What remains
In an ingenious restoration project, the humble oyster shell is transformed into a powerful tool to halt coastal erosion - by Aeon Video Watch on Aeon
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Frederic Edwin Church’s Sublime
Benjamin Moser on a new biography of the Hudson River painter, allegations against Cape Town’s SMAC Gallery, and more.
Loitering towards war
While Vienna’s coffeehouses bred modernism, in Belgrade’s kafanas grew conspiracy and rage. Their clash consumed Europe - by Anton Cebalo Read on Aeon
God’s Children
The Kerrs were devoted to one another and to their faith. But when one of their own rejected modern medicine, they faced a dire question: What if her children ever needed a doctor to save their lives?
Two kinds of word salad
The right words in the right sequence create information. Ideas that change our world. The first kind of word salad allows the writer to hide. Fancy words, carefully juxtaposed, saying nothing. This can serve a valuable function for politicians, academics and bosses–but there’s
The Origins of the Monsters in Homer’s Odyssey: The Cyclops, Sirens, Scylla & More
Despite having been composed about two and a half millennia before the invention of cinema, Homer’s Odyssey has offered tempting material to generation after generation of filmmakers. Part of the appeal is, of course, the work’s age, which obviates the need for potentially
Hear Hours of Lectures by Michel Foucault: Recorded in English & French Between 1961 and 1983
Tucked in the afterward of the second, 1982 edition of Hubert Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow’s Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, we find an important, but little-known essay by Foucault himself titled “The Subject and Power.” Here, the French theorist offers
A few highlights from a collection of lovely...
A few highlights from a collection of lovely woodblock-printed sugoroku game boards from Japan . “The gameboards use stories and maps to teach children history and geography.”
The Naturalist’s Library (1833-43)
Nicholas Rougeux, whose work I have featured here before , has published a complete digital edition of William Jardine’s 40-volume book series on natural history published in the early-to-mid 19th-century. As part of the project, Rougeux restored each of the more than 1300
Cape Town Gallery Accused of Withholding Pay and Artworks
An artist who left SMAC Gallery late last year took to social media with claims of delayed payments and missing works.
Welcome to Toronto, World Capital of the Urban Raccoon
Dan Werb on the understated intelligence of the animals that share our cities.
Beer With a Painter: Keltie Ferris
“I am playing with the building blocks of painting,” the artist told me at his studio in Woodstock, where he experiments with gestural compositions and monumental body prints.
Remembering Bruno Lucchesi, Pat Oliphant, and Edward Lucie-Smith
This week, we honor a figurative sculptor, a political cartoonist who revolutionized the form, and a prolific poet and writer.
How a Basket Empire Wove the Myth of America
As Longaberger's iconic headquarters sit empty, the baskets survive as artifacts of a national identity that commodified craft and packaged settler colonialism as heritage.
Guerrilla London Bus Ads Mock Kylie Jenner’s Meta Glasses Campaign
“Billionaires could fund cures for cancer — so why are they funding glasses for perverts instead?" asked the protest group Everyone Hates Elon.
Legibility of effort in the LLM age . “What...
Legibility of effort in the LLM age . “What software (and writing, to an extent) is missing now is legibility of effort - the ability to tell at a glance whether something took a human meaningful work.”
How to Bear Your Sorrows: Nick Cave on Integrating the Darkness of Loss with the Bright Ongoingness of Life
Few things in our culture are more wounding than the concept of healing — as if the pains and losses that we suffer are an illness, a malfunction of the psyche to be cut out like a tumor, rather than a natural function of being alive, of feeling life deeply and living it fully.
See Peter Marlow’s ‘The English Cathedral’ at London’s Oldest Gothic Church
Between 2010 and 2011, Marlow documented all 42 Anglican cathedrals across the breadth and length of England. 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 See
Diseases of the Will: Neuroscience Founding Father Santiago Ramón y Cajal on the Six Psychological Flaws That Keep the Gifted from Living Up to Their Gift
"Our neurons must be used ... not only to know but also to transform knowledge; not only to experience but also to construct."
Lionel Messi Bathing a Baby Lamine Yamal
These have to be some of the most remarkable sports photos of all time: a 20-year-old Lionel Messi bathing a five-month-old Lamine Yamal. Two of the best football players in the world, one a Barcelona legend and another a Barca legend in the making. Both came up through the
Ted Gioia : “Works like the Odyssey are...
Ted Gioia : “Works like the Odyssey are ritualistic and trance-inducing. They are propelled by music and driven by rhythm. They cross a border beyond literature, and enter something more transcendent and metaphysical.”
Good interview with Craig Mod about how he uses LLMs :...
Good interview with Craig Mod about how he uses LLMs : “using AI as a research assistant, why he keeps a tech-free zone in the mornings for deep thinking, and why he’s resisting the pull of the ‘mainlining’ AI era”.
The Moist Towelette Online Museum . Live moist and...
The Moist Towelette Online Museum . Live moist and prosper. 🖖💦
The Many Lives of Frederic Edwin Church
Victoria Johnson’s biography is a nuanced portrait of the artist, whose landscapes conveyed the anxieties of a nation struggling over slavery, war, and disunion.
The Types of People to Keep Around
Molly Burford, author of Moments to Hold Close , writes list poetry (is that a thing?) about the kinds of people that you want in your life. From Types Of People You Need To Hang On To : The friend who helps you clean your room. Those who are kind to those who can do nothing
Experience Ana Mendieta’s Visceral, ‘Neolithic’ Work in a Major Survey
A large-scale, immersive exhibition of her work opens today at Tate 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 Experience Ana Mendieta’s Visceral,
100000% this: I Hate The Way We Talk Online ....
100000% this: I Hate The Way We Talk Online . “Let’s discuss topics without feeling the need to win a non-existent argument. Hot takes? No. Engage with nuance. Show the grace you would extend offline to those you meet on these virtual streets.”
The Four Buddhist Mantras for Turning Fear into Love
"When you love someone, the best thing you can offer that person is your presence."
The Hydration-Break World Cup
"How much can fans conveniently forget in order to enjoy the games? The answer, evidently, is a lot."