The Unbearable Strangeness of Being
In Cinga Samson’s haunted paintings, we do not know what we are looking at, or where we are.
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Really interesting piece from Jodi Ettenberg about...
Really interesting piece from Jodi Ettenberg about microdosing a GLP-1 to manage her mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) . She’s noticed “way less pain” and can eat more foods without reactions (yoghurt, oats, mild curry pastes).
The Museum Breathing Life Into New York's Downtown Performance Scene
The Leslie-Lohman is figuring out how to collect art while connecting with the basic needs of the city's queer community.
Peep the Wildest Costumes of This Year’s Easter Bonnet Parade
The decorous fashion show has evolved into a rambunctious and all-inclusive pageant of New York’s crafters, artists, and street performers.
A Dedicated Ruth Asawa Space Is Coming to San Francisco
Complementing the artist’s various public works throughout the city, her family-run estate's forthcoming gallery comes on the centenary of the artist's birth year.
The Astor Place Riots of 1849 resulted in “the...
The Astor Place Riots of 1849 resulted in “the greatest loss of life in a civic insurrection in American history up to that time”. And they were incited over the “wrong” actor playing Macbeth .
50 Years of Chicano Photography
Art books we're reading this spring, a deep dive into Frank O'Hara's curatorial gig at MoMA, and more.
LA Artists Honor Dolores Huerta’s Defiant Spirit
In honor of the labor leader’s 96th birthday, over 30 Los Angeles artists pay homage to her lifelong fight for the rights and dignity of everyday people.
Dutch Museum Discovers 8-Inch Ancient Roman Phallus
The bone carving was found in a forgotten collection of 16,000 boxes containing various archaeological finds at the Valkhof Museum.
Transcription by Ben Lerner
I’ve been hearing nothing but good things about Ben Lerner’s new novel Transcription ( Amazon ) which comes out tomorrow. From the book’s description: What unfolds from this dreamlike circumstance is the unforgettable story of the triangle formed by Thomas, Max, and the
Hallucinated Citations Are Polluting the Scientific Literature. What Can Be Done?
“Tens of thousands of publications from 2025 might include invalid references generated by AI, a ‘Nature’ analysis suggests.”
A visual history of exploring the far side of the Moon ....
A visual history of exploring the far side of the Moon . “The Moon is tidally locked, meaning that only one side of the Moon ever faces the Earth. [For millenia,] there was an entire half of our natural satellite that no human had ever seen before.”
12,000 Years Ago, Native Americans Were Playing Games of Chance with Handmade Dice
New research suggests that dice developed much earlier—to the tune of 6,000 years—than originally thought. 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 12,000
Livestream: Artemis II is about to fly around the Moon ....
Livestream: Artemis II is about to fly around the Moon . At around 1:56pm ET, they’ll surpass the Apollo 13 distance record. And: “At their closest point, they’ll pass roughly 4,000 miles above the lunar surface.”
New vocabulary word: “RAM harvester” . RAM...
New vocabulary word: “RAM harvester” . RAM chips are so expensive right now that RAM harvesters are stealing them out of demo computers at electronics stores.
The Death of a Superman
"An entirely avoidable problem is killing dozens of homeless people across the country. Why is it being ignored?"
Missed this last week: Lane 8 dropped their Spring 2026...
Missed this last week: Lane 8 dropped their Spring 2026 Mixtape . Available on YouTube and Soundcloud .
Pattern Index, Max Cooper
Max Cooper’s music videos are always worth a look. This one , directed by Katia Schutz , is for a song called Pattern Index from his forthcoming album ( Feeling Is Structure , May 8). Cooper describes Feeling Is Structure as an “audiovisual album”, which I take to mean that
7 Artists We’re Excited to See at EXPO CHICAGO 2026
EXPO CHICAGO is back at Navy Pier. Here's what we're planning to see. 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 7 Artists We’re Excited to See at EXPO
Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds
The first US museum exhibition to focus on the artist’s late work, produced in response to the fascism of the 1930s. On view at the Jewish Museum through July 26, 2026.
Lessons from fighting cancer that apply to resisting...
Lessons from fighting cancer that apply to resisting authoritarianism . 1. We need each other. 2. We must move, even when on uncertain ground. 3. Past trauma will bring us down if we do not release its effects on us. And more…
“The promise of the open web was colonized by...
“The promise of the open web was colonized by internet giants. But the power of LLMs and agentic coding means we can start to take it back . We can build customized, personal software for ourselves that does what we want.”
Hillary Waters Fayle Creates ‘Portraits of Place’ from Seeds, Foliage, and Petals
Flower petals, seeds, and foliage combine into an album of places the artist has been. 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 Hillary Waters Fayle Creates
Louisiana, Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, and...
Louisiana, Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland: only five US states have ever had a Black governor .
See the Spectacular Winners of Smithsonian Magazine’s 23rd Annual Photography Contest
This year’s best photos command attention by capturing intimate moments and bold colors
Is AI already conscious?
Why it’s difficult and perhaps even morally perilous to rule out the possibility of AI consciousness - by Aeon Video Watch on Aeon
Art and Springtime in Upstate NY
Plus, solace in Leah Ke Yi Zheng’s divine paintings, Ali Cherri accuses Israel of war crimes, and a revealing new survey of POC-led arts orgs.
The antibiotic trap
Easy access to desperately needed drugs has made India the global accelerant of our antimicrobial resistance crisis - by Assa Doron & Alex Broom Read on Aeon
Kinder than necessary
If it’s just the right amount of necessary kindness, it’s not really kindness. It’s pleasantness. If the people in our circle begin to experience behavior that’s kinder than necessary, the expectations for what’s necessary will ratchet forward, making everything more pleasant.
Watch 434 Avant-Garde and Surreal Short Films Online: Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Luis Buñuel and Many More
Much has been written lately about the crisis in Hollywood, which has left many apparently sure-fire blockbusters floundering, theaters empty, and production jobs lost. There are many factors in play — some of them, as few diagnoses fail to point out, structural — but can we
How a Clean, Tidy Home Can Help You Survive the Atomic Bomb: A Cold War Film from 1954
Not too far back, we revisited some Cold War propaganda that taught upstanding American citizens How to Spot a Communist Using Literary Criticism. It’s a gem, but it has nothing on the 1954 film, The House in the Middle. Selected for preservation in the National Film Registry
Sentinels of the Soul: Kahlil Gibran’s Moving Letter to a Soldier in a Senseless War
War is an ism — nationalism, dogmatism, capitalism — paid for by an is: the living beingness of human beings made a sacrificial offering to an ideology so powerful it has quelled the two things that make us most human: compassion and critical thinking. “Those people who see