Global Communications

I was a reluctant newcomer to social media, when, prompted by friends, I launched Postcards from Brasil two and half years ago; “Nobody ever reads your stuff, it’s either in expensive academic books, boring journals or obscure pamphlets that can’t be found. Why don’t you write a blog?” So, in I plunged only to discover that nobody was ‘visiting,’ apparently because I hadn’t set up an ‘instagram alert’. I now have both and thus began my curious journey into the cult like world of likes and followers. Perhaps the most remarkable thing for me about the whole experience is the geographical analytics on the Square Space website. This revealed something remarkable.  Although my last major academic work, the Routledge Companion to Architecture, Literature and the City reached an international audience, my blog has now been read by over two thousand unique visitors in ninety different countries. The league table is topped by China, the UK, Brazil and the US, with solid performances by France, Germany, Mexico, Jamaica, Italy, Singapore, Turkey, Russia and Vietnam.  So here is a big thankyou to all my readers. - The images are taken from Deep Down Tidal a video installation by the French Guyanese artist-activist Tabita Rezaire at the 2025 São Paulo exhibition “Historias da Ecologia”. It shows how the submarine fibre optic cables that underpin modern communication networks mimic the routes that defined the triangular trade and colonial exploitation.