The ill-fated romance of Abelard and Héloïse may be a permanent cultural fixture, but it’s worth asking what any of us understand about Abelard or Héloïse themselves. Before the two ever crossed paths, Peter Abelard was already a celebrated philosopher in France whose classes
From Newton’s mechanical calculations to Einstein’s general and special relativity to the baffling indeterminacy of quantum mechanics, the discipline of physics has become increasingly arcane and complex, and less and less governed by orderly laws. This presents a problem for
This is kind of fantastic: Ribbie lets you watch actual MLB baseball games “rendered pitch by pitch in a cozy 8-bit view while they happen”. Ribbie is a simple way to keep a live baseball game nearby. It shows the score, the bases, the count, and a tiny pixel field that moves
As the nation marks 250 years, exhibitions explore artists’ interpretations of the American flag, Joan Miró’s printmaking, collage as critique, Black design, Pueblo pottery, and more.
Full set of Underworld playing live at EDC Las Vegas back in May.
The artists sculpts community tributes from found tires, inspired by its reslience and ability to absorb trauma.
The artist, who uses scavenged auto parts, is concerned not just with materials but with what they reveal about the worlds they inhabit.
For most exhibitors at the Swiss art fair this year, the answer is not spectacle, but rather laser focus.
This week, we honor a painter who made the everyday otherworldly, a poet-photographer, and a champion of Black artists.
A digital clock where the numbers are made from dozens of analog clock hands . Hard to describe…just go take a look.
One of his subjects was a cousin I never knew. I wanted to learn more about the large-scale portraits that helped define the English artist's legacy
On his YouTube channel , Thomas Whichello reads interesting literature aloud, often in the original languages, dialects, or accents, with the goal of making “classic works intelligible and enjoyable to everybody”. One of his most popular videos is his recitation of book 1 of
Robert Kuzovkov, known by the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, was reportedly shot after protesting near the Russian Embassy in Berlin.
The Black Jeopardy Misses YouTube channel catalogs just how little Jeopardy contestants know about Black history, culture, and celebrities . (See also, of course, Black Jeopardy , which drives home a similar point in a different way.)
"We may know that nothing lasts forever, but this knowledge doesn’t alleviate the loneliness of grief."
For the first time in hundreds of years, two collections of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks have been brought together online at the Leonardotheka . In some cases, pages that were cut apart centuries ago have been digitally joined so we can see the full pages again, as Leonardo
It is not merely a matter of growing bones and growing responsibilities, this business of growing up, this unfinishable project of becoming ourselves. It is less like the evolutionary diagram of the upright ape than like a Russian nesting doll, our prior selves not outgrown but
From cows sculpted out of butter to seed art and crazy foods, ingenuity is as much a part of the tradition as showcasing time-honored practices. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little
"GPS is critical to everything from shipping to warfare. Tricking it is ridiculously easy."
A searchable archive of the almost 5000 TV episodes that naturalist David Attenborough has worked on in his career (1954-present) . “Search by animal, habitat, location, natural phenomenon, or theme to find exactly the episode you’re looking for.”
Before making his revolutionary documentary film The Thin Blue Line , filmmaker Errol Morris worked as a private detective. His detective skills came in handy not only in making the film but in actually solving the crime at the heart of the story and freeing an innocent man
"His life behind bars and his desperate campaign to get free."
Andrea Pitzer writes about the forced labor happening in Trump’s immigrant concentration camps and its roots in chattel slavery in the US and in Nazi & Soviet work camps.
Proposed UI rule of thumb : “If I take a screenshot of your app at any moment, it must make sense.”
"Thread becomes a way of drawing, connecting, and constructing forms," the artist says. 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 Diana Beltrán Herrera’s
The power of film is often in its ability to feel larger than life. Movie makers have been developing ways to accentuate that aspect for more than a century
"You can wager on war, elections, awards shows, reality TV, scientific progress, and—in the case of writer Carrie Sun—your own spouse. If you want to play, you have to wonder: Are you smarter than an inside trader?"
When new government policies allowed kids more time to grown up, the teenager was born. And every decade or so, they’ve changed the ways they entertain themselves … and everyone else
Morality is rooted in love, not institutions: the enduring impact of Héloïse’s 12th-century romance with Abelard - by Aeon Video Watch on Aeon
The New York State assembly member talks politics and painting in a Hyperallergic interview.
The author of Enshittification and the new The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI on hammock life, the joy of pulp, and writing through it.
"To be a human being among people and to remain one forever, no matter in what circumstances, not to grow despondent and not to lose heart — that’s what life is all about, that's its task."