Issue 44 | May 2026

Welcome to the May 2026 edition of Miaaw Monthly, courtesy of Beehiiv.com.

Last month we accidentally reprinted a note from the month before. If you spotted this and decided that you were too polite to mention it then please award yourself a virtual prize of your own choosing.

This month we have all-new content, except for the single note that we have (almost) repeated from last month. This time the repetition is deliberate because the conference invitation is still open and the note is therefore still timely.

PODCASTS FOR MAY 2026

A THOUSAND WORDS

THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD

Quackery with a university logo

Letters of an ancient alphabet carry a hidden numerological code. Spend enough time deciphering it – covering your whiteboard with notes and formulas – and the secrets of the universe will be revealed to you. This isn’t the plot of an Umberto Eco novel; in Georgia, it almost became an actual field of study.

‘Astrolinguistics’ and ‘astroarchaeology’ – outré pastimes that forge spurious connections between stars, signs and history – very nearly forced their way into Georgia’s mainstream education system. Late last year, a government ordinance turned these quasi-scientific subjects into degree programs at none other than Kutaisi International University (KIU), drawing protests from the nation’s academic community.

We learned this from Eurozine, an online magazine worth exploring. It contains a wide range of articles that relate to the subjects we cover here and in the Miaaw podcasts. You might find the current article on Social Experiments without Experimentalism worth glancing at, for example.

You can find out the whole story, in all its madness, if you click here.

A conference about Social Theory, Politics and the Arts

We mentioned this last month, but it remains current so we mention it again here.

You can, if you wish, help to celebrate STP&A's history and collectively contribute to its future. To do this you will need to know that Proposals and Applications for the Mentorship Pilot Program and Conference Scholarship are due May 6.

You can also see the five new tracks for this year's conference on the official STPA conference website.

Snuff, comics, and history

I found the comic shown above recently while bouncing around the web in the old fashioned way. It tells the story of a snuff salesman while pushing the Helme Company’s snuff in almost every panel.

You can find the complete comic if you click here. In a full length “adventure” it shows a snuff salesman turning two young boys onto the idea of using snuff, while their older sister gets ready for a date with the, ahem, pusher.

Don’t know much about snuff? You will!

The comic comes from a site called Comic Book Plus which you might (or might not) find worth exploring for cultural and historical reasons; especially if you feel you don’t have enough bizarre old comics in your life. The site contains many public domain comic books, dime novels, newspaper comic strips, pulp magazines and old time radio shows. They are as they were.

By its very nature it contains some material that would not get printed in the twenty first century. It does, however, offer examples of popular culture from the past 100 or more years as raw material for thought and debate.

Aesthetica Magazine art prize

The Aesthetica website says:

“The Aesthetica Art Prize celebrates contemporary art across a range of media. We're exhibiting and championing some of the world’s most significant talent and contributing towards a global dialogue around today’s creative practices. Aesthetica is part of the UNESCO City of Media Arts network. This award offers artists opportunities for exhibition at a major public gallery alongside publication in Aesthetica Magazine. The winner will receive £10,000 prize money as well as opportunities for wider exposure and development.

“Over the years, winning pieces have reflected upon both social and political structures, questioning the value that we place on the planet and each other. They have pushed the boundaries of form and technique, providing new and inspiring ideas. The Aesthetica Art Prize is a conduit to help us to make sense of the world around us. As we progress – and that’s a term for debate – we must look at what we gain and what we lose. In this world of augmented and virtual reality, constant connections, instant access, the metaverse, phones, selfies and satellites, is loud and intrusive.

“We need to look at the balance of things and understand that there needs to be an equilibrium. We must not be afraid to ask hard questions.”

We mention this not because we expect anyone reading this to grab their cameras and tell their bank manager that £10,000 is on its way, but because you may not have seen or heard of Aesthetica, despite the fact that it “is part of the UNESCO City of Media Arts network”.

We think the website is worth knowing about and looking at. That’s all. And if you have grabbed your camera and phoned your bank manager then we wish you luck!

On the Radical Imagination

You may or may not know about Max Haiven. He describes himself as “a propagandist for an impossible country”. He claims that he “uses writing, teaching, games, podcasts and other techniques for the radical imagination”. He co-wrote a book in 2014 called The Radical Imagination: Social Movement Research in the Age of Austerity.

We recently came across a video in which he talks at length about how his conceptions about the radical imagination have changed and developed over the last decade.

If you have an hour to spare, you can watch the video here on YouTube.

He later wrote a book called Art After Money, Money After Art. We hope to speak with him about this sometime this summer. Stay tuned, as people used to say.

And next month…

The June edition of Miaaw Monthly will appear in your inbox on Wednesday June 3, with the first podcast of the month arriving just two days later.

Whenever date that is!