What Does It Mean to Really Be Seen?
Perhaps Abraham Lincoln Walker invented these people and the stories that brought them together because he desired the play of recognition between human beings.
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Bruce Nauman Asks if Art Can Exist Without a Viewer
His art cuts to the core of our engagement with art past and present, looking at foundational interactions between viewers, art objects, and art institutions.
Required Reading
This week: Joan Didion’s archive, Studio Ghibli AI, academia capitulates to Trump, Kaveh Akbar’s call to action, Buy Nothing Facebook drama, balloon wigs, and much more.
A View From the Easel
“The hardwood floors are perfect for dance breaks during the day.”
Lights On: Consciousness, the Mystery of Felt Experience, and the Fundamental Music of Reality
When I was five, not long after the night I sat on my father’s shoulders among the thousands of people on the yellow brick plaza in front of the Bulgarian Parliament singing protest songs to take down the Communist dictatorship, my parents got us a hamster. I would say got me a
In Mythic Paintings, Anna Ortiz Conjures the Uncanny of the Borderlands
Ortiz's surreal paintings portray the "lives we were unable to live but (that) happened without us." 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 In Mythic
The Steps a President Would Take to Destroy His Nation, According to Grok
Just out of curiosity, and apropos of nothing, we asked Grok (the AI chatbot created by Elon Musk) the following question: If a president of a superpower wanted to destroy his own country, what steps would he take? Here’s what Grok had to say: If a president of a superpower
NOMA Highlights Contemporary West African Masquerade Artists
On view at the New Orleans Museum of Art from April 4 through August 10, the exhibition will then embark on parallel tours to venues in North America and Africa.
Thai Collective Wins 2025 Taoyuan International Art Award Grand Prize
Organized by the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts, the TIAA drew over 1,000 entries from around the world, with works reviewed by an international jury of art experts.
It Is All Just So Very Very Stupid
Folks, I can’t even today. I gotta tap out. I hope to be back with you tomorrow. Tags: kottke.org · video
The Worm That No Computer Scientist Can Crack
"One of the simplest, most over-studied organisms in the world is the C. elegans nematode. For 13 years, a project called OpenWorm has tried—and utterly failed—to simulate it."
Drawing on Religious Renaissance Art, Marc Padeu’s Paintings Monumentalize the Quotidian
Through the immediacy of acrylic, Padeu renders everyday scenes on a monumental scale. 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 Drawing on Religious
The Last Face Death Row Inmates See
"The Rev. Jeff Hood has made a career of fighting to save men the state wants to kill — and it doesn't matter if they're innocent."
Unburying the Remains of the Third Reich
"As the German right ascends, the nation is still grappling with its fascist past — and how to handle its remains."
Nanoscapes
With electron microscopes that magnify butterfly wings 50,000 times their original size, a hidden ‘topography’ emerges - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon
The Race That Turned to Ruin
"Fifteen teams lifted off from Switzerland in gas ballooning’s most audacious race. Three days later, two of them drifted into Belarusian airspace—but only one would survive."
Raising the threshold
The World Bank’s poverty line is inaccurate and out of date – an error that obscures the feebleness of market solutions - by Attrishu Bordoloi Read at Aeon
Four-word advice
When there’s a complex situation that feels foreboding, you might need a manual, a coach and even a system to move forward. Or, it’s possible you simply need someone to tell you, “you’ll figure it out.”
Why the Romans Stopped Reading Books
Nobody reads books anymore. Whether or not that notion strikes you as true, you’ve probably heard it expressed fairly often in recent decades — just as you might have had you lived in the Roman Empire of late antiquity. During that time, as ancient-history YouTuber Garrett Ryan
Watch Jazz ‘Hot’, the Rare 1938 Short Film With Jazz Legend Django Reinhardt
Here’s a remarkable short film of the great jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, violinist Stéphane Grappelli and their band the Quintette du Hot Club de France performing on a movie set in 1938. The film was hastily organized by the band’s British agent Lew Grade as a way to
An Artist’s Thirty-Year Affair With Copper
No Man’s Land , Pakistani artist Amin Gulgee’s first comprehensive monograph, maps his interest in exploring ritual, science, grief, and healing in a visual language all his own.