features a depressive lead which does most of the talking before the vocals ever kick in. While repetition is a major tool in the box of Sunscorched, the majority of these riffs and melodies justify running themselves back as they emphasize the all-encompassing nature of the violence and exploration of that time period. Every single song comes decorated with a key melodic theme, from the inevitability of “Gallows…” to the full-speed-ahead onslaught of “Slaughter…”, firmly evoking a narrative to the listener which would be just as serviceable were Blood of the Badlands served as an instrumental piece.

There’s only one thing stopping Sunscorched from landing on true greatness in their first outing: Both penultimate track “Thousand Year Drought” and the instrumental title track “Blood of the Badlands” are far too repetitive and self-referential, and it’s genuinely disappointing. In the case of the former, there’s what seems to be a melodic reference1 to the Styx song “Renegade”, with a very familiar tune coded in the main lead, which is dope, but is promptly beaten right into the desert sand. Additionally, the main chugging climax features the exact same root notes as the one found in “Slaughter…”, making it smack of the earlier riff, but somehow more violent and less interesting. Closing track “Blood of the Badlands” is gorgeous, mood-setting, and eerie, but repeats itself an unneeded amount of times without genuinely evolving into anything.

Normally, an album is held down by an overall lack of quality. My saying “these last two songs don’t pass muster” only speaks to the sheer quality of all that comes before, and is by no means a major detraction in the overall experience. Sunscorched have made me ready to join their posse on my first listen, enduring the sweltering radiation and pavement-amplifying heatwaves with their soundtrack of melancholy by my side. Some course corrections on their repetitive habits will have their pistols loaded and ready to strike gold and oil, and I, for one, have gleefully hitched my wagon up to see where we will explore from here.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 11 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: The Bölverk Collective
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: August 28th, 2026

#privacy #panopticon

@motroet I agree, that's also why I enjoyed his take RE: Street Photography. I'll be looking into it with a different perspective going forward, although I wish plenty of other people would apply that kind of work concept & ethics towards taking photographs of people in the streets while they are minding their own business.

To me, consent matters, specially, in today's day and age of #SurveillandCapitalism. It's an important topic to discuss with others to avoid an unexpected #Panopticon.

@motroet I agree, that's also why I enjoyed his take RE: Street Photography. I'll be looking into it with a different perspective going forward, although I wish plenty of other people would apply that kind of work concept & ethics towards taking photographs of people in the streets while they are minding their own business.

To me, consent matters, specially, in today's day and age of #SurveillandCapitalism. It's an important topic to discuss with others to avoid an unexpected #Panopticon.

@motroet I agree, that's also why I enjoyed his take RE: Street Photography. I'll be looking into it with a different perspective going forward, although I wish plenty of other people would apply that kind of work concept & ethics towards taking photographs of people in the streets while they are minding their own business.

To me, consent matters, specially, in today's day and age of #SurveillandCapitalism. It's an important topic to discuss with others to avoid an unexpected #Panopticon.

@motroet I agree, that's also why I enjoyed his take RE: Street Photography. I'll be looking into it with a different perspective going forward, although I wish plenty of other people would apply that kind of work concept & ethics towards taking photographs of people in the streets while they are minding their own business.

To me, consent matters, specially, in today's day and age of #SurveillandCapitalism. It's an important topic to discuss with others to avoid an unexpected #Panopticon.

@motroet I agree, that's also why I enjoyed his take RE: Street Photography. I'll be looking into it with a different perspective going forward, although I wish plenty of other people would apply that kind of work concept & ethics towards taking photographs of people in the streets while they are minding their own business.

To me, consent matters, specially, in today's day and age of #SurveillandCapitalism. It's an important topic to discuss with others to avoid an unexpected #Panopticon.

https://thetruepanopticon.bandcamp.com/track/sheep-in-wolves-clothing

#NowPlaying #Panopticon #TheScarsofManontheOnceNamelessWilderness #SheepinWolvesClothing

https://thetruepanopticon.bandcamp.com/track/sheep-in-wolves-clothing

#NowPlaying #Panopticon #TheScarsofManontheOnceNamelessWilderness #SheepinWolvesClothing

https://thetruepanopticon.bandcamp.com/track/sheep-in-wolves-clothing

#NowPlaying #Panopticon #TheScarsofManontheOnceNamelessWilderness #SheepinWolvesClothing

Wow. Wasn’t May just the other day? It seems like it to me! The fifth month of our Lord bestowed much quality material on us, and there were at least 4 key releases that garnered strong, fanboying support from the AMG peanut gallery located deep in the recesses of the Skull Pit. Funny thing about that gallery – they’re all tasteless hacks, but they’re OUR tasteless hacks, so we try to honor their likes.

Panopticon finally completed their massive Laurentian Trilogy with the release of Det hjemsøkte hjertet [out May 8th from Nordvis Productions (Bandcamp)], and the concluding installment has been received very positively by the metalsphere and elite intelligentsia alike. While we’re definitely not part of that elite metal intelligentsia ourselves, we have to agree with their positive buzz this time. This is a deeply introspective and nostalgic work of atmospheric folked blackness, written as a reflection of things remembered and things lost as the final curtain closes on a life. The material feels cathartic and delivers a long-building release. As Thus Spoke beautifully summed up, “A more perfect way to end things could not exist. My heart clings longingly to the place evoked by Det hjemsøkte hjertet‘s consuming atmosphere and touching humanity.” Moods 4 sale!1

Runner(s) Up:

Draconian // In Somnolent Ruin [May 8th, 2026 | Napalm Records | Bandcamp] — Sweden’s eternal Gothic doom crew Draconian have been at the crying game for a long, long time. Some of the names and faces have changed over the years, but the core sound and formula remains much the same. On eighth album In Somnolent Ruin, their doom edge is still sharp and ready to cut holes in your heart as only well-executed Goth-doom can. Unhurried and loaded down with bittersweet, exquisitely sad vocals from returning original singer Lisa Johansson, and anchored by the death roars of Anders Jacobsson, the Draconian experience still plucks heartstrings as it shakes the spinal cord. Perhaps most surprising is just how good the songwriting is across the entire album. It’s no surprise Kenstrosity spelled it out as “A love letter to Draconian’s storied past and a celebration of their modern era, refined to staggering excellence.” Taste the tears!

A Forest of Stars // Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface [May 8th, 2026 | Prophecy Productions | Bandcamp] — Britain’s avant-garde prog metal weirdos A Forest of Stars never did things the easy way. They blend genres with little regard to what should and shouldn’t go together, and somehow things usually work for them. With doom as a central tenet, the oddly named Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface unrolls a lengthy tapestry of sounds and styles for the patient listener. Long song lengths are kept lively by creative, dynamic writing and often unhinged vocal performances. A wild ride awaits the daring listener. As Grymm elegantly concluded, “A Forest of Stars, in a just world, should be heralded as purveyors of odd, eclectic metal. Here’s hoping that Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface is as much a jumping-on point for many of you as it was for me.” Get this Forest package!

Wow. Wasn’t May just the other day? It seems like it to me! The fifth month of our Lord bestowed much quality material on us, and there were at least 4 key releases that garnered strong, fanboying support from the AMG peanut gallery located deep in the recesses of the Skull Pit. Funny thing about that gallery – they’re all tasteless hacks, but they’re OUR tasteless hacks, so we try to honor their likes.

Panopticon finally completed their massive Laurentian Trilogy with the release of Det hjemsøkte hjertet [out May 8th from Nordvis Productions (Bandcamp)], and the concluding installment has been received very positively by the metalsphere and elite intelligentsia alike. While we’re definitely not part of that elite metal intelligentsia ourselves, we have to agree with their positive buzz this time. This is a deeply introspective and nostalgic work of atmospheric folked blackness, written as a reflection of things remembered and things lost as the final curtain closes on a life. The material feels cathartic and delivers a long-building release. As Thus Spoke beautifully summed up, “A more perfect way to end things could not exist. My heart clings longingly to the place evoked by Det hjemsøkte hjertet‘s consuming atmosphere and touching humanity.” Moods 4 sale!1

Runner(s) Up:

Draconian // In Somnolent Ruin [May 8th, 2026 | Napalm Records | Bandcamp] — Sweden’s eternal Gothic doom crew Draconian have been at the crying game for a long, long time. Some of the names and faces have changed over the years, but the core sound and formula remains much the same. On eighth album In Somnolent Ruin, their doom edge is still sharp and ready to cut holes in your heart as only well-executed Goth-doom can. Unhurried and loaded down with bittersweet, exquisitely sad vocals from returning original singer Lisa Johansson, and anchored by the death roars of Anders Jacobsson, the Draconian experience still plucks heartstrings as it shakes the spinal cord. Perhaps most surprising is just how good the songwriting is across the entire album. It’s no surprise Kenstrosity spelled it out as “A love letter to Draconian’s storied past and a celebration of their modern era, refined to staggering excellence.” Taste the tears!

A Forest of Stars // Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface [May 8th, 2026 | Prophecy Productions | Bandcamp] — Britain’s avant-garde prog metal weirdos A Forest of Stars never did things the easy way. They blend genres with little regard to what should and shouldn’t go together, and somehow things usually work for them. With doom as a central tenet, the oddly named Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface unrolls a lengthy tapestry of sounds and styles for the patient listener. Long song lengths are kept lively by creative, dynamic writing and often unhinged vocal performances. A wild ride awaits the daring listener. As Grymm elegantly concluded, “A Forest of Stars, in a just world, should be heralded as purveyors of odd, eclectic metal. Here’s hoping that Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface is as much a jumping-on point for many of you as it was for me.” Get this Forest package!

Wow. Wasn’t May just the other day? It seems like it to me! The fifth month of our Lord bestowed much quality material on us, and there were at least 4 key releases that garnered strong, fanboying support from the AMG peanut gallery located deep in the recesses of the Skull Pit. Funny thing about that gallery – they’re all tasteless hacks, but they’re OUR tasteless hacks, so we try to honor their likes.

Panopticon finally completed their massive Laurentian Trilogy with the release of Det hjemsøkte hjertet [out May 8th from Nordvis Productions (Bandcamp)], and the concluding installment has been received very positively by the metalsphere and elite intelligentsia alike. While we’re definitely not part of that elite metal intelligentsia ourselves, we have to agree with their positive buzz this time. This is a deeply introspective and nostalgic work of atmospheric folked blackness, written as a reflection of things remembered and things lost as the final curtain closes on a life. The material feels cathartic and delivers a long-building release. As Thus Spoke beautifully summed up, “A more perfect way to end things could not exist. My heart clings longingly to the place evoked by Det hjemsøkte hjertet‘s consuming atmosphere and touching humanity.” Moods 4 sale!1

Runner(s) Up:

Draconian // In Somnolent Ruin [May 8th, 2026 | Napalm Records | Bandcamp] — Sweden’s eternal Gothic doom crew Draconian have been at the crying game for a long, long time. Some of the names and faces have changed over the years, but the core sound and formula remains much the same. On eighth album In Somnolent Ruin, their doom edge is still sharp and ready to cut holes in your heart as only well-executed Goth-doom can. Unhurried and loaded down with bittersweet, exquisitely sad vocals from returning original singer Lisa Johansson, and anchored by the death roars of Anders Jacobsson, the Draconian experience still plucks heartstrings as it shakes the spinal cord. Perhaps most surprising is just how good the songwriting is across the entire album. It’s no surprise Kenstrosity spelled it out as “A love letter to Draconian’s storied past and a celebration of their modern era, refined to staggering excellence.” Taste the tears!

A Forest of Stars // Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface [May 8th, 2026 | Prophecy Productions | Bandcamp] — Britain’s avant-garde prog metal weirdos A Forest of Stars never did things the easy way. They blend genres with little regard to what should and shouldn’t go together, and somehow things usually work for them. With doom as a central tenet, the oddly named Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface unrolls a lengthy tapestry of sounds and styles for the patient listener. Long song lengths are kept lively by creative, dynamic writing and often unhinged vocal performances. A wild ride awaits the daring listener. As Grymm elegantly concluded, “A Forest of Stars, in a just world, should be heralded as purveyors of odd, eclectic metal. Here’s hoping that Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface is as much a jumping-on point for many of you as it was for me.” Get this Forest package!

Wow. Wasn’t May just the other day? It seems like it to me! The fifth month of our Lord bestowed much quality material on us, and there were at least 4 key releases that garnered strong, fanboying support from the AMG peanut gallery located deep in the recesses of the Skull Pit. Funny thing about that gallery – they’re all tasteless hacks, but they’re OUR tasteless hacks, so we try to honor their likes.

Panopticon finally completed their massive Laurentian Trilogy with the release of Det hjemsøkte hjertet [out May 8th from Nordvis Productions (Bandcamp)], and the concluding installment has been received very positively by the metalsphere and elite intelligentsia alike. While we’re definitely not part of that elite metal intelligentsia ourselves, we have to agree with their positive buzz this time. This is a deeply introspective and nostalgic work of atmospheric folked blackness, written as a reflection of things remembered and things lost as the final curtain closes on a life. The material feels cathartic and delivers a long-building release. As Thus Spoke beautifully summed up, “A more perfect way to end things could not exist. My heart clings longingly to the place evoked by Det hjemsøkte hjertet‘s consuming atmosphere and touching humanity.” Moods 4 sale!1

Runner(s) Up:

Draconian // In Somnolent Ruin [May 8th, 2026 | Napalm Records | Bandcamp] — Sweden’s eternal Gothic doom crew Draconian have been at the crying game for a long, long time. Some of the names and faces have changed over the years, but the core sound and formula remains much the same. On eighth album In Somnolent Ruin, their doom edge is still sharp and ready to cut holes in your heart as only well-executed Goth-doom can. Unhurried and loaded down with bittersweet, exquisitely sad vocals from returning original singer Lisa Johansson, and anchored by the death roars of Anders Jacobsson, the Draconian experience still plucks heartstrings as it shakes the spinal cord. Perhaps most surprising is just how good the songwriting is across the entire album. It’s no surprise Kenstrosity spelled it out as “A love letter to Draconian’s storied past and a celebration of their modern era, refined to staggering excellence.” Taste the tears!

A Forest of Stars // Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface [May 8th, 2026 | Prophecy Productions | Bandcamp] — Britain’s avant-garde prog metal weirdos A Forest of Stars never did things the easy way. They blend genres with little regard to what should and shouldn’t go together, and somehow things usually work for them. With doom as a central tenet, the oddly named Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface unrolls a lengthy tapestry of sounds and styles for the patient listener. Long song lengths are kept lively by creative, dynamic writing and often unhinged vocal performances. A wild ride awaits the daring listener. As Grymm elegantly concluded, “A Forest of Stars, in a just world, should be heralded as purveyors of odd, eclectic metal. Here’s hoping that Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface is as much a jumping-on point for many of you as it was for me.” Get this Forest package!

Wow. Wasn’t May just the other day? It seems like it to me! The fifth month of our Lord bestowed much quality material on us, and there were at least 4 key releases that garnered strong, fanboying support from the AMG peanut gallery located deep in the recesses of the Skull Pit. Funny thing about that gallery – they’re all tasteless hacks, but they’re OUR tasteless hacks, so we try to honor their likes.

Panopticon finally completed their massive Laurentian Trilogy with the release of Det hjemsøkte hjertet [out May 8th from Nordvis Productions (Bandcamp)], and the concluding installment has been received very positively by the metalsphere and elite intelligentsia alike. While we’re definitely not part of that elite metal intelligentsia ourselves, we have to agree with their positive buzz this time. This is a deeply introspective and nostalgic work of atmospheric folked blackness, written as a reflection of things remembered and things lost as the final curtain closes on a life. The material feels cathartic and delivers a long-building release. As Thus Spoke beautifully summed up, “A more perfect way to end things could not exist. My heart clings longingly to the place evoked by Det hjemsøkte hjertet‘s consuming atmosphere and touching humanity.” Moods 4 sale!1

Runner(s) Up:

Draconian // In Somnolent Ruin [May 8th, 2026 | Napalm Records | Bandcamp] — Sweden’s eternal Gothic doom crew Draconian have been at the crying game for a long, long time. Some of the names and faces have changed over the years, but the core sound and formula remains much the same. On eighth album In Somnolent Ruin, their doom edge is still sharp and ready to cut holes in your heart as only well-executed Goth-doom can. Unhurried and loaded down with bittersweet, exquisitely sad vocals from returning original singer Lisa Johansson, and anchored by the death roars of Anders Jacobsson, the Draconian experience still plucks heartstrings as it shakes the spinal cord. Perhaps most surprising is just how good the songwriting is across the entire album. It’s no surprise Kenstrosity spelled it out as “A love letter to Draconian’s storied past and a celebration of their modern era, refined to staggering excellence.” Taste the tears!

A Forest of Stars // Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface [May 8th, 2026 | Prophecy Productions | Bandcamp] — Britain’s avant-garde prog metal weirdos A Forest of Stars never did things the easy way. They blend genres with little regard to what should and shouldn’t go together, and somehow things usually work for them. With doom as a central tenet, the oddly named Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface unrolls a lengthy tapestry of sounds and styles for the patient listener. Long song lengths are kept lively by creative, dynamic writing and often unhinged vocal performances. A wild ride awaits the daring listener. As Grymm elegantly concluded, “A Forest of Stars, in a just world, should be heralded as purveyors of odd, eclectic metal. Here’s hoping that Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface is as much a jumping-on point for many of you as it was for me.” Get this Forest package!

#SilentSunday #FacesInThings #Portland #NewSeasons #Panopticon

#SilentSunday #FacesInThings #Portland #NewSeasons #Panopticon

#SilentSunday #FacesInThings #Portland #NewSeasons #Panopticon

#SilentSunday #FacesInThings #Portland #NewSeasons #Panopticon

#SilentSunday #FacesInThings #Portland #NewSeasons #Panopticon

Next in Crystal: Nobody Meant to Build a #Surveillance Machine: The Modern Corporate #Panopticon

https://schedule.hope.net/hope26/talk/77GZXW/

https://www.hope.net/crystal/

#HOPE2026

Next in Crystal: Nobody Meant to Build a #Surveillance Machine: The Modern Corporate #Panopticon

https://schedule.hope.net/hope26/talk/77GZXW/

https://www.hope.net/crystal/

#HOPE2026

Next in Crystal: Nobody Meant to Build a #Surveillance Machine: The Modern Corporate #Panopticon

https://schedule.hope.net/hope26/talk/77GZXW/

https://www.hope.net/crystal/

#HOPE2026

Next in Crystal: Nobody Meant to Build a #Surveillance Machine: The Modern Corporate #Panopticon

https://schedule.hope.net/hope26/talk/77GZXW/

https://www.hope.net/crystal/

#HOPE2026

Next in Crystal: Nobody Meant to Build a #Surveillance Machine: The Modern Corporate #Panopticon

https://schedule.hope.net/hope26/talk/77GZXW/

https://www.hope.net/crystal/

#HOPE2026

#Flock #surveillance #panopticon

"Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America. Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t.

In Texas, there’s one thing liberals and conservatives agree on: They don’t want cameras trained on their cars.

(. . .)

Other companies sell license plate tracking services, but Flock, a private company valued at $8.4 billion, has become a lightning rod because of its rapid expansion, the ubiquity of its cameras, and a number of controversies involving its product.

A Texas officer used Flock’s cameras to track a woman across state lines who was suspected of self-administering an abortion. Officers across the country have abused their access to Flock’s cameras, including to track romantic partners, resulting in discipline and termination. Los Angeles and Dayton, Ohio, among other cities, recently suspended their contracts with Flock to prevent immigration authorities from accessing data from the cameras. Dayton resorted to covering the cameras with trash bags. In cities like Houston, Oakland, Calif., and Grand Junction, Colo., residents have taken matters into their own hands, with police reports and surveillance footage documenting Flock cameras being cut down, splattered with paint and even shot.

(. . .)

But as its cameras have spread, so has the opposition. Americans are accustomed to surveillance cameras. They put them on their doorbells and tolerate them on street corners, offices and restaurants. What sets Flock’s cameras apart is that they are connected, creating a vast, searchable national network — often surprising residents who didn’t realize their local governments had signed up for them and raising fears of Big Brother-style surveillance. And they are hard to miss once you start noticing them."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/us/flock-cameras-can-track-every-car-in-america-police-love-them-citizens-dont.html

#Flock #surveillance #panopticon

"Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America. Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t.

In Texas, there’s one thing liberals and conservatives agree on: They don’t want cameras trained on their cars.

(. . .)

Other companies sell license plate tracking services, but Flock, a private company valued at $8.4 billion, has become a lightning rod because of its rapid expansion, the ubiquity of its cameras, and a number of controversies involving its product.

A Texas officer used Flock’s cameras to track a woman across state lines who was suspected of self-administering an abortion. Officers across the country have abused their access to Flock’s cameras, including to track romantic partners, resulting in discipline and termination. Los Angeles and Dayton, Ohio, among other cities, recently suspended their contracts with Flock to prevent immigration authorities from accessing data from the cameras. Dayton resorted to covering the cameras with trash bags. In cities like Houston, Oakland, Calif., and Grand Junction, Colo., residents have taken matters into their own hands, with police reports and surveillance footage documenting Flock cameras being cut down, splattered with paint and even shot.

(. . .)

But as its cameras have spread, so has the opposition. Americans are accustomed to surveillance cameras. They put them on their doorbells and tolerate them on street corners, offices and restaurants. What sets Flock’s cameras apart is that they are connected, creating a vast, searchable national network — often surprising residents who didn’t realize their local governments had signed up for them and raising fears of Big Brother-style surveillance. And they are hard to miss once you start noticing them."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/us/flock-cameras-can-track-every-car-in-america-police-love-them-citizens-dont.html

#Flock #surveillance #panopticon

"Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America. Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t.

In Texas, there’s one thing liberals and conservatives agree on: They don’t want cameras trained on their cars.

(. . .)

Other companies sell license plate tracking services, but Flock, a private company valued at $8.4 billion, has become a lightning rod because of its rapid expansion, the ubiquity of its cameras, and a number of controversies involving its product.

A Texas officer used Flock’s cameras to track a woman across state lines who was suspected of self-administering an abortion. Officers across the country have abused their access to Flock’s cameras, including to track romantic partners, resulting in discipline and termination. Los Angeles and Dayton, Ohio, among other cities, recently suspended their contracts with Flock to prevent immigration authorities from accessing data from the cameras. Dayton resorted to covering the cameras with trash bags. In cities like Houston, Oakland, Calif., and Grand Junction, Colo., residents have taken matters into their own hands, with police reports and surveillance footage documenting Flock cameras being cut down, splattered with paint and even shot.

(. . .)

But as its cameras have spread, so has the opposition. Americans are accustomed to surveillance cameras. They put them on their doorbells and tolerate them on street corners, offices and restaurants. What sets Flock’s cameras apart is that they are connected, creating a vast, searchable national network — often surprising residents who didn’t realize their local governments had signed up for them and raising fears of Big Brother-style surveillance. And they are hard to miss once you start noticing them."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/us/flock-cameras-can-track-every-car-in-america-police-love-them-citizens-dont.html

#Flock #surveillance #panopticon

"Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America. Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t.

In Texas, there’s one thing liberals and conservatives agree on: They don’t want cameras trained on their cars.

(. . .)

Other companies sell license plate tracking services, but Flock, a private company valued at $8.4 billion, has become a lightning rod because of its rapid expansion, the ubiquity of its cameras, and a number of controversies involving its product.

A Texas officer used Flock’s cameras to track a woman across state lines who was suspected of self-administering an abortion. Officers across the country have abused their access to Flock’s cameras, including to track romantic partners, resulting in discipline and termination. Los Angeles and Dayton, Ohio, among other cities, recently suspended their contracts with Flock to prevent immigration authorities from accessing data from the cameras. Dayton resorted to covering the cameras with trash bags. In cities like Houston, Oakland, Calif., and Grand Junction, Colo., residents have taken matters into their own hands, with police reports and surveillance footage documenting Flock cameras being cut down, splattered with paint and even shot.

(. . .)

But as its cameras have spread, so has the opposition. Americans are accustomed to surveillance cameras. They put them on their doorbells and tolerate them on street corners, offices and restaurants. What sets Flock’s cameras apart is that they are connected, creating a vast, searchable national network — often surprising residents who didn’t realize their local governments had signed up for them and raising fears of Big Brother-style surveillance. And they are hard to miss once you start noticing them."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/us/flock-cameras-can-track-every-car-in-america-police-love-them-citizens-dont.html

Panopticon or not to Panopticon

Bentham wrote it in 1787, in letters sent from a town in what's now Belarus. Cells in a ring, inspector in the middle, lit so he sees out and you can't see in. People always repeat the seeing part. The part that mattered was that you couldn't check. Is he up there right now? No way to know, so you act like he is. That's the whole trick. It runs on doubt, and doubt is cheap, which is how one guard covers a hundred cells.

Foucault took that in 1975 and turned it into a shape for modern power generally. School, barracks, factory, ward. Two things about it: you move through enclosures one at a time, and each one is trying to correct you.

Neither is true anymore, and Deleuze said so in 1992, in five pages in October. No more enclosures. No graduation, no discharge, no sentence you finish. And the individual splits into what he called the dividual - slices, attributes, fragments that travel without you. He wrote that before the web was commercial and still described a computer tracking your position and said, flatly, that this wasn't science fiction.

Zuboff filled in the money in 2019. Behavioral surplus: the exhaust off your ordinary life, kept for uses past improving the service, milled into predictions, sold. Which inverts the point of the thing. The old apparatus watched in order to fix you. This one watches in order to bet on you.

Then there's the piece Deleuze had no name for. Something has to put the fragments back together. That's data fusion, and it's why Palantir is the name people say. In February DHS signed for up to a billion over five years, Gotham and Foundry, any component agency drawing on it by task order without competing a contract. Enforcement records, biometrics, financial history, travel, resolved into one object you can act on.

The inputs aren't new. Credit bureaus are older than I am. What's new is the schema - the thing that decides your face and your rent history are attributes of the same entity. Deleuze's fragments, glued.

So there's no tower. Nothing to photograph, nothing to zone, nothing you can usefully subpoena. And responsibility spreads until nobody's holding any of it. The location broker sells to the aggregator, the aggregator to the vendor, the vendor licenses to the agency, and not one of them assembled the file.

I'm fairly sure "who's watching" is the wrong question, though. Nobody's watching? Which is worse?

#Surveillance #Panopticon #Foucault #Deleuze #Palantir #SurveillanceCapitalism #Privacy #DataFusion #Philosophy

Panopticon or not to Panopticon

Bentham wrote it in 1787, in letters sent from a town in what's now Belarus. Cells in a ring, inspector in the middle, lit so he sees out and you can't see in. People always repeat the seeing part. The part that mattered was that you couldn't check. Is he up there right now? No way to know, so you act like he is. That's the whole trick. It runs on doubt, and doubt is cheap, which is how one guard covers a hundred cells.

Foucault took that in 1975 and turned it into a shape for modern power generally. School, barracks, factory, ward. Two things about it: you move through enclosures one at a time, and each one is trying to correct you.

Neither is true anymore, and Deleuze said so in 1992, in five pages in October. No more enclosures. No graduation, no discharge, no sentence you finish. And the individual splits into what he called the dividual - slices, attributes, fragments that travel without you. He wrote that before the web was commercial and still described a computer tracking your position and said, flatly, that this wasn't science fiction.

Zuboff filled in the money in 2019. Behavioral surplus: the exhaust off your ordinary life, kept for uses past improving the service, milled into predictions, sold. Which inverts the point of the thing. The old apparatus watched in order to fix you. This one watches in order to bet on you.

Then there's the piece Deleuze had no name for. Something has to put the fragments back together. That's data fusion, and it's why Palantir is the name people say. In February DHS signed for up to a billion over five years, Gotham and Foundry, any component agency drawing on it by task order without competing a contract. Enforcement records, biometrics, financial history, travel, resolved into one object you can act on.

The inputs aren't new. Credit bureaus are older than I am. What's new is the schema - the thing that decides your face and your rent history are attributes of the same entity. Deleuze's fragments, glued.

So there's no tower. Nothing to photograph, nothing to zone, nothing you can usefully subpoena. And responsibility spreads until nobody's holding any of it. The location broker sells to the aggregator, the aggregator to the vendor, the vendor licenses to the agency, and not one of them assembled the file.

I'm fairly sure "who's watching" is the wrong question, though. Nobody's watching? Which is worse?

#Surveillance #Panopticon #Foucault #Deleuze #Palantir #SurveillanceCapitalism #Privacy #DataFusion #Philosophy

Panopticon or not to Panopticon

Bentham wrote it in 1787, in letters sent from a town in what's now Belarus. Cells in a ring, inspector in the middle, lit so he sees out and you can't see in. People always repeat the seeing part. The part that mattered was that you couldn't check. Is he up there right now? No way to know, so you act like he is. That's the whole trick. It runs on doubt, and doubt is cheap, which is how one guard covers a hundred cells.

Foucault took that in 1975 and turned it into a shape for modern power generally. School, barracks, factory, ward. Two things about it: you move through enclosures one at a time, and each one is trying to correct you.

Neither is true anymore, and Deleuze said so in 1992, in five pages in October. No more enclosures. No graduation, no discharge, no sentence you finish. And the individual splits into what he called the dividual - slices, attributes, fragments that travel without you. He wrote that before the web was commercial and still described a computer tracking your position and said, flatly, that this wasn't science fiction.

Zuboff filled in the money in 2019. Behavioral surplus: the exhaust off your ordinary life, kept for uses past improving the service, milled into predictions, sold. Which inverts the point of the thing. The old apparatus watched in order to fix you. This one watches in order to bet on you.

Then there's the piece Deleuze had no name for. Something has to put the fragments back together. That's data fusion, and it's why Palantir is the name people say. In February DHS signed for up to a billion over five years, Gotham and Foundry, any component agency drawing on it by task order without competing a contract. Enforcement records, biometrics, financial history, travel, resolved into one object you can act on.

The inputs aren't new. Credit bureaus are older than I am. What's new is the schema - the thing that decides your face and your rent history are attributes of the same entity. Deleuze's fragments, glued.

So there's no tower. Nothing to photograph, nothing to zone, nothing you can usefully subpoena. And responsibility spreads until nobody's holding any of it. The location broker sells to the aggregator, the aggregator to the vendor, the vendor licenses to the agency, and not one of them assembled the file.

I'm fairly sure "who's watching" is the wrong question, though. Nobody's watching? Which is worse?

#Surveillance #Panopticon #Foucault #Deleuze #Palantir #SurveillanceCapitalism #Privacy #DataFusion #Philosophy

Panopticon or not to Panopticon

Bentham wrote it in 1787, in letters sent from a town in what's now Belarus. Cells in a ring, inspector in the middle, lit so he sees out and you can't see in. People always repeat the seeing part. The part that mattered was that you couldn't check. Is he up there right now? No way to know, so you act like he is. That's the whole trick. It runs on doubt, and doubt is cheap, which is how one guard covers a hundred cells.

Foucault took that in 1975 and turned it into a shape for modern power generally. School, barracks, factory, ward. Two things about it: you move through enclosures one at a time, and each one is trying to correct you.

Neither is true anymore, and Deleuze said so in 1992, in five pages in October. No more enclosures. No graduation, no discharge, no sentence you finish. And the individual splits into what he called the dividual - slices, attributes, fragments that travel without you. He wrote that before the web was commercial and still described a computer tracking your position and said, flatly, that this wasn't science fiction.

Zuboff filled in the money in 2019. Behavioral surplus: the exhaust off your ordinary life, kept for uses past improving the service, milled into predictions, sold. Which inverts the point of the thing. The old apparatus watched in order to fix you. This one watches in order to bet on you.

Then there's the piece Deleuze had no name for. Something has to put the fragments back together. That's data fusion, and it's why Palantir is the name people say. In February DHS signed for up to a billion over five years, Gotham and Foundry, any component agency drawing on it by task order without competing a contract. Enforcement records, biometrics, financial history, travel, resolved into one object you can act on.

The inputs aren't new. Credit bureaus are older than I am. What's new is the schema - the thing that decides your face and your rent history are attributes of the same entity. Deleuze's fragments, glued.

So there's no tower. Nothing to photograph, nothing to zone, nothing you can usefully subpoena. And responsibility spreads until nobody's holding any of it. The location broker sells to the aggregator, the aggregator to the vendor, the vendor licenses to the agency, and not one of them assembled the file.

I'm fairly sure "who's watching" is the wrong question, though. Nobody's watching? Which is worse?

#Surveillance #Panopticon #Foucault #Deleuze #Palantir #SurveillanceCapitalism #Privacy #DataFusion #Philosophy

Panopticon or not to Panopticon

Bentham wrote it in 1787, in letters sent from a town in what's now Belarus. Cells in a ring, inspector in the middle, lit so he sees out and you can't see in. People always repeat the seeing part. The part that mattered was that you couldn't check. Is he up there right now? No way to know, so you act like he is. That's the whole trick. It runs on doubt, and doubt is cheap, which is how one guard covers a hundred cells.

Foucault took that in 1975 and turned it into a shape for modern power generally. School, barracks, factory, ward. Two things about it: you move through enclosures one at a time, and each one is trying to correct you.

Neither is true anymore, and Deleuze said so in 1992, in five pages in October. No more enclosures. No graduation, no discharge, no sentence you finish. And the individual splits into what he called the dividual - slices, attributes, fragments that travel without you. He wrote that before the web was commercial and still described a computer tracking your position and said, flatly, that this wasn't science fiction.

Zuboff filled in the money in 2019. Behavioral surplus: the exhaust off your ordinary life, kept for uses past improving the service, milled into predictions, sold. Which inverts the point of the thing. The old apparatus watched in order to fix you. This one watches in order to bet on you.

Then there's the piece Deleuze had no name for. Something has to put the fragments back together. That's data fusion, and it's why Palantir is the name people say. In February DHS signed for up to a billion over five years, Gotham and Foundry, any component agency drawing on it by task order without competing a contract. Enforcement records, biometrics, financial history, travel, resolved into one object you can act on.

The inputs aren't new. Credit bureaus are older than I am. What's new is the schema - the thing that decides your face and your rent history are attributes of the same entity. Deleuze's fragments, glued.

So there's no tower. Nothing to photograph, nothing to zone, nothing you can usefully subpoena. And responsibility spreads until nobody's holding any of it. The location broker sells to the aggregator, the aggregator to the vendor, the vendor licenses to the agency, and not one of them assembled the file.

I'm fairly sure "who's watching" is the wrong question, though. Nobody's watching? Which is worse?

#Surveillance #Panopticon #Foucault #Deleuze #Palantir #SurveillanceCapitalism #Privacy #DataFusion #Philosophy

We're swapping one #panopticon for another--progress???

https://www.404media.co/cities-are-ditching-flock-immediately-replacing-it-with-axon-license-plate-readers/

We're swapping one #panopticon for another--progress???

https://www.404media.co/cities-are-ditching-flock-immediately-replacing-it-with-axon-license-plate-readers/

We're swapping one #panopticon for another--progress???

https://www.404media.co/cities-are-ditching-flock-immediately-replacing-it-with-axon-license-plate-readers/

We're swapping one #panopticon for another--progress???

https://www.404media.co/cities-are-ditching-flock-immediately-replacing-it-with-axon-license-plate-readers/

We're swapping one #panopticon for another--progress???

https://www.404media.co/cities-are-ditching-flock-immediately-replacing-it-with-axon-license-plate-readers/

How do fellow opponents of plargiarism bots and synthetic media extruders feel about branding “AI” promoters as “sloppists” and data centres mostly or entirely dedicated to #slop generation and the digital #panopticon as “slop factories”?

#noAI #genAI #datacentre #datacenter #datacentres #datacenters

How do fellow opponents of plargiarism bots and synthetic media extruders feel about branding “AI” promoters as “sloppists” and data centres mostly or entirely dedicated to #slop generation and the digital #panopticon as “slop factories”?

#noAI #genAI #datacentre #datacenter #datacentres #datacenters

How do fellow opponents of plargiarism bots and synthetic media extruders feel about branding “AI” promoters as “sloppists” and data centres mostly or entirely dedicated to #slop generation and the digital #panopticon as “slop factories”?

#noAI #genAI #datacentre #datacenter #datacentres #datacenters

How do fellow opponents of plargiarism bots and synthetic media extruders feel about branding “AI” promoters as “sloppists” and data centres mostly or entirely dedicated to #slop generation and the digital #panopticon as “slop factories”?

#noAI #genAI #datacentre #datacenter #datacentres #datacenters

How do fellow opponents of plargiarism bots and synthetic media extruders feel about branding “AI” promoters as “sloppists” and data centres mostly or entirely dedicated to #slop generation and the digital #panopticon as “slop factories”?

#noAI #genAI #datacentre #datacenter #datacentres #datacenters

#panopticon nobody understands that blast beats are a texture more than Austin Lunn, prove me wrong.

#panopticon nobody understands that blast beats are a texture more than Austin Lunn, prove me wrong.

#panopticon nobody understands that blast beats are a texture more than Austin Lunn, prove me wrong.

Why were the US & British establishments so determined to stop Corbyn's advance, even if it meant openly sabotaging the UK's democratic political process? Would one of Corbyn's ministers be calling, like Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, to use #AI to reinvent an 18th-century idea for #surveillance, the #Panopticon, that "the eyes of the state can be on you at all times"? Because the billionaires & their media - would rather you were directing your hate at their arch-creature than at them directly

Why were the US & British establishments so determined to stop Corbyn's advance, even if it meant openly sabotaging the UK's democratic political process? Would one of Corbyn's ministers be calling, like Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, to use #AI to reinvent an 18th-century idea for #surveillance, the #Panopticon, that "the eyes of the state can be on you at all times"? Because the billionaires & their media - would rather you were directing your hate at their arch-creature than at them directly

Why were the US & British establishments so determined to stop Corbyn's advance, even if it meant openly sabotaging the UK's democratic political process? Would one of Corbyn's ministers be calling, like Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, to use #AI to reinvent an 18th-century idea for #surveillance, the #Panopticon, that "the eyes of the state can be on you at all times"? Because the billionaires & their media - would rather you were directing your hate at their arch-creature than at them directly

Facial Recognition is spiralling out of control in the UK and there are no clear laws in place to protect our privacy

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/07/facial-recognition-is-spiralling-out-of-control-in-the-uk-and-there-are-no-clear-laws-in-place-to-protect-our-privacy/

Facial Recognition is spiralling out of control in the UK and there are no clear laws in place to protect our privacy

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/07/facial-recognition-is-spiralling-out-of-control-in-the-uk-and-there-are-no-clear-laws-in-place-to-protect-our-privacy/

Facial Recognition is spiralling out of control in the UK and there are no clear laws in place to protect our privacy

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/07/facial-recognition-is-spiralling-out-of-control-in-the-uk-and-there-are-no-clear-laws-in-place-to-protect-our-privacy/

Facial Recognition is spiralling out of control in the UK and there are no clear laws in place to protect our privacy

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/07/facial-recognition-is-spiralling-out-of-control-in-the-uk-and-there-are-no-clear-laws-in-place-to-protect-our-privacy/

Facial Recognition is spiralling out of control in the UK and there are no clear laws in place to protect our privacy

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/07/facial-recognition-is-spiralling-out-of-control-in-the-uk-and-there-are-no-clear-laws-in-place-to-protect-our-privacy/

#panopticon n.

A hypothetical #prison proposed by Jeremy #Bentham, having circular tiers of #cells surrounding a central observation tower.

A building, as a prison or library, so arranged that all parts of the interior are visible from a single point.

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/panopticon

This what the current #Briitish #government has indicated it wants for our country.

Do you?

Oppose a prison country; Sign:

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-scanning-us-all-with-facial-recognition