On Standby is a piece of sound art “based on data collected by seven different people in Malmö, Sweden. Each of those people used a smart plug to collect data on the energy consumption of a device in their home over the course of a single night”. 💬 Join the discussion on
Playful characters reflect connections to our inner selves, one another, and the world around 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 Nature Alights on
Maybe you’d like to read Patricia Lockwood on the X-Files? “So then the show becomes about something else, something deep and dark as water, it is carried rapidly past all other unsolved mysteries to ask: what if a woman were irreplaceable?” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
"Martha Wells created one of the most iconic characters in 21st-century science fiction: Murderbot, reluctant savior of humanity. Then she faced an existential threat of her own."
There’s an assumption that because of the relationship between metabolic rates, volume, and surface area, animals get an average of one billion heartbeats out of their bodies before they expire. Turns out there’s some truth to it . As animals get bigger, from tiny shrew to
Merve Emre converses with Sally Rooney about novels, Intermezzo, games, and religion . “Throughout my work, rather than writing about characters, I write about dynamics.” (That’s why I love her books.) 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
"The city’s metro hosts—and authorities unofficially sanction—a queer institution unlike any other."
Photographers around the world capture the otherworldly, glowing phenomenon. 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 Luminous Skies Star in the 2024
In a changing climate, the instinct is to save everything you can. But maybe letting go is braver – and better for the future? - by Dan Hancox Read at Aeon
Every quest holds at its heart a puzzle to solve—and that puzzle can become an obsession.
Even the least religious among us speak, at least on occasion, of the circles of hell. When we do so, we may or may not be thinking of where the concept originated: Dante’s Divina Commedia, or Divine Comedy. We each imagine the circles in our own way — usually filling them with
It’s easy to imagine that talent is a magical gift, and that we’ll know it when we see it (and that you have it or you don’t). And yet, over the years, Star Search has rejected each of these musicians, picking someone else to win the competition: One could argue that they’re
Look back at a year in radical and ridiculous developments in the art world, from Marina Abramović skincare to van Gogh’s “Irises” showing their true colors.
"Perhaps part of Orli’s legacy is insisting on this conversation."
While Scrawlspace is a deeply inquisitive and well-researched exhibition, the premises are in some instances cliché and a bit contradictory.
Libertarian Reluctantly Calls Fire Department . “Although the community would do better to rely on an efficient, free-market fire-fighting service…” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Erica Hauser’s exploration of blue, Stephen Towns’s paradisal quilts, the carnivalesque antics of SHABOOM, and much more.
In the dark genre of self-reported atrocity photography, governments take pictures of their crimes and file them away in an act of simultaneous remembering and forgetting.
Icelandic photographer Haukur Sigurdsson captured this aerial image of Nordic skiers looking like musical notes on a staff. Someone on YouTube played the tune: Sigurdsson’s photo is available as a print . Tags: Haukur Sigurdsson · music · skiing · sports · video 💬 Join the
Residencies, fellowships, grants, open calls, and jobs from Banff Centre, Sculpture Space, Taft Museum of Art, and more in our monthly list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers.
Lifelike moths, butterflies, and flowers are conjured from vibrant thread and wire. 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 Yumi Okita’s Butterflies and
My friend Youngna is a wonderful writer and observer and I loved these vignettes about “how kids understand power, social dynamics, hierarchy, control, and influence, all topics that swirl around whose voices are dominant voices in our world”. 💬 Join the discussion on
Students in Art Education, Art History, Graphic Design, and Studio Art have access to additional support through graduate assistantships, fellowships, and research and travel grants.
When a Telescope Is a National-Security Risk . The Vera Rubin Observatory is a new telescope that the US built in Chile and they had to jump through some hoops to ensure it’s not going to see anything top secret (like US spy satellites). 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
A Japanese group called Electronicos Fantasticos! figured out that by connecting a supermarket barcode scanner to a powered speaker and rhythmically scanning barcode-like patterns with it, you can make music. This is so fun! Tags: Electronicos Fantasticos · music · remix ·