Required Reading
This week: Renée Cox’s trailblazing photography, more Eric Adams shenanigans, the loneliness epidemic, and why do we binge-watch TV shows about work?
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Ta-Nehisi Coates & Jon Stewart: Understanding the Humiliation of Oppression
I got a lot out of this interview with The Message author Ta-Nehisi Coates by Jon Stewart for The Daily Show. Best-selling author Ta-Nehisi Coates sits down with Jon Stewart to talk about his latest book, “The Message,” and reconciling past and present vestiges of oppression.
Pesto the Penguin Waddles Into the Art History Canon
The bumbling penguin has captured the hearts of millions on the internet and spawned a wealth of fan art and illustrations.
Original Art Stimulates the Brain More Than Reproductions, Study Finds
Five artworks induced stronger positive responses in 20 participants in the Netherlands than museum shop posters of the same works.
City Project to “Beautify” New York’s Chinatown Draws Criticism From Community
“Has anyone asked for pretty art on the police barricades?” Amy Chin, a board member of the nonprofit Think!Chinatown, told Hyperallergic .
Five Poems for Vincent
What started as a catalog essay about van Gogh’s little-known passion for poetry became a suite of poems for the Dutch painter.
What Does Our Far Future Look Like?
Ross Anderson and I share a favorite web page, Wikipedia’s Timeline of the Far Future , which he wrote about for the Atlantic: For How Much Longer Can Life Continue on This Troubled Planet? Like the best sci-fi world building, the Timeline of the Far Future can give you a key
Divya Mehra Makes the Machinery of History Visible
The artist’s works force theatrical encounters with metaphors for colonization or display the same violence actualized against discrete bodies.
This AI-generated video is a) completely bonkers (seriously, watch all the way...
This AI-generated video is a) completely bonkers (seriously, watch all the way to the end) and b) illustrative of how visual LLMs work: it so obviously doesn’t know anything…it’s just mindlessly following image similarity. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Scientists Release an Astounding, Detailed Map of a Fly Brain in Groundbreaking Study
The study produces the most detailed map of an animal's brain in existence. 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 Scientists Release an Astounding,
Yoko Ono’s Quiet Destructions
Music of the Mind at Tate Modern was a memory bank of seven decades of the avant-garde artist’s career.
Two Books That’ll Make You Feel Bad for AI
A small press is publishing innovative narrative works that travel across genres, including autotheory, criticism, experimental poetry, and documentary.
A View From the Easel
“The longer I paint, the more I realize what I don’t know or cannot do. Simply exploring the material could keep a person busy forever.”
If you play Spelling Bee, the Times has a Spelling Bee Buddy...
If you play Spelling Bee, the Times has a Spelling Bee Buddy that offers statistics and personalized hints that update as you play. (There’s also a Connections Bot .) 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
American Indian Boarding Schools: The Michigan Anishinaabe Experience
Stamps Gallery’s panel discussion with Benedict Hinmon and Rochelle Ettawageshik supports its major exhibition of renowned black ash basket weavers.
10-Minute Art Challenge: Hiroshige’s ‘Sudden Rain’
The NY Times has been doing these challenges every Friday where you sit and look at one piece of art for 10 minutes. Last week featured a woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige called Great Bridge: Sudden Rain at Atake , a piece that Vincent van Gogh had in his personal
Profile of Aisha Nyandoro (founder of a guaranteed-income project) for the Time...
Profile of Aisha Nyandoro (founder of a guaranteed-income project) for the Time Next 100 list. “Money — the type that can be spent on anything — has been out of favor as a method of helping impoverished Americans.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Some of the most prized public spaces in Europe were once used...
Some of the most prized public spaces in Europe were once used for parking lots (and some still are). “Why are we so comfortable filling our most iconic public spaces with a bunch of metal boxes?” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Two Sally Rooney Things I Didn’t Know About
I was surprised to learn, via Youngna Park’s excellent newsletter , that Sally Rooney wrote a short story in 2016 that features Marianne & Connell after the events of Normal People (which was published in 2018, technically making it a prequel?) On the way to the dental clinic
Dramatic Aerial Views Take Center Stage in 2024 Epson International Pano Awards
Winners of The Pano Awards highlight incredible vistas from Western Australia to Vietnam to Yellowstone National Park. 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
The passion and puppetry of Ronnie Burkett
To make sense of a dark and confusing world, the acclaimed puppeteer Ronnie Burkett shrinks it down to a ‘manageable size’ - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon
Manhattan Burning
Before the Jan. 6 insurrection, there was the Nov. 25 arson campaign, when violent anti-government conspirators sowed chaos in the heart of New York City.
Against humility
Intellectual humility has recently been hailed as the key to thinking well. The story of Barbara McClintock proves otherwise - by Rachel Fraser Read at Aeon
The broomstick objection
Every founder, leader, sales rep and person on a dating app has heard this. Why did the Wizard ask Dorothy to bring him the broomstick of the Wicked Witch? It’s not because he needed a broomstick. It’s because he wanted Dorothy to go away. If you send someone away to get
When Kris Kristofferson (RIP) Stood by Sinéad O’Connor at the Height of Her Controversy
One would have imagined Sinéad O’Connor impervious to any reaction from a hostile audience, no matter how vitriolic. But even for a public figure as outspoken and unapologetic as her, it could all get to be a bit much at times. Take the 1992 concert Columbia Records put on for
The Rocky Horror Picture Show Is Now a Retro Video Game
The Rocky Horror Picture Show–it started first as a musical stage production in 1973, then became a cult classic film in 1975. Now, a half-century later, it gets reborn as a retro video game. Scheduled to be released by Halloween, the game features “8‑bit chiptune renditions of