The Polycrisis Sublime of the Whitney Biennial
It felt like the world as I experience it: no clear path, but enough moments of beauty to convince me to put one foot in front of the other.
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Earth’s gravity is lumpy . “The gravity in...
Earth’s gravity is lumpy . “The gravity in East Antarctica is measurably weaker than anywhere else on the planet.”
Guggenheim Union Rallies at Carol Bove Reception
“We're out here rallying to put pressure on the museum to come back to the bargaining table with a bit more movability on their positions,” said one of the workers.
The Ballad of Ollie Jackson
"How the baddest man int he St. Louis underworld failed to become a folk hero."
Big Tuskers
Oh wow, I love these photographs of “big tusker” elephants by Johan Siggesson. I didn’t even know big tuskers were a thing — and they may not be for much longer : The term “Big Tusker” refers to an elephant with tusks so large they scrape the floor. Unfortunately, the
This is kind of amazing: World Monitor is a real-time...
This is kind of amazing: World Monitor is a real-time global intelligence dashboard. Includes military activity, climate anomalies, live webcam feeds in warzones, internet outages, active fires, and even the Pentagon Pizza Index .
A View From the Easel
“I work as an attorney during the day and let loose at night in my studio.”
Yes, let’s retire the restaurant monologue ....
Yes, let’s retire the restaurant monologue . “The urge to direct diners through every bite of a meal runs counter to what I love about dining out, one of just a few cornerstones of American life that have not yet been optimized into oblivion.”
Olafur Eliasson: A symphony of disappearing sounds for the Great Salt Lake
As the lake’s ecological crisis worsens, the artist’s new site-specific installation in Salt Lake City renders audible what is increasingly at risk of vanishing.
From ProPublica, a database of financial disclosures...
From ProPublica, a database of financial disclosures from the Trump regime’s political appointees . “Use this database to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team.”
Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies on HyperCard
After posting the video on the history of HyperCard the other day, I went down a bit of a HyperCard rabbit hole on the Internet Archive. There are a ton of HyperCard programs, manual & packaging scans, and other resources available on IA ; among them: The Manhole , from the
What Happens When We Die
"How can a creature who will certainly die have an understanding of things that will exist forever?"
The Met Introduces High-Definition 3D Scans of Dozens of Art Historical Objects
View van Gogh's brushstrokes closer than you're allowed to in a museum. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article The Met Introduces High-Definition 3D Scans
Web game: list as many animals as you can in 1 minute...
Web game: list as many animals as you can in 1 minute (but you get more time with correct guesses).
Interdimensional Timelines: Hartford Art School Exhibits Liz Nielsen’s Photograms
As she concludes her term as the university’s Distinguished Chair in Photography, Nielsen’s “light paintings” are on view this spring in West Hartford, Connecticut.
The Four Rules for a Good Walk
In 2017, city planner Jeff Speck gave a talk on the four ways to make a city more walkable: In the typical American city, in which most people own cars and the temptation is to drive them all the time, if you’re going to get them to walk, then you have to offer a walk that’s
Legendary computer scientist Donald Knuth :...
Legendary computer scientist Donald Knuth : “Shock! Shock! I learned yesterday that an open problem I’d been working on for several weeks had just been solved by Claude Opus 4.6.”
“The entire Sun oscillates in a globally coherent...
“The entire Sun oscillates in a globally coherent way, and the oscillations are formed by sound waves trapped inside the Sun that make it resonate just like a musical instrument .”
Scale the Dramatic Verticality of Grundtvigs Kirke in David Altrath’s Dreamy Photos
A masterpiece of Expressionist brick architecture, Grundtvigs Kirke in Copenhagen is medieval-meets-modern. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Scale
Oliver Sacks on the Three Essential Elements of Creativity
"It takes a special energy, over and above one’s creative potential, a special audacity or subversiveness, to strike out in a new direction once one is settled."
After rain
A family swim, share meals and tell stories by a creek in Central Australia in a joyous celebration of much-needed rain - by Aeon Video Watch on Aeon
How to Heal Your Creative Hangover
Long-lost Rembrandt goes on view, 3D scans of The Met's treasures, spring shows outside NYC, and how to cure the emotional crash after artistic bursts.
On her own terms
Doris Lessing’s Golden Notebook remains shocking, necessary and imperfect – a dazzling experiment in living as a woman - by Catherine Taylor Read on Aeon
Imagination is work
We spend most of the time we’re in school extinguishing imagination. “Will this be on the test?” is a much more common question than “What if?” We’ve been trained to do tasks in a factory. Imagination is a skill and it takes effort. It’s not useful to say, “I’m not
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: From the Walls of Babylon to the Sewers of Rome
You may not be able to name all, or even most, of the seven wonders of the ancient world. But you almost certainly know that there were seven of them. In a way, that aligns well enough with the worldview of the Greeks who first made reference to such a list, given their
The Dark and Stormy Tale of a ShantyTok Band
When a scraggly band of folk musicians arrived to tour the UK, residents of a small Welsh town were enamored—until they learned that the band’s leader ruled with an iron fist.
Bertrand Russell’s Advice For How (Not) to Grow Old: “Make Your Interests Gradually Wider and More Impersonal”
Image by National Portrait Gallery, via Wikimedia Commons Advice on how to grow old frequently comes from such banal or bloodless sources that we can be forgiven for ignoring it. Public health officials who dispense wisdom may have good intentions; pharmaceutical companies who
Albert Camus on the Source of Strength and How to Save Our Sanity in Trying Times
"In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."
Your Guide to Art Excursions Outside NYC This Spring
Your Guide to Art Excursions Outside NYC This Spring Dek1: The avant-garde environments of Piero Manzoni, the abstract visions of Agnes Martin, Rina Banerjee’s diaphanous monuments, and so much else to see.
15 Art Excursions Outside NYC This Spring
The avant-garde environments of Piero Manzoni, the abstract visions of Agnes Martin, Rina Banerjee’s diaphanous monuments, and so much else to see.
Explore The Met’s Collection in 3D From Your Couch
The museum offers scans of items including a painting by Claude Monet, Neolithic sculptures, and Greek terracotta vases.
From late January, a 40-minute talk by Rick Steves on...
From late January, a 40-minute talk by Rick Steves on “how lessons learned on the road can help Americans better understand and meet the challenges facing Democracy in the USA.”