Hi, I’m Holly! I’m an anthropologist (writer, researcher, student) passionate about craft, STS, and information/communication. I’m an avid knitter and philatelist, who enjoys floating around the internet a little.
Blog / Index / Profile site: https://holly.omg.lol/ / Useful or Interesting resources from around the internet! (authored by Shiva and me) / Reading list
09-01-2025 This project has really just been chugging along! I’ve been using a software called Tropy to organise images that I’ve been taking at the Noord Hollands Archief, where the N. G. de Bruijn’s archive is stored. I’ve been working on translating many of them from Dutch to English. I’ve also been speaking to some people who worked on the Automath project back in the 1970s and 80s. I’m finding it really fascinating, especially learning about a whole world of mathematics that I, dropping maths as soon as posssible, had no idea about. It’s also great linking it to the history of computing stuff that I’m learning for my master’s research (and my own fun). Alongside this project, Rodrigo Ochigame and I are also working on some prompt engineering for academic-centred LLMs, to try and develop a way of searching anthropological literature that exists outside of many university library systems. Right now though, that’s all just experiments.
09-01-2025 I’m now officially in the fieldwork period for this project! I’m spending my time organising and doing interviews with people who modify their knitting machines, and setting up my knitting machine so that I can install the AYAB hardware in it. Of course, fieldwork always comes with fieldnotes, and I’m also spending a lot of time writing stream-of-consciousness, making sure that I get all of my thoughts out. This is my first time doing fieldwork alone so I was worried that I would feel quite lonely, but I’m feeling really good about it so far. In late January I will travel to San Francisco to meet modified machine knitters there. I’m really excited!
??-08-2024 I recently finished writing my BSc Thesis in Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology!! It’s titled Talking About Sex Robots: Mapping academic controversy in sex robot discourse. Using the methodology of controversy mapping, I looked at the academic conversations and debates that have been happening around sex robots since 2007. Specifically, I look into the ways in which some arguments (made by people who oppose sex robots) resemble arguments made by second-wave anti-pornography feminists and hide transphobic/anti-sex worker beliefs underneath. You can download and read it on researchgate, or you can email me (address at the bottom of the page) and I’ll send it over to you.
09-11-2024 Davecat, who I interviewed for the thesis, recently wrote some of his thoughts about my thesis on his blog! You can read it here, and I’d reccomend reading some of his other blog posts too!
Find previous academic endeavours on the archive under anything called ‘academic endeavours archive’.
I love apps and websites to do with specific things with my hobbies.
You can find me on Ravelry, Postcrossing, or The Storygraph to see what I knit, post, and read respectively.
I’m on are.na.
I’m on Bluesky, my username is @hollyzijderveld.bsky.social. I’m also on Mastodon, my user is @holly@social.lol
You can email me @ holly[at]omg[dot]lol. If you want to contact me this is the best way to do so!
I’m a big lover of ong.lol. On holly.omg.lol you can find my profile, my blog, and my now page.
Everything on this page is licensed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. You can use it under the same license, but please credit me!
proven.lol/240a43