The End of Reading
Many articles are now discussing the decline in reading among the younger generation. Half of adults in the UK rarely pick up a book for pleasure. Reading is in decline in the US even in literature programs. Talking to professors…
Category Ideas
What future do we want?
When my granddad died many years ago, I spent a long time thinking about the world he grew up in. A place where nature was abundant, where humans hadn’t caused so much damage yet, where insects flourished and where physical…
Solarpunk: A Vision for a Sustainable Future
In a world threatened by ecological collapse and corporate domination, Solarpunk offers an alternative vision for the future —one of resilience, cooperation, and harmony with nature. It is a genre that moves beyond dystopian cynicism, towards the ideals of the…
Is the Internet Dying?
The first image to pop up on Google when you search for “Beethoven” is now an AI-generated image. This can be replicated for other famous composers, including Chopin. In some cases, there are real photographs of these composers being buried…
The World of Jun’ichirō Tanizaki: In Praise of Shadows
Several years ago, I picked up In Praise of Shadows, an essay by Japanese author Jun’ichirō Tanizaki. At the time, I couldn’t grasp its significance, but the opening passages lingered with me. The essay begins with Tanizaki’s musings on the…
Art in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
We are entering an era of upheaval that some are calling the fourth industrial revolution.[1] The rise of artificial intelligence, and in particular generative art, threatens to upend our social and cultural landscape, leading to a renewed conflict between mechanical…
Dreaming of a better future
There’s an interesting flaw at the heart of Olivia Wilde’s new movie, Don’t Worry, Darling, which reveals everything wrong with the ongoing culture wars. The premise of the film is simple. A 1950s housewife is living with her husband in…
Imagine all the music…
In the middle of lockdown, Russell Bugden posts a video to a local community group on Facebook. The video shows him in his front yard, playing a flugelhorn, similar to a trumpet, to the tune of John Lennon’s Imagine. Images…
The Japanese Concept of Omakase: I’ll leave it to you
This week I had the pleasure of collaborating with Chang Che on a video essay on the Japanese concept of “Omakase,” which literally means “I’ll leave it to you.” But the word means more than that. It evokes a calculated…
The Art of Davis Cone
In the 1970s, Davis Cone travelled America and painted the last remaining golden age cinemas. His mission was to paint as many as possible before they were demolished and replaced by new shopping malls and parking lots. Cinemas were the…