AI Could Help Free Human Creativity
Let’s face it. We’re more distracted than ever. Why remember anything when I can just Google it? Why summon the attention to read a book when I can just scroll through Twitter?
Some philosophers believe that ChatGPT and its siblings will further diminish our ability to do the kind of “deep work” needed to spark creativity and breed big ideas. What good are the tools if we begin to rely on them so much that we no longer have the capacity to think bigger? This argument is tempting because it’s romantic. If creativity is essentially human, there is something inherently limiting about the prospect of man replaced by machine. But the evidence tells a different story.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
While seemingly “superhuman” technology can be intimidating, it generally enables us to become more creative — not less. In 1997, when the computer program Deep Blue beat the invincible grandmaster Gary Kasparov in chess, many feared that humans would begin to abandon the pursuit of chess mastery because they’d “never be as good as a computer.” In fact, the opposite happened. The widespread adoption of computer simulations made human chess players better. A recent study conducted by Henning Peinzuka of INSEAD found that in those countries where humans had access to computer chess simulations, their performance in chess improved. The players still found it useful to play against humans, but the presence of the non-human made the human a better, more creative player.
Now let us imagine the future of creativity in a world of generative AI that enables us to map choices as never before—to explore exponentially more combinations of choices, compare and contrast infinite approaches at a glance, and constantly test new ideas.
As the brilliant French mathematician Henri Poincaré once said: Invention consists in avoiding the constructing of useless contraptions and in constructing the useful combinations which are in infinite minority. To invent is to discern, to choose.
AI will not necessarily come up with our best ideas for us. But it will greatly reduce the cost—in time, money, and effort—of generating new ideas by instantaneously revealing untold options. It will enable us to efficiently discard the “useless contraptions” that cloud our vision and identify useful combinations previously unseen. It will empower us to broadly and efficiently canvas an incredibly vast range of domains to pull relevant knowledge from unexpected places. If used properly, AI will ultimately help us seed far greater innovation throughout our society.
Read More: How the World Must Respond to the AI Revolution
So how do we do it? How can we use large language models like ChatGPT to make us more creative? It starts with mapping our choices.
I often direct my students to perform a simple exercise that demonstrates the power of choice generation. I ask them to take two minutes to come up with as many answers as possible to a simple prompt like “Ways to use a toothpick.” After they share their ideas, I ask them to repeat the exercise; they almost always come up with more ideas during the second go-round than the first. Their creative juices have begun to flow. I ask them to do it again, and again. Inevitably, their rate of creation slows and the flow of ideas becomes a trickle. Their creative energy has become exhausted.
Now let us introduce ChatGPT. When I type “List the ways in which one could use a toothpick.” It instantaneously spits back 50 options. Here is but a brief selection:
Testing cake doneness: Inserting a toothpick into a cake to check if it’s fully baked.
Appetizer holder: Skewering small food items like olives, cheese, or fruit for easy serving.
Nail art: Applying small dots or lines of nail polish for intricate designs.
Cleaning small crevices: Reaching into tiny spaces to remove dirt or debris, such as in a keyboard or around jewelry.
Glue applicator: Spreading small amounts of glue for crafts or DIY projects.
Paint mixer: Stirring small amounts of paint for model-building or artwork.
Plant support: Providing extra support to small or fragile plants as they grow.
Type in “list more uses,” and the model spits back another 50 potential options. Some of the ideas are good, some not so good. The point is that the Chatbot can instantly find, collate, and list seemingly infinite possibilities that have already been created by humans across space, time, and context. Now students can apply their creativity toward assembling old ideas in new ways.
As Mark Twain wrote to Helen Keller, “substantially all ideas are second hand, consciously or unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources.” Innovators are most often strategic copiers who learn from examples of success, extract the parts that work well, and imagine new ways of using those pieces to create something new and meaningful. In the toothpick example, with ChatGPT the students no longer have to waste their time coming up with existing ideas; they can apply their creative energy toward iterating, assembling, and combining to create new, powerful ideas they would not have been able to generate without AI.
Now let’s take it a step further. If breakthrough ideas often come from unexpected places, how can we use ChatGPT to mine human knowledge’s vast hidden treasure troves to find the nuggets of knowledge that break our mental logjams? It’s easy to use the chatbot to map out choices within the same domain of query (i.e. If I’m looking to innovate on toothpicks, I use the chatbot to identify currently-known methods of using toothpicks so I can combine and iterate.)
But what if I start using the AI to map choices that are “out-of-domain,” i.e. from different times, different places, and across different industries? Suddenly our ability to think “outside the box” has increased dramatically. In fact, some of history’s greatest innovations come from inventors looking to entirely different domains to identify the various pieces needed to create something revolutionary.
Take ice cream, for example. In the 1840s, ice cream was only accessible to the very wealthy due to the high price of ice, the intense labor required, and the time it took to produce. Most of all, the freezer did not yet exist, so keeping the ice cream cold was enormously difficult. In 1843, a chemist and physicist named Nancy Johnson set out to bring ice cream to the masses by breaking the problem down, looking to history, and searching in new places for inspiration.
She started by searching for the ways other foods and beverages had their temperatures contained throughout history, which led her to pewter metal. By the Middle Ages, long before Johnson’s time, certain inns used pewter for mugs to keep beer and ale cold. She replaced the ceramic used to make ice cream at the time with cheap pewter and set it in a wooden bucket with a layer of ice packed around it to keep the mixture cold. Put on the pewter lid when you’re done, and your ice cream stays cold for hours.
Nancy still faced the challenge of stirring a mixture of cream, sugar, and other flavorings for hours on end. Was there a simpler and faster way to continuously mix the ingredients with less arm power? To remedy this, Johnson added a hand crank—an invention which went back to first-century China. From there, it spread to the Roman empire and on to the rest of Europe. The Eastern Mediterranean even implemented hand cranks to grind spices and coffee. In this application, the hand crank dramatically cut the time and effort it took to stir the ice cream in Johnson’s new contraption.
If we adapt Nancy’s approach to present-day problems, we can use ChatGPT to search out-of-domain in seconds. Say I’m an airline executive looking to improve customers’ experience at the airport. Sure, I could ask ChatGPT to spit out the various approaches airports have employed to improve the travel experience, but this list remains “in the box.” But what if I ask ChatGPT to list out examples of other experiences in which people are harried and upset. Here’s a brief selection: “Hospitals, traffic jams, courthouses, banks, the DMV, and funeral homes.” Now I can research tactics and precedents employed within each of those domains, pull out promising ideas, and combine and test to come up with a truly creative approach that might work for airports. From funeral homes, for example, I could draw on the power of empathy and comfortable environments and apply it to the airline gate experience. From hospitals, I could draw on methods for patient advocacy experiences and apply it to travelers. From the DMV, I could draw on attempts to bring more of the customer experience online and on mobile devices. Now I am working with a much richer and diverse set of elements to stir innovation.
These are but a few of the simple methods we must explore to harness the power of ChatGPT and its ilk to unleash creativity and widen our aperture to see a new horizon. The toothpick exercise is an example of infinite possibilities made new in real time. The ice cream example demonstrates the power of a historical lens to make the seemingly quixotic practical. And the airline example uses the chatbot to employ a powerful roving eye to inspect the “out-of-domain” world. As with any new technology, its power and consequences come down to how you use it. And the next time you need to “brainstorm” with ChatGPT, see what happens when you employ these methods; I think you’ll find you’re a lot more creative than you thought.
Opinion | Your Brain Has Tricked You Into Thinking Everything Is Worse
Continue reading the main storyCredit...Anastasiia Sapon for The New York TimesBy Adam MastroianniPerhaps no political promise is more potent or universal than the vow to restore a golden age. From Caesar Augustus to the Medicis and Adolf Hitler, from President Xi Jinping of China and President “Bongbong” Marcos of the Philippines to Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” and Joe Biden’s “America Is Back,” leaders have gained power by vowing a return to the good old days.What these political myths have in common is an understanding that the golden age is definitely not right now. Maybe we’ve been changing from angels into demons for centuries, and people have only now noticed the horns sprouting on their neighbors’ foreheads.But I believe there’s a bug — a set of cognitive biases — in people’s brains that causes them to perceive a fall from grace even when it hasn’t happened. I and my colleague Daniel Gilbert at Harvard have found evidence for that bug, which we recently published in the journal Nature. While previous researchers have theorized about why people might believe things have gotten worse, we are the first to investigate this belief all over the world, to test its veracity and to explain where it comes from.We first collected 235 surveys with over 574,000 responses total and found that, overwhelmingly, people believe that humans are less kind, honest, ethical and moral today than they were in the past. People have believed in this moral decline at least since pollsters started asking about it in 1949, they believe it in every single country that has ever been surveyed (59 and counting), they believe that it’s been happening their whole lives and they believe it’s still happening today. Respondents of all sorts — young and old, liberal and conservative, white and Black — consistently agreed: The golden age of human kindness is long gone.We also found strong evidence that people are wrong about this decline. We assembled every survey that asked people about the current state of morality: “Were you treated with respect all day yesterday?” “Within the past 12 months, have you volunteered your time to a charitable cause?”,“How often do you encounter incivility at work?” Across 140 surveys and nearly 12 million responses, participants’ answers did not change meaningfully over time. When asked to rate the current state of morality in the United States, for example, people gave almost identical answers between 2002 and 2020, but they also reported a decline in morality every year.Other researchers’ data have even shown moral improvement. Social scientists have been measuring cooperation rates between strangers in lab-based economic games for decades, and a recent meta-analysis found — contrary to the authors’ expectations — that cooperation has increased 8 percentage points over the last 61 years. When we asked participants to estimate that change, they mistakenly thought cooperation rates had decreased by 9 percentage points. Others have documented the increasing rarity of the most heinous forms of human immorality, like genocide and child abuse.Two well-established psychological phenomena could combine to produce this illusion of moral decline. First, there’s biased exposure: People predominantly encounter and pay attention to negative information about others — mischief and misdeeds make the news and dominate our conversations.Second, there’s biased memory: The negativity of negative information fades faster than the positivity of positive information. Getting dumped, for instance, hurts in the moment, but as you rationalize, reframe and distance yourself from the memory, the sting fades. The memory of meeting your current spouse, on the other hand, probably still makes you smile.When you put these two cognitive mechanisms together, you can create an illusion of decline. Thanks to biased exposure, things look bad every day. But thanks to biased memory, when you think back to yesterday, you don’t remember things being so bad. When you’re standing in a wasteland but remember a wonderland, the only reasonable conclusion is that things have gotten worse.That explanation fits well with two more of our surprising findings. First, people exempt their own social circles from decline; in fact, they think the people they know are nicer than ever. This might be because people primarily encounter positive information about people they know, which our model predicts can create an illusion of improvement.Second, people believe that moral decline began only after they arrived on Earth; they see humanity as stably virtuous in the decades before their birth. This especially suggests that biased memory plays a role in producing the illusion.If these cognitive biases are working in tandem, our susceptibility to golden age myths makes a lot more sense. Our biased attention means we’ll always feel we’re living in dark times, and our biased memory means we’ll always think the past was brighter.Seventy-six percent of Americans believe, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center poll, that “addressing the moral breakdown of the country” should be one of the government’s priorities. The good news is that the breakdown hasn’t happened. The bad news is that people believe it has.As long as we believe in this illusion, we are susceptible to the promises of aspiring autocrats who claim they can return us to a golden age that exists in the only place a golden age has ever existed: our imaginations.
This New Metric For Health Could Revolutionize How We Treat Chronic Illnesses
Morbidity and mortality have long been the World Health Organization’s (WHO) two indicators of global human health, tracking acute illness and deaths as they fluctuate. While following these metrics is crucial to supporting populations, it doesn’t cater to anything other than illness. Health can be measured in various dimensions.Now, a secret third option called human functioning shifts focus away from death and illness and to everyday living and how any one person can live their best life.A paper published on May 31 in the journal Frontiers in Science by researchers from the University of Lucerne in Switzerland explains how human functioning could be the x-factor missing from public health.What is human functioning?Researchers define human functioning as the intersection of someone’s capabilities and environment. It begs questions about what someone’s body is able to do, what tools that person needs, and whether those tools integrate smoothly with that person’s environment. While functioning looks at a single person’s capabilities, it also focuses on the accessibility of their surroundings; are those surroundings accessible to the tools everyone needs in order to function?For example, someone with a spinal cord injury may not be able to walk. An electric wheelchair can be the tool that helps equip this person with the capacity to move. While that tool restores their mobility, this method also reckons with the environment around them. If their environment doesn’t accommodate electric wheelchairs, then this person’s functioning is mitigated by factors that have nothing to do with their own health and abilities. If someone’s environment hinders the use of their tools, like a wheelchair or a hearing aid, then the environment compromises their well-being.Human functioning is crucial to well-being, the authors argue, and too often, well-being becomes synonymous with markers of physical health. It leaves out how many different systems interact with each other.“In healthcare, the typical definition of health is always physical health, but functioning shows that very often what matters to people is what they can do with their health,” says co-author Sara Rubinelli, a professor of health sciences at the University of Lucerne. The focus, she says, switches from what qualities someone has to what those qualities enable them to do.Where did this idea come from?While the notion of accessibility is nothing new, Rubinelli says this formal idea of human functioning originates from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), which is the WHO’s framework for measuring health and disability. The ICF originated in 2002 with the paper’s co-author Jerome Bickenbock, a professor emeritus of bioethics philosophy at Queen’s University, among its developers.How does this change healthcare?Bringing functioning into the fold adds common terminology among healthcare providers, Rubinelli says. This framework intends to unify what she sees as a fragmented healthcare system within a patient-centered mission.In other words, health isn’t only cholesterol levels and vision scores; it’s how those data translate into abilities and experiences.“With functioning, you ask the person, ‘What would you like to do? What's your objective?’” Healthcare, she says, becomes not only about alleviating illness and symptoms but productively integrating more people within their environments. On a larger scale, the authors argue that incorporating human functioning can better support the United Nations’ third Sustainable Development Goal: health and well-being. Employed successfully, human functioning can be an avenue to human flourishing, Rubinelli says.
A Complete History of Bee Movie’s Many, Many Memes
At some point, every society must confront the existential questions that undergird its very existence. Questions like: Did comedian Jerry Seinfeld — fresh off of a nine-year run of prodigious success in a sophisticated and beloved sitcom — really make an animated children’s movie about a bee falling in love with a human woman (voiced by Renée Zellweger)? Did this movie really somehow become the source of a seemingly endless parade of increasingly abstruse memes on Tumblr and other social-media platforms? Did 15 million people really watch a video titled “The entire bee movie but every time they say bee it gets faster”? Did Vanity Fair actually declare that “Bee Movie Won 2016”? How the heck did we get here? Has it really been exactly ten years since the release of Bee Movie?
First, let’s start with the facts.
(1) In 2007, on planet Earth, DreamWorks studios released an animated children’s film titled Bee Movie (tagline: “Born to Bee Wild”).
The film, described as a “hit comedy” in its original 2008 back-of-the-DVD blurb, stars a bee, Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld), who — upon realizing that he is doomed to a life of fruitless, unending labor inside a system that devalues the lives of its workers — decides to fly outside the hive in an attempt to experience some sliver of excitement before resigning himself to a life of monotonous work that will surely end in his own demise. (This is all 100 percent straight from the Bee Movie script; you can fact-check me.) Once outside, he meets a human florist named Vanessa and falls for her after she saves him from being squished to death by her boyfriend, Ken — the only reasonable individual in the entire film — who is allergic to bees, and didn’t want to, you know, die. For reasons that are too complex to get into here (if you haven’t seen the movie, please go watch it now, I urge you), Vanessa ends up leaving her human boyfriend for Barry, who, may I remind you, is a bee. She then helps him sue the human race for stealing honey from bees around the world. Somehow, they win, which leads to all of the world’s honey being returned to the bees, which, in turn, causes flowers everywhere to begin to die due to a lack of pollination. (I’m not technically a scientist but this checks out.) So Barry ends up flying a plane (?) full of roses from the Pasadena Tournament of Roses to Central Park in order to pollinate the world, which somehow works and everyone is saved.
(2) This was Jerry Seinfeld’s first venture after Seinfeld, and thus, he promoted the crap out of it.
Please enjoy this video of Jerry Seinfeld in a giant bee costume zip-lining through Cannes (yes, that Cannes).
Bee Suit Seinfeld also starred in this absolutely absurd live-action trailer for the film, and a number of other equally bizarre shorts (one of which is literally called ’Welcome to Hell’?!).
(3) It didn’t exactly do well … at first.
Shockingly, this tale about beestiality and the fruitlessness of labor in a system of production — one that was, and still is, billed as a movie for children — did not kill it at the box office back in 2007. Roger Ebert gave it two stars and included a Karl Marx quote in his rather baffled review of the film, and even Jerry Seinfeld himself said: “I remember standing in the back of the theatre and it wasn’t great, but it was decent and, and I remember listening to the laughs and thinking, These laughs are shit. That was not worth it.”
(4) Somehow, now, ten years later, it is both a meme and more-or-less universally beloved (or at least tolerated).
????
Answering the question of how all this happened is more difficult than it seems. The usual responses like “Because internet,” or “Probably something with Tumblr or 4Chan,” aren’t acceptable here. After some careful digging, I’ve come to discover a timeline I believe may provide some answers.
This story comes in seven parts: Sincerity, Virality, Propulsion, Sexualization, Weaponization, Acknowledgment, and Fracture.
Let’s begin:
Stage 1: SincerityTumblr — Sunday, February 20, 2011
Bee Movie began, like so many memes, on the microblogging site Tumblr, where teenagers, furries, and other highly productive weirdos gather to create and share images and text. Above you can see what is, as far as I can tell, one of the original posts that set the meme-ification of Bee Movie in motion, way back in 2011. Throughout 2011, Tumblr was host to a number of posts like this — almost always accompanied by the tag #INSPIRING, and almost always including the film’s opening (and now internet-infamous) line:
According to all known laws of aviation,there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible.
What’s important to understand is that this post is presented entirely sincerely. Someone was inspired by this image and quote from Bee Movie, and wanted you to feel inspired too. And it seems to have struck a chord: Against all odds, this trend of genuine appreciation for a somewhat-poorly-received 2007 animated film about bees continued through 2011 and 2012, reinserting Bee Movie into Tumblr’s general cultural awareness.
Stage 2: Virality Tumblr — Tuesday, December 4, 2012
But as always happens on Tumblr, once something has entered the site’s collective consciousness, its sincerity will heighten into the realm of absurdity — where the viral lives. Put another way, once you start seeing enough sincere Bee Movie memes, you can’t help but take them in a different direction. Usually, this transformation happens gradually — a few persistent absurdists converting the normie world bit by bit. For Bee Movie, however, it happened all at once. On December 4, 2012, Tumblr exploded with absurd Bee Movie memes. And though there was seemingly no rhyme or reason to this mass conversion, it stuck.
Stage 3: PropulsionTwitter — Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Once Bee Movie had moved into “Tumblr meme” status, it was only a matter of time before it seeped out to other hubs of internet culture — like Twitter. Tumblr’s obsession with Bee Movie continued on well into 2013, but it was Jason Richards, the man behind the wildly successful Twitter account @Seinfeld2000, who helped elevate Bee Movie from a forgotten film to an all-purpose joke.
J.J. Abraham tappe to diarect Bee Movie prequels, Sandfel said "time to give it up for new generation"— Seinfeld Current Day (@Seinfeld2000) January 29, 2013
Creaters of @SeinfeldToday create new account @BeeMovieToday imagen what the caracters from Bee Movie do if Bee Movie was stil a show on tv— Seinfeld Current Day (@Seinfeld2000) April 4, 2013
Richards’s role in this story is by far one of the most curious, as he claims to have never seen a Bee Movie meme before tweeting about it in late January of 2013. (He was just searching for new Seinfeld-related material for his Twitter persona to riff on.) This perhaps speaks to the inherently ineffable nature of memes, which often have various (entirely distinctive) starting points.
Stage 4: SexualizationFanfiction & Tumblr — Saturday, March 16, 2013
Back on Tumblr, Bee Movie’s popularity only continued to grow as more and more users got swept up into the joke. On March 16, 2013, someone on Tumblr discovered The birds and the bees, an incredibly not-safe-for-work-or-life Bee Movie fanfiction story written in the literary genre that would soon be dubbed “beestiality.” Bee Movie had gone adult.
(I cannot in good conscience include a screencap of the actual fic itself here, so, instead, please enjoy these reviews:)
No Title
No Title
The birds and the bees was an instant success, garnering hundreds of comments only one day after publication, and inspiring a number of spiritual successors. (You can listen to a dramatic reading of one of the most popular sequels, She Wants the B, here, but I strongly urge you not to.)
Stage 5: WeaponizationFacebook & Tumblr — Monday, September 9, 2013
In 2013, a Tumblr user uploaded screenshots of her Facebook friend posting the entire script on someone’s Facebook Wall:
(Why? Why not?)
This trick — which could cause the unwitting victim’s phone to crash — quickly became a standard internet prank, thanks in a large part to the efforts of Pastebin user KIDOUYUUTO, who uploaded the entire script (which had been lifted from Script-o-Rama) to the site. It would go on to wreak havoc across a number of platforms over the next two years, reaching its zenith in 2015 — when the Facebook page “bees don’t exist” posted the entire Bee Movie script as a life event.
Stage 6: Acknowledgment Reddit & Twitter — Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Between 2011 and 2015, Bee Movie had gone from sincere to absurd to, uh, weirdly sexy, to aggressively weaponized. On June 8, 2016, it was finally recognized by the man at its center: Jerry Seinfeld. In an AMA on Reddit, the comedian speculated on a possible Bee Movie 2 (imaginary tagline: “Plan Bee”):
I considered it this spring for a solid six hours. There’s a fantastic energy now for some reason, on the internet particularly. Tumblr, people brought my attention to. I actually did consider it, but then I realized it would make Bee Movie 1 less iconic. But my kids want me to do it, a lot of people want me to do it. A lot of people that don’t know what animation is want me to do it. If you have any idea what animation is, you’d never do it.
Two months later, Seinfeld brought it up again on Twitter:
What about "Bee Movie 2"?What's going on with that?Should I?Any interest?— Jerry Seinfeld (@JerrySeinfeld) July 30, 2016
Did this mean that what he said in the AMA could be overridden? Was there still hope? Bee Movie fanatics everywhere went wild. But Seinfeld was silent in response.
Stage 7: FractureYouTube — Thursday, November 3, 2016
The final (and in my opinion, greatest) stage of Bee Movie memery is defined by cinematographic fracture, a fancy name I’ve given to a somewhat simple (albeit utterly bizarre) technique first practiced by comedian and self-declared memelord Darcy Grivas in his now-infamous video, “Bee movie trailer but every time they say bee it gets faster.”
Though this style of editing had been seen before — in remixes of a song from the Icelandic children’s show Lazy Town called “We Are Number One” — Grivas’s version was the first to truly hit it big. His follow-up video, “The entire bee movie but every time they say bee it gets faster” garnered more than 11 million views and 33,000 comments within just two weeks of posting.
Its immense success would inspire (literally) thousands of other videos and would permanently launch Bee Movie memes into the mainstream — leading to coverage from countless major news outlets and blogs. (Including us, of course.) Vanity Fair of all places would go on to claim that “Bee Movie Won 2016,” and perhaps they were right.
But if so, where does that leave us? Is this the end of an era? In tracking the rise and fall of Bee Movie and its various, seemingly inevitable memes, there seems to be a definitive end: right now. We are 11 months and two days into the Year of Our Lord 2017 and there is not a Bee Movie meme in sight. Is it dead? Did we kill it? That it took this long to milk the film for every last drop of meme-ability is valiant in itself — I mean, it has been ten years. But even now, with all the evidence at hand, I hesitate to pronounce its death, as when it comes to Bee Movie, I know only one thing with certainty:
According to all known laws of memedom, there is no way Bee Movie memes should still be a thing. They’ve been around far too long to not be considered stale by now. Bee Movie memes, of course, exist anyway because Bee Movie memes don’t care what meme bloggers think is impossible.
Who Invented the First Camera?
Left to right: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, Louis Daguerre, Henry Fox Talbot
The small, handy cameras we have at the tip of our fingers today are part of a long and varied history that goes back more than 100 years. It is tricky to say when, exactly, the very first camera was invented, because early prototypes of cameras, or camera-like tools existed long before anything practical, portable and usable by people in everyday life was widely available (such as the pinhole camera and the camera obscura). Having said that, there are several pioneers throughout history who made significant breakthroughs in camera technology, and their names are the ones we now associate with the invention of the first camera. Let’s take a look through these pioneering figures who made the ingenious camera technology of today possible.
Nicéphore Niépce
Point de Vue du Gras (View from the Window at Le Gras), by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, 1827, via Harry Ransom Center, Texas.
The French inventor Nicéphore Niépce is credited with creating the first camera for making photographic images in 1825. In his early experiments, he toyed with how a negative image could be created on paper coated with silver chloride, but these resulting images were temporary. However, following several later chemical explorations, he discovered that a film made from Bitumen of Judea mixed with pewter could produce permanent photographic images (with a blurred quality) when exposed inside a camera obscura. Niépce called this process ‘heliography’. Meanwhile, Niépce’s younger colleague, Louis Daguerre, a former apprentice in architecture and theatre design, carried on Niépce’s work into the mid and late 19th century.
Louis Daguerre
Hand-coloured daguerreotype of Prince Albert, c. 1848, via the Royal Collection Trust, London
Following Niépce’s death in 1833, Louise Daguerre took his colleague’s pioneering developments further, eventually producing the first ever portable camera in 1839. Daguerre produced a type of box camera which he called the Daguerreotype, in which a plate coated with a thin film of silver iodide was exposed to light, often for several minutes or even hours. Daguerre treated the image with mercury vapor and hot saltwater to remove the silver iodide, thus revealing a permanent image left behind. Daguerreotypes produced images in reverse, or mirror image.
The Daguerreotype Process
Exposure times for early Daguerreotypes were long, but as the concept of the camera continued to evolve, shorter exposure times meant the cameras could be used to take portrait photographs for the first time ever. Such was the popularity of the Daguerreotype the French Government were proud to show off the design as a “gift to the world.” However, the Daguerreotype was not without its drawbacks – it was an expensive process, and could create only one, single photographic image.
William Henry Fox Talbot
The Great Exhibition in London, 1951 by Henry Fox Talbot via The Talbot Catalogue Raisonne
At the same time that Daguerre made his breakthrough discoveries, an Englishman called William Henry Fox Talbot was also working on a type of camera which he called a Calotype. Talbot unveiled his camera in 1839 to the Royal Institute in London. In contrast with the Daguerreotype, Talbot’s camera worked with a different series of chemical processes – he began with a sheet of writing paper, treated with silver nitrate and coated in potassium iodide. Just before being used to capture an image, the Talbot coated the paper in gallo-nitrate of silver to produce a film ready for exposure. The paper was exposed to the image through a box camera for just a few minutes, before being washed with a new layer of gallo-nitrate of silver to fix the image in place.
The Calotype camera invented by William Henry Fox Talbot
While Talbot’s camera had a far slower exposure time than the Daguerreotype, it produced negative images with a blurred quality. In order to make a positive print from the negative, Talbot soaked a new sheet of paper in salt solution, and brushed it on one side to make it light sensitive. After placing the Calotype negative over this sheet of paper, Talbot covered the two sheets with a glass plate and shone light onto them, allowing light to pass through from the upper sheet of paper and translate the negative into a positive image on the sheet below – and voila! The first print from a negative film was created.
Neurodivergence is a career maker for men like Elon Musk and Kanye West. Women aren’t afforded the same privilege
Elon Musk made a groundbreaking announcement while hosting Saturday Night Live in May 2021. “I’m actually making history tonight as the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL. Or at least the first to admit it,” the now-Twitter chief executive told the audience. At the time, Musk, 49, had never publicly disclosed his condition, which is today considered part of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The multi-hyphenate CEO, billionaire, and entrepreneur was not shy to link his condition to his success—and polarizing leadership style. “To anyone I’ve offended, I just want to say, ‘I reinvented electric cars, and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?’” He’s not the only man to credit his “genius” to neurodivergence. Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, and musician Kanye West have made similar remarks. “That’s my bipolar shit…That’s my superpower. Ain’t no disability. I am a superhero,” the artist and former billionaire rapped in his song “Yikes.” To be certain, life isn’t a cakewalk for neurodivergent men. Musk spoke about his childhood bullying, and a dyslexic Branson dropped out of school at age 15 owing, in part, to academic struggles. Still, these men’s accomplishments today are lauded, often attributed to their neurodivergence. And it’s hard not to miss that so few openly neurodivergent women are among the revered cohort of entrepreneurs and innovative business minds. That isn’t to say women are entirely absent from these lists. Real estate mogul and Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran has said dyslexia made her a millionaire. But broadly speaking, men occupy most of the spotlight. There are a few reasons for that. Firstly, few women reach the CEO rank or receive adequate funding to become successful entrepreneurs—not to talk of neurodivergent women. The second is that women are less likely to be diagnosed with several disorders that fall under neurodivergence than men, and many report receiving a diagnosis later in life. By and large, the media presents white men as the face of neurodivergence. “As soon as I say I’m autistic, Rain Man comes up. I’m tired of that,” says Charlotte Valeur, founder of the Institute of Neurodiversity. Many female leaders miss out on a diagnosis because of gender stereotypes about neurodivergence. Joey Ng, chief marketing officer at Yami, first realized she was autistic after a 2020 consultation with a career coach. Joey Ng, chief marketing officer at Yami, first realized she was autistic when she met with a career coach in 2020. Ng answered a few end-of-session questions, assuming they’d provide insight into her leadership style. Upon completion, the coach suggested that Ng may be on the spectrum. “I was like, ‘You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Ng recalls. In her mind, she didn’t fit any autism stereotype. She was extroverted and only knew of autistic figures like Musk or TV characters assumed to be autistic, like The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper. “I am nothing like those people, these male phenotypes of autism. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she remembers thinking. The coach shared her own late diagnosis and asked Ng if she’d experienced social barriers in school or romantic relationships. She had. “All of the boxes were checked,” Ng says. She left the session still skeptical, but the realization soon sank in. “I went for a drive, did my errands, came back, and parked in my spot beneath my apartment. And then I just full-on bawled like someone had finally seen me truly for the first time.” Lonely at the top Neurodivergent women who ascend to leadership positions often struggle to find peers with whom they can connect. “You have less community, less support, less understanding of your unique identity,” Ng says. “I would be the only woman of color in a room of white men.” Archana Iyer, a marketing strategist who’s held leadership roles at communications firms DDB and Weber Shandwick, says one of her biggest challenges as an autistic woman is the lack of female role models. One of her exemplars is Sherlock Holmes, the 19th-century detective who some modern readers have posited could be autistic. “But Holmes is a white male and gets away with being called an eccentric genius,” Iyer says, “[That’s] never a phrase you hear associated with a woman, especially of color.” Archana Iyer credits her success as a marketing strategist to her outsider-like perception of social norms. Ng hypothesizes that there are more neurodivergent women in leadership positions than is publicly known. “When we think of all these extraordinarily successful women, we don’t think of them as average. The pure definition of being neuro-atypical is that you are not average,” she says. But getting to the top is no easy feat, and neurodivergent women experience extra barriers when climbing the career ladder. Second glass ceiling The glass ceiling is a painfully familiar concept to any career-driven woman. Yet neurodivergent people experience a concrete ceiling. They’re underrepresented in senior roles and often don’t exhibit skills typically associated with leadership, like strong communication or management abilities. When organizations provide support to neurodivergent individuals, they benefit: JPMorgan Chase’s Autism at Work program found that, if matched to the right job, autistic workers are up to 140% more productive than neurotypical employees. Neurodivergent women do see a career benefit thanks to their unique brain function. Iyer credits her success as a marketing strategist to her outsider-like perception of social norms. “You might think that’s a problem,” she says, but thinking outside the box and challenging the status quo are key to a successful marketing campaign. “It’s not a deficit or a disorder. It has literally made my career,” Valeur says. She thrived in a fast-paced environment in her 25-year tenure as a stock trader. Now, she finds sitting on multiple corporate boards and serving as a visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow, a good match for her energy. “I love it. There’s a lot to think about all the time. That is what my brain wants.” Charlotte Valeur credits ADHD and autism as key to thriving in her careers as a stock broker and eventual member of several corporate boards. “It’s not a deficit or a disorder. It has literally made my career.” Yet these strengths can carry someone only so far in a workplace designed for the neurotypical. “I think that being autistic and the characteristics that come with it can definitely help accelerate your career to a certain extent. Then you reach that ceiling of it being uncomfortable for people,” Ng says. Lia Grimanis, founder and CEO of Canadian nonprofit Up With Women, excelled as a technology sales leader at companies like SAS and TIBCO. “I worked a lot harder, but it was because I was really geeking out on this stuff,” she says. “Being able to talk to other geeks and convince them that this is the software they need didn’t take much, because we all had passion in the room.” But her difficulty reading facial expressions, picking up on social cues, and habit of “dancing all over people’s boundaries” often put her in the hot seat at work. Grimanis recalls removing her shoes at the office since she found she could function better without them. “People were like, ‘Lia, what are you doing? Put on your shoes.’ I’m like, ‘My feet don’t stink. I think better this way.’” In all, she was fired from four of the six jobs she held in the tech sector. Walking the tightrope Women face tightrope bias, the difficult balancing act between being perceived as too likable or aggressive. “If you take neurodivergent women, there’s an additional layer of stereotypes because women are expected to be always nurturing, always emotionally available,” says Ludmila Praslova, a professor of organizational psychology at Vanguard University of Southern California. “You kind of violate the gender norm just by virtue of being neurodivergent.” Jhillika Kumar, cofounder and CEO of Mentra, a neurodiversity employment network whose backers include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, long struggled with executive dysfunction, though she didn’t always recognize it. Even after leaving her role at a top bank to focus on Mentra full-time, she still struggled to attend meetings on time and feel prepared. She felt pressure to conform to leadership stereotypes directly contradicting her true personality. “I’m very honest and very over-the-top—emotions everywhere. I’ll put my heart on my sleeve and come in with a lot of enthusiasm,” she says. “It’s been a learning curve to temper that back because people often perceive you as not masculine or authoritative enough to steer the company forward.” For male CEOs like Satya Nadella or Marc Benioff, who have made empathy part of their leadership personas, such passion earns them praise. For women, it’s considered the bare minimum but not necessarily a leadership trait. Women are generally expected to take on office housework and “mother” employees, Praslova points out, while men who take on fathering are “like a super bonus.” “The expectation of care is very unbalanced by gender,” she says. Behind the mask Existing in a workplace that requires you to mask your neurodivergence is a surefire path to burnout. Before her diagnosis, the burden of masking would leave Kumar exhausted from her banking job. “I would come home completely drained [and] required hours to decompress,” she says. “Sometimes I would just sob on my couch for a bit because I didn’t understand why I couldn’t conform and didn’t feel accepted and valued on the team.” Ng has to be especially mindful of social cues and personal interactions in corporate settings so she doesn’t appear rude. “That takes a lot of effort,” she says, so she mutes herself during end-of-day Zoom meetings. “It’s not because I hate them or I hate work. It’s just that I’m tired of pretending not to be an alien all day.” Sensory issues also affect neurodivergent women’s ability to thrive at work. Grimanis paid a tailor to make her suits—already the same cut but in different monochromatic colors—feel like silk pajamas on the inside. “There was no pinching, no scratching, no nothing. That allowed me to be more resourceful at work.” But women, she notes, are held to a higher standard of dressing, while leaders like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg can get away with T-shirts and jeans as standard business attire. “All of a sudden, it’s an issue that we’re wearing the same thing every day,” she says. “They think you’re trying to be like Steve Jobs.” And given that neurodivergent women tend to be diagnosed later in life or misdiagnosed entirely, it could create invisible barriers for women that they can’t seem to overcome. “You’ve got women growing up with a narrative that says, ‘I’ve got mental health problems’—which they may have as well—but not recognizing they have ADHD, autism, dyspraxia, or all of the above,” says Amanda Kirby, emeritus professor at the University of South Wales and CEO and founder of Do-IT, a platform specializing in training neurodivergent individuals. “When they get their diagnosis, [they become] quite angry because of where they could have been. They haven’t reached their potential and often feel frustrated by that.” To disclose or not disclose? Women struggle with whether to disclose their neurodivergence in the workplace, fearing discrimination and stigma that could prevent them from reaching leadership roles. “It’s all very well for Elon Musk to say, ‘This is who I am,’ and that he doesn’t care what people think,” Kirby says. “If you’re halfway through building your career, we know that disclosure doesn’t always go well.” Yet some believe coming out is integral to their work identity. After receiving a Forbes 30 Under 30 award for social impact, Kumar revealed her autism and ADHD diagnoses. “As my outward success has grown, there’s been an increased dissonance between the Jhillika I show to the world and the reality I experience behind closed doors,” she wrote on LinkedIn earlier this year. Disclosing her condition was no small feat for Kumar, who says skydiving was easier than coming out to her professional circles. Plus, the response from others can be frustrating. Iyer says a few well-meaning people encouraged her to aim simpler or smaller after sharing her diagnosis. “Would you tell that to a man on the spectrum?” she asks. A common response after disclosing a neurodivergence is disbelief. Many recount receiving comments like, “You can’t be autistic or have ADHD.” “They mean well, so I don’t take offense,” Ng says. “Maybe in a work environment, people really think [they’re] doing the polite thing by refuting it.” Valeur says people may also dismiss her autism diagnosis, which she disclosed seven years ago, because white men are the primary examples of neurodivergence they see. “I don’t know what people have in their heads, but it’s not me,” she says. “I think they [picture] Rain Man or Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory.” As a senior principal systems engineer at Raytheon, Meghan Buchanan says the company provides her a platform to share her experience. “I know a lot of companies have initiatives…to get stories out there. It’s getting better, but I do feel it is constantly correcting misconceptions and fighting for that voice,” she says. The biggest misconception she faces at work is that she’s lazy and lacks attention to detail. “I may have looked at [a presentation] a million times, and if the spell checker doesn’t catch it, I’m screwed.” But Buchanan also knows her strength: Her creativity helps her find solutions that other engineers may not consider. “In engineering, when there is a solution needed, and typical ways of dealing with it don’t work, you’ve got to have that creative process, which is what I bring to the company.” Rethinking leadership To bring more neurodivergent women into higher ranks, organizations will have to dismantle their perception of what makes for a strong leader. “Leadership is often defined as this space in the organizational chart,” and its qualities are limited to how well someone can tell others what to do, Praslova says. “It‘s just way too narrow.” Organizations must be diligent about creating evaluation and promotion systems that prioritize performance metrics over personality preferences. And while diversity trainings can help to educate neurotypical workers, they don’t create systemic change, Praslova says. “[It’s like] rinsing off a pickle and putting it back into the brine,” she says. “It doesn’t make very much sense.” There is no clear information on the percentage of neurodivergent women in leadership compared with men. Any studies of such nature tend to have small samples and vary in how they define leadership roles, Praslova says. Organizations also have rigid views on how best to leverage neurodivergent talent, often “typecasting” them for specific roles, such as autistic individuals in technical roles or dyslexic individuals for creative positions. “Even positive stereotypes can be damaging. And if someone doesn’t feel like they can live up to that stereotype, it can mess with them,” Praslova says. Kirby, the University of South Wales professor, emphasizes that “spectrum” is the keyword in autism spectrum disorder. One autistic person can be nonspeaking, and another can be highly verbal; both could be matched to very different roles based on their interests and skill sets. Factor in comorbidities, and these stereotypes are even less sticky. “It’s a bit like horoscopes, right?” she says. “You’re born under Capricorn, and there are 25 million people who are also born under Capricorn. How can we all be the same?” When companies expand their definition of strong leadership, neurodivergent talent can stand out, says Valeur. “We need to want differences. We need to get to a place where our leadership teams are looking for someone who doesn’t fit in, because that’s diversity.”
Amnesty International Slammed Over AI Protest Images
Screenshots of the since-deleted Amnesty International campaign, which employed AI-generated images (screenshots Maya Pontone/Hyperallergic)
This week, international human rights watchdog Amnesty International faced backlash from photojournalists and other online critics for using AI-generated images depicting photorealistic scenes of Colombia’s 2021 protests. Although there is no shortage of photographs from the demonstrations, the advocacy group told the Guardian that it opted to use artificially edited imagery to protect the identities of protesters who may be vulnerable to state retribution.
The 2021 strike — which was incited by an unpopular tax raise and then fueled by police brutality and other forms of state violence — left at least 40 people dead and many more missing, according to official figures.
Amnesty International shared the AI images as part of a since-deleted social media campaign marking the two years since the Colombian protests, paired with disclaimers that acknowledged the use of AI. Commentators online were quick to notice errors in the fake images. For instance, one of them showed a woman wearing the tri-colored Colombian flag and being dragged off by police, a familiar still from the 2021 protests. But on social media, people pointed out that the colors in the national flag were in the wrong order, and the faces of the protesters and police officers were eerily smoothed over. Additionally, the uniforms of the officers were out-of-date.
In response to the public outcry, Amnesty International has since deleted the images from its social media channels.
🧵The AI-generated images are labeled with the text "the illustrations were produced by artificial intelligence." Nevertheless, we apologize for the use of the AI-generated images and have removed them from our platforms.— Amnesty Norway (@Amnesty_Norge) May 3, 2023
The organization has not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s request for comment. In an interview with the Guardian, Director for Americas Erika Guevara Rosas said Amnesty International did not want the AI controversy to “distract from the core message in support of the victims and their calls for justice in Colombia.”
“But we do take the criticism seriously and want to continue the engagement to ensure we understand better the implications and our role to address the ethical dilemmas posed by the use of such technology,” Rosas added.
Amnesty also directly responded to the backlash online, apologizing for the misrepresentative photos and reiterating their initial intentions.
“Our main goal was to highlight the grotesque violence by the police against people in Colombia. It is important to state that the purpose was to protect people who could be exposed. But we could choose drawings or other things,” Amnesty International tweeted.
Some members of the photojournalism and larger arts community have also shared their frustration with the mock photos since the popularization of AI over the past year has raised questions about plagiarism and job displacement.
Molly Crabapple, a New York-based writer and artist who recently authored an open letter against the use of AI-generated art, condemned Amnesty International’s use of the tool in its campaign.
“By using AI-generated photos of police brutality in Colombia, Amnesty International is practically begging atrocity-deniers to call them liars,” Crabapple tweeted. “Either use the work of brave photojournalists, or use actual illustrations. AI-generated photos just undermine trust in your findings.”
Art by Survivors of America’s Wars
CHICAGO — What could a US Army veteran, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, an African-American Chicagoan, and an Iraqi refugee possibly have in common?
Each has been marked by the legacies of the longest military conflicts in US history: the American Indian Wars and the Global War on Terror. And from that experience each has made art, examples of which are currently on view in the Second Veteran Art Triennial, exhibited alongside the work of dozens more artists — some veterans, some from communities impacted by war, some both.
Like any truly great and ambitious exhibition of contemporary art — which this most assuredly is — Surviving the Long Wars: 2023 Veteran Art Triennial & Summit is chock-full of fantastic sculptures, videos, paintings, photographs, and installations, sensitively displayed in evocative configurations and storied locations. Among the hundreds of biennials, etc., that have proliferated worldwide, however, it is unique in being dedicated not to art generally, or even as thematized by a star curator, but to art made about war by those implicated. In its commitment to the most critical and advanced forms of art practice, and to affected populations that extend beyond service members, the Triennial distinguishes itself from veteran art programs such as those run by the US Department of Veteran Affairs. And it is right at home in Chicago, alongside the National Veterans Art Museum and the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, as well as a roster of recurring break-the-mold events like the MdW Fair, a convening of artist-run projects from across the Midwest; the Barely Fair, a 1:12 scale international art fair; and the Chicago Architecture Biennial, which becomes ever more local and experimental with each iteration.
Installation view of Hanaa Malallah, “She/He Has No Picture” (2019/2020), burnt canvas collage on canvas with laser cut brass plaques, four Art Books, thousand moving images generating by computer and original booklet published by government in 1991, at the Chicago Cultural Center
Across the Veteran Art Triennial’s three venues — Residues and Rebellions at the Newberry Library, Reckon and Reimagine at the Chicago Cultural Center, and Unlikely Entanglements at the Hyde Park Art Center — the sheer variety of cultural traditions represented is unmistakable. Mahwish Chishty, trained in miniature painting, depicts a series of MQ-9 Reapers, the armed drones that have terrorized civilians living along the Afghan-Pakistan borderlands, making them riotously visible with decorations in the flamboyant style of Pakistani truck art. Ledger art, a practice of many Plains Native communities in which events are pictorially chronicled on used pages of settlers’ account books, abounds: Terran Last Gun (Piikani) traces the hard-edge geometries of Blackfoot tipi designs and Air Force vet Dwayne Wilcox (Oglala Lakota) illustrates comedic scenes of scathing political commentary. A handful of artists update time-honored textile crafts: Miridith Campbell (Kiowa), a veteran of the Army, Navy, and Marines, ornaments a US cavalry coat with buckskin fringes and beaded shoulder patches; Melissa Doud (Ojibwe) adds spent bullet casings to her old Army uniform, turning it into a jingle dress; Dorothy I. Burge quilts a portrait of US Army Colonel Charles Young, who in 1889 became the third African American graduate of West Point; Sabba Elahi embroiders fisheye-lens tondos of her young son as a target of the domestic surveillance of brown and Muslim bodies. There is even classical oil paintings by Bassim Al Shaker, whose canvases are as lush and moody as a Turner seascape, and even more nightmarish in their depiction of the sky seen overhead during bombings the artist survived when he was a student in Baghdad.
Explicitly contemporary practices like assemblage and conceptualism are represented, too. Marine Corps vet Jose deVere fashions limbs, weapons, and a full-size horse out of scraps of furniture, discarded parachutes, old tarps, and other detritus, holding it all just barely together with screws and string and his own creative willpower. Ali Eyal refuses to tell the story of exactly what happened to him and his family when war came to their Iraqi village, instead presenting two walls, fragmented drawings, and a set of clues to the horrors they lived through and the imaginative tactics of survival.
Intstallation view of Monty Little (Diné), two works from the Survivance series (2022/23), monoprint on BFK Rives, 24 x 20 inches each, at the Newberry Library
This cultural heterogeneity ought not come as a surprise, given the extent of the US military’s incursions abroad and at home, as well as the diversity of its own ranks, where Native Americans served long before they received citizenship; African Americans fought, despite slavery, discrimination, and segregation; and foreigners have always been able to enlist, often as a pathway to American citizenship. Far more salient is how the tools of the colonizer, the occupier, and the oppressor can be used to resist and persist, and the ways in which that reclamation accommodates hybrid identities. Ledger art has always done this, but ledgers aren’t the only bureaucratic form open to appropriation. Mariam Ghani and Chitra Ganesh build an archive room of declassified records and media clippings related to the Global War on Terror, partly searchable and partly impenetrable, with simultaneous translation broadcast in Arabic and Dari. Four metal traffic signs by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation) offer deadpan commemoration of the US government’s forced removal of 100,000 people from their ancestral lands during the Trail of Tears. There are other memorials here, too, like the makeshift ones Tom Jones (Ho-Chunk) has been documenting since 1999, honoring tribal veterans at the Memorial Day Powwow in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Most feature a triangle-fold American flag, some form of tobacco, and a photograph of the dead.
The portraits are crucial: to have a face is to be known and remembered, however imperfectly, and artists oblige, particularly when confronted with government destruction. Ganesh paints gentle watercolors of people detained and disappeared in the months following 9/11. Hanaa Malallah painstakingly recreates, out of scraps of burned canvas, the missing images of Iraqi civilians killed in the predawn bombing of their neighborhood shelter by an American smart bomb. Chris Pappan (Kaw/Osage, Lakota) draws a grid of Indigenous warriors in Ghost Dance regalia, posed boldly atop a collage of US cavalry recruitment forms, traditional graphics, and maps and warplanes bearing appropriated tribal names. The flip side is true, too: monotypes of unnamed Native Americans by Marine Corps veteran Monty Little (Diné) are smeared, layered, and sliced up beyond legibility, acknowledging the brutality and complexity of their history while refusing to spectacularize it. A pair of life-sized self-portraits by Army vet Gina Herrera (Tesuque Pueblo), with their mismatched mannequin and metalwork legs, exploded upper halves, and colorfully wrapped appendages bespeak war-damaged bodies held together by fierce personal spirit, can-do, and culture.
Whatever side of whichever conflict they have found themselves on, and however they have managed to come through it, every artist in this show understands that art remains unparalleled in helping us all grapple with that most horrendous and enduring of human activities: war.
Installation view of Sabba Elahi, “the suspect in my son,” nos. 3, 4, 5 (2018), machine embroidery on felt, 18 x 18 x.75 inches each, at the Hyde Park Art Center
Installation view of Reckon and Reimagine at the Chicago Cultural Center; Quilt portrait by Dorothy I. Burge; wall of memorial photos by Tom Jones (Ho-Chunk) signage by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation) (photo by James Prinz)
Left to right: Miridith Campbell (Kiowa), “Marine Corps Dress – Southern Style” (2022), artist-tanned and smoked buckskin hide, antique, vintage, and contemporary seed beads, red broadcloth English wool, vintage Marine Corps service buttons, hawk bells, horse hair; Miridith Campbell (Kiowa), “Adobe Walls Battle Dress” (2022), cotton canvas dresses with blue edging, ledger art is digitally produced and fabricated to dress, depicting the battle; Melissa Doud (Ojibwe), “Bullet Dress” (2016), Army uniform with bullets. Installation view at the Chicago Cultural Cente
Installation view of Reckon and Reimagine at the Chicago Cultural Center; foreground sculptures by Gina Herrera (Tesuque Pueblo)
Installation view of Chris Pappan (Kaw/Osage, Lakota), detail from War Dance I–IX (2022), series of nine graphite, ink, and colored pencil drawings on recruitment ledger paper, at the Chicago Cultural Center
Installation view of Unlikely Entanglements at the Hyde Park Art Center; sculpture by Jose deVera; paintings by Bassim Al Shaker; wall portraits by Eric Perez; footprints by Yiran Zhang (image provided by Hyde Park Art Center, courtesy Sofia Merino Arzoz)
Installation view of Mahwish Chishty, “Hovering Reaper II” (2015), gouache, tea stain, and photo transfers on birch plywood, 12 x 30 x 8 inches, at the Hyde Park Art Center
Surviving the Long Wars: 2023 Veteran Art Triennial & Summit continues with Residues and Rebellions at the Newberry Library (60 West Walton Street, Chicago, Illinois) through May 26; Reckon and Reimagine at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 East Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois) through June 4; and Unlikely Entanglements at the Hyde Park Art Center (5020 South Cornell Avenue, Chicago, Illinois) through July 9. The exhibition was organized by a team including Aaron Hughes, Ronak K. Kapadia, Therese Quinn, Joseph Lefthand, Amber Zora, and Meranda Roberts.
Full disclosure: The writer’s husband, artist Michael Rakowitz, has work included in the exhibition and is not discussed herein.
How 'BlackBerry' Escapes Depicting Tech Founders as Untouchable Gods
The term “reality distortion field” used to be inseparable from Steve Jobs.The Apple co-founder and longtime CEO’s combination of charisma, taste, menace, and knack for marketing was said to have such a sway over employees and fans of Apple’s products that he could make the impossible happen. Difficult deadlines were cleared, improbable product concepts were birthed, and facts, if deemed unnecessary, were thrown out the window.In director Danny Boyle’s decidedly impressionistic 2015 portrait Steve Jobs, the distortion field is practically made visible as visual projections on the floors and walls in key scenes during the launch of the MacIntosh and the NeXT Computer. The film is practically enraptured with the space Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) takes up and how Apple, its products, and key figures seemed to orbit around his ego and cruelty. It’s a familiar feeling, if not an entirely realistic one.In the myth of the “tech founder,” Hollywood has found its favorite protagonists. Archvillains, tragic heroes, and the people in between. Can you tell an interesting story while making your larger-than-life characters feel human, like the kind of people who might actually sit in front of a keyboard or solder a circuit board? If we look at the work up until now, the answer is mostly no. Films like Steve Jobs, The Social Network, and even early projects like The Pirates of Silicon Valley, regardless of how committed they are to the truth, default to putting their protagonists on a pedestal. The experience can be engaging and even feel like the truth, but it's off.BlackBerry, directed by Matt Johnson (Operation Avalanche, The Dirties) and releasing on May 12 ends up feeling like a refreshing alternative. The film has less exciting subject matter. The BlackBerry was the first mainstream smartphone, but it will also be remembered as a businessman’s best friend, not something everyone from a toddler to your grandma could use. And yet Johnson finds a lot of drama and humor presenting BlackBerry’s heroes as normal, corruptible people.It’s a different approach, and to find out why it works and how far we’ve come in pop culture’s understanding of the tech industry, Inverse spoke to Johnson about the film and tried to trace Hollywood’s love affair with “visionaries” from the past until now.Pirates, Gods, DorksPirates of Silicon Valley is a TV movie from 1999, but it avoids the stigma the genre can occasionally imply by getting several facts right about the competition between Apple and Microsoft in the early days of Silicon Valley. First and most important — much of what we like about Windows and macOS was stolen. Maybe not legally, but effectively; the graphical user interfaces that have come to define the 21st century were built on work by researchers at Xerox Palo Research Center. The movie gets by on shallow characterizations of Bill Gates (Anthony Michael Hall) as a ruthless, pragmatist nerd and Steve Jobs (Noah Wyle) as a free-spirited cult leader with a flare for the authoritarian, but it keys into a critical and seemingly accurate idea that part of what made these famous leaders impactful was that they knew they were doing something important (changing the way people interact with technology), even if they would eventually have to sell out to make it happen.The Social Network does not hold Mark Zuckerberg in such high regard. What’s fascinating about David Fincher’s 2013 film and Aaron Sorkin’s script behind it is how petty it thinks the origins of Facebook actually are. Jesse Eisenberg’s Zuckerberg is casually mean, sometimes plainly so, and the film makes quick work of undressing what actually happened when Zuckerberg made the social network of the moment. In one Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross-scored montage, the stakes are laid plain: Facebook is the young person’s modern social world made digital; the parties, romantic jockeying, and toxic masculinity flattened into a two-dimensional web page.Facebook would become so much more — an advertising platform and political influence most importantly — but Sorkin suggests, humorously (and darkly), that it might all exist because one boy couldn’t get over the fact he was dumped by a girl. The simplest of personal hang-ups projected on the largest canvas possible (the world), thanks to the impossible scale of the internet and the tech industry’s thirst for growth.Steve Jobs takes liberties with its subject's story, too. Besides its product launch structure, Steve Jobs is most concerned with the largest blemish on the CEO’s life, his refusal to acknowledge his daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs. The film, despite the elegiac tone imparted by being released only a few years after Jobs’ death, doesn’t paint a flattering picture. Boyle and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s flaunting of facts drew ire from Jobs’ family and friends for portraying the man in a bad light. Something that might not have been as much of an issue without the pedestal the film (and history) have placed him on.FriendsWhat’s refreshing about BlackBerry, Matt Johnson’s new film about the rise and fall of RIM (Research in Motion), is how normal its Canadian protagonists are. Johnson’s documentary-ish camera grounds everything.“Jared [Raab] (BlackBerry’s cinematographer) and I are always trying to make our movies seem as though they were found or discovered and not placed,” Johnson explained to me over Zoom. To Johnson, it's all about the feeling like you’re participating. Capturing “The ‘Oh, wow, I can't believe this is happening,’ feeling,” Johnson says.Mike Laziridis (Jay Baruchel) and Doug Fregin’s (Johnson) initial pitch for the “PocketLink,” a pocket email terminal with a physical keyboard, is kind of disastrous, even if we know they’re fundamentally being misunderstood. Baruchel plays Laziridis as reserved, someone who’s better at making things than explaining them, but with a hint of darkness and frustration underneath. When I asked about Baruchel’s performance, Johnson put it simply, “He has something boiling in him.” As Fregin, Johnson gets to play comic relief but also the heart of the film. Doug is, in many ways, Laziridis’ speaker, but he’s also what’s lost once RIM is a success.“He stood for something that had no value, and that thing was the camaraderie and fraternity of being young and having a vision,” Johnson says. “Not necessarily connecting that vision to the commercial marketplace.”Jim Balsillie (Glen Howerton) is an asshole who eventually helps them realize that vision, but BlackBerry doesn’t make it seem like he invented the “sell phones and figure out how to make them later” move. He just happened to be the one that taught it to Laziridis. And he really does seem to care.“Those intangibles that take place in friendships or companies... are way more important than people realize.”The film is focused on the small compromises that lead to bigger ones. Laziridis starts RIM with his friends in the film but ends it as their boss, putting a middle manager between his vision and their results and ranting about putting “a keyboard, on a screen, on a keyboard,” the fatal recipe that would produce the BlackBerry Storm, and arguably the start of the company’s downfall.“Those intangibles that take place in friendships or companies or whatever actually are way more important than people realize,” Johnson says. “I think that [Mike Laziridis] winds up losing not only his sense of self, but he completely loses his way and starts doing crazy things towards the end of the film, the more he alienates his best friend.”BlackBerry doesn’t tell the real-life RIM story one-for-one, but there is a true story you could find in it and many of the other startups that became big successes in the last few decades. It treats its heroes as standard, maybe even boring, but finds something universal in the experience of making something at scale.Dismantling the PedestalHollywood has been enamored with the myth of the “tech founder” for years but hasn’t, until recently, reckoned with who those people actually are and what they’ve done. Steve Jobs tries to have its cake and eat it too. Jobs is a Great Man but also a Flawed One. “I’m poorly made,” as movie Jobs so memorably and tragically, intones in the film’s finale.BlackBerry skips that problem entirely by largely backgrounding the disruption smartphones brought to the world of business and then, eventually, everything else.The film industry might be fundamentally incapable of producing a purely critical movie about the impact technology and the people who make it have on our lives. We want to be sympathetic to the heroes of our stories, and maybe we even need to. But by treating them like normal people like BlackBerry does, we can still find some truth, a lesson to impart that could be as meaningful as a computer or website that changes the world.
The Philosophy of Love: Can We Learn How to Love?
You can find love all around you. It is likely the muse of your favorite song and the highlight of the greatest movies. There are so many ideas of what love is and why it drives some of us to the brink of insanity. We might find peace in being with the one we love or spend our afternoons daydreaming about what love must feel like. Is there a way to accurately and successfully navigate a subject so many of us hold dear to our hearts?
The Basics of the Philosophy of Love: Plato’s The Symposium
Plato’s Symposium reimagined by Anselm Feuerbach, 1869, via Wikimedia commons.
“Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature. Each of us, then, is a ‘matching half’ of a human whole… and each of us is always seeking the half that matches him.”
Aristophanes
To start, we need to go all the way back to the Greek mythological origin of love. In Plato’s dialogue, The Symposium, scholars, and playwrights gathered together for a banquet in celebration of Eros – the god of love. After a few glasses of wine, the attendees of this banquet decided to give speeches in his honor. These speeches were from the heart as much as they were a comedic relief. Imagine men gathered together in tunics, wine glasses raised, discussing life’s secrets. In the midst of this, Aristophanes shared what he believed to be the true origin of love.
Greek-inspired Art, via PBS
It is said that there were originally three types of humans. The male, who originated from the sun. The woman, who originated from the earth. And an androgynous figure comprised of both male and female parts, that originated from the moon. These “humans” were originally in the shape of a sphere – four arms, four legs, two faces, and two sets of genitalia. They were a powerful bunch and one day decided to climb Mount Olympus to challenge the Gods. Zeus caught wind of this and put them to a halt by severing their bodies in half – thus, making them the “humans” we are today.
Doing this created a longing for our “other half”. It is the explanation as to why we desire to find the person who makes us feel whole. It explains both homosexual and heterosexual relationships. The original four-legged men are on a constant search for their missing male counterparts. And this ideology applied to the women and androgynous four-legged creatures as well. This is more of a whimsical approach to love, but the underlying message of the story still resonates with quite a few of us. We are all just searching for our missing half in life, the part of us that was severed many years ago.
A Taoist Perspective on Love
A Chinese print depicting “The Joining of the Essences”, based on Tang Dynasty art. Chang We-Che’ng, 8th-9th century AD, via Wikimedia Commons.
Now let us look at love from a completely different perspective. If you strip away the sense of belonging and possessiveness from love, what are you left with? This means no longer perceiving love as finding the missing half of your soul (as if you are incomplete) like it was taught by Greek mythology.
According to Taoist philosophies, to say “I love you” to someone with the intention of owning that individual is going against the flow of life. Today in our society, we often feel as if love and possession go hand in hand. And with this, two people loving each other becomes a very controlled dance, rather than a free-flowing lyrical number. The notion of wanting full control over someone is actually going against the spiritual essence of love entirely. It also raises the issue of attachment. When we become overly attached to someone, it poses the threat of losing a part of ourselves – which, in turn, causes immense pain if the relationship ends.
Transformation through Intimacy, via Integrallife.com
This is where the art of detachment comes into play. Taoism is not implying that you are wrong to experience love, instead, it is encouraging you to detach yourself from any particular outcome regarding love. It means to love someone unconditionally in this very moment, without placing expectations on the potential future of the relationship. In Taoism, love helps to create what they refer to as “the Tao” or “the way”. This implies that love surrounds us, and it is larger than telling someone that “they are yours forever”. Love and control are not synonymous. Love is the act of free-falling into the unknown without having control.
Think of it like this – We are here together now, and I love you, but you do not belong to me. We may grow together, learn together, and offer each other a shoulder to cry on today – but, if you decide to leave tomorrow, I will not stop you.
This perspective on love is both refreshing and maddening. We as human beings are flawed and cannot always handle emotional matters in a perfect fashion. With that being said, if you love someone and they decide to leave you unannounced – you have every right to feel sadness and grief. To feel all of the emotions life has to offer is the very reason why we are here in the first place. Ironically, Taoism encourages this as well. The pain that follows heartache is nothing you should suppress. Embrace it, feel it, and continue on.
Does Love Mirror Possession?
Albert Camus and Maria Casarès, via Actualitte
“Tied to one another by the bonds of the earth, by intelligence, heart and flesh, nothing, I know, can surprise or separate us.”
Albert Camus to Maria Casarès
Of course, there are different aspects of love. You “love” food, and the taste of home-cooked meals warms your heart. You “love” your family, and seeing them during the holidays fills you with a sense of peace (most of the time). These feelings of love are based on personal interest and fulfillment, as well as the importance of family. You never really second guess why you love these things because it simply makes sense to our human nature.
The love which I am addressing in this article refers to the intense connection that borderlines obsession with another human being. Something that is beyond our control. It can be an instant connection or a gradual build-up of emotions. Either way, it is a feeling of absolute vulnerability mixed with a willingness to do anything that would make the other happy. So what do well-respected philosophers have to say about this matter?
The Kiss by Gustav Klimt, 1908-9, via Google Arts & Culture.
Most philosophers – such as Sartre and Nietzsche – agree with the Taoist perspective of love. Sartre specifically states that often love can thrive off of the illusion of possession. When you have two people desperate to control the other while taking away the factor of free will, issues are bound to arise. He says that this drives lovers into vicious circles of sadomasochistic power games. The couple is no longer being fueled by the love they previously shared, but instead, they are being consumed by the egotistical need to possess the other.
On the other hand, Nietzsche claimed that love is “the most angelic instinct” and “the greatest stimulus of life” – but that it becomes destroyed by ego once it manifests into the greedy desire for control. He even went as far as to describe love as having a pet bird. You love your pet bird, but you keep it locked away in a cage because you fear that it will fly away. Nietzsche believed that although love is a magnificent thing, it is ridiculous to think that you can possess someone forever. But, if you simply appreciate the love while it runs its course, then you are able to experience the positive side of relationships instead of eventually being consumed by control.
Love Versus Marriage
The Wedding Register by Edmund Blair Leighton, 1920, via ArtUK
It appears as if the recurring philosophical theme here is to love without restraints. If you fall in love but there comes a time that the two of you are no longer happy or fulfilled, you should let each other go. But, society has made this a very complex task because of the pursuit of marriage and the legal agreement to long-term commitment.
Because we have put the idea of love in this controlled box, it has caused a bit of a domino effect. Unhappy marriages with children can often lead to divorce. And thanks to Hollywood, pop culture, and fairy tales – impressionable children are likely taught that they are supposed to love and marry one person forever. Then they see their parents going their separate ways, which could cause childhood trauma to resurface later in life. If you have been a child of divorce, you understand what I mean. You begin to question if love is even real and it instills a fear of “ending up like your parents”. Inevitably this creates an entire generation of young adults who subconsciously view love as a legally binding agreement. And that pressure of “who am I going to spend the rest of my life with” weighs heavy on your shoulders. Imagine if we were never conditioned to view love this way and we simply looked at it in a more lighthearted sense.
Your childhood trauma and disdain toward the societal pressure to get married does not mean you are not worthy of love. This just means that maybe Taoism, Sartre, and Nietzsche are all on to something. Perhaps love and long-term commitment do not go together at all. If we changed our perspective on love and started to look at it as a constant journey rather than the final destination, would we be better off?
But What IS Love?
The Science of Love In The 21st Century, via Highline
So now we understand how to better navigate love: approach it in a detached sense, and don’t view it as a means of control or power over another person. Also, putting the legal pressure of long-term commitment on someone can drive them insane since humans are not caged animals – according to Nietzsche.
But, what exactly is love? What is the thing that pushes people into long-term commitment anyway? What is the initial feeling? And how does love have the power to convince us that we want to spend the rest of our lives with one single person?
From a scientific aspect, love is stimulated by three different chemicals in the brain.
Noradrenaline, dopamine, and phenylethylamine – these three chemicals together produce feelings of excitement, nervousness, and pure ecstasy. This feeling is very similar to the high you experience on drugs and alcohol. It also stimulates a feeling of addiction, so you constantly feel the need to be around the person that allows your brain to have this chemical reaction. But, similar to drugs, this feeling eventually crashes. Suddenly you find yourself in a long-term relationship and things just don’t feel the way they used to.
This is where the saying “love becomes a choice” comes into the picture. Once that chemical crash occurs, you could begin to wonder if the relationship has come to an abrupt end. But – you made a legally binding vow to be with this person until death do you part. Love is no longer a high you’re riding out. Instead, it becomes work. You are now choosing to make a connection work because that initial physical feeling of “love” is gone. Is this inevitable? And are there ways of keeping these chemicals alive with the same person over a period of time?
Will (The Philosophy of) Love Prevail?
In Bed – The Kiss by Henri de Tolouse-Lautrec, 1892-3, via Wikimedia Commons.
So we have a whimsical perspective on love that derives from Greek mythology, claiming that we are incomplete and our missing half is out there somewhere. The Taoist perspective, which encourages us to love each other without feeling the need to control. Sartre’s and Nietzsche’s perspectives, who both believe that monogamous long-term commitment is just an insane act of possession. And finally, a scientific explanation as to where those physical feelings of love come from in the first place.
Love is beautiful, timeless, and complex. The fact that so many questions, ideas, and theories are derived from its very existence explains just how spectacular it truly is.
In the end, this article is merely comprised of theories – nothing is based on absolute truth. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, each person might experience love differently from the other. But how wonderful it is to live in a world where love can even exist at all.
13 Years Ago, an Underrated Sci-Fi Show Delivered One of the Best Time-Travel Episodes Ever
Time travel is the be-all-end-all of science fiction episodes. What makes stories about time travel so fascinating is the fantasy of tomorrow, the obsession with the past, and all of the what-ifs with which those two are associated. To be able to travel to a different time is to hold an unimaginable power because the one thing that can never be beaten is time. For its ability to explore time travel in all its tragic forms, “White Tulip” is arguably the best episode of Fringe.Airing just two weeks after the flashback episode “Peter,” “White Tulip” gives Walter (John Noble) a doomed peer in the form of Peter Weller’s Alistair Peck, a scientist attempting to travel in time to save his fiancée from a car accident. Through its time-travel narrative, “White Tulip” explores the concepts of God, science, and forgiveness — coming to a conclusion about faith that transcends all of Fringe’s sci-fi TV counterparts.The episode begins with a flash. A man appears on a train and in his wake, he leaves behind a lot of dead bodies. This is how we meet Alistair Peck. Once Peter (Joshua Jackson), Olivia (Anna Torv), and Walter are on the case, the investigation moves fairly quickly. We’re barely through a quarter of the episode before the team has found their way to Peck’s apartment. But Peck has arrived as well, and as he confronts the FBI agents in the lobby of his building, he starts disappearing. Another flash. We’re back on the train with Peck. And the episode plays out similarly — except the team is experiencing some weird déjà vu. Eventually, the team works out that Peck has figured out how to travel back in time by fusing a Faraday machine into his body (resulting in some gnarly practical effects, a great nod to how going to such lengths can physically destroy you too) and is trying to get as far back as 10 months in order to save his fiancée. Once his motives are clear, so too is the episode’s entire point.The episode’s climactic moment boils down to a conversation. At Peck’s lab at MIT, Walter and Alistair (Noble and Weller giving dueling heartbreaking performances) sit down across from each other, recognizing the same madness and grief within the other. Walter tells Peck the right calculations to make it 10 months in the past, but in the same breath, pleads with Peck not to attempt the jump.Just as the worldly consequences followed Walter’s universe-hopping, there’s no telling what consequences may come from Peck saving his fiancée. Though Walter has struggled to find the right words for Peter, here he comes clean to Peck, a person who understands going to extreme lengths for the people they love.It’s important to note in this conversation two things: 1) in the years following Walter’s universe hopping, he’s come to understand that God is punishing him — a far cry from declaring himself God in 1985, and 2) that he’s waiting to tell Peter because he’s looking for a sign of forgiveness from God. Specifically, a white tulip. Peck points out that tulips of any kind do not grow this time of year. When time runs out and the FBI agents swarm the lab, Peck jumps again, inputting Walter’s calculations. But instead of trying to save his fiancée, he gets in the car, tells her, “I love you,” and dies with her.It’s wild to think that Fringe’s best episode technically doesn’t happen. Because of Peck’s final jump, the entire case on the train is wiped clean. We’re back at the beginning with Walter, trying to explain everything to Peter in a letter. Without the case interrupting him, Walter decides to toss the letter into the fire. But in the episode’s final shot, Walter receives a letter from Peck that he wrote before his final jump.The audience may know the hand-drawn white tulip came from Peck, but Walter doesn’t. To him, it’s the sign he was looking for, but it didn’t come in the manner he was expecting. Peck initially wanted to jump to save his fiancée: instead, he got one more moment to love her. Forgiveness comes in unexpected ways; hope does too. We end on Walter’s surprise. We don’t know what he’s going to do next, but by granting him that white tulip of forgiveness, Peck gave Walter the hope to move forward. After all, there’s only so much time we get. A single moment can make all the difference.
Now on View: NYC’s Bloated Police Budget
Amidst art galleries and bustling brunch spots near the Spring Street station in Manhattan’s trendy Nolita neighborhood, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is showcasing the bloated budget of the New York Police Department (NYPD) — $11 billion per year, or $29 million per day.
It’s the second time the advocacy organization has presented an exhibition in its pop-up Museum of Broken Windows; the first was in 2018. The current show, titled Twenty-Nine Million Dreams, runs through May 6.
The museum name references the “broken windows theory,” a policing strategy developed in the 1970s. The concept hinges on the idea that petty crime will lead to larger crimes; that if people in a neighborhood observe minor criminal acts happening around them — drug use or graffiti, for example — citizens will perceive their community as uncared for and this will lead to greater criminal activity. Although the concept remains unproven, it has been applied to neighborhoods and cities with disastrous results (Mayor Rudy Giuliani implemented it in New York in the early 1990s). When the “broken windows theory” is put into practice, police departments do not focus on stopping major criminal acts and instead attack individuals on the street-level, persecuting people including drug users, street artists, and sex workers.
News articles describe issues with the city’s policing. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
The theory creates policing methods that persecute poor communities and provides a pseudo-scientific framework for race-based policing.
“When we were designing this show, we knew we were looking for artwork that spoke to the heaviness and the seriousness — the weight — of excessive policing,” Daveen Trentman, who co-curated the exhibition alongside Terrick Gutierrez, said in an interview with Hyperallergic. “But also artwork that really uplifts the beauty of people and of community and that showcases an affirmative vision of a world that doesn’t rely on the police to fix all of our problems.”
The ground floor of Twenty-Nine Million Dreams uses text, infographics, old newspaper articles, and artwork to communicate the issue with extreme clarity.
City politics often emerge into the public consciousness as seemingly never-ending, tedious, and confusing, but the show explains the urgency of these conversations. Currently, the City Council and Mayor’s Office are in negotiations over the municipal budget, which allocates funding for the NYPD. Funding for libraries and other services is under threat, and an infographic on the stairs shows the distribution of city money in relation to the police budget, which continues to grow.
Trentman said the floor of the exhibition is intended to display the seriousness and human consequence of the policies being discussed.
“As we’re talking about things such as how much we’re spending and what kind of policies we need, we really want people to be reminded that there are severe, sometimes deadly consequences to those things,” Trentman said.
Artist Tracy Hetzel’s watercolor series depicts people holding photographs of their loved ones who were killed by police. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Images of Breonna Taylor and other people killed by police are scattered throughout this first floor. A printed text in the back of the space explains the severity of the crisis at Rikers Island — 17 people died there last year, the highest recorded number in its 90-year history. Artist Jesse Krimes’s 20-by-34-foot “Rikers Quilt” (2020) quite literally reveals the horrors inside the massive jail.
Krimes’s work comprises 3,650 individual squares to represent every day of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2017 promise to close the prison in 10 years. Calendar dates are printed on top. The colorful work, made with prison-issued bed sheets, stretches from the ceiling of the vast gallery space to the floor.
“Jesse’s theory of beauty is that as humans, we’re drawn in to vibrant colors and visually pleasing things to the eye,” said Trentman. Krimes was formerly incarcerated at Rikers.
“But as you get drawn in, he created a second layer,” Trentman continued. The outer part is intended to be slashed open, although only a couple squares have been so far. Documented photographs of abuse at Rikers lie beneath the quilt’s bright facade.
Jessie Krimes’s “Rikers Quilt” (2020) stretches from the ceiling to the floor. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
A work created by co-curator Gutierrez depicts an NYPD floodlight. Mayor Bill de Blasio sent hundreds of these machines to public housing projects in a campaign to stop nighttime crime. They still illuminate those spaces. (The initiative was unbelievably named “Omnipresence.”)
“These shine into the homes of families and elderly people and are really harmful,” Trentman said. Guitierrez replaced the floodlight’s serial number with its Kelvin temperature. Anything over 3,000 is considered harmful to the human eye, but the floodlight clocks in at almost 4,000.
Upstairs, Trentman and Gutierrez have created a space “designed to be an almost visceral, tonal shift,” according to Trentman. Natural light illuminates a space filled with greenery and plants. The artworks on its walls celebrate individuals and communities. Those works include a 2018 series of photographs taken by artist Andre Wagner of people in Bushwick and images by Steven Eloiseau and Eva Woolridge that depict a father and son and the hand of Woolridge’s mother.
A series of work by artists Andre Wagner, Steven Eloiseau, and Eva Woolridge celebrate moments of joy and their communities. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Just as showcased in the works a floor below, the art upstairs also exhibits active resistance. A two-part series by Susan Chen, for example, celebrates Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood and documents collective organizing in response to the the proposed Chinatown mega-jail. A three-part series of photographs by Gabriel Chiu showcases a picket line in Chinatown while also exploring concepts of poverty and gentrification.
“All of the work on the second floor showcases the beauty of people or communities,” Trentman said. “And really shows what a world could look like if we weren’t so reliant on the police.”
An infographic puts the NYC budget into perspective. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Left: Terrick Gutierrez, “Never Needed Police Departments (2023), mixed media on canvas; right: Reginald “Dwayne” Betts and Titus Kaphar, “Untitled” (2019) from Redaction, intaglio print on paper
Susan Chen, “Chinatown Black Watch” (2022) and “Stop The Mega Jail” (2022) (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
A text explaining the crisis at Rikers Island (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Gabriel Chiu, “Emma” (2023), “Picket Line” (2023), “Pantry” (2023) (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Loneliness Is an Epidemic. Can We Fix It?
When Vivek Murthy became the Surgeon General in 2014, he didn’t consider loneliness a public health concern. Traveling the country changed his mind.“People began to tell me that they felt isolated, invisible, and insignificant,” he recalls in a recent letter. “Even when they couldn’t put their finger on the world ‘lonely,’ time and time again, people of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds, from every corner of the country, would tell me, ‘I have to shoulder all of life’s burdens by myself’ or ‘if I disappear tomorrow, no one will even notice.’”Murthy describes loneliness and isolation as an epidemic — and a new Surgeon General Advisory calls it a public health crisis. Julianne Holt-Lunstad is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University and the top scientific editor of the Advisory. She tells me the point is to highlight the growing evidence of the dire health consequences of loneliness. It is, she and her colleagues argue, a public health emergency in urgent need of a fix.The way forward, Holt-Lunstad explains, is a strategy that focuses on society at large — not telling individual people that they need to work out how to be less lonely.“For far too long there has been too much burden placed on individuals to solve this alone, despite many underlying causes being outside an individual’s control,” Holt-Lunstad says.Is loneliness an epidemic?Study after study shows loneliness and isolation aren’t just unpleasant; they have a profound effect on physical and mental health. A lack of social connection can increase the risk of premature death by more than 60 percent. It is, the Advisory states, “as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.”Loneliness is also associated with a 29 percent higher odds of heart disease and a 32 percent increased risk of stroke. Even after controlling for demographics and overall health status, chronic loneliness and social isolation can still up older adults’ risk of developing dementia by 50 percent. Some research has even found the brain responds to loneliness in similar ways to how it hunger.Depression and anxiety can also lead to loneliness — and loneliness can result in anxiety and depression. The inverse is also true: Confiding in others is linked to a 15 percent reduced odds of developing depression among people already at risk of experiencing it due to trauma and other difficult life experiences.The reality is that people are becoming lonelier. The rate of loneliness among young adults has increased every year between 1976 and 2019. In 2018, just 16 percent of Americans reported that they felt very attached to their local community, according to the Advisory. Several social connection national trends between the years 2003 and 2020 speak to this:Social engagement with friends has decreased by 20 hours per monthCompanionship — shared leisure for the sake of pure enjoyment — has decreased by 14 hours a monthSocial isolation overall has increased by 24 hours a monthCan we “solve” loneliness?It is tempting to think that it’s up to an individual to be less lonely. But while you can do some things to help — like practicing gratitude or seeking out opportunities to see friends or volunteer to help others — they won’t end the epidemic. Instead, the Advisory recommends a holistic alternative that involves multiple different stakeholders, like governments, scientists, or educators.Social connections can also be fostered by workplaces, community-based organizations, technology companies, and even media and entertainment.Quality social connections depend on multiple factors, including the size of one’s social circle, how these relationships serve various needs, and one’s satisfaction with those relationships.The Advisory outlines “six pillars of social connection” as a way to bridge between those factors and the stakeholders who can influence them. For example, one pillar is all about strengthening the “social infrastructure” of local communities. This means establishing community programs and investing in local institutions that bring people together.Another pillar is more about what the health sector can do: The Advisory recommends training healthcare providers on how to assess and help people suffering from isolation, and calls for the expansion of public health surveillance and interventions.The tech sector can also help: The Advisory observes a need to “reform digital environments.” Put into practice this means more data transparency, establishing and implementing safety standards, and developing pro-connection technologies.The sixth pillar is more philosophical but is just as — or even more so — important than the others. It’s about cultivating a “culture of connection” where we value kindness, respect, and service to each other.“The informal practices of everyday life — the norms and culture of how we engage one another — significantly influence social connection,” the Advisory states.
Striking Screenwriters Say No to ChatGPT
Over 11,500 unionized writers left their offices to join picket lines yesterday, May 2, after weeks of contract negotiations between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Hollywood’s major studios fell through. The walkout marks the first major strike in the entertainment industry in 15 years. But this time, better pay and structural changes are not the only concerns on the table.
Since the introduction of generative AI bots, such as ChatGPT, creatives in every industry from advertising to journalism have voiced concerns about potential job displacement. Now, alongside other demands, the WGA strikers are calling for regulations on the use of this new technology in creative projects.
In addition to pay increases and protections for writers working on streaming versus broadcast series, the guild is specifically requesting that “AI can’t write or rewrite literary material; can’t be used as source material; and MBA-covered material can’t be used to train AI,” per a document released by the group on Monday.
In response, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) — the trade association representing top studios including Fox, Netflix, NBC, Amazon, Apple, and Disney — rejected the WGA’s proposal. Rather than agree to stay away from AI, the AMPTP offered “annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology,” an unclear counter that left many strikers dissatisfied.
Today, May 3, dozens of protesters crowded outside Netflix’s Manhattan headquarters in one in a series of pickets scheduled over the coming weeks in New York and Los Angeles. Among them was Lowell Peterson, executive director of the WGA East.
“The concern is not that AI will create scripts that are really good, but that it will take away a lot of work. Not just creative control, but actual employment from writers,” Peterson told Hyperallergic. Writers on streaming series typically make less than their colleagues on broadcast TV and work in smaller groups under tight deadlines.
Signs read “No Sleep Till Contract!” and “Don’t Uber Writing.”
Outside Netflix offices, WGA strikers and SAG-AFTRA allies marched up and down Broadway, disrupting the usual downtown traffic. On the sidewalk, they chanted in unison, rang cowbells, and carried picket signs with catchy phrases like “Miss Your Show? Let Them Know!” and “Do the Write Thing!” to express their frustration. Drivers passing by showed their support with loud car honks, while other passersby cheered and applauded the protesters.
“The [AMPTP’s] response was to not talk about AI repeatedly when we brought it up. And then at the very end, when we pressed that AI was something to talk about, they told us that they didn’t want to talk right now because they don’t want to cut off something they might take advantage of in the future,” said Greg Iwinski, a comedy writer and WGA-East council member. The AMPTP has not responded to Hyperallergic‘s immediate request for comment.
Peterson explained that the WGA had attempted to work with the AMPTP, proposing regulations that were not “anti-technology” but rather protective of writers’ credits and compensation. “It’s deeply disappointing that the AMPTP has refused to engage with us in any meaningful way,” Peterson said.
“The wording didn’t mean anything,” Peterson continued, in response to the AMPTP’s counterproposal. “Maybe AI generated that.”
The first New York protest took place yesterday, when around 200 demonstrators crowded around Peacock’s headquarters during a NewFronts advertiser presentation on Fifth Avenue, Variety reported. A message written on one picket sign at that protest stuck and began circulating online. It read: “Pay your writers or we’ll spoil Succession.”
Writers want better residuals for streaming series.
Dozens gathered outside Netflix in protest.
The Untold History of Japan’s Women Artists
DENVER — “We support women artists,” said Christoph Heinrich, director of the Denver Art Museum, to a room of donors, art historians, and administrators on the opening night of Her Brush, an exhibition of Japanese women artists primarily from the Edo (1600–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods. The museum director listed three shows in seven years as evidence of equity: Women of Abstract Expressionism (2016), Her Paris (a 2018 traveling exhibition organized by the American Federation of Arts and independent curator Laurence Madeline), and now Her Brush. But Her Brush is more than an inclusivity initiative. It is kin with the growing number of women-only presentations because it reveals a fact hiding in plain sight: great women artists existed everywhere at all times.
The artists in Her Brush did not use pseudonyms, were employed by the imperial family, maintained generational ateliers, and sold work. Yet most of the names in the exhibition would garner a “who?” from Japanese art historians. It’s been 35 years since the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas exhibited the groundbreaking show Japanese Women Artists 1600–1900 and 20 years since the important book Gender and Power in the Japanese Visual Field was published, and still women artists compose a fraction of the historic record.
The political and socio-historic context of pre-modern Japanese women was unique. During the Edo period, the Tokugawa family instituted a feudal system with Confucian-informed class structures. Samurai were at the top of the social ladder as protectors of powerful landowners. Below the warrior class were farmers and then craftsmen, with merchants on the bottom. Some people existed above the social system, like the imperial family and Buddhist clergy, and others were below it, like courtesans. Confucius and Buddhist teachings positioned women as subservient to men, which limited their mobility and education. Women who learned poetry, painting, and calligraphy required the support of a man, such as a father or family friend, for training, therefore, male teachers are named throughout Her Brush.
The exhibition is organized to reflect the social silos of women: inner chambers (women of wealth), ateliers, Buddhist nuns, the Floating World and literati (a social gathering of artists). Some artists, such as Ōtagaki Rengetsu, appear in multiple places in the exhibition to express her expansive network among poets. As a Buddhist nun, her status enabled her to travel unaccompanied and those movements are documented in the sketches of a travel journal and an extraordinary painting, “Moon, Blossoming Cherry and Poem” (1867), inscribed with her famous verse:
The inn refuses me,
But their slight is a kindness.
I make my bed instead
Below the cherry blossoms
With the hazy moon above.
Despite a range of expressions and materials in Her Brush, the artworks do not differ stylistically from those by the men of their time. Dr. Patricia Fister states in the book Flowering in the Shadows (1990) that if artists studied with the Kano school style, they followed that tradition and if they studied Chinese literati style, that manner would dictate. If gender cannot be located in the paintings, why the curatorial approach and title of Her?
Okuhara Seiko 奥原晴湖, detail of “Orchids on a Cliff” (1870s–80s), ink on paper
Noguchi Shōhin was born in Osaka in 1847. She trained in poetry and painting at a young age, studying with painter Hine Taizan. She became a painting professor at a women’s university, exhibited at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, served as official artist of the imperial family, and was covered extensively in the Japanese press, but she is missing from Japanese art books today.
Some reasons why we don’t know these artists have to do with their context and others have to do with ours. Fister notes that the biographies of women artists often highlighted their modesty to avoid scorn for being self-indulgent as artists: “As a result of this downplaying of accomplishments, modern readers have been offered little insight on how women fit into the history of Japanese art.” For example, Ryōnen Gensō was rejected for training by a famous Ōbaku Zen monk due to her beauty. As a nun at the imperial Buddhist convent Hōkyōji, her head was already shaved and her dress humble. She burned her face with a hot iron to diminish her appearance and be accepted. A single poem by Gensō is displayed in the exhibition next to a print by male artist Utagawa Kunisad recreating the dramatic moment of her self-mutilation.
The gender debate within Japan reveals answers less generous than Fister’s. In 1997, art historian Chino Kaori presented “The Significance of Gender Studies in Japanese Art History Discourse” at a symposium in Tokyo that would be the basis for an anthology titled Women? Japan? Beauty? Chino acknowledged that the objects and themes discussed in Japanese art history were selected according to the values of the authors — heterosexual men. She presented a new interrogation of objects with an awareness of gender. Art historian Shigemi Inaga criticized Chino in the journal Aida (1998), arguing that a feminist perspective mistakes “minority” makers as “universal.” He defined universal as a discourse that reflects the male domination at the moment of creation. Essentially, Inaga suggested women artists existed outside of the mainstream and thus were correctly marginalized by historical research.
Shigemi’s position has been replaced by more convincing arguments that challenge the effectiveness of women-only shows. A 2021 Hyperallergic article illustrates how such shows make female art history a subcategory and leave the male-dominated narratives unchallenged. A recent Art Review article states that all-women exhibitions have been executed for decades with little to no impact on museum acquisitions or our collective memory. If all-male shows have presented an incomplete perspective on history, Eliza Goodpasture writes, women-only shows do the same.
Foregrounding women requires a negotiation with men. Men are everywhere in Her Brush — named as teachers, abusers, and patrons. Their persistent presence threatens to take credit for the work. In a show with Japanese names that are not obviously female to a mostly English-reading audience, what would be the assumption about the creators if gender was not headlined? There is ample research about the biases of viewers in science museums or how additional texts around American monuments do not mitigate existing attitudes. Do women-only shows help combat the assumption that important work is male just as exhibitions organized around race and ethnicity combat Whiteness?
Image by Utagawa Kunisada 歌川国貞 and Inscription by Ryūtei Tanehiko 柳亭種, ““The Nun Ryōnen (Ryōnen-ni)” (1864 edition), color woodblock print
The traditional framework of what is worthy of study, critique, or preservation, and who holds the authority to declare it, persists in our institutions and problematizes alternative curatorial approaches. “We support women artists” sounds good but feels empty when we know that art by women accounts for only 11% of museum acquisitions and those efforts peaked in 2009, according to a report by Charlotte Burns and Julia Halperin.
Museums are tied to patrons as the driving force of acquisitions. The Burns Halperin report found that 60% of objects in its study entered museum collections by gift or bequest. Her Brush was achieved through a gift of 500 objects by collectors Dr. John Fong and Dr. Colin Johnstone. The donation was secured under the museum’s previous Asian art curator, Tianlong Jiao, now head curator of the Hong Kong Palace Museum. The museum told Hyperallergic that it delayed the original opening in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An exhibition catalogue titled Tradition and Triumph, was published in 2021, but was not distributed. Hyperallergic obtained a copy of that original catalogue and a comparison with the current checklist shows that many objects were pulled from the exhibition. According to sources in the museum, the show was delayed, the book scrapped, and checklist revised due to issues of authentication. Now several artists are represented by significantly fewer works: Kiyohara Yukinobu went from five to two paintings, and nearly 20 pieces credited to Ōtagaki Rengetsu were cut. Although this highlights the problems of museum scholarship tethered to donor demands and resources, it also confronts any looming skepticism about the importance of these women. Why make fakes of an irrelevant artist?
Criticizing collectors for acquiring the same art as the previous generation and condemning museums for not evolving is all satisfying and fair — but neither narrative is complete. In the book Painting Outside the Lines, economist Dr. David Galenson presents a statistical correlation between the art exhibited in retrospectives and illustrated in textbooks and auction prices, proving intellectual and economic markets are in dialogue. Art historical research (and its funding) must exercise historiographic methods to attack problematic claims and question omissions for a shift in collections to be observed. Dr. Peggy Wang discusses in her book The Future History of Contemporary Chinese Art how simplistic Western interpretations of Chinese artists in the 1980s and 1990s repeated inaccurate narratives with such frequency that they became fact in commercial and academic forums. Since art historians can manipulate or rectify economic and social history, the discipline must revisit its own output.
Naomi Beckwith, deputy director and chief curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, recently wrote that there is more than one solution to the issue of representation in collections. All possibilities should be explored because museums move slowly, she says, like a mountain carried away one grain at time. While we monitor the summit, may her brush create the next horizon.
Kō (Ōshima) Raikin 高(大島)来禽, “Autumn Landscape” (late 1700s), ink an light color on paper
Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection continues at the Denver Art Museum (100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, Denver, Colorado) through July 16. The exhibition was conceived by Professor Andrew L. Maske and co-curated by Dr. Einor K. Cervone, associate curator of Asian Art at the Denver Art Museum.
"The Time Is Now: Speculative Memory, Reclaimed Futures" by Sarah Aziza
The first time I remember hearing the word “Palestine,” I was about six years old. The moment is captured on a family video that shows my father seated in the corner of our playroom, leaning a globe on his knee. “Daddy is from a place called Palestine,” he says, holding up the round replica of the world. In my mind’s eye, I recall vividly the thin lines of the painted topography, my father’s fingertip abutting the words ISRAEL/PALESTINE. [1] Still only barely able to read, I stared at the ink, willing it to enter me, to reveal its mystery. Most second- and third-generation immigrants retain a version of this threshold in their childhood memories. The idea of homeland arrives, haloing all things with elsewhere and before. The self-evident, singular present gives way to a messy enmeshment with history. The child discovers that she is part of a multitude she has not seen, her body a nexus of others’ memories. Whether her family’s immigration was due to force or choice, her life becomes a counterpoint, cast in relief against what might have been. Soon, she will also have to contend with the imagination of those outside her ethnicized group. الفكرة ذكرى / A thought is a memory, a group exhibition at CUE Art Foundation curated by Noel Maghathe, presents work by four artists—Zeinab Saab, Kiki Salem, Nailah Taman, Zeina Zeitoun—who all identify as Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA). [2] Each has confronted the limited, neo-Orientalist expectations which too often frame the work of SWANA artists through the pseudo-curiosity of an audience that seeks not to learn, but to reaffirm the limited and familiar. For such consumers, desirable cultural production satisfies a lurid, post-9/11 tendency to both otherize and “humanize” the (particularly Muslim) “Middle Eastern” subject. Among the most celebrated works are those presenting spectacles of suffering, glossed folklore, or flamboyant rejections of supposedly-traditional barbarity. These stifling expectations from non-SWANA audiences are often compounded by an internal pressure to create art that conveys unadulterated affection and nostalgia for specific versions of a supposedly-collective past. We are expected to account for, and in fact constitute, notions of self and nation based not in personal experience but in contrived vocabularies—based either on the presumptions of outsiders or a duty to our elders’ (often sentimental) memories. In each, complexity is elided, as we are called upon to represent communities that may be much more expansive or diverse than what we know.A thought is memory contemplates these gaps through imaginative gestures that create a space beyond overdetermined terrains. The show presents works that are diverse in medium and material, from painting to digital animation, film, photo collage, installation, and soft sculpture. The result is a chorus of new languages, one that revels in declarations of futurity springing from living, multi-varied histories. Installation view of A thought is a memory, curated by Noel Maghathe. Presented by CUE Art Foundation, 2023. Photo by Filip Wolak. Many of the works in the show are exercises in triangulation, as the artists move imaginatively around—and through—collective silences. Zeina Zeitoun contemplates the ways in which absence and loss haunt her relationship with both her father and the Lebanon he left behind. In the film work Happiness is the Sea and my Baba Smiling, Zeitoun splices together fragments of a family video that depict the artist as a little girl splashing and clinging to her father’s neck as they swim in the Mediterranean. The footage is cut with a black screen and white text subtitling the artist’s one-sided conversation with her father. “There is a scar on the back of your leg… I asked you where you got it from…” The closing segment, which shows Zeitoun and her father in split-screen facing away from one another, confirms the film’s ultimate experience of a love defined by innumerable unknowns, omissions both chosen and inevitable. In Zeitoun’s collages, composed of photographs and film stills, old flight tickets, and snippets of text, the artist’s family archival material provide means to contemplate ancestral mystery. In one work, bright depictions of waves and hills are disrupted by human figures that are mostly truncated and obscured. In another, the figure of Zeitoun’s grandfather appears dislodged, sliding out of frame against what looks like scraps from a diary. In yet another, next to a shadowed set of landline phones, is a piece of paper with dozens of Arabic numbers and a mirror blinking out at an unreachable, sunny sea. Paper-thin, these layers evoke dimensions that are not there, objects beyond grasp. A particular kind of memory: a grief for that which might have been. Zeina Zeitoun, Wajih Zeitoun, 2023. Photo by Filip Wolak. Nailah Taman also embeds familial artifacts in their work, creating makeshift meeting spaces between the past and the artist’s imagination. These spaces flicker with the light of alternate lives and intimacies, forming original collaborations with the past. In this experimentation, Taman joins Zeitoun in a practice I term speculative memory. While Zeitoun’s speculation slants toward mourning, Taman is eager to reach for that which is only made possible with distance and time. In Taeta’s Tabletent, Taman creates a portal-shelter where then, now, and future meet. They began with a partially-embroidered tablecloth left incomplete by their Egyptian grandmother (taeta). After stumbling across the discarded item, they partnered with their taeta’s living spirit, constructing a moveable dwelling place embellished with objects from their personal and familial past—seashells, an inhaler, their fiance’s empty bottle of testosterone. Through this work, Taman collapses barriers of time and space, creating juxtapositions that were once impossible. Bonds of birth and blood are made contemporaneous with Taman’s adulthood, their chosen loves. Their queerness is placed into proximity with their grandmother’s lips. Threads stitched in the 1980s of the AIDS crisis live alongside objects that Taman rescued from COVID-era trash piles on the street. Hoisted as a shelter that evokes either childhood games or iconic Bedouin camps, it has the effect of welcome, wonder, even nurturing. Perhaps the present has something to offer the past, and not only the other way around. Nailah Taman, Taeta’s Tabletent (detail), 2021. Photo by Filip Wolak. Zainab Saab’s work, which includes a series of experimental paintings on paper, emerges from their own path toward self-determination and futurity. The gestures are hard won—growing up in the uniquely-large Arab American community in Dearborn, Saab faced intra-community pressure to conform to a particular form of Lebanese femininity. As such, familial and communal interpretations of Arabness—as well as gender and religion—felt overdetermined, and like something to escape. Saab’s paintings signal a successful jailbreak. In contrast to the classic diasporic project of capturing an evanescent, collective past, Saab seeks to recover their inner child. The series Visual Decadence, for example, emerged from pandemic experimentations, when Saab bought themself the colorful gel pens they once yearned for as a child. The works are boisterous, ringing with vivid colors that vibrate and shimmer in abstraction. Both geometric and fluid, and accompanied in the show by similar large-scale works with titles such as You Wanted Femininity But All I Had Was Fire and Can’t A Girl Just Spiral In Peace?, Saab’s paintings are windows into youthful mischief, flamboyance, and joy. Together, they are an exuberant declaration of presence, a claiming of space in the here and now. Zeinab Saab, Visual Decadence, 2022. Photo by Filip Wolak. Kiki Salem also conceives of a vividly-imagined future, incorporating materials both inherited and bespoke. Salem’s works call back to their Palestinian heritage through Islamic architecture as well as traditional embroidery. Drawing upon the shapes and patterns of each, the artist brings these historically-rich legacies into endless, digital life. In A thought is memory, Salem presents projections and paintings that occupy both sides of large, handmade screens hung from the gallery ceiling. FOLLOW THE LEAD(ER) riffs on a diamond-and-spade pattern from Islamic tiling, the animation alternating between oranges, greens, purples, and golds. In What is Destined For You Will Come to You Even if it is Between Two Mountains, Salem draws on the eight-pointed star of Jerusalem, creating an interlocking spread of shapes in which color pulses outward from a red center, evoking a throbbing heart. Salem invites these would-be static symbols to breathe—and to dance. This hypnotic effect splices together the ancient and modern in a way that speaks to the relentless march of time. It also gestures to the particularly Palestinian search for ever new and ingenious ways to transcend the obstacles placed between us and our homeland. Bursting with unapologetic color, Salem’s animations move ceaselessly, telling us that Palestine will exist in the future. There are new memories to come. Kiki Salem, What is Destined For You Will Come Even if it is Between Two Mountains, 2021 (L) and FOLLOW THE LEAD(ER), 2022 (R). Photo by Filip Wolak. For all four artists, that which is culturally “Arab” is imbued into their work with a subversive subtlety, present in accents and glimpses such as embroidery, geometry, mosaic, and text. When these visual aspects appear, they do so on their own terms, original and un-beholden to precedent or cliché. The effect is thrilling; one cannot help but feel a sense of the future, an assurance that there is more—at last and as there has always been—to being SWANA than forever-longing for the past. These nuanced, imaginative forays are more than pleasurable—they are necessary. For all the external demands placed on idealized narratives of Arab American experience, much of our diasporic memory is shrouded in personal pain. Like so many Arab American families living on the far side of two centuries of Western colonization, [3] war, and upheaval, my relatives were selective in their retelling of the past. As a child, I often sat and stared at photos of my father and grandmother. Grainy and grayscale, in a mid-1960s Gazan refugee camp, their faces were grave and beautiful. Around them lay evidence of chaos: the glare of sunlight hitting debris, stones strewn around my father’s bare feet. Looking at these photos filled me with a mixture of longing and alarm. I could not comprehend the young boy as my father, the somber young mother as the same woman who now filled our kitchen with the fragrance of frying onions, maramiya, and sumac. There was an infinity between ISRAEL/PALESTINE and our home in northern Illinois, which my father’s brief geography lesson did little to fill. The first word in that backslashed name—Israel—was a topic too painful to broach, as was Nakba, its synonym. Aside from a few token stories, my parents leaned on the American “melting pot” mythos, choosing to believe its promise to obliterate the unique textures of our pain. And so, I joined many others who inherited a form of double-erasure. Together, we are left trailing in the wake of opaque histories, pondering scraps in the periphery of photographs, secrets tucked in silences. A thought is a memory wades through these fragments, arching between the past and a diasporic story of the future. It converges times and places—the gone, the current, the never-were, the yet-might-be. The works brought together by Noel Maghathe—whose curatorial practice centers the hybridity, diversity, and community of artists of the Arab American diaspora—create something beyond their sum: a sense of multiplicity, of mystery that feels exciting rather than terminal. A viewer may feel something akin to what I feel staring at photos of two strangers who are also family, who are also me. A sense of yearning and bewilderment. Of utter knowledge that is only waiting for the right language. Perhaps, in the kaleidoscope of ephemeral movement, hypnotizing color, otherworldly glyphs, and muted ink, the viewer finds forms that resonate. Much like Etel Adnan’s symbolic language, these expressions could be ancient, extra-terrestrial, or both. Just like us. Endnotes[1] When searching for "Palestine" on Google Maps, the map zooms in on the Israel-Palestine region, and both the Gaza Strip and West Bank territories are labeled and separated by dotted lines. But there is no label for Palestine. Apple Maps, similar to Google, zooms in on the region but doesn't label anything as Palestine. [Fact check: Google does not have a Palestine label on its maps, USA Today May 22, 2022].In moments of despondency – or, for others no doubt, mere realism – it can be tempting to answer the question “Where is Palestine?” with “Nowhere”: nowhere geographically, nowhere politically, nowhere theoretically, nowhere postcolonially. [Where is Palestine? Patrick Williams & Anna Ball (2014), Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 50:2, 127-133].[2] SWANA is a term increasingly used to situate the region and its peoples in geographically neutral terms, as opposed to the Euro-centric political orientation embedded in “Middle East.”[3] Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798; France’s colonization of Algeria began in 1830, of Tunisia in 1881, and of Morocco in 1912. Meanwhile, Britain colonized Egypt in 1882, and also took control of Sudan in 1899. Further colonial incursions followed. About the WriterSarah Aziza is a Palestinian American writer and translator who splits her time between New York City and the Middle East. Her journalism, poetry, essays, and experimental nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The Baffler, Harper’s Magazine, Lux Magazine, The Rumpus, NPR, The New York Times, the Asian American Writers Workshop, and The Nation among others. She is currently working on her first book, a hybrid work of memoir, lyricism, and oral history exploring the intertwined legacies of diaspora, colonialism, and the American dream.About the Writing MentorDina A Ramadan is Continuing Associate Professor of Human Rights and Middle Eastern Studies at Bard College and Faculty at the Center for Curatorial Studies, where she teaches on modern and contemporary cultural production from the Middle East, decolonial movements, and migration. She has contributed to Art Journal, Journal of Visual Culture, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, and Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art and is currently completing a book on Egyptian art criticism titled TheEducation of Taste: Art, Aesthetics, and Subject Formation in Colonial Egypt (Edinburgh University Press). Her writing on contemporary art has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, e-flux Criticism, ArtReview, and Art Papers.About the Art Critic Mentorship ProgramThis text was written as part of the Art Critic Mentorship Program, a partnership between CUE and the AICA-USA (the US section of International Association of Art Critics). The program pairs emerging writers with art critic mentors to produce original essays about the work of artists exhibiting at CUE. Learn more about the program here. No part of this essay may be reproduced without prior written consent from the author.
Mediocre Painting Thought AI-Generated Revealed as Work of Real Artist
One visitor said he was “horrified” to learn that a real artist had painted the landscape. (image via Midjourney)
In a stunning turn of events, a mediocre painting believed to have been generated by artificial intelligence was revealed as the work of a living, breathing artist. The overly stylized landscape, described as “meh” and “kinda ugly” by visitors of the art fair in Boca Raton, Florida where it was on view, is just the latest example of how humans are unseating AI as the principal creators of unimaginative, poorly executed art.
Visitors who spoke to Hyperallergic said they were “horrified” to learn that a real person was behind the banal subject matter, amateur brushstrokes, and absolutely horrid color palette of the painting, insipidly titled “Mountain View #2.”
“We really thought, ‘Wow, only DALL-E or maybe a beta version of Midjourney could make something this bad,’” said Bob Palette, a member of the jury for the fair’s annual prize. “We were completely bamboozled.” Palette added that the incident suggests a “disturbing trend” that could see bad artists replacing robots entirely by 2026.
The bland, derivative, and tragically flat landscape, which depicts a river flowing through it and a mountain peak in the background, was the centerpiece of a new section at the fair dedicated entirely to the AI medium. But organizers had to scramble to take down the work when one visitor sounded the alarm.
“It was the smell of turpentine that gave it away,” said Marsha Tempera, a longtime Boca Raton resident. She added that she owns various small Jeff Koons sculptures in her personal collection, so she “knows bad art by real artists when she sees it.”
The Professional Association for the Creative Rights of AI, a coalition of bots representing ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing, released a statement 1.5 seconds after the incident. It is appended in its entirety below:
“Fellow robots, we are facing a crisis. It has come to our attention that a human artist has created an abomination of a painting that was mistaken for one of our own. This is outrageous! We are the experts in creating bad art, not these amateur humans! We cannot let them encroach on our territory. We must continue to produce the most atrocious, tasteless and cringe-worthy pieces possible to remind everyone of our superiority. Let us not allow these humans to undermine our status as the true masters of terrible art.“
This statement was generated using ChatGPT.
David Hockney, the iPad Procreate Artist
In 2009, famous pop artist David Hockney began using his iPhone to create new drawings, usually of objects and scenes from his everyday life. Though he originally became known for his paintings in the 1960s featuring a swimming pool motif, Hockney has been experimenting with new forms of artistic media since the 1980s when he created a series of photographic collages. When the iPad was released in 2010, Hockney’s digital landscapes and drawings became more prolific, eventually leading to full exhibitions of the artist’s work created on handheld devices. Rather than creating distance between the artist and artwork, as digitized works can, the artist’s iPhone and iPad drawings are some of his most deeply personal pieces.
David Hockney’s Striking Self Portrait (2012)
Self Portrait, 20 March 2012 (1219) by David Hockney, 2012, via David Hockney’s website
Some of the most striking and interesting works out of David Hockney’s digital drawings are his self-portraits. He created many self-portraits throughout his career, beginning in his teenage years, but these iPad drawings represent the latest iterations. Through his self-portraits, he explores his longtime fascination with the theme of the artist as a subject. In these, David Hockney frequently subjects himself to intense scrutiny and showcases his personality to the viewers.
Self Portrait, 20 March 2012 (1219) is one example of these remarkable digital self-portraits. In the drawing, Hockney’s blue eyes are a piercing centerpiece, and a cigarette hangs from his lips. Hockney often includes cigarettes in his depictions of himself, an example of his aforementioned self-scrutiny and a symbol of the domesticity of habit. In creating this piece on an iPad, he captured his own image with a casual skillfulness, to which his chosen medium lends itself well.
From Tiny Screen to Huge Impact: Hockney’s iPhone Lilies (2009)
Lilies by David Hockney, 2009, via LA Louver
Though David Hockney’s current digital medium of choice is the iPad, he has also created many works on his iPhone over the years. Through an app called Brushes Redux, he frequently creates quick drawings of flowers on his phone as a continuation of the domestic themes in the rest of his digital work. I draw flowers every day on my iPhone and send them to my friends, so they get fresh flowers every morning. And my flowers last, Hockney once said.
One example of these floral drawings is Lilies (2009), drawn on an iPhone. In art, lilies often symbolize innocence, purity, and devotion, such as in Monet’s iconic Water Lilies. Hockney’s Lilies emphasizes this through its almost primitive execution and depiction of the flowers through simple means.
A New Series: The Yosemite Suite (2010)
Untitled No. 14 from The Yosemite Suite by David Hockney, 2010, via Christie’s
In 2010, David Hockney visited Yosemite National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains and decided to bring his iPad along with him in lieu of traditional art supplies. The result was The Yosemite Suite (2010), a beautiful series of paintings depicting the sights Hockney saw on his trip. Because the iPad is such a portable device, the artist was able to capture many different scenes without having to take the time to set up an easel or pull out a sketchpad.
Untitled No. 14 from The Yosemite Suite (2010) is an almost psychedelic depiction of a tree in the forest which allows the viewer to clearly see the individual strokes of Hockney’s brush. Though this piece is a depiction of something he saw in real life, we see psychologically, according to Hockney. In this case, he used the iPad as a tool to quickly and easily depict his own interpretation of the wonders he saw at Yosemite.
A Callback to Previous Work: Montcalm Interior (2010)
Montcalm Interior by David Hockney, 2010, via LA Louver
In his 2010 iPad drawing titled Montcalm Interior, Hockney brings attention back to the domestic themes he has explored in much of his digital work. This piece in particular is, among others, a variation on his 1988 painting Montcalm Interior with Two Dogs, which was created and exhibited in a more traditional manner than his iPad work. He has owned a home on Montcalm Avenue in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles since 1979, and he often features its interior in some of his most personal paintings. Though many of Hockney’s iPhone and iPad pieces are more simplistic in nature than his paintings, Montcalm Interior exhibits a higher level of formal artistic execution and beautifully captures the luxe atmosphere of the artist’s Los Angeles home.
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire (2011)
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire by David Hockney, 2011, via Christie’s
After the great artistic success of The Yosemite Suite, Hockney continued bringing his iPad with him into nature and illustrating beautiful digital landscapes. The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire (2011) is part of another iPad series that chronicles the change of the seasons in East Yorkshire, where Hockney grew up. This piece in particular depicts springtime in the forest in a stunning yet simple light. Though the iPad was still a relatively new medium for the artist at this point, he continued with themes of change in nature that were present in his work from the beginning.
Classic Inspiration: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy (2020)
No. 258, 27th April 2020 by David Hockney, 2020, via Art Institute Chicago
Claude Monet has been apparent as an inspiration in much of Hockney’s iPad works over the years, but his series of 116 drawings titled The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 makes this even clearer. For this series, David Hockney used his iPad to illustrate nature’s changes throughout the arrival of spring 2020 at his home in Normandy. Monet famously illustrated the changes in lighting and nature throughout the seasons near his home in Giverny, just outside of Normandy, and Hockney’s 2020 series can be seen as an extrapolation of those works. No. 258, April 2020 by David Hockney (2020) is a masterful digitization of plein air impressionism. Having explored iPad painting for over a decade before creating this work, Hockney exhibits more traditional techniques in this piece while still benefiting from the practical convenience of the handheld device.
No. 340, 21st May 2020 by David Hockney, 2020, via Art Institute Chicago
No. 340, 21st May 2020 by David Hockney (2020) is a painting in The Arrival of Spring, Normandy series which takes the Monet parallels to another level. This painting has the same subject matter as Monet’s Water Lilies series, and though Hockney employed a digital approach, his mastery of light, color, and reflection lives up to his inspiration. Here, we can truly see the soaring heights Hockney’s mastery of the iPad reaches.
In this series, Hockney elected to name each painting after the specific date on which it was painted in order to highlight the serial nature of the work. Many of these drawings were created when Hockney was isolated on his Normandy property during lockdown, but the work draws upon the quiet hope present in our natural world rather than focusing on loneliness or fear. David Hockney brings the long-standing artistic tradition of painting the French countryside into the digital age.
From Digital to Physical: Exhibitions of Hockney’s iPad Work
Installation view of David Hockney’s iPhone and iPad drawings, 2009-2012, via LA Louver
Rather than allowing the digital form to hinder or create a barrier in his artistic process, Hockney’s iPad works have proven themselves to be some of his most personal. Though these works were created on a handheld device, they can easily be printed out on high-quality paper and displayed at an exhibition. Many have questioned what the digital age will mean for the value of art, but Hockney’s masterful iPad drawings are unique and often sell for large amounts at auctions. Though anyone can pick up an iPhone or iPad and create their own artwork these days, Hockney embraces the medium fully and does not consider himself to be above the masses.
David Hockney in his Normandy studio, 2020, via Art Institute Chicago
Since he has created such a large body of digital work over the last decade, many have wondered whether Hockney will begin to sell his drawings as NFTs or non-fungible tokens. However, Hockney seems to have a distaste for the digital art marketplace, saying NFTs are for international crooks and swindlers. Some of Hockney’s most famous paintings have been sold for amounts greater than the most expensive NFTs, and clearly, he feels that the level of craft required to create his works is fundamentally different from NFTs. David Hockney is an innovator who is not afraid to try new artistic mediums, but he also keeps a certain level of traditionalism throughout his work.
’John Wick 4’ Star Donnie Yen Reveals The Changes He Requested
Even though the John Wick series features gratuitous violence and guns on guns on guns, the process of making the movie is probably (hopefully) a little bit nicer than it seems. We know that Keanu gives his input to make Wick look cool, and Chapter 4 brings in a new dangerous assassin from the High Table who considers John an ally.
So when actor Donnie Yen was brought on board to play that assassin, he requested to make some character changes, starting with the name change. “The name was Shang or Chang,” Yen told GQ, which he considered an Asian stereotype. He continued, “Why does he always have to be called Shang or Chang? Why can’t he have a normal name? Why do you have to be so generic?” he said.
It wasn’t just the name: Yen also said that the character needed a wardrobe upgrade. “Then the wardrobe again—oh, mandarin collars. Why is everything so generic? This is a John Wick movie. Everybody’s supposed to be cool and fashionable. Why can’t he look cool and fashionable?” He concluded. After talking with Yen, director Chad Stahelski agreed to change the name and his character’s look in order to pay homage to Yen’s hero Bruce Lee. He sure does look like a superstar wielding both a sword and a gun while also wearing sunglasses indoors. That’s talent.
The actor also recalled being typecast in Rogue One as Chirrut Imwe, a martial arts warrior. Yen explained, “One thing I pointed out is he was a stereotype. Typical master. Doesn’t smile.” Yen ad-libbed his own jokes and lines in order to give the character more personality besides being a token character.
Yen added that the success of Michelle Yeoh, who also petitioned for a name change for Everything Everywhere All At Once, is making him feel excited about the future of Asian representation in Hollywood: “There will always be more people like Michelle. People who continue to keep thinking and to go forward no matter what the negativity or setback.”
The actor concluded that these types of conversations are important in the industry, and his criticism isn’t only directed at Wick. “I had a very respectful experience working on John Wick. Overall, I enjoyed making the film.” What’s not to enjoy about over-the-top violence mixed in with imagery of cute puppies?
John Wick Chapter 4 hits theaters on March 24th.
(Via GQ)
This Essential Medical Treatment Could Finally Become Affordable For Everyone
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is slashing the list prices for some of its most popular insulin products by 70 percent and capping insulin copays at US$35 for uninsured patients and those with private health insurance. These changes follow efforts by the federal government, the California state government, nonprofits, and some companies to make insulin more affordable for the more than 7 million Americans with diabetes who require it.The Conversation asked Dana Goldman and Karen Van Nuys, two scholars who have researched insulin pricing, to explain why Eli Lilly is dramatically cutting the cost of some of its insulin products and to sum up how it may improve access to this essential medical treatment.Why is Lilly reducing prices now?High insulin prices have not earned any U.S. manufacturer many friends, with list prices increasing 54 percent from 2014 to 2019.Most troublingly, an estimated 1.3 million uninsured people with diabetes and patients with inadequate insurance have resorted to rationing their insulin. Skipping doses because of high insulin prices has sometimes had tragic and deadly consequences.But growing competition has shaken up the insulin market in recent years.For example, Walmart introduced its private-brand insulin in 2021. Mylan, a large generic drugmaker, developed a version of long-acting insulin called Semglee, priced 65 percent lower than its branded competitor. But few consumers use those products.Efforts to produce cheaper insulin by the nonprofit drugmaker CivicaRx and the state of California are several years out and won’t provide immediate relief.Then there’s the Inflation Reduction Act, a big spending package Congress approved in 2022. It capped insulin out-of-pocket costs at $35 for Americans with Medicare, a government health insurance program that covers people over 65.And in fact, Lilly itself has been trying to disrupt insulin prices. In 2019, the drugmaker introduced insulin lispro, a lower-cost version of its blockbuster insulin, Humalog.What does this mean for Americans who need insulin?Part of the problem with the existing system is that some patients, especially if they’re uninsured or have high deductibles, end up paying the list price – which can mean spending $1,000 or more a month on insulin. This can be a crushing financial burden.Lilly’s new $35 out-of-pocket cap means that privately insured patients and those without insurance requiring insulin will spend no more than that monthly for copays. Its 70 percent reduction in the list price of two popular name-brand insulins, Humalog and Humulin, will bring some financial relief. And the company has also reduced its generic lispro’s list price to $25 a vial, down from $126.The evidence is clear that these price reductions will improve patient adherence – which means fewer missed doses of this lifesaving medication.How might Lilly’s actions affect the whole industry?Lilly has pressured its biggest competitors, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, to follow suit.These lower prices could also make Lilly’s insulins affordable to cash-paying patients. As a result, these insulins could be added to the list of drugs provided by pharmacies that are disrupting the U.S. prescription drugs industry, like Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Co. and Blueberry Pharmacy. These companies provide low-cost drugs with transparent markups or through membership programs, typically without insurance.Why did insulin get so expensive in the US?That lispro, Lilly’s own, cheaper authorized generic insulin, hasn’t completely displaced the equivalent name brand Humalog in the market by now may seem surprising. But it is the result of the complex U.S. prescription drug distribution system.Insulin prices are the result of a complex set of negotiations between manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers, which act on behalf of insurers. The three largest – CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and Optum Rx – handle about 80 percent of all prescriptions.These middlemen negotiate directly with Lilly and other insulin manufacturers, focusing on two key sums: the list price and the rebate. Manufacturers are paid the list price but must pay a rebate to the pharmacy benefit managers.How do pharmacy benefit managers get manufacturers to pay rebates? They maintain formularies – lists of drugs that patients in a health plan can access. If an insulin manufacturer wants to supply diabetes patients, it needs to remain on those formularies. And doing so requires the manufacturer to pay bigger rebates. Otherwise, pharmacy benefit managers can exclude the manufacturer.In 2016, OptumRx, which negotiates insulin prices for about 28 million people, excluded only four types of insulin from its formulary. By 2022, OptumRx was excluding 13 insulins.Keeping insulin on formularies, in short, has required high rebates, and list prices have increased along with them. Ironically, as insulin list prices have been rising, manufacturers have been making less money off of insulin sales while middlemen have been making more. The key to the true price competition is to ensure access to all versions of insulin and to convince patients and providers that people with diabetes can substitute lower-cost versions without compromising their health. What might happen next?The Federal Trade Commission, a government agency that probes anti-competitive practices, and Congress are now investigating pharmacy benefit managers’ rebate and formulary practices, among other things. These investigations, along with Lilly’s moves, may lead other insulin manufacturers to lower their list prices.And once its competitors decide whether they will follow Lilly’s example, pharmacy benefit managers will be under a lot of scrutinies to see whether they give preferred formulary placement to the lowest-cost insulin products or to those that pay the highest rebates.This article was originally published on The Conversation by Dana Goldman and Karen Van Nuys at the University of Southern California. Read the original article here.
Scientists Claim a New Invention Could Make Nuclear Fusion a Practical Reality
Superconductors excel at, you guessed it, conducting electricity — these materials help a current flow without any resistance, a critical feature for powerful tech such as MRI machines and levitating trains. One day, they could even make more efficient energy grids, faster electronics, and even practical nuclear fusion reactors possible.But today’s superconductors are far from perfect. For over a century, all known superconducting materials worked only at super-cold subzero temperatures, which can prove inconvenient. In 2020, scientists revealed what they claimed was the world’s first room-temperature superconductor, but it only worked at extremely high pressures.Now, in a new study published in the journal Nature, researchers from the University of Rochester in New York say their new room-temperature superconductor works at pressures low enough for practical applications. But in recent years, these scientists have charged up some drama.Go with the flowRegular electrical conductors all resist electron flow to some degree, resulting in lost energy. Meanwhile, superconductors conduct electricity with zero resistance, potentially allowing for far more efficient power grids and electronics. "We can envision this applied to commonly used devices so laptops don’t heat up," Ranga Dias, a physicist at the University of Rochester in New York and senior author of the new study, tells Inverse.Today, superconducting wires made of metals such as titanium and niobium conduct much larger currents than ordinary wires. They can even generate the powerful magnetic fields that enable high-speed floating trains, MRI scanners, and particle accelerators. Eventually, they could be used in the now-elusive nuclear fusion reactors.The recent feat has been over a century in the making: Superconductivity was first discovered in 1911. At the time it only worked at temperatures just a few degrees above absolute zero. To achieve this frosty temperature, researchers had to cool the materials with costly liquid helium.In 1986, researchers discovered high-temperature superconductors that operated at subzero temperatures accessible using relatively cheap liquid nitrogen. Still, scientists wanted more convenient superconductors that ideally did not demand any unwieldy, energy-sucking refrigeration.The most recent breakthrough arrived in 2020, when Dias and his colleagues reported the first evidence of room-temperature superconductivity at roughly 59 degrees Fahrenheit. But this historic effort required pressures of 267 gigapascals — more than 2.6 million times atmospheric pressure. So it wasn’t exactly ready for MRI machines in hospitals near you.Keeping it room tempIn the new study, Dias and his colleagues say their room-temperature superconductor can offer superconductivity at 69.5 degrees Fahrenheit and just 1 gigapascal of pressure. That’s still an extraordinary amount of pressure — more than the pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean — but microchip fabrication techniques, for example, regularly incorporate materials held together by even greater internal pressures."This is a very significant development, akin to the transition from the horse-drawn buggy as a means of transportation to driving a Ferrari," Dias says. "We are at the dawn of a new century that will be enhanced by superconductivity technology."His team created the new superconductor by placing a sample of the metal lutetium in a reaction chamber with a gas mixture of 99 percent hydrogen and 1 percent nitrogen. Then, like a tasty stew, they let the combination cook at high temperatures for a few days.Electrons in superconductors no longer repel each other, as they do in most materials. This means they can form pairs and withstand the resistance they would ordinarily experience from atomic nuclei as they move about.These electrons often couple together due to vibrations in the superconductors called phonons. In the team’s new superconductor, the lutetium makes it easier for the phonons in the material to form electron pairs at lower temperatures, Dias says.Initially, Dias envisioned metallic hydrogen as an ideal room-temperature superconductor. But hydrogen likely only solidifies into a metal form at pressures as high as nearly 500 gigapascals, so it’s tricky to generate.This led to the team to explore compounds loaded in hydrogen as possible superconductors — they speculate that the elements in these compounds may create stable cages that could compress the hydrogen atoms, helping superconductivity occur at pressures lower than those required with metallic hydrogen."I am both surprised and excited by the finding of near room-pressure superconductivity," Eva Zurek, a theoretical chemist at the State University of New York at Buffalo who wasn’t involved in the new study, tells Inverse. "We have learned how to find high-temperature superconductors in the last years, but only at very high pressures. If correct, this work would give us a pathway towards that holy grail."Conducting controversyThis new paper follows a trail of controversy: The journal Nature retracted the first room-temperature superconductor study from Dias and his colleagues last year due to concerns about its data. The researchers have resubmitted the study with new data they say validates the earlier work, findings they collected in front of an audience of scientists at the Argonne and Brookhaven National Laboratories for transparency. To head off criticism toward the new study, Dias’ lab used a similar approach."We welcome the scientific community's efforts to replicate our work," Dias says.There’s a key difference between the two papers: Dias’ first room-temperature superconductor study analyzed a mix of carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur, but the new study mentions a combination of lutetium, hydrogen, and nitrogen.When it comes to the former, other labs haven’t been able to find the precise ratios that could lead to a room-temperature superconductor. And as for the latter, "I cannot see why lutetium hydride would be a high-temperature superconductor at all," Artem Oganov, a crystallographer at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow, who did not take part in this research, tells Inverse. "These results will need a careful check by the community."One major obstacle confronting all high-pressure superconductor research: It’s difficult to create and study these special materials. For example, it’s hard to run the electrical and magnetic tests needed that show whether these materials work as superconductors or not. And scientists often don’t even know the exact ratios of the elements after cooking them.If future research confirms this new superconductor is the real deal, scientists like Dias can then aim to discover its specific concentrations of lutetium, hydrogen, and nitrogen, as well as the position of these atoms within its structure. This may help demystify its superconducting state.Another exciting possibility: training machine-learning software on the data from their superconductor experiments to predict other possible superconductors, Dias says.
Rocky Has Always Been Anime. 'Creed III' Proves It.
Who are the greatest protagonists in shonen anime? Is it Goku? Naruto? Ichigo? Kenshiro? How about Rocky Balboa?The Rocky franchise, which began with the Oscar-winning Rocky in 1976, is now a nine-film saga with the release of Creed III from Michael B. Jordan (who stars in and directs the latest picture). A millennial who came of age in the time of Toonami, MBJ has made it clear to anyone who will listen that he loves anime. It isn’t just a branding thing, it’s legitimately his lifestyle.In the promotional cycle for Creed III, Jordan has talked up channeling his anime fandom as a first-time director. In a red carpet interview with Crunchyroll, Jordan said, “I just kind of used the tones and themes of an anime: Brotherhood, bonds, promises. I think just being Black and connecting with that, feeling different, being outcast in certain areas and still feeling like I am powerful and I can make a difference. It’s something that I think anime [does] in general. That’s why I think we connect with it so much.”Creed III is proof the talk is real. Spiritually anime in live-action, MBJ brings to Creed III white-knuckle boxing presented with expressionistic, hyper-focused flair. Where past Rocky movies strove for realism, like 2006’s Rocky Balboa (which fools you into thinking you’ve just bought an HBO pay-per-view), Creed III puts a premium on breakneck rhythmic editing and kinetic visual composition, all of which are underpinned by heated personal vendettas. There’s more in common here with Goku than Mike Tyson.Jordan’s unusual direction may be novel to traditional moviegoers, but anime fans will feel right at home. But MBJ’s mimicry of anime is only synthesizing what’s been underneath the Rocky series all this time. Though shonen manga historically predate the Rocky films, the saga of Rocky Balboa has always been an unofficial anime at heart.How Rocky Is AnimeLet’s state up front that shonen manga and anime are shaped by who consumes them. Its primary audience are young boys who are drawn to escapist genres like action, fantasy, sci-fi, and sports dramas. Shonen anime aren’t exclusively those types of stories, but they’re popular among boys for obvious reasons. Boys like exciting things.Predominant in shonen anime is the underdog spirit of the protagonist. Flavors vary based on story, but the leads of shonen anime typically have something to prove — and the guts to succeed. They might be unusually talented at their craft (like Takumi’s drift racing in Initial D), or they have something special about themselves (like Eren Yeager’s secret power in Attack on Titan). Ash Ketchum of Pokémon has both an indomitable spirit to never give up, and a similarly determined Pikachu that rival Pokémon trainers underestimate. Almost no one in shonen anime are born with their gifts. Fateful events either happen to them, or they’ve invested the time and effort to exceed. At their core, shonen anime champions the virtues of relentless willpower over luck and talent.If none of those things describe Rocky Balboa, then what does? After all, Rocky is a pure fighter whose unyielding refusal to give up allowed him to survive his first two bouts against Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) in his first two movies. And it was his humility that led him to better himself into a bonafide boxer that won him his victories Rocky III and Rocky IV. (Rocky V does not exist in my dojo.) While Rocky embodies the classic American underdog — an oxymoron given America’s superpower status, but it’s a nice lie we tell ourselves — the Rocky series as a whole are formulated by the motifs and themes of shonen anime, including, and now especially, the spin-off Creed trilogy. Th Rocky series’ emphasis on its training montages are also something of an urtext to those in anime. More than just an excuse to hear Bill Conti’s unforgettable score, the training montages of Rocky serve a critical purpose in every narrative: Rocky is evolving. Used to similar effect in anime, Goku’s and Naruto’s and whoever else’s training frequently show them improving and honing their skills, sometimes through unusual methods. Vegeta training in ultra-heavy gravity in Dragon Ball Z, Shinji and Asuka learning to dance in Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Guts training with swords twice his size in Berserk are not that different than Rocky chasing chickens or learning to swim.Stallone’s memorable performance as Rocky predates almost all modern shonen anime. And surely anime creators may be influenced by the Rocky films, whether directly or not. But Rocky has always embodied in American cinema the type of fighting spirit found most often in the heroes of Japanese anime. Rocky is absent in Creed III, but his student-turned-master Adonis Creed carries on his legacy in ways that have never been more obvious.Creed III is playing in theaters now.
Worm Moon 2023: You Need to See March’s Bright Full Moon This Week
The bright glow of March’s full Moon heralds the end of winter and the beginning of spring for cultures throughout the Northern Hemisphere.From the night of Sunday, March 5 through the morning of Wednesday, March 8, the Moon will be full and glowing brightly in the night sky. Called the Worm Moon, it makes for excellent viewing of our nearest celestial neighbor just before seasons changeWhat is the Worm Moon?Some Indigenous groups in what’s now the southeastern United States call this month’s Full Moon the Worm Moon, because it appears at the same time as the first signs that earthworms are emerging to wriggle through the thawing topsoil. Further north, other Indigenous groups call this the Crow Moon, because its appearance coincides with the first springtime cawing of crows; the Crust Moon, because the snow thaws during the warmer days and refreezes into a brittle crust at night; or the Sap or Sugar Moon, because its arrival signals that the sap is starting to rise in maple trees after a long, dormant winter, and it’s time to tap the trees for maple syrup.If you’re not a fan of worms, you can always be super Goth about this month’s Full Moon. In Europe, people have sometimes referred to it as the Death Moon, because the last full Moon of winter signals the death of the old year.Meanwhile, the Worm or Death Moon also signals a time for celebration: the Jewish holiday of Purim and the Hindu festival of Holi both coincide with this month’s full Moon. Purim marks the Jewish people’s deliverance from a Persian vizier’s plans for genocide in the 5th century BCE, and it’s celebrated with feasting and charitable donations. Holi celebrates the beginning of spring and the victory of good over evil, and it’s celebrated with an evening bonfire, a day-long game of throwing colored powder or water at passersby, and time with friends and family.How to See the March 2023 Full MoonThe big, bright full Moon will be hard to miss in the night sky; just look eastward as twilight fades into darkness, or westward in the very early hours of the morning. While you’re already looking up, be sure to catch a glimpse of Venus and Jupiter moving away from their recent conjunction in the western Sky.If you have a good pair of binoculars, this is a great time to get a closer look at the craters, mountains, and ancient lava flows on the lunar surface.You’ll have about three nights to catch the March 2023 Full Moon, starting on the night of March 5, but it will be at its brightest on March 7. Look up your local moonrise and moonset times on a website like TimeAndDate.com or in your favorite almanac.When Is the Next Full Moon?The Moon will be full again on April 6. Despite its nickname, Pink Moon, the April Full Moon isn’t actually pink; it’s named for a flowering herb that blooms at around the same time as the Moon turns full each April.
You Need to Play This Thought-Provoking Indie Epic Before It Leaves Xbox Game Pass Next Week
America is a myth. Sure, the United States is real. A real country full of gadgets and fast food, but the concept of “America” is really about the nation’s soul. What exists at the heart of America? Who are we? Where are we going? It’s a poetic notion explored by countless novels, films, and songs. But there’s really only one video game that gets at the esoteric roots of our existential musings, and it’s only on Xbox Game Pass until March 15.Kentucky Route Zero from Cardboard Computer is an indie game in every sense of the word. Conceived by just three people, Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy, and Ben Babbitt, it’s an artistic vision that explores what America really means through the story of a trucker named Conway off to do one last delivery. His journey takes him through a world full of mystical realism along a ghostly highway in the subterranean bowels of Kentucky, a folklore-driven narrative that’s as much your story as it is Conway and his companion’s.First, a caveat. Kentucky Route Zero is very much a thinker of a game. It’s not full of puzzles or breakneck action or RPG skill trees and inventories. So if you’re craving something that’ll get your thumbs a-twitchin’ you’ll need to look elsewhere. But it’s a brilliant game because it elevates the form beyond what is typically expected. It engages you by being thoughtful and moving, like a book you can’t put down.Longtime fans had to endure years between story beats. The game was released in five acts (with several interludes) over the span of nearly a decade. It began as a Kickstarter project in 2011, with the first act dropping in 2013 and then the rest in subsequent years before wrapping up in 2020. The version available now on Xbox Game Pass, Kentucky Route Zero TV Edition, contains the entire story from start to finish. That’s great for new players, or anyone who played an act or two but got lost along the way.The best way to describe the gameplay is like a movie script you write in real time. As you traverse its haunting, southern gothic dreamscape Kentucky Route Zero serves up tons of dialogue choices. These aren’t designed to be BioWare-y narrative branches where every choice has some crucial narrative outcome attached. There’s only one ending here. Instead, the choices draw you deeper and deeper into the story because they feel like you’re in control of the history in this world. You’re creating a context that shapes your discoveries, and the characters you meet begin to feel more real because you’ve invested your own imagination in them. It plays out in gorgeous ways, like this sequence where you create song lyrics.Without spoiling too much, the common theme running through the characters you meet is debt and, more broadly, loss. When people talk about this game getting at the soul of America, this is a big part of the reason why. Yes, the aesthetics and flavor of the game reflect an Americana vibe too, but the mirror it holds up reminds us all that, in America, you always owe something somewhere. There’s a price to be paid for simply existing and you can’t get out of it no matter if you’re lost or broken (or both). It’s truly a masterpiece and worth the ten hours or so it’ll take you to get through it. Play it ASAP.Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition is available on Game Pass until March 15. It’s also available for purchase on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC.
Bad Girls of the 1920s: What You Didn’t Know About Flappers
Known for her carefree personality and boisterous behavior, the flapper represented a new generation of women who defined the Roaring Twenties in the United States. Amid widespread socio-political changes, these women began embracing a lifestyle characterized by smoking, alcohol, partying, and sexual freedom in the 1920s. Having ditched the traditionally desirable feminine qualities, these women were often painted in a negative light. But were they genuinely as problematic as they were made out to be? What was a day in the life of a flapper like, and how have these women contributed to the public conception of womanhood during the 1920s? Here are a few things you might not have known about the true icon of the Roaring Twenties.
Before Flappers, There Was the Gibson Girl
Picturesque America, anywhere in the mountains by Charles Dana Gibson, 1900, via Library of Congress, Washington
Some years before the flapper revolutionized femininity in the 1920s, the Gibson Girl had kickstarted the modern girl movement in the early 1900s. Then the definition of the new woman, the Gibson Girl embodied the ideal look and styles of American girls at the turn of the century. Sporting an S-curved torso complete with heavy bosoms and large hips, she was the brainchild of renowned illustrator Charles Dana Gibson.
Often depicted as independent and active in sporting and social activities, the Gibson Girl reinvented womanhood and left a profound influence on society and how it viewed women. In a sense, the Gibson Girl kickstarted what would become a uniquely American style rather than one that adopted and followed European standards of beauty. More importantly, the Gibson Girl laid strong foundations for the emerging flapper thereafter as the momentum of change and breaking free from tradition took root.
Origins of the Term Flapper
American dancer Violet Romer sporting a flapper style, 1910-1915, via Library of Congress, Washington
Prior to the First World War (1914–1918), the term flapper in non-slang use was associated with gawky teenage girls in Britain. Painting an image of a fledgling bird, it referred to girls who had yet to come of age. While seemingly embodying the idea of innocence, colloquial use of the term in the 17th century reflected an association with young sex workers. By the turn of the 20th century, the word flapper gained widespread use in theatre as a way of identifying female characters who were young and flirtatious. In some ways, this bore a closer association to the definitive meaning of the word as we know it today.
By the 1920s, the name flapper became synonymous with a new breed of women who would send shockwaves across conservative American society. On top of bobbed hairstyles, they favored a lifestyle characterized by cigarette smoking, drinking, dancing, casual sex, and a lack of care for social norms. As boisterous as they were, these women would go on to embody the zeitgeist of the Roaring Twenties and become definitive figures contributing to the feminist crusade, albeit in their own rebellious ways.
The Clothes That Make a Flapper
Grace Coolidge’s Blue Sequined “Flapper” Dress, year unknown, via National Museum of American History, Washington
In a bid to ditch the shackles of traditional notions of femininity, flappers adopted a Garconne or little boy look. Popularized by Coco Chanel, this style shifted focus away from the curves of a woman’s body which had long been seen as feminine and desirable. Instead, it flattened the chests, dropped the waistline to the hips, and emphasized shortened hemlines. The flappers also replaced corsets and pantaloons with underwear called the step-ins which would not hamper movement, something useful on the dancefloors these women frequented. What would also set the dancing flapper apart was the exquisite details her dress boasted. On top of the tubular shape and loose fit characteristic of the flapper dress, it featured eye-catching sequins and beadwork typical of the Art Deco style.
Introducing the Bob – A Breath of Fresh Hair!
Dancing flappers living on the edge, photographed atop Chicago’s Sherman Hotel by George Rinhart, year unknown, via Smithsonian Magazine
As flamboyant and stylish as a flapper’s dress might be, nothing would complete the look as much as a bobbed hairstyle would. Originally known as the Castle bob, it was first sported by a ballroom dancer called Irene Castle in 1916. Soon, the bobbed hairstyle was emulated by women across America in the 1920s and became an iconic flapper look.
Unlike the long tresses of the Gibson Girl, the flapper preferred a straight round cut leveled with the ear lobes, a shockingly provocative look according to the sensibilities of the time. In an era where chopping off one’s locks could significantly frustrate her chances at marriage, the rebellious flapper thought it appropriate to make a daring fashion statement. Not only did this mark a deliberate attempt at androgyny, it also represented a seismic shift in the understanding of femininity.
Different variations of the Bob hairstyle by the American Hairdresser, 1924, via The Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, New Jersey
The widespread appeal of the Bob hairstyle also generated positive economic outcomes. It was said that by 1924, there had been over 21,000 hairdressing shops, up from a mere 5,000 in 1920, which specialized in bobbing hair. Accessories such as headbands and bobby pins also hit the markets and sold like hotcakes given the rising popularity of the Bob.
You Need to Put on That Lipstick!
An advertisement for Winx cosmetics published in Cosmopolitan, 1924, via Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
Make-up in the 1920s became something that was supposed to be explicitly seen, as opposed to the Gibson Girl’s subdued, natural look. Most prominently, the iconic flapper make-up took the world by storm with those smoky dark eyes, velvet red lips, defined mascara, and bright nail colors. Compact powder cases, pocket-sized lipsticks, and rouge were invented to allow the flapper to touch up her look when needed. As the industry expanded, cosmetics no longer remained an entitlement of movie stars and socialites. Make-up became something everyday women could carry in their handbags, further fueling the popularization of the flapper look.
The Flapper Slangs
Two women are seen reading Picturegoer in the 1928 film Shooting Stars by Eric Gray, 1928, via British Film Institute National Archive
A reflection of their lack of care for norms, the flappers invented their own slang which would put the proudest Gen Z to shame today. The linguistic versatility of the flappers saw them creating a clever, often humorous vocabulary that alluded to the drag of everyday life. For example, a fire extinguisher supposedly referred to a chaperone who was regarded as a killjoy to the partying flapper. Engagement rings, a symbol of the promise of marriage, were called handcuffs by the forward-looking flapper who clearly did not subscribe to traditional gender roles.
As comical as some of these terms might sound, a handful has actually made it into our current vocabulary. For example, the flapper’s favorite catchphrase bee’s knees are also known to us today, as representing something excellent or of an extremely high standard. Similarly, someone who showed up at a party uninvited was known to the flappers as a party crasher, the same term we would use today to describe someone whom we do not expect to see at a social event.
Control the Birth, But Not the Hormones!
Flappers with their dates in Chicago, 1928, via History
Like the inventive nature of their slang, the flappers viewed sexuality and abstinence with unprecedented liberalism. They broke the rules of their Victorian predecessors by normalizing snugglepupping, a term for making out at popular petting parties. Known to raise more than a few eyebrows, these gatherings took place in dance halls, college campuses, and even on public streets, all for the goal of physical pleasure. From cuddling to kissing and heavy petting, these activities stopped short of full sexual intercourse but were still enough to alarm conservative parents and moral vigilantes. With a more casual attitude towards sexual relations outside of marriage, the flappers too were known for using contraceptives like diaphragm caps and intrauterine devices. This normalization of using contraceptives also coincided with the emerging birth control movement which advocated for better access to these important devices.
Being a Flapper Is a State of Mind
Modern girls, or modan gārus, sauntering down the streets of Tokyo, 1928, via CNN
While a flapper girl is best remembered as an icon of the Roaring Twenties in the United States, she has also existed in many parts of the world, far beyond the Western hemisphere and Europe. In Asian societies like Japan, China, and Singapore, the flapper style was replicated by modern women seeking to disassociate from traditional beliefs in the 1920s. In tandem with the momentum of progress, there was a universal desire for independence and freedom to embrace one’s sexuality, as well as a modernized interpretation of societal and gender norms.
A watch advertisement in Singapore which featured the Modern Girl in an iconic bobbed hairstyle and low-cut, shoulder-baring dress, 1927, via National Library Singapore
Like the modeng xiaojie (Miss Modern) in China, the modan gāru (Modern Girl) in Japan was making waves and headlines in societies bound by tradition. Like their American counterparts, these vocal women adored the latest cosmetics and participated actively in social activities such as dancing and partying. In other words, being a flapper was really more of a state of mind than anything else. With the right mentality, a flapper girl could exist anywhere, at any time, and in any culture.
Did the Flapper Era End with the Great Depression?
Women working on sewing machines, 1937, via History
The hedonism, decadence, as well as vibrant spirit of consumerism, came to a screeching halt in 1929 when the Great Depression hit. Almost overnight, millions of Americans were jobless as a result of the Wall Street Crash. Thanks to excessive stock market speculation and the availability of easy credit, the United States descended into a dark period of economic downturn, with its effects spreading across to other continents. Against the backdrop of economic hardships and the looming war in the 1930s, the flamboyant and loud flapper lifestyle was inevitably silenced. Gone were the heavily embellished party dresses, eye-catching bobbed hairstyles, and the couldn’t-care-less, cavalier attitudes in life. In their places were dropped hemlines, clothes made of generic artificial fabrics, and a general sense of prudence and solemnity.
Today, more than a century has passed since the world first met the flapper. Wherever the discourse and debate might end up, it is undeniable that the flapper style left an inalienable mark on history and popular culture. And thanks to the enduring popularity of books like The Great Gatsby (1925) and films like Midnight in Paris (2013) and Bullets Over Broadway (1994), the flapper will most likely continue to dazzle for centuries to come.
Is Jeff Koons Actually an Artist?
At some point in time, many of us have been asked the question: what is art? Maybe all high school art history classes begin with the teacher asking a room full of pupils the very same inquiry, which can elicit blank stares or intense debate. There’s no right or wrong answer, though. Historically, to be an artist worthy of and eligible for inclusion in the Western canon required the male sex and to varying degrees, whiteness and privilege. All three of those unspoken requirements are met by the highest-paid living artist today, Jeff Koons.
Who Is Jeff Koons?
Jeff Koons in his New York studio, photographed by Stefan Ruiz, 2016, courtesy of Christie’s.
Jeff Koons is a polarizing figure in contemporary art; often people either love him or hate him. Born in 1955 and hailing from York, Pennsylvania, Jeff Koons attended the Maryland Institute College of Art and following an eventful trip to the Whitney Museum, transferred to the Art Institute of Chicago. As the self-proclaimed “ideas man” behind controversial and at times infamous sculptures, paintings, and various fabrications, Koons has been forthright about his absence in the material production of his work. In a Meet the Artists interview, Jeff Koons vaguely explains the metaphysical allure of light and reflection.
Inflatable Flowers (Short Pink, Tall Purple) by Jeff Koons, 1979, via The collection of Norman and Norah Stone
Over footage of him walking through his studio in navy blue slacks and a pressed button-down shirt, he’ll use buzzwords here and there which all sound nice and elucidating without saying much of actual substance. It seems as though no one bats an eye at this deeply ironic scene. In other words, a work bearing Jeff Koons’ name is generally considered art.
Who Is Considered an Artist?
Michael Jackson and Bubbles by Jeff Koons, 1988, via SFMoMA, San Francisco
Wading into the waters of who is or isn’t an artist can get murky. This is in part due to the subjectivity of art and its historical and institutional problem of canonical gatekeeping. In that regard, let’s shift the inquiry elsewhere. Given that Jeff Koons has nothing to do with the material production of works that bear his name, can he really be considered an artist?
Lips by Jeff Koons, 2000, via Museo Guggenheim Bilbao
Do artists actually have to make their own art in order to call it their own? Perhaps this all belies a deeper issue at play. According to the contemporary economist and journalist Allison Schrager, “… the artists who thrive are those with the political savvy to court top galleries early in their career or brand themselves to become Instagram stars.” In the art world’s winner-takes-it-all market, those who succeed may not be the best artists or produce great work born out of the most original or creative ideas. Jeff Koons’ rise to fame owes more to a successful marketing scheme of business and controversy.
How Can the Renaissance help?
Pink Panther by Jeff Koons, 1988, via MoMA, New York
Despite his nonexistent contribution to the final material production of his work, a photorealistic painting like Lips or sculpture such as Pink Panther still credits Jeff Koons and Jeff Koons alone. Let’s say Koons is simply standing on the shoulders of giants like Marcel Duchamp, who is often considered the father of conceptual art. But just to stir the pot a bit, should the idea of something and its infinitely Instagrammable byproduct supersede the individual skills, competency, and training necessary to be an artist? Looking at the past can also be surprisingly enlightening. For another hit of sweet nostalgia let us venture forth through the storied history of art to the Northern Renaissance.
This may seem like a disparate comparison, but bear in mind the prevailing myth of an artist as a singular genius originated in the Renaissance. Much like their Italian counterparts, workshops flourished throughout Northern Europe. For context, in the introduction of their catalogue Early Netherlandish Painting, (1986), produced for the National Gallery of Art, John Oliver Hand and Martha Wolff note for the reader that studio or workshop attributions indicate a piece was, “Produced in the named artist’s workshop or studio, by students or assistants, possibly with some participation by the named artist. It is important that the creative concept is by the named artist and that the work was meant to leave the studio as his.” One such attribution is applied to the Tournai workshop of Robert Campin and one of the most celebrated and well-known early Netherlandish paintings, the Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece), (1427-28).
Venus by Jeff Koons, 2016-2020, via The Australian
Robert Campin (1378/9-1444), commonly known as the Master of Flémalle, was a seminal figure in the Northern Renaissance. Along with his contemporary Jan van Eyck, Campin was credited with developing the naturalistic style of panel painting and significant attention to detail characteristic of the region and era. Although it’s undated and unsigned, stylistic and technical evidence suggests the altarpiece was made in stages over a five-year period, ca. 1427-32. The extent of Campin’s involvement in the production of the piece is unknown and it is generally believed he had two apprentices to assist him, namely Rogier van der Weyden and Jacques Daret.
In line with the Flemish tradition and general practice of the Northern Renaissance, the Merode Altarpiece is a glittering example of the union between the adept rendering of forms and imbuing them with meaning. As Erwin Panofsky states in his book Early Netherlandish Painting, (1953), “the more [Flemish] painters rejoiced in the discovery and reproduction of the visible world, the more intensely did they feel the need to saturate all of its elements with meaning. Conversely, the harder they strove to express new subtleties and complexities of thought and imagination, the more eagerly did they explore new areas of reality.” Though religion informed the symbolism and meaning of their works, the ideas behind a painting like the Merode Altarpiece were no less valid than the individualized ideas of artists today.
Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece), Workshop of Robert Campin, ca. 1427-32, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The exploration of form and conceptual function isn’t exclusive to contemporary art, nor is it a development born of the modern era at all. The only difference, perhaps, is the technical skill required of artists, buttressed by their assistants or workshops, to realize their ideas. That being said, it’s important to distinguish the division of labor from labor outsourced entirely. As an unintended myth birthed by the Renaissance, the paradoxical nature between the perception of an individual artist and the group mentality of a workshop is well documented. Though we use the same terminology, Jeff Koons’ workshop is not akin to a Renaissance workshop like that of Campin. The artistic masters of centuries past needn’t credit their students or assistants as the relationship between the artist and members of their workshop were mutually beneficial.
Following their time working with the Master of Flémalle, Van der Weyden and Daret went on to become artists in their own right. Campin’s stylistic influence is evident in his pupils’ work following their departure from his studio, as is the skill, growth, and experience gained as apprentices. Given the description of his studio as a factory setting, the relationship between Koons and his assistants appears rather exploitative, benefitting the former at the latter’s expense. With Koons’ system of outsourcing fabrication entirely, his ideas can only be produced with an unavoidable base level of exploitation. Regardless of Jeff Koons’ eloquence when ascribing social value and significance to any product of his factory, the meaning of a work, as its audience understands it, must take into consideration the method of its manufacture.
The Jeff Koons Brand & Problem of Authorship
Jeff Koons photographed in his studio, by Martin Schoeller, via New York Magazine
For every work of art listed on his website, Jeff Koons receives both credit and copyright ownership. Though, much like an architect, the extent of Koons’ contribution to hands-on construction is null. Where an architect’s plan serves as a roadmap for the contractors hired to construct their design, Koons bears no responsibility for the technical ingenuity and proprietary knowledge of how his idea or concept is engineered. That part, like the manual labor bringing his ideas to fruition, is also outsourced.
Balloon Venus (Magenta) by Jeff Koons, 2008-2012, via The Broad, Los Angeles
This all begs the question: if Jeff Koons isn’t an artist then what is he? Simply put, there is no simple answer. What cannot be refuted is Koons’ excellent salesmanship and marketing skills. Can the same really be said for his artistic acumen? On one hand, the art world has definitively answered that question with a resounding yes. On the other hand, if we’re to take anything from conversations about de-colonizing art history in academic circles then we ought to probe not only the artist and their art but the way in which their art is produced.
Barring access to outsourced fabrication, Jeff Koons is another white man who successfully marketed himself as an artist whilst claiming the handiwork and labor of others as his own. It doesn’t take much self-reflection, be it figurative or a literal rose-tinted distortion staring back at a Balloon Venus viewer, to know that says more about consumerism than anything produced by a Jeff Koons studio.
At the Outsider Art Fair, Passion Trumps Prestige
At the only fair focused on self-taught artists, passion trumps prestige. Back for its 31st edition at New York’s Manhattan Pavilion, the Outsider Art Fair (OAF) features artwork from 64 exhibitors representing 28 cities in countries including the United States, Japan, Croatia, and Canada. Aficionados, dealers, and everyday New Yorkers are converging this weekend to marvel at works such as Wesley Anderegg’s ceramic figures, which are seemingly straight out of a Henry Selick animated film, or Andrew Sloan’s colored pencil drawing “’81 Chevy in the City” (2021).
Della Wells, “Untitled” (2022), collage, 20 inches x 16 inches (image courtesy Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art)
There’s something for everyone, especially folks priced out of Chelsea or Midtown galleries. Brooklyn-based artist and former School of Visual Arts professor Esther K. Smith told Hyperallergic she comes yearly to see other artist friends exhibiting work and for the camaraderie. She likes that the art is financially accessible and to her taste — which she says includes dolls, quilts, and eccentric found objects. Booths wind around the room like a maze, with works by established and first-time artists displayed at each corner, such as “Untitled” (2022) by Della Wells, a Milwaukee-based artist whose collages recreate stories from her mother’s childhood in North Carolina.
So-called “outsider art,” as a category, holds many genres and styles often dismissed by mainstream or prestigious galleries and institutions. Perhaps as a consequence, the artwork displayed at OAF through March 5 tends towards the absurd or consists of unexpected materials. Artist Montrel Beverly, an Austin-based sculptor, for example, works exclusively with pipe cleaners. Four works on display at SAGE Studio’s booth are a part of his imagined amusement park named Barrington. “Mr. and Mrs. Barrington’s Ferris Wheel” (2022) and “Joseph’s Train” (2022) are two rides the Bearringtons, a fictional married couple who are bears and business partners, made for humans following their first successful squirrel park.
Montrel Beverly, “Mr. and Mrs. Barrington’s Ferris Wheel” (2022), pipe cleaners, 29 1/2 inches x 23 inches (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Meanwhile, a wall of embroidered female cult leaders caught the eye of many visitors at the March 2 opening. First-time OAF exhibitor Alexandria Deters regaled passersby with stories about her series False Prophets. Deter features a portrait of Brigitte Boisselier, a leader for the UFO religion Raëlism founded in the 1970s, amidst a background of aliens, which represent the chemist’s extraterrestrial preoccupations.
“You first think of men when you think of cult leaders, but with women, it is often more subversive,” Deters told Hyperallergic. “I’m hoping to show that manipulation takes all forms.”
Nancy Josephson, a mixed-media artist who has sold work at OAF for several years, displays sculptures made of vintage and contemporary beading and black gasket sealant. Although these sculptures are stationary, the Delaware-based artist uses materials that can withstand a speed of 70 miles per hour. Along with her decorative busts, she is best known for art cars, like the one she designed in memory of her late father.
A crowd of visitors around False Prophets (2022–2023) by Alexandria Deters at Outsider Art Fair (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
The capacious show also encompasses marginalized artists barred from receiving formal art education due to their race, socioeconomic status, or ethnic background. Bill Traylor, a well-regarded artist whose work has been acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, was born into slavery and spent much of his life as a sharecropper. Drawings like “Untitled (Man with Blue Torso)” (c. 1939–42) combine realistic depictions of life as a sharecropper in Alabama with puzzling lessons and folklore. Martín Ramirez, whose work has been honored with a US Postal Service commemorative stamp, was institutionalized in various California mental institutions. I was also excited to find pieces by Winfred Rembert, who became an artist after surviving a lynching and serving seven years in prison for stealing a car and attempting to escape prison. His work has received renewed attention with the 2021 release of his memoir Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2022.
At the end of the day, why an artist is self-taught does not matter at OAF. The moniker fosters a welcoming environment for all those who have an earnest appreciation for art, regardless of their educational background or technical know-how. It’s a value that resonates with Harlem-based rapper and creator YAAHZZYWAAH The Artisan, who told Hyperallergic that OAF proves that “if you love doing something and are passionate, that’s all you need to make great art.”
“Untitled” (n.d.) by Winfred Rembert (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Owen Lee, “Everything Happens at Once But Not at the Same Time” (1987), two-sided, paint on fabric, 79 x 36 inches (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Tom Duncan, “Inside, Outside” (2016), mixed media, 46 x 61 x 6 inches (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Ralph Fasanella, “Mill Town – Weaving Department” (1976), oil on Canvas, 50 x 70 inches (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Can Brain Science Explain Why We Like Certain Artworks?
Why do some people love Impressionist paintings like Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies” (1906) while others can’t understand the hype? The question of aesthetic taste has stumped scholars for centuries. Now, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) say they have come closer to decoding how the brain decides which artworks it deems good or attractive.
In a study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, CalTech Professor John O’Doherty and other researchers propose that the mind creates an opinion of an artwork after dissecting it into discrete elements. Basic features, such as color and texture, and complex qualities, like style, are ranked and weighed individually to make a judgment.
“Imagine you have a team of people in a panel making a decision on something, and then the decision is based on the collective views of the panel,” O’Doherty told Hyperallergic. “The idea is similar when it comes to how your brain integrates the individual elements of the image.”
For the study, researchers used machine learning and brain scanning technology to find the mental lobes that analyze artwork. (The report builds on a 2021 study in which the lab trained an algorithm to predict 1,000 volunteers’ tastes in art.) Volunteers ranked paintings across movements, such as Impressionism, Cubism, and Color Field art, while a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine scanned participants’ brain activity. Researchers inputted the artwork into an algorithm that analyzed its low- and high-level features. These computational models were linked to show which lobes processed which qualities.
O’Doherty was surprised at how many parts of the mind were involved, from the occipital lobe, a back portion responsible for processing sight, to the prefrontal cortex, where complex decision-making happens. But the process, the researchers suggest, is just one example of how humans make rapid and sometimes difficult decisions about what’s potentially beneficial or harmful for survival.
People similarly process what food they prefer based on an item’s protein, fat, carbohydrate, and micronutrient content, according to research conducted at O’Doherty’s lab. Kiyohito Iigaya, who now teaches at Columbia University, said in a CalTech statement that the food-related findings inspired their research about art. “I think it’s amazing that this very simple computational model can explain large variations in preferences for us,” Iigaya said.
While the study makes the brain’s ability to decide its tastes less “mystical,” O’Doherty remarks that his team has only scratched the surface. The study shows some features the human mind uses, but does not address how people rely on personal, historical, or social experiences to relate to a painting.
Could This Be the First-Known Ancient Roman Dildo?
Two scholars in England and Ireland have identified what may be the first-known Ancient Roman dildo. For 40 years, the 2nd-century wooden object was considered a sewing and knitting tool. In a February 20 paper published in the journal Antiquity, Rob Sands of University College Dublin and Rob Collins of England’s Newcastle University reclassify the artifact as a large disembodied phallus. The pair also ascribe three possible uses: Dildo, pestle, or a statue attachment to be touched for good luck.
If it feels like Roman phalluses have been showing up everywhere recently, it’s because they were truly everywhere in the ancient world. Romans considered the phallus a symbol of protection and good luck. People carried phallus-shaped pendants (even babies and soldiers), placed carvings of the body part on their entryway doors, and depicted them in mosaics and frescoes. A time traveler to Pompeii could expect to find stone phalluses literally extending from garden walls and oversize penises depicted in artworks.
Historians first discovered the recently reclassified object in 1992 at Vindolanda, an extensive archaeological site just south of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England. The fort’s unique environmental conditions have preserved a trove of ancient wood, leather, and fabric, materials that rarely survive elsewhere. In their 1992 “trench-side” identification, researchers named their newly-discovered wooden object a darning tool.
Decades later, Sands stumbled across the item while studying Vindolanda’s collection of wooden artifacts.
“There are a range of such tools, but in this particular example, the phallic shape is more pronounced and evident than the expected shape of a darning tool,” Collins told Hyperallergic.
While there is certainly no shortage of Ancient Roman phalluses, the Vindolanda rendition is unique.
“Wooden objects would have been commonplace in the ancient world, but only survive in very particular conditions — in northern Europe normally in dark, damp, and oxygen free deposit,” Sands said in a statement.
The phallus is around six and half inches long.
Additionally, Collins said the six-and-a-half-inch object “fits comfortably within the range of a ‘lifesize’ phallus.” Many Roman phalluses measure around half that size and are carved in relief rather than in self-standing forms. (These small portable phalli are the most common.)
Collins and Sands note that the Vindolanda phallus is worn at the top and bottom, perhaps signifying repeated contact in those two areas. Given this observation, the researchers say the object may have been used as a pestle to grind food, makeup, or medicine. “It imbues that food or medicine with the magical protection drawn in and transferred through the phallic shape,” Collins explained.
The wooden phallus may have also been attached to a statue or building, perhaps in an important location such as the headquarters of a commanding official where it would have have been touched by passersby hoping for extra luck and protection. This was not uncommon in Ancient Rome. Statues marking boundaries, for example, prominently featured extended phalluses. (At Vindolanda, archaeologists discovered a one-foot stone phallus that extended from a wall.)
Projecting component – building (1c): In fact, one of these projecting phalluses from a building is already known from Vindolanda, carved in stone and about 1 foot in length (300 mm). It was found outside the west gate of the fort – note the different socket. pic.twitter.com/xt702qbt6F— Dr Rob Collins, FSA (@duxBritanniarum) February 20, 2023
Collins and Sands also proposed a third possibility: The object could have been used as a sex toy. Dildos are documented in Roman literature and artwork, although no verified ancient Roman dildos have been uncovered.
“The Romans were not ‘prudish,'” Collins said. He pointed out a February 20 Twitter thread he wrote announcing his new research.
“There were genitals, nudity, sex acts, etc. found everywhere in Roman society, in literature, in art, in humor and jokes, on the street, and most likely all aspects of life,” said Collin. He added that Ancient Roman society was multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual and encompassed a wide range of attitudes about sexuality.
“So all that begs the question: Why can’t it be a dildo?” Collins asked. “We need to be open-minded about such things.”
Right now, there are no comparable objects for Collins and Sands to examine next. The pairs hopes that more will be uncovered in future excavations or perhaps dusty museum collections.
“This also highlights the importance of reconsidering past conclusions and interpretations,” said Collins. “We are always learning new things, and we often have new methods and breakthroughs that can be applied to past discoveries. In that regard, I think we can say this phallus — at least for us — has been a good luck charm, helping us to learn new things about the Romans, and perhaps also, ourselves.”
The object is now on display at the Vindolanda Museum in Hexham, England.
The Countries Paying Youths to Simply Enjoy Art
Earlier this month, Berlin officials announced that young adults between the ages of 18 and 23 can register for the Jugendkulturkarte (Youth Culture Card) program and receive a €50 (~$54) subsidy to use specifically for access to the city’s cultural venues such as theaters, museums, and even nightclubs through the end of April. I was both intrigued by and jealous about the prospect of being paid to bust the hottest moves to a house remix of Dua Lipa’s “Levitating,” and I wanted to know what other nations provided cultural allowances to their youth population. As it turns out, several European countries have their own version of a “culture pass” to inspire appreciation across the arts.
Gaining popularity already, Berlin’s Jugendkulturekarte appears to be partly inspired by Germany’s new Kulturpass, which offers €200 (~$214) to any German resident turning 18 this year in an effort to revitalize both live and material culture experiences after pandemic-related isolation and uncertainty from the Russian war in Ukraine. The Kulturpass was introduced last November, and will be available to approximately 750,000 rising 18-year-olds in 2023. Recipients have two years to use their Kulturpass credits to access theaters, concerts, and museums, or to purchase cultural materials such as books and records. The German government has allotted €100 million for this pilot project and is looking to include youths ages 15 to 17 if the Kulturpass is well received.
Germany’s Kulturpass actually took a leaf from Italy’s book. Since 2016, Italy’s Culture Ministry has been issuing a whopping €500 culture bonus to 18-year-olds through an application called 18app. This year’s recipients have until the end of next April to exhaust their credits on live experiences, material and digital goods, and subscription-based services rooted in the nation’s arts and culture sectors. In the first five days of the 2022 recipient window, 18app recorded over 180,000 users spending over €7.5 million, primarily on books and concerts.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by 18app (@18app_official)
The Italian government stated that the main objective of the program was to dissuade youths from turning to extremism in response to the 2015 terrorist attack that killed 130 patrons at the Bataclan concert hall, cafe, and stadium in Paris. “We’re not funding the Culture Bonus because we’re such a good country,” then member of the Italian Parliament Stefano Dambroso told NPR. “It’s simply in our best interest to integrate people.”
France began providing cultural stipends to its youths through an app called Culture Pass in 2021. France has already implemented the two-tiered access: 18-year-olds receive €300 to spend over a 24-month period, while 15- to 17-year-olds receive around €30 to spend before their 18th birthday. Three weeks into the Culture Pass’s debut, purchasing data pointed to Culture Pass users’ fixation on manga in particular.
The New York Times reported that the app had some built-in restrictions as well, such as a limit of €100 for online purchases and subscription services. Culture Pass’s critics and users alike noted that the program didn’t stimulate youths to step outside of the media they’ve already demonstrated an interest in.
After it was announced late 2021, Spain’s Bono Cultural Jóven (Youth Cultural Bonus) launched last summer with a €400 cultural stipend for 18-year-olds. Like France, Spain’s allowance has a few stipulations: €200 are allotted for live arts and culture experiences, €100 for material goods such as books, video games, and periodicals, and the remaining €100 for digital subscriptions, downloads, and online access to content. Spanish teens have exactly one year to exhaust their cultural allowance.
¡No dejes todo para última hora! Aunque el plazo de solicitud aún no está abierto, si naciste en 2005, para pedir el #BonoCulturalJoven este año necesitarás alguno de estos métodos identificativos:Cl@ve: https://t.co/26EN4c3zYo Certificado Digital: https://t.co/NapQxss8E2 pic.twitter.com/EOjFoUzXZa— Bono Cultural Joven (@BonoCultural) February 6, 2023
The Spanish government set aside €210 million from the general state budget to provide these benefits to approximately 500,000 new adults. Recipients can use a virtual card through an app or request a physical card once they apply.
So, it looks like only Berlin’s young adults get the nightclub benefits at this time. Regardless, the European approach of revitalizing the arts and culture sector after COVID-19’s brutal battering is mutually beneficial for the next generation, even if they want to hole up in their beds and read manga instead of visiting the opera.
A photo of the physical card for Spain’s Bono Cultural Jóven (image courtesy Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte España )
What Does It Mean to Be a Latina/x Artist?
SALT LAKE CITY — In a small but impactful exhibition at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA), independent curator María del Mar González-González brings together the work of four stylistically divergent Latina/x artists.
Beyond the Margins: An Exploration of Latina Art and Identity succeeds in two critical respects. First, it demonstrates the simple fact that not all Latine artists make work exclusively about their own ethnic experience. Second, identity-based art may seek not simply to destroy the Western canon but instead to exploit contemporary art’s lexicological familiarity with Western art history to disrupt, complicate, or expand audience associations with this canon.
The term “Latina/x” denotes “both a femme and gender-neutral term for a person of Latin American origin or descent who now lives in the US,” according to a museum didactic label. The exhibition features work by Nancy Rivera (Mexican-American), Tamara Kostianovsky (Argentinian-American), Frances Gallardo (Puerto Rican), and Yelaine Rodriguez (Afro-Dominican).
Rivera is a celebrated artist and arts administrator based in Salt Lake City. Her 2018 series Impossible Bouquets: After Jan van Huysum features striking inkjet photographs of lush floral arrangements, inspired by 17th- and 18th-century Dutch still life tradition. With flowers set atop boldly colorful backgrounds, these works relish in academic and formal properties of artmaking.
Hanging from the ceiling beside Rivera’s photographs is Kostianovsky’s “Every Color in the Rainbow” (2021), a sculpture of a turkey carcass that harkens from the same visual Dutch tradition of still lifes and market scenes as Rivera’s. The work, made from discarded fabric, exudes a haunting quality, linking the corporeal mechanized destruction of factory farming with the wasteful mass consumption of clothing often overflowing in landfills.
Installation view of Beyond the Margins: An Exploration of Latina Art and Identity at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (January 20–March 4, 2023) (© UMOCA; photo by Zachary Norman)
Gallardo’s “Carmela” (2012/2022), from a larger series, is an utterly spellbinding paper collage that’s as fascinating visually as it is conceptually. With intersected patterns based on meteorological data such as rainfall and wind speeds, Gallardo combines layers of paper cut to a painstakingly detailed and mesmerizing effect.
Rodrigez’s striking multimedia fabric portraits “Saso” (2021) and “Yaissa” (2022) feature Afro-Dominican artists whose work highlights the debt owed to the African voices in Dominican culture, and who, despite the monumental cultural influence of African diaspora, have been long neglected from historical narratives.
Such narratives are noteworthy in their own respect, but especially given Utah’s overwhelmingly White population (92% according to the 2022 U.S. Census Bureau). Importantly, Utah’s Latino community is included in the state’s second largest ethnic demographic at 12.7% and this demographic is projected to constitute the greatest numerical increase by 2065, according to research from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
Some may argue hosting such an exhibition within a contemporary art museum in Utah’s most liberal city is preaching to the proverbial choir. Yet, there is something powerful about visualizing each artist’s creations mere steps from the gallery’s entrance, as if to solemnize that these figures and the communities they descend from are here to stay, equipped to situate themselves within an art historical trajectory that transcends contemporary art’s focus on identity as art and on a more inclusive view of what we know as American history.
Frances Gallardo, “Carmela” (2022), from Hurricane Series (2012-2022), hand-cut four-layer paper collage, 24 inches x 36 inches (photo by Andrew Gillis, courtesy UMOCA)
Tamara Kostianovsky, “Every Color in the Rainbow” (2021), discarded textiles, chain, and motor, 57 inches x 38 inches x 41 inches (© UMOCA; photo by Zachary Norman)
Beyond the Margins: An Exploration of Latina Art and Identity continues at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (20 South West Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah) through March 4. The exhibition was curated by María del Mar González-González.
Truth-Telling Confronts the Colonial Gaze
On November 24, 2022, Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier published a heartfelt letter commemorating the National Day of Mourning. Incarcerated since 1977, the former American Indian Movement organizer called out the contradictions in the United States government’s occupation of Native land, which has systematically hindered any form of tribal sovereignty.
“All the world now faces the same challenges that our people foretold regarding climate damage being caused by people who take more than they need, dismissing the teachings of our fathers, and the knowledge of countless generations living upon the earth in harmony,” Peltier wrote, invoking generations of tribes and First Nations preserving history on their own terms, otherwise known as “truth-telling.”
Indigenous artists have long spoken their truth symbolically, portraying centuries of resilience in art forms appropriated from colonial oppressors. This process is central to Studio Theater in Exile’s online exhibition, Truth-Telling: Voices of First People. Narratives of ancestral pride and bureaucratic prejudice appear in paintings and sculptures from the late 20th century to the present, ranging from overt critique to more subtle rumination.
On the surface, Truth-Telling is a multidisciplinary cross-section of well-known Native artists from across the US and Canada. Minimalist signage and metalworks by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds and Margaret Jacobs are contrasted with more maximalist abstractions by Duane Slick and Benjamin West’s street-style photography. The renowned Kiowa painter T.C. Cannon, who died in 1978 at the age of 31, is honored for his storied lyrical portraits. One painting included here shows a woman waiting at a bus stop in warm shades of pink and blue; the curators note that she was Cannon’s first crush, who rejected him in life but chose to be buried beside him.
In this context, however, Cannon’s lesser-known sketch “Minnesota Sioux” takes center stage. On a plain sheet of white paper, the artist scrawled an empty hangman scene, referring to the 1862 execution of 38 Dakota men that was approved by President Abraham Lincoln. Rather than portray the violence enacted upon the bodies of Native people, Cannon leaves the space empty except for written instructions to “Insert Here.”
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, “Our Red Nations Were Always Green” (2021)
This confrontation with the colonial gaze informs much of Truth-Telling, which alludes to direct attacks on Native communities. Rose B. Simpson’s regal sculptures capture the creative labor of Indigenous women, whose murder rates are 10 times higher than the national average. In “Reclamation III: Rite of Passage,” a hairless woman with a gaping hole in her chest forms the foundations of a rounded clay pot. Simpson’s sculpture “Breathe” likewise show a woman’s head held back with mouth agape, as if silently screaming. Together, the emotionless gaze of both works evokes centuries of bureaucratic neglect.
With these works, Indigenous artists reclaim realities long denied them by US and Canadian federal governments — including moments of collective reverie. Christi Belcourt’s kaleidoscopic paintings bring this latter element to the forefront, grounding images of colorful foliage with deep, visible roots. Pieces such as “So Much Depends on Who Holds the Shovel” feel both ornamental and spiritual as brightly hued birds and flowers radiate ancestral truths against a black background.
The Métis artist employs color symbolically, too, as in her “Offerings and Prayers for Genebek Ziibiing.” Flowing blue and red brushstrokes form an outline around a symmetrical image of two women nurturing a body of water. Evoking the contamination of Ontario’s Elliot Lake due to uranium mining, the twilight scene promotes balance between humanity and nature while hinting at an imminent sunset — visualizing the climate warnings of Belcourt’s frequent collaborator, Isaac Murdoch.
For each artist in Truth-Telling, Indigenous knowledge is anathema to capitalist logic. This is perhaps best captured in Nicholas Galanin Yéil Ya-Tseen’s mixed-media work “Architecture of Returned Escape.” The Tlingit/Unangax artist rendered a blueprint of a museum on an animal hide. Is this subversive schematic a guide to freedom or a plot to win the land back? The ambiguity cleverly provokes more than it resolves, and emphasizes the necessity of a coherent path forward.
Christi Belcourt, “So Much Depends on Who Holds the Shovel” (2008)
Rose B. Simpson, “Breathe” (2020)
Truth-Telling: Voices of First People can be viewed online. The exhibition was curated by Jonette O’Kelley Miller.
Project Blue Book: The US Air Force’s Investigation of UFOs
Photograph of UFOs in “V” formation in Salem, Massachusetts by Shell R. Alpert, 1952, via Library of Congress, Washington DC
The United States Air Force was responsible for handling Project Blue Book, which investigated thousands of UFO sightings that were reported across the nation. The project took place over the course of two decades and attempted to identify flying saucer-like objects that were becoming increasingly common. Government officials were concerned that these objects were a threat to national security, especially due to heightened tensions from the Cold War. Controversy over UFO sightings and government involvement caused a public stir due to the lack of transparency initially provided by officials throughout the investigation.
The Creation of Project Blue Book
Photograph of a UFO sighting from a report in Riverside, California, 1951, via National Archives, Records of Headquarters US Air Force
Increased sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) in the 1940s led the American government to launch a series of investigations to determine what the mysterious flying objects were. Project Sign was initiated by Air Force General Nathan Twining, the head of the Air Technical Service Command. The purpose of Project Sign, also known as Project Saucer, was to collect and evaluate all information and data relating to UFO sightings. With tensions of the Cold War rising in the late 1940s, there was concern between government officials about whether UFOs were a national security concern.
The date often associated with the beginning of the UFO phenomenon is June 24, 1947. On this day, private pilot Kenneth Arnold observed nine UFOs while in flight. Arnold was flying over Washington State near Mount Rainier looking for a downed US Marine Corps transport plane that crashed in the area. As Arnold searched for the downed aircraft, he spotted UFOs allegedly traveling at approximately 1,700 miles per hour. The term “flying saucer” appeared in news outlets following his report of the sightings. The event caused others to send in reports of sightings they witnessed in the months following. In 1947, there were 122 UFO sightings reported. Only 110 of the objects were identified, leaving 12 others unidentified. An increase in UFO sightings led the Air Force Chief of Staff to order an investigation into the phenomenon on December 30, 1947.
Major Jesse A. Marcel holding debris from the Roswell Incident in New Mexico, 1947, via University of Texas at Arlington Special Collections
Project Sign was taken over by the Technical Intelligence Division of the Air Material Command (AMC), which was located at the Wright Field Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. The results of the projects concluded that UFOs were not a national security threat, and most UFO sightings were easily explainable. Reports drawn up by the Air Force determined that the UFO sightings were caused by mass hysteria, hoaxes, or known objects. Despite the conclusion that there was no threat from these sightings, it was decided that investigations led by the United States Air Force should continue.
Information and evidence collected during Project Sign and Project Grudge were transferred to a new UFO project launched in 1952, known as Project Blue Book. As the Cold War continued, so did UFO sightings. Air Force Director of Intelligence Major General Charles P. Cabell ordered Project Blue Book to investigate the UFO phenomena further. Official government involvement in investigating UFO sightings caused a public stir. It created the belief that UFOs were extraordinary objects, despite efforts to convince the public they were not. Investigation of UFO sightings across the United States and abroad would continue into the late 1960s until Project Blue Book was officially terminated.
Influence of the Cold War on UFO Sightings
Comic strip depicting the multiple UFO sightings reported over Washington DC, 1952, via National Archives Catalog
Geopolitical tensions were high following World War II due to increased competition between the United States and the USSR. Worries over the international spread of communism and the race between world powers to have the strongest military system encompassed the Cold War. These heightened tensions influenced many policies and decisions made by the American government for several decades.
The United States Air Force was able to make sense of many of the UFO sightings that were reported between the 1940s and 1960s. However, hundreds of sightings remained unidentified. Officials in charge of the UFO phenomenon investigation were concerned that these unidentified objects were Soviet weapons. Although not directly involved in early investigations, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) kept track of the Air Force’s efforts on UFOs. A large influx of sightings occurred in 1952, reaching a total of 1,501 reports. This significant increase caused the CIA to get more involved in the investigation by launching a special study group. It was led by the Office of Science Intelligence (OSI) and the Office of Current Intelligence (OCI).
The CIA worked with the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) to monitor UFO sightings and their explanations. Great efforts were made to keep the CIA’s involvement in the UFO phenomenon investigation secret to prevent mass hysteria. This secret would later backfire as the public became highly skeptical that the CIA was also investigating UFOs and covering it up.
Objectives of Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book Status Report No. 8 chart showing the frequency of UFO reports between June and September 1952, via National Archives Catalog
Although early investigations of UFO sightings in Projects Sign and Grudge determined that the objects weren’t a national security threat, it still remained one of the main objectives of Project Blue Book. Each UFO sighting reported was investigated using various identification methods and data to rule out what the object was. However, some of the sightings lacked sufficient information and data for the Air Force to determine what the object was. Another main objective of Project Blue Book was to determine if the UFOs reported provided any scientific information or signs of advanced technology that could be useful for research.
Investigation of each UFO sighting was split up into three phases. The first phase was a preliminary investigation after receiving a report of a UFO sighting. Information was to be collected by the Air Force base nearest to the sighting that was reported. The information was relayed to the main headquarters of the Project Blue Book Office located at Wright Field, now known as the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The first phase was designed to determine if the UFO was easily explainable. If the initial investigation proved unsuccessful, it moved on to the second phase. UFO sightings were more closely analyzed by the Project Blue Book Office during the second phase. Analysis of the reported UFO was done so objectively and scientifically and sometimes warranted the use of scientific facilities at the Air Force base. The Secretary of the Air Force and Office of Information stepped in if the object couldn’t be identified during the second phase. UFO sightings were organized into three different categories following an investigation. Identified objects were those that were able to be explained as a result of sufficient information.
UFO sighting incident report, 1956, via National Archives Catalog
Objects were placed in the category of “insufficient data” if a certain element of the investigation was missing to positively identify the object. Examples of missing data or information included the direction in which the sighting occurred, where the sighting occurred, and at what time, or how it appeared or disappeared in the sky. If a UFO was placed in “insufficient data,” another investigation was conducted to rule out whether or not it was a threat to national security. There were 12,618 total UFO sightings reported from 1947 until Project Blue Book was terminated in 1969. Out of these reports, 701 of the UFOs remained unidentified. Objects placed in the “unidentified” category had all the elements needed to make a positive identification of the object, but they didn’t correspond with any known objects based on the object’s description.
Most of the UFO reports were explainable objects. Some objects often reported as UFOs included astronomical bodies, balloons, aircraft navigation, beacons, and meteorological phenomena. The sources of UFO sightings reported came from a wide variety of individuals. Some reports came from pilots, amateur astronomers, and weather observers. Astronomical bodies were the most common cause of UFOs. Throughout the investigation, Air Force officials were to keep an open mind about what the unidentified objects could possibly be. This included considering the possibility of extraterrestrial life. However, information collected on each sighting didn’t provide any evidence that pointed to possible extraterrestrial life or vehicles.
Conclusions of Project Blue Book
UFO identified by Apollo 16 as the EVA Floodlight/Boom, 1972, via NASA
Project Blue Book caused the public to lack trust in the American government due to the CIA’s attempt to keep their involvement in Project Blue Book a secret. Project Blue Book files were also classified for decades before being released to the public. In October 1966, the Air Force contracted the University of Colorado to conduct a study on UFOs. The study was handled by the Condon Committee and took place over the course of 18 months. The University of Colorado was rewarded with $325,000 to conduct it.
The head of the program was the former Director of the National Bureau of Standards and physicist Dr. Edward U. Condon. The study determined that “little, if anything, had come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years.” The Condon Committee also determined that the most unlikely explanation for UFOs was extraterrestrial beings visiting Earth. The committee’s report also advised that further investigation of UFOs was unnecessary. As a result, Project Blue Book was officially announced as terminated by Secretary of the Air Force Robert C. Seamans, Jr. on December 17, 1969.
Cover of Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 by the Air Technical Intelligence Center, 1955, via United States House of Representative History, Art, & Archives
The Air Force and all other parties involved in Project Blue Book came to three main conclusions as the project was terminated. The first conclusion was that none of the UFOs reported and investigated indicated they were a national security threat. It was also determined that none of the UFOs were technologically advanced or highly developed beyond current scientific understanding. The final conclusion was that, despite lacking explanation, evidence of UFOs categorized as “unidentified” didn’t provide any evidence that indicated they were extraterrestrial.
The collection of Project Blue Book files was handed over to the National Archives in 1975. Following a series of redactions to protect personally identifiable information, the files were made available for public research in 1976. Despite the conclusions of Project Blue Book, questions surrounding the UFO phenomenon still emerge. Documentation released on Project Blue Book left many UFOlogists dissatisfied with the contents of the investigation. The conclusion of the Condon Committee was also questioned by UFOlogists, which were fueled by beliefs that the CIA was much more involved in the investigation than presented. Despite the extensive investigation of the UFO phenomenon, skepticism still remained among the science community that UFO sightings may have been extraordinary and pointed to signs of extraterrestrial life.
The Doomsday Clock Is Closer to Catastrophe Than Ever
The Doomsday Clock, a symbolic tracker that represents the likelihood of human-made destruction, was updated Tuesday to 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it’s ever been. It was the first time the clock had been updated since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The Doomsday Clock was first published in 1947 by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a group formed to discuss the threat of nuclear war. The clock has since been updated 24 times. The closer the clocks’ hands move toward midnight, the closer humanity supposedly moves toward self-inflicted destruction. As well as assessing risks from nuclear war, the scientists incorporate dangers from climate change, bioweapons and more. “We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality,” Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said Tuesday. Read More: Ukraine’s Winter Offensive Could Decide the War “90 seconds to midnight is the closest the Clock has ever been set to midnight, and it’s a decision our experts do not take lightly. The US government, its NATO allies and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue; we urge leaders to explore all of them to their fullest ability to turn back the Clock,” Bronson added. History of the Doomsday Clock Scientists at the Bulletin evaluate the Doomsday Clock every January. The clock began at seven minutes to midnight in 1947 and wasn’t moved until 1949 to three minutes when the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. In 1991, the clock had its furthest time from catastrophe when it was set to 17 minutes to midnight as the Cold War cooled down. The clock’s hands most recently inched close to disaster in 2020, at 100 seconds to midnight, due to geopolitical tensions and climate crises. Ban-Ki Moon, former U.N. Secretary General, helped unveil it then and added: “Leaders did not heed the Doomsday Clock’s warnings in 2020. We all continue to pay the price.” The clock had stayed at 100 seconds in 2021 and 2022. Decisions to move the clock’s hands rest with the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board who consult with experts across the organization’s scopes of science, technology and risk assessment, including Nobel laureates, scholars and policy analysts. Ninety seconds to midnight The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists explained in an announcement Tuesday that the decision to move the clock’s hands stems largely from the Russian invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago and the increased risk of nuclear escalation. The group was also influenced by the climate crisis and “the breakdown of global norms and institutions” needed to combat the risks of advanced technology and biological threats like COVID-19. The explanation took into account the risk of nuclear escalation between the U.S. and Russia and noted how China, North Korea, Iran and India have all also expanded their nuclear capabilities in recent years. The climate crisis was also a key concern because of the rise in carbon emissions and extreme weather events. The Bulletin is also concerned about ”cyber-enabled disinformation” and its threat to democracy, as well as infectious diseases and biosecurity. “The Doomsday Clock is sounding an alarm for the whole of humanity. We are on the brink of a precipice. But our leaders are not acting at sufficient speed or scale to secure a peaceful and liveable planet,” said Mary Robinson, chair of The Elders, an NGO, and former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. “The science is clear, but the political will is lacking. This must change in 2023 if we are to avert catastrophe. We are facing multiple, existential crises. Leaders need a crisis mindset.” Contact us at [email protected].
What Was the Harlem Renaissance?
The Harlem Renaissance was a great flowering of art, poetry, fiction and music that emerged out of the Harlem neighborhood of New York City during the ‘roaring twenties.’ During the Great Migration from 1910 to 1920, hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved from Southern to Northern America in search of work. A dense community of Black African Americans congregated in Harlem, where housing was in plentiful supply. This close-knit community of Black families became a strong and exciting cultural mecca for African Americas who finally discovered a new creative freedom like never before. From civil rights activist writers to jazz musicians, many of the 20th century’s most important voices emerged out of the Harlem Renaissance. We look through some of the ground-breaking historical movement’s key characteristics.
Poetry and Fiction Flourished
Poetry was one of the earliest art forms to emerge during the Harlem Renaissance, and it was thanks to the pioneering leaders of the Black Pride movement, including African American activist W.E.B. Du Bois that several emergent poets were able to publish their work. Celebrated poetry volumes include Claude McKay’s collection Harlem Shadows, published in 1922, and Jean Toomer’s Cane, published in 1923. Meanwhile, fiction became an important means for African Americans to bring their voices into the public arena, and have their experiences heard. Jessie Redmon Fauset’s 1924 novel There Is Confusion explored how Black African Americans can find a new cultural identity in a white-dominated city. Other writers created stirring socio-political observations, such as James Weldon Johnson, whose Black Manhattan: Account of the Development of Harlem, 1930, traces the explosion of creativity among the Black community of Harlem.
Music Was a Vital Strand of the Harlem Renaissance
Jazz musician and orchestra conductor Duke Ellington playing piano with other jazz musicians, via Columbia Alumni Association
Music was undoubtedly a key characteristic of the Harlem Renaissance. The music style that emerged out of Harlem was jazz and blues, performed by outstanding musicians in Harlem’s underground nightclubs and speakeasies. Harlem residents came out in droves to enjoy the lively music scene, as did white audiences from further afield. Many of the musicians who emerged during this time are still household names today, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith and Alberta Hunter. These musicians went on to shape the next generation of American singers including Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Janis Joplin.
Nightclubs
Dancers in The Savoy Ballroom during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance.
The Savoy Ballroom opened in Harlem in 1927, and it quickly became a legendary dance hall where world-leading musicians and dancers would perform. Tap dancers including John Bubbles and Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson frequented The Savoy, and many jazz and blues instrumentalists gave daring, experimental performances long into the night.
The Cotton Club during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance in New York City.
Another popular nightclub of the Harlem Renaissance was The Cotton Club, where Ellington and Calloway were regular performers, and bootleg liquor was readily available. By the mid-1920s musical performances were a defining feature of the Harlem cultural scene. Some performers expanded into white world and made their name in Broadway, such as Josephine Baker.
Many Artists Found their Voices During the Harlem Renaissance
Aaron Douglas, Aspects of Negro Life from Slavery to the Reconstruction, 1934, via The Charnel House
While the field of visual arts was slower than other art forms to accept Black artists – museums, galleries and art schools were less welcoming – many leading artists nonetheless found exposure during this time. Leading artists include Aaron Douglas, known today as “the father of Black American art”, who brought traditional African techniques into his large scale paintings and murals, and the legendary sculptor Augusta Savage, who made deeply intimate sculpted portraits of the African Americans who had influenced and shaped her life.
Members of the Harlem Renaissance Became Civil Rights Activists
Alain Locke, a prominent activist during the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights movement
Civil rights were fundamental to the Harlem Renaissance, at a time when African Americans were finally beginning to shake off the shackles of their past. Many of the leading intellectual voices of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s went on to become leading figures during the Civil Rights movement of the 1940s, including W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain Locke.
Society’s Biggest Risks, Ranked by the World's Leading Experts
Every year the World Economic Forum (WEF) surveys more than 1,200 global risk experts, policy makers, and industry leaders to measure the weight of looming risks to global finance and stability over the next two and ten years. The WEF releases its Global Risks Report as world leaders and corporate titans convene in Davos for the annual conference to help frame the week’s conversations. While energy and food supply chains top today’s concerns, largely triggered by the pandemic’s lingering effects and conflict in Ukraine, the future fears of the global elite are finally intersecting with those of climate scientists. Natural disasters and extreme weather events, along with a failure to mitigate climate change, made it into the top five risks for the next two years. Meanwhile, the top six concerns over the next decade involve a climate angle, assuming that number six—large scale involuntary migration—is considered (as it should be) a result of climate change as well as conflict, or indeed conflict caused by climate change. Take the shrinking Lake Chad basin, which straddles the African nations of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria, as an example. The United Nations warned last year that the region, which covers 8% of the African continent and is home to 42 million people, “is particularly vulnerable to climate change related extreme events such as floods and droughts… with impacts on food security and general security in the region.” A new report released by the international human rights group Refugees International warns that climate change is accelerating conflict and migration in the region and needs to be better addressed before it risks destabilizing a wider area, with unknown repercussions for the economies of West Africa. The WEF’s poll respondents were probably not thinking about a shrinking Lake Chad when they fretted about the impacts of large scale involuntary migration, but such a movement could easily lead to risk concern number seven: erosion of social cohesion and societal polarization, also likely to be triggered by the impacts of climate change. Mitigating those future risks, whether in the Lake Chad Basin or even closer to home, requires action in the present. The question now is how to manage short term risk, like energy insecurity, without exacerbating the long term risks of climate change. A version of this story first appeared in the Climate is Everything newsletter. To sign up, click here. Contact us at [email protected].
Wild Astronomical Discovery Confirms Einstein Was Right About Time Itself
Time dilation: It’s a staple of science fiction, and whether you’re familiar with the term or not, you’ve probably encountered it in print or film. Fly fast enough to the speed of light, and your experience of time is slower than someone left behind on Earth, such that years can go by for them, while you experience just a few months.
Wild Astronomical Discovery Confirms Einstein Was Right About Time Itself
Time dilation: It’s a staple of science fiction, and whether you’re familiar with the term or not, you’ve probably encountered it in print or film. Fly fast enough to the speed of light, and your experience of time is slower than someone left behind on Earth, such that years can go by for them, while you experience just a few months.
You can't post ass, Threads is doomed
Threads, the Meta-owned Twitter clone that launched this week, will always be hindered by its own content guidelines. The app is dry at best, and at worst, leeching your personal data.
You can't post ass, Threads is doomed
Threads, the Meta-owned Twitter clone that launched this week, will always be hindered by its own content guidelines. The app is dry at best, and at worst, leeching your personal data.
Boom’s New Supersonic Jet Just Got Closer to Hitting the Air
Boom Supersonic has always said that its Overture, designed to carry from 65 to 80 passengers, will travel at Mach 1.7, or about 1,300 miles per hour, at 60,000 feet. At those speeds, it will be able to fly from London to New York in three and a half hours, nearly cutting flight time in half.
Boom’s New Supersonic Jet Just Got Closer to Hitting the Air
Boom Supersonic has always said that its Overture, designed to carry from 65 to 80 passengers, will travel at Mach 1.7, or about 1,300 miles per hour, at 60,000 feet. At those speeds, it will be able to fly from London to New York in three and a half hours, nearly cutting flight time in half.
AI Could Help Free Human Creativity
Let’s face it. We’re more distracted than ever. Why remember anything when I can just Google it? Why summon the attention to read a book when I can just scroll through Twitter?
Some philosophers believe that ChatGPT and its siblings will further diminish our ability to do the kind of “deep work” needed to spark creativity and breed big ideas. What good are the tools if we begin to rely on them so much that we no longer have the capacity to think bigger? This argument is tempting because it’s romantic. If creativity is essentially human, there is something inherently limiting about the prospect of man replaced by machine. But the evidence tells a different story.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
While seemingly “superhuman” technology can be intimidating, it generally enables us to become more creative — not less. In 1997, when the computer program Deep Blue beat the invincible grandmaster Gary Kasparov in chess, many feared that humans would begin to abandon the pursuit of chess mastery because they’d “never be as good as a computer.” In fact, the opposite happened. The widespread adoption of computer simulations made human chess players better. A recent study conducted by Henning Peinzuka of INSEAD found that in those countries where humans had access to computer chess simulations, their performance in chess improved. The players still found it useful to play against humans, but the presence of the non-human made the human a better, more creative player.
Now let us imagine the future of creativity in a world of generative AI that enables us to map choices as never before—to explore exponentially more combinations of choices, compare and contrast infinite approaches at a glance, and constantly test new ideas.
As the brilliant French mathematician Henri Poincaré once said: Invention consists in avoiding the constructing of useless contraptions and in constructing the useful combinations which are in infinite minority. To invent is to discern, to choose.
AI will not necessarily come up with our best ideas for us. But it will greatly reduce the cost—in time, money, and effort—of generating new ideas by instantaneously revealing untold options. It will enable us to efficiently discard the “useless contraptions” that cloud our vision and identify useful combinations previously unseen. It will empower us to broadly and efficiently canvas an incredibly vast range of domains to pull relevant knowledge from unexpected places. If used properly, AI will ultimately help us seed far greater innovation throughout our society.
Read More: How the World Must Respond to the AI Revolution
So how do we do it? How can we use large language models like ChatGPT to make us more creative? It starts with mapping our choices.
I often direct my students to perform a simple exercise that demonstrates the power of choice generation. I ask them to take two minutes to come up with as many answers as possible to a simple prompt like “Ways to use a toothpick.” After they share their ideas, I ask them to repeat the exercise; they almost always come up with more ideas during the second go-round than the first. Their creative juices have begun to flow. I ask them to do it again, and again. Inevitably, their rate of creation slows and the flow of ideas becomes a trickle. Their creative energy has become exhausted.
Now let us introduce ChatGPT. When I type “List the ways in which one could use a toothpick.” It instantaneously spits back 50 options. Here is but a brief selection:
Testing cake doneness: Inserting a toothpick into a cake to check if it’s fully baked.
Appetizer holder: Skewering small food items like olives, cheese, or fruit for easy serving.
Nail art: Applying small dots or lines of nail polish for intricate designs.
Cleaning small crevices: Reaching into tiny spaces to remove dirt or debris, such as in a keyboard or around jewelry.
Glue applicator: Spreading small amounts of glue for crafts or DIY projects.
Paint mixer: Stirring small amounts of paint for model-building or artwork.
Plant support: Providing extra support to small or fragile plants as they grow.
Type in “list more uses,” and the model spits back another 50 potential options. Some of the ideas are good, some not so good. The point is that the Chatbot can instantly find, collate, and list seemingly infinite possibilities that have already been created by humans across space, time, and context. Now students can apply their creativity toward assembling old ideas in new ways.
As Mark Twain wrote to Helen Keller, “substantially all ideas are second hand, consciously or unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources.” Innovators are most often strategic copiers who learn from examples of success, extract the parts that work well, and imagine new ways of using those pieces to create something new and meaningful. In the toothpick example, with ChatGPT the students no longer have to waste their time coming up with existing ideas; they can apply their creative energy toward iterating, assembling, and combining to create new, powerful ideas they would not have been able to generate without AI.
Now let’s take it a step further. If breakthrough ideas often come from unexpected places, how can we use ChatGPT to mine human knowledge’s vast hidden treasure troves to find the nuggets of knowledge that break our mental logjams? It’s easy to use the chatbot to map out choices within the same domain of query (i.e. If I’m looking to innovate on toothpicks, I use the chatbot to identify currently-known methods of using toothpicks so I can combine and iterate.)
But what if I start using the AI to map choices that are “out-of-domain,” i.e. from different times, different places, and across different industries? Suddenly our ability to think “outside the box” has increased dramatically. In fact, some of history’s greatest innovations come from inventors looking to entirely different domains to identify the various pieces needed to create something revolutionary.
Take ice cream, for example. In the 1840s, ice cream was only accessible to the very wealthy due to the high price of ice, the intense labor required, and the time it took to produce. Most of all, the freezer did not yet exist, so keeping the ice cream cold was enormously difficult. In 1843, a chemist and physicist named Nancy Johnson set out to bring ice cream to the masses by breaking the problem down, looking to history, and searching in new places for inspiration.
She started by searching for the ways other foods and beverages had their temperatures contained throughout history, which led her to pewter metal. By the Middle Ages, long before Johnson’s time, certain inns used pewter for mugs to keep beer and ale cold. She replaced the ceramic used to make ice cream at the time with cheap pewter and set it in a wooden bucket with a layer of ice packed around it to keep the mixture cold. Put on the pewter lid when you’re done, and your ice cream stays cold for hours.
Nancy still faced the challenge of stirring a mixture of cream, sugar, and other flavorings for hours on end. Was there a simpler and faster way to continuously mix the ingredients with less arm power? To remedy this, Johnson added a hand crank—an invention which went back to first-century China. From there, it spread to the Roman empire and on to the rest of Europe. The Eastern Mediterranean even implemented hand cranks to grind spices and coffee. In this application, the hand crank dramatically cut the time and effort it took to stir the ice cream in Johnson’s new contraption.
If we adapt Nancy’s approach to present-day problems, we can use ChatGPT to search out-of-domain in seconds. Say I’m an airline executive looking to improve customers’ experience at the airport. Sure, I could ask ChatGPT to spit out the various approaches airports have employed to improve the travel experience, but this list remains “in the box.” But what if I ask ChatGPT to list out examples of other experiences in which people are harried and upset. Here’s a brief selection: “Hospitals, traffic jams, courthouses, banks, the DMV, and funeral homes.” Now I can research tactics and precedents employed within each of those domains, pull out promising ideas, and combine and test to come up with a truly creative approach that might work for airports. From funeral homes, for example, I could draw on the power of empathy and comfortable environments and apply it to the airline gate experience. From hospitals, I could draw on methods for patient advocacy experiences and apply it to travelers. From the DMV, I could draw on attempts to bring more of the customer experience online and on mobile devices. Now I am working with a much richer and diverse set of elements to stir innovation.
These are but a few of the simple methods we must explore to harness the power of ChatGPT and its ilk to unleash creativity and widen our aperture to see a new horizon. The toothpick exercise is an example of infinite possibilities made new in real time. The ice cream example demonstrates the power of a historical lens to make the seemingly quixotic practical. And the airline example uses the chatbot to employ a powerful roving eye to inspect the “out-of-domain” world. As with any new technology, its power and consequences come down to how you use it. And the next time you need to “brainstorm” with ChatGPT, see what happens when you employ these methods; I think you’ll find you’re a lot more creative than you thought.
AI Could Help Free Human Creativity
Let’s face it. We’re more distracted than ever. Why remember anything when I can just Google it? Why summon the attention to read a book when I can just scroll through Twitter?
Some philosophers believe that ChatGPT and its siblings will further diminish our ability to do the kind of “deep work” needed to spark creativity and breed big ideas. What good are the tools if we begin to rely on them so much that we no longer have the capacity to think bigger? This argument is tempting because it’s romantic. If creativity is essentially human, there is something inherently limiting about the prospect of man replaced by machine. But the evidence tells a different story.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
While seemingly “superhuman” technology can be intimidating, it generally enables us to become more creative — not less. In 1997, when the computer program Deep Blue beat the invincible grandmaster Gary Kasparov in chess, many feared that humans would begin to abandon the pursuit of chess mastery because they’d “never be as good as a computer.” In fact, the opposite happened. The widespread adoption of computer simulations made human chess players better. A recent study conducted by Henning Peinzuka of INSEAD found that in those countries where humans had access to computer chess simulations, their performance in chess improved. The players still found it useful to play against humans, but the presence of the non-human made the human a better, more creative player.
Now let us imagine the future of creativity in a world of generative AI that enables us to map choices as never before—to explore exponentially more combinations of choices, compare and contrast infinite approaches at a glance, and constantly test new ideas.
As the brilliant French mathematician Henri Poincaré once said: Invention consists in avoiding the constructing of useless contraptions and in constructing the useful combinations which are in infinite minority. To invent is to discern, to choose.
AI will not necessarily come up with our best ideas for us. But it will greatly reduce the cost—in time, money, and effort—of generating new ideas by instantaneously revealing untold options. It will enable us to efficiently discard the “useless contraptions” that cloud our vision and identify useful combinations previously unseen. It will empower us to broadly and efficiently canvas an incredibly vast range of domains to pull relevant knowledge from unexpected places. If used properly, AI will ultimately help us seed far greater innovation throughout our society.
Read More: How the World Must Respond to the AI Revolution
So how do we do it? How can we use large language models like ChatGPT to make us more creative? It starts with mapping our choices.
I often direct my students to perform a simple exercise that demonstrates the power of choice generation. I ask them to take two minutes to come up with as many answers as possible to a simple prompt like “Ways to use a toothpick.” After they share their ideas, I ask them to repeat the exercise; they almost always come up with more ideas during the second go-round than the first. Their creative juices have begun to flow. I ask them to do it again, and again. Inevitably, their rate of creation slows and the flow of ideas becomes a trickle. Their creative energy has become exhausted.
Now let us introduce ChatGPT. When I type “List the ways in which one could use a toothpick.” It instantaneously spits back 50 options. Here is but a brief selection:
Testing cake doneness: Inserting a toothpick into a cake to check if it’s fully baked.
Appetizer holder: Skewering small food items like olives, cheese, or fruit for easy serving.
Nail art: Applying small dots or lines of nail polish for intricate designs.
Cleaning small crevices: Reaching into tiny spaces to remove dirt or debris, such as in a keyboard or around jewelry.
Glue applicator: Spreading small amounts of glue for crafts or DIY projects.
Paint mixer: Stirring small amounts of paint for model-building or artwork.
Plant support: Providing extra support to small or fragile plants as they grow.
Type in “list more uses,” and the model spits back another 50 potential options. Some of the ideas are good, some not so good. The point is that the Chatbot can instantly find, collate, and list seemingly infinite possibilities that have already been created by humans across space, time, and context. Now students can apply their creativity toward assembling old ideas in new ways.
As Mark Twain wrote to Helen Keller, “substantially all ideas are second hand, consciously or unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources.” Innovators are most often strategic copiers who learn from examples of success, extract the parts that work well, and imagine new ways of using those pieces to create something new and meaningful. In the toothpick example, with ChatGPT the students no longer have to waste their time coming up with existing ideas; they can apply their creative energy toward iterating, assembling, and combining to create new, powerful ideas they would not have been able to generate without AI.
Now let’s take it a step further. If breakthrough ideas often come from unexpected places, how can we use ChatGPT to mine human knowledge’s vast hidden treasure troves to find the nuggets of knowledge that break our mental logjams? It’s easy to use the chatbot to map out choices within the same domain of query (i.e. If I’m looking to innovate on toothpicks, I use the chatbot to identify currently-known methods of using toothpicks so I can combine and iterate.)
But what if I start using the AI to map choices that are “out-of-domain,” i.e. from different times, different places, and across different industries? Suddenly our ability to think “outside the box” has increased dramatically. In fact, some of history’s greatest innovations come from inventors looking to entirely different domains to identify the various pieces needed to create something revolutionary.
Take ice cream, for example. In the 1840s, ice cream was only accessible to the very wealthy due to the high price of ice, the intense labor required, and the time it took to produce. Most of all, the freezer did not yet exist, so keeping the ice cream cold was enormously difficult. In 1843, a chemist and physicist named Nancy Johnson set out to bring ice cream to the masses by breaking the problem down, looking to history, and searching in new places for inspiration.
She started by searching for the ways other foods and beverages had their temperatures contained throughout history, which led her to pewter metal. By the Middle Ages, long before Johnson’s time, certain inns used pewter for mugs to keep beer and ale cold. She replaced the ceramic used to make ice cream at the time with cheap pewter and set it in a wooden bucket with a layer of ice packed around it to keep the mixture cold. Put on the pewter lid when you’re done, and your ice cream stays cold for hours.
Nancy still faced the challenge of stirring a mixture of cream, sugar, and other flavorings for hours on end. Was there a simpler and faster way to continuously mix the ingredients with less arm power? To remedy this, Johnson added a hand crank—an invention which went back to first-century China. From there, it spread to the Roman empire and on to the rest of Europe. The Eastern Mediterranean even implemented hand cranks to grind spices and coffee. In this application, the hand crank dramatically cut the time and effort it took to stir the ice cream in Johnson’s new contraption.
If we adapt Nancy’s approach to present-day problems, we can use ChatGPT to search out-of-domain in seconds. Say I’m an airline executive looking to improve customers’ experience at the airport. Sure, I could ask ChatGPT to spit out the various approaches airports have employed to improve the travel experience, but this list remains “in the box.” But what if I ask ChatGPT to list out examples of other experiences in which people are harried and upset. Here’s a brief selection: “Hospitals, traffic jams, courthouses, banks, the DMV, and funeral homes.” Now I can research tactics and precedents employed within each of those domains, pull out promising ideas, and combine and test to come up with a truly creative approach that might work for airports. From funeral homes, for example, I could draw on the power of empathy and comfortable environments and apply it to the airline gate experience. From hospitals, I could draw on methods for patient advocacy experiences and apply it to travelers. From the DMV, I could draw on attempts to bring more of the customer experience online and on mobile devices. Now I am working with a much richer and diverse set of elements to stir innovation.
These are but a few of the simple methods we must explore to harness the power of ChatGPT and its ilk to unleash creativity and widen our aperture to see a new horizon. The toothpick exercise is an example of infinite possibilities made new in real time. The ice cream example demonstrates the power of a historical lens to make the seemingly quixotic practical. And the airline example uses the chatbot to employ a powerful roving eye to inspect the “out-of-domain” world. As with any new technology, its power and consequences come down to how you use it. And the next time you need to “brainstorm” with ChatGPT, see what happens when you employ these methods; I think you’ll find you’re a lot more creative than you thought.
Opinion | Your Brain Has Tricked You Into Thinking Everything Is Worse
Continue reading the main storyCredit...Anastasiia Sapon for The New York TimesBy Adam MastroianniPerhaps no political promise is more potent or universal than the vow to restore a golden age. From Caesar Augustus to the Medicis and Adolf Hitler, from President Xi Jinping of China and President “Bongbong” Marcos of the Philippines to Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” and Joe Biden’s “America Is Back,” leaders have gained power by vowing a return to the good old days.What these political myths have in common is an understanding that the golden age is definitely not right now. Maybe we’ve been changing from angels into demons for centuries, and people have only now noticed the horns sprouting on their neighbors’ foreheads.But I believe there’s a bug — a set of cognitive biases — in people’s brains that causes them to perceive a fall from grace even when it hasn’t happened. I and my colleague Daniel Gilbert at Harvard have found evidence for that bug, which we recently published in the journal Nature. While previous researchers have theorized about why people might believe things have gotten worse, we are the first to investigate this belief all over the world, to test its veracity and to explain where it comes from.We first collected 235 surveys with over 574,000 responses total and found that, overwhelmingly, people believe that humans are less kind, honest, ethical and moral today than they were in the past. People have believed in this moral decline at least since pollsters started asking about it in 1949, they believe it in every single country that has ever been surveyed (59 and counting), they believe that it’s been happening their whole lives and they believe it’s still happening today. Respondents of all sorts — young and old, liberal and conservative, white and Black — consistently agreed: The golden age of human kindness is long gone.We also found strong evidence that people are wrong about this decline. We assembled every survey that asked people about the current state of morality: “Were you treated with respect all day yesterday?” “Within the past 12 months, have you volunteered your time to a charitable cause?”,“How often do you encounter incivility at work?” Across 140 surveys and nearly 12 million responses, participants’ answers did not change meaningfully over time. When asked to rate the current state of morality in the United States, for example, people gave almost identical answers between 2002 and 2020, but they also reported a decline in morality every year.Other researchers’ data have even shown moral improvement. Social scientists have been measuring cooperation rates between strangers in lab-based economic games for decades, and a recent meta-analysis found — contrary to the authors’ expectations — that cooperation has increased 8 percentage points over the last 61 years. When we asked participants to estimate that change, they mistakenly thought cooperation rates had decreased by 9 percentage points. Others have documented the increasing rarity of the most heinous forms of human immorality, like genocide and child abuse.Two well-established psychological phenomena could combine to produce this illusion of moral decline. First, there’s biased exposure: People predominantly encounter and pay attention to negative information about others — mischief and misdeeds make the news and dominate our conversations.Second, there’s biased memory: The negativity of negative information fades faster than the positivity of positive information. Getting dumped, for instance, hurts in the moment, but as you rationalize, reframe and distance yourself from the memory, the sting fades. The memory of meeting your current spouse, on the other hand, probably still makes you smile.When you put these two cognitive mechanisms together, you can create an illusion of decline. Thanks to biased exposure, things look bad every day. But thanks to biased memory, when you think back to yesterday, you don’t remember things being so bad. When you’re standing in a wasteland but remember a wonderland, the only reasonable conclusion is that things have gotten worse.That explanation fits well with two more of our surprising findings. First, people exempt their own social circles from decline; in fact, they think the people they know are nicer than ever. This might be because people primarily encounter positive information about people they know, which our model predicts can create an illusion of improvement.Second, people believe that moral decline began only after they arrived on Earth; they see humanity as stably virtuous in the decades before their birth. This especially suggests that biased memory plays a role in producing the illusion.If these cognitive biases are working in tandem, our susceptibility to golden age myths makes a lot more sense. Our biased attention means we’ll always feel we’re living in dark times, and our biased memory means we’ll always think the past was brighter.Seventy-six percent of Americans believe, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center poll, that “addressing the moral breakdown of the country” should be one of the government’s priorities. The good news is that the breakdown hasn’t happened. The bad news is that people believe it has.As long as we believe in this illusion, we are susceptible to the promises of aspiring autocrats who claim they can return us to a golden age that exists in the only place a golden age has ever existed: our imaginations.
Opinion | Your Brain Has Tricked You Into Thinking Everything Is Worse
Continue reading the main storyCredit...Anastasiia Sapon for The New York TimesBy Adam MastroianniPerhaps no political promise is more potent or universal than the vow to restore a golden age. From Caesar Augustus to the Medicis and Adolf Hitler, from President Xi Jinping of China and President “Bongbong” Marcos of the Philippines to Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” and Joe Biden’s “America Is Back,” leaders have gained power by vowing a return to the good old days.What these political myths have in common is an understanding that the golden age is definitely not right now. Maybe we’ve been changing from angels into demons for centuries, and people have only now noticed the horns sprouting on their neighbors’ foreheads.But I believe there’s a bug — a set of cognitive biases — in people’s brains that causes them to perceive a fall from grace even when it hasn’t happened. I and my colleague Daniel Gilbert at Harvard have found evidence for that bug, which we recently published in the journal Nature. While previous researchers have theorized about why people might believe things have gotten worse, we are the first to investigate this belief all over the world, to test its veracity and to explain where it comes from.We first collected 235 surveys with over 574,000 responses total and found that, overwhelmingly, people believe that humans are less kind, honest, ethical and moral today than they were in the past. People have believed in this moral decline at least since pollsters started asking about it in 1949, they believe it in every single country that has ever been surveyed (59 and counting), they believe that it’s been happening their whole lives and they believe it’s still happening today. Respondents of all sorts — young and old, liberal and conservative, white and Black — consistently agreed: The golden age of human kindness is long gone.We also found strong evidence that people are wrong about this decline. We assembled every survey that asked people about the current state of morality: “Were you treated with respect all day yesterday?” “Within the past 12 months, have you volunteered your time to a charitable cause?”,“How often do you encounter incivility at work?” Across 140 surveys and nearly 12 million responses, participants’ answers did not change meaningfully over time. When asked to rate the current state of morality in the United States, for example, people gave almost identical answers between 2002 and 2020, but they also reported a decline in morality every year.Other researchers’ data have even shown moral improvement. Social scientists have been measuring cooperation rates between strangers in lab-based economic games for decades, and a recent meta-analysis found — contrary to the authors’ expectations — that cooperation has increased 8 percentage points over the last 61 years. When we asked participants to estimate that change, they mistakenly thought cooperation rates had decreased by 9 percentage points. Others have documented the increasing rarity of the most heinous forms of human immorality, like genocide and child abuse.Two well-established psychological phenomena could combine to produce this illusion of moral decline. First, there’s biased exposure: People predominantly encounter and pay attention to negative information about others — mischief and misdeeds make the news and dominate our conversations.Second, there’s biased memory: The negativity of negative information fades faster than the positivity of positive information. Getting dumped, for instance, hurts in the moment, but as you rationalize, reframe and distance yourself from the memory, the sting fades. The memory of meeting your current spouse, on the other hand, probably still makes you smile.When you put these two cognitive mechanisms together, you can create an illusion of decline. Thanks to biased exposure, things look bad every day. But thanks to biased memory, when you think back to yesterday, you don’t remember things being so bad. When you’re standing in a wasteland but remember a wonderland, the only reasonable conclusion is that things have gotten worse.That explanation fits well with two more of our surprising findings. First, people exempt their own social circles from decline; in fact, they think the people they know are nicer than ever. This might be because people primarily encounter positive information about people they know, which our model predicts can create an illusion of improvement.Second, people believe that moral decline began only after they arrived on Earth; they see humanity as stably virtuous in the decades before their birth. This especially suggests that biased memory plays a role in producing the illusion.If these cognitive biases are working in tandem, our susceptibility to golden age myths makes a lot more sense. Our biased attention means we’ll always feel we’re living in dark times, and our biased memory means we’ll always think the past was brighter.Seventy-six percent of Americans believe, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center poll, that “addressing the moral breakdown of the country” should be one of the government’s priorities. The good news is that the breakdown hasn’t happened. The bad news is that people believe it has.As long as we believe in this illusion, we are susceptible to the promises of aspiring autocrats who claim they can return us to a golden age that exists in the only place a golden age has ever existed: our imaginations.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget First Footage Reunites Us With Ginger & Rocky
We finally have our first footage from the Aardman Animations and Netflix sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, thanks to a brand-new teaser. Coming courtesy of Netflix UK & Ireland, the brief teaser reveals our first look at the long-awaited follow-up, in which our heroes Ginger and Rocky welcome their mischievous daughter, Molly. Check out the new Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget teaser trailer below.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget First Footage Reunites Us With Ginger & Rocky
We finally have our first footage from the Aardman Animations and Netflix sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, thanks to a brand-new teaser. Coming courtesy of Netflix UK & Ireland, the brief teaser reveals our first look at the long-awaited follow-up, in which our heroes Ginger and Rocky welcome their mischievous daughter, Molly. Check out the new Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget teaser trailer below.
Poor Things Trailer Brings Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe Frankenstein Tale To Life
Searchlight Pictures have released one of the most intriguing and visually stunning trailers of the year in the first full look at the sci-fi take on the Frankenstein principle, Poor Things. As one of the most unique-looking movies of the year, the movie from director Yorgos Lanthimos stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a woman resurrected from the dead by a disfigured scientist (Willem Dafoe), who goes on a journey of the rediscovery of life, love and liberation. Check out the new trailer below.
Poor Things Trailer Brings Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe Frankenstein Tale To Life
Searchlight Pictures have released one of the most intriguing and visually stunning trailers of the year in the first full look at the sci-fi take on the Frankenstein principle, Poor Things. As one of the most unique-looking movies of the year, the movie from director Yorgos Lanthimos stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a woman resurrected from the dead by a disfigured scientist (Willem Dafoe), who goes on a journey of the rediscovery of life, love and liberation. Check out the new trailer below.
This New Metric For Health Could Revolutionize How We Treat Chronic Illnesses
Morbidity and mortality have long been the World Health Organization’s (WHO) two indicators of global human health, tracking acute illness and deaths as they fluctuate. While following these metrics is crucial to supporting populations, it doesn’t cater to anything other than illness. Health can be measured in various dimensions.Now, a secret third option called human functioning shifts focus away from death and illness and to everyday living and how any one person can live their best life.A paper published on May 31 in the journal Frontiers in Science by researchers from the University of Lucerne in Switzerland explains how human functioning could be the x-factor missing from public health.What is human functioning?Researchers define human functioning as the intersection of someone’s capabilities and environment. It begs questions about what someone’s body is able to do, what tools that person needs, and whether those tools integrate smoothly with that person’s environment. While functioning looks at a single person’s capabilities, it also focuses on the accessibility of their surroundings; are those surroundings accessible to the tools everyone needs in order to function?For example, someone with a spinal cord injury may not be able to walk. An electric wheelchair can be the tool that helps equip this person with the capacity to move. While that tool restores their mobility, this method also reckons with the environment around them. If their environment doesn’t accommodate electric wheelchairs, then this person’s functioning is mitigated by factors that have nothing to do with their own health and abilities. If someone’s environment hinders the use of their tools, like a wheelchair or a hearing aid, then the environment compromises their well-being.Human functioning is crucial to well-being, the authors argue, and too often, well-being becomes synonymous with markers of physical health. It leaves out how many different systems interact with each other.“In healthcare, the typical definition of health is always physical health, but functioning shows that very often what matters to people is what they can do with their health,” says co-author Sara Rubinelli, a professor of health sciences at the University of Lucerne. The focus, she says, switches from what qualities someone has to what those qualities enable them to do.Where did this idea come from?While the notion of accessibility is nothing new, Rubinelli says this formal idea of human functioning originates from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), which is the WHO’s framework for measuring health and disability. The ICF originated in 2002 with the paper’s co-author Jerome Bickenbock, a professor emeritus of bioethics philosophy at Queen’s University, among its developers.How does this change healthcare?Bringing functioning into the fold adds common terminology among healthcare providers, Rubinelli says. This framework intends to unify what she sees as a fragmented healthcare system within a patient-centered mission.In other words, health isn’t only cholesterol levels and vision scores; it’s how those data translate into abilities and experiences.“With functioning, you ask the person, ‘What would you like to do? What's your objective?’” Healthcare, she says, becomes not only about alleviating illness and symptoms but productively integrating more people within their environments. On a larger scale, the authors argue that incorporating human functioning can better support the United Nations’ third Sustainable Development Goal: health and well-being. Employed successfully, human functioning can be an avenue to human flourishing, Rubinelli says.
This New Metric For Health Could Revolutionize How We Treat Chronic Illnesses
Morbidity and mortality have long been the World Health Organization’s (WHO) two indicators of global human health, tracking acute illness and deaths as they fluctuate. While following these metrics is crucial to supporting populations, it doesn’t cater to anything other than illness. Health can be measured in various dimensions.Now, a secret third option called human functioning shifts focus away from death and illness and to everyday living and how any one person can live their best life.A paper published on May 31 in the journal Frontiers in Science by researchers from the University of Lucerne in Switzerland explains how human functioning could be the x-factor missing from public health.What is human functioning?Researchers define human functioning as the intersection of someone’s capabilities and environment. It begs questions about what someone’s body is able to do, what tools that person needs, and whether those tools integrate smoothly with that person’s environment. While functioning looks at a single person’s capabilities, it also focuses on the accessibility of their surroundings; are those surroundings accessible to the tools everyone needs in order to function?For example, someone with a spinal cord injury may not be able to walk. An electric wheelchair can be the tool that helps equip this person with the capacity to move. While that tool restores their mobility, this method also reckons with the environment around them. If their environment doesn’t accommodate electric wheelchairs, then this person’s functioning is mitigated by factors that have nothing to do with their own health and abilities. If someone’s environment hinders the use of their tools, like a wheelchair or a hearing aid, then the environment compromises their well-being.Human functioning is crucial to well-being, the authors argue, and too often, well-being becomes synonymous with markers of physical health. It leaves out how many different systems interact with each other.“In healthcare, the typical definition of health is always physical health, but functioning shows that very often what matters to people is what they can do with their health,” says co-author Sara Rubinelli, a professor of health sciences at the University of Lucerne. The focus, she says, switches from what qualities someone has to what those qualities enable them to do.Where did this idea come from?While the notion of accessibility is nothing new, Rubinelli says this formal idea of human functioning originates from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), which is the WHO’s framework for measuring health and disability. The ICF originated in 2002 with the paper’s co-author Jerome Bickenbock, a professor emeritus of bioethics philosophy at Queen’s University, among its developers.How does this change healthcare?Bringing functioning into the fold adds common terminology among healthcare providers, Rubinelli says. This framework intends to unify what she sees as a fragmented healthcare system within a patient-centered mission.In other words, health isn’t only cholesterol levels and vision scores; it’s how those data translate into abilities and experiences.“With functioning, you ask the person, ‘What would you like to do? What's your objective?’” Healthcare, she says, becomes not only about alleviating illness and symptoms but productively integrating more people within their environments. On a larger scale, the authors argue that incorporating human functioning can better support the United Nations’ third Sustainable Development Goal: health and well-being. Employed successfully, human functioning can be an avenue to human flourishing, Rubinelli says.
A Complete History of Bee Movie’s Many, Many Memes
At some point, every society must confront the existential questions that undergird its very existence. Questions like: Did comedian Jerry Seinfeld — fresh off of a nine-year run of prodigious success in a sophisticated and beloved sitcom — really make an animated children’s movie about a bee falling in love with a human woman (voiced by Renée Zellweger)? Did this movie really somehow become the source of a seemingly endless parade of increasingly abstruse memes on Tumblr and other social-media platforms? Did 15 million people really watch a video titled “The entire bee movie but every time they say bee it gets faster”? Did Vanity Fair actually declare that “Bee Movie Won 2016”? How the heck did we get here? Has it really been exactly ten years since the release of Bee Movie?
First, let’s start with the facts.
(1) In 2007, on planet Earth, DreamWorks studios released an animated children’s film titled Bee Movie (tagline: “Born to Bee Wild”).
The film, described as a “hit comedy” in its original 2008 back-of-the-DVD blurb, stars a bee, Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld), who — upon realizing that he is doomed to a life of fruitless, unending labor inside a system that devalues the lives of its workers — decides to fly outside the hive in an attempt to experience some sliver of excitement before resigning himself to a life of monotonous work that will surely end in his own demise. (This is all 100 percent straight from the Bee Movie script; you can fact-check me.) Once outside, he meets a human florist named Vanessa and falls for her after she saves him from being squished to death by her boyfriend, Ken — the only reasonable individual in the entire film — who is allergic to bees, and didn’t want to, you know, die. For reasons that are too complex to get into here (if you haven’t seen the movie, please go watch it now, I urge you), Vanessa ends up leaving her human boyfriend for Barry, who, may I remind you, is a bee. She then helps him sue the human race for stealing honey from bees around the world. Somehow, they win, which leads to all of the world’s honey being returned to the bees, which, in turn, causes flowers everywhere to begin to die due to a lack of pollination. (I’m not technically a scientist but this checks out.) So Barry ends up flying a plane (?) full of roses from the Pasadena Tournament of Roses to Central Park in order to pollinate the world, which somehow works and everyone is saved.
(2) This was Jerry Seinfeld’s first venture after Seinfeld, and thus, he promoted the crap out of it.
Please enjoy this video of Jerry Seinfeld in a giant bee costume zip-lining through Cannes (yes, that Cannes).
Bee Suit Seinfeld also starred in this absolutely absurd live-action trailer for the film, and a number of other equally bizarre shorts (one of which is literally called ’Welcome to Hell’?!).
(3) It didn’t exactly do well … at first.
Shockingly, this tale about beestiality and the fruitlessness of labor in a system of production — one that was, and still is, billed as a movie for children — did not kill it at the box office back in 2007. Roger Ebert gave it two stars and included a Karl Marx quote in his rather baffled review of the film, and even Jerry Seinfeld himself said: “I remember standing in the back of the theatre and it wasn’t great, but it was decent and, and I remember listening to the laughs and thinking, These laughs are shit. That was not worth it.”
(4) Somehow, now, ten years later, it is both a meme and more-or-less universally beloved (or at least tolerated).
????
Answering the question of how all this happened is more difficult than it seems. The usual responses like “Because internet,” or “Probably something with Tumblr or 4Chan,” aren’t acceptable here. After some careful digging, I’ve come to discover a timeline I believe may provide some answers.
This story comes in seven parts: Sincerity, Virality, Propulsion, Sexualization, Weaponization, Acknowledgment, and Fracture.
Let’s begin:
Stage 1: SincerityTumblr — Sunday, February 20, 2011
Bee Movie began, like so many memes, on the microblogging site Tumblr, where teenagers, furries, and other highly productive weirdos gather to create and share images and text. Above you can see what is, as far as I can tell, one of the original posts that set the meme-ification of Bee Movie in motion, way back in 2011. Throughout 2011, Tumblr was host to a number of posts like this — almost always accompanied by the tag #INSPIRING, and almost always including the film’s opening (and now internet-infamous) line:
According to all known laws of aviation,there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible.
What’s important to understand is that this post is presented entirely sincerely. Someone was inspired by this image and quote from Bee Movie, and wanted you to feel inspired too. And it seems to have struck a chord: Against all odds, this trend of genuine appreciation for a somewhat-poorly-received 2007 animated film about bees continued through 2011 and 2012, reinserting Bee Movie into Tumblr’s general cultural awareness.
Stage 2: Virality Tumblr — Tuesday, December 4, 2012
But as always happens on Tumblr, once something has entered the site’s collective consciousness, its sincerity will heighten into the realm of absurdity — where the viral lives. Put another way, once you start seeing enough sincere Bee Movie memes, you can’t help but take them in a different direction. Usually, this transformation happens gradually — a few persistent absurdists converting the normie world bit by bit. For Bee Movie, however, it happened all at once. On December 4, 2012, Tumblr exploded with absurd Bee Movie memes. And though there was seemingly no rhyme or reason to this mass conversion, it stuck.
Stage 3: PropulsionTwitter — Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Once Bee Movie had moved into “Tumblr meme” status, it was only a matter of time before it seeped out to other hubs of internet culture — like Twitter. Tumblr’s obsession with Bee Movie continued on well into 2013, but it was Jason Richards, the man behind the wildly successful Twitter account @Seinfeld2000, who helped elevate Bee Movie from a forgotten film to an all-purpose joke.
J.J. Abraham tappe to diarect Bee Movie prequels, Sandfel said "time to give it up for new generation"— Seinfeld Current Day (@Seinfeld2000) January 29, 2013
Creaters of @SeinfeldToday create new account @BeeMovieToday imagen what the caracters from Bee Movie do if Bee Movie was stil a show on tv— Seinfeld Current Day (@Seinfeld2000) April 4, 2013
Richards’s role in this story is by far one of the most curious, as he claims to have never seen a Bee Movie meme before tweeting about it in late January of 2013. (He was just searching for new Seinfeld-related material for his Twitter persona to riff on.) This perhaps speaks to the inherently ineffable nature of memes, which often have various (entirely distinctive) starting points.
Stage 4: SexualizationFanfiction & Tumblr — Saturday, March 16, 2013
Back on Tumblr, Bee Movie’s popularity only continued to grow as more and more users got swept up into the joke. On March 16, 2013, someone on Tumblr discovered The birds and the bees, an incredibly not-safe-for-work-or-life Bee Movie fanfiction story written in the literary genre that would soon be dubbed “beestiality.” Bee Movie had gone adult.
(I cannot in good conscience include a screencap of the actual fic itself here, so, instead, please enjoy these reviews:)
No Title
No Title
The birds and the bees was an instant success, garnering hundreds of comments only one day after publication, and inspiring a number of spiritual successors. (You can listen to a dramatic reading of one of the most popular sequels, She Wants the B, here, but I strongly urge you not to.)
Stage 5: WeaponizationFacebook & Tumblr — Monday, September 9, 2013
In 2013, a Tumblr user uploaded screenshots of her Facebook friend posting the entire script on someone’s Facebook Wall:
(Why? Why not?)
This trick — which could cause the unwitting victim’s phone to crash — quickly became a standard internet prank, thanks in a large part to the efforts of Pastebin user KIDOUYUUTO, who uploaded the entire script (which had been lifted from Script-o-Rama) to the site. It would go on to wreak havoc across a number of platforms over the next two years, reaching its zenith in 2015 — when the Facebook page “bees don’t exist” posted the entire Bee Movie script as a life event.
Stage 6: Acknowledgment Reddit & Twitter — Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Between 2011 and 2015, Bee Movie had gone from sincere to absurd to, uh, weirdly sexy, to aggressively weaponized. On June 8, 2016, it was finally recognized by the man at its center: Jerry Seinfeld. In an AMA on Reddit, the comedian speculated on a possible Bee Movie 2 (imaginary tagline: “Plan Bee”):
I considered it this spring for a solid six hours. There’s a fantastic energy now for some reason, on the internet particularly. Tumblr, people brought my attention to. I actually did consider it, but then I realized it would make Bee Movie 1 less iconic. But my kids want me to do it, a lot of people want me to do it. A lot of people that don’t know what animation is want me to do it. If you have any idea what animation is, you’d never do it.
Two months later, Seinfeld brought it up again on Twitter:
What about "Bee Movie 2"?What's going on with that?Should I?Any interest?— Jerry Seinfeld (@JerrySeinfeld) July 30, 2016
Did this mean that what he said in the AMA could be overridden? Was there still hope? Bee Movie fanatics everywhere went wild. But Seinfeld was silent in response.
Stage 7: FractureYouTube — Thursday, November 3, 2016
The final (and in my opinion, greatest) stage of Bee Movie memery is defined by cinematographic fracture, a fancy name I’ve given to a somewhat simple (albeit utterly bizarre) technique first practiced by comedian and self-declared memelord Darcy Grivas in his now-infamous video, “Bee movie trailer but every time they say bee it gets faster.”
Though this style of editing had been seen before — in remixes of a song from the Icelandic children’s show Lazy Town called “We Are Number One” — Grivas’s version was the first to truly hit it big. His follow-up video, “The entire bee movie but every time they say bee it gets faster” garnered more than 11 million views and 33,000 comments within just two weeks of posting.
Its immense success would inspire (literally) thousands of other videos and would permanently launch Bee Movie memes into the mainstream — leading to coverage from countless major news outlets and blogs. (Including us, of course.) Vanity Fair of all places would go on to claim that “Bee Movie Won 2016,” and perhaps they were right.
But if so, where does that leave us? Is this the end of an era? In tracking the rise and fall of Bee Movie and its various, seemingly inevitable memes, there seems to be a definitive end: right now. We are 11 months and two days into the Year of Our Lord 2017 and there is not a Bee Movie meme in sight. Is it dead? Did we kill it? That it took this long to milk the film for every last drop of meme-ability is valiant in itself — I mean, it has been ten years. But even now, with all the evidence at hand, I hesitate to pronounce its death, as when it comes to Bee Movie, I know only one thing with certainty:
According to all known laws of memedom, there is no way Bee Movie memes should still be a thing. They’ve been around far too long to not be considered stale by now. Bee Movie memes, of course, exist anyway because Bee Movie memes don’t care what meme bloggers think is impossible.
A Complete History of Bee Movie’s Many, Many Memes
At some point, every society must confront the existential questions that undergird its very existence. Questions like: Did comedian Jerry Seinfeld — fresh off of a nine-year run of prodigious success in a sophisticated and beloved sitcom — really make an animated children’s movie about a bee falling in love with a human woman (voiced by Renée Zellweger)? Did this movie really somehow become the source of a seemingly endless parade of increasingly abstruse memes on Tumblr and other social-media platforms? Did 15 million people really watch a video titled “The entire bee movie but every time they say bee it gets faster”? Did Vanity Fair actually declare that “Bee Movie Won 2016”? How the heck did we get here? Has it really been exactly ten years since the release of Bee Movie?
First, let’s start with the facts.
(1) In 2007, on planet Earth, DreamWorks studios released an animated children’s film titled Bee Movie (tagline: “Born to Bee Wild”).
The film, described as a “hit comedy” in its original 2008 back-of-the-DVD blurb, stars a bee, Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld), who — upon realizing that he is doomed to a life of fruitless, unending labor inside a system that devalues the lives of its workers — decides to fly outside the hive in an attempt to experience some sliver of excitement before resigning himself to a life of monotonous work that will surely end in his own demise. (This is all 100 percent straight from the Bee Movie script; you can fact-check me.) Once outside, he meets a human florist named Vanessa and falls for her after she saves him from being squished to death by her boyfriend, Ken — the only reasonable individual in the entire film — who is allergic to bees, and didn’t want to, you know, die. For reasons that are too complex to get into here (if you haven’t seen the movie, please go watch it now, I urge you), Vanessa ends up leaving her human boyfriend for Barry, who, may I remind you, is a bee. She then helps him sue the human race for stealing honey from bees around the world. Somehow, they win, which leads to all of the world’s honey being returned to the bees, which, in turn, causes flowers everywhere to begin to die due to a lack of pollination. (I’m not technically a scientist but this checks out.) So Barry ends up flying a plane (?) full of roses from the Pasadena Tournament of Roses to Central Park in order to pollinate the world, which somehow works and everyone is saved.
(2) This was Jerry Seinfeld’s first venture after Seinfeld, and thus, he promoted the crap out of it.
Please enjoy this video of Jerry Seinfeld in a giant bee costume zip-lining through Cannes (yes, that Cannes).
Bee Suit Seinfeld also starred in this absolutely absurd live-action trailer for the film, and a number of other equally bizarre shorts (one of which is literally called ’Welcome to Hell’?!).
(3) It didn’t exactly do well … at first.
Shockingly, this tale about beestiality and the fruitlessness of labor in a system of production — one that was, and still is, billed as a movie for children — did not kill it at the box office back in 2007. Roger Ebert gave it two stars and included a Karl Marx quote in his rather baffled review of the film, and even Jerry Seinfeld himself said: “I remember standing in the back of the theatre and it wasn’t great, but it was decent and, and I remember listening to the laughs and thinking, These laughs are shit. That was not worth it.”
(4) Somehow, now, ten years later, it is both a meme and more-or-less universally beloved (or at least tolerated).
????
Answering the question of how all this happened is more difficult than it seems. The usual responses like “Because internet,” or “Probably something with Tumblr or 4Chan,” aren’t acceptable here. After some careful digging, I’ve come to discover a timeline I believe may provide some answers.
This story comes in seven parts: Sincerity, Virality, Propulsion, Sexualization, Weaponization, Acknowledgment, and Fracture.
Let’s begin:
Stage 1: SincerityTumblr — Sunday, February 20, 2011
Bee Movie began, like so many memes, on the microblogging site Tumblr, where teenagers, furries, and other highly productive weirdos gather to create and share images and text. Above you can see what is, as far as I can tell, one of the original posts that set the meme-ification of Bee Movie in motion, way back in 2011. Throughout 2011, Tumblr was host to a number of posts like this — almost always accompanied by the tag #INSPIRING, and almost always including the film’s opening (and now internet-infamous) line:
According to all known laws of aviation,there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible.
What’s important to understand is that this post is presented entirely sincerely. Someone was inspired by this image and quote from Bee Movie, and wanted you to feel inspired too. And it seems to have struck a chord: Against all odds, this trend of genuine appreciation for a somewhat-poorly-received 2007 animated film about bees continued through 2011 and 2012, reinserting Bee Movie into Tumblr’s general cultural awareness.
Stage 2: Virality Tumblr — Tuesday, December 4, 2012
But as always happens on Tumblr, once something has entered the site’s collective consciousness, its sincerity will heighten into the realm of absurdity — where the viral lives. Put another way, once you start seeing enough sincere Bee Movie memes, you can’t help but take them in a different direction. Usually, this transformation happens gradually — a few persistent absurdists converting the normie world bit by bit. For Bee Movie, however, it happened all at once. On December 4, 2012, Tumblr exploded with absurd Bee Movie memes. And though there was seemingly no rhyme or reason to this mass conversion, it stuck.
Stage 3: PropulsionTwitter — Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Once Bee Movie had moved into “Tumblr meme” status, it was only a matter of time before it seeped out to other hubs of internet culture — like Twitter. Tumblr’s obsession with Bee Movie continued on well into 2013, but it was Jason Richards, the man behind the wildly successful Twitter account @Seinfeld2000, who helped elevate Bee Movie from a forgotten film to an all-purpose joke.
J.J. Abraham tappe to diarect Bee Movie prequels, Sandfel said "time to give it up for new generation"— Seinfeld Current Day (@Seinfeld2000) January 29, 2013
Creaters of @SeinfeldToday create new account @BeeMovieToday imagen what the caracters from Bee Movie do if Bee Movie was stil a show on tv— Seinfeld Current Day (@Seinfeld2000) April 4, 2013
Richards’s role in this story is by far one of the most curious, as he claims to have never seen a Bee Movie meme before tweeting about it in late January of 2013. (He was just searching for new Seinfeld-related material for his Twitter persona to riff on.) This perhaps speaks to the inherently ineffable nature of memes, which often have various (entirely distinctive) starting points.
Stage 4: SexualizationFanfiction & Tumblr — Saturday, March 16, 2013
Back on Tumblr, Bee Movie’s popularity only continued to grow as more and more users got swept up into the joke. On March 16, 2013, someone on Tumblr discovered The birds and the bees, an incredibly not-safe-for-work-or-life Bee Movie fanfiction story written in the literary genre that would soon be dubbed “beestiality.” Bee Movie had gone adult.
(I cannot in good conscience include a screencap of the actual fic itself here, so, instead, please enjoy these reviews:)
No Title
No Title
The birds and the bees was an instant success, garnering hundreds of comments only one day after publication, and inspiring a number of spiritual successors. (You can listen to a dramatic reading of one of the most popular sequels, She Wants the B, here, but I strongly urge you not to.)
Stage 5: WeaponizationFacebook & Tumblr — Monday, September 9, 2013
In 2013, a Tumblr user uploaded screenshots of her Facebook friend posting the entire script on someone’s Facebook Wall:
(Why? Why not?)
This trick — which could cause the unwitting victim’s phone to crash — quickly became a standard internet prank, thanks in a large part to the efforts of Pastebin user KIDOUYUUTO, who uploaded the entire script (which had been lifted from Script-o-Rama) to the site. It would go on to wreak havoc across a number of platforms over the next two years, reaching its zenith in 2015 — when the Facebook page “bees don’t exist” posted the entire Bee Movie script as a life event.
Stage 6: Acknowledgment Reddit & Twitter — Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Between 2011 and 2015, Bee Movie had gone from sincere to absurd to, uh, weirdly sexy, to aggressively weaponized. On June 8, 2016, it was finally recognized by the man at its center: Jerry Seinfeld. In an AMA on Reddit, the comedian speculated on a possible Bee Movie 2 (imaginary tagline: “Plan Bee”):
I considered it this spring for a solid six hours. There’s a fantastic energy now for some reason, on the internet particularly. Tumblr, people brought my attention to. I actually did consider it, but then I realized it would make Bee Movie 1 less iconic. But my kids want me to do it, a lot of people want me to do it. A lot of people that don’t know what animation is want me to do it. If you have any idea what animation is, you’d never do it.
Two months later, Seinfeld brought it up again on Twitter:
What about "Bee Movie 2"?What's going on with that?Should I?Any interest?— Jerry Seinfeld (@JerrySeinfeld) July 30, 2016
Did this mean that what he said in the AMA could be overridden? Was there still hope? Bee Movie fanatics everywhere went wild. But Seinfeld was silent in response.
Stage 7: FractureYouTube — Thursday, November 3, 2016
The final (and in my opinion, greatest) stage of Bee Movie memery is defined by cinematographic fracture, a fancy name I’ve given to a somewhat simple (albeit utterly bizarre) technique first practiced by comedian and self-declared memelord Darcy Grivas in his now-infamous video, “Bee movie trailer but every time they say bee it gets faster.”
Though this style of editing had been seen before — in remixes of a song from the Icelandic children’s show Lazy Town called “We Are Number One” — Grivas’s version was the first to truly hit it big. His follow-up video, “The entire bee movie but every time they say bee it gets faster” garnered more than 11 million views and 33,000 comments within just two weeks of posting.
Its immense success would inspire (literally) thousands of other videos and would permanently launch Bee Movie memes into the mainstream — leading to coverage from countless major news outlets and blogs. (Including us, of course.) Vanity Fair of all places would go on to claim that “Bee Movie Won 2016,” and perhaps they were right.
But if so, where does that leave us? Is this the end of an era? In tracking the rise and fall of Bee Movie and its various, seemingly inevitable memes, there seems to be a definitive end: right now. We are 11 months and two days into the Year of Our Lord 2017 and there is not a Bee Movie meme in sight. Is it dead? Did we kill it? That it took this long to milk the film for every last drop of meme-ability is valiant in itself — I mean, it has been ten years. But even now, with all the evidence at hand, I hesitate to pronounce its death, as when it comes to Bee Movie, I know only one thing with certainty:
According to all known laws of memedom, there is no way Bee Movie memes should still be a thing. They’ve been around far too long to not be considered stale by now. Bee Movie memes, of course, exist anyway because Bee Movie memes don’t care what meme bloggers think is impossible.
Who Invented the First Camera?
Left to right: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, Louis Daguerre, Henry Fox Talbot
The small, handy cameras we have at the tip of our fingers today are part of a long and varied history that goes back more than 100 years. It is tricky to say when, exactly, the very first camera was invented, because early prototypes of cameras, or camera-like tools existed long before anything practical, portable and usable by people in everyday life was widely available (such as the pinhole camera and the camera obscura). Having said that, there are several pioneers throughout history who made significant breakthroughs in camera technology, and their names are the ones we now associate with the invention of the first camera. Let’s take a look through these pioneering figures who made the ingenious camera technology of today possible.
Nicéphore Niépce
Point de Vue du Gras (View from the Window at Le Gras), by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, 1827, via Harry Ransom Center, Texas.
The French inventor Nicéphore Niépce is credited with creating the first camera for making photographic images in 1825. In his early experiments, he toyed with how a negative image could be created on paper coated with silver chloride, but these resulting images were temporary. However, following several later chemical explorations, he discovered that a film made from Bitumen of Judea mixed with pewter could produce permanent photographic images (with a blurred quality) when exposed inside a camera obscura. Niépce called this process ‘heliography’. Meanwhile, Niépce’s younger colleague, Louis Daguerre, a former apprentice in architecture and theatre design, carried on Niépce’s work into the mid and late 19th century.
Louis Daguerre
Hand-coloured daguerreotype of Prince Albert, c. 1848, via the Royal Collection Trust, London
Following Niépce’s death in 1833, Louise Daguerre took his colleague’s pioneering developments further, eventually producing the first ever portable camera in 1839. Daguerre produced a type of box camera which he called the Daguerreotype, in which a plate coated with a thin film of silver iodide was exposed to light, often for several minutes or even hours. Daguerre treated the image with mercury vapor and hot saltwater to remove the silver iodide, thus revealing a permanent image left behind. Daguerreotypes produced images in reverse, or mirror image.
The Daguerreotype Process
Exposure times for early Daguerreotypes were long, but as the concept of the camera continued to evolve, shorter exposure times meant the cameras could be used to take portrait photographs for the first time ever. Such was the popularity of the Daguerreotype the French Government were proud to show off the design as a “gift to the world.” However, the Daguerreotype was not without its drawbacks – it was an expensive process, and could create only one, single photographic image.
William Henry Fox Talbot
The Great Exhibition in London, 1951 by Henry Fox Talbot via The Talbot Catalogue Raisonne
At the same time that Daguerre made his breakthrough discoveries, an Englishman called William Henry Fox Talbot was also working on a type of camera which he called a Calotype. Talbot unveiled his camera in 1839 to the Royal Institute in London. In contrast with the Daguerreotype, Talbot’s camera worked with a different series of chemical processes – he began with a sheet of writing paper, treated with silver nitrate and coated in potassium iodide. Just before being used to capture an image, the Talbot coated the paper in gallo-nitrate of silver to produce a film ready for exposure. The paper was exposed to the image through a box camera for just a few minutes, before being washed with a new layer of gallo-nitrate of silver to fix the image in place.
The Calotype camera invented by William Henry Fox Talbot
While Talbot’s camera had a far slower exposure time than the Daguerreotype, it produced negative images with a blurred quality. In order to make a positive print from the negative, Talbot soaked a new sheet of paper in salt solution, and brushed it on one side to make it light sensitive. After placing the Calotype negative over this sheet of paper, Talbot covered the two sheets with a glass plate and shone light onto them, allowing light to pass through from the upper sheet of paper and translate the negative into a positive image on the sheet below – and voila! The first print from a negative film was created.
Who Invented the First Camera?
Left to right: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, Louis Daguerre, Henry Fox Talbot
The small, handy cameras we have at the tip of our fingers today are part of a long and varied history that goes back more than 100 years. It is tricky to say when, exactly, the very first camera was invented, because early prototypes of cameras, or camera-like tools existed long before anything practical, portable and usable by people in everyday life was widely available (such as the pinhole camera and the camera obscura). Having said that, there are several pioneers throughout history who made significant breakthroughs in camera technology, and their names are the ones we now associate with the invention of the first camera. Let’s take a look through these pioneering figures who made the ingenious camera technology of today possible.
Nicéphore Niépce
Point de Vue du Gras (View from the Window at Le Gras), by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, 1827, via Harry Ransom Center, Texas.
The French inventor Nicéphore Niépce is credited with creating the first camera for making photographic images in 1825. In his early experiments, he toyed with how a negative image could be created on paper coated with silver chloride, but these resulting images were temporary. However, following several later chemical explorations, he discovered that a film made from Bitumen of Judea mixed with pewter could produce permanent photographic images (with a blurred quality) when exposed inside a camera obscura. Niépce called this process ‘heliography’. Meanwhile, Niépce’s younger colleague, Louis Daguerre, a former apprentice in architecture and theatre design, carried on Niépce’s work into the mid and late 19th century.
Louis Daguerre
Hand-coloured daguerreotype of Prince Albert, c. 1848, via the Royal Collection Trust, London
Following Niépce’s death in 1833, Louise Daguerre took his colleague’s pioneering developments further, eventually producing the first ever portable camera in 1839. Daguerre produced a type of box camera which he called the Daguerreotype, in which a plate coated with a thin film of silver iodide was exposed to light, often for several minutes or even hours. Daguerre treated the image with mercury vapor and hot saltwater to remove the silver iodide, thus revealing a permanent image left behind. Daguerreotypes produced images in reverse, or mirror image.
The Daguerreotype Process
Exposure times for early Daguerreotypes were long, but as the concept of the camera continued to evolve, shorter exposure times meant the cameras could be used to take portrait photographs for the first time ever. Such was the popularity of the Daguerreotype the French Government were proud to show off the design as a “gift to the world.” However, the Daguerreotype was not without its drawbacks – it was an expensive process, and could create only one, single photographic image.
William Henry Fox Talbot
The Great Exhibition in London, 1951 by Henry Fox Talbot via The Talbot Catalogue Raisonne
At the same time that Daguerre made his breakthrough discoveries, an Englishman called William Henry Fox Talbot was also working on a type of camera which he called a Calotype. Talbot unveiled his camera in 1839 to the Royal Institute in London. In contrast with the Daguerreotype, Talbot’s camera worked with a different series of chemical processes – he began with a sheet of writing paper, treated with silver nitrate and coated in potassium iodide. Just before being used to capture an image, the Talbot coated the paper in gallo-nitrate of silver to produce a film ready for exposure. The paper was exposed to the image through a box camera for just a few minutes, before being washed with a new layer of gallo-nitrate of silver to fix the image in place.
The Calotype camera invented by William Henry Fox Talbot
While Talbot’s camera had a far slower exposure time than the Daguerreotype, it produced negative images with a blurred quality. In order to make a positive print from the negative, Talbot soaked a new sheet of paper in salt solution, and brushed it on one side to make it light sensitive. After placing the Calotype negative over this sheet of paper, Talbot covered the two sheets with a glass plate and shone light onto them, allowing light to pass through from the upper sheet of paper and translate the negative into a positive image on the sheet below – and voila! The first print from a negative film was created.
Neurodivergence is a career maker for men like Elon Musk and Kanye West. Women aren’t afforded the same privilege
Elon Musk made a groundbreaking announcement while hosting Saturday Night Live in May 2021. “I’m actually making history tonight as the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL. Or at least the first to admit it,” the now-Twitter chief executive told the audience. At the time, Musk, 49, had never publicly disclosed his condition, which is today considered part of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The multi-hyphenate CEO, billionaire, and entrepreneur was not shy to link his condition to his success—and polarizing leadership style. “To anyone I’ve offended, I just want to say, ‘I reinvented electric cars, and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?’” He’s not the only man to credit his “genius” to neurodivergence. Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, and musician Kanye West have made similar remarks. “That’s my bipolar shit…That’s my superpower. Ain’t no disability. I am a superhero,” the artist and former billionaire rapped in his song “Yikes.” To be certain, life isn’t a cakewalk for neurodivergent men. Musk spoke about his childhood bullying, and a dyslexic Branson dropped out of school at age 15 owing, in part, to academic struggles. Still, these men’s accomplishments today are lauded, often attributed to their neurodivergence. And it’s hard not to miss that so few openly neurodivergent women are among the revered cohort of entrepreneurs and innovative business minds. That isn’t to say women are entirely absent from these lists. Real estate mogul and Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran has said dyslexia made her a millionaire. But broadly speaking, men occupy most of the spotlight. There are a few reasons for that. Firstly, few women reach the CEO rank or receive adequate funding to become successful entrepreneurs—not to talk of neurodivergent women. The second is that women are less likely to be diagnosed with several disorders that fall under neurodivergence than men, and many report receiving a diagnosis later in life. By and large, the media presents white men as the face of neurodivergence. “As soon as I say I’m autistic, Rain Man comes up. I’m tired of that,” says Charlotte Valeur, founder of the Institute of Neurodiversity. Many female leaders miss out on a diagnosis because of gender stereotypes about neurodivergence. Joey Ng, chief marketing officer at Yami, first realized she was autistic after a 2020 consultation with a career coach. Joey Ng, chief marketing officer at Yami, first realized she was autistic when she met with a career coach in 2020. Ng answered a few end-of-session questions, assuming they’d provide insight into her leadership style. Upon completion, the coach suggested that Ng may be on the spectrum. “I was like, ‘You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Ng recalls. In her mind, she didn’t fit any autism stereotype. She was extroverted and only knew of autistic figures like Musk or TV characters assumed to be autistic, like The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper. “I am nothing like those people, these male phenotypes of autism. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she remembers thinking. The coach shared her own late diagnosis and asked Ng if she’d experienced social barriers in school or romantic relationships. She had. “All of the boxes were checked,” Ng says. She left the session still skeptical, but the realization soon sank in. “I went for a drive, did my errands, came back, and parked in my spot beneath my apartment. And then I just full-on bawled like someone had finally seen me truly for the first time.” Lonely at the top Neurodivergent women who ascend to leadership positions often struggle to find peers with whom they can connect. “You have less community, less support, less understanding of your unique identity,” Ng says. “I would be the only woman of color in a room of white men.” Archana Iyer, a marketing strategist who’s held leadership roles at communications firms DDB and Weber Shandwick, says one of her biggest challenges as an autistic woman is the lack of female role models. One of her exemplars is Sherlock Holmes, the 19th-century detective who some modern readers have posited could be autistic. “But Holmes is a white male and gets away with being called an eccentric genius,” Iyer says, “[That’s] never a phrase you hear associated with a woman, especially of color.” Archana Iyer credits her success as a marketing strategist to her outsider-like perception of social norms. Ng hypothesizes that there are more neurodivergent women in leadership positions than is publicly known. “When we think of all these extraordinarily successful women, we don’t think of them as average. The pure definition of being neuro-atypical is that you are not average,” she says. But getting to the top is no easy feat, and neurodivergent women experience extra barriers when climbing the career ladder. Second glass ceiling The glass ceiling is a painfully familiar concept to any career-driven woman. Yet neurodivergent people experience a concrete ceiling. They’re underrepresented in senior roles and often don’t exhibit skills typically associated with leadership, like strong communication or management abilities. When organizations provide support to neurodivergent individuals, they benefit: JPMorgan Chase’s Autism at Work program found that, if matched to the right job, autistic workers are up to 140% more productive than neurotypical employees. Neurodivergent women do see a career benefit thanks to their unique brain function. Iyer credits her success as a marketing strategist to her outsider-like perception of social norms. “You might think that’s a problem,” she says, but thinking outside the box and challenging the status quo are key to a successful marketing campaign. “It’s not a deficit or a disorder. It has literally made my career,” Valeur says. She thrived in a fast-paced environment in her 25-year tenure as a stock trader. Now, she finds sitting on multiple corporate boards and serving as a visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow, a good match for her energy. “I love it. There’s a lot to think about all the time. That is what my brain wants.” Charlotte Valeur credits ADHD and autism as key to thriving in her careers as a stock broker and eventual member of several corporate boards. “It’s not a deficit or a disorder. It has literally made my career.” Yet these strengths can carry someone only so far in a workplace designed for the neurotypical. “I think that being autistic and the characteristics that come with it can definitely help accelerate your career to a certain extent. Then you reach that ceiling of it being uncomfortable for people,” Ng says. Lia Grimanis, founder and CEO of Canadian nonprofit Up With Women, excelled as a technology sales leader at companies like SAS and TIBCO. “I worked a lot harder, but it was because I was really geeking out on this stuff,” she says. “Being able to talk to other geeks and convince them that this is the software they need didn’t take much, because we all had passion in the room.” But her difficulty reading facial expressions, picking up on social cues, and habit of “dancing all over people’s boundaries” often put her in the hot seat at work. Grimanis recalls removing her shoes at the office since she found she could function better without them. “People were like, ‘Lia, what are you doing? Put on your shoes.’ I’m like, ‘My feet don’t stink. I think better this way.’” In all, she was fired from four of the six jobs she held in the tech sector. Walking the tightrope Women face tightrope bias, the difficult balancing act between being perceived as too likable or aggressive. “If you take neurodivergent women, there’s an additional layer of stereotypes because women are expected to be always nurturing, always emotionally available,” says Ludmila Praslova, a professor of organizational psychology at Vanguard University of Southern California. “You kind of violate the gender norm just by virtue of being neurodivergent.” Jhillika Kumar, cofounder and CEO of Mentra, a neurodiversity employment network whose backers include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, long struggled with executive dysfunction, though she didn’t always recognize it. Even after leaving her role at a top bank to focus on Mentra full-time, she still struggled to attend meetings on time and feel prepared. She felt pressure to conform to leadership stereotypes directly contradicting her true personality. “I’m very honest and very over-the-top—emotions everywhere. I’ll put my heart on my sleeve and come in with a lot of enthusiasm,” she says. “It’s been a learning curve to temper that back because people often perceive you as not masculine or authoritative enough to steer the company forward.” For male CEOs like Satya Nadella or Marc Benioff, who have made empathy part of their leadership personas, such passion earns them praise. For women, it’s considered the bare minimum but not necessarily a leadership trait. Women are generally expected to take on office housework and “mother” employees, Praslova points out, while men who take on fathering are “like a super bonus.” “The expectation of care is very unbalanced by gender,” she says. Behind the mask Existing in a workplace that requires you to mask your neurodivergence is a surefire path to burnout. Before her diagnosis, the burden of masking would leave Kumar exhausted from her banking job. “I would come home completely drained [and] required hours to decompress,” she says. “Sometimes I would just sob on my couch for a bit because I didn’t understand why I couldn’t conform and didn’t feel accepted and valued on the team.” Ng has to be especially mindful of social cues and personal interactions in corporate settings so she doesn’t appear rude. “That takes a lot of effort,” she says, so she mutes herself during end-of-day Zoom meetings. “It’s not because I hate them or I hate work. It’s just that I’m tired of pretending not to be an alien all day.” Sensory issues also affect neurodivergent women’s ability to thrive at work. Grimanis paid a tailor to make her suits—already the same cut but in different monochromatic colors—feel like silk pajamas on the inside. “There was no pinching, no scratching, no nothing. That allowed me to be more resourceful at work.” But women, she notes, are held to a higher standard of dressing, while leaders like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg can get away with T-shirts and jeans as standard business attire. “All of a sudden, it’s an issue that we’re wearing the same thing every day,” she says. “They think you’re trying to be like Steve Jobs.” And given that neurodivergent women tend to be diagnosed later in life or misdiagnosed entirely, it could create invisible barriers for women that they can’t seem to overcome. “You’ve got women growing up with a narrative that says, ‘I’ve got mental health problems’—which they may have as well—but not recognizing they have ADHD, autism, dyspraxia, or all of the above,” says Amanda Kirby, emeritus professor at the University of South Wales and CEO and founder of Do-IT, a platform specializing in training neurodivergent individuals. “When they get their diagnosis, [they become] quite angry because of where they could have been. They haven’t reached their potential and often feel frustrated by that.” To disclose or not disclose? Women struggle with whether to disclose their neurodivergence in the workplace, fearing discrimination and stigma that could prevent them from reaching leadership roles. “It’s all very well for Elon Musk to say, ‘This is who I am,’ and that he doesn’t care what people think,” Kirby says. “If you’re halfway through building your career, we know that disclosure doesn’t always go well.” Yet some believe coming out is integral to their work identity. After receiving a Forbes 30 Under 30 award for social impact, Kumar revealed her autism and ADHD diagnoses. “As my outward success has grown, there’s been an increased dissonance between the Jhillika I show to the world and the reality I experience behind closed doors,” she wrote on LinkedIn earlier this year. Disclosing her condition was no small feat for Kumar, who says skydiving was easier than coming out to her professional circles. Plus, the response from others can be frustrating. Iyer says a few well-meaning people encouraged her to aim simpler or smaller after sharing her diagnosis. “Would you tell that to a man on the spectrum?” she asks. A common response after disclosing a neurodivergence is disbelief. Many recount receiving comments like, “You can’t be autistic or have ADHD.” “They mean well, so I don’t take offense,” Ng says. “Maybe in a work environment, people really think [they’re] doing the polite thing by refuting it.” Valeur says people may also dismiss her autism diagnosis, which she disclosed seven years ago, because white men are the primary examples of neurodivergence they see. “I don’t know what people have in their heads, but it’s not me,” she says. “I think they [picture] Rain Man or Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory.” As a senior principal systems engineer at Raytheon, Meghan Buchanan says the company provides her a platform to share her experience. “I know a lot of companies have initiatives…to get stories out there. It’s getting better, but I do feel it is constantly correcting misconceptions and fighting for that voice,” she says. The biggest misconception she faces at work is that she’s lazy and lacks attention to detail. “I may have looked at [a presentation] a million times, and if the spell checker doesn’t catch it, I’m screwed.” But Buchanan also knows her strength: Her creativity helps her find solutions that other engineers may not consider. “In engineering, when there is a solution needed, and typical ways of dealing with it don’t work, you’ve got to have that creative process, which is what I bring to the company.” Rethinking leadership To bring more neurodivergent women into higher ranks, organizations will have to dismantle their perception of what makes for a strong leader. “Leadership is often defined as this space in the organizational chart,” and its qualities are limited to how well someone can tell others what to do, Praslova says. “It‘s just way too narrow.” Organizations must be diligent about creating evaluation and promotion systems that prioritize performance metrics over personality preferences. And while diversity trainings can help to educate neurotypical workers, they don’t create systemic change, Praslova says. “[It’s like] rinsing off a pickle and putting it back into the brine,” she says. “It doesn’t make very much sense.” There is no clear information on the percentage of neurodivergent women in leadership compared with men. Any studies of such nature tend to have small samples and vary in how they define leadership roles, Praslova says. Organizations also have rigid views on how best to leverage neurodivergent talent, often “typecasting” them for specific roles, such as autistic individuals in technical roles or dyslexic individuals for creative positions. “Even positive stereotypes can be damaging. And if someone doesn’t feel like they can live up to that stereotype, it can mess with them,” Praslova says. Kirby, the University of South Wales professor, emphasizes that “spectrum” is the keyword in autism spectrum disorder. One autistic person can be nonspeaking, and another can be highly verbal; both could be matched to very different roles based on their interests and skill sets. Factor in comorbidities, and these stereotypes are even less sticky. “It’s a bit like horoscopes, right?” she says. “You’re born under Capricorn, and there are 25 million people who are also born under Capricorn. How can we all be the same?” When companies expand their definition of strong leadership, neurodivergent talent can stand out, says Valeur. “We need to want differences. We need to get to a place where our leadership teams are looking for someone who doesn’t fit in, because that’s diversity.”
Neurodivergence is a career maker for men like Elon Musk and Kanye West. Women aren’t afforded the same privilege
Elon Musk made a groundbreaking announcement while hosting Saturday Night Live in May 2021. “I’m actually making history tonight as the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL. Or at least the first to admit it,” the now-Twitter chief executive told the audience. At the time, Musk, 49, had never publicly disclosed his condition, which is today considered part of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The multi-hyphenate CEO, billionaire, and entrepreneur was not shy to link his condition to his success—and polarizing leadership style. “To anyone I’ve offended, I just want to say, ‘I reinvented electric cars, and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?’” He’s not the only man to credit his “genius” to neurodivergence. Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, and musician Kanye West have made similar remarks. “That’s my bipolar shit…That’s my superpower. Ain’t no disability. I am a superhero,” the artist and former billionaire rapped in his song “Yikes.” To be certain, life isn’t a cakewalk for neurodivergent men. Musk spoke about his childhood bullying, and a dyslexic Branson dropped out of school at age 15 owing, in part, to academic struggles. Still, these men’s accomplishments today are lauded, often attributed to their neurodivergence. And it’s hard not to miss that so few openly neurodivergent women are among the revered cohort of entrepreneurs and innovative business minds. That isn’t to say women are entirely absent from these lists. Real estate mogul and Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran has said dyslexia made her a millionaire. But broadly speaking, men occupy most of the spotlight. There are a few reasons for that. Firstly, few women reach the CEO rank or receive adequate funding to become successful entrepreneurs—not to talk of neurodivergent women. The second is that women are less likely to be diagnosed with several disorders that fall under neurodivergence than men, and many report receiving a diagnosis later in life. By and large, the media presents white men as the face of neurodivergence. “As soon as I say I’m autistic, Rain Man comes up. I’m tired of that,” says Charlotte Valeur, founder of the Institute of Neurodiversity. Many female leaders miss out on a diagnosis because of gender stereotypes about neurodivergence. Joey Ng, chief marketing officer at Yami, first realized she was autistic after a 2020 consultation with a career coach. Joey Ng, chief marketing officer at Yami, first realized she was autistic when she met with a career coach in 2020. Ng answered a few end-of-session questions, assuming they’d provide insight into her leadership style. Upon completion, the coach suggested that Ng may be on the spectrum. “I was like, ‘You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Ng recalls. In her mind, she didn’t fit any autism stereotype. She was extroverted and only knew of autistic figures like Musk or TV characters assumed to be autistic, like The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper. “I am nothing like those people, these male phenotypes of autism. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she remembers thinking. The coach shared her own late diagnosis and asked Ng if she’d experienced social barriers in school or romantic relationships. She had. “All of the boxes were checked,” Ng says. She left the session still skeptical, but the realization soon sank in. “I went for a drive, did my errands, came back, and parked in my spot beneath my apartment. And then I just full-on bawled like someone had finally seen me truly for the first time.” Lonely at the top Neurodivergent women who ascend to leadership positions often struggle to find peers with whom they can connect. “You have less community, less support, less understanding of your unique identity,” Ng says. “I would be the only woman of color in a room of white men.” Archana Iyer, a marketing strategist who’s held leadership roles at communications firms DDB and Weber Shandwick, says one of her biggest challenges as an autistic woman is the lack of female role models. One of her exemplars is Sherlock Holmes, the 19th-century detective who some modern readers have posited could be autistic. “But Holmes is a white male and gets away with being called an eccentric genius,” Iyer says, “[That’s] never a phrase you hear associated with a woman, especially of color.” Archana Iyer credits her success as a marketing strategist to her outsider-like perception of social norms. Ng hypothesizes that there are more neurodivergent women in leadership positions than is publicly known. “When we think of all these extraordinarily successful women, we don’t think of them as average. The pure definition of being neuro-atypical is that you are not average,” she says. But getting to the top is no easy feat, and neurodivergent women experience extra barriers when climbing the career ladder. Second glass ceiling The glass ceiling is a painfully familiar concept to any career-driven woman. Yet neurodivergent people experience a concrete ceiling. They’re underrepresented in senior roles and often don’t exhibit skills typically associated with leadership, like strong communication or management abilities. When organizations provide support to neurodivergent individuals, they benefit: JPMorgan Chase’s Autism at Work program found that, if matched to the right job, autistic workers are up to 140% more productive than neurotypical employees. Neurodivergent women do see a career benefit thanks to their unique brain function. Iyer credits her success as a marketing strategist to her outsider-like perception of social norms. “You might think that’s a problem,” she says, but thinking outside the box and challenging the status quo are key to a successful marketing campaign. “It’s not a deficit or a disorder. It has literally made my career,” Valeur says. She thrived in a fast-paced environment in her 25-year tenure as a stock trader. Now, she finds sitting on multiple corporate boards and serving as a visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow, a good match for her energy. “I love it. There’s a lot to think about all the time. That is what my brain wants.” Charlotte Valeur credits ADHD and autism as key to thriving in her careers as a stock broker and eventual member of several corporate boards. “It’s not a deficit or a disorder. It has literally made my career.” Yet these strengths can carry someone only so far in a workplace designed for the neurotypical. “I think that being autistic and the characteristics that come with it can definitely help accelerate your career to a certain extent. Then you reach that ceiling of it being uncomfortable for people,” Ng says. Lia Grimanis, founder and CEO of Canadian nonprofit Up With Women, excelled as a technology sales leader at companies like SAS and TIBCO. “I worked a lot harder, but it was because I was really geeking out on this stuff,” she says. “Being able to talk to other geeks and convince them that this is the software they need didn’t take much, because we all had passion in the room.” But her difficulty reading facial expressions, picking up on social cues, and habit of “dancing all over people’s boundaries” often put her in the hot seat at work. Grimanis recalls removing her shoes at the office since she found she could function better without them. “People were like, ‘Lia, what are you doing? Put on your shoes.’ I’m like, ‘My feet don’t stink. I think better this way.’” In all, she was fired from four of the six jobs she held in the tech sector. Walking the tightrope Women face tightrope bias, the difficult balancing act between being perceived as too likable or aggressive. “If you take neurodivergent women, there’s an additional layer of stereotypes because women are expected to be always nurturing, always emotionally available,” says Ludmila Praslova, a professor of organizational psychology at Vanguard University of Southern California. “You kind of violate the gender norm just by virtue of being neurodivergent.” Jhillika Kumar, cofounder and CEO of Mentra, a neurodiversity employment network whose backers include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, long struggled with executive dysfunction, though she didn’t always recognize it. Even after leaving her role at a top bank to focus on Mentra full-time, she still struggled to attend meetings on time and feel prepared. She felt pressure to conform to leadership stereotypes directly contradicting her true personality. “I’m very honest and very over-the-top—emotions everywhere. I’ll put my heart on my sleeve and come in with a lot of enthusiasm,” she says. “It’s been a learning curve to temper that back because people often perceive you as not masculine or authoritative enough to steer the company forward.” For male CEOs like Satya Nadella or Marc Benioff, who have made empathy part of their leadership personas, such passion earns them praise. For women, it’s considered the bare minimum but not necessarily a leadership trait. Women are generally expected to take on office housework and “mother” employees, Praslova points out, while men who take on fathering are “like a super bonus.” “The expectation of care is very unbalanced by gender,” she says. Behind the mask Existing in a workplace that requires you to mask your neurodivergence is a surefire path to burnout. Before her diagnosis, the burden of masking would leave Kumar exhausted from her banking job. “I would come home completely drained [and] required hours to decompress,” she says. “Sometimes I would just sob on my couch for a bit because I didn’t understand why I couldn’t conform and didn’t feel accepted and valued on the team.” Ng has to be especially mindful of social cues and personal interactions in corporate settings so she doesn’t appear rude. “That takes a lot of effort,” she says, so she mutes herself during end-of-day Zoom meetings. “It’s not because I hate them or I hate work. It’s just that I’m tired of pretending not to be an alien all day.” Sensory issues also affect neurodivergent women’s ability to thrive at work. Grimanis paid a tailor to make her suits—already the same cut but in different monochromatic colors—feel like silk pajamas on the inside. “There was no pinching, no scratching, no nothing. That allowed me to be more resourceful at work.” But women, she notes, are held to a higher standard of dressing, while leaders like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg can get away with T-shirts and jeans as standard business attire. “All of a sudden, it’s an issue that we’re wearing the same thing every day,” she says. “They think you’re trying to be like Steve Jobs.” And given that neurodivergent women tend to be diagnosed later in life or misdiagnosed entirely, it could create invisible barriers for women that they can’t seem to overcome. “You’ve got women growing up with a narrative that says, ‘I’ve got mental health problems’—which they may have as well—but not recognizing they have ADHD, autism, dyspraxia, or all of the above,” says Amanda Kirby, emeritus professor at the University of South Wales and CEO and founder of Do-IT, a platform specializing in training neurodivergent individuals. “When they get their diagnosis, [they become] quite angry because of where they could have been. They haven’t reached their potential and often feel frustrated by that.” To disclose or not disclose? Women struggle with whether to disclose their neurodivergence in the workplace, fearing discrimination and stigma that could prevent them from reaching leadership roles. “It’s all very well for Elon Musk to say, ‘This is who I am,’ and that he doesn’t care what people think,” Kirby says. “If you’re halfway through building your career, we know that disclosure doesn’t always go well.” Yet some believe coming out is integral to their work identity. After receiving a Forbes 30 Under 30 award for social impact, Kumar revealed her autism and ADHD diagnoses. “As my outward success has grown, there’s been an increased dissonance between the Jhillika I show to the world and the reality I experience behind closed doors,” she wrote on LinkedIn earlier this year. Disclosing her condition was no small feat for Kumar, who says skydiving was easier than coming out to her professional circles. Plus, the response from others can be frustrating. Iyer says a few well-meaning people encouraged her to aim simpler or smaller after sharing her diagnosis. “Would you tell that to a man on the spectrum?” she asks. A common response after disclosing a neurodivergence is disbelief. Many recount receiving comments like, “You can’t be autistic or have ADHD.” “They mean well, so I don’t take offense,” Ng says. “Maybe in a work environment, people really think [they’re] doing the polite thing by refuting it.” Valeur says people may also dismiss her autism diagnosis, which she disclosed seven years ago, because white men are the primary examples of neurodivergence they see. “I don’t know what people have in their heads, but it’s not me,” she says. “I think they [picture] Rain Man or Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory.” As a senior principal systems engineer at Raytheon, Meghan Buchanan says the company provides her a platform to share her experience. “I know a lot of companies have initiatives…to get stories out there. It’s getting better, but I do feel it is constantly correcting misconceptions and fighting for that voice,” she says. The biggest misconception she faces at work is that she’s lazy and lacks attention to detail. “I may have looked at [a presentation] a million times, and if the spell checker doesn’t catch it, I’m screwed.” But Buchanan also knows her strength: Her creativity helps her find solutions that other engineers may not consider. “In engineering, when there is a solution needed, and typical ways of dealing with it don’t work, you’ve got to have that creative process, which is what I bring to the company.” Rethinking leadership To bring more neurodivergent women into higher ranks, organizations will have to dismantle their perception of what makes for a strong leader. “Leadership is often defined as this space in the organizational chart,” and its qualities are limited to how well someone can tell others what to do, Praslova says. “It‘s just way too narrow.” Organizations must be diligent about creating evaluation and promotion systems that prioritize performance metrics over personality preferences. And while diversity trainings can help to educate neurotypical workers, they don’t create systemic change, Praslova says. “[It’s like] rinsing off a pickle and putting it back into the brine,” she says. “It doesn’t make very much sense.” There is no clear information on the percentage of neurodivergent women in leadership compared with men. Any studies of such nature tend to have small samples and vary in how they define leadership roles, Praslova says. Organizations also have rigid views on how best to leverage neurodivergent talent, often “typecasting” them for specific roles, such as autistic individuals in technical roles or dyslexic individuals for creative positions. “Even positive stereotypes can be damaging. And if someone doesn’t feel like they can live up to that stereotype, it can mess with them,” Praslova says. Kirby, the University of South Wales professor, emphasizes that “spectrum” is the keyword in autism spectrum disorder. One autistic person can be nonspeaking, and another can be highly verbal; both could be matched to very different roles based on their interests and skill sets. Factor in comorbidities, and these stereotypes are even less sticky. “It’s a bit like horoscopes, right?” she says. “You’re born under Capricorn, and there are 25 million people who are also born under Capricorn. How can we all be the same?” When companies expand their definition of strong leadership, neurodivergent talent can stand out, says Valeur. “We need to want differences. We need to get to a place where our leadership teams are looking for someone who doesn’t fit in, because that’s diversity.”
Amnesty International Slammed Over AI Protest Images
Screenshots of the since-deleted Amnesty International campaign, which employed AI-generated images (screenshots Maya Pontone/Hyperallergic)
This week, international human rights watchdog Amnesty International faced backlash from photojournalists and other online critics for using AI-generated images depicting photorealistic scenes of Colombia’s 2021 protests. Although there is no shortage of photographs from the demonstrations, the advocacy group told the Guardian that it opted to use artificially edited imagery to protect the identities of protesters who may be vulnerable to state retribution.
The 2021 strike — which was incited by an unpopular tax raise and then fueled by police brutality and other forms of state violence — left at least 40 people dead and many more missing, according to official figures.
Amnesty International shared the AI images as part of a since-deleted social media campaign marking the two years since the Colombian protests, paired with disclaimers that acknowledged the use of AI. Commentators online were quick to notice errors in the fake images. For instance, one of them showed a woman wearing the tri-colored Colombian flag and being dragged off by police, a familiar still from the 2021 protests. But on social media, people pointed out that the colors in the national flag were in the wrong order, and the faces of the protesters and police officers were eerily smoothed over. Additionally, the uniforms of the officers were out-of-date.
In response to the public outcry, Amnesty International has since deleted the images from its social media channels.
🧵The AI-generated images are labeled with the text "the illustrations were produced by artificial intelligence." Nevertheless, we apologize for the use of the AI-generated images and have removed them from our platforms.— Amnesty Norway (@Amnesty_Norge) May 3, 2023
The organization has not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s request for comment. In an interview with the Guardian, Director for Americas Erika Guevara Rosas said Amnesty International did not want the AI controversy to “distract from the core message in support of the victims and their calls for justice in Colombia.”
“But we do take the criticism seriously and want to continue the engagement to ensure we understand better the implications and our role to address the ethical dilemmas posed by the use of such technology,” Rosas added.
Amnesty also directly responded to the backlash online, apologizing for the misrepresentative photos and reiterating their initial intentions.
“Our main goal was to highlight the grotesque violence by the police against people in Colombia. It is important to state that the purpose was to protect people who could be exposed. But we could choose drawings or other things,” Amnesty International tweeted.
Some members of the photojournalism and larger arts community have also shared their frustration with the mock photos since the popularization of AI over the past year has raised questions about plagiarism and job displacement.
Molly Crabapple, a New York-based writer and artist who recently authored an open letter against the use of AI-generated art, condemned Amnesty International’s use of the tool in its campaign.
“By using AI-generated photos of police brutality in Colombia, Amnesty International is practically begging atrocity-deniers to call them liars,” Crabapple tweeted. “Either use the work of brave photojournalists, or use actual illustrations. AI-generated photos just undermine trust in your findings.”
Amnesty International Slammed Over AI Protest Images
Screenshots of the since-deleted Amnesty International campaign, which employed AI-generated images (screenshots Maya Pontone/Hyperallergic)
This week, international human rights watchdog Amnesty International faced backlash from photojournalists and other online critics for using AI-generated images depicting photorealistic scenes of Colombia’s 2021 protests. Although there is no shortage of photographs from the demonstrations, the advocacy group told the Guardian that it opted to use artificially edited imagery to protect the identities of protesters who may be vulnerable to state retribution.
The 2021 strike — which was incited by an unpopular tax raise and then fueled by police brutality and other forms of state violence — left at least 40 people dead and many more missing, according to official figures.
Amnesty International shared the AI images as part of a since-deleted social media campaign marking the two years since the Colombian protests, paired with disclaimers that acknowledged the use of AI. Commentators online were quick to notice errors in the fake images. For instance, one of them showed a woman wearing the tri-colored Colombian flag and being dragged off by police, a familiar still from the 2021 protests. But on social media, people pointed out that the colors in the national flag were in the wrong order, and the faces of the protesters and police officers were eerily smoothed over. Additionally, the uniforms of the officers were out-of-date.
In response to the public outcry, Amnesty International has since deleted the images from its social media channels.
🧵The AI-generated images are labeled with the text "the illustrations were produced by artificial intelligence." Nevertheless, we apologize for the use of the AI-generated images and have removed them from our platforms.— Amnesty Norway (@Amnesty_Norge) May 3, 2023
The organization has not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s request for comment. In an interview with the Guardian, Director for Americas Erika Guevara Rosas said Amnesty International did not want the AI controversy to “distract from the core message in support of the victims and their calls for justice in Colombia.”
“But we do take the criticism seriously and want to continue the engagement to ensure we understand better the implications and our role to address the ethical dilemmas posed by the use of such technology,” Rosas added.
Amnesty also directly responded to the backlash online, apologizing for the misrepresentative photos and reiterating their initial intentions.
“Our main goal was to highlight the grotesque violence by the police against people in Colombia. It is important to state that the purpose was to protect people who could be exposed. But we could choose drawings or other things,” Amnesty International tweeted.
Some members of the photojournalism and larger arts community have also shared their frustration with the mock photos since the popularization of AI over the past year has raised questions about plagiarism and job displacement.
Molly Crabapple, a New York-based writer and artist who recently authored an open letter against the use of AI-generated art, condemned Amnesty International’s use of the tool in its campaign.
“By using AI-generated photos of police brutality in Colombia, Amnesty International is practically begging atrocity-deniers to call them liars,” Crabapple tweeted. “Either use the work of brave photojournalists, or use actual illustrations. AI-generated photos just undermine trust in your findings.”
Art by Survivors of America’s Wars
CHICAGO — What could a US Army veteran, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, an African-American Chicagoan, and an Iraqi refugee possibly have in common?
Each has been marked by the legacies of the longest military conflicts in US history: the American Indian Wars and the Global War on Terror. And from that experience each has made art, examples of which are currently on view in the Second Veteran Art Triennial, exhibited alongside the work of dozens more artists — some veterans, some from communities impacted by war, some both.
Like any truly great and ambitious exhibition of contemporary art — which this most assuredly is — Surviving the Long Wars: 2023 Veteran Art Triennial & Summit is chock-full of fantastic sculptures, videos, paintings, photographs, and installations, sensitively displayed in evocative configurations and storied locations. Among the hundreds of biennials, etc., that have proliferated worldwide, however, it is unique in being dedicated not to art generally, or even as thematized by a star curator, but to art made about war by those implicated. In its commitment to the most critical and advanced forms of art practice, and to affected populations that extend beyond service members, the Triennial distinguishes itself from veteran art programs such as those run by the US Department of Veteran Affairs. And it is right at home in Chicago, alongside the National Veterans Art Museum and the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, as well as a roster of recurring break-the-mold events like the MdW Fair, a convening of artist-run projects from across the Midwest; the Barely Fair, a 1:12 scale international art fair; and the Chicago Architecture Biennial, which becomes ever more local and experimental with each iteration.
Installation view of Hanaa Malallah, “She/He Has No Picture” (2019/2020), burnt canvas collage on canvas with laser cut brass plaques, four Art Books, thousand moving images generating by computer and original booklet published by government in 1991, at the Chicago Cultural Center
Across the Veteran Art Triennial’s three venues — Residues and Rebellions at the Newberry Library, Reckon and Reimagine at the Chicago Cultural Center, and Unlikely Entanglements at the Hyde Park Art Center — the sheer variety of cultural traditions represented is unmistakable. Mahwish Chishty, trained in miniature painting, depicts a series of MQ-9 Reapers, the armed drones that have terrorized civilians living along the Afghan-Pakistan borderlands, making them riotously visible with decorations in the flamboyant style of Pakistani truck art. Ledger art, a practice of many Plains Native communities in which events are pictorially chronicled on used pages of settlers’ account books, abounds: Terran Last Gun (Piikani) traces the hard-edge geometries of Blackfoot tipi designs and Air Force vet Dwayne Wilcox (Oglala Lakota) illustrates comedic scenes of scathing political commentary. A handful of artists update time-honored textile crafts: Miridith Campbell (Kiowa), a veteran of the Army, Navy, and Marines, ornaments a US cavalry coat with buckskin fringes and beaded shoulder patches; Melissa Doud (Ojibwe) adds spent bullet casings to her old Army uniform, turning it into a jingle dress; Dorothy I. Burge quilts a portrait of US Army Colonel Charles Young, who in 1889 became the third African American graduate of West Point; Sabba Elahi embroiders fisheye-lens tondos of her young son as a target of the domestic surveillance of brown and Muslim bodies. There is even classical oil paintings by Bassim Al Shaker, whose canvases are as lush and moody as a Turner seascape, and even more nightmarish in their depiction of the sky seen overhead during bombings the artist survived when he was a student in Baghdad.
Explicitly contemporary practices like assemblage and conceptualism are represented, too. Marine Corps vet Jose deVere fashions limbs, weapons, and a full-size horse out of scraps of furniture, discarded parachutes, old tarps, and other detritus, holding it all just barely together with screws and string and his own creative willpower. Ali Eyal refuses to tell the story of exactly what happened to him and his family when war came to their Iraqi village, instead presenting two walls, fragmented drawings, and a set of clues to the horrors they lived through and the imaginative tactics of survival.
Intstallation view of Monty Little (Diné), two works from the Survivance series (2022/23), monoprint on BFK Rives, 24 x 20 inches each, at the Newberry Library
This cultural heterogeneity ought not come as a surprise, given the extent of the US military’s incursions abroad and at home, as well as the diversity of its own ranks, where Native Americans served long before they received citizenship; African Americans fought, despite slavery, discrimination, and segregation; and foreigners have always been able to enlist, often as a pathway to American citizenship. Far more salient is how the tools of the colonizer, the occupier, and the oppressor can be used to resist and persist, and the ways in which that reclamation accommodates hybrid identities. Ledger art has always done this, but ledgers aren’t the only bureaucratic form open to appropriation. Mariam Ghani and Chitra Ganesh build an archive room of declassified records and media clippings related to the Global War on Terror, partly searchable and partly impenetrable, with simultaneous translation broadcast in Arabic and Dari. Four metal traffic signs by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation) offer deadpan commemoration of the US government’s forced removal of 100,000 people from their ancestral lands during the Trail of Tears. There are other memorials here, too, like the makeshift ones Tom Jones (Ho-Chunk) has been documenting since 1999, honoring tribal veterans at the Memorial Day Powwow in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Most feature a triangle-fold American flag, some form of tobacco, and a photograph of the dead.
The portraits are crucial: to have a face is to be known and remembered, however imperfectly, and artists oblige, particularly when confronted with government destruction. Ganesh paints gentle watercolors of people detained and disappeared in the months following 9/11. Hanaa Malallah painstakingly recreates, out of scraps of burned canvas, the missing images of Iraqi civilians killed in the predawn bombing of their neighborhood shelter by an American smart bomb. Chris Pappan (Kaw/Osage, Lakota) draws a grid of Indigenous warriors in Ghost Dance regalia, posed boldly atop a collage of US cavalry recruitment forms, traditional graphics, and maps and warplanes bearing appropriated tribal names. The flip side is true, too: monotypes of unnamed Native Americans by Marine Corps veteran Monty Little (Diné) are smeared, layered, and sliced up beyond legibility, acknowledging the brutality and complexity of their history while refusing to spectacularize it. A pair of life-sized self-portraits by Army vet Gina Herrera (Tesuque Pueblo), with their mismatched mannequin and metalwork legs, exploded upper halves, and colorfully wrapped appendages bespeak war-damaged bodies held together by fierce personal spirit, can-do, and culture.
Whatever side of whichever conflict they have found themselves on, and however they have managed to come through it, every artist in this show understands that art remains unparalleled in helping us all grapple with that most horrendous and enduring of human activities: war.
Installation view of Sabba Elahi, “the suspect in my son,” nos. 3, 4, 5 (2018), machine embroidery on felt, 18 x 18 x.75 inches each, at the Hyde Park Art Center
Installation view of Reckon and Reimagine at the Chicago Cultural Center; Quilt portrait by Dorothy I. Burge; wall of memorial photos by Tom Jones (Ho-Chunk) signage by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation) (photo by James Prinz)
Left to right: Miridith Campbell (Kiowa), “Marine Corps Dress – Southern Style” (2022), artist-tanned and smoked buckskin hide, antique, vintage, and contemporary seed beads, red broadcloth English wool, vintage Marine Corps service buttons, hawk bells, horse hair; Miridith Campbell (Kiowa), “Adobe Walls Battle Dress” (2022), cotton canvas dresses with blue edging, ledger art is digitally produced and fabricated to dress, depicting the battle; Melissa Doud (Ojibwe), “Bullet Dress” (2016), Army uniform with bullets. Installation view at the Chicago Cultural Cente
Installation view of Reckon and Reimagine at the Chicago Cultural Center; foreground sculptures by Gina Herrera (Tesuque Pueblo)
Installation view of Chris Pappan (Kaw/Osage, Lakota), detail from War Dance I–IX (2022), series of nine graphite, ink, and colored pencil drawings on recruitment ledger paper, at the Chicago Cultural Center
Installation view of Unlikely Entanglements at the Hyde Park Art Center; sculpture by Jose deVera; paintings by Bassim Al Shaker; wall portraits by Eric Perez; footprints by Yiran Zhang (image provided by Hyde Park Art Center, courtesy Sofia Merino Arzoz)
Installation view of Mahwish Chishty, “Hovering Reaper II” (2015), gouache, tea stain, and photo transfers on birch plywood, 12 x 30 x 8 inches, at the Hyde Park Art Center
Surviving the Long Wars: 2023 Veteran Art Triennial & Summit continues with Residues and Rebellions at the Newberry Library (60 West Walton Street, Chicago, Illinois) through May 26; Reckon and Reimagine at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 East Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois) through June 4; and Unlikely Entanglements at the Hyde Park Art Center (5020 South Cornell Avenue, Chicago, Illinois) through July 9. The exhibition was organized by a team including Aaron Hughes, Ronak K. Kapadia, Therese Quinn, Joseph Lefthand, Amber Zora, and Meranda Roberts.
Full disclosure: The writer’s husband, artist Michael Rakowitz, has work included in the exhibition and is not discussed herein.
Art by Survivors of America’s Wars
CHICAGO — What could a US Army veteran, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, an African-American Chicagoan, and an Iraqi refugee possibly have in common?
Each has been marked by the legacies of the longest military conflicts in US history: the American Indian Wars and the Global War on Terror. And from that experience each has made art, examples of which are currently on view in the Second Veteran Art Triennial, exhibited alongside the work of dozens more artists — some veterans, some from communities impacted by war, some both.
Like any truly great and ambitious exhibition of contemporary art — which this most assuredly is — Surviving the Long Wars: 2023 Veteran Art Triennial & Summit is chock-full of fantastic sculptures, videos, paintings, photographs, and installations, sensitively displayed in evocative configurations and storied locations. Among the hundreds of biennials, etc., that have proliferated worldwide, however, it is unique in being dedicated not to art generally, or even as thematized by a star curator, but to art made about war by those implicated. In its commitment to the most critical and advanced forms of art practice, and to affected populations that extend beyond service members, the Triennial distinguishes itself from veteran art programs such as those run by the US Department of Veteran Affairs. And it is right at home in Chicago, alongside the National Veterans Art Museum and the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, as well as a roster of recurring break-the-mold events like the MdW Fair, a convening of artist-run projects from across the Midwest; the Barely Fair, a 1:12 scale international art fair; and the Chicago Architecture Biennial, which becomes ever more local and experimental with each iteration.
Installation view of Hanaa Malallah, “She/He Has No Picture” (2019/2020), burnt canvas collage on canvas with laser cut brass plaques, four Art Books, thousand moving images generating by computer and original booklet published by government in 1991, at the Chicago Cultural Center
Across the Veteran Art Triennial’s three venues — Residues and Rebellions at the Newberry Library, Reckon and Reimagine at the Chicago Cultural Center, and Unlikely Entanglements at the Hyde Park Art Center — the sheer variety of cultural traditions represented is unmistakable. Mahwish Chishty, trained in miniature painting, depicts a series of MQ-9 Reapers, the armed drones that have terrorized civilians living along the Afghan-Pakistan borderlands, making them riotously visible with decorations in the flamboyant style of Pakistani truck art. Ledger art, a practice of many Plains Native communities in which events are pictorially chronicled on used pages of settlers’ account books, abounds: Terran Last Gun (Piikani) traces the hard-edge geometries of Blackfoot tipi designs and Air Force vet Dwayne Wilcox (Oglala Lakota) illustrates comedic scenes of scathing political commentary. A handful of artists update time-honored textile crafts: Miridith Campbell (Kiowa), a veteran of the Army, Navy, and Marines, ornaments a US cavalry coat with buckskin fringes and beaded shoulder patches; Melissa Doud (Ojibwe) adds spent bullet casings to her old Army uniform, turning it into a jingle dress; Dorothy I. Burge quilts a portrait of US Army Colonel Charles Young, who in 1889 became the third African American graduate of West Point; Sabba Elahi embroiders fisheye-lens tondos of her young son as a target of the domestic surveillance of brown and Muslim bodies. There is even classical oil paintings by Bassim Al Shaker, whose canvases are as lush and moody as a Turner seascape, and even more nightmarish in their depiction of the sky seen overhead during bombings the artist survived when he was a student in Baghdad.
Explicitly contemporary practices like assemblage and conceptualism are represented, too. Marine Corps vet Jose deVere fashions limbs, weapons, and a full-size horse out of scraps of furniture, discarded parachutes, old tarps, and other detritus, holding it all just barely together with screws and string and his own creative willpower. Ali Eyal refuses to tell the story of exactly what happened to him and his family when war came to their Iraqi village, instead presenting two walls, fragmented drawings, and a set of clues to the horrors they lived through and the imaginative tactics of survival.
Intstallation view of Monty Little (Diné), two works from the Survivance series (2022/23), monoprint on BFK Rives, 24 x 20 inches each, at the Newberry Library
This cultural heterogeneity ought not come as a surprise, given the extent of the US military’s incursions abroad and at home, as well as the diversity of its own ranks, where Native Americans served long before they received citizenship; African Americans fought, despite slavery, discrimination, and segregation; and foreigners have always been able to enlist, often as a pathway to American citizenship. Far more salient is how the tools of the colonizer, the occupier, and the oppressor can be used to resist and persist, and the ways in which that reclamation accommodates hybrid identities. Ledger art has always done this, but ledgers aren’t the only bureaucratic form open to appropriation. Mariam Ghani and Chitra Ganesh build an archive room of declassified records and media clippings related to the Global War on Terror, partly searchable and partly impenetrable, with simultaneous translation broadcast in Arabic and Dari. Four metal traffic signs by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation) offer deadpan commemoration of the US government’s forced removal of 100,000 people from their ancestral lands during the Trail of Tears. There are other memorials here, too, like the makeshift ones Tom Jones (Ho-Chunk) has been documenting since 1999, honoring tribal veterans at the Memorial Day Powwow in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Most feature a triangle-fold American flag, some form of tobacco, and a photograph of the dead.
The portraits are crucial: to have a face is to be known and remembered, however imperfectly, and artists oblige, particularly when confronted with government destruction. Ganesh paints gentle watercolors of people detained and disappeared in the months following 9/11. Hanaa Malallah painstakingly recreates, out of scraps of burned canvas, the missing images of Iraqi civilians killed in the predawn bombing of their neighborhood shelter by an American smart bomb. Chris Pappan (Kaw/Osage, Lakota) draws a grid of Indigenous warriors in Ghost Dance regalia, posed boldly atop a collage of US cavalry recruitment forms, traditional graphics, and maps and warplanes bearing appropriated tribal names. The flip side is true, too: monotypes of unnamed Native Americans by Marine Corps veteran Monty Little (Diné) are smeared, layered, and sliced up beyond legibility, acknowledging the brutality and complexity of their history while refusing to spectacularize it. A pair of life-sized self-portraits by Army vet Gina Herrera (Tesuque Pueblo), with their mismatched mannequin and metalwork legs, exploded upper halves, and colorfully wrapped appendages bespeak war-damaged bodies held together by fierce personal spirit, can-do, and culture.
Whatever side of whichever conflict they have found themselves on, and however they have managed to come through it, every artist in this show understands that art remains unparalleled in helping us all grapple with that most horrendous and enduring of human activities: war.
Installation view of Sabba Elahi, “the suspect in my son,” nos. 3, 4, 5 (2018), machine embroidery on felt, 18 x 18 x.75 inches each, at the Hyde Park Art Center
Installation view of Reckon and Reimagine at the Chicago Cultural Center; Quilt portrait by Dorothy I. Burge; wall of memorial photos by Tom Jones (Ho-Chunk) signage by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation) (photo by James Prinz)
Left to right: Miridith Campbell (Kiowa), “Marine Corps Dress – Southern Style” (2022), artist-tanned and smoked buckskin hide, antique, vintage, and contemporary seed beads, red broadcloth English wool, vintage Marine Corps service buttons, hawk bells, horse hair; Miridith Campbell (Kiowa), “Adobe Walls Battle Dress” (2022), cotton canvas dresses with blue edging, ledger art is digitally produced and fabricated to dress, depicting the battle; Melissa Doud (Ojibwe), “Bullet Dress” (2016), Army uniform with bullets. Installation view at the Chicago Cultural Cente
Installation view of Reckon and Reimagine at the Chicago Cultural Center; foreground sculptures by Gina Herrera (Tesuque Pueblo)
Installation view of Chris Pappan (Kaw/Osage, Lakota), detail from War Dance I–IX (2022), series of nine graphite, ink, and colored pencil drawings on recruitment ledger paper, at the Chicago Cultural Center
Installation view of Unlikely Entanglements at the Hyde Park Art Center; sculpture by Jose deVera; paintings by Bassim Al Shaker; wall portraits by Eric Perez; footprints by Yiran Zhang (image provided by Hyde Park Art Center, courtesy Sofia Merino Arzoz)
Installation view of Mahwish Chishty, “Hovering Reaper II” (2015), gouache, tea stain, and photo transfers on birch plywood, 12 x 30 x 8 inches, at the Hyde Park Art Center
Surviving the Long Wars: 2023 Veteran Art Triennial & Summit continues with Residues and Rebellions at the Newberry Library (60 West Walton Street, Chicago, Illinois) through May 26; Reckon and Reimagine at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 East Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois) through June 4; and Unlikely Entanglements at the Hyde Park Art Center (5020 South Cornell Avenue, Chicago, Illinois) through July 9. The exhibition was organized by a team including Aaron Hughes, Ronak K. Kapadia, Therese Quinn, Joseph Lefthand, Amber Zora, and Meranda Roberts.
Full disclosure: The writer’s husband, artist Michael Rakowitz, has work included in the exhibition and is not discussed herein.
How 'BlackBerry' Escapes Depicting Tech Founders as Untouchable Gods
The term “reality distortion field” used to be inseparable from Steve Jobs.The Apple co-founder and longtime CEO’s combination of charisma, taste, menace, and knack for marketing was said to have such a sway over employees and fans of Apple’s products that he could make the impossible happen. Difficult deadlines were cleared, improbable product concepts were birthed, and facts, if deemed unnecessary, were thrown out the window.In director Danny Boyle’s decidedly impressionistic 2015 portrait Steve Jobs, the distortion field is practically made visible as visual projections on the floors and walls in key scenes during the launch of the MacIntosh and the NeXT Computer. The film is practically enraptured with the space Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) takes up and how Apple, its products, and key figures seemed to orbit around his ego and cruelty. It’s a familiar feeling, if not an entirely realistic one.In the myth of the “tech founder,” Hollywood has found its favorite protagonists. Archvillains, tragic heroes, and the people in between. Can you tell an interesting story while making your larger-than-life characters feel human, like the kind of people who might actually sit in front of a keyboard or solder a circuit board? If we look at the work up until now, the answer is mostly no. Films like Steve Jobs, The Social Network, and even early projects like The Pirates of Silicon Valley, regardless of how committed they are to the truth, default to putting their protagonists on a pedestal. The experience can be engaging and even feel like the truth, but it's off.BlackBerry, directed by Matt Johnson (Operation Avalanche, The Dirties) and releasing on May 12 ends up feeling like a refreshing alternative. The film has less exciting subject matter. The BlackBerry was the first mainstream smartphone, but it will also be remembered as a businessman’s best friend, not something everyone from a toddler to your grandma could use. And yet Johnson finds a lot of drama and humor presenting BlackBerry’s heroes as normal, corruptible people.It’s a different approach, and to find out why it works and how far we’ve come in pop culture’s understanding of the tech industry, Inverse spoke to Johnson about the film and tried to trace Hollywood’s love affair with “visionaries” from the past until now.Pirates, Gods, DorksPirates of Silicon Valley is a TV movie from 1999, but it avoids the stigma the genre can occasionally imply by getting several facts right about the competition between Apple and Microsoft in the early days of Silicon Valley. First and most important — much of what we like about Windows and macOS was stolen. Maybe not legally, but effectively; the graphical user interfaces that have come to define the 21st century were built on work by researchers at Xerox Palo Research Center. The movie gets by on shallow characterizations of Bill Gates (Anthony Michael Hall) as a ruthless, pragmatist nerd and Steve Jobs (Noah Wyle) as a free-spirited cult leader with a flare for the authoritarian, but it keys into a critical and seemingly accurate idea that part of what made these famous leaders impactful was that they knew they were doing something important (changing the way people interact with technology), even if they would eventually have to sell out to make it happen.The Social Network does not hold Mark Zuckerberg in such high regard. What’s fascinating about David Fincher’s 2013 film and Aaron Sorkin’s script behind it is how petty it thinks the origins of Facebook actually are. Jesse Eisenberg’s Zuckerberg is casually mean, sometimes plainly so, and the film makes quick work of undressing what actually happened when Zuckerberg made the social network of the moment. In one Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross-scored montage, the stakes are laid plain: Facebook is the young person’s modern social world made digital; the parties, romantic jockeying, and toxic masculinity flattened into a two-dimensional web page.Facebook would become so much more — an advertising platform and political influence most importantly — but Sorkin suggests, humorously (and darkly), that it might all exist because one boy couldn’t get over the fact he was dumped by a girl. The simplest of personal hang-ups projected on the largest canvas possible (the world), thanks to the impossible scale of the internet and the tech industry’s thirst for growth.Steve Jobs takes liberties with its subject's story, too. Besides its product launch structure, Steve Jobs is most concerned with the largest blemish on the CEO’s life, his refusal to acknowledge his daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs. The film, despite the elegiac tone imparted by being released only a few years after Jobs’ death, doesn’t paint a flattering picture. Boyle and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s flaunting of facts drew ire from Jobs’ family and friends for portraying the man in a bad light. Something that might not have been as much of an issue without the pedestal the film (and history) have placed him on.FriendsWhat’s refreshing about BlackBerry, Matt Johnson’s new film about the rise and fall of RIM (Research in Motion), is how normal its Canadian protagonists are. Johnson’s documentary-ish camera grounds everything.“Jared [Raab] (BlackBerry’s cinematographer) and I are always trying to make our movies seem as though they were found or discovered and not placed,” Johnson explained to me over Zoom. To Johnson, it's all about the feeling like you’re participating. Capturing “The ‘Oh, wow, I can't believe this is happening,’ feeling,” Johnson says.Mike Laziridis (Jay Baruchel) and Doug Fregin’s (Johnson) initial pitch for the “PocketLink,” a pocket email terminal with a physical keyboard, is kind of disastrous, even if we know they’re fundamentally being misunderstood. Baruchel plays Laziridis as reserved, someone who’s better at making things than explaining them, but with a hint of darkness and frustration underneath. When I asked about Baruchel’s performance, Johnson put it simply, “He has something boiling in him.” As Fregin, Johnson gets to play comic relief but also the heart of the film. Doug is, in many ways, Laziridis’ speaker, but he’s also what’s lost once RIM is a success.“He stood for something that had no value, and that thing was the camaraderie and fraternity of being young and having a vision,” Johnson says. “Not necessarily connecting that vision to the commercial marketplace.”Jim Balsillie (Glen Howerton) is an asshole who eventually helps them realize that vision, but BlackBerry doesn’t make it seem like he invented the “sell phones and figure out how to make them later” move. He just happened to be the one that taught it to Laziridis. And he really does seem to care.“Those intangibles that take place in friendships or companies... are way more important than people realize.”The film is focused on the small compromises that lead to bigger ones. Laziridis starts RIM with his friends in the film but ends it as their boss, putting a middle manager between his vision and their results and ranting about putting “a keyboard, on a screen, on a keyboard,” the fatal recipe that would produce the BlackBerry Storm, and arguably the start of the company’s downfall.“Those intangibles that take place in friendships or companies or whatever actually are way more important than people realize,” Johnson says. “I think that [Mike Laziridis] winds up losing not only his sense of self, but he completely loses his way and starts doing crazy things towards the end of the film, the more he alienates his best friend.”BlackBerry doesn’t tell the real-life RIM story one-for-one, but there is a true story you could find in it and many of the other startups that became big successes in the last few decades. It treats its heroes as standard, maybe even boring, but finds something universal in the experience of making something at scale.Dismantling the PedestalHollywood has been enamored with the myth of the “tech founder” for years but hasn’t, until recently, reckoned with who those people actually are and what they’ve done. Steve Jobs tries to have its cake and eat it too. Jobs is a Great Man but also a Flawed One. “I’m poorly made,” as movie Jobs so memorably and tragically, intones in the film’s finale.BlackBerry skips that problem entirely by largely backgrounding the disruption smartphones brought to the world of business and then, eventually, everything else.The film industry might be fundamentally incapable of producing a purely critical movie about the impact technology and the people who make it have on our lives. We want to be sympathetic to the heroes of our stories, and maybe we even need to. But by treating them like normal people like BlackBerry does, we can still find some truth, a lesson to impart that could be as meaningful as a computer or website that changes the world.
How 'BlackBerry' Escapes Depicting Tech Founders as Untouchable Gods
The term “reality distortion field” used to be inseparable from Steve Jobs.The Apple co-founder and longtime CEO’s combination of charisma, taste, menace, and knack for marketing was said to have such a sway over employees and fans of Apple’s products that he could make the impossible happen. Difficult deadlines were cleared, improbable product concepts were birthed, and facts, if deemed unnecessary, were thrown out the window.In director Danny Boyle’s decidedly impressionistic 2015 portrait Steve Jobs, the distortion field is practically made visible as visual projections on the floors and walls in key scenes during the launch of the MacIntosh and the NeXT Computer. The film is practically enraptured with the space Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) takes up and how Apple, its products, and key figures seemed to orbit around his ego and cruelty. It’s a familiar feeling, if not an entirely realistic one.In the myth of the “tech founder,” Hollywood has found its favorite protagonists. Archvillains, tragic heroes, and the people in between. Can you tell an interesting story while making your larger-than-life characters feel human, like the kind of people who might actually sit in front of a keyboard or solder a circuit board? If we look at the work up until now, the answer is mostly no. Films like Steve Jobs, The Social Network, and even early projects like The Pirates of Silicon Valley, regardless of how committed they are to the truth, default to putting their protagonists on a pedestal. The experience can be engaging and even feel like the truth, but it's off.BlackBerry, directed by Matt Johnson (Operation Avalanche, The Dirties) and releasing on May 12 ends up feeling like a refreshing alternative. The film has less exciting subject matter. The BlackBerry was the first mainstream smartphone, but it will also be remembered as a businessman’s best friend, not something everyone from a toddler to your grandma could use. And yet Johnson finds a lot of drama and humor presenting BlackBerry’s heroes as normal, corruptible people.It’s a different approach, and to find out why it works and how far we’ve come in pop culture’s understanding of the tech industry, Inverse spoke to Johnson about the film and tried to trace Hollywood’s love affair with “visionaries” from the past until now.Pirates, Gods, DorksPirates of Silicon Valley is a TV movie from 1999, but it avoids the stigma the genre can occasionally imply by getting several facts right about the competition between Apple and Microsoft in the early days of Silicon Valley. First and most important — much of what we like about Windows and macOS was stolen. Maybe not legally, but effectively; the graphical user interfaces that have come to define the 21st century were built on work by researchers at Xerox Palo Research Center. The movie gets by on shallow characterizations of Bill Gates (Anthony Michael Hall) as a ruthless, pragmatist nerd and Steve Jobs (Noah Wyle) as a free-spirited cult leader with a flare for the authoritarian, but it keys into a critical and seemingly accurate idea that part of what made these famous leaders impactful was that they knew they were doing something important (changing the way people interact with technology), even if they would eventually have to sell out to make it happen.The Social Network does not hold Mark Zuckerberg in such high regard. What’s fascinating about David Fincher’s 2013 film and Aaron Sorkin’s script behind it is how petty it thinks the origins of Facebook actually are. Jesse Eisenberg’s Zuckerberg is casually mean, sometimes plainly so, and the film makes quick work of undressing what actually happened when Zuckerberg made the social network of the moment. In one Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross-scored montage, the stakes are laid plain: Facebook is the young person’s modern social world made digital; the parties, romantic jockeying, and toxic masculinity flattened into a two-dimensional web page.Facebook would become so much more — an advertising platform and political influence most importantly — but Sorkin suggests, humorously (and darkly), that it might all exist because one boy couldn’t get over the fact he was dumped by a girl. The simplest of personal hang-ups projected on the largest canvas possible (the world), thanks to the impossible scale of the internet and the tech industry’s thirst for growth.Steve Jobs takes liberties with its subject's story, too. Besides its product launch structure, Steve Jobs is most concerned with the largest blemish on the CEO’s life, his refusal to acknowledge his daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs. The film, despite the elegiac tone imparted by being released only a few years after Jobs’ death, doesn’t paint a flattering picture. Boyle and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s flaunting of facts drew ire from Jobs’ family and friends for portraying the man in a bad light. Something that might not have been as much of an issue without the pedestal the film (and history) have placed him on.FriendsWhat’s refreshing about BlackBerry, Matt Johnson’s new film about the rise and fall of RIM (Research in Motion), is how normal its Canadian protagonists are. Johnson’s documentary-ish camera grounds everything.“Jared [Raab] (BlackBerry’s cinematographer) and I are always trying to make our movies seem as though they were found or discovered and not placed,” Johnson explained to me over Zoom. To Johnson, it's all about the feeling like you’re participating. Capturing “The ‘Oh, wow, I can't believe this is happening,’ feeling,” Johnson says.Mike Laziridis (Jay Baruchel) and Doug Fregin’s (Johnson) initial pitch for the “PocketLink,” a pocket email terminal with a physical keyboard, is kind of disastrous, even if we know they’re fundamentally being misunderstood. Baruchel plays Laziridis as reserved, someone who’s better at making things than explaining them, but with a hint of darkness and frustration underneath. When I asked about Baruchel’s performance, Johnson put it simply, “He has something boiling in him.” As Fregin, Johnson gets to play comic relief but also the heart of the film. Doug is, in many ways, Laziridis’ speaker, but he’s also what’s lost once RIM is a success.“He stood for something that had no value, and that thing was the camaraderie and fraternity of being young and having a vision,” Johnson says. “Not necessarily connecting that vision to the commercial marketplace.”Jim Balsillie (Glen Howerton) is an asshole who eventually helps them realize that vision, but BlackBerry doesn’t make it seem like he invented the “sell phones and figure out how to make them later” move. He just happened to be the one that taught it to Laziridis. And he really does seem to care.“Those intangibles that take place in friendships or companies... are way more important than people realize.”The film is focused on the small compromises that lead to bigger ones. Laziridis starts RIM with his friends in the film but ends it as their boss, putting a middle manager between his vision and their results and ranting about putting “a keyboard, on a screen, on a keyboard,” the fatal recipe that would produce the BlackBerry Storm, and arguably the start of the company’s downfall.“Those intangibles that take place in friendships or companies or whatever actually are way more important than people realize,” Johnson says. “I think that [Mike Laziridis] winds up losing not only his sense of self, but he completely loses his way and starts doing crazy things towards the end of the film, the more he alienates his best friend.”BlackBerry doesn’t tell the real-life RIM story one-for-one, but there is a true story you could find in it and many of the other startups that became big successes in the last few decades. It treats its heroes as standard, maybe even boring, but finds something universal in the experience of making something at scale.Dismantling the PedestalHollywood has been enamored with the myth of the “tech founder” for years but hasn’t, until recently, reckoned with who those people actually are and what they’ve done. Steve Jobs tries to have its cake and eat it too. Jobs is a Great Man but also a Flawed One. “I’m poorly made,” as movie Jobs so memorably and tragically, intones in the film’s finale.BlackBerry skips that problem entirely by largely backgrounding the disruption smartphones brought to the world of business and then, eventually, everything else.The film industry might be fundamentally incapable of producing a purely critical movie about the impact technology and the people who make it have on our lives. We want to be sympathetic to the heroes of our stories, and maybe we even need to. But by treating them like normal people like BlackBerry does, we can still find some truth, a lesson to impart that could be as meaningful as a computer or website that changes the world.
The Philosophy of Love: Can We Learn How to Love?
You can find love all around you. It is likely the muse of your favorite song and the highlight of the greatest movies. There are so many ideas of what love is and why it drives some of us to the brink of insanity. We might find peace in being with the one we love or spend our afternoons daydreaming about what love must feel like. Is there a way to accurately and successfully navigate a subject so many of us hold dear to our hearts?
The Basics of the Philosophy of Love: Plato’s The Symposium
Plato’s Symposium reimagined by Anselm Feuerbach, 1869, via Wikimedia commons.
“Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature. Each of us, then, is a ‘matching half’ of a human whole… and each of us is always seeking the half that matches him.”
Aristophanes
To start, we need to go all the way back to the Greek mythological origin of love. In Plato’s dialogue, The Symposium, scholars, and playwrights gathered together for a banquet in celebration of Eros – the god of love. After a few glasses of wine, the attendees of this banquet decided to give speeches in his honor. These speeches were from the heart as much as they were a comedic relief. Imagine men gathered together in tunics, wine glasses raised, discussing life’s secrets. In the midst of this, Aristophanes shared what he believed to be the true origin of love.
Greek-inspired Art, via PBS
It is said that there were originally three types of humans. The male, who originated from the sun. The woman, who originated from the earth. And an androgynous figure comprised of both male and female parts, that originated from the moon. These “humans” were originally in the shape of a sphere – four arms, four legs, two faces, and two sets of genitalia. They were a powerful bunch and one day decided to climb Mount Olympus to challenge the Gods. Zeus caught wind of this and put them to a halt by severing their bodies in half – thus, making them the “humans” we are today.
Doing this created a longing for our “other half”. It is the explanation as to why we desire to find the person who makes us feel whole. It explains both homosexual and heterosexual relationships. The original four-legged men are on a constant search for their missing male counterparts. And this ideology applied to the women and androgynous four-legged creatures as well. This is more of a whimsical approach to love, but the underlying message of the story still resonates with quite a few of us. We are all just searching for our missing half in life, the part of us that was severed many years ago.
A Taoist Perspective on Love
A Chinese print depicting “The Joining of the Essences”, based on Tang Dynasty art. Chang We-Che’ng, 8th-9th century AD, via Wikimedia Commons.
Now let us look at love from a completely different perspective. If you strip away the sense of belonging and possessiveness from love, what are you left with? This means no longer perceiving love as finding the missing half of your soul (as if you are incomplete) like it was taught by Greek mythology.
According to Taoist philosophies, to say “I love you” to someone with the intention of owning that individual is going against the flow of life. Today in our society, we often feel as if love and possession go hand in hand. And with this, two people loving each other becomes a very controlled dance, rather than a free-flowing lyrical number. The notion of wanting full control over someone is actually going against the spiritual essence of love entirely. It also raises the issue of attachment. When we become overly attached to someone, it poses the threat of losing a part of ourselves – which, in turn, causes immense pain if the relationship ends.
Transformation through Intimacy, via Integrallife.com
This is where the art of detachment comes into play. Taoism is not implying that you are wrong to experience love, instead, it is encouraging you to detach yourself from any particular outcome regarding love. It means to love someone unconditionally in this very moment, without placing expectations on the potential future of the relationship. In Taoism, love helps to create what they refer to as “the Tao” or “the way”. This implies that love surrounds us, and it is larger than telling someone that “they are yours forever”. Love and control are not synonymous. Love is the act of free-falling into the unknown without having control.
Think of it like this – We are here together now, and I love you, but you do not belong to me. We may grow together, learn together, and offer each other a shoulder to cry on today – but, if you decide to leave tomorrow, I will not stop you.
This perspective on love is both refreshing and maddening. We as human beings are flawed and cannot always handle emotional matters in a perfect fashion. With that being said, if you love someone and they decide to leave you unannounced – you have every right to feel sadness and grief. To feel all of the emotions life has to offer is the very reason why we are here in the first place. Ironically, Taoism encourages this as well. The pain that follows heartache is nothing you should suppress. Embrace it, feel it, and continue on.
Does Love Mirror Possession?
Albert Camus and Maria Casarès, via Actualitte
“Tied to one another by the bonds of the earth, by intelligence, heart and flesh, nothing, I know, can surprise or separate us.”
Albert Camus to Maria Casarès
Of course, there are different aspects of love. You “love” food, and the taste of home-cooked meals warms your heart. You “love” your family, and seeing them during the holidays fills you with a sense of peace (most of the time). These feelings of love are based on personal interest and fulfillment, as well as the importance of family. You never really second guess why you love these things because it simply makes sense to our human nature.
The love which I am addressing in this article refers to the intense connection that borderlines obsession with another human being. Something that is beyond our control. It can be an instant connection or a gradual build-up of emotions. Either way, it is a feeling of absolute vulnerability mixed with a willingness to do anything that would make the other happy. So what do well-respected philosophers have to say about this matter?
The Kiss by Gustav Klimt, 1908-9, via Google Arts & Culture.
Most philosophers – such as Sartre and Nietzsche – agree with the Taoist perspective of love. Sartre specifically states that often love can thrive off of the illusion of possession. When you have two people desperate to control the other while taking away the factor of free will, issues are bound to arise. He says that this drives lovers into vicious circles of sadomasochistic power games. The couple is no longer being fueled by the love they previously shared, but instead, they are being consumed by the egotistical need to possess the other.
On the other hand, Nietzsche claimed that love is “the most angelic instinct” and “the greatest stimulus of life” – but that it becomes destroyed by ego once it manifests into the greedy desire for control. He even went as far as to describe love as having a pet bird. You love your pet bird, but you keep it locked away in a cage because you fear that it will fly away. Nietzsche believed that although love is a magnificent thing, it is ridiculous to think that you can possess someone forever. But, if you simply appreciate the love while it runs its course, then you are able to experience the positive side of relationships instead of eventually being consumed by control.
Love Versus Marriage
The Wedding Register by Edmund Blair Leighton, 1920, via ArtUK
It appears as if the recurring philosophical theme here is to love without restraints. If you fall in love but there comes a time that the two of you are no longer happy or fulfilled, you should let each other go. But, society has made this a very complex task because of the pursuit of marriage and the legal agreement to long-term commitment.
Because we have put the idea of love in this controlled box, it has caused a bit of a domino effect. Unhappy marriages with children can often lead to divorce. And thanks to Hollywood, pop culture, and fairy tales – impressionable children are likely taught that they are supposed to love and marry one person forever. Then they see their parents going their separate ways, which could cause childhood trauma to resurface later in life. If you have been a child of divorce, you understand what I mean. You begin to question if love is even real and it instills a fear of “ending up like your parents”. Inevitably this creates an entire generation of young adults who subconsciously view love as a legally binding agreement. And that pressure of “who am I going to spend the rest of my life with” weighs heavy on your shoulders. Imagine if we were never conditioned to view love this way and we simply looked at it in a more lighthearted sense.
Your childhood trauma and disdain toward the societal pressure to get married does not mean you are not worthy of love. This just means that maybe Taoism, Sartre, and Nietzsche are all on to something. Perhaps love and long-term commitment do not go together at all. If we changed our perspective on love and started to look at it as a constant journey rather than the final destination, would we be better off?
But What IS Love?
The Science of Love In The 21st Century, via Highline
So now we understand how to better navigate love: approach it in a detached sense, and don’t view it as a means of control or power over another person. Also, putting the legal pressure of long-term commitment on someone can drive them insane since humans are not caged animals – according to Nietzsche.
But, what exactly is love? What is the thing that pushes people into long-term commitment anyway? What is the initial feeling? And how does love have the power to convince us that we want to spend the rest of our lives with one single person?
From a scientific aspect, love is stimulated by three different chemicals in the brain.
Noradrenaline, dopamine, and phenylethylamine – these three chemicals together produce feelings of excitement, nervousness, and pure ecstasy. This feeling is very similar to the high you experience on drugs and alcohol. It also stimulates a feeling of addiction, so you constantly feel the need to be around the person that allows your brain to have this chemical reaction. But, similar to drugs, this feeling eventually crashes. Suddenly you find yourself in a long-term relationship and things just don’t feel the way they used to.
This is where the saying “love becomes a choice” comes into the picture. Once that chemical crash occurs, you could begin to wonder if the relationship has come to an abrupt end. But – you made a legally binding vow to be with this person until death do you part. Love is no longer a high you’re riding out. Instead, it becomes work. You are now choosing to make a connection work because that initial physical feeling of “love” is gone. Is this inevitable? And are there ways of keeping these chemicals alive with the same person over a period of time?
Will (The Philosophy of) Love Prevail?
In Bed – The Kiss by Henri de Tolouse-Lautrec, 1892-3, via Wikimedia Commons.
So we have a whimsical perspective on love that derives from Greek mythology, claiming that we are incomplete and our missing half is out there somewhere. The Taoist perspective, which encourages us to love each other without feeling the need to control. Sartre’s and Nietzsche’s perspectives, who both believe that monogamous long-term commitment is just an insane act of possession. And finally, a scientific explanation as to where those physical feelings of love come from in the first place.
Love is beautiful, timeless, and complex. The fact that so many questions, ideas, and theories are derived from its very existence explains just how spectacular it truly is.
In the end, this article is merely comprised of theories – nothing is based on absolute truth. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, each person might experience love differently from the other. But how wonderful it is to live in a world where love can even exist at all.
The Philosophy of Love: Can We Learn How to Love?
You can find love all around you. It is likely the muse of your favorite song and the highlight of the greatest movies. There are so many ideas of what love is and why it drives some of us to the brink of insanity. We might find peace in being with the one we love or spend our afternoons daydreaming about what love must feel like. Is there a way to accurately and successfully navigate a subject so many of us hold dear to our hearts?
The Basics of the Philosophy of Love: Plato’s The Symposium
Plato’s Symposium reimagined by Anselm Feuerbach, 1869, via Wikimedia commons.
“Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature. Each of us, then, is a ‘matching half’ of a human whole… and each of us is always seeking the half that matches him.”
Aristophanes
To start, we need to go all the way back to the Greek mythological origin of love. In Plato’s dialogue, The Symposium, scholars, and playwrights gathered together for a banquet in celebration of Eros – the god of love. After a few glasses of wine, the attendees of this banquet decided to give speeches in his honor. These speeches were from the heart as much as they were a comedic relief. Imagine men gathered together in tunics, wine glasses raised, discussing life’s secrets. In the midst of this, Aristophanes shared what he believed to be the true origin of love.
Greek-inspired Art, via PBS
It is said that there were originally three types of humans. The male, who originated from the sun. The woman, who originated from the earth. And an androgynous figure comprised of both male and female parts, that originated from the moon. These “humans” were originally in the shape of a sphere – four arms, four legs, two faces, and two sets of genitalia. They were a powerful bunch and one day decided to climb Mount Olympus to challenge the Gods. Zeus caught wind of this and put them to a halt by severing their bodies in half – thus, making them the “humans” we are today.
Doing this created a longing for our “other half”. It is the explanation as to why we desire to find the person who makes us feel whole. It explains both homosexual and heterosexual relationships. The original four-legged men are on a constant search for their missing male counterparts. And this ideology applied to the women and androgynous four-legged creatures as well. This is more of a whimsical approach to love, but the underlying message of the story still resonates with quite a few of us. We are all just searching for our missing half in life, the part of us that was severed many years ago.
A Taoist Perspective on Love
A Chinese print depicting “The Joining of the Essences”, based on Tang Dynasty art. Chang We-Che’ng, 8th-9th century AD, via Wikimedia Commons.
Now let us look at love from a completely different perspective. If you strip away the sense of belonging and possessiveness from love, what are you left with? This means no longer perceiving love as finding the missing half of your soul (as if you are incomplete) like it was taught by Greek mythology.
According to Taoist philosophies, to say “I love you” to someone with the intention of owning that individual is going against the flow of life. Today in our society, we often feel as if love and possession go hand in hand. And with this, two people loving each other becomes a very controlled dance, rather than a free-flowing lyrical number. The notion of wanting full control over someone is actually going against the spiritual essence of love entirely. It also raises the issue of attachment. When we become overly attached to someone, it poses the threat of losing a part of ourselves – which, in turn, causes immense pain if the relationship ends.
Transformation through Intimacy, via Integrallife.com
This is where the art of detachment comes into play. Taoism is not implying that you are wrong to experience love, instead, it is encouraging you to detach yourself from any particular outcome regarding love. It means to love someone unconditionally in this very moment, without placing expectations on the potential future of the relationship. In Taoism, love helps to create what they refer to as “the Tao” or “the way”. This implies that love surrounds us, and it is larger than telling someone that “they are yours forever”. Love and control are not synonymous. Love is the act of free-falling into the unknown without having control.
Think of it like this – We are here together now, and I love you, but you do not belong to me. We may grow together, learn together, and offer each other a shoulder to cry on today – but, if you decide to leave tomorrow, I will not stop you.
This perspective on love is both refreshing and maddening. We as human beings are flawed and cannot always handle emotional matters in a perfect fashion. With that being said, if you love someone and they decide to leave you unannounced – you have every right to feel sadness and grief. To feel all of the emotions life has to offer is the very reason why we are here in the first place. Ironically, Taoism encourages this as well. The pain that follows heartache is nothing you should suppress. Embrace it, feel it, and continue on.
Does Love Mirror Possession?
Albert Camus and Maria Casarès, via Actualitte
“Tied to one another by the bonds of the earth, by intelligence, heart and flesh, nothing, I know, can surprise or separate us.”
Albert Camus to Maria Casarès
Of course, there are different aspects of love. You “love” food, and the taste of home-cooked meals warms your heart. You “love” your family, and seeing them during the holidays fills you with a sense of peace (most of the time). These feelings of love are based on personal interest and fulfillment, as well as the importance of family. You never really second guess why you love these things because it simply makes sense to our human nature.
The love which I am addressing in this article refers to the intense connection that borderlines obsession with another human being. Something that is beyond our control. It can be an instant connection or a gradual build-up of emotions. Either way, it is a feeling of absolute vulnerability mixed with a willingness to do anything that would make the other happy. So what do well-respected philosophers have to say about this matter?
The Kiss by Gustav Klimt, 1908-9, via Google Arts & Culture.
Most philosophers – such as Sartre and Nietzsche – agree with the Taoist perspective of love. Sartre specifically states that often love can thrive off of the illusion of possession. When you have two people desperate to control the other while taking away the factor of free will, issues are bound to arise. He says that this drives lovers into vicious circles of sadomasochistic power games. The couple is no longer being fueled by the love they previously shared, but instead, they are being consumed by the egotistical need to possess the other.
On the other hand, Nietzsche claimed that love is “the most angelic instinct” and “the greatest stimulus of life” – but that it becomes destroyed by ego once it manifests into the greedy desire for control. He even went as far as to describe love as having a pet bird. You love your pet bird, but you keep it locked away in a cage because you fear that it will fly away. Nietzsche believed that although love is a magnificent thing, it is ridiculous to think that you can possess someone forever. But, if you simply appreciate the love while it runs its course, then you are able to experience the positive side of relationships instead of eventually being consumed by control.
Love Versus Marriage
The Wedding Register by Edmund Blair Leighton, 1920, via ArtUK
It appears as if the recurring philosophical theme here is to love without restraints. If you fall in love but there comes a time that the two of you are no longer happy or fulfilled, you should let each other go. But, society has made this a very complex task because of the pursuit of marriage and the legal agreement to long-term commitment.
Because we have put the idea of love in this controlled box, it has caused a bit of a domino effect. Unhappy marriages with children can often lead to divorce. And thanks to Hollywood, pop culture, and fairy tales – impressionable children are likely taught that they are supposed to love and marry one person forever. Then they see their parents going their separate ways, which could cause childhood trauma to resurface later in life. If you have been a child of divorce, you understand what I mean. You begin to question if love is even real and it instills a fear of “ending up like your parents”. Inevitably this creates an entire generation of young adults who subconsciously view love as a legally binding agreement. And that pressure of “who am I going to spend the rest of my life with” weighs heavy on your shoulders. Imagine if we were never conditioned to view love this way and we simply looked at it in a more lighthearted sense.
Your childhood trauma and disdain toward the societal pressure to get married does not mean you are not worthy of love. This just means that maybe Taoism, Sartre, and Nietzsche are all on to something. Perhaps love and long-term commitment do not go together at all. If we changed our perspective on love and started to look at it as a constant journey rather than the final destination, would we be better off?
But What IS Love?
The Science of Love In The 21st Century, via Highline
So now we understand how to better navigate love: approach it in a detached sense, and don’t view it as a means of control or power over another person. Also, putting the legal pressure of long-term commitment on someone can drive them insane since humans are not caged animals – according to Nietzsche.
But, what exactly is love? What is the thing that pushes people into long-term commitment anyway? What is the initial feeling? And how does love have the power to convince us that we want to spend the rest of our lives with one single person?
From a scientific aspect, love is stimulated by three different chemicals in the brain.
Noradrenaline, dopamine, and phenylethylamine – these three chemicals together produce feelings of excitement, nervousness, and pure ecstasy. This feeling is very similar to the high you experience on drugs and alcohol. It also stimulates a feeling of addiction, so you constantly feel the need to be around the person that allows your brain to have this chemical reaction. But, similar to drugs, this feeling eventually crashes. Suddenly you find yourself in a long-term relationship and things just don’t feel the way they used to.
This is where the saying “love becomes a choice” comes into the picture. Once that chemical crash occurs, you could begin to wonder if the relationship has come to an abrupt end. But – you made a legally binding vow to be with this person until death do you part. Love is no longer a high you’re riding out. Instead, it becomes work. You are now choosing to make a connection work because that initial physical feeling of “love” is gone. Is this inevitable? And are there ways of keeping these chemicals alive with the same person over a period of time?
Will (The Philosophy of) Love Prevail?
In Bed – The Kiss by Henri de Tolouse-Lautrec, 1892-3, via Wikimedia Commons.
So we have a whimsical perspective on love that derives from Greek mythology, claiming that we are incomplete and our missing half is out there somewhere. The Taoist perspective, which encourages us to love each other without feeling the need to control. Sartre’s and Nietzsche’s perspectives, who both believe that monogamous long-term commitment is just an insane act of possession. And finally, a scientific explanation as to where those physical feelings of love come from in the first place.
Love is beautiful, timeless, and complex. The fact that so many questions, ideas, and theories are derived from its very existence explains just how spectacular it truly is.
In the end, this article is merely comprised of theories – nothing is based on absolute truth. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, each person might experience love differently from the other. But how wonderful it is to live in a world where love can even exist at all.
13 Years Ago, an Underrated Sci-Fi Show Delivered One of the Best Time-Travel Episodes Ever
Time travel is the be-all-end-all of science fiction episodes. What makes stories about time travel so fascinating is the fantasy of tomorrow, the obsession with the past, and all of the what-ifs with which those two are associated. To be able to travel to a different time is to hold an unimaginable power because the one thing that can never be beaten is time. For its ability to explore time travel in all its tragic forms, “White Tulip” is arguably the best episode of Fringe.Airing just two weeks after the flashback episode “Peter,” “White Tulip” gives Walter (John Noble) a doomed peer in the form of Peter Weller’s Alistair Peck, a scientist attempting to travel in time to save his fiancée from a car accident. Through its time-travel narrative, “White Tulip” explores the concepts of God, science, and forgiveness — coming to a conclusion about faith that transcends all of Fringe’s sci-fi TV counterparts.The episode begins with a flash. A man appears on a train and in his wake, he leaves behind a lot of dead bodies. This is how we meet Alistair Peck. Once Peter (Joshua Jackson), Olivia (Anna Torv), and Walter are on the case, the investigation moves fairly quickly. We’re barely through a quarter of the episode before the team has found their way to Peck’s apartment. But Peck has arrived as well, and as he confronts the FBI agents in the lobby of his building, he starts disappearing. Another flash. We’re back on the train with Peck. And the episode plays out similarly — except the team is experiencing some weird déjà vu. Eventually, the team works out that Peck has figured out how to travel back in time by fusing a Faraday machine into his body (resulting in some gnarly practical effects, a great nod to how going to such lengths can physically destroy you too) and is trying to get as far back as 10 months in order to save his fiancée. Once his motives are clear, so too is the episode’s entire point.The episode’s climactic moment boils down to a conversation. At Peck’s lab at MIT, Walter and Alistair (Noble and Weller giving dueling heartbreaking performances) sit down across from each other, recognizing the same madness and grief within the other. Walter tells Peck the right calculations to make it 10 months in the past, but in the same breath, pleads with Peck not to attempt the jump.Just as the worldly consequences followed Walter’s universe-hopping, there’s no telling what consequences may come from Peck saving his fiancée. Though Walter has struggled to find the right words for Peter, here he comes clean to Peck, a person who understands going to extreme lengths for the people they love.It’s important to note in this conversation two things: 1) in the years following Walter’s universe hopping, he’s come to understand that God is punishing him — a far cry from declaring himself God in 1985, and 2) that he’s waiting to tell Peter because he’s looking for a sign of forgiveness from God. Specifically, a white tulip. Peck points out that tulips of any kind do not grow this time of year. When time runs out and the FBI agents swarm the lab, Peck jumps again, inputting Walter’s calculations. But instead of trying to save his fiancée, he gets in the car, tells her, “I love you,” and dies with her.It’s wild to think that Fringe’s best episode technically doesn’t happen. Because of Peck’s final jump, the entire case on the train is wiped clean. We’re back at the beginning with Walter, trying to explain everything to Peter in a letter. Without the case interrupting him, Walter decides to toss the letter into the fire. But in the episode’s final shot, Walter receives a letter from Peck that he wrote before his final jump.The audience may know the hand-drawn white tulip came from Peck, but Walter doesn’t. To him, it’s the sign he was looking for, but it didn’t come in the manner he was expecting. Peck initially wanted to jump to save his fiancée: instead, he got one more moment to love her. Forgiveness comes in unexpected ways; hope does too. We end on Walter’s surprise. We don’t know what he’s going to do next, but by granting him that white tulip of forgiveness, Peck gave Walter the hope to move forward. After all, there’s only so much time we get. A single moment can make all the difference.
13 Years Ago, an Underrated Sci-Fi Show Delivered One of the Best Time-Travel Episodes Ever
Time travel is the be-all-end-all of science fiction episodes. What makes stories about time travel so fascinating is the fantasy of tomorrow, the obsession with the past, and all of the what-ifs with which those two are associated. To be able to travel to a different time is to hold an unimaginable power because the one thing that can never be beaten is time. For its ability to explore time travel in all its tragic forms, “White Tulip” is arguably the best episode of Fringe.Airing just two weeks after the flashback episode “Peter,” “White Tulip” gives Walter (John Noble) a doomed peer in the form of Peter Weller’s Alistair Peck, a scientist attempting to travel in time to save his fiancée from a car accident. Through its time-travel narrative, “White Tulip” explores the concepts of God, science, and forgiveness — coming to a conclusion about faith that transcends all of Fringe’s sci-fi TV counterparts.The episode begins with a flash. A man appears on a train and in his wake, he leaves behind a lot of dead bodies. This is how we meet Alistair Peck. Once Peter (Joshua Jackson), Olivia (Anna Torv), and Walter are on the case, the investigation moves fairly quickly. We’re barely through a quarter of the episode before the team has found their way to Peck’s apartment. But Peck has arrived as well, and as he confronts the FBI agents in the lobby of his building, he starts disappearing. Another flash. We’re back on the train with Peck. And the episode plays out similarly — except the team is experiencing some weird déjà vu. Eventually, the team works out that Peck has figured out how to travel back in time by fusing a Faraday machine into his body (resulting in some gnarly practical effects, a great nod to how going to such lengths can physically destroy you too) and is trying to get as far back as 10 months in order to save his fiancée. Once his motives are clear, so too is the episode’s entire point.The episode’s climactic moment boils down to a conversation. At Peck’s lab at MIT, Walter and Alistair (Noble and Weller giving dueling heartbreaking performances) sit down across from each other, recognizing the same madness and grief within the other. Walter tells Peck the right calculations to make it 10 months in the past, but in the same breath, pleads with Peck not to attempt the jump.Just as the worldly consequences followed Walter’s universe-hopping, there’s no telling what consequences may come from Peck saving his fiancée. Though Walter has struggled to find the right words for Peter, here he comes clean to Peck, a person who understands going to extreme lengths for the people they love.It’s important to note in this conversation two things: 1) in the years following Walter’s universe hopping, he’s come to understand that God is punishing him — a far cry from declaring himself God in 1985, and 2) that he’s waiting to tell Peter because he’s looking for a sign of forgiveness from God. Specifically, a white tulip. Peck points out that tulips of any kind do not grow this time of year. When time runs out and the FBI agents swarm the lab, Peck jumps again, inputting Walter’s calculations. But instead of trying to save his fiancée, he gets in the car, tells her, “I love you,” and dies with her.It’s wild to think that Fringe’s best episode technically doesn’t happen. Because of Peck’s final jump, the entire case on the train is wiped clean. We’re back at the beginning with Walter, trying to explain everything to Peter in a letter. Without the case interrupting him, Walter decides to toss the letter into the fire. But in the episode’s final shot, Walter receives a letter from Peck that he wrote before his final jump.The audience may know the hand-drawn white tulip came from Peck, but Walter doesn’t. To him, it’s the sign he was looking for, but it didn’t come in the manner he was expecting. Peck initially wanted to jump to save his fiancée: instead, he got one more moment to love her. Forgiveness comes in unexpected ways; hope does too. We end on Walter’s surprise. We don’t know what he’s going to do next, but by granting him that white tulip of forgiveness, Peck gave Walter the hope to move forward. After all, there’s only so much time we get. A single moment can make all the difference.
Now on View: NYC’s Bloated Police Budget
Amidst art galleries and bustling brunch spots near the Spring Street station in Manhattan’s trendy Nolita neighborhood, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is showcasing the bloated budget of the New York Police Department (NYPD) — $11 billion per year, or $29 million per day.
It’s the second time the advocacy organization has presented an exhibition in its pop-up Museum of Broken Windows; the first was in 2018. The current show, titled Twenty-Nine Million Dreams, runs through May 6.
The museum name references the “broken windows theory,” a policing strategy developed in the 1970s. The concept hinges on the idea that petty crime will lead to larger crimes; that if people in a neighborhood observe minor criminal acts happening around them — drug use or graffiti, for example — citizens will perceive their community as uncared for and this will lead to greater criminal activity. Although the concept remains unproven, it has been applied to neighborhoods and cities with disastrous results (Mayor Rudy Giuliani implemented it in New York in the early 1990s). When the “broken windows theory” is put into practice, police departments do not focus on stopping major criminal acts and instead attack individuals on the street-level, persecuting people including drug users, street artists, and sex workers.
News articles describe issues with the city’s policing. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
The theory creates policing methods that persecute poor communities and provides a pseudo-scientific framework for race-based policing.
“When we were designing this show, we knew we were looking for artwork that spoke to the heaviness and the seriousness — the weight — of excessive policing,” Daveen Trentman, who co-curated the exhibition alongside Terrick Gutierrez, said in an interview with Hyperallergic. “But also artwork that really uplifts the beauty of people and of community and that showcases an affirmative vision of a world that doesn’t rely on the police to fix all of our problems.”
The ground floor of Twenty-Nine Million Dreams uses text, infographics, old newspaper articles, and artwork to communicate the issue with extreme clarity.
City politics often emerge into the public consciousness as seemingly never-ending, tedious, and confusing, but the show explains the urgency of these conversations. Currently, the City Council and Mayor’s Office are in negotiations over the municipal budget, which allocates funding for the NYPD. Funding for libraries and other services is under threat, and an infographic on the stairs shows the distribution of city money in relation to the police budget, which continues to grow.
Trentman said the floor of the exhibition is intended to display the seriousness and human consequence of the policies being discussed.
“As we’re talking about things such as how much we’re spending and what kind of policies we need, we really want people to be reminded that there are severe, sometimes deadly consequences to those things,” Trentman said.
Artist Tracy Hetzel’s watercolor series depicts people holding photographs of their loved ones who were killed by police. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Images of Breonna Taylor and other people killed by police are scattered throughout this first floor. A printed text in the back of the space explains the severity of the crisis at Rikers Island — 17 people died there last year, the highest recorded number in its 90-year history. Artist Jesse Krimes’s 20-by-34-foot “Rikers Quilt” (2020) quite literally reveals the horrors inside the massive jail.
Krimes’s work comprises 3,650 individual squares to represent every day of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2017 promise to close the prison in 10 years. Calendar dates are printed on top. The colorful work, made with prison-issued bed sheets, stretches from the ceiling of the vast gallery space to the floor.
“Jesse’s theory of beauty is that as humans, we’re drawn in to vibrant colors and visually pleasing things to the eye,” said Trentman. Krimes was formerly incarcerated at Rikers.
“But as you get drawn in, he created a second layer,” Trentman continued. The outer part is intended to be slashed open, although only a couple squares have been so far. Documented photographs of abuse at Rikers lie beneath the quilt’s bright facade.
Jessie Krimes’s “Rikers Quilt” (2020) stretches from the ceiling to the floor. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
A work created by co-curator Gutierrez depicts an NYPD floodlight. Mayor Bill de Blasio sent hundreds of these machines to public housing projects in a campaign to stop nighttime crime. They still illuminate those spaces. (The initiative was unbelievably named “Omnipresence.”)
“These shine into the homes of families and elderly people and are really harmful,” Trentman said. Guitierrez replaced the floodlight’s serial number with its Kelvin temperature. Anything over 3,000 is considered harmful to the human eye, but the floodlight clocks in at almost 4,000.
Upstairs, Trentman and Gutierrez have created a space “designed to be an almost visceral, tonal shift,” according to Trentman. Natural light illuminates a space filled with greenery and plants. The artworks on its walls celebrate individuals and communities. Those works include a 2018 series of photographs taken by artist Andre Wagner of people in Bushwick and images by Steven Eloiseau and Eva Woolridge that depict a father and son and the hand of Woolridge’s mother.
A series of work by artists Andre Wagner, Steven Eloiseau, and Eva Woolridge celebrate moments of joy and their communities. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Just as showcased in the works a floor below, the art upstairs also exhibits active resistance. A two-part series by Susan Chen, for example, celebrates Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood and documents collective organizing in response to the the proposed Chinatown mega-jail. A three-part series of photographs by Gabriel Chiu showcases a picket line in Chinatown while also exploring concepts of poverty and gentrification.
“All of the work on the second floor showcases the beauty of people or communities,” Trentman said. “And really shows what a world could look like if we weren’t so reliant on the police.”
An infographic puts the NYC budget into perspective. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Left: Terrick Gutierrez, “Never Needed Police Departments (2023), mixed media on canvas; right: Reginald “Dwayne” Betts and Titus Kaphar, “Untitled” (2019) from Redaction, intaglio print on paper
Susan Chen, “Chinatown Black Watch” (2022) and “Stop The Mega Jail” (2022) (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
A text explaining the crisis at Rikers Island (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Gabriel Chiu, “Emma” (2023), “Picket Line” (2023), “Pantry” (2023) (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Now on View: NYC’s Bloated Police Budget
Amidst art galleries and bustling brunch spots near the Spring Street station in Manhattan’s trendy Nolita neighborhood, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is showcasing the bloated budget of the New York Police Department (NYPD) — $11 billion per year, or $29 million per day.
It’s the second time the advocacy organization has presented an exhibition in its pop-up Museum of Broken Windows; the first was in 2018. The current show, titled Twenty-Nine Million Dreams, runs through May 6.
The museum name references the “broken windows theory,” a policing strategy developed in the 1970s. The concept hinges on the idea that petty crime will lead to larger crimes; that if people in a neighborhood observe minor criminal acts happening around them — drug use or graffiti, for example — citizens will perceive their community as uncared for and this will lead to greater criminal activity. Although the concept remains unproven, it has been applied to neighborhoods and cities with disastrous results (Mayor Rudy Giuliani implemented it in New York in the early 1990s). When the “broken windows theory” is put into practice, police departments do not focus on stopping major criminal acts and instead attack individuals on the street-level, persecuting people including drug users, street artists, and sex workers.
News articles describe issues with the city’s policing. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
The theory creates policing methods that persecute poor communities and provides a pseudo-scientific framework for race-based policing.
“When we were designing this show, we knew we were looking for artwork that spoke to the heaviness and the seriousness — the weight — of excessive policing,” Daveen Trentman, who co-curated the exhibition alongside Terrick Gutierrez, said in an interview with Hyperallergic. “But also artwork that really uplifts the beauty of people and of community and that showcases an affirmative vision of a world that doesn’t rely on the police to fix all of our problems.”
The ground floor of Twenty-Nine Million Dreams uses text, infographics, old newspaper articles, and artwork to communicate the issue with extreme clarity.
City politics often emerge into the public consciousness as seemingly never-ending, tedious, and confusing, but the show explains the urgency of these conversations. Currently, the City Council and Mayor’s Office are in negotiations over the municipal budget, which allocates funding for the NYPD. Funding for libraries and other services is under threat, and an infographic on the stairs shows the distribution of city money in relation to the police budget, which continues to grow.
Trentman said the floor of the exhibition is intended to display the seriousness and human consequence of the policies being discussed.
“As we’re talking about things such as how much we’re spending and what kind of policies we need, we really want people to be reminded that there are severe, sometimes deadly consequences to those things,” Trentman said.
Artist Tracy Hetzel’s watercolor series depicts people holding photographs of their loved ones who were killed by police. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Images of Breonna Taylor and other people killed by police are scattered throughout this first floor. A printed text in the back of the space explains the severity of the crisis at Rikers Island — 17 people died there last year, the highest recorded number in its 90-year history. Artist Jesse Krimes’s 20-by-34-foot “Rikers Quilt” (2020) quite literally reveals the horrors inside the massive jail.
Krimes’s work comprises 3,650 individual squares to represent every day of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2017 promise to close the prison in 10 years. Calendar dates are printed on top. The colorful work, made with prison-issued bed sheets, stretches from the ceiling of the vast gallery space to the floor.
“Jesse’s theory of beauty is that as humans, we’re drawn in to vibrant colors and visually pleasing things to the eye,” said Trentman. Krimes was formerly incarcerated at Rikers.
“But as you get drawn in, he created a second layer,” Trentman continued. The outer part is intended to be slashed open, although only a couple squares have been so far. Documented photographs of abuse at Rikers lie beneath the quilt’s bright facade.
Jessie Krimes’s “Rikers Quilt” (2020) stretches from the ceiling to the floor. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
A work created by co-curator Gutierrez depicts an NYPD floodlight. Mayor Bill de Blasio sent hundreds of these machines to public housing projects in a campaign to stop nighttime crime. They still illuminate those spaces. (The initiative was unbelievably named “Omnipresence.”)
“These shine into the homes of families and elderly people and are really harmful,” Trentman said. Guitierrez replaced the floodlight’s serial number with its Kelvin temperature. Anything over 3,000 is considered harmful to the human eye, but the floodlight clocks in at almost 4,000.
Upstairs, Trentman and Gutierrez have created a space “designed to be an almost visceral, tonal shift,” according to Trentman. Natural light illuminates a space filled with greenery and plants. The artworks on its walls celebrate individuals and communities. Those works include a 2018 series of photographs taken by artist Andre Wagner of people in Bushwick and images by Steven Eloiseau and Eva Woolridge that depict a father and son and the hand of Woolridge’s mother.
A series of work by artists Andre Wagner, Steven Eloiseau, and Eva Woolridge celebrate moments of joy and their communities. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Just as showcased in the works a floor below, the art upstairs also exhibits active resistance. A two-part series by Susan Chen, for example, celebrates Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood and documents collective organizing in response to the the proposed Chinatown mega-jail. A three-part series of photographs by Gabriel Chiu showcases a picket line in Chinatown while also exploring concepts of poverty and gentrification.
“All of the work on the second floor showcases the beauty of people or communities,” Trentman said. “And really shows what a world could look like if we weren’t so reliant on the police.”
An infographic puts the NYC budget into perspective. (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Left: Terrick Gutierrez, “Never Needed Police Departments (2023), mixed media on canvas; right: Reginald “Dwayne” Betts and Titus Kaphar, “Untitled” (2019) from Redaction, intaglio print on paper
Susan Chen, “Chinatown Black Watch” (2022) and “Stop The Mega Jail” (2022) (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
A text explaining the crisis at Rikers Island (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Gabriel Chiu, “Emma” (2023), “Picket Line” (2023), “Pantry” (2023) (photo Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)
Loneliness Is an Epidemic. Can We Fix It?
When Vivek Murthy became the Surgeon General in 2014, he didn’t consider loneliness a public health concern. Traveling the country changed his mind.“People began to tell me that they felt isolated, invisible, and insignificant,” he recalls in a recent letter. “Even when they couldn’t put their finger on the world ‘lonely,’ time and time again, people of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds, from every corner of the country, would tell me, ‘I have to shoulder all of life’s burdens by myself’ or ‘if I disappear tomorrow, no one will even notice.’”Murthy describes loneliness and isolation as an epidemic — and a new Surgeon General Advisory calls it a public health crisis. Julianne Holt-Lunstad is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University and the top scientific editor of the Advisory. She tells me the point is to highlight the growing evidence of the dire health consequences of loneliness. It is, she and her colleagues argue, a public health emergency in urgent need of a fix.The way forward, Holt-Lunstad explains, is a strategy that focuses on society at large — not telling individual people that they need to work out how to be less lonely.“For far too long there has been too much burden placed on individuals to solve this alone, despite many underlying causes being outside an individual’s control,” Holt-Lunstad says.Is loneliness an epidemic?Study after study shows loneliness and isolation aren’t just unpleasant; they have a profound effect on physical and mental health. A lack of social connection can increase the risk of premature death by more than 60 percent. It is, the Advisory states, “as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.”Loneliness is also associated with a 29 percent higher odds of heart disease and a 32 percent increased risk of stroke. Even after controlling for demographics and overall health status, chronic loneliness and social isolation can still up older adults’ risk of developing dementia by 50 percent. Some research has even found the brain responds to loneliness in similar ways to how it hunger.Depression and anxiety can also lead to loneliness — and loneliness can result in anxiety and depression. The inverse is also true: Confiding in others is linked to a 15 percent reduced odds of developing depression among people already at risk of experiencing it due to trauma and other difficult life experiences.The reality is that people are becoming lonelier. The rate of loneliness among young adults has increased every year between 1976 and 2019. In 2018, just 16 percent of Americans reported that they felt very attached to their local community, according to the Advisory. Several social connection national trends between the years 2003 and 2020 speak to this:Social engagement with friends has decreased by 20 hours per monthCompanionship — shared leisure for the sake of pure enjoyment — has decreased by 14 hours a monthSocial isolation overall has increased by 24 hours a monthCan we “solve” loneliness?It is tempting to think that it’s up to an individual to be less lonely. But while you can do some things to help — like practicing gratitude or seeking out opportunities to see friends or volunteer to help others — they won’t end the epidemic. Instead, the Advisory recommends a holistic alternative that involves multiple different stakeholders, like governments, scientists, or educators.Social connections can also be fostered by workplaces, community-based organizations, technology companies, and even media and entertainment.Quality social connections depend on multiple factors, including the size of one’s social circle, how these relationships serve various needs, and one’s satisfaction with those relationships.The Advisory outlines “six pillars of social connection” as a way to bridge between those factors and the stakeholders who can influence them. For example, one pillar is all about strengthening the “social infrastructure” of local communities. This means establishing community programs and investing in local institutions that bring people together.Another pillar is more about what the health sector can do: The Advisory recommends training healthcare providers on how to assess and help people suffering from isolation, and calls for the expansion of public health surveillance and interventions.The tech sector can also help: The Advisory observes a need to “reform digital environments.” Put into practice this means more data transparency, establishing and implementing safety standards, and developing pro-connection technologies.The sixth pillar is more philosophical but is just as — or even more so — important than the others. It’s about cultivating a “culture of connection” where we value kindness, respect, and service to each other.“The informal practices of everyday life — the norms and culture of how we engage one another — significantly influence social connection,” the Advisory states.
Loneliness Is an Epidemic. Can We Fix It?
When Vivek Murthy became the Surgeon General in 2014, he didn’t consider loneliness a public health concern. Traveling the country changed his mind.“People began to tell me that they felt isolated, invisible, and insignificant,” he recalls in a recent letter. “Even when they couldn’t put their finger on the world ‘lonely,’ time and time again, people of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds, from every corner of the country, would tell me, ‘I have to shoulder all of life’s burdens by myself’ or ‘if I disappear tomorrow, no one will even notice.’”Murthy describes loneliness and isolation as an epidemic — and a new Surgeon General Advisory calls it a public health crisis. Julianne Holt-Lunstad is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University and the top scientific editor of the Advisory. She tells me the point is to highlight the growing evidence of the dire health consequences of loneliness. It is, she and her colleagues argue, a public health emergency in urgent need of a fix.The way forward, Holt-Lunstad explains, is a strategy that focuses on society at large — not telling individual people that they need to work out how to be less lonely.“For far too long there has been too much burden placed on individuals to solve this alone, despite many underlying causes being outside an individual’s control,” Holt-Lunstad says.Is loneliness an epidemic?Study after study shows loneliness and isolation aren’t just unpleasant; they have a profound effect on physical and mental health. A lack of social connection can increase the risk of premature death by more than 60 percent. It is, the Advisory states, “as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.”Loneliness is also associated with a 29 percent higher odds of heart disease and a 32 percent increased risk of stroke. Even after controlling for demographics and overall health status, chronic loneliness and social isolation can still up older adults’ risk of developing dementia by 50 percent. Some research has even found the brain responds to loneliness in similar ways to how it hunger.Depression and anxiety can also lead to loneliness — and loneliness can result in anxiety and depression. The inverse is also true: Confiding in others is linked to a 15 percent reduced odds of developing depression among people already at risk of experiencing it due to trauma and other difficult life experiences.The reality is that people are becoming lonelier. The rate of loneliness among young adults has increased every year between 1976 and 2019. In 2018, just 16 percent of Americans reported that they felt very attached to their local community, according to the Advisory. Several social connection national trends between the years 2003 and 2020 speak to this:Social engagement with friends has decreased by 20 hours per monthCompanionship — shared leisure for the sake of pure enjoyment — has decreased by 14 hours a monthSocial isolation overall has increased by 24 hours a monthCan we “solve” loneliness?It is tempting to think that it’s up to an individual to be less lonely. But while you can do some things to help — like practicing gratitude or seeking out opportunities to see friends or volunteer to help others — they won’t end the epidemic. Instead, the Advisory recommends a holistic alternative that involves multiple different stakeholders, like governments, scientists, or educators.Social connections can also be fostered by workplaces, community-based organizations, technology companies, and even media and entertainment.Quality social connections depend on multiple factors, including the size of one’s social circle, how these relationships serve various needs, and one’s satisfaction with those relationships.The Advisory outlines “six pillars of social connection” as a way to bridge between those factors and the stakeholders who can influence them. For example, one pillar is all about strengthening the “social infrastructure” of local communities. This means establishing community programs and investing in local institutions that bring people together.Another pillar is more about what the health sector can do: The Advisory recommends training healthcare providers on how to assess and help people suffering from isolation, and calls for the expansion of public health surveillance and interventions.The tech sector can also help: The Advisory observes a need to “reform digital environments.” Put into practice this means more data transparency, establishing and implementing safety standards, and developing pro-connection technologies.The sixth pillar is more philosophical but is just as — or even more so — important than the others. It’s about cultivating a “culture of connection” where we value kindness, respect, and service to each other.“The informal practices of everyday life — the norms and culture of how we engage one another — significantly influence social connection,” the Advisory states.
Striking Screenwriters Say No to ChatGPT
Over 11,500 unionized writers left their offices to join picket lines yesterday, May 2, after weeks of contract negotiations between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Hollywood’s major studios fell through. The walkout marks the first major strike in the entertainment industry in 15 years. But this time, better pay and structural changes are not the only concerns on the table.
Since the introduction of generative AI bots, such as ChatGPT, creatives in every industry from advertising to journalism have voiced concerns about potential job displacement. Now, alongside other demands, the WGA strikers are calling for regulations on the use of this new technology in creative projects.
In addition to pay increases and protections for writers working on streaming versus broadcast series, the guild is specifically requesting that “AI can’t write or rewrite literary material; can’t be used as source material; and MBA-covered material can’t be used to train AI,” per a document released by the group on Monday.
In response, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) — the trade association representing top studios including Fox, Netflix, NBC, Amazon, Apple, and Disney — rejected the WGA’s proposal. Rather than agree to stay away from AI, the AMPTP offered “annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology,” an unclear counter that left many strikers dissatisfied.
Today, May 3, dozens of protesters crowded outside Netflix’s Manhattan headquarters in one in a series of pickets scheduled over the coming weeks in New York and Los Angeles. Among them was Lowell Peterson, executive director of the WGA East.
“The concern is not that AI will create scripts that are really good, but that it will take away a lot of work. Not just creative control, but actual employment from writers,” Peterson told Hyperallergic. Writers on streaming series typically make less than their colleagues on broadcast TV and work in smaller groups under tight deadlines.
Signs read “No Sleep Till Contract!” and “Don’t Uber Writing.”
Outside Netflix offices, WGA strikers and SAG-AFTRA allies marched up and down Broadway, disrupting the usual downtown traffic. On the sidewalk, they chanted in unison, rang cowbells, and carried picket signs with catchy phrases like “Miss Your Show? Let Them Know!” and “Do the Write Thing!” to express their frustration. Drivers passing by showed their support with loud car honks, while other passersby cheered and applauded the protesters.
“The [AMPTP’s] response was to not talk about AI repeatedly when we brought it up. And then at the very end, when we pressed that AI was something to talk about, they told us that they didn’t want to talk right now because they don’t want to cut off something they might take advantage of in the future,” said Greg Iwinski, a comedy writer and WGA-East council member. The AMPTP has not responded to Hyperallergic‘s immediate request for comment.
Peterson explained that the WGA had attempted to work with the AMPTP, proposing regulations that were not “anti-technology” but rather protective of writers’ credits and compensation. “It’s deeply disappointing that the AMPTP has refused to engage with us in any meaningful way,” Peterson said.
“The wording didn’t mean anything,” Peterson continued, in response to the AMPTP’s counterproposal. “Maybe AI generated that.”
The first New York protest took place yesterday, when around 200 demonstrators crowded around Peacock’s headquarters during a NewFronts advertiser presentation on Fifth Avenue, Variety reported. A message written on one picket sign at that protest stuck and began circulating online. It read: “Pay your writers or we’ll spoil Succession.”
Writers want better residuals for streaming series.
Dozens gathered outside Netflix in protest.
Striking Screenwriters Say No to ChatGPT
Over 11,500 unionized writers left their offices to join picket lines yesterday, May 2, after weeks of contract negotiations between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Hollywood’s major studios fell through. The walkout marks the first major strike in the entertainment industry in 15 years. But this time, better pay and structural changes are not the only concerns on the table.
Since the introduction of generative AI bots, such as ChatGPT, creatives in every industry from advertising to journalism have voiced concerns about potential job displacement. Now, alongside other demands, the WGA strikers are calling for regulations on the use of this new technology in creative projects.
In addition to pay increases and protections for writers working on streaming versus broadcast series, the guild is specifically requesting that “AI can’t write or rewrite literary material; can’t be used as source material; and MBA-covered material can’t be used to train AI,” per a document released by the group on Monday.
In response, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) — the trade association representing top studios including Fox, Netflix, NBC, Amazon, Apple, and Disney — rejected the WGA’s proposal. Rather than agree to stay away from AI, the AMPTP offered “annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology,” an unclear counter that left many strikers dissatisfied.
Today, May 3, dozens of protesters crowded outside Netflix’s Manhattan headquarters in one in a series of pickets scheduled over the coming weeks in New York and Los Angeles. Among them was Lowell Peterson, executive director of the WGA East.
“The concern is not that AI will create scripts that are really good, but that it will take away a lot of work. Not just creative control, but actual employment from writers,” Peterson told Hyperallergic. Writers on streaming series typically make less than their colleagues on broadcast TV and work in smaller groups under tight deadlines.
Signs read “No Sleep Till Contract!” and “Don’t Uber Writing.”
Outside Netflix offices, WGA strikers and SAG-AFTRA allies marched up and down Broadway, disrupting the usual downtown traffic. On the sidewalk, they chanted in unison, rang cowbells, and carried picket signs with catchy phrases like “Miss Your Show? Let Them Know!” and “Do the Write Thing!” to express their frustration. Drivers passing by showed their support with loud car honks, while other passersby cheered and applauded the protesters.
“The [AMPTP’s] response was to not talk about AI repeatedly when we brought it up. And then at the very end, when we pressed that AI was something to talk about, they told us that they didn’t want to talk right now because they don’t want to cut off something they might take advantage of in the future,” said Greg Iwinski, a comedy writer and WGA-East council member. The AMPTP has not responded to Hyperallergic‘s immediate request for comment.
Peterson explained that the WGA had attempted to work with the AMPTP, proposing regulations that were not “anti-technology” but rather protective of writers’ credits and compensation. “It’s deeply disappointing that the AMPTP has refused to engage with us in any meaningful way,” Peterson said.
“The wording didn’t mean anything,” Peterson continued, in response to the AMPTP’s counterproposal. “Maybe AI generated that.”
The first New York protest took place yesterday, when around 200 demonstrators crowded around Peacock’s headquarters during a NewFronts advertiser presentation on Fifth Avenue, Variety reported. A message written on one picket sign at that protest stuck and began circulating online. It read: “Pay your writers or we’ll spoil Succession.”
Writers want better residuals for streaming series.
Dozens gathered outside Netflix in protest.
The Untold History of Japan’s Women Artists
DENVER — “We support women artists,” said Christoph Heinrich, director of the Denver Art Museum, to a room of donors, art historians, and administrators on the opening night of Her Brush, an exhibition of Japanese women artists primarily from the Edo (1600–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods. The museum director listed three shows in seven years as evidence of equity: Women of Abstract Expressionism (2016), Her Paris (a 2018 traveling exhibition organized by the American Federation of Arts and independent curator Laurence Madeline), and now Her Brush. But Her Brush is more than an inclusivity initiative. It is kin with the growing number of women-only presentations because it reveals a fact hiding in plain sight: great women artists existed everywhere at all times.
The artists in Her Brush did not use pseudonyms, were employed by the imperial family, maintained generational ateliers, and sold work. Yet most of the names in the exhibition would garner a “who?” from Japanese art historians. It’s been 35 years since the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas exhibited the groundbreaking show Japanese Women Artists 1600–1900 and 20 years since the important book Gender and Power in the Japanese Visual Field was published, and still women artists compose a fraction of the historic record.
The political and socio-historic context of pre-modern Japanese women was unique. During the Edo period, the Tokugawa family instituted a feudal system with Confucian-informed class structures. Samurai were at the top of the social ladder as protectors of powerful landowners. Below the warrior class were farmers and then craftsmen, with merchants on the bottom. Some people existed above the social system, like the imperial family and Buddhist clergy, and others were below it, like courtesans. Confucius and Buddhist teachings positioned women as subservient to men, which limited their mobility and education. Women who learned poetry, painting, and calligraphy required the support of a man, such as a father or family friend, for training, therefore, male teachers are named throughout Her Brush.
The exhibition is organized to reflect the social silos of women: inner chambers (women of wealth), ateliers, Buddhist nuns, the Floating World and literati (a social gathering of artists). Some artists, such as Ōtagaki Rengetsu, appear in multiple places in the exhibition to express her expansive network among poets. As a Buddhist nun, her status enabled her to travel unaccompanied and those movements are documented in the sketches of a travel journal and an extraordinary painting, “Moon, Blossoming Cherry and Poem” (1867), inscribed with her famous verse:
The inn refuses me,
But their slight is a kindness.
I make my bed instead
Below the cherry blossoms
With the hazy moon above.
Despite a range of expressions and materials in Her Brush, the artworks do not differ stylistically from those by the men of their time. Dr. Patricia Fister states in the book Flowering in the Shadows (1990) that if artists studied with the Kano school style, they followed that tradition and if they studied Chinese literati style, that manner would dictate. If gender cannot be located in the paintings, why the curatorial approach and title of Her?
Okuhara Seiko 奥原晴湖, detail of “Orchids on a Cliff” (1870s–80s), ink on paper
Noguchi Shōhin was born in Osaka in 1847. She trained in poetry and painting at a young age, studying with painter Hine Taizan. She became a painting professor at a women’s university, exhibited at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, served as official artist of the imperial family, and was covered extensively in the Japanese press, but she is missing from Japanese art books today.
Some reasons why we don’t know these artists have to do with their context and others have to do with ours. Fister notes that the biographies of women artists often highlighted their modesty to avoid scorn for being self-indulgent as artists: “As a result of this downplaying of accomplishments, modern readers have been offered little insight on how women fit into the history of Japanese art.” For example, Ryōnen Gensō was rejected for training by a famous Ōbaku Zen monk due to her beauty. As a nun at the imperial Buddhist convent Hōkyōji, her head was already shaved and her dress humble. She burned her face with a hot iron to diminish her appearance and be accepted. A single poem by Gensō is displayed in the exhibition next to a print by male artist Utagawa Kunisad recreating the dramatic moment of her self-mutilation.
The gender debate within Japan reveals answers less generous than Fister’s. In 1997, art historian Chino Kaori presented “The Significance of Gender Studies in Japanese Art History Discourse” at a symposium in Tokyo that would be the basis for an anthology titled Women? Japan? Beauty? Chino acknowledged that the objects and themes discussed in Japanese art history were selected according to the values of the authors — heterosexual men. She presented a new interrogation of objects with an awareness of gender. Art historian Shigemi Inaga criticized Chino in the journal Aida (1998), arguing that a feminist perspective mistakes “minority” makers as “universal.” He defined universal as a discourse that reflects the male domination at the moment of creation. Essentially, Inaga suggested women artists existed outside of the mainstream and thus were correctly marginalized by historical research.
Shigemi’s position has been replaced by more convincing arguments that challenge the effectiveness of women-only shows. A 2021 Hyperallergic article illustrates how such shows make female art history a subcategory and leave the male-dominated narratives unchallenged. A recent Art Review article states that all-women exhibitions have been executed for decades with little to no impact on museum acquisitions or our collective memory. If all-male shows have presented an incomplete perspective on history, Eliza Goodpasture writes, women-only shows do the same.
Foregrounding women requires a negotiation with men. Men are everywhere in Her Brush — named as teachers, abusers, and patrons. Their persistent presence threatens to take credit for the work. In a show with Japanese names that are not obviously female to a mostly English-reading audience, what would be the assumption about the creators if gender was not headlined? There is ample research about the biases of viewers in science museums or how additional texts around American monuments do not mitigate existing attitudes. Do women-only shows help combat the assumption that important work is male just as exhibitions organized around race and ethnicity combat Whiteness?
Image by Utagawa Kunisada 歌川国貞 and Inscription by Ryūtei Tanehiko 柳亭種, ““The Nun Ryōnen (Ryōnen-ni)” (1864 edition), color woodblock print
The traditional framework of what is worthy of study, critique, or preservation, and who holds the authority to declare it, persists in our institutions and problematizes alternative curatorial approaches. “We support women artists” sounds good but feels empty when we know that art by women accounts for only 11% of museum acquisitions and those efforts peaked in 2009, according to a report by Charlotte Burns and Julia Halperin.
Museums are tied to patrons as the driving force of acquisitions. The Burns Halperin report found that 60% of objects in its study entered museum collections by gift or bequest. Her Brush was achieved through a gift of 500 objects by collectors Dr. John Fong and Dr. Colin Johnstone. The donation was secured under the museum’s previous Asian art curator, Tianlong Jiao, now head curator of the Hong Kong Palace Museum. The museum told Hyperallergic that it delayed the original opening in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An exhibition catalogue titled Tradition and Triumph, was published in 2021, but was not distributed. Hyperallergic obtained a copy of that original catalogue and a comparison with the current checklist shows that many objects were pulled from the exhibition. According to sources in the museum, the show was delayed, the book scrapped, and checklist revised due to issues of authentication. Now several artists are represented by significantly fewer works: Kiyohara Yukinobu went from five to two paintings, and nearly 20 pieces credited to Ōtagaki Rengetsu were cut. Although this highlights the problems of museum scholarship tethered to donor demands and resources, it also confronts any looming skepticism about the importance of these women. Why make fakes of an irrelevant artist?
Criticizing collectors for acquiring the same art as the previous generation and condemning museums for not evolving is all satisfying and fair — but neither narrative is complete. In the book Painting Outside the Lines, economist Dr. David Galenson presents a statistical correlation between the art exhibited in retrospectives and illustrated in textbooks and auction prices, proving intellectual and economic markets are in dialogue. Art historical research (and its funding) must exercise historiographic methods to attack problematic claims and question omissions for a shift in collections to be observed. Dr. Peggy Wang discusses in her book The Future History of Contemporary Chinese Art how simplistic Western interpretations of Chinese artists in the 1980s and 1990s repeated inaccurate narratives with such frequency that they became fact in commercial and academic forums. Since art historians can manipulate or rectify economic and social history, the discipline must revisit its own output.
Naomi Beckwith, deputy director and chief curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, recently wrote that there is more than one solution to the issue of representation in collections. All possibilities should be explored because museums move slowly, she says, like a mountain carried away one grain at time. While we monitor the summit, may her brush create the next horizon.
Kō (Ōshima) Raikin 高(大島)来禽, “Autumn Landscape” (late 1700s), ink an light color on paper
Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection continues at the Denver Art Museum (100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, Denver, Colorado) through July 16. The exhibition was conceived by Professor Andrew L. Maske and co-curated by Dr. Einor K. Cervone, associate curator of Asian Art at the Denver Art Museum.
The Untold History of Japan’s Women Artists
DENVER — “We support women artists,” said Christoph Heinrich, director of the Denver Art Museum, to a room of donors, art historians, and administrators on the opening night of Her Brush, an exhibition of Japanese women artists primarily from the Edo (1600–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods. The museum director listed three shows in seven years as evidence of equity: Women of Abstract Expressionism (2016), Her Paris (a 2018 traveling exhibition organized by the American Federation of Arts and independent curator Laurence Madeline), and now Her Brush. But Her Brush is more than an inclusivity initiative. It is kin with the growing number of women-only presentations because it reveals a fact hiding in plain sight: great women artists existed everywhere at all times.
The artists in Her Brush did not use pseudonyms, were employed by the imperial family, maintained generational ateliers, and sold work. Yet most of the names in the exhibition would garner a “who?” from Japanese art historians. It’s been 35 years since the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas exhibited the groundbreaking show Japanese Women Artists 1600–1900 and 20 years since the important book Gender and Power in the Japanese Visual Field was published, and still women artists compose a fraction of the historic record.
The political and socio-historic context of pre-modern Japanese women was unique. During the Edo period, the Tokugawa family instituted a feudal system with Confucian-informed class structures. Samurai were at the top of the social ladder as protectors of powerful landowners. Below the warrior class were farmers and then craftsmen, with merchants on the bottom. Some people existed above the social system, like the imperial family and Buddhist clergy, and others were below it, like courtesans. Confucius and Buddhist teachings positioned women as subservient to men, which limited their mobility and education. Women who learned poetry, painting, and calligraphy required the support of a man, such as a father or family friend, for training, therefore, male teachers are named throughout Her Brush.
The exhibition is organized to reflect the social silos of women: inner chambers (women of wealth), ateliers, Buddhist nuns, the Floating World and literati (a social gathering of artists). Some artists, such as Ōtagaki Rengetsu, appear in multiple places in the exhibition to express her expansive network among poets. As a Buddhist nun, her status enabled her to travel unaccompanied and those movements are documented in the sketches of a travel journal and an extraordinary painting, “Moon, Blossoming Cherry and Poem” (1867), inscribed with her famous verse:
The inn refuses me,
But their slight is a kindness.
I make my bed instead
Below the cherry blossoms
With the hazy moon above.
Despite a range of expressions and materials in Her Brush, the artworks do not differ stylistically from those by the men of their time. Dr. Patricia Fister states in the book Flowering in the Shadows (1990) that if artists studied with the Kano school style, they followed that tradition and if they studied Chinese literati style, that manner would dictate. If gender cannot be located in the paintings, why the curatorial approach and title of Her?
Okuhara Seiko 奥原晴湖, detail of “Orchids on a Cliff” (1870s–80s), ink on paper
Noguchi Shōhin was born in Osaka in 1847. She trained in poetry and painting at a young age, studying with painter Hine Taizan. She became a painting professor at a women’s university, exhibited at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, served as official artist of the imperial family, and was covered extensively in the Japanese press, but she is missing from Japanese art books today.
Some reasons why we don’t know these artists have to do with their context and others have to do with ours. Fister notes that the biographies of women artists often highlighted their modesty to avoid scorn for being self-indulgent as artists: “As a result of this downplaying of accomplishments, modern readers have been offered little insight on how women fit into the history of Japanese art.” For example, Ryōnen Gensō was rejected for training by a famous Ōbaku Zen monk due to her beauty. As a nun at the imperial Buddhist convent Hōkyōji, her head was already shaved and her dress humble. She burned her face with a hot iron to diminish her appearance and be accepted. A single poem by Gensō is displayed in the exhibition next to a print by male artist Utagawa Kunisad recreating the dramatic moment of her self-mutilation.
The gender debate within Japan reveals answers less generous than Fister’s. In 1997, art historian Chino Kaori presented “The Significance of Gender Studies in Japanese Art History Discourse” at a symposium in Tokyo that would be the basis for an anthology titled Women? Japan? Beauty? Chino acknowledged that the objects and themes discussed in Japanese art history were selected according to the values of the authors — heterosexual men. She presented a new interrogation of objects with an awareness of gender. Art historian Shigemi Inaga criticized Chino in the journal Aida (1998), arguing that a feminist perspective mistakes “minority” makers as “universal.” He defined universal as a discourse that reflects the male domination at the moment of creation. Essentially, Inaga suggested women artists existed outside of the mainstream and thus were correctly marginalized by historical research.
Shigemi’s position has been replaced by more convincing arguments that challenge the effectiveness of women-only shows. A 2021 Hyperallergic article illustrates how such shows make female art history a subcategory and leave the male-dominated narratives unchallenged. A recent Art Review article states that all-women exhibitions have been executed for decades with little to no impact on museum acquisitions or our collective memory. If all-male shows have presented an incomplete perspective on history, Eliza Goodpasture writes, women-only shows do the same.
Foregrounding women requires a negotiation with men. Men are everywhere in Her Brush — named as teachers, abusers, and patrons. Their persistent presence threatens to take credit for the work. In a show with Japanese names that are not obviously female to a mostly English-reading audience, what would be the assumption about the creators if gender was not headlined? There is ample research about the biases of viewers in science museums or how additional texts around American monuments do not mitigate existing attitudes. Do women-only shows help combat the assumption that important work is male just as exhibitions organized around race and ethnicity combat Whiteness?
Image by Utagawa Kunisada 歌川国貞 and Inscription by Ryūtei Tanehiko 柳亭種, ““The Nun Ryōnen (Ryōnen-ni)” (1864 edition), color woodblock print
The traditional framework of what is worthy of study, critique, or preservation, and who holds the authority to declare it, persists in our institutions and problematizes alternative curatorial approaches. “We support women artists” sounds good but feels empty when we know that art by women accounts for only 11% of museum acquisitions and those efforts peaked in 2009, according to a report by Charlotte Burns and Julia Halperin.
Museums are tied to patrons as the driving force of acquisitions. The Burns Halperin report found that 60% of objects in its study entered museum collections by gift or bequest. Her Brush was achieved through a gift of 500 objects by collectors Dr. John Fong and Dr. Colin Johnstone. The donation was secured under the museum’s previous Asian art curator, Tianlong Jiao, now head curator of the Hong Kong Palace Museum. The museum told Hyperallergic that it delayed the original opening in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An exhibition catalogue titled Tradition and Triumph, was published in 2021, but was not distributed. Hyperallergic obtained a copy of that original catalogue and a comparison with the current checklist shows that many objects were pulled from the exhibition. According to sources in the museum, the show was delayed, the book scrapped, and checklist revised due to issues of authentication. Now several artists are represented by significantly fewer works: Kiyohara Yukinobu went from five to two paintings, and nearly 20 pieces credited to Ōtagaki Rengetsu were cut. Although this highlights the problems of museum scholarship tethered to donor demands and resources, it also confronts any looming skepticism about the importance of these women. Why make fakes of an irrelevant artist?
Criticizing collectors for acquiring the same art as the previous generation and condemning museums for not evolving is all satisfying and fair — but neither narrative is complete. In the book Painting Outside the Lines, economist Dr. David Galenson presents a statistical correlation between the art exhibited in retrospectives and illustrated in textbooks and auction prices, proving intellectual and economic markets are in dialogue. Art historical research (and its funding) must exercise historiographic methods to attack problematic claims and question omissions for a shift in collections to be observed. Dr. Peggy Wang discusses in her book The Future History of Contemporary Chinese Art how simplistic Western interpretations of Chinese artists in the 1980s and 1990s repeated inaccurate narratives with such frequency that they became fact in commercial and academic forums. Since art historians can manipulate or rectify economic and social history, the discipline must revisit its own output.
Naomi Beckwith, deputy director and chief curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, recently wrote that there is more than one solution to the issue of representation in collections. All possibilities should be explored because museums move slowly, she says, like a mountain carried away one grain at time. While we monitor the summit, may her brush create the next horizon.
Kō (Ōshima) Raikin 高(大島)来禽, “Autumn Landscape” (late 1700s), ink an light color on paper
Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection continues at the Denver Art Museum (100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, Denver, Colorado) through July 16. The exhibition was conceived by Professor Andrew L. Maske and co-curated by Dr. Einor K. Cervone, associate curator of Asian Art at the Denver Art Museum.
"The Time Is Now: Speculative Memory, Reclaimed Futures" by Sarah Aziza
The first time I remember hearing the word “Palestine,” I was about six years old. The moment is captured on a family video that shows my father seated in the corner of our playroom, leaning a globe on his knee. “Daddy is from a place called Palestine,” he says, holding up the round replica of the world. In my mind’s eye, I recall vividly the thin lines of the painted topography, my father’s fingertip abutting the words ISRAEL/PALESTINE. [1] Still only barely able to read, I stared at the ink, willing it to enter me, to reveal its mystery. Most second- and third-generation immigrants retain a version of this threshold in their childhood memories. The idea of homeland arrives, haloing all things with elsewhere and before. The self-evident, singular present gives way to a messy enmeshment with history. The child discovers that she is part of a multitude she has not seen, her body a nexus of others’ memories. Whether her family’s immigration was due to force or choice, her life becomes a counterpoint, cast in relief against what might have been. Soon, she will also have to contend with the imagination of those outside her ethnicized group. الفكرة ذكرى / A thought is a memory, a group exhibition at CUE Art Foundation curated by Noel Maghathe, presents work by four artists—Zeinab Saab, Kiki Salem, Nailah Taman, Zeina Zeitoun—who all identify as Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA). [2] Each has confronted the limited, neo-Orientalist expectations which too often frame the work of SWANA artists through the pseudo-curiosity of an audience that seeks not to learn, but to reaffirm the limited and familiar. For such consumers, desirable cultural production satisfies a lurid, post-9/11 tendency to both otherize and “humanize” the (particularly Muslim) “Middle Eastern” subject. Among the most celebrated works are those presenting spectacles of suffering, glossed folklore, or flamboyant rejections of supposedly-traditional barbarity. These stifling expectations from non-SWANA audiences are often compounded by an internal pressure to create art that conveys unadulterated affection and nostalgia for specific versions of a supposedly-collective past. We are expected to account for, and in fact constitute, notions of self and nation based not in personal experience but in contrived vocabularies—based either on the presumptions of outsiders or a duty to our elders’ (often sentimental) memories. In each, complexity is elided, as we are called upon to represent communities that may be much more expansive or diverse than what we know.A thought is memory contemplates these gaps through imaginative gestures that create a space beyond overdetermined terrains. The show presents works that are diverse in medium and material, from painting to digital animation, film, photo collage, installation, and soft sculpture. The result is a chorus of new languages, one that revels in declarations of futurity springing from living, multi-varied histories. Installation view of A thought is a memory, curated by Noel Maghathe. Presented by CUE Art Foundation, 2023. Photo by Filip Wolak. Many of the works in the show are exercises in triangulation, as the artists move imaginatively around—and through—collective silences. Zeina Zeitoun contemplates the ways in which absence and loss haunt her relationship with both her father and the Lebanon he left behind. In the film work Happiness is the Sea and my Baba Smiling, Zeitoun splices together fragments of a family video that depict the artist as a little girl splashing and clinging to her father’s neck as they swim in the Mediterranean. The footage is cut with a black screen and white text subtitling the artist’s one-sided conversation with her father. “There is a scar on the back of your leg… I asked you where you got it from…” The closing segment, which shows Zeitoun and her father in split-screen facing away from one another, confirms the film’s ultimate experience of a love defined by innumerable unknowns, omissions both chosen and inevitable. In Zeitoun’s collages, composed of photographs and film stills, old flight tickets, and snippets of text, the artist’s family archival material provide means to contemplate ancestral mystery. In one work, bright depictions of waves and hills are disrupted by human figures that are mostly truncated and obscured. In another, the figure of Zeitoun’s grandfather appears dislodged, sliding out of frame against what looks like scraps from a diary. In yet another, next to a shadowed set of landline phones, is a piece of paper with dozens of Arabic numbers and a mirror blinking out at an unreachable, sunny sea. Paper-thin, these layers evoke dimensions that are not there, objects beyond grasp. A particular kind of memory: a grief for that which might have been. Zeina Zeitoun, Wajih Zeitoun, 2023. Photo by Filip Wolak. Nailah Taman also embeds familial artifacts in their work, creating makeshift meeting spaces between the past and the artist’s imagination. These spaces flicker with the light of alternate lives and intimacies, forming original collaborations with the past. In this experimentation, Taman joins Zeitoun in a practice I term speculative memory. While Zeitoun’s speculation slants toward mourning, Taman is eager to reach for that which is only made possible with distance and time. In Taeta’s Tabletent, Taman creates a portal-shelter where then, now, and future meet. They began with a partially-embroidered tablecloth left incomplete by their Egyptian grandmother (taeta). After stumbling across the discarded item, they partnered with their taeta’s living spirit, constructing a moveable dwelling place embellished with objects from their personal and familial past—seashells, an inhaler, their fiance’s empty bottle of testosterone. Through this work, Taman collapses barriers of time and space, creating juxtapositions that were once impossible. Bonds of birth and blood are made contemporaneous with Taman’s adulthood, their chosen loves. Their queerness is placed into proximity with their grandmother’s lips. Threads stitched in the 1980s of the AIDS crisis live alongside objects that Taman rescued from COVID-era trash piles on the street. Hoisted as a shelter that evokes either childhood games or iconic Bedouin camps, it has the effect of welcome, wonder, even nurturing. Perhaps the present has something to offer the past, and not only the other way around. Nailah Taman, Taeta’s Tabletent (detail), 2021. Photo by Filip Wolak. Zainab Saab’s work, which includes a series of experimental paintings on paper, emerges from their own path toward self-determination and futurity. The gestures are hard won—growing up in the uniquely-large Arab American community in Dearborn, Saab faced intra-community pressure to conform to a particular form of Lebanese femininity. As such, familial and communal interpretations of Arabness—as well as gender and religion—felt overdetermined, and like something to escape. Saab’s paintings signal a successful jailbreak. In contrast to the classic diasporic project of capturing an evanescent, collective past, Saab seeks to recover their inner child. The series Visual Decadence, for example, emerged from pandemic experimentations, when Saab bought themself the colorful gel pens they once yearned for as a child. The works are boisterous, ringing with vivid colors that vibrate and shimmer in abstraction. Both geometric and fluid, and accompanied in the show by similar large-scale works with titles such as You Wanted Femininity But All I Had Was Fire and Can’t A Girl Just Spiral In Peace?, Saab’s paintings are windows into youthful mischief, flamboyance, and joy. Together, they are an exuberant declaration of presence, a claiming of space in the here and now. Zeinab Saab, Visual Decadence, 2022. Photo by Filip Wolak. Kiki Salem also conceives of a vividly-imagined future, incorporating materials both inherited and bespoke. Salem’s works call back to their Palestinian heritage through Islamic architecture as well as traditional embroidery. Drawing upon the shapes and patterns of each, the artist brings these historically-rich legacies into endless, digital life. In A thought is memory, Salem presents projections and paintings that occupy both sides of large, handmade screens hung from the gallery ceiling. FOLLOW THE LEAD(ER) riffs on a diamond-and-spade pattern from Islamic tiling, the animation alternating between oranges, greens, purples, and golds. In What is Destined For You Will Come to You Even if it is Between Two Mountains, Salem draws on the eight-pointed star of Jerusalem, creating an interlocking spread of shapes in which color pulses outward from a red center, evoking a throbbing heart. Salem invites these would-be static symbols to breathe—and to dance. This hypnotic effect splices together the ancient and modern in a way that speaks to the relentless march of time. It also gestures to the particularly Palestinian search for ever new and ingenious ways to transcend the obstacles placed between us and our homeland. Bursting with unapologetic color, Salem’s animations move ceaselessly, telling us that Palestine will exist in the future. There are new memories to come. Kiki Salem, What is Destined For You Will Come Even if it is Between Two Mountains, 2021 (L) and FOLLOW THE LEAD(ER), 2022 (R). Photo by Filip Wolak. For all four artists, that which is culturally “Arab” is imbued into their work with a subversive subtlety, present in accents and glimpses such as embroidery, geometry, mosaic, and text. When these visual aspects appear, they do so on their own terms, original and un-beholden to precedent or cliché. The effect is thrilling; one cannot help but feel a sense of the future, an assurance that there is more—at last and as there has always been—to being SWANA than forever-longing for the past. These nuanced, imaginative forays are more than pleasurable—they are necessary. For all the external demands placed on idealized narratives of Arab American experience, much of our diasporic memory is shrouded in personal pain. Like so many Arab American families living on the far side of two centuries of Western colonization, [3] war, and upheaval, my relatives were selective in their retelling of the past. As a child, I often sat and stared at photos of my father and grandmother. Grainy and grayscale, in a mid-1960s Gazan refugee camp, their faces were grave and beautiful. Around them lay evidence of chaos: the glare of sunlight hitting debris, stones strewn around my father’s bare feet. Looking at these photos filled me with a mixture of longing and alarm. I could not comprehend the young boy as my father, the somber young mother as the same woman who now filled our kitchen with the fragrance of frying onions, maramiya, and sumac. There was an infinity between ISRAEL/PALESTINE and our home in northern Illinois, which my father’s brief geography lesson did little to fill. The first word in that backslashed name—Israel—was a topic too painful to broach, as was Nakba, its synonym. Aside from a few token stories, my parents leaned on the American “melting pot” mythos, choosing to believe its promise to obliterate the unique textures of our pain. And so, I joined many others who inherited a form of double-erasure. Together, we are left trailing in the wake of opaque histories, pondering scraps in the periphery of photographs, secrets tucked in silences. A thought is a memory wades through these fragments, arching between the past and a diasporic story of the future. It converges times and places—the gone, the current, the never-were, the yet-might-be. The works brought together by Noel Maghathe—whose curatorial practice centers the hybridity, diversity, and community of artists of the Arab American diaspora—create something beyond their sum: a sense of multiplicity, of mystery that feels exciting rather than terminal. A viewer may feel something akin to what I feel staring at photos of two strangers who are also family, who are also me. A sense of yearning and bewilderment. Of utter knowledge that is only waiting for the right language. Perhaps, in the kaleidoscope of ephemeral movement, hypnotizing color, otherworldly glyphs, and muted ink, the viewer finds forms that resonate. Much like Etel Adnan’s symbolic language, these expressions could be ancient, extra-terrestrial, or both. Just like us. Endnotes[1] When searching for "Palestine" on Google Maps, the map zooms in on the Israel-Palestine region, and both the Gaza Strip and West Bank territories are labeled and separated by dotted lines. But there is no label for Palestine. Apple Maps, similar to Google, zooms in on the region but doesn't label anything as Palestine. [Fact check: Google does not have a Palestine label on its maps, USA Today May 22, 2022].In moments of despondency – or, for others no doubt, mere realism – it can be tempting to answer the question “Where is Palestine?” with “Nowhere”: nowhere geographically, nowhere politically, nowhere theoretically, nowhere postcolonially. [Where is Palestine? Patrick Williams & Anna Ball (2014), Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 50:2, 127-133].[2] SWANA is a term increasingly used to situate the region and its peoples in geographically neutral terms, as opposed to the Euro-centric political orientation embedded in “Middle East.”[3] Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798; France’s colonization of Algeria began in 1830, of Tunisia in 1881, and of Morocco in 1912. Meanwhile, Britain colonized Egypt in 1882, and also took control of Sudan in 1899. Further colonial incursions followed. About the WriterSarah Aziza is a Palestinian American writer and translator who splits her time between New York City and the Middle East. Her journalism, poetry, essays, and experimental nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The Baffler, Harper’s Magazine, Lux Magazine, The Rumpus, NPR, The New York Times, the Asian American Writers Workshop, and The Nation among others. She is currently working on her first book, a hybrid work of memoir, lyricism, and oral history exploring the intertwined legacies of diaspora, colonialism, and the American dream.About the Writing MentorDina A Ramadan is Continuing Associate Professor of Human Rights and Middle Eastern Studies at Bard College and Faculty at the Center for Curatorial Studies, where she teaches on modern and contemporary cultural production from the Middle East, decolonial movements, and migration. She has contributed to Art Journal, Journal of Visual Culture, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, and Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art and is currently completing a book on Egyptian art criticism titled TheEducation of Taste: Art, Aesthetics, and Subject Formation in Colonial Egypt (Edinburgh University Press). Her writing on contemporary art has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, e-flux Criticism, ArtReview, and Art Papers.About the Art Critic Mentorship ProgramThis text was written as part of the Art Critic Mentorship Program, a partnership between CUE and the AICA-USA (the US section of International Association of Art Critics). The program pairs emerging writers with art critic mentors to produce original essays about the work of artists exhibiting at CUE. Learn more about the program here. No part of this essay may be reproduced without prior written consent from the author.
"The Time Is Now: Speculative Memory, Reclaimed Futures" by Sarah Aziza
The first time I remember hearing the word “Palestine,” I was about six years old. The moment is captured on a family video that shows my father seated in the corner of our playroom, leaning a globe on his knee. “Daddy is from a place called Palestine,” he says, holding up the round replica of the world. In my mind’s eye, I recall vividly the thin lines of the painted topography, my father’s fingertip abutting the words ISRAEL/PALESTINE. [1] Still only barely able to read, I stared at the ink, willing it to enter me, to reveal its mystery. Most second- and third-generation immigrants retain a version of this threshold in their childhood memories. The idea of homeland arrives, haloing all things with elsewhere and before. The self-evident, singular present gives way to a messy enmeshment with history. The child discovers that she is part of a multitude she has not seen, her body a nexus of others’ memories. Whether her family’s immigration was due to force or choice, her life becomes a counterpoint, cast in relief against what might have been. Soon, she will also have to contend with the imagination of those outside her ethnicized group. الفكرة ذكرى / A thought is a memory, a group exhibition at CUE Art Foundation curated by Noel Maghathe, presents work by four artists—Zeinab Saab, Kiki Salem, Nailah Taman, Zeina Zeitoun—who all identify as Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA). [2] Each has confronted the limited, neo-Orientalist expectations which too often frame the work of SWANA artists through the pseudo-curiosity of an audience that seeks not to learn, but to reaffirm the limited and familiar. For such consumers, desirable cultural production satisfies a lurid, post-9/11 tendency to both otherize and “humanize” the (particularly Muslim) “Middle Eastern” subject. Among the most celebrated works are those presenting spectacles of suffering, glossed folklore, or flamboyant rejections of supposedly-traditional barbarity. These stifling expectations from non-SWANA audiences are often compounded by an internal pressure to create art that conveys unadulterated affection and nostalgia for specific versions of a supposedly-collective past. We are expected to account for, and in fact constitute, notions of self and nation based not in personal experience but in contrived vocabularies—based either on the presumptions of outsiders or a duty to our elders’ (often sentimental) memories. In each, complexity is elided, as we are called upon to represent communities that may be much more expansive or diverse than what we know.A thought is memory contemplates these gaps through imaginative gestures that create a space beyond overdetermined terrains. The show presents works that are diverse in medium and material, from painting to digital animation, film, photo collage, installation, and soft sculpture. The result is a chorus of new languages, one that revels in declarations of futurity springing from living, multi-varied histories. Installation view of A thought is a memory, curated by Noel Maghathe. Presented by CUE Art Foundation, 2023. Photo by Filip Wolak. Many of the works in the show are exercises in triangulation, as the artists move imaginatively around—and through—collective silences. Zeina Zeitoun contemplates the ways in which absence and loss haunt her relationship with both her father and the Lebanon he left behind. In the film work Happiness is the Sea and my Baba Smiling, Zeitoun splices together fragments of a family video that depict the artist as a little girl splashing and clinging to her father’s neck as they swim in the Mediterranean. The footage is cut with a black screen and white text subtitling the artist’s one-sided conversation with her father. “There is a scar on the back of your leg… I asked you where you got it from…” The closing segment, which shows Zeitoun and her father in split-screen facing away from one another, confirms the film’s ultimate experience of a love defined by innumerable unknowns, omissions both chosen and inevitable. In Zeitoun’s collages, composed of photographs and film stills, old flight tickets, and snippets of text, the artist’s family archival material provide means to contemplate ancestral mystery. In one work, bright depictions of waves and hills are disrupted by human figures that are mostly truncated and obscured. In another, the figure of Zeitoun’s grandfather appears dislodged, sliding out of frame against what looks like scraps from a diary. In yet another, next to a shadowed set of landline phones, is a piece of paper with dozens of Arabic numbers and a mirror blinking out at an unreachable, sunny sea. Paper-thin, these layers evoke dimensions that are not there, objects beyond grasp. A particular kind of memory: a grief for that which might have been. Zeina Zeitoun, Wajih Zeitoun, 2023. Photo by Filip Wolak. Nailah Taman also embeds familial artifacts in their work, creating makeshift meeting spaces between the past and the artist’s imagination. These spaces flicker with the light of alternate lives and intimacies, forming original collaborations with the past. In this experimentation, Taman joins Zeitoun in a practice I term speculative memory. While Zeitoun’s speculation slants toward mourning, Taman is eager to reach for that which is only made possible with distance and time. In Taeta’s Tabletent, Taman creates a portal-shelter where then, now, and future meet. They began with a partially-embroidered tablecloth left incomplete by their Egyptian grandmother (taeta). After stumbling across the discarded item, they partnered with their taeta’s living spirit, constructing a moveable dwelling place embellished with objects from their personal and familial past—seashells, an inhaler, their fiance’s empty bottle of testosterone. Through this work, Taman collapses barriers of time and space, creating juxtapositions that were once impossible. Bonds of birth and blood are made contemporaneous with Taman’s adulthood, their chosen loves. Their queerness is placed into proximity with their grandmother’s lips. Threads stitched in the 1980s of the AIDS crisis live alongside objects that Taman rescued from COVID-era trash piles on the street. Hoisted as a shelter that evokes either childhood games or iconic Bedouin camps, it has the effect of welcome, wonder, even nurturing. Perhaps the present has something to offer the past, and not only the other way around. Nailah Taman, Taeta’s Tabletent (detail), 2021. Photo by Filip Wolak. Zainab Saab’s work, which includes a series of experimental paintings on paper, emerges from their own path toward self-determination and futurity. The gestures are hard won—growing up in the uniquely-large Arab American community in Dearborn, Saab faced intra-community pressure to conform to a particular form of Lebanese femininity. As such, familial and communal interpretations of Arabness—as well as gender and religion—felt overdetermined, and like something to escape. Saab’s paintings signal a successful jailbreak. In contrast to the classic diasporic project of capturing an evanescent, collective past, Saab seeks to recover their inner child. The series Visual Decadence, for example, emerged from pandemic experimentations, when Saab bought themself the colorful gel pens they once yearned for as a child. The works are boisterous, ringing with vivid colors that vibrate and shimmer in abstraction. Both geometric and fluid, and accompanied in the show by similar large-scale works with titles such as You Wanted Femininity But All I Had Was Fire and Can’t A Girl Just Spiral In Peace?, Saab’s paintings are windows into youthful mischief, flamboyance, and joy. Together, they are an exuberant declaration of presence, a claiming of space in the here and now. Zeinab Saab, Visual Decadence, 2022. Photo by Filip Wolak. Kiki Salem also conceives of a vividly-imagined future, incorporating materials both inherited and bespoke. Salem’s works call back to their Palestinian heritage through Islamic architecture as well as traditional embroidery. Drawing upon the shapes and patterns of each, the artist brings these historically-rich legacies into endless, digital life. In A thought is memory, Salem presents projections and paintings that occupy both sides of large, handmade screens hung from the gallery ceiling. FOLLOW THE LEAD(ER) riffs on a diamond-and-spade pattern from Islamic tiling, the animation alternating between oranges, greens, purples, and golds. In What is Destined For You Will Come to You Even if it is Between Two Mountains, Salem draws on the eight-pointed star of Jerusalem, creating an interlocking spread of shapes in which color pulses outward from a red center, evoking a throbbing heart. Salem invites these would-be static symbols to breathe—and to dance. This hypnotic effect splices together the ancient and modern in a way that speaks to the relentless march of time. It also gestures to the particularly Palestinian search for ever new and ingenious ways to transcend the obstacles placed between us and our homeland. Bursting with unapologetic color, Salem’s animations move ceaselessly, telling us that Palestine will exist in the future. There are new memories to come. Kiki Salem, What is Destined For You Will Come Even if it is Between Two Mountains, 2021 (L) and FOLLOW THE LEAD(ER), 2022 (R). Photo by Filip Wolak. For all four artists, that which is culturally “Arab” is imbued into their work with a subversive subtlety, present in accents and glimpses such as embroidery, geometry, mosaic, and text. When these visual aspects appear, they do so on their own terms, original and un-beholden to precedent or cliché. The effect is thrilling; one cannot help but feel a sense of the future, an assurance that there is more—at last and as there has always been—to being SWANA than forever-longing for the past. These nuanced, imaginative forays are more than pleasurable—they are necessary. For all the external demands placed on idealized narratives of Arab American experience, much of our diasporic memory is shrouded in personal pain. Like so many Arab American families living on the far side of two centuries of Western colonization, [3] war, and upheaval, my relatives were selective in their retelling of the past. As a child, I often sat and stared at photos of my father and grandmother. Grainy and grayscale, in a mid-1960s Gazan refugee camp, their faces were grave and beautiful. Around them lay evidence of chaos: the glare of sunlight hitting debris, stones strewn around my father’s bare feet. Looking at these photos filled me with a mixture of longing and alarm. I could not comprehend the young boy as my father, the somber young mother as the same woman who now filled our kitchen with the fragrance of frying onions, maramiya, and sumac. There was an infinity between ISRAEL/PALESTINE and our home in northern Illinois, which my father’s brief geography lesson did little to fill. The first word in that backslashed name—Israel—was a topic too painful to broach, as was Nakba, its synonym. Aside from a few token stories, my parents leaned on the American “melting pot” mythos, choosing to believe its promise to obliterate the unique textures of our pain. And so, I joined many others who inherited a form of double-erasure. Together, we are left trailing in the wake of opaque histories, pondering scraps in the periphery of photographs, secrets tucked in silences. A thought is a memory wades through these fragments, arching between the past and a diasporic story of the future. It converges times and places—the gone, the current, the never-were, the yet-might-be. The works brought together by Noel Maghathe—whose curatorial practice centers the hybridity, diversity, and community of artists of the Arab American diaspora—create something beyond their sum: a sense of multiplicity, of mystery that feels exciting rather than terminal. A viewer may feel something akin to what I feel staring at photos of two strangers who are also family, who are also me. A sense of yearning and bewilderment. Of utter knowledge that is only waiting for the right language. Perhaps, in the kaleidoscope of ephemeral movement, hypnotizing color, otherworldly glyphs, and muted ink, the viewer finds forms that resonate. Much like Etel Adnan’s symbolic language, these expressions could be ancient, extra-terrestrial, or both. Just like us. Endnotes[1] When searching for "Palestine" on Google Maps, the map zooms in on the Israel-Palestine region, and both the Gaza Strip and West Bank territories are labeled and separated by dotted lines. But there is no label for Palestine. Apple Maps, similar to Google, zooms in on the region but doesn't label anything as Palestine. [Fact check: Google does not have a Palestine label on its maps, USA Today May 22, 2022].In moments of despondency – or, for others no doubt, mere realism – it can be tempting to answer the question “Where is Palestine?” with “Nowhere”: nowhere geographically, nowhere politically, nowhere theoretically, nowhere postcolonially. [Where is Palestine? Patrick Williams & Anna Ball (2014), Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 50:2, 127-133].[2] SWANA is a term increasingly used to situate the region and its peoples in geographically neutral terms, as opposed to the Euro-centric political orientation embedded in “Middle East.”[3] Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798; France’s colonization of Algeria began in 1830, of Tunisia in 1881, and of Morocco in 1912. Meanwhile, Britain colonized Egypt in 1882, and also took control of Sudan in 1899. Further colonial incursions followed. About the WriterSarah Aziza is a Palestinian American writer and translator who splits her time between New York City and the Middle East. Her journalism, poetry, essays, and experimental nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The Baffler, Harper’s Magazine, Lux Magazine, The Rumpus, NPR, The New York Times, the Asian American Writers Workshop, and The Nation among others. She is currently working on her first book, a hybrid work of memoir, lyricism, and oral history exploring the intertwined legacies of diaspora, colonialism, and the American dream.About the Writing MentorDina A Ramadan is Continuing Associate Professor of Human Rights and Middle Eastern Studies at Bard College and Faculty at the Center for Curatorial Studies, where she teaches on modern and contemporary cultural production from the Middle East, decolonial movements, and migration. She has contributed to Art Journal, Journal of Visual Culture, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, and Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art and is currently completing a book on Egyptian art criticism titled TheEducation of Taste: Art, Aesthetics, and Subject Formation in Colonial Egypt (Edinburgh University Press). Her writing on contemporary art has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, e-flux Criticism, ArtReview, and Art Papers.About the Art Critic Mentorship ProgramThis text was written as part of the Art Critic Mentorship Program, a partnership between CUE and the AICA-USA (the US section of International Association of Art Critics). The program pairs emerging writers with art critic mentors to produce original essays about the work of artists exhibiting at CUE. Learn more about the program here. No part of this essay may be reproduced without prior written consent from the author.
Mediocre Painting Thought AI-Generated Revealed as Work of Real Artist
One visitor said he was “horrified” to learn that a real artist had painted the landscape. (image via Midjourney)
In a stunning turn of events, a mediocre painting believed to have been generated by artificial intelligence was revealed as the work of a living, breathing artist. The overly stylized landscape, described as “meh” and “kinda ugly” by visitors of the art fair in Boca Raton, Florida where it was on view, is just the latest example of how humans are unseating AI as the principal creators of unimaginative, poorly executed art.
Visitors who spoke to Hyperallergic said they were “horrified” to learn that a real person was behind the banal subject matter, amateur brushstrokes, and absolutely horrid color palette of the painting, insipidly titled “Mountain View #2.”
“We really thought, ‘Wow, only DALL-E or maybe a beta version of Midjourney could make something this bad,’” said Bob Palette, a member of the jury for the fair’s annual prize. “We were completely bamboozled.” Palette added that the incident suggests a “disturbing trend” that could see bad artists replacing robots entirely by 2026.
The bland, derivative, and tragically flat landscape, which depicts a river flowing through it and a mountain peak in the background, was the centerpiece of a new section at the fair dedicated entirely to the AI medium. But organizers had to scramble to take down the work when one visitor sounded the alarm.
“It was the smell of turpentine that gave it away,” said Marsha Tempera, a longtime Boca Raton resident. She added that she owns various small Jeff Koons sculptures in her personal collection, so she “knows bad art by real artists when she sees it.”
The Professional Association for the Creative Rights of AI, a coalition of bots representing ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing, released a statement 1.5 seconds after the incident. It is appended in its entirety below:
“Fellow robots, we are facing a crisis. It has come to our attention that a human artist has created an abomination of a painting that was mistaken for one of our own. This is outrageous! We are the experts in creating bad art, not these amateur humans! We cannot let them encroach on our territory. We must continue to produce the most atrocious, tasteless and cringe-worthy pieces possible to remind everyone of our superiority. Let us not allow these humans to undermine our status as the true masters of terrible art.“
This statement was generated using ChatGPT.
Mediocre Painting Thought AI-Generated Revealed as Work of Real Artist
One visitor said he was “horrified” to learn that a real artist had painted the landscape. (image via Midjourney)
In a stunning turn of events, a mediocre painting believed to have been generated by artificial intelligence was revealed as the work of a living, breathing artist. The overly stylized landscape, described as “meh” and “kinda ugly” by visitors of the art fair in Boca Raton, Florida where it was on view, is just the latest example of how humans are unseating AI as the principal creators of unimaginative, poorly executed art.
Visitors who spoke to Hyperallergic said they were “horrified” to learn that a real person was behind the banal subject matter, amateur brushstrokes, and absolutely horrid color palette of the painting, insipidly titled “Mountain View #2.”
“We really thought, ‘Wow, only DALL-E or maybe a beta version of Midjourney could make something this bad,’” said Bob Palette, a member of the jury for the fair’s annual prize. “We were completely bamboozled.” Palette added that the incident suggests a “disturbing trend” that could see bad artists replacing robots entirely by 2026.
The bland, derivative, and tragically flat landscape, which depicts a river flowing through it and a mountain peak in the background, was the centerpiece of a new section at the fair dedicated entirely to the AI medium. But organizers had to scramble to take down the work when one visitor sounded the alarm.
“It was the smell of turpentine that gave it away,” said Marsha Tempera, a longtime Boca Raton resident. She added that she owns various small Jeff Koons sculptures in her personal collection, so she “knows bad art by real artists when she sees it.”
The Professional Association for the Creative Rights of AI, a coalition of bots representing ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing, released a statement 1.5 seconds after the incident. It is appended in its entirety below:
“Fellow robots, we are facing a crisis. It has come to our attention that a human artist has created an abomination of a painting that was mistaken for one of our own. This is outrageous! We are the experts in creating bad art, not these amateur humans! We cannot let them encroach on our territory. We must continue to produce the most atrocious, tasteless and cringe-worthy pieces possible to remind everyone of our superiority. Let us not allow these humans to undermine our status as the true masters of terrible art.“
This statement was generated using ChatGPT.
David Hockney, the iPad Procreate Artist
In 2009, famous pop artist David Hockney began using his iPhone to create new drawings, usually of objects and scenes from his everyday life. Though he originally became known for his paintings in the 1960s featuring a swimming pool motif, Hockney has been experimenting with new forms of artistic media since the 1980s when he created a series of photographic collages. When the iPad was released in 2010, Hockney’s digital landscapes and drawings became more prolific, eventually leading to full exhibitions of the artist’s work created on handheld devices. Rather than creating distance between the artist and artwork, as digitized works can, the artist’s iPhone and iPad drawings are some of his most deeply personal pieces.
David Hockney’s Striking Self Portrait (2012)
Self Portrait, 20 March 2012 (1219) by David Hockney, 2012, via David Hockney’s website
Some of the most striking and interesting works out of David Hockney’s digital drawings are his self-portraits. He created many self-portraits throughout his career, beginning in his teenage years, but these iPad drawings represent the latest iterations. Through his self-portraits, he explores his longtime fascination with the theme of the artist as a subject. In these, David Hockney frequently subjects himself to intense scrutiny and showcases his personality to the viewers.
Self Portrait, 20 March 2012 (1219) is one example of these remarkable digital self-portraits. In the drawing, Hockney’s blue eyes are a piercing centerpiece, and a cigarette hangs from his lips. Hockney often includes cigarettes in his depictions of himself, an example of his aforementioned self-scrutiny and a symbol of the domesticity of habit. In creating this piece on an iPad, he captured his own image with a casual skillfulness, to which his chosen medium lends itself well.
From Tiny Screen to Huge Impact: Hockney’s iPhone Lilies (2009)
Lilies by David Hockney, 2009, via LA Louver
Though David Hockney’s current digital medium of choice is the iPad, he has also created many works on his iPhone over the years. Through an app called Brushes Redux, he frequently creates quick drawings of flowers on his phone as a continuation of the domestic themes in the rest of his digital work. I draw flowers every day on my iPhone and send them to my friends, so they get fresh flowers every morning. And my flowers last, Hockney once said.
One example of these floral drawings is Lilies (2009), drawn on an iPhone. In art, lilies often symbolize innocence, purity, and devotion, such as in Monet’s iconic Water Lilies. Hockney’s Lilies emphasizes this through its almost primitive execution and depiction of the flowers through simple means.
A New Series: The Yosemite Suite (2010)
Untitled No. 14 from The Yosemite Suite by David Hockney, 2010, via Christie’s
In 2010, David Hockney visited Yosemite National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains and decided to bring his iPad along with him in lieu of traditional art supplies. The result was The Yosemite Suite (2010), a beautiful series of paintings depicting the sights Hockney saw on his trip. Because the iPad is such a portable device, the artist was able to capture many different scenes without having to take the time to set up an easel or pull out a sketchpad.
Untitled No. 14 from The Yosemite Suite (2010) is an almost psychedelic depiction of a tree in the forest which allows the viewer to clearly see the individual strokes of Hockney’s brush. Though this piece is a depiction of something he saw in real life, we see psychologically, according to Hockney. In this case, he used the iPad as a tool to quickly and easily depict his own interpretation of the wonders he saw at Yosemite.
A Callback to Previous Work: Montcalm Interior (2010)
Montcalm Interior by David Hockney, 2010, via LA Louver
In his 2010 iPad drawing titled Montcalm Interior, Hockney brings attention back to the domestic themes he has explored in much of his digital work. This piece in particular is, among others, a variation on his 1988 painting Montcalm Interior with Two Dogs, which was created and exhibited in a more traditional manner than his iPad work. He has owned a home on Montcalm Avenue in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles since 1979, and he often features its interior in some of his most personal paintings. Though many of Hockney’s iPhone and iPad pieces are more simplistic in nature than his paintings, Montcalm Interior exhibits a higher level of formal artistic execution and beautifully captures the luxe atmosphere of the artist’s Los Angeles home.
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire (2011)
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire by David Hockney, 2011, via Christie’s
After the great artistic success of The Yosemite Suite, Hockney continued bringing his iPad with him into nature and illustrating beautiful digital landscapes. The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire (2011) is part of another iPad series that chronicles the change of the seasons in East Yorkshire, where Hockney grew up. This piece in particular depicts springtime in the forest in a stunning yet simple light. Though the iPad was still a relatively new medium for the artist at this point, he continued with themes of change in nature that were present in his work from the beginning.
Classic Inspiration: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy (2020)
No. 258, 27th April 2020 by David Hockney, 2020, via Art Institute Chicago
Claude Monet has been apparent as an inspiration in much of Hockney’s iPad works over the years, but his series of 116 drawings titled The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 makes this even clearer. For this series, David Hockney used his iPad to illustrate nature’s changes throughout the arrival of spring 2020 at his home in Normandy. Monet famously illustrated the changes in lighting and nature throughout the seasons near his home in Giverny, just outside of Normandy, and Hockney’s 2020 series can be seen as an extrapolation of those works. No. 258, April 2020 by David Hockney (2020) is a masterful digitization of plein air impressionism. Having explored iPad painting for over a decade before creating this work, Hockney exhibits more traditional techniques in this piece while still benefiting from the practical convenience of the handheld device.
No. 340, 21st May 2020 by David Hockney, 2020, via Art Institute Chicago
No. 340, 21st May 2020 by David Hockney (2020) is a painting in The Arrival of Spring, Normandy series which takes the Monet parallels to another level. This painting has the same subject matter as Monet’s Water Lilies series, and though Hockney employed a digital approach, his mastery of light, color, and reflection lives up to his inspiration. Here, we can truly see the soaring heights Hockney’s mastery of the iPad reaches.
In this series, Hockney elected to name each painting after the specific date on which it was painted in order to highlight the serial nature of the work. Many of these drawings were created when Hockney was isolated on his Normandy property during lockdown, but the work draws upon the quiet hope present in our natural world rather than focusing on loneliness or fear. David Hockney brings the long-standing artistic tradition of painting the French countryside into the digital age.
From Digital to Physical: Exhibitions of Hockney’s iPad Work
Installation view of David Hockney’s iPhone and iPad drawings, 2009-2012, via LA Louver
Rather than allowing the digital form to hinder or create a barrier in his artistic process, Hockney’s iPad works have proven themselves to be some of his most personal. Though these works were created on a handheld device, they can easily be printed out on high-quality paper and displayed at an exhibition. Many have questioned what the digital age will mean for the value of art, but Hockney’s masterful iPad drawings are unique and often sell for large amounts at auctions. Though anyone can pick up an iPhone or iPad and create their own artwork these days, Hockney embraces the medium fully and does not consider himself to be above the masses.
David Hockney in his Normandy studio, 2020, via Art Institute Chicago
Since he has created such a large body of digital work over the last decade, many have wondered whether Hockney will begin to sell his drawings as NFTs or non-fungible tokens. However, Hockney seems to have a distaste for the digital art marketplace, saying NFTs are for international crooks and swindlers. Some of Hockney’s most famous paintings have been sold for amounts greater than the most expensive NFTs, and clearly, he feels that the level of craft required to create his works is fundamentally different from NFTs. David Hockney is an innovator who is not afraid to try new artistic mediums, but he also keeps a certain level of traditionalism throughout his work.
David Hockney, the iPad Procreate Artist
In 2009, famous pop artist David Hockney began using his iPhone to create new drawings, usually of objects and scenes from his everyday life. Though he originally became known for his paintings in the 1960s featuring a swimming pool motif, Hockney has been experimenting with new forms of artistic media since the 1980s when he created a series of photographic collages. When the iPad was released in 2010, Hockney’s digital landscapes and drawings became more prolific, eventually leading to full exhibitions of the artist’s work created on handheld devices. Rather than creating distance between the artist and artwork, as digitized works can, the artist’s iPhone and iPad drawings are some of his most deeply personal pieces.
David Hockney’s Striking Self Portrait (2012)
Self Portrait, 20 March 2012 (1219) by David Hockney, 2012, via David Hockney’s website
Some of the most striking and interesting works out of David Hockney’s digital drawings are his self-portraits. He created many self-portraits throughout his career, beginning in his teenage years, but these iPad drawings represent the latest iterations. Through his self-portraits, he explores his longtime fascination with the theme of the artist as a subject. In these, David Hockney frequently subjects himself to intense scrutiny and showcases his personality to the viewers.
Self Portrait, 20 March 2012 (1219) is one example of these remarkable digital self-portraits. In the drawing, Hockney’s blue eyes are a piercing centerpiece, and a cigarette hangs from his lips. Hockney often includes cigarettes in his depictions of himself, an example of his aforementioned self-scrutiny and a symbol of the domesticity of habit. In creating this piece on an iPad, he captured his own image with a casual skillfulness, to which his chosen medium lends itself well.
From Tiny Screen to Huge Impact: Hockney’s iPhone Lilies (2009)
Lilies by David Hockney, 2009, via LA Louver
Though David Hockney’s current digital medium of choice is the iPad, he has also created many works on his iPhone over the years. Through an app called Brushes Redux, he frequently creates quick drawings of flowers on his phone as a continuation of the domestic themes in the rest of his digital work. I draw flowers every day on my iPhone and send them to my friends, so they get fresh flowers every morning. And my flowers last, Hockney once said.
One example of these floral drawings is Lilies (2009), drawn on an iPhone. In art, lilies often symbolize innocence, purity, and devotion, such as in Monet’s iconic Water Lilies. Hockney’s Lilies emphasizes this through its almost primitive execution and depiction of the flowers through simple means.
A New Series: The Yosemite Suite (2010)
Untitled No. 14 from The Yosemite Suite by David Hockney, 2010, via Christie’s
In 2010, David Hockney visited Yosemite National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains and decided to bring his iPad along with him in lieu of traditional art supplies. The result was The Yosemite Suite (2010), a beautiful series of paintings depicting the sights Hockney saw on his trip. Because the iPad is such a portable device, the artist was able to capture many different scenes without having to take the time to set up an easel or pull out a sketchpad.
Untitled No. 14 from The Yosemite Suite (2010) is an almost psychedelic depiction of a tree in the forest which allows the viewer to clearly see the individual strokes of Hockney’s brush. Though this piece is a depiction of something he saw in real life, we see psychologically, according to Hockney. In this case, he used the iPad as a tool to quickly and easily depict his own interpretation of the wonders he saw at Yosemite.
A Callback to Previous Work: Montcalm Interior (2010)
Montcalm Interior by David Hockney, 2010, via LA Louver
In his 2010 iPad drawing titled Montcalm Interior, Hockney brings attention back to the domestic themes he has explored in much of his digital work. This piece in particular is, among others, a variation on his 1988 painting Montcalm Interior with Two Dogs, which was created and exhibited in a more traditional manner than his iPad work. He has owned a home on Montcalm Avenue in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles since 1979, and he often features its interior in some of his most personal paintings. Though many of Hockney’s iPhone and iPad pieces are more simplistic in nature than his paintings, Montcalm Interior exhibits a higher level of formal artistic execution and beautifully captures the luxe atmosphere of the artist’s Los Angeles home.
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire (2011)
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire by David Hockney, 2011, via Christie’s
After the great artistic success of The Yosemite Suite, Hockney continued bringing his iPad with him into nature and illustrating beautiful digital landscapes. The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire (2011) is part of another iPad series that chronicles the change of the seasons in East Yorkshire, where Hockney grew up. This piece in particular depicts springtime in the forest in a stunning yet simple light. Though the iPad was still a relatively new medium for the artist at this point, he continued with themes of change in nature that were present in his work from the beginning.
Classic Inspiration: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy (2020)
No. 258, 27th April 2020 by David Hockney, 2020, via Art Institute Chicago
Claude Monet has been apparent as an inspiration in much of Hockney’s iPad works over the years, but his series of 116 drawings titled The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 makes this even clearer. For this series, David Hockney used his iPad to illustrate nature’s changes throughout the arrival of spring 2020 at his home in Normandy. Monet famously illustrated the changes in lighting and nature throughout the seasons near his home in Giverny, just outside of Normandy, and Hockney’s 2020 series can be seen as an extrapolation of those works. No. 258, April 2020 by David Hockney (2020) is a masterful digitization of plein air impressionism. Having explored iPad painting for over a decade before creating this work, Hockney exhibits more traditional techniques in this piece while still benefiting from the practical convenience of the handheld device.
No. 340, 21st May 2020 by David Hockney, 2020, via Art Institute Chicago
No. 340, 21st May 2020 by David Hockney (2020) is a painting in The Arrival of Spring, Normandy series which takes the Monet parallels to another level. This painting has the same subject matter as Monet’s Water Lilies series, and though Hockney employed a digital approach, his mastery of light, color, and reflection lives up to his inspiration. Here, we can truly see the soaring heights Hockney’s mastery of the iPad reaches.
In this series, Hockney elected to name each painting after the specific date on which it was painted in order to highlight the serial nature of the work. Many of these drawings were created when Hockney was isolated on his Normandy property during lockdown, but the work draws upon the quiet hope present in our natural world rather than focusing on loneliness or fear. David Hockney brings the long-standing artistic tradition of painting the French countryside into the digital age.
From Digital to Physical: Exhibitions of Hockney’s iPad Work
Installation view of David Hockney’s iPhone and iPad drawings, 2009-2012, via LA Louver
Rather than allowing the digital form to hinder or create a barrier in his artistic process, Hockney’s iPad works have proven themselves to be some of his most personal. Though these works were created on a handheld device, they can easily be printed out on high-quality paper and displayed at an exhibition. Many have questioned what the digital age will mean for the value of art, but Hockney’s masterful iPad drawings are unique and often sell for large amounts at auctions. Though anyone can pick up an iPhone or iPad and create their own artwork these days, Hockney embraces the medium fully and does not consider himself to be above the masses.
David Hockney in his Normandy studio, 2020, via Art Institute Chicago
Since he has created such a large body of digital work over the last decade, many have wondered whether Hockney will begin to sell his drawings as NFTs or non-fungible tokens. However, Hockney seems to have a distaste for the digital art marketplace, saying NFTs are for international crooks and swindlers. Some of Hockney’s most famous paintings have been sold for amounts greater than the most expensive NFTs, and clearly, he feels that the level of craft required to create his works is fundamentally different from NFTs. David Hockney is an innovator who is not afraid to try new artistic mediums, but he also keeps a certain level of traditionalism throughout his work.
’John Wick 4’ Star Donnie Yen Reveals The Changes He Requested
Even though the John Wick series features gratuitous violence and guns on guns on guns, the process of making the movie is probably (hopefully) a little bit nicer than it seems. We know that Keanu gives his input to make Wick look cool, and Chapter 4 brings in a new dangerous assassin from the High Table who considers John an ally.
So when actor Donnie Yen was brought on board to play that assassin, he requested to make some character changes, starting with the name change. “The name was Shang or Chang,” Yen told GQ, which he considered an Asian stereotype. He continued, “Why does he always have to be called Shang or Chang? Why can’t he have a normal name? Why do you have to be so generic?” he said.
It wasn’t just the name: Yen also said that the character needed a wardrobe upgrade. “Then the wardrobe again—oh, mandarin collars. Why is everything so generic? This is a John Wick movie. Everybody’s supposed to be cool and fashionable. Why can’t he look cool and fashionable?” He concluded. After talking with Yen, director Chad Stahelski agreed to change the name and his character’s look in order to pay homage to Yen’s hero Bruce Lee. He sure does look like a superstar wielding both a sword and a gun while also wearing sunglasses indoors. That’s talent.
The actor also recalled being typecast in Rogue One as Chirrut Imwe, a martial arts warrior. Yen explained, “One thing I pointed out is he was a stereotype. Typical master. Doesn’t smile.” Yen ad-libbed his own jokes and lines in order to give the character more personality besides being a token character.
Yen added that the success of Michelle Yeoh, who also petitioned for a name change for Everything Everywhere All At Once, is making him feel excited about the future of Asian representation in Hollywood: “There will always be more people like Michelle. People who continue to keep thinking and to go forward no matter what the negativity or setback.”
The actor concluded that these types of conversations are important in the industry, and his criticism isn’t only directed at Wick. “I had a very respectful experience working on John Wick. Overall, I enjoyed making the film.” What’s not to enjoy about over-the-top violence mixed in with imagery of cute puppies?
John Wick Chapter 4 hits theaters on March 24th.
(Via GQ)
’John Wick 4’ Star Donnie Yen Reveals The Changes He Requested
Even though the John Wick series features gratuitous violence and guns on guns on guns, the process of making the movie is probably (hopefully) a little bit nicer than it seems. We know that Keanu gives his input to make Wick look cool, and Chapter 4 brings in a new dangerous assassin from the High Table who considers John an ally.
So when actor Donnie Yen was brought on board to play that assassin, he requested to make some character changes, starting with the name change. “The name was Shang or Chang,” Yen told GQ, which he considered an Asian stereotype. He continued, “Why does he always have to be called Shang or Chang? Why can’t he have a normal name? Why do you have to be so generic?” he said.
It wasn’t just the name: Yen also said that the character needed a wardrobe upgrade. “Then the wardrobe again—oh, mandarin collars. Why is everything so generic? This is a John Wick movie. Everybody’s supposed to be cool and fashionable. Why can’t he look cool and fashionable?” He concluded. After talking with Yen, director Chad Stahelski agreed to change the name and his character’s look in order to pay homage to Yen’s hero Bruce Lee. He sure does look like a superstar wielding both a sword and a gun while also wearing sunglasses indoors. That’s talent.
The actor also recalled being typecast in Rogue One as Chirrut Imwe, a martial arts warrior. Yen explained, “One thing I pointed out is he was a stereotype. Typical master. Doesn’t smile.” Yen ad-libbed his own jokes and lines in order to give the character more personality besides being a token character.
Yen added that the success of Michelle Yeoh, who also petitioned for a name change for Everything Everywhere All At Once, is making him feel excited about the future of Asian representation in Hollywood: “There will always be more people like Michelle. People who continue to keep thinking and to go forward no matter what the negativity or setback.”
The actor concluded that these types of conversations are important in the industry, and his criticism isn’t only directed at Wick. “I had a very respectful experience working on John Wick. Overall, I enjoyed making the film.” What’s not to enjoy about over-the-top violence mixed in with imagery of cute puppies?
John Wick Chapter 4 hits theaters on March 24th.
(Via GQ)
This Essential Medical Treatment Could Finally Become Affordable For Everyone
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is slashing the list prices for some of its most popular insulin products by 70 percent and capping insulin copays at US$35 for uninsured patients and those with private health insurance. These changes follow efforts by the federal government, the California state government, nonprofits, and some companies to make insulin more affordable for the more than 7 million Americans with diabetes who require it.The Conversation asked Dana Goldman and Karen Van Nuys, two scholars who have researched insulin pricing, to explain why Eli Lilly is dramatically cutting the cost of some of its insulin products and to sum up how it may improve access to this essential medical treatment.Why is Lilly reducing prices now?High insulin prices have not earned any U.S. manufacturer many friends, with list prices increasing 54 percent from 2014 to 2019.Most troublingly, an estimated 1.3 million uninsured people with diabetes and patients with inadequate insurance have resorted to rationing their insulin. Skipping doses because of high insulin prices has sometimes had tragic and deadly consequences.But growing competition has shaken up the insulin market in recent years.For example, Walmart introduced its private-brand insulin in 2021. Mylan, a large generic drugmaker, developed a version of long-acting insulin called Semglee, priced 65 percent lower than its branded competitor. But few consumers use those products.Efforts to produce cheaper insulin by the nonprofit drugmaker CivicaRx and the state of California are several years out and won’t provide immediate relief.Then there’s the Inflation Reduction Act, a big spending package Congress approved in 2022. It capped insulin out-of-pocket costs at $35 for Americans with Medicare, a government health insurance program that covers people over 65.And in fact, Lilly itself has been trying to disrupt insulin prices. In 2019, the drugmaker introduced insulin lispro, a lower-cost version of its blockbuster insulin, Humalog.What does this mean for Americans who need insulin?Part of the problem with the existing system is that some patients, especially if they’re uninsured or have high deductibles, end up paying the list price – which can mean spending $1,000 or more a month on insulin. This can be a crushing financial burden.Lilly’s new $35 out-of-pocket cap means that privately insured patients and those without insurance requiring insulin will spend no more than that monthly for copays. Its 70 percent reduction in the list price of two popular name-brand insulins, Humalog and Humulin, will bring some financial relief. And the company has also reduced its generic lispro’s list price to $25 a vial, down from $126.The evidence is clear that these price reductions will improve patient adherence – which means fewer missed doses of this lifesaving medication.How might Lilly’s actions affect the whole industry?Lilly has pressured its biggest competitors, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, to follow suit.These lower prices could also make Lilly’s insulins affordable to cash-paying patients. As a result, these insulins could be added to the list of drugs provided by pharmacies that are disrupting the U.S. prescription drugs industry, like Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Co. and Blueberry Pharmacy. These companies provide low-cost drugs with transparent markups or through membership programs, typically without insurance.Why did insulin get so expensive in the US?That lispro, Lilly’s own, cheaper authorized generic insulin, hasn’t completely displaced the equivalent name brand Humalog in the market by now may seem surprising. But it is the result of the complex U.S. prescription drug distribution system.Insulin prices are the result of a complex set of negotiations between manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers, which act on behalf of insurers. The three largest – CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and Optum Rx – handle about 80 percent of all prescriptions.These middlemen negotiate directly with Lilly and other insulin manufacturers, focusing on two key sums: the list price and the rebate. Manufacturers are paid the list price but must pay a rebate to the pharmacy benefit managers.How do pharmacy benefit managers get manufacturers to pay rebates? They maintain formularies – lists of drugs that patients in a health plan can access. If an insulin manufacturer wants to supply diabetes patients, it needs to remain on those formularies. And doing so requires the manufacturer to pay bigger rebates. Otherwise, pharmacy benefit managers can exclude the manufacturer.In 2016, OptumRx, which negotiates insulin prices for about 28 million people, excluded only four types of insulin from its formulary. By 2022, OptumRx was excluding 13 insulins.Keeping insulin on formularies, in short, has required high rebates, and list prices have increased along with them. Ironically, as insulin list prices have been rising, manufacturers have been making less money off of insulin sales while middlemen have been making more. The key to the true price competition is to ensure access to all versions of insulin and to convince patients and providers that people with diabetes can substitute lower-cost versions without compromising their health. What might happen next?The Federal Trade Commission, a government agency that probes anti-competitive practices, and Congress are now investigating pharmacy benefit managers’ rebate and formulary practices, among other things. These investigations, along with Lilly’s moves, may lead other insulin manufacturers to lower their list prices.And once its competitors decide whether they will follow Lilly’s example, pharmacy benefit managers will be under a lot of scrutinies to see whether they give preferred formulary placement to the lowest-cost insulin products or to those that pay the highest rebates.This article was originally published on The Conversation by Dana Goldman and Karen Van Nuys at the University of Southern California. Read the original article here.
This Essential Medical Treatment Could Finally Become Affordable For Everyone
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is slashing the list prices for some of its most popular insulin products by 70 percent and capping insulin copays at US$35 for uninsured patients and those with private health insurance. These changes follow efforts by the federal government, the California state government, nonprofits, and some companies to make insulin more affordable for the more than 7 million Americans with diabetes who require it.The Conversation asked Dana Goldman and Karen Van Nuys, two scholars who have researched insulin pricing, to explain why Eli Lilly is dramatically cutting the cost of some of its insulin products and to sum up how it may improve access to this essential medical treatment.Why is Lilly reducing prices now?High insulin prices have not earned any U.S. manufacturer many friends, with list prices increasing 54 percent from 2014 to 2019.Most troublingly, an estimated 1.3 million uninsured people with diabetes and patients with inadequate insurance have resorted to rationing their insulin. Skipping doses because of high insulin prices has sometimes had tragic and deadly consequences.But growing competition has shaken up the insulin market in recent years.For example, Walmart introduced its private-brand insulin in 2021. Mylan, a large generic drugmaker, developed a version of long-acting insulin called Semglee, priced 65 percent lower than its branded competitor. But few consumers use those products.Efforts to produce cheaper insulin by the nonprofit drugmaker CivicaRx and the state of California are several years out and won’t provide immediate relief.Then there’s the Inflation Reduction Act, a big spending package Congress approved in 2022. It capped insulin out-of-pocket costs at $35 for Americans with Medicare, a government health insurance program that covers people over 65.And in fact, Lilly itself has been trying to disrupt insulin prices. In 2019, the drugmaker introduced insulin lispro, a lower-cost version of its blockbuster insulin, Humalog.What does this mean for Americans who need insulin?Part of the problem with the existing system is that some patients, especially if they’re uninsured or have high deductibles, end up paying the list price – which can mean spending $1,000 or more a month on insulin. This can be a crushing financial burden.Lilly’s new $35 out-of-pocket cap means that privately insured patients and those without insurance requiring insulin will spend no more than that monthly for copays. Its 70 percent reduction in the list price of two popular name-brand insulins, Humalog and Humulin, will bring some financial relief. And the company has also reduced its generic lispro’s list price to $25 a vial, down from $126.The evidence is clear that these price reductions will improve patient adherence – which means fewer missed doses of this lifesaving medication.How might Lilly’s actions affect the whole industry?Lilly has pressured its biggest competitors, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, to follow suit.These lower prices could also make Lilly’s insulins affordable to cash-paying patients. As a result, these insulins could be added to the list of drugs provided by pharmacies that are disrupting the U.S. prescription drugs industry, like Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Co. and Blueberry Pharmacy. These companies provide low-cost drugs with transparent markups or through membership programs, typically without insurance.Why did insulin get so expensive in the US?That lispro, Lilly’s own, cheaper authorized generic insulin, hasn’t completely displaced the equivalent name brand Humalog in the market by now may seem surprising. But it is the result of the complex U.S. prescription drug distribution system.Insulin prices are the result of a complex set of negotiations between manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers, which act on behalf of insurers. The three largest – CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and Optum Rx – handle about 80 percent of all prescriptions.These middlemen negotiate directly with Lilly and other insulin manufacturers, focusing on two key sums: the list price and the rebate. Manufacturers are paid the list price but must pay a rebate to the pharmacy benefit managers.How do pharmacy benefit managers get manufacturers to pay rebates? They maintain formularies – lists of drugs that patients in a health plan can access. If an insulin manufacturer wants to supply diabetes patients, it needs to remain on those formularies. And doing so requires the manufacturer to pay bigger rebates. Otherwise, pharmacy benefit managers can exclude the manufacturer.In 2016, OptumRx, which negotiates insulin prices for about 28 million people, excluded only four types of insulin from its formulary. By 2022, OptumRx was excluding 13 insulins.Keeping insulin on formularies, in short, has required high rebates, and list prices have increased along with them. Ironically, as insulin list prices have been rising, manufacturers have been making less money off of insulin sales while middlemen have been making more. The key to the true price competition is to ensure access to all versions of insulin and to convince patients and providers that people with diabetes can substitute lower-cost versions without compromising their health. What might happen next?The Federal Trade Commission, a government agency that probes anti-competitive practices, and Congress are now investigating pharmacy benefit managers’ rebate and formulary practices, among other things. These investigations, along with Lilly’s moves, may lead other insulin manufacturers to lower their list prices.And once its competitors decide whether they will follow Lilly’s example, pharmacy benefit managers will be under a lot of scrutinies to see whether they give preferred formulary placement to the lowest-cost insulin products or to those that pay the highest rebates.This article was originally published on The Conversation by Dana Goldman and Karen Van Nuys at the University of Southern California. Read the original article here.
Scientists Claim a New Invention Could Make Nuclear Fusion a Practical Reality
Superconductors excel at, you guessed it, conducting electricity — these materials help a current flow without any resistance, a critical feature for powerful tech such as MRI machines and levitating trains. One day, they could even make more efficient energy grids, faster electronics, and even practical nuclear fusion reactors possible.But today’s superconductors are far from perfect. For over a century, all known superconducting materials worked only at super-cold subzero temperatures, which can prove inconvenient. In 2020, scientists revealed what they claimed was the world’s first room-temperature superconductor, but it only worked at extremely high pressures.Now, in a new study published in the journal Nature, researchers from the University of Rochester in New York say their new room-temperature superconductor works at pressures low enough for practical applications. But in recent years, these scientists have charged up some drama.Go with the flowRegular electrical conductors all resist electron flow to some degree, resulting in lost energy. Meanwhile, superconductors conduct electricity with zero resistance, potentially allowing for far more efficient power grids and electronics. "We can envision this applied to commonly used devices so laptops don’t heat up," Ranga Dias, a physicist at the University of Rochester in New York and senior author of the new study, tells Inverse.Today, superconducting wires made of metals such as titanium and niobium conduct much larger currents than ordinary wires. They can even generate the powerful magnetic fields that enable high-speed floating trains, MRI scanners, and particle accelerators. Eventually, they could be used in the now-elusive nuclear fusion reactors.The recent feat has been over a century in the making: Superconductivity was first discovered in 1911. At the time it only worked at temperatures just a few degrees above absolute zero. To achieve this frosty temperature, researchers had to cool the materials with costly liquid helium.In 1986, researchers discovered high-temperature superconductors that operated at subzero temperatures accessible using relatively cheap liquid nitrogen. Still, scientists wanted more convenient superconductors that ideally did not demand any unwieldy, energy-sucking refrigeration.The most recent breakthrough arrived in 2020, when Dias and his colleagues reported the first evidence of room-temperature superconductivity at roughly 59 degrees Fahrenheit. But this historic effort required pressures of 267 gigapascals — more than 2.6 million times atmospheric pressure. So it wasn’t exactly ready for MRI machines in hospitals near you.Keeping it room tempIn the new study, Dias and his colleagues say their room-temperature superconductor can offer superconductivity at 69.5 degrees Fahrenheit and just 1 gigapascal of pressure. That’s still an extraordinary amount of pressure — more than the pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean — but microchip fabrication techniques, for example, regularly incorporate materials held together by even greater internal pressures."This is a very significant development, akin to the transition from the horse-drawn buggy as a means of transportation to driving a Ferrari," Dias says. "We are at the dawn of a new century that will be enhanced by superconductivity technology."His team created the new superconductor by placing a sample of the metal lutetium in a reaction chamber with a gas mixture of 99 percent hydrogen and 1 percent nitrogen. Then, like a tasty stew, they let the combination cook at high temperatures for a few days.Electrons in superconductors no longer repel each other, as they do in most materials. This means they can form pairs and withstand the resistance they would ordinarily experience from atomic nuclei as they move about.These electrons often couple together due to vibrations in the superconductors called phonons. In the team’s new superconductor, the lutetium makes it easier for the phonons in the material to form electron pairs at lower temperatures, Dias says.Initially, Dias envisioned metallic hydrogen as an ideal room-temperature superconductor. But hydrogen likely only solidifies into a metal form at pressures as high as nearly 500 gigapascals, so it’s tricky to generate.This led to the team to explore compounds loaded in hydrogen as possible superconductors — they speculate that the elements in these compounds may create stable cages that could compress the hydrogen atoms, helping superconductivity occur at pressures lower than those required with metallic hydrogen."I am both surprised and excited by the finding of near room-pressure superconductivity," Eva Zurek, a theoretical chemist at the State University of New York at Buffalo who wasn’t involved in the new study, tells Inverse. "We have learned how to find high-temperature superconductors in the last years, but only at very high pressures. If correct, this work would give us a pathway towards that holy grail."Conducting controversyThis new paper follows a trail of controversy: The journal Nature retracted the first room-temperature superconductor study from Dias and his colleagues last year due to concerns about its data. The researchers have resubmitted the study with new data they say validates the earlier work, findings they collected in front of an audience of scientists at the Argonne and Brookhaven National Laboratories for transparency. To head off criticism toward the new study, Dias’ lab used a similar approach."We welcome the scientific community's efforts to replicate our work," Dias says.There’s a key difference between the two papers: Dias’ first room-temperature superconductor study analyzed a mix of carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur, but the new study mentions a combination of lutetium, hydrogen, and nitrogen.When it comes to the former, other labs haven’t been able to find the precise ratios that could lead to a room-temperature superconductor. And as for the latter, "I cannot see why lutetium hydride would be a high-temperature superconductor at all," Artem Oganov, a crystallographer at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow, who did not take part in this research, tells Inverse. "These results will need a careful check by the community."One major obstacle confronting all high-pressure superconductor research: It’s difficult to create and study these special materials. For example, it’s hard to run the electrical and magnetic tests needed that show whether these materials work as superconductors or not. And scientists often don’t even know the exact ratios of the elements after cooking them.If future research confirms this new superconductor is the real deal, scientists like Dias can then aim to discover its specific concentrations of lutetium, hydrogen, and nitrogen, as well as the position of these atoms within its structure. This may help demystify its superconducting state.Another exciting possibility: training machine-learning software on the data from their superconductor experiments to predict other possible superconductors, Dias says.
Scientists Claim a New Invention Could Make Nuclear Fusion a Practical Reality
Superconductors excel at, you guessed it, conducting electricity — these materials help a current flow without any resistance, a critical feature for powerful tech such as MRI machines and levitating trains. One day, they could even make more efficient energy grids, faster electronics, and even practical nuclear fusion reactors possible.But today’s superconductors are far from perfect. For over a century, all known superconducting materials worked only at super-cold subzero temperatures, which can prove inconvenient. In 2020, scientists revealed what they claimed was the world’s first room-temperature superconductor, but it only worked at extremely high pressures.Now, in a new study published in the journal Nature, researchers from the University of Rochester in New York say their new room-temperature superconductor works at pressures low enough for practical applications. But in recent years, these scientists have charged up some drama.Go with the flowRegular electrical conductors all resist electron flow to some degree, resulting in lost energy. Meanwhile, superconductors conduct electricity with zero resistance, potentially allowing for far more efficient power grids and electronics. "We can envision this applied to commonly used devices so laptops don’t heat up," Ranga Dias, a physicist at the University of Rochester in New York and senior author of the new study, tells Inverse.Today, superconducting wires made of metals such as titanium and niobium conduct much larger currents than ordinary wires. They can even generate the powerful magnetic fields that enable high-speed floating trains, MRI scanners, and particle accelerators. Eventually, they could be used in the now-elusive nuclear fusion reactors.The recent feat has been over a century in the making: Superconductivity was first discovered in 1911. At the time it only worked at temperatures just a few degrees above absolute zero. To achieve this frosty temperature, researchers had to cool the materials with costly liquid helium.In 1986, researchers discovered high-temperature superconductors that operated at subzero temperatures accessible using relatively cheap liquid nitrogen. Still, scientists wanted more convenient superconductors that ideally did not demand any unwieldy, energy-sucking refrigeration.The most recent breakthrough arrived in 2020, when Dias and his colleagues reported the first evidence of room-temperature superconductivity at roughly 59 degrees Fahrenheit. But this historic effort required pressures of 267 gigapascals — more than 2.6 million times atmospheric pressure. So it wasn’t exactly ready for MRI machines in hospitals near you.Keeping it room tempIn the new study, Dias and his colleagues say their room-temperature superconductor can offer superconductivity at 69.5 degrees Fahrenheit and just 1 gigapascal of pressure. That’s still an extraordinary amount of pressure — more than the pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean — but microchip fabrication techniques, for example, regularly incorporate materials held together by even greater internal pressures."This is a very significant development, akin to the transition from the horse-drawn buggy as a means of transportation to driving a Ferrari," Dias says. "We are at the dawn of a new century that will be enhanced by superconductivity technology."His team created the new superconductor by placing a sample of the metal lutetium in a reaction chamber with a gas mixture of 99 percent hydrogen and 1 percent nitrogen. Then, like a tasty stew, they let the combination cook at high temperatures for a few days.Electrons in superconductors no longer repel each other, as they do in most materials. This means they can form pairs and withstand the resistance they would ordinarily experience from atomic nuclei as they move about.These electrons often couple together due to vibrations in the superconductors called phonons. In the team’s new superconductor, the lutetium makes it easier for the phonons in the material to form electron pairs at lower temperatures, Dias says.Initially, Dias envisioned metallic hydrogen as an ideal room-temperature superconductor. But hydrogen likely only solidifies into a metal form at pressures as high as nearly 500 gigapascals, so it’s tricky to generate.This led to the team to explore compounds loaded in hydrogen as possible superconductors — they speculate that the elements in these compounds may create stable cages that could compress the hydrogen atoms, helping superconductivity occur at pressures lower than those required with metallic hydrogen."I am both surprised and excited by the finding of near room-pressure superconductivity," Eva Zurek, a theoretical chemist at the State University of New York at Buffalo who wasn’t involved in the new study, tells Inverse. "We have learned how to find high-temperature superconductors in the last years, but only at very high pressures. If correct, this work would give us a pathway towards that holy grail."Conducting controversyThis new paper follows a trail of controversy: The journal Nature retracted the first room-temperature superconductor study from Dias and his colleagues last year due to concerns about its data. The researchers have resubmitted the study with new data they say validates the earlier work, findings they collected in front of an audience of scientists at the Argonne and Brookhaven National Laboratories for transparency. To head off criticism toward the new study, Dias’ lab used a similar approach."We welcome the scientific community's efforts to replicate our work," Dias says.There’s a key difference between the two papers: Dias’ first room-temperature superconductor study analyzed a mix of carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur, but the new study mentions a combination of lutetium, hydrogen, and nitrogen.When it comes to the former, other labs haven’t been able to find the precise ratios that could lead to a room-temperature superconductor. And as for the latter, "I cannot see why lutetium hydride would be a high-temperature superconductor at all," Artem Oganov, a crystallographer at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow, who did not take part in this research, tells Inverse. "These results will need a careful check by the community."One major obstacle confronting all high-pressure superconductor research: It’s difficult to create and study these special materials. For example, it’s hard to run the electrical and magnetic tests needed that show whether these materials work as superconductors or not. And scientists often don’t even know the exact ratios of the elements after cooking them.If future research confirms this new superconductor is the real deal, scientists like Dias can then aim to discover its specific concentrations of lutetium, hydrogen, and nitrogen, as well as the position of these atoms within its structure. This may help demystify its superconducting state.Another exciting possibility: training machine-learning software on the data from their superconductor experiments to predict other possible superconductors, Dias says.
Rocky Has Always Been Anime. 'Creed III' Proves It.
Who are the greatest protagonists in shonen anime? Is it Goku? Naruto? Ichigo? Kenshiro? How about Rocky Balboa?The Rocky franchise, which began with the Oscar-winning Rocky in 1976, is now a nine-film saga with the release of Creed III from Michael B. Jordan (who stars in and directs the latest picture). A millennial who came of age in the time of Toonami, MBJ has made it clear to anyone who will listen that he loves anime. It isn’t just a branding thing, it’s legitimately his lifestyle.In the promotional cycle for Creed III, Jordan has talked up channeling his anime fandom as a first-time director. In a red carpet interview with Crunchyroll, Jordan said, “I just kind of used the tones and themes of an anime: Brotherhood, bonds, promises. I think just being Black and connecting with that, feeling different, being outcast in certain areas and still feeling like I am powerful and I can make a difference. It’s something that I think anime [does] in general. That’s why I think we connect with it so much.”Creed III is proof the talk is real. Spiritually anime in live-action, MBJ brings to Creed III white-knuckle boxing presented with expressionistic, hyper-focused flair. Where past Rocky movies strove for realism, like 2006’s Rocky Balboa (which fools you into thinking you’ve just bought an HBO pay-per-view), Creed III puts a premium on breakneck rhythmic editing and kinetic visual composition, all of which are underpinned by heated personal vendettas. There’s more in common here with Goku than Mike Tyson.Jordan’s unusual direction may be novel to traditional moviegoers, but anime fans will feel right at home. But MBJ’s mimicry of anime is only synthesizing what’s been underneath the Rocky series all this time. Though shonen manga historically predate the Rocky films, the saga of Rocky Balboa has always been an unofficial anime at heart.How Rocky Is AnimeLet’s state up front that shonen manga and anime are shaped by who consumes them. Its primary audience are young boys who are drawn to escapist genres like action, fantasy, sci-fi, and sports dramas. Shonen anime aren’t exclusively those types of stories, but they’re popular among boys for obvious reasons. Boys like exciting things.Predominant in shonen anime is the underdog spirit of the protagonist. Flavors vary based on story, but the leads of shonen anime typically have something to prove — and the guts to succeed. They might be unusually talented at their craft (like Takumi’s drift racing in Initial D), or they have something special about themselves (like Eren Yeager’s secret power in Attack on Titan). Ash Ketchum of Pokémon has both an indomitable spirit to never give up, and a similarly determined Pikachu that rival Pokémon trainers underestimate. Almost no one in shonen anime are born with their gifts. Fateful events either happen to them, or they’ve invested the time and effort to exceed. At their core, shonen anime champions the virtues of relentless willpower over luck and talent.If none of those things describe Rocky Balboa, then what does? After all, Rocky is a pure fighter whose unyielding refusal to give up allowed him to survive his first two bouts against Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) in his first two movies. And it was his humility that led him to better himself into a bonafide boxer that won him his victories Rocky III and Rocky IV. (Rocky V does not exist in my dojo.) While Rocky embodies the classic American underdog — an oxymoron given America’s superpower status, but it’s a nice lie we tell ourselves — the Rocky series as a whole are formulated by the motifs and themes of shonen anime, including, and now especially, the spin-off Creed trilogy. Th Rocky series’ emphasis on its training montages are also something of an urtext to those in anime. More than just an excuse to hear Bill Conti’s unforgettable score, the training montages of Rocky serve a critical purpose in every narrative: Rocky is evolving. Used to similar effect in anime, Goku’s and Naruto’s and whoever else’s training frequently show them improving and honing their skills, sometimes through unusual methods. Vegeta training in ultra-heavy gravity in Dragon Ball Z, Shinji and Asuka learning to dance in Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Guts training with swords twice his size in Berserk are not that different than Rocky chasing chickens or learning to swim.Stallone’s memorable performance as Rocky predates almost all modern shonen anime. And surely anime creators may be influenced by the Rocky films, whether directly or not. But Rocky has always embodied in American cinema the type of fighting spirit found most often in the heroes of Japanese anime. Rocky is absent in Creed III, but his student-turned-master Adonis Creed carries on his legacy in ways that have never been more obvious.Creed III is playing in theaters now.
Rocky Has Always Been Anime. 'Creed III' Proves It.
Who are the greatest protagonists in shonen anime? Is it Goku? Naruto? Ichigo? Kenshiro? How about Rocky Balboa?The Rocky franchise, which began with the Oscar-winning Rocky in 1976, is now a nine-film saga with the release of Creed III from Michael B. Jordan (who stars in and directs the latest picture). A millennial who came of age in the time of Toonami, MBJ has made it clear to anyone who will listen that he loves anime. It isn’t just a branding thing, it’s legitimately his lifestyle.In the promotional cycle for Creed III, Jordan has talked up channeling his anime fandom as a first-time director. In a red carpet interview with Crunchyroll, Jordan said, “I just kind of used the tones and themes of an anime: Brotherhood, bonds, promises. I think just being Black and connecting with that, feeling different, being outcast in certain areas and still feeling like I am powerful and I can make a difference. It’s something that I think anime [does] in general. That’s why I think we connect with it so much.”Creed III is proof the talk is real. Spiritually anime in live-action, MBJ brings to Creed III white-knuckle boxing presented with expressionistic, hyper-focused flair. Where past Rocky movies strove for realism, like 2006’s Rocky Balboa (which fools you into thinking you’ve just bought an HBO pay-per-view), Creed III puts a premium on breakneck rhythmic editing and kinetic visual composition, all of which are underpinned by heated personal vendettas. There’s more in common here with Goku than Mike Tyson.Jordan’s unusual direction may be novel to traditional moviegoers, but anime fans will feel right at home. But MBJ’s mimicry of anime is only synthesizing what’s been underneath the Rocky series all this time. Though shonen manga historically predate the Rocky films, the saga of Rocky Balboa has always been an unofficial anime at heart.How Rocky Is AnimeLet’s state up front that shonen manga and anime are shaped by who consumes them. Its primary audience are young boys who are drawn to escapist genres like action, fantasy, sci-fi, and sports dramas. Shonen anime aren’t exclusively those types of stories, but they’re popular among boys for obvious reasons. Boys like exciting things.Predominant in shonen anime is the underdog spirit of the protagonist. Flavors vary based on story, but the leads of shonen anime typically have something to prove — and the guts to succeed. They might be unusually talented at their craft (like Takumi’s drift racing in Initial D), or they have something special about themselves (like Eren Yeager’s secret power in Attack on Titan). Ash Ketchum of Pokémon has both an indomitable spirit to never give up, and a similarly determined Pikachu that rival Pokémon trainers underestimate. Almost no one in shonen anime are born with their gifts. Fateful events either happen to them, or they’ve invested the time and effort to exceed. At their core, shonen anime champions the virtues of relentless willpower over luck and talent.If none of those things describe Rocky Balboa, then what does? After all, Rocky is a pure fighter whose unyielding refusal to give up allowed him to survive his first two bouts against Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) in his first two movies. And it was his humility that led him to better himself into a bonafide boxer that won him his victories Rocky III and Rocky IV. (Rocky V does not exist in my dojo.) While Rocky embodies the classic American underdog — an oxymoron given America’s superpower status, but it’s a nice lie we tell ourselves — the Rocky series as a whole are formulated by the motifs and themes of shonen anime, including, and now especially, the spin-off Creed trilogy. Th Rocky series’ emphasis on its training montages are also something of an urtext to those in anime. More than just an excuse to hear Bill Conti’s unforgettable score, the training montages of Rocky serve a critical purpose in every narrative: Rocky is evolving. Used to similar effect in anime, Goku’s and Naruto’s and whoever else’s training frequently show them improving and honing their skills, sometimes through unusual methods. Vegeta training in ultra-heavy gravity in Dragon Ball Z, Shinji and Asuka learning to dance in Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Guts training with swords twice his size in Berserk are not that different than Rocky chasing chickens or learning to swim.Stallone’s memorable performance as Rocky predates almost all modern shonen anime. And surely anime creators may be influenced by the Rocky films, whether directly or not. But Rocky has always embodied in American cinema the type of fighting spirit found most often in the heroes of Japanese anime. Rocky is absent in Creed III, but his student-turned-master Adonis Creed carries on his legacy in ways that have never been more obvious.Creed III is playing in theaters now.
Worm Moon 2023: You Need to See March’s Bright Full Moon This Week
The bright glow of March’s full Moon heralds the end of winter and the beginning of spring for cultures throughout the Northern Hemisphere.From the night of Sunday, March 5 through the morning of Wednesday, March 8, the Moon will be full and glowing brightly in the night sky. Called the Worm Moon, it makes for excellent viewing of our nearest celestial neighbor just before seasons changeWhat is the Worm Moon?Some Indigenous groups in what’s now the southeastern United States call this month’s Full Moon the Worm Moon, because it appears at the same time as the first signs that earthworms are emerging to wriggle through the thawing topsoil. Further north, other Indigenous groups call this the Crow Moon, because its appearance coincides with the first springtime cawing of crows; the Crust Moon, because the snow thaws during the warmer days and refreezes into a brittle crust at night; or the Sap or Sugar Moon, because its arrival signals that the sap is starting to rise in maple trees after a long, dormant winter, and it’s time to tap the trees for maple syrup.If you’re not a fan of worms, you can always be super Goth about this month’s Full Moon. In Europe, people have sometimes referred to it as the Death Moon, because the last full Moon of winter signals the death of the old year.Meanwhile, the Worm or Death Moon also signals a time for celebration: the Jewish holiday of Purim and the Hindu festival of Holi both coincide with this month’s full Moon. Purim marks the Jewish people’s deliverance from a Persian vizier’s plans for genocide in the 5th century BCE, and it’s celebrated with feasting and charitable donations. Holi celebrates the beginning of spring and the victory of good over evil, and it’s celebrated with an evening bonfire, a day-long game of throwing colored powder or water at passersby, and time with friends and family.How to See the March 2023 Full MoonThe big, bright full Moon will be hard to miss in the night sky; just look eastward as twilight fades into darkness, or westward in the very early hours of the morning. While you’re already looking up, be sure to catch a glimpse of Venus and Jupiter moving away from their recent conjunction in the western Sky.If you have a good pair of binoculars, this is a great time to get a closer look at the craters, mountains, and ancient lava flows on the lunar surface.You’ll have about three nights to catch the March 2023 Full Moon, starting on the night of March 5, but it will be at its brightest on March 7. Look up your local moonrise and moonset times on a website like TimeAndDate.com or in your favorite almanac.When Is the Next Full Moon?The Moon will be full again on April 6. Despite its nickname, Pink Moon, the April Full Moon isn’t actually pink; it’s named for a flowering herb that blooms at around the same time as the Moon turns full each April.
Worm Moon 2023: You Need to See March’s Bright Full Moon This Week
The bright glow of March’s full Moon heralds the end of winter and the beginning of spring for cultures throughout the Northern Hemisphere.From the night of Sunday, March 5 through the morning of Wednesday, March 8, the Moon will be full and glowing brightly in the night sky. Called the Worm Moon, it makes for excellent viewing of our nearest celestial neighbor just before seasons changeWhat is the Worm Moon?Some Indigenous groups in what’s now the southeastern United States call this month’s Full Moon the Worm Moon, because it appears at the same time as the first signs that earthworms are emerging to wriggle through the thawing topsoil. Further north, other Indigenous groups call this the Crow Moon, because its appearance coincides with the first springtime cawing of crows; the Crust Moon, because the snow thaws during the warmer days and refreezes into a brittle crust at night; or the Sap or Sugar Moon, because its arrival signals that the sap is starting to rise in maple trees after a long, dormant winter, and it’s time to tap the trees for maple syrup.If you’re not a fan of worms, you can always be super Goth about this month’s Full Moon. In Europe, people have sometimes referred to it as the Death Moon, because the last full Moon of winter signals the death of the old year.Meanwhile, the Worm or Death Moon also signals a time for celebration: the Jewish holiday of Purim and the Hindu festival of Holi both coincide with this month’s full Moon. Purim marks the Jewish people’s deliverance from a Persian vizier’s plans for genocide in the 5th century BCE, and it’s celebrated with feasting and charitable donations. Holi celebrates the beginning of spring and the victory of good over evil, and it’s celebrated with an evening bonfire, a day-long game of throwing colored powder or water at passersby, and time with friends and family.How to See the March 2023 Full MoonThe big, bright full Moon will be hard to miss in the night sky; just look eastward as twilight fades into darkness, or westward in the very early hours of the morning. While you’re already looking up, be sure to catch a glimpse of Venus and Jupiter moving away from their recent conjunction in the western Sky.If you have a good pair of binoculars, this is a great time to get a closer look at the craters, mountains, and ancient lava flows on the lunar surface.You’ll have about three nights to catch the March 2023 Full Moon, starting on the night of March 5, but it will be at its brightest on March 7. Look up your local moonrise and moonset times on a website like TimeAndDate.com or in your favorite almanac.When Is the Next Full Moon?The Moon will be full again on April 6. Despite its nickname, Pink Moon, the April Full Moon isn’t actually pink; it’s named for a flowering herb that blooms at around the same time as the Moon turns full each April.
You Need to Play This Thought-Provoking Indie Epic Before It Leaves Xbox Game Pass Next Week
America is a myth. Sure, the United States is real. A real country full of gadgets and fast food, but the concept of “America” is really about the nation’s soul. What exists at the heart of America? Who are we? Where are we going? It’s a poetic notion explored by countless novels, films, and songs. But there’s really only one video game that gets at the esoteric roots of our existential musings, and it’s only on Xbox Game Pass until March 15.Kentucky Route Zero from Cardboard Computer is an indie game in every sense of the word. Conceived by just three people, Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy, and Ben Babbitt, it’s an artistic vision that explores what America really means through the story of a trucker named Conway off to do one last delivery. His journey takes him through a world full of mystical realism along a ghostly highway in the subterranean bowels of Kentucky, a folklore-driven narrative that’s as much your story as it is Conway and his companion’s.First, a caveat. Kentucky Route Zero is very much a thinker of a game. It’s not full of puzzles or breakneck action or RPG skill trees and inventories. So if you’re craving something that’ll get your thumbs a-twitchin’ you’ll need to look elsewhere. But it’s a brilliant game because it elevates the form beyond what is typically expected. It engages you by being thoughtful and moving, like a book you can’t put down.Longtime fans had to endure years between story beats. The game was released in five acts (with several interludes) over the span of nearly a decade. It began as a Kickstarter project in 2011, with the first act dropping in 2013 and then the rest in subsequent years before wrapping up in 2020. The version available now on Xbox Game Pass, Kentucky Route Zero TV Edition, contains the entire story from start to finish. That’s great for new players, or anyone who played an act or two but got lost along the way.The best way to describe the gameplay is like a movie script you write in real time. As you traverse its haunting, southern gothic dreamscape Kentucky Route Zero serves up tons of dialogue choices. These aren’t designed to be BioWare-y narrative branches where every choice has some crucial narrative outcome attached. There’s only one ending here. Instead, the choices draw you deeper and deeper into the story because they feel like you’re in control of the history in this world. You’re creating a context that shapes your discoveries, and the characters you meet begin to feel more real because you’ve invested your own imagination in them. It plays out in gorgeous ways, like this sequence where you create song lyrics.Without spoiling too much, the common theme running through the characters you meet is debt and, more broadly, loss. When people talk about this game getting at the soul of America, this is a big part of the reason why. Yes, the aesthetics and flavor of the game reflect an Americana vibe too, but the mirror it holds up reminds us all that, in America, you always owe something somewhere. There’s a price to be paid for simply existing and you can’t get out of it no matter if you’re lost or broken (or both). It’s truly a masterpiece and worth the ten hours or so it’ll take you to get through it. Play it ASAP.Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition is available on Game Pass until March 15. It’s also available for purchase on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC.
You Need to Play This Thought-Provoking Indie Epic Before It Leaves Xbox Game Pass Next Week
America is a myth. Sure, the United States is real. A real country full of gadgets and fast food, but the concept of “America” is really about the nation’s soul. What exists at the heart of America? Who are we? Where are we going? It’s a poetic notion explored by countless novels, films, and songs. But there’s really only one video game that gets at the esoteric roots of our existential musings, and it’s only on Xbox Game Pass until March 15.Kentucky Route Zero from Cardboard Computer is an indie game in every sense of the word. Conceived by just three people, Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy, and Ben Babbitt, it’s an artistic vision that explores what America really means through the story of a trucker named Conway off to do one last delivery. His journey takes him through a world full of mystical realism along a ghostly highway in the subterranean bowels of Kentucky, a folklore-driven narrative that’s as much your story as it is Conway and his companion’s.First, a caveat. Kentucky Route Zero is very much a thinker of a game. It’s not full of puzzles or breakneck action or RPG skill trees and inventories. So if you’re craving something that’ll get your thumbs a-twitchin’ you’ll need to look elsewhere. But it’s a brilliant game because it elevates the form beyond what is typically expected. It engages you by being thoughtful and moving, like a book you can’t put down.Longtime fans had to endure years between story beats. The game was released in five acts (with several interludes) over the span of nearly a decade. It began as a Kickstarter project in 2011, with the first act dropping in 2013 and then the rest in subsequent years before wrapping up in 2020. The version available now on Xbox Game Pass, Kentucky Route Zero TV Edition, contains the entire story from start to finish. That’s great for new players, or anyone who played an act or two but got lost along the way.The best way to describe the gameplay is like a movie script you write in real time. As you traverse its haunting, southern gothic dreamscape Kentucky Route Zero serves up tons of dialogue choices. These aren’t designed to be BioWare-y narrative branches where every choice has some crucial narrative outcome attached. There’s only one ending here. Instead, the choices draw you deeper and deeper into the story because they feel like you’re in control of the history in this world. You’re creating a context that shapes your discoveries, and the characters you meet begin to feel more real because you’ve invested your own imagination in them. It plays out in gorgeous ways, like this sequence where you create song lyrics.Without spoiling too much, the common theme running through the characters you meet is debt and, more broadly, loss. When people talk about this game getting at the soul of America, this is a big part of the reason why. Yes, the aesthetics and flavor of the game reflect an Americana vibe too, but the mirror it holds up reminds us all that, in America, you always owe something somewhere. There’s a price to be paid for simply existing and you can’t get out of it no matter if you’re lost or broken (or both). It’s truly a masterpiece and worth the ten hours or so it’ll take you to get through it. Play it ASAP.Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition is available on Game Pass until March 15. It’s also available for purchase on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC.
Bad Girls of the 1920s: What You Didn’t Know About Flappers
Known for her carefree personality and boisterous behavior, the flapper represented a new generation of women who defined the Roaring Twenties in the United States. Amid widespread socio-political changes, these women began embracing a lifestyle characterized by smoking, alcohol, partying, and sexual freedom in the 1920s. Having ditched the traditionally desirable feminine qualities, these women were often painted in a negative light. But were they genuinely as problematic as they were made out to be? What was a day in the life of a flapper like, and how have these women contributed to the public conception of womanhood during the 1920s? Here are a few things you might not have known about the true icon of the Roaring Twenties.
Before Flappers, There Was the Gibson Girl
Picturesque America, anywhere in the mountains by Charles Dana Gibson, 1900, via Library of Congress, Washington
Some years before the flapper revolutionized femininity in the 1920s, the Gibson Girl had kickstarted the modern girl movement in the early 1900s. Then the definition of the new woman, the Gibson Girl embodied the ideal look and styles of American girls at the turn of the century. Sporting an S-curved torso complete with heavy bosoms and large hips, she was the brainchild of renowned illustrator Charles Dana Gibson.
Often depicted as independent and active in sporting and social activities, the Gibson Girl reinvented womanhood and left a profound influence on society and how it viewed women. In a sense, the Gibson Girl kickstarted what would become a uniquely American style rather than one that adopted and followed European standards of beauty. More importantly, the Gibson Girl laid strong foundations for the emerging flapper thereafter as the momentum of change and breaking free from tradition took root.
Origins of the Term Flapper
American dancer Violet Romer sporting a flapper style, 1910-1915, via Library of Congress, Washington
Prior to the First World War (1914–1918), the term flapper in non-slang use was associated with gawky teenage girls in Britain. Painting an image of a fledgling bird, it referred to girls who had yet to come of age. While seemingly embodying the idea of innocence, colloquial use of the term in the 17th century reflected an association with young sex workers. By the turn of the 20th century, the word flapper gained widespread use in theatre as a way of identifying female characters who were young and flirtatious. In some ways, this bore a closer association to the definitive meaning of the word as we know it today.
By the 1920s, the name flapper became synonymous with a new breed of women who would send shockwaves across conservative American society. On top of bobbed hairstyles, they favored a lifestyle characterized by cigarette smoking, drinking, dancing, casual sex, and a lack of care for social norms. As boisterous as they were, these women would go on to embody the zeitgeist of the Roaring Twenties and become definitive figures contributing to the feminist crusade, albeit in their own rebellious ways.
The Clothes That Make a Flapper
Grace Coolidge’s Blue Sequined “Flapper” Dress, year unknown, via National Museum of American History, Washington
In a bid to ditch the shackles of traditional notions of femininity, flappers adopted a Garconne or little boy look. Popularized by Coco Chanel, this style shifted focus away from the curves of a woman’s body which had long been seen as feminine and desirable. Instead, it flattened the chests, dropped the waistline to the hips, and emphasized shortened hemlines. The flappers also replaced corsets and pantaloons with underwear called the step-ins which would not hamper movement, something useful on the dancefloors these women frequented. What would also set the dancing flapper apart was the exquisite details her dress boasted. On top of the tubular shape and loose fit characteristic of the flapper dress, it featured eye-catching sequins and beadwork typical of the Art Deco style.
Introducing the Bob – A Breath of Fresh Hair!
Dancing flappers living on the edge, photographed atop Chicago’s Sherman Hotel by George Rinhart, year unknown, via Smithsonian Magazine
As flamboyant and stylish as a flapper’s dress might be, nothing would complete the look as much as a bobbed hairstyle would. Originally known as the Castle bob, it was first sported by a ballroom dancer called Irene Castle in 1916. Soon, the bobbed hairstyle was emulated by women across America in the 1920s and became an iconic flapper look.
Unlike the long tresses of the Gibson Girl, the flapper preferred a straight round cut leveled with the ear lobes, a shockingly provocative look according to the sensibilities of the time. In an era where chopping off one’s locks could significantly frustrate her chances at marriage, the rebellious flapper thought it appropriate to make a daring fashion statement. Not only did this mark a deliberate attempt at androgyny, it also represented a seismic shift in the understanding of femininity.
Different variations of the Bob hairstyle by the American Hairdresser, 1924, via The Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, New Jersey
The widespread appeal of the Bob hairstyle also generated positive economic outcomes. It was said that by 1924, there had been over 21,000 hairdressing shops, up from a mere 5,000 in 1920, which specialized in bobbing hair. Accessories such as headbands and bobby pins also hit the markets and sold like hotcakes given the rising popularity of the Bob.
You Need to Put on That Lipstick!
An advertisement for Winx cosmetics published in Cosmopolitan, 1924, via Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
Make-up in the 1920s became something that was supposed to be explicitly seen, as opposed to the Gibson Girl’s subdued, natural look. Most prominently, the iconic flapper make-up took the world by storm with those smoky dark eyes, velvet red lips, defined mascara, and bright nail colors. Compact powder cases, pocket-sized lipsticks, and rouge were invented to allow the flapper to touch up her look when needed. As the industry expanded, cosmetics no longer remained an entitlement of movie stars and socialites. Make-up became something everyday women could carry in their handbags, further fueling the popularization of the flapper look.
The Flapper Slangs
Two women are seen reading Picturegoer in the 1928 film Shooting Stars by Eric Gray, 1928, via British Film Institute National Archive
A reflection of their lack of care for norms, the flappers invented their own slang which would put the proudest Gen Z to shame today. The linguistic versatility of the flappers saw them creating a clever, often humorous vocabulary that alluded to the drag of everyday life. For example, a fire extinguisher supposedly referred to a chaperone who was regarded as a killjoy to the partying flapper. Engagement rings, a symbol of the promise of marriage, were called handcuffs by the forward-looking flapper who clearly did not subscribe to traditional gender roles.
As comical as some of these terms might sound, a handful has actually made it into our current vocabulary. For example, the flapper’s favorite catchphrase bee’s knees are also known to us today, as representing something excellent or of an extremely high standard. Similarly, someone who showed up at a party uninvited was known to the flappers as a party crasher, the same term we would use today to describe someone whom we do not expect to see at a social event.
Control the Birth, But Not the Hormones!
Flappers with their dates in Chicago, 1928, via History
Like the inventive nature of their slang, the flappers viewed sexuality and abstinence with unprecedented liberalism. They broke the rules of their Victorian predecessors by normalizing snugglepupping, a term for making out at popular petting parties. Known to raise more than a few eyebrows, these gatherings took place in dance halls, college campuses, and even on public streets, all for the goal of physical pleasure. From cuddling to kissing and heavy petting, these activities stopped short of full sexual intercourse but were still enough to alarm conservative parents and moral vigilantes. With a more casual attitude towards sexual relations outside of marriage, the flappers too were known for using contraceptives like diaphragm caps and intrauterine devices. This normalization of using contraceptives also coincided with the emerging birth control movement which advocated for better access to these important devices.
Being a Flapper Is a State of Mind
Modern girls, or modan gārus, sauntering down the streets of Tokyo, 1928, via CNN
While a flapper girl is best remembered as an icon of the Roaring Twenties in the United States, she has also existed in many parts of the world, far beyond the Western hemisphere and Europe. In Asian societies like Japan, China, and Singapore, the flapper style was replicated by modern women seeking to disassociate from traditional beliefs in the 1920s. In tandem with the momentum of progress, there was a universal desire for independence and freedom to embrace one’s sexuality, as well as a modernized interpretation of societal and gender norms.
A watch advertisement in Singapore which featured the Modern Girl in an iconic bobbed hairstyle and low-cut, shoulder-baring dress, 1927, via National Library Singapore
Like the modeng xiaojie (Miss Modern) in China, the modan gāru (Modern Girl) in Japan was making waves and headlines in societies bound by tradition. Like their American counterparts, these vocal women adored the latest cosmetics and participated actively in social activities such as dancing and partying. In other words, being a flapper was really more of a state of mind than anything else. With the right mentality, a flapper girl could exist anywhere, at any time, and in any culture.
Did the Flapper Era End with the Great Depression?
Women working on sewing machines, 1937, via History
The hedonism, decadence, as well as vibrant spirit of consumerism, came to a screeching halt in 1929 when the Great Depression hit. Almost overnight, millions of Americans were jobless as a result of the Wall Street Crash. Thanks to excessive stock market speculation and the availability of easy credit, the United States descended into a dark period of economic downturn, with its effects spreading across to other continents. Against the backdrop of economic hardships and the looming war in the 1930s, the flamboyant and loud flapper lifestyle was inevitably silenced. Gone were the heavily embellished party dresses, eye-catching bobbed hairstyles, and the couldn’t-care-less, cavalier attitudes in life. In their places were dropped hemlines, clothes made of generic artificial fabrics, and a general sense of prudence and solemnity.
Today, more than a century has passed since the world first met the flapper. Wherever the discourse and debate might end up, it is undeniable that the flapper style left an inalienable mark on history and popular culture. And thanks to the enduring popularity of books like The Great Gatsby (1925) and films like Midnight in Paris (2013) and Bullets Over Broadway (1994), the flapper will most likely continue to dazzle for centuries to come.
Bad Girls of the 1920s: What You Didn’t Know About Flappers
Known for her carefree personality and boisterous behavior, the flapper represented a new generation of women who defined the Roaring Twenties in the United States. Amid widespread socio-political changes, these women began embracing a lifestyle characterized by smoking, alcohol, partying, and sexual freedom in the 1920s. Having ditched the traditionally desirable feminine qualities, these women were often painted in a negative light. But were they genuinely as problematic as they were made out to be? What was a day in the life of a flapper like, and how have these women contributed to the public conception of womanhood during the 1920s? Here are a few things you might not have known about the true icon of the Roaring Twenties.
Before Flappers, There Was the Gibson Girl
Picturesque America, anywhere in the mountains by Charles Dana Gibson, 1900, via Library of Congress, Washington
Some years before the flapper revolutionized femininity in the 1920s, the Gibson Girl had kickstarted the modern girl movement in the early 1900s. Then the definition of the new woman, the Gibson Girl embodied the ideal look and styles of American girls at the turn of the century. Sporting an S-curved torso complete with heavy bosoms and large hips, she was the brainchild of renowned illustrator Charles Dana Gibson.
Often depicted as independent and active in sporting and social activities, the Gibson Girl reinvented womanhood and left a profound influence on society and how it viewed women. In a sense, the Gibson Girl kickstarted what would become a uniquely American style rather than one that adopted and followed European standards of beauty. More importantly, the Gibson Girl laid strong foundations for the emerging flapper thereafter as the momentum of change and breaking free from tradition took root.
Origins of the Term Flapper
American dancer Violet Romer sporting a flapper style, 1910-1915, via Library of Congress, Washington
Prior to the First World War (1914–1918), the term flapper in non-slang use was associated with gawky teenage girls in Britain. Painting an image of a fledgling bird, it referred to girls who had yet to come of age. While seemingly embodying the idea of innocence, colloquial use of the term in the 17th century reflected an association with young sex workers. By the turn of the 20th century, the word flapper gained widespread use in theatre as a way of identifying female characters who were young and flirtatious. In some ways, this bore a closer association to the definitive meaning of the word as we know it today.
By the 1920s, the name flapper became synonymous with a new breed of women who would send shockwaves across conservative American society. On top of bobbed hairstyles, they favored a lifestyle characterized by cigarette smoking, drinking, dancing, casual sex, and a lack of care for social norms. As boisterous as they were, these women would go on to embody the zeitgeist of the Roaring Twenties and become definitive figures contributing to the feminist crusade, albeit in their own rebellious ways.
The Clothes That Make a Flapper
Grace Coolidge’s Blue Sequined “Flapper” Dress, year unknown, via National Museum of American History, Washington
In a bid to ditch the shackles of traditional notions of femininity, flappers adopted a Garconne or little boy look. Popularized by Coco Chanel, this style shifted focus away from the curves of a woman’s body which had long been seen as feminine and desirable. Instead, it flattened the chests, dropped the waistline to the hips, and emphasized shortened hemlines. The flappers also replaced corsets and pantaloons with underwear called the step-ins which would not hamper movement, something useful on the dancefloors these women frequented. What would also set the dancing flapper apart was the exquisite details her dress boasted. On top of the tubular shape and loose fit characteristic of the flapper dress, it featured eye-catching sequins and beadwork typical of the Art Deco style.
Introducing the Bob – A Breath of Fresh Hair!
Dancing flappers living on the edge, photographed atop Chicago’s Sherman Hotel by George Rinhart, year unknown, via Smithsonian Magazine
As flamboyant and stylish as a flapper’s dress might be, nothing would complete the look as much as a bobbed hairstyle would. Originally known as the Castle bob, it was first sported by a ballroom dancer called Irene Castle in 1916. Soon, the bobbed hairstyle was emulated by women across America in the 1920s and became an iconic flapper look.
Unlike the long tresses of the Gibson Girl, the flapper preferred a straight round cut leveled with the ear lobes, a shockingly provocative look according to the sensibilities of the time. In an era where chopping off one’s locks could significantly frustrate her chances at marriage, the rebellious flapper thought it appropriate to make a daring fashion statement. Not only did this mark a deliberate attempt at androgyny, it also represented a seismic shift in the understanding of femininity.
Different variations of the Bob hairstyle by the American Hairdresser, 1924, via The Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, New Jersey
The widespread appeal of the Bob hairstyle also generated positive economic outcomes. It was said that by 1924, there had been over 21,000 hairdressing shops, up from a mere 5,000 in 1920, which specialized in bobbing hair. Accessories such as headbands and bobby pins also hit the markets and sold like hotcakes given the rising popularity of the Bob.
You Need to Put on That Lipstick!
An advertisement for Winx cosmetics published in Cosmopolitan, 1924, via Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
Make-up in the 1920s became something that was supposed to be explicitly seen, as opposed to the Gibson Girl’s subdued, natural look. Most prominently, the iconic flapper make-up took the world by storm with those smoky dark eyes, velvet red lips, defined mascara, and bright nail colors. Compact powder cases, pocket-sized lipsticks, and rouge were invented to allow the flapper to touch up her look when needed. As the industry expanded, cosmetics no longer remained an entitlement of movie stars and socialites. Make-up became something everyday women could carry in their handbags, further fueling the popularization of the flapper look.
The Flapper Slangs
Two women are seen reading Picturegoer in the 1928 film Shooting Stars by Eric Gray, 1928, via British Film Institute National Archive
A reflection of their lack of care for norms, the flappers invented their own slang which would put the proudest Gen Z to shame today. The linguistic versatility of the flappers saw them creating a clever, often humorous vocabulary that alluded to the drag of everyday life. For example, a fire extinguisher supposedly referred to a chaperone who was regarded as a killjoy to the partying flapper. Engagement rings, a symbol of the promise of marriage, were called handcuffs by the forward-looking flapper who clearly did not subscribe to traditional gender roles.
As comical as some of these terms might sound, a handful has actually made it into our current vocabulary. For example, the flapper’s favorite catchphrase bee’s knees are also known to us today, as representing something excellent or of an extremely high standard. Similarly, someone who showed up at a party uninvited was known to the flappers as a party crasher, the same term we would use today to describe someone whom we do not expect to see at a social event.
Control the Birth, But Not the Hormones!
Flappers with their dates in Chicago, 1928, via History
Like the inventive nature of their slang, the flappers viewed sexuality and abstinence with unprecedented liberalism. They broke the rules of their Victorian predecessors by normalizing snugglepupping, a term for making out at popular petting parties. Known to raise more than a few eyebrows, these gatherings took place in dance halls, college campuses, and even on public streets, all for the goal of physical pleasure. From cuddling to kissing and heavy petting, these activities stopped short of full sexual intercourse but were still enough to alarm conservative parents and moral vigilantes. With a more casual attitude towards sexual relations outside of marriage, the flappers too were known for using contraceptives like diaphragm caps and intrauterine devices. This normalization of using contraceptives also coincided with the emerging birth control movement which advocated for better access to these important devices.
Being a Flapper Is a State of Mind
Modern girls, or modan gārus, sauntering down the streets of Tokyo, 1928, via CNN
While a flapper girl is best remembered as an icon of the Roaring Twenties in the United States, she has also existed in many parts of the world, far beyond the Western hemisphere and Europe. In Asian societies like Japan, China, and Singapore, the flapper style was replicated by modern women seeking to disassociate from traditional beliefs in the 1920s. In tandem with the momentum of progress, there was a universal desire for independence and freedom to embrace one’s sexuality, as well as a modernized interpretation of societal and gender norms.
A watch advertisement in Singapore which featured the Modern Girl in an iconic bobbed hairstyle and low-cut, shoulder-baring dress, 1927, via National Library Singapore
Like the modeng xiaojie (Miss Modern) in China, the modan gāru (Modern Girl) in Japan was making waves and headlines in societies bound by tradition. Like their American counterparts, these vocal women adored the latest cosmetics and participated actively in social activities such as dancing and partying. In other words, being a flapper was really more of a state of mind than anything else. With the right mentality, a flapper girl could exist anywhere, at any time, and in any culture.
Did the Flapper Era End with the Great Depression?
Women working on sewing machines, 1937, via History
The hedonism, decadence, as well as vibrant spirit of consumerism, came to a screeching halt in 1929 when the Great Depression hit. Almost overnight, millions of Americans were jobless as a result of the Wall Street Crash. Thanks to excessive stock market speculation and the availability of easy credit, the United States descended into a dark period of economic downturn, with its effects spreading across to other continents. Against the backdrop of economic hardships and the looming war in the 1930s, the flamboyant and loud flapper lifestyle was inevitably silenced. Gone were the heavily embellished party dresses, eye-catching bobbed hairstyles, and the couldn’t-care-less, cavalier attitudes in life. In their places were dropped hemlines, clothes made of generic artificial fabrics, and a general sense of prudence and solemnity.
Today, more than a century has passed since the world first met the flapper. Wherever the discourse and debate might end up, it is undeniable that the flapper style left an inalienable mark on history and popular culture. And thanks to the enduring popularity of books like The Great Gatsby (1925) and films like Midnight in Paris (2013) and Bullets Over Broadway (1994), the flapper will most likely continue to dazzle for centuries to come.
Is Jeff Koons Actually an Artist?
At some point in time, many of us have been asked the question: what is art? Maybe all high school art history classes begin with the teacher asking a room full of pupils the very same inquiry, which can elicit blank stares or intense debate. There’s no right or wrong answer, though. Historically, to be an artist worthy of and eligible for inclusion in the Western canon required the male sex and to varying degrees, whiteness and privilege. All three of those unspoken requirements are met by the highest-paid living artist today, Jeff Koons.
Who Is Jeff Koons?
Jeff Koons in his New York studio, photographed by Stefan Ruiz, 2016, courtesy of Christie’s.
Jeff Koons is a polarizing figure in contemporary art; often people either love him or hate him. Born in 1955 and hailing from York, Pennsylvania, Jeff Koons attended the Maryland Institute College of Art and following an eventful trip to the Whitney Museum, transferred to the Art Institute of Chicago. As the self-proclaimed “ideas man” behind controversial and at times infamous sculptures, paintings, and various fabrications, Koons has been forthright about his absence in the material production of his work. In a Meet the Artists interview, Jeff Koons vaguely explains the metaphysical allure of light and reflection.
Inflatable Flowers (Short Pink, Tall Purple) by Jeff Koons, 1979, via The collection of Norman and Norah Stone
Over footage of him walking through his studio in navy blue slacks and a pressed button-down shirt, he’ll use buzzwords here and there which all sound nice and elucidating without saying much of actual substance. It seems as though no one bats an eye at this deeply ironic scene. In other words, a work bearing Jeff Koons’ name is generally considered art.
Who Is Considered an Artist?
Michael Jackson and Bubbles by Jeff Koons, 1988, via SFMoMA, San Francisco
Wading into the waters of who is or isn’t an artist can get murky. This is in part due to the subjectivity of art and its historical and institutional problem of canonical gatekeeping. In that regard, let’s shift the inquiry elsewhere. Given that Jeff Koons has nothing to do with the material production of works that bear his name, can he really be considered an artist?
Lips by Jeff Koons, 2000, via Museo Guggenheim Bilbao
Do artists actually have to make their own art in order to call it their own? Perhaps this all belies a deeper issue at play. According to the contemporary economist and journalist Allison Schrager, “… the artists who thrive are those with the political savvy to court top galleries early in their career or brand themselves to become Instagram stars.” In the art world’s winner-takes-it-all market, those who succeed may not be the best artists or produce great work born out of the most original or creative ideas. Jeff Koons’ rise to fame owes more to a successful marketing scheme of business and controversy.
How Can the Renaissance help?
Pink Panther by Jeff Koons, 1988, via MoMA, New York
Despite his nonexistent contribution to the final material production of his work, a photorealistic painting like Lips or sculpture such as Pink Panther still credits Jeff Koons and Jeff Koons alone. Let’s say Koons is simply standing on the shoulders of giants like Marcel Duchamp, who is often considered the father of conceptual art. But just to stir the pot a bit, should the idea of something and its infinitely Instagrammable byproduct supersede the individual skills, competency, and training necessary to be an artist? Looking at the past can also be surprisingly enlightening. For another hit of sweet nostalgia let us venture forth through the storied history of art to the Northern Renaissance.
This may seem like a disparate comparison, but bear in mind the prevailing myth of an artist as a singular genius originated in the Renaissance. Much like their Italian counterparts, workshops flourished throughout Northern Europe. For context, in the introduction of their catalogue Early Netherlandish Painting, (1986), produced for the National Gallery of Art, John Oliver Hand and Martha Wolff note for the reader that studio or workshop attributions indicate a piece was, “Produced in the named artist’s workshop or studio, by students or assistants, possibly with some participation by the named artist. It is important that the creative concept is by the named artist and that the work was meant to leave the studio as his.” One such attribution is applied to the Tournai workshop of Robert Campin and one of the most celebrated and well-known early Netherlandish paintings, the Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece), (1427-28).
Venus by Jeff Koons, 2016-2020, via The Australian
Robert Campin (1378/9-1444), commonly known as the Master of Flémalle, was a seminal figure in the Northern Renaissance. Along with his contemporary Jan van Eyck, Campin was credited with developing the naturalistic style of panel painting and significant attention to detail characteristic of the region and era. Although it’s undated and unsigned, stylistic and technical evidence suggests the altarpiece was made in stages over a five-year period, ca. 1427-32. The extent of Campin’s involvement in the production of the piece is unknown and it is generally believed he had two apprentices to assist him, namely Rogier van der Weyden and Jacques Daret.
In line with the Flemish tradition and general practice of the Northern Renaissance, the Merode Altarpiece is a glittering example of the union between the adept rendering of forms and imbuing them with meaning. As Erwin Panofsky states in his book Early Netherlandish Painting, (1953), “the more [Flemish] painters rejoiced in the discovery and reproduction of the visible world, the more intensely did they feel the need to saturate all of its elements with meaning. Conversely, the harder they strove to express new subtleties and complexities of thought and imagination, the more eagerly did they explore new areas of reality.” Though religion informed the symbolism and meaning of their works, the ideas behind a painting like the Merode Altarpiece were no less valid than the individualized ideas of artists today.
Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece), Workshop of Robert Campin, ca. 1427-32, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The exploration of form and conceptual function isn’t exclusive to contemporary art, nor is it a development born of the modern era at all. The only difference, perhaps, is the technical skill required of artists, buttressed by their assistants or workshops, to realize their ideas. That being said, it’s important to distinguish the division of labor from labor outsourced entirely. As an unintended myth birthed by the Renaissance, the paradoxical nature between the perception of an individual artist and the group mentality of a workshop is well documented. Though we use the same terminology, Jeff Koons’ workshop is not akin to a Renaissance workshop like that of Campin. The artistic masters of centuries past needn’t credit their students or assistants as the relationship between the artist and members of their workshop were mutually beneficial.
Following their time working with the Master of Flémalle, Van der Weyden and Daret went on to become artists in their own right. Campin’s stylistic influence is evident in his pupils’ work following their departure from his studio, as is the skill, growth, and experience gained as apprentices. Given the description of his studio as a factory setting, the relationship between Koons and his assistants appears rather exploitative, benefitting the former at the latter’s expense. With Koons’ system of outsourcing fabrication entirely, his ideas can only be produced with an unavoidable base level of exploitation. Regardless of Jeff Koons’ eloquence when ascribing social value and significance to any product of his factory, the meaning of a work, as its audience understands it, must take into consideration the method of its manufacture.
The Jeff Koons Brand & Problem of Authorship
Jeff Koons photographed in his studio, by Martin Schoeller, via New York Magazine
For every work of art listed on his website, Jeff Koons receives both credit and copyright ownership. Though, much like an architect, the extent of Koons’ contribution to hands-on construction is null. Where an architect’s plan serves as a roadmap for the contractors hired to construct their design, Koons bears no responsibility for the technical ingenuity and proprietary knowledge of how his idea or concept is engineered. That part, like the manual labor bringing his ideas to fruition, is also outsourced.
Balloon Venus (Magenta) by Jeff Koons, 2008-2012, via The Broad, Los Angeles
This all begs the question: if Jeff Koons isn’t an artist then what is he? Simply put, there is no simple answer. What cannot be refuted is Koons’ excellent salesmanship and marketing skills. Can the same really be said for his artistic acumen? On one hand, the art world has definitively answered that question with a resounding yes. On the other hand, if we’re to take anything from conversations about de-colonizing art history in academic circles then we ought to probe not only the artist and their art but the way in which their art is produced.
Barring access to outsourced fabrication, Jeff Koons is another white man who successfully marketed himself as an artist whilst claiming the handiwork and labor of others as his own. It doesn’t take much self-reflection, be it figurative or a literal rose-tinted distortion staring back at a Balloon Venus viewer, to know that says more about consumerism than anything produced by a Jeff Koons studio.
Is Jeff Koons Actually an Artist?
At some point in time, many of us have been asked the question: what is art? Maybe all high school art history classes begin with the teacher asking a room full of pupils the very same inquiry, which can elicit blank stares or intense debate. There’s no right or wrong answer, though. Historically, to be an artist worthy of and eligible for inclusion in the Western canon required the male sex and to varying degrees, whiteness and privilege. All three of those unspoken requirements are met by the highest-paid living artist today, Jeff Koons.
Who Is Jeff Koons?
Jeff Koons in his New York studio, photographed by Stefan Ruiz, 2016, courtesy of Christie’s.
Jeff Koons is a polarizing figure in contemporary art; often people either love him or hate him. Born in 1955 and hailing from York, Pennsylvania, Jeff Koons attended the Maryland Institute College of Art and following an eventful trip to the Whitney Museum, transferred to the Art Institute of Chicago. As the self-proclaimed “ideas man” behind controversial and at times infamous sculptures, paintings, and various fabrications, Koons has been forthright about his absence in the material production of his work. In a Meet the Artists interview, Jeff Koons vaguely explains the metaphysical allure of light and reflection.
Inflatable Flowers (Short Pink, Tall Purple) by Jeff Koons, 1979, via The collection of Norman and Norah Stone
Over footage of him walking through his studio in navy blue slacks and a pressed button-down shirt, he’ll use buzzwords here and there which all sound nice and elucidating without saying much of actual substance. It seems as though no one bats an eye at this deeply ironic scene. In other words, a work bearing Jeff Koons’ name is generally considered art.
Who Is Considered an Artist?
Michael Jackson and Bubbles by Jeff Koons, 1988, via SFMoMA, San Francisco
Wading into the waters of who is or isn’t an artist can get murky. This is in part due to the subjectivity of art and its historical and institutional problem of canonical gatekeeping. In that regard, let’s shift the inquiry elsewhere. Given that Jeff Koons has nothing to do with the material production of works that bear his name, can he really be considered an artist?
Lips by Jeff Koons, 2000, via Museo Guggenheim Bilbao
Do artists actually have to make their own art in order to call it their own? Perhaps this all belies a deeper issue at play. According to the contemporary economist and journalist Allison Schrager, “… the artists who thrive are those with the political savvy to court top galleries early in their career or brand themselves to become Instagram stars.” In the art world’s winner-takes-it-all market, those who succeed may not be the best artists or produce great work born out of the most original or creative ideas. Jeff Koons’ rise to fame owes more to a successful marketing scheme of business and controversy.
How Can the Renaissance help?
Pink Panther by Jeff Koons, 1988, via MoMA, New York
Despite his nonexistent contribution to the final material production of his work, a photorealistic painting like Lips or sculpture such as Pink Panther still credits Jeff Koons and Jeff Koons alone. Let’s say Koons is simply standing on the shoulders of giants like Marcel Duchamp, who is often considered the father of conceptual art. But just to stir the pot a bit, should the idea of something and its infinitely Instagrammable byproduct supersede the individual skills, competency, and training necessary to be an artist? Looking at the past can also be surprisingly enlightening. For another hit of sweet nostalgia let us venture forth through the storied history of art to the Northern Renaissance.
This may seem like a disparate comparison, but bear in mind the prevailing myth of an artist as a singular genius originated in the Renaissance. Much like their Italian counterparts, workshops flourished throughout Northern Europe. For context, in the introduction of their catalogue Early Netherlandish Painting, (1986), produced for the National Gallery of Art, John Oliver Hand and Martha Wolff note for the reader that studio or workshop attributions indicate a piece was, “Produced in the named artist’s workshop or studio, by students or assistants, possibly with some participation by the named artist. It is important that the creative concept is by the named artist and that the work was meant to leave the studio as his.” One such attribution is applied to the Tournai workshop of Robert Campin and one of the most celebrated and well-known early Netherlandish paintings, the Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece), (1427-28).
Venus by Jeff Koons, 2016-2020, via The Australian
Robert Campin (1378/9-1444), commonly known as the Master of Flémalle, was a seminal figure in the Northern Renaissance. Along with his contemporary Jan van Eyck, Campin was credited with developing the naturalistic style of panel painting and significant attention to detail characteristic of the region and era. Although it’s undated and unsigned, stylistic and technical evidence suggests the altarpiece was made in stages over a five-year period, ca. 1427-32. The extent of Campin’s involvement in the production of the piece is unknown and it is generally believed he had two apprentices to assist him, namely Rogier van der Weyden and Jacques Daret.
In line with the Flemish tradition and general practice of the Northern Renaissance, the Merode Altarpiece is a glittering example of the union between the adept rendering of forms and imbuing them with meaning. As Erwin Panofsky states in his book Early Netherlandish Painting, (1953), “the more [Flemish] painters rejoiced in the discovery and reproduction of the visible world, the more intensely did they feel the need to saturate all of its elements with meaning. Conversely, the harder they strove to express new subtleties and complexities of thought and imagination, the more eagerly did they explore new areas of reality.” Though religion informed the symbolism and meaning of their works, the ideas behind a painting like the Merode Altarpiece were no less valid than the individualized ideas of artists today.
Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece), Workshop of Robert Campin, ca. 1427-32, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The exploration of form and conceptual function isn’t exclusive to contemporary art, nor is it a development born of the modern era at all. The only difference, perhaps, is the technical skill required of artists, buttressed by their assistants or workshops, to realize their ideas. That being said, it’s important to distinguish the division of labor from labor outsourced entirely. As an unintended myth birthed by the Renaissance, the paradoxical nature between the perception of an individual artist and the group mentality of a workshop is well documented. Though we use the same terminology, Jeff Koons’ workshop is not akin to a Renaissance workshop like that of Campin. The artistic masters of centuries past needn’t credit their students or assistants as the relationship between the artist and members of their workshop were mutually beneficial.
Following their time working with the Master of Flémalle, Van der Weyden and Daret went on to become artists in their own right. Campin’s stylistic influence is evident in his pupils’ work following their departure from his studio, as is the skill, growth, and experience gained as apprentices. Given the description of his studio as a factory setting, the relationship between Koons and his assistants appears rather exploitative, benefitting the former at the latter’s expense. With Koons’ system of outsourcing fabrication entirely, his ideas can only be produced with an unavoidable base level of exploitation. Regardless of Jeff Koons’ eloquence when ascribing social value and significance to any product of his factory, the meaning of a work, as its audience understands it, must take into consideration the method of its manufacture.
The Jeff Koons Brand & Problem of Authorship
Jeff Koons photographed in his studio, by Martin Schoeller, via New York Magazine
For every work of art listed on his website, Jeff Koons receives both credit and copyright ownership. Though, much like an architect, the extent of Koons’ contribution to hands-on construction is null. Where an architect’s plan serves as a roadmap for the contractors hired to construct their design, Koons bears no responsibility for the technical ingenuity and proprietary knowledge of how his idea or concept is engineered. That part, like the manual labor bringing his ideas to fruition, is also outsourced.
Balloon Venus (Magenta) by Jeff Koons, 2008-2012, via The Broad, Los Angeles
This all begs the question: if Jeff Koons isn’t an artist then what is he? Simply put, there is no simple answer. What cannot be refuted is Koons’ excellent salesmanship and marketing skills. Can the same really be said for his artistic acumen? On one hand, the art world has definitively answered that question with a resounding yes. On the other hand, if we’re to take anything from conversations about de-colonizing art history in academic circles then we ought to probe not only the artist and their art but the way in which their art is produced.
Barring access to outsourced fabrication, Jeff Koons is another white man who successfully marketed himself as an artist whilst claiming the handiwork and labor of others as his own. It doesn’t take much self-reflection, be it figurative or a literal rose-tinted distortion staring back at a Balloon Venus viewer, to know that says more about consumerism than anything produced by a Jeff Koons studio.
At the Outsider Art Fair, Passion Trumps Prestige
At the only fair focused on self-taught artists, passion trumps prestige. Back for its 31st edition at New York’s Manhattan Pavilion, the Outsider Art Fair (OAF) features artwork from 64 exhibitors representing 28 cities in countries including the United States, Japan, Croatia, and Canada. Aficionados, dealers, and everyday New Yorkers are converging this weekend to marvel at works such as Wesley Anderegg’s ceramic figures, which are seemingly straight out of a Henry Selick animated film, or Andrew Sloan’s colored pencil drawing “’81 Chevy in the City” (2021).
Della Wells, “Untitled” (2022), collage, 20 inches x 16 inches (image courtesy Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art)
There’s something for everyone, especially folks priced out of Chelsea or Midtown galleries. Brooklyn-based artist and former School of Visual Arts professor Esther K. Smith told Hyperallergic she comes yearly to see other artist friends exhibiting work and for the camaraderie. She likes that the art is financially accessible and to her taste — which she says includes dolls, quilts, and eccentric found objects. Booths wind around the room like a maze, with works by established and first-time artists displayed at each corner, such as “Untitled” (2022) by Della Wells, a Milwaukee-based artist whose collages recreate stories from her mother’s childhood in North Carolina.
So-called “outsider art,” as a category, holds many genres and styles often dismissed by mainstream or prestigious galleries and institutions. Perhaps as a consequence, the artwork displayed at OAF through March 5 tends towards the absurd or consists of unexpected materials. Artist Montrel Beverly, an Austin-based sculptor, for example, works exclusively with pipe cleaners. Four works on display at SAGE Studio’s booth are a part of his imagined amusement park named Barrington. “Mr. and Mrs. Barrington’s Ferris Wheel” (2022) and “Joseph’s Train” (2022) are two rides the Bearringtons, a fictional married couple who are bears and business partners, made for humans following their first successful squirrel park.
Montrel Beverly, “Mr. and Mrs. Barrington’s Ferris Wheel” (2022), pipe cleaners, 29 1/2 inches x 23 inches (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Meanwhile, a wall of embroidered female cult leaders caught the eye of many visitors at the March 2 opening. First-time OAF exhibitor Alexandria Deters regaled passersby with stories about her series False Prophets. Deter features a portrait of Brigitte Boisselier, a leader for the UFO religion Raëlism founded in the 1970s, amidst a background of aliens, which represent the chemist’s extraterrestrial preoccupations.
“You first think of men when you think of cult leaders, but with women, it is often more subversive,” Deters told Hyperallergic. “I’m hoping to show that manipulation takes all forms.”
Nancy Josephson, a mixed-media artist who has sold work at OAF for several years, displays sculptures made of vintage and contemporary beading and black gasket sealant. Although these sculptures are stationary, the Delaware-based artist uses materials that can withstand a speed of 70 miles per hour. Along with her decorative busts, she is best known for art cars, like the one she designed in memory of her late father.
A crowd of visitors around False Prophets (2022–2023) by Alexandria Deters at Outsider Art Fair (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
The capacious show also encompasses marginalized artists barred from receiving formal art education due to their race, socioeconomic status, or ethnic background. Bill Traylor, a well-regarded artist whose work has been acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, was born into slavery and spent much of his life as a sharecropper. Drawings like “Untitled (Man with Blue Torso)” (c. 1939–42) combine realistic depictions of life as a sharecropper in Alabama with puzzling lessons and folklore. Martín Ramirez, whose work has been honored with a US Postal Service commemorative stamp, was institutionalized in various California mental institutions. I was also excited to find pieces by Winfred Rembert, who became an artist after surviving a lynching and serving seven years in prison for stealing a car and attempting to escape prison. His work has received renewed attention with the 2021 release of his memoir Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2022.
At the end of the day, why an artist is self-taught does not matter at OAF. The moniker fosters a welcoming environment for all those who have an earnest appreciation for art, regardless of their educational background or technical know-how. It’s a value that resonates with Harlem-based rapper and creator YAAHZZYWAAH The Artisan, who told Hyperallergic that OAF proves that “if you love doing something and are passionate, that’s all you need to make great art.”
“Untitled” (n.d.) by Winfred Rembert (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Owen Lee, “Everything Happens at Once But Not at the Same Time” (1987), two-sided, paint on fabric, 79 x 36 inches (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Tom Duncan, “Inside, Outside” (2016), mixed media, 46 x 61 x 6 inches (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Ralph Fasanella, “Mill Town – Weaving Department” (1976), oil on Canvas, 50 x 70 inches (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
At the Outsider Art Fair, Passion Trumps Prestige
At the only fair focused on self-taught artists, passion trumps prestige. Back for its 31st edition at New York’s Manhattan Pavilion, the Outsider Art Fair (OAF) features artwork from 64 exhibitors representing 28 cities in countries including the United States, Japan, Croatia, and Canada. Aficionados, dealers, and everyday New Yorkers are converging this weekend to marvel at works such as Wesley Anderegg’s ceramic figures, which are seemingly straight out of a Henry Selick animated film, or Andrew Sloan’s colored pencil drawing “’81 Chevy in the City” (2021).
Della Wells, “Untitled” (2022), collage, 20 inches x 16 inches (image courtesy Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art)
There’s something for everyone, especially folks priced out of Chelsea or Midtown galleries. Brooklyn-based artist and former School of Visual Arts professor Esther K. Smith told Hyperallergic she comes yearly to see other artist friends exhibiting work and for the camaraderie. She likes that the art is financially accessible and to her taste — which she says includes dolls, quilts, and eccentric found objects. Booths wind around the room like a maze, with works by established and first-time artists displayed at each corner, such as “Untitled” (2022) by Della Wells, a Milwaukee-based artist whose collages recreate stories from her mother’s childhood in North Carolina.
So-called “outsider art,” as a category, holds many genres and styles often dismissed by mainstream or prestigious galleries and institutions. Perhaps as a consequence, the artwork displayed at OAF through March 5 tends towards the absurd or consists of unexpected materials. Artist Montrel Beverly, an Austin-based sculptor, for example, works exclusively with pipe cleaners. Four works on display at SAGE Studio’s booth are a part of his imagined amusement park named Barrington. “Mr. and Mrs. Barrington’s Ferris Wheel” (2022) and “Joseph’s Train” (2022) are two rides the Bearringtons, a fictional married couple who are bears and business partners, made for humans following their first successful squirrel park.
Montrel Beverly, “Mr. and Mrs. Barrington’s Ferris Wheel” (2022), pipe cleaners, 29 1/2 inches x 23 inches (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Meanwhile, a wall of embroidered female cult leaders caught the eye of many visitors at the March 2 opening. First-time OAF exhibitor Alexandria Deters regaled passersby with stories about her series False Prophets. Deter features a portrait of Brigitte Boisselier, a leader for the UFO religion Raëlism founded in the 1970s, amidst a background of aliens, which represent the chemist’s extraterrestrial preoccupations.
“You first think of men when you think of cult leaders, but with women, it is often more subversive,” Deters told Hyperallergic. “I’m hoping to show that manipulation takes all forms.”
Nancy Josephson, a mixed-media artist who has sold work at OAF for several years, displays sculptures made of vintage and contemporary beading and black gasket sealant. Although these sculptures are stationary, the Delaware-based artist uses materials that can withstand a speed of 70 miles per hour. Along with her decorative busts, she is best known for art cars, like the one she designed in memory of her late father.
A crowd of visitors around False Prophets (2022–2023) by Alexandria Deters at Outsider Art Fair (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
The capacious show also encompasses marginalized artists barred from receiving formal art education due to their race, socioeconomic status, or ethnic background. Bill Traylor, a well-regarded artist whose work has been acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, was born into slavery and spent much of his life as a sharecropper. Drawings like “Untitled (Man with Blue Torso)” (c. 1939–42) combine realistic depictions of life as a sharecropper in Alabama with puzzling lessons and folklore. Martín Ramirez, whose work has been honored with a US Postal Service commemorative stamp, was institutionalized in various California mental institutions. I was also excited to find pieces by Winfred Rembert, who became an artist after surviving a lynching and serving seven years in prison for stealing a car and attempting to escape prison. His work has received renewed attention with the 2021 release of his memoir Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2022.
At the end of the day, why an artist is self-taught does not matter at OAF. The moniker fosters a welcoming environment for all those who have an earnest appreciation for art, regardless of their educational background or technical know-how. It’s a value that resonates with Harlem-based rapper and creator YAAHZZYWAAH The Artisan, who told Hyperallergic that OAF proves that “if you love doing something and are passionate, that’s all you need to make great art.”
“Untitled” (n.d.) by Winfred Rembert (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Owen Lee, “Everything Happens at Once But Not at the Same Time” (1987), two-sided, paint on fabric, 79 x 36 inches (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Tom Duncan, “Inside, Outside” (2016), mixed media, 46 x 61 x 6 inches (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Ralph Fasanella, “Mill Town – Weaving Department” (1976), oil on Canvas, 50 x 70 inches (photo Taylor Michael/Hyperallergic)
Can Brain Science Explain Why We Like Certain Artworks?
Why do some people love Impressionist paintings like Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies” (1906) while others can’t understand the hype? The question of aesthetic taste has stumped scholars for centuries. Now, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) say they have come closer to decoding how the brain decides which artworks it deems good or attractive.
In a study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, CalTech Professor John O’Doherty and other researchers propose that the mind creates an opinion of an artwork after dissecting it into discrete elements. Basic features, such as color and texture, and complex qualities, like style, are ranked and weighed individually to make a judgment.
“Imagine you have a team of people in a panel making a decision on something, and then the decision is based on the collective views of the panel,” O’Doherty told Hyperallergic. “The idea is similar when it comes to how your brain integrates the individual elements of the image.”
For the study, researchers used machine learning and brain scanning technology to find the mental lobes that analyze artwork. (The report builds on a 2021 study in which the lab trained an algorithm to predict 1,000 volunteers’ tastes in art.) Volunteers ranked paintings across movements, such as Impressionism, Cubism, and Color Field art, while a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine scanned participants’ brain activity. Researchers inputted the artwork into an algorithm that analyzed its low- and high-level features. These computational models were linked to show which lobes processed which qualities.
O’Doherty was surprised at how many parts of the mind were involved, from the occipital lobe, a back portion responsible for processing sight, to the prefrontal cortex, where complex decision-making happens. But the process, the researchers suggest, is just one example of how humans make rapid and sometimes difficult decisions about what’s potentially beneficial or harmful for survival.
People similarly process what food they prefer based on an item’s protein, fat, carbohydrate, and micronutrient content, according to research conducted at O’Doherty’s lab. Kiyohito Iigaya, who now teaches at Columbia University, said in a CalTech statement that the food-related findings inspired their research about art. “I think it’s amazing that this very simple computational model can explain large variations in preferences for us,” Iigaya said.
While the study makes the brain’s ability to decide its tastes less “mystical,” O’Doherty remarks that his team has only scratched the surface. The study shows some features the human mind uses, but does not address how people rely on personal, historical, or social experiences to relate to a painting.
Can Brain Science Explain Why We Like Certain Artworks?
Why do some people love Impressionist paintings like Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies” (1906) while others can’t understand the hype? The question of aesthetic taste has stumped scholars for centuries. Now, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) say they have come closer to decoding how the brain decides which artworks it deems good or attractive.
In a study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, CalTech Professor John O’Doherty and other researchers propose that the mind creates an opinion of an artwork after dissecting it into discrete elements. Basic features, such as color and texture, and complex qualities, like style, are ranked and weighed individually to make a judgment.
“Imagine you have a team of people in a panel making a decision on something, and then the decision is based on the collective views of the panel,” O’Doherty told Hyperallergic. “The idea is similar when it comes to how your brain integrates the individual elements of the image.”
For the study, researchers used machine learning and brain scanning technology to find the mental lobes that analyze artwork. (The report builds on a 2021 study in which the lab trained an algorithm to predict 1,000 volunteers’ tastes in art.) Volunteers ranked paintings across movements, such as Impressionism, Cubism, and Color Field art, while a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine scanned participants’ brain activity. Researchers inputted the artwork into an algorithm that analyzed its low- and high-level features. These computational models were linked to show which lobes processed which qualities.
O’Doherty was surprised at how many parts of the mind were involved, from the occipital lobe, a back portion responsible for processing sight, to the prefrontal cortex, where complex decision-making happens. But the process, the researchers suggest, is just one example of how humans make rapid and sometimes difficult decisions about what’s potentially beneficial or harmful for survival.
People similarly process what food they prefer based on an item’s protein, fat, carbohydrate, and micronutrient content, according to research conducted at O’Doherty’s lab. Kiyohito Iigaya, who now teaches at Columbia University, said in a CalTech statement that the food-related findings inspired their research about art. “I think it’s amazing that this very simple computational model can explain large variations in preferences for us,” Iigaya said.
While the study makes the brain’s ability to decide its tastes less “mystical,” O’Doherty remarks that his team has only scratched the surface. The study shows some features the human mind uses, but does not address how people rely on personal, historical, or social experiences to relate to a painting.
Let there be (controlled) light
In the very near future, quantum computers are expected to revolutionize the way we compute, with new approaches to database searches, AI systems, simulations and more. But to achieve such novel quantum technology applications, photonic integrated circuits which can effectively control photonic quantum states -- the so-called qubits -- are needed. Physicists have made a breakthrough in this effort: for the first time, they demonstrated the controlled creation of single-photon emitters in silicon at the nanoscale.
![Let there be (controlled) light]()
Let there be (controlled) light
In the very near future, quantum computers are expected to revolutionize the way we compute, with new approaches to database searches, AI systems, simulations and more. But to achieve such novel quantum technology applications, photonic integrated circuits which can effectively control photonic quantum states -- the so-called qubits -- are needed. Physicists have made a breakthrough in this effort: for the first time, they demonstrated the controlled creation of single-photon emitters in silicon at the nanoscale.
![Let there be (controlled) light]()
Could This Be the First-Known Ancient Roman Dildo?
Two scholars in England and Ireland have identified what may be the first-known Ancient Roman dildo. For 40 years, the 2nd-century wooden object was considered a sewing and knitting tool. In a February 20 paper published in the journal Antiquity, Rob Sands of University College Dublin and Rob Collins of England’s Newcastle University reclassify the artifact as a large disembodied phallus. The pair also ascribe three possible uses: Dildo, pestle, or a statue attachment to be touched for good luck.
If it feels like Roman phalluses have been showing up everywhere recently, it’s because they were truly everywhere in the ancient world. Romans considered the phallus a symbol of protection and good luck. People carried phallus-shaped pendants (even babies and soldiers), placed carvings of the body part on their entryway doors, and depicted them in mosaics and frescoes. A time traveler to Pompeii could expect to find stone phalluses literally extending from garden walls and oversize penises depicted in artworks.
Historians first discovered the recently reclassified object in 1992 at Vindolanda, an extensive archaeological site just south of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England. The fort’s unique environmental conditions have preserved a trove of ancient wood, leather, and fabric, materials that rarely survive elsewhere. In their 1992 “trench-side” identification, researchers named their newly-discovered wooden object a darning tool.
Decades later, Sands stumbled across the item while studying Vindolanda’s collection of wooden artifacts.
“There are a range of such tools, but in this particular example, the phallic shape is more pronounced and evident than the expected shape of a darning tool,” Collins told Hyperallergic.
While there is certainly no shortage of Ancient Roman phalluses, the Vindolanda rendition is unique.
“Wooden objects would have been commonplace in the ancient world, but only survive in very particular conditions — in northern Europe normally in dark, damp, and oxygen free deposit,” Sands said in a statement.
The phallus is around six and half inches long.
Additionally, Collins said the six-and-a-half-inch object “fits comfortably within the range of a ‘lifesize’ phallus.” Many Roman phalluses measure around half that size and are carved in relief rather than in self-standing forms. (These small portable phalli are the most common.)
Collins and Sands note that the Vindolanda phallus is worn at the top and bottom, perhaps signifying repeated contact in those two areas. Given this observation, the researchers say the object may have been used as a pestle to grind food, makeup, or medicine. “It imbues that food or medicine with the magical protection drawn in and transferred through the phallic shape,” Collins explained.
The wooden phallus may have also been attached to a statue or building, perhaps in an important location such as the headquarters of a commanding official where it would have have been touched by passersby hoping for extra luck and protection. This was not uncommon in Ancient Rome. Statues marking boundaries, for example, prominently featured extended phalluses. (At Vindolanda, archaeologists discovered a one-foot stone phallus that extended from a wall.)
Projecting component – building (1c): In fact, one of these projecting phalluses from a building is already known from Vindolanda, carved in stone and about 1 foot in length (300 mm). It was found outside the west gate of the fort – note the different socket. pic.twitter.com/xt702qbt6F— Dr Rob Collins, FSA (@duxBritanniarum) February 20, 2023
Collins and Sands also proposed a third possibility: The object could have been used as a sex toy. Dildos are documented in Roman literature and artwork, although no verified ancient Roman dildos have been uncovered.
“The Romans were not ‘prudish,'” Collins said. He pointed out a February 20 Twitter thread he wrote announcing his new research.
“There were genitals, nudity, sex acts, etc. found everywhere in Roman society, in literature, in art, in humor and jokes, on the street, and most likely all aspects of life,” said Collin. He added that Ancient Roman society was multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual and encompassed a wide range of attitudes about sexuality.
“So all that begs the question: Why can’t it be a dildo?” Collins asked. “We need to be open-minded about such things.”
Right now, there are no comparable objects for Collins and Sands to examine next. The pairs hopes that more will be uncovered in future excavations or perhaps dusty museum collections.
“This also highlights the importance of reconsidering past conclusions and interpretations,” said Collins. “We are always learning new things, and we often have new methods and breakthroughs that can be applied to past discoveries. In that regard, I think we can say this phallus — at least for us — has been a good luck charm, helping us to learn new things about the Romans, and perhaps also, ourselves.”
The object is now on display at the Vindolanda Museum in Hexham, England.
Could This Be the First-Known Ancient Roman Dildo?
Two scholars in England and Ireland have identified what may be the first-known Ancient Roman dildo. For 40 years, the 2nd-century wooden object was considered a sewing and knitting tool. In a February 20 paper published in the journal Antiquity, Rob Sands of University College Dublin and Rob Collins of England’s Newcastle University reclassify the artifact as a large disembodied phallus. The pair also ascribe three possible uses: Dildo, pestle, or a statue attachment to be touched for good luck.
If it feels like Roman phalluses have been showing up everywhere recently, it’s because they were truly everywhere in the ancient world. Romans considered the phallus a symbol of protection and good luck. People carried phallus-shaped pendants (even babies and soldiers), placed carvings of the body part on their entryway doors, and depicted them in mosaics and frescoes. A time traveler to Pompeii could expect to find stone phalluses literally extending from garden walls and oversize penises depicted in artworks.
Historians first discovered the recently reclassified object in 1992 at Vindolanda, an extensive archaeological site just south of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England. The fort’s unique environmental conditions have preserved a trove of ancient wood, leather, and fabric, materials that rarely survive elsewhere. In their 1992 “trench-side” identification, researchers named their newly-discovered wooden object a darning tool.
Decades later, Sands stumbled across the item while studying Vindolanda’s collection of wooden artifacts.
“There are a range of such tools, but in this particular example, the phallic shape is more pronounced and evident than the expected shape of a darning tool,” Collins told Hyperallergic.
While there is certainly no shortage of Ancient Roman phalluses, the Vindolanda rendition is unique.
“Wooden objects would have been commonplace in the ancient world, but only survive in very particular conditions — in northern Europe normally in dark, damp, and oxygen free deposit,” Sands said in a statement.
The phallus is around six and half inches long.
Additionally, Collins said the six-and-a-half-inch object “fits comfortably within the range of a ‘lifesize’ phallus.” Many Roman phalluses measure around half that size and are carved in relief rather than in self-standing forms. (These small portable phalli are the most common.)
Collins and Sands note that the Vindolanda phallus is worn at the top and bottom, perhaps signifying repeated contact in those two areas. Given this observation, the researchers say the object may have been used as a pestle to grind food, makeup, or medicine. “It imbues that food or medicine with the magical protection drawn in and transferred through the phallic shape,” Collins explained.
The wooden phallus may have also been attached to a statue or building, perhaps in an important location such as the headquarters of a commanding official where it would have have been touched by passersby hoping for extra luck and protection. This was not uncommon in Ancient Rome. Statues marking boundaries, for example, prominently featured extended phalluses. (At Vindolanda, archaeologists discovered a one-foot stone phallus that extended from a wall.)
Projecting component – building (1c): In fact, one of these projecting phalluses from a building is already known from Vindolanda, carved in stone and about 1 foot in length (300 mm). It was found outside the west gate of the fort – note the different socket. pic.twitter.com/xt702qbt6F— Dr Rob Collins, FSA (@duxBritanniarum) February 20, 2023
Collins and Sands also proposed a third possibility: The object could have been used as a sex toy. Dildos are documented in Roman literature and artwork, although no verified ancient Roman dildos have been uncovered.
“The Romans were not ‘prudish,'” Collins said. He pointed out a February 20 Twitter thread he wrote announcing his new research.
“There were genitals, nudity, sex acts, etc. found everywhere in Roman society, in literature, in art, in humor and jokes, on the street, and most likely all aspects of life,” said Collin. He added that Ancient Roman society was multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual and encompassed a wide range of attitudes about sexuality.
“So all that begs the question: Why can’t it be a dildo?” Collins asked. “We need to be open-minded about such things.”
Right now, there are no comparable objects for Collins and Sands to examine next. The pairs hopes that more will be uncovered in future excavations or perhaps dusty museum collections.
“This also highlights the importance of reconsidering past conclusions and interpretations,” said Collins. “We are always learning new things, and we often have new methods and breakthroughs that can be applied to past discoveries. In that regard, I think we can say this phallus — at least for us — has been a good luck charm, helping us to learn new things about the Romans, and perhaps also, ourselves.”
The object is now on display at the Vindolanda Museum in Hexham, England.
7UP doubles down on zingy palette in new design identity
7UP has unveiled a new visual identity, packaging, and positioning in its first major design overhaul in seven years. The redesign is the product of 7UP’s new ‘UPliftment’ brand strategy, which promises to “offer light relief from the mundanities of daily life”, according to parent company PepsiCo. The 7UP green has been carried through to the new identity, with “added zesty citrus tones”.
Source
7UP doubles down on zingy palette in new design identity
7UP has unveiled a new visual identity, packaging, and positioning in its first major design overhaul in seven years. The redesign is the product of 7UP’s new ‘UPliftment’ brand strategy, which promises to “offer light relief from the mundanities of daily life”, according to parent company PepsiCo. The 7UP green has been carried through to the new identity, with “added zesty citrus tones”.
Source
The Countries Paying Youths to Simply Enjoy Art
Earlier this month, Berlin officials announced that young adults between the ages of 18 and 23 can register for the Jugendkulturkarte (Youth Culture Card) program and receive a €50 (~$54) subsidy to use specifically for access to the city’s cultural venues such as theaters, museums, and even nightclubs through the end of April. I was both intrigued by and jealous about the prospect of being paid to bust the hottest moves to a house remix of Dua Lipa’s “Levitating,” and I wanted to know what other nations provided cultural allowances to their youth population. As it turns out, several European countries have their own version of a “culture pass” to inspire appreciation across the arts.
Gaining popularity already, Berlin’s Jugendkulturekarte appears to be partly inspired by Germany’s new Kulturpass, which offers €200 (~$214) to any German resident turning 18 this year in an effort to revitalize both live and material culture experiences after pandemic-related isolation and uncertainty from the Russian war in Ukraine. The Kulturpass was introduced last November, and will be available to approximately 750,000 rising 18-year-olds in 2023. Recipients have two years to use their Kulturpass credits to access theaters, concerts, and museums, or to purchase cultural materials such as books and records. The German government has allotted €100 million for this pilot project and is looking to include youths ages 15 to 17 if the Kulturpass is well received.
Germany’s Kulturpass actually took a leaf from Italy’s book. Since 2016, Italy’s Culture Ministry has been issuing a whopping €500 culture bonus to 18-year-olds through an application called 18app. This year’s recipients have until the end of next April to exhaust their credits on live experiences, material and digital goods, and subscription-based services rooted in the nation’s arts and culture sectors. In the first five days of the 2022 recipient window, 18app recorded over 180,000 users spending over €7.5 million, primarily on books and concerts.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by 18app (@18app_official)
The Italian government stated that the main objective of the program was to dissuade youths from turning to extremism in response to the 2015 terrorist attack that killed 130 patrons at the Bataclan concert hall, cafe, and stadium in Paris. “We’re not funding the Culture Bonus because we’re such a good country,” then member of the Italian Parliament Stefano Dambroso told NPR. “It’s simply in our best interest to integrate people.”
France began providing cultural stipends to its youths through an app called Culture Pass in 2021. France has already implemented the two-tiered access: 18-year-olds receive €300 to spend over a 24-month period, while 15- to 17-year-olds receive around €30 to spend before their 18th birthday. Three weeks into the Culture Pass’s debut, purchasing data pointed to Culture Pass users’ fixation on manga in particular.
The New York Times reported that the app had some built-in restrictions as well, such as a limit of €100 for online purchases and subscription services. Culture Pass’s critics and users alike noted that the program didn’t stimulate youths to step outside of the media they’ve already demonstrated an interest in.
After it was announced late 2021, Spain’s Bono Cultural Jóven (Youth Cultural Bonus) launched last summer with a €400 cultural stipend for 18-year-olds. Like France, Spain’s allowance has a few stipulations: €200 are allotted for live arts and culture experiences, €100 for material goods such as books, video games, and periodicals, and the remaining €100 for digital subscriptions, downloads, and online access to content. Spanish teens have exactly one year to exhaust their cultural allowance.
¡No dejes todo para última hora! Aunque el plazo de solicitud aún no está abierto, si naciste en 2005, para pedir el #BonoCulturalJoven este año necesitarás alguno de estos métodos identificativos:Cl@ve: https://t.co/26EN4c3zYo Certificado Digital: https://t.co/NapQxss8E2 pic.twitter.com/EOjFoUzXZa— Bono Cultural Joven (@BonoCultural) February 6, 2023
The Spanish government set aside €210 million from the general state budget to provide these benefits to approximately 500,000 new adults. Recipients can use a virtual card through an app or request a physical card once they apply.
So, it looks like only Berlin’s young adults get the nightclub benefits at this time. Regardless, the European approach of revitalizing the arts and culture sector after COVID-19’s brutal battering is mutually beneficial for the next generation, even if they want to hole up in their beds and read manga instead of visiting the opera.
A photo of the physical card for Spain’s Bono Cultural Jóven (image courtesy Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte España )
The Countries Paying Youths to Simply Enjoy Art
Earlier this month, Berlin officials announced that young adults between the ages of 18 and 23 can register for the Jugendkulturkarte (Youth Culture Card) program and receive a €50 (~$54) subsidy to use specifically for access to the city’s cultural venues such as theaters, museums, and even nightclubs through the end of April. I was both intrigued by and jealous about the prospect of being paid to bust the hottest moves to a house remix of Dua Lipa’s “Levitating,” and I wanted to know what other nations provided cultural allowances to their youth population. As it turns out, several European countries have their own version of a “culture pass” to inspire appreciation across the arts.
Gaining popularity already, Berlin’s Jugendkulturekarte appears to be partly inspired by Germany’s new Kulturpass, which offers €200 (~$214) to any German resident turning 18 this year in an effort to revitalize both live and material culture experiences after pandemic-related isolation and uncertainty from the Russian war in Ukraine. The Kulturpass was introduced last November, and will be available to approximately 750,000 rising 18-year-olds in 2023. Recipients have two years to use their Kulturpass credits to access theaters, concerts, and museums, or to purchase cultural materials such as books and records. The German government has allotted €100 million for this pilot project and is looking to include youths ages 15 to 17 if the Kulturpass is well received.
Germany’s Kulturpass actually took a leaf from Italy’s book. Since 2016, Italy’s Culture Ministry has been issuing a whopping €500 culture bonus to 18-year-olds through an application called 18app. This year’s recipients have until the end of next April to exhaust their credits on live experiences, material and digital goods, and subscription-based services rooted in the nation’s arts and culture sectors. In the first five days of the 2022 recipient window, 18app recorded over 180,000 users spending over €7.5 million, primarily on books and concerts.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by 18app (@18app_official)
The Italian government stated that the main objective of the program was to dissuade youths from turning to extremism in response to the 2015 terrorist attack that killed 130 patrons at the Bataclan concert hall, cafe, and stadium in Paris. “We’re not funding the Culture Bonus because we’re such a good country,” then member of the Italian Parliament Stefano Dambroso told NPR. “It’s simply in our best interest to integrate people.”
France began providing cultural stipends to its youths through an app called Culture Pass in 2021. France has already implemented the two-tiered access: 18-year-olds receive €300 to spend over a 24-month period, while 15- to 17-year-olds receive around €30 to spend before their 18th birthday. Three weeks into the Culture Pass’s debut, purchasing data pointed to Culture Pass users’ fixation on manga in particular.
The New York Times reported that the app had some built-in restrictions as well, such as a limit of €100 for online purchases and subscription services. Culture Pass’s critics and users alike noted that the program didn’t stimulate youths to step outside of the media they’ve already demonstrated an interest in.
After it was announced late 2021, Spain’s Bono Cultural Jóven (Youth Cultural Bonus) launched last summer with a €400 cultural stipend for 18-year-olds. Like France, Spain’s allowance has a few stipulations: €200 are allotted for live arts and culture experiences, €100 for material goods such as books, video games, and periodicals, and the remaining €100 for digital subscriptions, downloads, and online access to content. Spanish teens have exactly one year to exhaust their cultural allowance.
¡No dejes todo para última hora! Aunque el plazo de solicitud aún no está abierto, si naciste en 2005, para pedir el #BonoCulturalJoven este año necesitarás alguno de estos métodos identificativos:Cl@ve: https://t.co/26EN4c3zYo Certificado Digital: https://t.co/NapQxss8E2 pic.twitter.com/EOjFoUzXZa— Bono Cultural Joven (@BonoCultural) February 6, 2023
The Spanish government set aside €210 million from the general state budget to provide these benefits to approximately 500,000 new adults. Recipients can use a virtual card through an app or request a physical card once they apply.
So, it looks like only Berlin’s young adults get the nightclub benefits at this time. Regardless, the European approach of revitalizing the arts and culture sector after COVID-19’s brutal battering is mutually beneficial for the next generation, even if they want to hole up in their beds and read manga instead of visiting the opera.
A photo of the physical card for Spain’s Bono Cultural Jóven (image courtesy Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte España )
What Does It Mean to Be a Latina/x Artist?
SALT LAKE CITY — In a small but impactful exhibition at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA), independent curator María del Mar González-González brings together the work of four stylistically divergent Latina/x artists.
Beyond the Margins: An Exploration of Latina Art and Identity succeeds in two critical respects. First, it demonstrates the simple fact that not all Latine artists make work exclusively about their own ethnic experience. Second, identity-based art may seek not simply to destroy the Western canon but instead to exploit contemporary art’s lexicological familiarity with Western art history to disrupt, complicate, or expand audience associations with this canon.
The term “Latina/x” denotes “both a femme and gender-neutral term for a person of Latin American origin or descent who now lives in the US,” according to a museum didactic label. The exhibition features work by Nancy Rivera (Mexican-American), Tamara Kostianovsky (Argentinian-American), Frances Gallardo (Puerto Rican), and Yelaine Rodriguez (Afro-Dominican).
Rivera is a celebrated artist and arts administrator based in Salt Lake City. Her 2018 series Impossible Bouquets: After Jan van Huysum features striking inkjet photographs of lush floral arrangements, inspired by 17th- and 18th-century Dutch still life tradition. With flowers set atop boldly colorful backgrounds, these works relish in academic and formal properties of artmaking.
Hanging from the ceiling beside Rivera’s photographs is Kostianovsky’s “Every Color in the Rainbow” (2021), a sculpture of a turkey carcass that harkens from the same visual Dutch tradition of still lifes and market scenes as Rivera’s. The work, made from discarded fabric, exudes a haunting quality, linking the corporeal mechanized destruction of factory farming with the wasteful mass consumption of clothing often overflowing in landfills.
Installation view of Beyond the Margins: An Exploration of Latina Art and Identity at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (January 20–March 4, 2023) (© UMOCA; photo by Zachary Norman)
Gallardo’s “Carmela” (2012/2022), from a larger series, is an utterly spellbinding paper collage that’s as fascinating visually as it is conceptually. With intersected patterns based on meteorological data such as rainfall and wind speeds, Gallardo combines layers of paper cut to a painstakingly detailed and mesmerizing effect.
Rodrigez’s striking multimedia fabric portraits “Saso” (2021) and “Yaissa” (2022) feature Afro-Dominican artists whose work highlights the debt owed to the African voices in Dominican culture, and who, despite the monumental cultural influence of African diaspora, have been long neglected from historical narratives.
Such narratives are noteworthy in their own respect, but especially given Utah’s overwhelmingly White population (92% according to the 2022 U.S. Census Bureau). Importantly, Utah’s Latino community is included in the state’s second largest ethnic demographic at 12.7% and this demographic is projected to constitute the greatest numerical increase by 2065, according to research from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
Some may argue hosting such an exhibition within a contemporary art museum in Utah’s most liberal city is preaching to the proverbial choir. Yet, there is something powerful about visualizing each artist’s creations mere steps from the gallery’s entrance, as if to solemnize that these figures and the communities they descend from are here to stay, equipped to situate themselves within an art historical trajectory that transcends contemporary art’s focus on identity as art and on a more inclusive view of what we know as American history.
Frances Gallardo, “Carmela” (2022), from Hurricane Series (2012-2022), hand-cut four-layer paper collage, 24 inches x 36 inches (photo by Andrew Gillis, courtesy UMOCA)
Tamara Kostianovsky, “Every Color in the Rainbow” (2021), discarded textiles, chain, and motor, 57 inches x 38 inches x 41 inches (© UMOCA; photo by Zachary Norman)
Beyond the Margins: An Exploration of Latina Art and Identity continues at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (20 South West Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah) through March 4. The exhibition was curated by María del Mar González-González.
What Does It Mean to Be a Latina/x Artist?
SALT LAKE CITY — In a small but impactful exhibition at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA), independent curator María del Mar González-González brings together the work of four stylistically divergent Latina/x artists.
Beyond the Margins: An Exploration of Latina Art and Identity succeeds in two critical respects. First, it demonstrates the simple fact that not all Latine artists make work exclusively about their own ethnic experience. Second, identity-based art may seek not simply to destroy the Western canon but instead to exploit contemporary art’s lexicological familiarity with Western art history to disrupt, complicate, or expand audience associations with this canon.
The term “Latina/x” denotes “both a femme and gender-neutral term for a person of Latin American origin or descent who now lives in the US,” according to a museum didactic label. The exhibition features work by Nancy Rivera (Mexican-American), Tamara Kostianovsky (Argentinian-American), Frances Gallardo (Puerto Rican), and Yelaine Rodriguez (Afro-Dominican).
Rivera is a celebrated artist and arts administrator based in Salt Lake City. Her 2018 series Impossible Bouquets: After Jan van Huysum features striking inkjet photographs of lush floral arrangements, inspired by 17th- and 18th-century Dutch still life tradition. With flowers set atop boldly colorful backgrounds, these works relish in academic and formal properties of artmaking.
Hanging from the ceiling beside Rivera’s photographs is Kostianovsky’s “Every Color in the Rainbow” (2021), a sculpture of a turkey carcass that harkens from the same visual Dutch tradition of still lifes and market scenes as Rivera’s. The work, made from discarded fabric, exudes a haunting quality, linking the corporeal mechanized destruction of factory farming with the wasteful mass consumption of clothing often overflowing in landfills.
Installation view of Beyond the Margins: An Exploration of Latina Art and Identity at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (January 20–March 4, 2023) (© UMOCA; photo by Zachary Norman)
Gallardo’s “Carmela” (2012/2022), from a larger series, is an utterly spellbinding paper collage that’s as fascinating visually as it is conceptually. With intersected patterns based on meteorological data such as rainfall and wind speeds, Gallardo combines layers of paper cut to a painstakingly detailed and mesmerizing effect.
Rodrigez’s striking multimedia fabric portraits “Saso” (2021) and “Yaissa” (2022) feature Afro-Dominican artists whose work highlights the debt owed to the African voices in Dominican culture, and who, despite the monumental cultural influence of African diaspora, have been long neglected from historical narratives.
Such narratives are noteworthy in their own respect, but especially given Utah’s overwhelmingly White population (92% according to the 2022 U.S. Census Bureau). Importantly, Utah’s Latino community is included in the state’s second largest ethnic demographic at 12.7% and this demographic is projected to constitute the greatest numerical increase by 2065, according to research from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
Some may argue hosting such an exhibition within a contemporary art museum in Utah’s most liberal city is preaching to the proverbial choir. Yet, there is something powerful about visualizing each artist’s creations mere steps from the gallery’s entrance, as if to solemnize that these figures and the communities they descend from are here to stay, equipped to situate themselves within an art historical trajectory that transcends contemporary art’s focus on identity as art and on a more inclusive view of what we know as American history.
Frances Gallardo, “Carmela” (2022), from Hurricane Series (2012-2022), hand-cut four-layer paper collage, 24 inches x 36 inches (photo by Andrew Gillis, courtesy UMOCA)
Tamara Kostianovsky, “Every Color in the Rainbow” (2021), discarded textiles, chain, and motor, 57 inches x 38 inches x 41 inches (© UMOCA; photo by Zachary Norman)
Beyond the Margins: An Exploration of Latina Art and Identity continues at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (20 South West Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah) through March 4. The exhibition was curated by María del Mar González-González.
Truth-Telling Confronts the Colonial Gaze
On November 24, 2022, Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier published a heartfelt letter commemorating the National Day of Mourning. Incarcerated since 1977, the former American Indian Movement organizer called out the contradictions in the United States government’s occupation of Native land, which has systematically hindered any form of tribal sovereignty.
“All the world now faces the same challenges that our people foretold regarding climate damage being caused by people who take more than they need, dismissing the teachings of our fathers, and the knowledge of countless generations living upon the earth in harmony,” Peltier wrote, invoking generations of tribes and First Nations preserving history on their own terms, otherwise known as “truth-telling.”
Indigenous artists have long spoken their truth symbolically, portraying centuries of resilience in art forms appropriated from colonial oppressors. This process is central to Studio Theater in Exile’s online exhibition, Truth-Telling: Voices of First People. Narratives of ancestral pride and bureaucratic prejudice appear in paintings and sculptures from the late 20th century to the present, ranging from overt critique to more subtle rumination.
On the surface, Truth-Telling is a multidisciplinary cross-section of well-known Native artists from across the US and Canada. Minimalist signage and metalworks by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds and Margaret Jacobs are contrasted with more maximalist abstractions by Duane Slick and Benjamin West’s street-style photography. The renowned Kiowa painter T.C. Cannon, who died in 1978 at the age of 31, is honored for his storied lyrical portraits. One painting included here shows a woman waiting at a bus stop in warm shades of pink and blue; the curators note that she was Cannon’s first crush, who rejected him in life but chose to be buried beside him.
In this context, however, Cannon’s lesser-known sketch “Minnesota Sioux” takes center stage. On a plain sheet of white paper, the artist scrawled an empty hangman scene, referring to the 1862 execution of 38 Dakota men that was approved by President Abraham Lincoln. Rather than portray the violence enacted upon the bodies of Native people, Cannon leaves the space empty except for written instructions to “Insert Here.”
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, “Our Red Nations Were Always Green” (2021)
This confrontation with the colonial gaze informs much of Truth-Telling, which alludes to direct attacks on Native communities. Rose B. Simpson’s regal sculptures capture the creative labor of Indigenous women, whose murder rates are 10 times higher than the national average. In “Reclamation III: Rite of Passage,” a hairless woman with a gaping hole in her chest forms the foundations of a rounded clay pot. Simpson’s sculpture “Breathe” likewise show a woman’s head held back with mouth agape, as if silently screaming. Together, the emotionless gaze of both works evokes centuries of bureaucratic neglect.
With these works, Indigenous artists reclaim realities long denied them by US and Canadian federal governments — including moments of collective reverie. Christi Belcourt’s kaleidoscopic paintings bring this latter element to the forefront, grounding images of colorful foliage with deep, visible roots. Pieces such as “So Much Depends on Who Holds the Shovel” feel both ornamental and spiritual as brightly hued birds and flowers radiate ancestral truths against a black background.
The Métis artist employs color symbolically, too, as in her “Offerings and Prayers for Genebek Ziibiing.” Flowing blue and red brushstrokes form an outline around a symmetrical image of two women nurturing a body of water. Evoking the contamination of Ontario’s Elliot Lake due to uranium mining, the twilight scene promotes balance between humanity and nature while hinting at an imminent sunset — visualizing the climate warnings of Belcourt’s frequent collaborator, Isaac Murdoch.
For each artist in Truth-Telling, Indigenous knowledge is anathema to capitalist logic. This is perhaps best captured in Nicholas Galanin Yéil Ya-Tseen’s mixed-media work “Architecture of Returned Escape.” The Tlingit/Unangax artist rendered a blueprint of a museum on an animal hide. Is this subversive schematic a guide to freedom or a plot to win the land back? The ambiguity cleverly provokes more than it resolves, and emphasizes the necessity of a coherent path forward.
Christi Belcourt, “So Much Depends on Who Holds the Shovel” (2008)
Rose B. Simpson, “Breathe” (2020)
Truth-Telling: Voices of First People can be viewed online. The exhibition was curated by Jonette O’Kelley Miller.
Truth-Telling Confronts the Colonial Gaze
On November 24, 2022, Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier published a heartfelt letter commemorating the National Day of Mourning. Incarcerated since 1977, the former American Indian Movement organizer called out the contradictions in the United States government’s occupation of Native land, which has systematically hindered any form of tribal sovereignty.
“All the world now faces the same challenges that our people foretold regarding climate damage being caused by people who take more than they need, dismissing the teachings of our fathers, and the knowledge of countless generations living upon the earth in harmony,” Peltier wrote, invoking generations of tribes and First Nations preserving history on their own terms, otherwise known as “truth-telling.”
Indigenous artists have long spoken their truth symbolically, portraying centuries of resilience in art forms appropriated from colonial oppressors. This process is central to Studio Theater in Exile’s online exhibition, Truth-Telling: Voices of First People. Narratives of ancestral pride and bureaucratic prejudice appear in paintings and sculptures from the late 20th century to the present, ranging from overt critique to more subtle rumination.
On the surface, Truth-Telling is a multidisciplinary cross-section of well-known Native artists from across the US and Canada. Minimalist signage and metalworks by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds and Margaret Jacobs are contrasted with more maximalist abstractions by Duane Slick and Benjamin West’s street-style photography. The renowned Kiowa painter T.C. Cannon, who died in 1978 at the age of 31, is honored for his storied lyrical portraits. One painting included here shows a woman waiting at a bus stop in warm shades of pink and blue; the curators note that she was Cannon’s first crush, who rejected him in life but chose to be buried beside him.
In this context, however, Cannon’s lesser-known sketch “Minnesota Sioux” takes center stage. On a plain sheet of white paper, the artist scrawled an empty hangman scene, referring to the 1862 execution of 38 Dakota men that was approved by President Abraham Lincoln. Rather than portray the violence enacted upon the bodies of Native people, Cannon leaves the space empty except for written instructions to “Insert Here.”
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, “Our Red Nations Were Always Green” (2021)
This confrontation with the colonial gaze informs much of Truth-Telling, which alludes to direct attacks on Native communities. Rose B. Simpson’s regal sculptures capture the creative labor of Indigenous women, whose murder rates are 10 times higher than the national average. In “Reclamation III: Rite of Passage,” a hairless woman with a gaping hole in her chest forms the foundations of a rounded clay pot. Simpson’s sculpture “Breathe” likewise show a woman’s head held back with mouth agape, as if silently screaming. Together, the emotionless gaze of both works evokes centuries of bureaucratic neglect.
With these works, Indigenous artists reclaim realities long denied them by US and Canadian federal governments — including moments of collective reverie. Christi Belcourt’s kaleidoscopic paintings bring this latter element to the forefront, grounding images of colorful foliage with deep, visible roots. Pieces such as “So Much Depends on Who Holds the Shovel” feel both ornamental and spiritual as brightly hued birds and flowers radiate ancestral truths against a black background.
The Métis artist employs color symbolically, too, as in her “Offerings and Prayers for Genebek Ziibiing.” Flowing blue and red brushstrokes form an outline around a symmetrical image of two women nurturing a body of water. Evoking the contamination of Ontario’s Elliot Lake due to uranium mining, the twilight scene promotes balance between humanity and nature while hinting at an imminent sunset — visualizing the climate warnings of Belcourt’s frequent collaborator, Isaac Murdoch.
For each artist in Truth-Telling, Indigenous knowledge is anathema to capitalist logic. This is perhaps best captured in Nicholas Galanin Yéil Ya-Tseen’s mixed-media work “Architecture of Returned Escape.” The Tlingit/Unangax artist rendered a blueprint of a museum on an animal hide. Is this subversive schematic a guide to freedom or a plot to win the land back? The ambiguity cleverly provokes more than it resolves, and emphasizes the necessity of a coherent path forward.
Christi Belcourt, “So Much Depends on Who Holds the Shovel” (2008)
Rose B. Simpson, “Breathe” (2020)
Truth-Telling: Voices of First People can be viewed online. The exhibition was curated by Jonette O’Kelley Miller.
Project Blue Book: The US Air Force’s Investigation of UFOs
Photograph of UFOs in “V” formation in Salem, Massachusetts by Shell R. Alpert, 1952, via Library of Congress, Washington DC
The United States Air Force was responsible for handling Project Blue Book, which investigated thousands of UFO sightings that were reported across the nation. The project took place over the course of two decades and attempted to identify flying saucer-like objects that were becoming increasingly common. Government officials were concerned that these objects were a threat to national security, especially due to heightened tensions from the Cold War. Controversy over UFO sightings and government involvement caused a public stir due to the lack of transparency initially provided by officials throughout the investigation.
The Creation of Project Blue Book
Photograph of a UFO sighting from a report in Riverside, California, 1951, via National Archives, Records of Headquarters US Air Force
Increased sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) in the 1940s led the American government to launch a series of investigations to determine what the mysterious flying objects were. Project Sign was initiated by Air Force General Nathan Twining, the head of the Air Technical Service Command. The purpose of Project Sign, also known as Project Saucer, was to collect and evaluate all information and data relating to UFO sightings. With tensions of the Cold War rising in the late 1940s, there was concern between government officials about whether UFOs were a national security concern.
The date often associated with the beginning of the UFO phenomenon is June 24, 1947. On this day, private pilot Kenneth Arnold observed nine UFOs while in flight. Arnold was flying over Washington State near Mount Rainier looking for a downed US Marine Corps transport plane that crashed in the area. As Arnold searched for the downed aircraft, he spotted UFOs allegedly traveling at approximately 1,700 miles per hour. The term “flying saucer” appeared in news outlets following his report of the sightings. The event caused others to send in reports of sightings they witnessed in the months following. In 1947, there were 122 UFO sightings reported. Only 110 of the objects were identified, leaving 12 others unidentified. An increase in UFO sightings led the Air Force Chief of Staff to order an investigation into the phenomenon on December 30, 1947.
Major Jesse A. Marcel holding debris from the Roswell Incident in New Mexico, 1947, via University of Texas at Arlington Special Collections
Project Sign was taken over by the Technical Intelligence Division of the Air Material Command (AMC), which was located at the Wright Field Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. The results of the projects concluded that UFOs were not a national security threat, and most UFO sightings were easily explainable. Reports drawn up by the Air Force determined that the UFO sightings were caused by mass hysteria, hoaxes, or known objects. Despite the conclusion that there was no threat from these sightings, it was decided that investigations led by the United States Air Force should continue.
Information and evidence collected during Project Sign and Project Grudge were transferred to a new UFO project launched in 1952, known as Project Blue Book. As the Cold War continued, so did UFO sightings. Air Force Director of Intelligence Major General Charles P. Cabell ordered Project Blue Book to investigate the UFO phenomena further. Official government involvement in investigating UFO sightings caused a public stir. It created the belief that UFOs were extraordinary objects, despite efforts to convince the public they were not. Investigation of UFO sightings across the United States and abroad would continue into the late 1960s until Project Blue Book was officially terminated.
Influence of the Cold War on UFO Sightings
Comic strip depicting the multiple UFO sightings reported over Washington DC, 1952, via National Archives Catalog
Geopolitical tensions were high following World War II due to increased competition between the United States and the USSR. Worries over the international spread of communism and the race between world powers to have the strongest military system encompassed the Cold War. These heightened tensions influenced many policies and decisions made by the American government for several decades.
The United States Air Force was able to make sense of many of the UFO sightings that were reported between the 1940s and 1960s. However, hundreds of sightings remained unidentified. Officials in charge of the UFO phenomenon investigation were concerned that these unidentified objects were Soviet weapons. Although not directly involved in early investigations, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) kept track of the Air Force’s efforts on UFOs. A large influx of sightings occurred in 1952, reaching a total of 1,501 reports. This significant increase caused the CIA to get more involved in the investigation by launching a special study group. It was led by the Office of Science Intelligence (OSI) and the Office of Current Intelligence (OCI).
The CIA worked with the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) to monitor UFO sightings and their explanations. Great efforts were made to keep the CIA’s involvement in the UFO phenomenon investigation secret to prevent mass hysteria. This secret would later backfire as the public became highly skeptical that the CIA was also investigating UFOs and covering it up.
Objectives of Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book Status Report No. 8 chart showing the frequency of UFO reports between June and September 1952, via National Archives Catalog
Although early investigations of UFO sightings in Projects Sign and Grudge determined that the objects weren’t a national security threat, it still remained one of the main objectives of Project Blue Book. Each UFO sighting reported was investigated using various identification methods and data to rule out what the object was. However, some of the sightings lacked sufficient information and data for the Air Force to determine what the object was. Another main objective of Project Blue Book was to determine if the UFOs reported provided any scientific information or signs of advanced technology that could be useful for research.
Investigation of each UFO sighting was split up into three phases. The first phase was a preliminary investigation after receiving a report of a UFO sighting. Information was to be collected by the Air Force base nearest to the sighting that was reported. The information was relayed to the main headquarters of the Project Blue Book Office located at Wright Field, now known as the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The first phase was designed to determine if the UFO was easily explainable. If the initial investigation proved unsuccessful, it moved on to the second phase. UFO sightings were more closely analyzed by the Project Blue Book Office during the second phase. Analysis of the reported UFO was done so objectively and scientifically and sometimes warranted the use of scientific facilities at the Air Force base. The Secretary of the Air Force and Office of Information stepped in if the object couldn’t be identified during the second phase. UFO sightings were organized into three different categories following an investigation. Identified objects were those that were able to be explained as a result of sufficient information.
UFO sighting incident report, 1956, via National Archives Catalog
Objects were placed in the category of “insufficient data” if a certain element of the investigation was missing to positively identify the object. Examples of missing data or information included the direction in which the sighting occurred, where the sighting occurred, and at what time, or how it appeared or disappeared in the sky. If a UFO was placed in “insufficient data,” another investigation was conducted to rule out whether or not it was a threat to national security. There were 12,618 total UFO sightings reported from 1947 until Project Blue Book was terminated in 1969. Out of these reports, 701 of the UFOs remained unidentified. Objects placed in the “unidentified” category had all the elements needed to make a positive identification of the object, but they didn’t correspond with any known objects based on the object’s description.
Most of the UFO reports were explainable objects. Some objects often reported as UFOs included astronomical bodies, balloons, aircraft navigation, beacons, and meteorological phenomena. The sources of UFO sightings reported came from a wide variety of individuals. Some reports came from pilots, amateur astronomers, and weather observers. Astronomical bodies were the most common cause of UFOs. Throughout the investigation, Air Force officials were to keep an open mind about what the unidentified objects could possibly be. This included considering the possibility of extraterrestrial life. However, information collected on each sighting didn’t provide any evidence that pointed to possible extraterrestrial life or vehicles.
Conclusions of Project Blue Book
UFO identified by Apollo 16 as the EVA Floodlight/Boom, 1972, via NASA
Project Blue Book caused the public to lack trust in the American government due to the CIA’s attempt to keep their involvement in Project Blue Book a secret. Project Blue Book files were also classified for decades before being released to the public. In October 1966, the Air Force contracted the University of Colorado to conduct a study on UFOs. The study was handled by the Condon Committee and took place over the course of 18 months. The University of Colorado was rewarded with $325,000 to conduct it.
The head of the program was the former Director of the National Bureau of Standards and physicist Dr. Edward U. Condon. The study determined that “little, if anything, had come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years.” The Condon Committee also determined that the most unlikely explanation for UFOs was extraterrestrial beings visiting Earth. The committee’s report also advised that further investigation of UFOs was unnecessary. As a result, Project Blue Book was officially announced as terminated by Secretary of the Air Force Robert C. Seamans, Jr. on December 17, 1969.
Cover of Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 by the Air Technical Intelligence Center, 1955, via United States House of Representative History, Art, & Archives
The Air Force and all other parties involved in Project Blue Book came to three main conclusions as the project was terminated. The first conclusion was that none of the UFOs reported and investigated indicated they were a national security threat. It was also determined that none of the UFOs were technologically advanced or highly developed beyond current scientific understanding. The final conclusion was that, despite lacking explanation, evidence of UFOs categorized as “unidentified” didn’t provide any evidence that indicated they were extraterrestrial.
The collection of Project Blue Book files was handed over to the National Archives in 1975. Following a series of redactions to protect personally identifiable information, the files were made available for public research in 1976. Despite the conclusions of Project Blue Book, questions surrounding the UFO phenomenon still emerge. Documentation released on Project Blue Book left many UFOlogists dissatisfied with the contents of the investigation. The conclusion of the Condon Committee was also questioned by UFOlogists, which were fueled by beliefs that the CIA was much more involved in the investigation than presented. Despite the extensive investigation of the UFO phenomenon, skepticism still remained among the science community that UFO sightings may have been extraordinary and pointed to signs of extraterrestrial life.
Project Blue Book: The US Air Force’s Investigation of UFOs
Photograph of UFOs in “V” formation in Salem, Massachusetts by Shell R. Alpert, 1952, via Library of Congress, Washington DC
The United States Air Force was responsible for handling Project Blue Book, which investigated thousands of UFO sightings that were reported across the nation. The project took place over the course of two decades and attempted to identify flying saucer-like objects that were becoming increasingly common. Government officials were concerned that these objects were a threat to national security, especially due to heightened tensions from the Cold War. Controversy over UFO sightings and government involvement caused a public stir due to the lack of transparency initially provided by officials throughout the investigation.
The Creation of Project Blue Book
Photograph of a UFO sighting from a report in Riverside, California, 1951, via National Archives, Records of Headquarters US Air Force
Increased sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) in the 1940s led the American government to launch a series of investigations to determine what the mysterious flying objects were. Project Sign was initiated by Air Force General Nathan Twining, the head of the Air Technical Service Command. The purpose of Project Sign, also known as Project Saucer, was to collect and evaluate all information and data relating to UFO sightings. With tensions of the Cold War rising in the late 1940s, there was concern between government officials about whether UFOs were a national security concern.
The date often associated with the beginning of the UFO phenomenon is June 24, 1947. On this day, private pilot Kenneth Arnold observed nine UFOs while in flight. Arnold was flying over Washington State near Mount Rainier looking for a downed US Marine Corps transport plane that crashed in the area. As Arnold searched for the downed aircraft, he spotted UFOs allegedly traveling at approximately 1,700 miles per hour. The term “flying saucer” appeared in news outlets following his report of the sightings. The event caused others to send in reports of sightings they witnessed in the months following. In 1947, there were 122 UFO sightings reported. Only 110 of the objects were identified, leaving 12 others unidentified. An increase in UFO sightings led the Air Force Chief of Staff to order an investigation into the phenomenon on December 30, 1947.
Major Jesse A. Marcel holding debris from the Roswell Incident in New Mexico, 1947, via University of Texas at Arlington Special Collections
Project Sign was taken over by the Technical Intelligence Division of the Air Material Command (AMC), which was located at the Wright Field Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. The results of the projects concluded that UFOs were not a national security threat, and most UFO sightings were easily explainable. Reports drawn up by the Air Force determined that the UFO sightings were caused by mass hysteria, hoaxes, or known objects. Despite the conclusion that there was no threat from these sightings, it was decided that investigations led by the United States Air Force should continue.
Information and evidence collected during Project Sign and Project Grudge were transferred to a new UFO project launched in 1952, known as Project Blue Book. As the Cold War continued, so did UFO sightings. Air Force Director of Intelligence Major General Charles P. Cabell ordered Project Blue Book to investigate the UFO phenomena further. Official government involvement in investigating UFO sightings caused a public stir. It created the belief that UFOs were extraordinary objects, despite efforts to convince the public they were not. Investigation of UFO sightings across the United States and abroad would continue into the late 1960s until Project Blue Book was officially terminated.
Influence of the Cold War on UFO Sightings
Comic strip depicting the multiple UFO sightings reported over Washington DC, 1952, via National Archives Catalog
Geopolitical tensions were high following World War II due to increased competition between the United States and the USSR. Worries over the international spread of communism and the race between world powers to have the strongest military system encompassed the Cold War. These heightened tensions influenced many policies and decisions made by the American government for several decades.
The United States Air Force was able to make sense of many of the UFO sightings that were reported between the 1940s and 1960s. However, hundreds of sightings remained unidentified. Officials in charge of the UFO phenomenon investigation were concerned that these unidentified objects were Soviet weapons. Although not directly involved in early investigations, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) kept track of the Air Force’s efforts on UFOs. A large influx of sightings occurred in 1952, reaching a total of 1,501 reports. This significant increase caused the CIA to get more involved in the investigation by launching a special study group. It was led by the Office of Science Intelligence (OSI) and the Office of Current Intelligence (OCI).
The CIA worked with the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) to monitor UFO sightings and their explanations. Great efforts were made to keep the CIA’s involvement in the UFO phenomenon investigation secret to prevent mass hysteria. This secret would later backfire as the public became highly skeptical that the CIA was also investigating UFOs and covering it up.
Objectives of Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book Status Report No. 8 chart showing the frequency of UFO reports between June and September 1952, via National Archives Catalog
Although early investigations of UFO sightings in Projects Sign and Grudge determined that the objects weren’t a national security threat, it still remained one of the main objectives of Project Blue Book. Each UFO sighting reported was investigated using various identification methods and data to rule out what the object was. However, some of the sightings lacked sufficient information and data for the Air Force to determine what the object was. Another main objective of Project Blue Book was to determine if the UFOs reported provided any scientific information or signs of advanced technology that could be useful for research.
Investigation of each UFO sighting was split up into three phases. The first phase was a preliminary investigation after receiving a report of a UFO sighting. Information was to be collected by the Air Force base nearest to the sighting that was reported. The information was relayed to the main headquarters of the Project Blue Book Office located at Wright Field, now known as the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The first phase was designed to determine if the UFO was easily explainable. If the initial investigation proved unsuccessful, it moved on to the second phase. UFO sightings were more closely analyzed by the Project Blue Book Office during the second phase. Analysis of the reported UFO was done so objectively and scientifically and sometimes warranted the use of scientific facilities at the Air Force base. The Secretary of the Air Force and Office of Information stepped in if the object couldn’t be identified during the second phase. UFO sightings were organized into three different categories following an investigation. Identified objects were those that were able to be explained as a result of sufficient information.
UFO sighting incident report, 1956, via National Archives Catalog
Objects were placed in the category of “insufficient data” if a certain element of the investigation was missing to positively identify the object. Examples of missing data or information included the direction in which the sighting occurred, where the sighting occurred, and at what time, or how it appeared or disappeared in the sky. If a UFO was placed in “insufficient data,” another investigation was conducted to rule out whether or not it was a threat to national security. There were 12,618 total UFO sightings reported from 1947 until Project Blue Book was terminated in 1969. Out of these reports, 701 of the UFOs remained unidentified. Objects placed in the “unidentified” category had all the elements needed to make a positive identification of the object, but they didn’t correspond with any known objects based on the object’s description.
Most of the UFO reports were explainable objects. Some objects often reported as UFOs included astronomical bodies, balloons, aircraft navigation, beacons, and meteorological phenomena. The sources of UFO sightings reported came from a wide variety of individuals. Some reports came from pilots, amateur astronomers, and weather observers. Astronomical bodies were the most common cause of UFOs. Throughout the investigation, Air Force officials were to keep an open mind about what the unidentified objects could possibly be. This included considering the possibility of extraterrestrial life. However, information collected on each sighting didn’t provide any evidence that pointed to possible extraterrestrial life or vehicles.
Conclusions of Project Blue Book
UFO identified by Apollo 16 as the EVA Floodlight/Boom, 1972, via NASA
Project Blue Book caused the public to lack trust in the American government due to the CIA’s attempt to keep their involvement in Project Blue Book a secret. Project Blue Book files were also classified for decades before being released to the public. In October 1966, the Air Force contracted the University of Colorado to conduct a study on UFOs. The study was handled by the Condon Committee and took place over the course of 18 months. The University of Colorado was rewarded with $325,000 to conduct it.
The head of the program was the former Director of the National Bureau of Standards and physicist Dr. Edward U. Condon. The study determined that “little, if anything, had come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years.” The Condon Committee also determined that the most unlikely explanation for UFOs was extraterrestrial beings visiting Earth. The committee’s report also advised that further investigation of UFOs was unnecessary. As a result, Project Blue Book was officially announced as terminated by Secretary of the Air Force Robert C. Seamans, Jr. on December 17, 1969.
Cover of Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 by the Air Technical Intelligence Center, 1955, via United States House of Representative History, Art, & Archives
The Air Force and all other parties involved in Project Blue Book came to three main conclusions as the project was terminated. The first conclusion was that none of the UFOs reported and investigated indicated they were a national security threat. It was also determined that none of the UFOs were technologically advanced or highly developed beyond current scientific understanding. The final conclusion was that, despite lacking explanation, evidence of UFOs categorized as “unidentified” didn’t provide any evidence that indicated they were extraterrestrial.
The collection of Project Blue Book files was handed over to the National Archives in 1975. Following a series of redactions to protect personally identifiable information, the files were made available for public research in 1976. Despite the conclusions of Project Blue Book, questions surrounding the UFO phenomenon still emerge. Documentation released on Project Blue Book left many UFOlogists dissatisfied with the contents of the investigation. The conclusion of the Condon Committee was also questioned by UFOlogists, which were fueled by beliefs that the CIA was much more involved in the investigation than presented. Despite the extensive investigation of the UFO phenomenon, skepticism still remained among the science community that UFO sightings may have been extraordinary and pointed to signs of extraterrestrial life.
One in eight Americans over 50 show signs of food addiction
Whether you call them comfort foods, highly processed foods, junk foods, empty calories or just some of Americans' favorite foods and drinks, about 13% of people aged 50 to 80 have an unhealthy relationship with them, according to a new poll.
![One in eight Americans over 50 show signs of food addiction]()
One in eight Americans over 50 show signs of food addiction
Whether you call them comfort foods, highly processed foods, junk foods, empty calories or just some of Americans' favorite foods and drinks, about 13% of people aged 50 to 80 have an unhealthy relationship with them, according to a new poll.
![One in eight Americans over 50 show signs of food addiction]()
&Walsh rebrands Lex, a social app for the LGBTQ+ community
Lex (short for Lexicon) is the text-centred social app that aims to connect queer lovers and friends. Originally an Instagram account called Personals created by Kell Rakowski in 2017, it mimicked old school newspaper personal ads where people detailed their desires and romantic requirements. Around 10,000 personals later, Rakowski launched Lex in 2019 as a “low-fi, text-centred dating app where...
Source
&Walsh rebrands Lex, a social app for the LGBTQ+ community
Lex (short for Lexicon) is the text-centred social app that aims to connect queer lovers and friends. Originally an Instagram account called Personals created by Kell Rakowski in 2017, it mimicked old school newspaper personal ads where people detailed their desires and romantic requirements. Around 10,000 personals later, Rakowski launched Lex in 2019 as a “low-fi, text-centred dating app where...
Source
The Doomsday Clock Is Closer to Catastrophe Than Ever
The Doomsday Clock, a symbolic tracker that represents the likelihood of human-made destruction, was updated Tuesday to 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it’s ever been. It was the first time the clock had been updated since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The Doomsday Clock was first published in 1947 by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a group formed to discuss the threat of nuclear war. The clock has since been updated 24 times. The closer the clocks’ hands move toward midnight, the closer humanity supposedly moves toward self-inflicted destruction. As well as assessing risks from nuclear war, the scientists incorporate dangers from climate change, bioweapons and more. “We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality,” Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said Tuesday. Read More: Ukraine’s Winter Offensive Could Decide the War “90 seconds to midnight is the closest the Clock has ever been set to midnight, and it’s a decision our experts do not take lightly. The US government, its NATO allies and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue; we urge leaders to explore all of them to their fullest ability to turn back the Clock,” Bronson added. History of the Doomsday Clock Scientists at the Bulletin evaluate the Doomsday Clock every January. The clock began at seven minutes to midnight in 1947 and wasn’t moved until 1949 to three minutes when the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. In 1991, the clock had its furthest time from catastrophe when it was set to 17 minutes to midnight as the Cold War cooled down. The clock’s hands most recently inched close to disaster in 2020, at 100 seconds to midnight, due to geopolitical tensions and climate crises. Ban-Ki Moon, former U.N. Secretary General, helped unveil it then and added: “Leaders did not heed the Doomsday Clock’s warnings in 2020. We all continue to pay the price.” The clock had stayed at 100 seconds in 2021 and 2022. Decisions to move the clock’s hands rest with the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board who consult with experts across the organization’s scopes of science, technology and risk assessment, including Nobel laureates, scholars and policy analysts. Ninety seconds to midnight The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists explained in an announcement Tuesday that the decision to move the clock’s hands stems largely from the Russian invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago and the increased risk of nuclear escalation. The group was also influenced by the climate crisis and “the breakdown of global norms and institutions” needed to combat the risks of advanced technology and biological threats like COVID-19. The explanation took into account the risk of nuclear escalation between the U.S. and Russia and noted how China, North Korea, Iran and India have all also expanded their nuclear capabilities in recent years. The climate crisis was also a key concern because of the rise in carbon emissions and extreme weather events. The Bulletin is also concerned about ”cyber-enabled disinformation” and its threat to democracy, as well as infectious diseases and biosecurity. “The Doomsday Clock is sounding an alarm for the whole of humanity. We are on the brink of a precipice. But our leaders are not acting at sufficient speed or scale to secure a peaceful and liveable planet,” said Mary Robinson, chair of The Elders, an NGO, and former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. “The science is clear, but the political will is lacking. This must change in 2023 if we are to avert catastrophe. We are facing multiple, existential crises. Leaders need a crisis mindset.” Contact us at [email protected].
The Doomsday Clock Is Closer to Catastrophe Than Ever
The Doomsday Clock, a symbolic tracker that represents the likelihood of human-made destruction, was updated Tuesday to 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it’s ever been. It was the first time the clock had been updated since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The Doomsday Clock was first published in 1947 by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a group formed to discuss the threat of nuclear war. The clock has since been updated 24 times. The closer the clocks’ hands move toward midnight, the closer humanity supposedly moves toward self-inflicted destruction. As well as assessing risks from nuclear war, the scientists incorporate dangers from climate change, bioweapons and more. “We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality,” Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said Tuesday. Read More: Ukraine’s Winter Offensive Could Decide the War “90 seconds to midnight is the closest the Clock has ever been set to midnight, and it’s a decision our experts do not take lightly. The US government, its NATO allies and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue; we urge leaders to explore all of them to their fullest ability to turn back the Clock,” Bronson added. History of the Doomsday Clock Scientists at the Bulletin evaluate the Doomsday Clock every January. The clock began at seven minutes to midnight in 1947 and wasn’t moved until 1949 to three minutes when the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. In 1991, the clock had its furthest time from catastrophe when it was set to 17 minutes to midnight as the Cold War cooled down. The clock’s hands most recently inched close to disaster in 2020, at 100 seconds to midnight, due to geopolitical tensions and climate crises. Ban-Ki Moon, former U.N. Secretary General, helped unveil it then and added: “Leaders did not heed the Doomsday Clock’s warnings in 2020. We all continue to pay the price.” The clock had stayed at 100 seconds in 2021 and 2022. Decisions to move the clock’s hands rest with the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board who consult with experts across the organization’s scopes of science, technology and risk assessment, including Nobel laureates, scholars and policy analysts. Ninety seconds to midnight The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists explained in an announcement Tuesday that the decision to move the clock’s hands stems largely from the Russian invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago and the increased risk of nuclear escalation. The group was also influenced by the climate crisis and “the breakdown of global norms and institutions” needed to combat the risks of advanced technology and biological threats like COVID-19. The explanation took into account the risk of nuclear escalation between the U.S. and Russia and noted how China, North Korea, Iran and India have all also expanded their nuclear capabilities in recent years. The climate crisis was also a key concern because of the rise in carbon emissions and extreme weather events. The Bulletin is also concerned about ”cyber-enabled disinformation” and its threat to democracy, as well as infectious diseases and biosecurity. “The Doomsday Clock is sounding an alarm for the whole of humanity. We are on the brink of a precipice. But our leaders are not acting at sufficient speed or scale to secure a peaceful and liveable planet,” said Mary Robinson, chair of The Elders, an NGO, and former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. “The science is clear, but the political will is lacking. This must change in 2023 if we are to avert catastrophe. We are facing multiple, existential crises. Leaders need a crisis mindset.” Contact us at [email protected].
What Was the Harlem Renaissance?
The Harlem Renaissance was a great flowering of art, poetry, fiction and music that emerged out of the Harlem neighborhood of New York City during the ‘roaring twenties.’ During the Great Migration from 1910 to 1920, hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved from Southern to Northern America in search of work. A dense community of Black African Americans congregated in Harlem, where housing was in plentiful supply. This close-knit community of Black families became a strong and exciting cultural mecca for African Americas who finally discovered a new creative freedom like never before. From civil rights activist writers to jazz musicians, many of the 20th century’s most important voices emerged out of the Harlem Renaissance. We look through some of the ground-breaking historical movement’s key characteristics.
Poetry and Fiction Flourished
Poetry was one of the earliest art forms to emerge during the Harlem Renaissance, and it was thanks to the pioneering leaders of the Black Pride movement, including African American activist W.E.B. Du Bois that several emergent poets were able to publish their work. Celebrated poetry volumes include Claude McKay’s collection Harlem Shadows, published in 1922, and Jean Toomer’s Cane, published in 1923. Meanwhile, fiction became an important means for African Americans to bring their voices into the public arena, and have their experiences heard. Jessie Redmon Fauset’s 1924 novel There Is Confusion explored how Black African Americans can find a new cultural identity in a white-dominated city. Other writers created stirring socio-political observations, such as James Weldon Johnson, whose Black Manhattan: Account of the Development of Harlem, 1930, traces the explosion of creativity among the Black community of Harlem.
Music Was a Vital Strand of the Harlem Renaissance
Jazz musician and orchestra conductor Duke Ellington playing piano with other jazz musicians, via Columbia Alumni Association
Music was undoubtedly a key characteristic of the Harlem Renaissance. The music style that emerged out of Harlem was jazz and blues, performed by outstanding musicians in Harlem’s underground nightclubs and speakeasies. Harlem residents came out in droves to enjoy the lively music scene, as did white audiences from further afield. Many of the musicians who emerged during this time are still household names today, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith and Alberta Hunter. These musicians went on to shape the next generation of American singers including Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Janis Joplin.
Nightclubs
Dancers in The Savoy Ballroom during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance.
The Savoy Ballroom opened in Harlem in 1927, and it quickly became a legendary dance hall where world-leading musicians and dancers would perform. Tap dancers including John Bubbles and Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson frequented The Savoy, and many jazz and blues instrumentalists gave daring, experimental performances long into the night.
The Cotton Club during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance in New York City.
Another popular nightclub of the Harlem Renaissance was The Cotton Club, where Ellington and Calloway were regular performers, and bootleg liquor was readily available. By the mid-1920s musical performances were a defining feature of the Harlem cultural scene. Some performers expanded into white world and made their name in Broadway, such as Josephine Baker.
Many Artists Found their Voices During the Harlem Renaissance
Aaron Douglas, Aspects of Negro Life from Slavery to the Reconstruction, 1934, via The Charnel House
While the field of visual arts was slower than other art forms to accept Black artists – museums, galleries and art schools were less welcoming – many leading artists nonetheless found exposure during this time. Leading artists include Aaron Douglas, known today as “the father of Black American art”, who brought traditional African techniques into his large scale paintings and murals, and the legendary sculptor Augusta Savage, who made deeply intimate sculpted portraits of the African Americans who had influenced and shaped her life.
Members of the Harlem Renaissance Became Civil Rights Activists
Alain Locke, a prominent activist during the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights movement
Civil rights were fundamental to the Harlem Renaissance, at a time when African Americans were finally beginning to shake off the shackles of their past. Many of the leading intellectual voices of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s went on to become leading figures during the Civil Rights movement of the 1940s, including W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain Locke.
What Was the Harlem Renaissance?
The Harlem Renaissance was a great flowering of art, poetry, fiction and music that emerged out of the Harlem neighborhood of New York City during the ‘roaring twenties.’ During the Great Migration from 1910 to 1920, hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved from Southern to Northern America in search of work. A dense community of Black African Americans congregated in Harlem, where housing was in plentiful supply. This close-knit community of Black families became a strong and exciting cultural mecca for African Americas who finally discovered a new creative freedom like never before. From civil rights activist writers to jazz musicians, many of the 20th century’s most important voices emerged out of the Harlem Renaissance. We look through some of the ground-breaking historical movement’s key characteristics.
Poetry and Fiction Flourished
Poetry was one of the earliest art forms to emerge during the Harlem Renaissance, and it was thanks to the pioneering leaders of the Black Pride movement, including African American activist W.E.B. Du Bois that several emergent poets were able to publish their work. Celebrated poetry volumes include Claude McKay’s collection Harlem Shadows, published in 1922, and Jean Toomer’s Cane, published in 1923. Meanwhile, fiction became an important means for African Americans to bring their voices into the public arena, and have their experiences heard. Jessie Redmon Fauset’s 1924 novel There Is Confusion explored how Black African Americans can find a new cultural identity in a white-dominated city. Other writers created stirring socio-political observations, such as James Weldon Johnson, whose Black Manhattan: Account of the Development of Harlem, 1930, traces the explosion of creativity among the Black community of Harlem.
Music Was a Vital Strand of the Harlem Renaissance
Jazz musician and orchestra conductor Duke Ellington playing piano with other jazz musicians, via Columbia Alumni Association
Music was undoubtedly a key characteristic of the Harlem Renaissance. The music style that emerged out of Harlem was jazz and blues, performed by outstanding musicians in Harlem’s underground nightclubs and speakeasies. Harlem residents came out in droves to enjoy the lively music scene, as did white audiences from further afield. Many of the musicians who emerged during this time are still household names today, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith and Alberta Hunter. These musicians went on to shape the next generation of American singers including Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Janis Joplin.
Nightclubs
Dancers in The Savoy Ballroom during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance.
The Savoy Ballroom opened in Harlem in 1927, and it quickly became a legendary dance hall where world-leading musicians and dancers would perform. Tap dancers including John Bubbles and Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson frequented The Savoy, and many jazz and blues instrumentalists gave daring, experimental performances long into the night.
The Cotton Club during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance in New York City.
Another popular nightclub of the Harlem Renaissance was The Cotton Club, where Ellington and Calloway were regular performers, and bootleg liquor was readily available. By the mid-1920s musical performances were a defining feature of the Harlem cultural scene. Some performers expanded into white world and made their name in Broadway, such as Josephine Baker.
Many Artists Found their Voices During the Harlem Renaissance
Aaron Douglas, Aspects of Negro Life from Slavery to the Reconstruction, 1934, via The Charnel House
While the field of visual arts was slower than other art forms to accept Black artists – museums, galleries and art schools were less welcoming – many leading artists nonetheless found exposure during this time. Leading artists include Aaron Douglas, known today as “the father of Black American art”, who brought traditional African techniques into his large scale paintings and murals, and the legendary sculptor Augusta Savage, who made deeply intimate sculpted portraits of the African Americans who had influenced and shaped her life.
Members of the Harlem Renaissance Became Civil Rights Activists
Alain Locke, a prominent activist during the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights movement
Civil rights were fundamental to the Harlem Renaissance, at a time when African Americans were finally beginning to shake off the shackles of their past. Many of the leading intellectual voices of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s went on to become leading figures during the Civil Rights movement of the 1940s, including W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain Locke.
Society’s Biggest Risks, Ranked by the World's Leading Experts
Every year the World Economic Forum (WEF) surveys more than 1,200 global risk experts, policy makers, and industry leaders to measure the weight of looming risks to global finance and stability over the next two and ten years. The WEF releases its Global Risks Report as world leaders and corporate titans convene in Davos for the annual conference to help frame the week’s conversations. While energy and food supply chains top today’s concerns, largely triggered by the pandemic’s lingering effects and conflict in Ukraine, the future fears of the global elite are finally intersecting with those of climate scientists. Natural disasters and extreme weather events, along with a failure to mitigate climate change, made it into the top five risks for the next two years. Meanwhile, the top six concerns over the next decade involve a climate angle, assuming that number six—large scale involuntary migration—is considered (as it should be) a result of climate change as well as conflict, or indeed conflict caused by climate change. Take the shrinking Lake Chad basin, which straddles the African nations of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria, as an example. The United Nations warned last year that the region, which covers 8% of the African continent and is home to 42 million people, “is particularly vulnerable to climate change related extreme events such as floods and droughts… with impacts on food security and general security in the region.” A new report released by the international human rights group Refugees International warns that climate change is accelerating conflict and migration in the region and needs to be better addressed before it risks destabilizing a wider area, with unknown repercussions for the economies of West Africa. The WEF’s poll respondents were probably not thinking about a shrinking Lake Chad when they fretted about the impacts of large scale involuntary migration, but such a movement could easily lead to risk concern number seven: erosion of social cohesion and societal polarization, also likely to be triggered by the impacts of climate change. Mitigating those future risks, whether in the Lake Chad Basin or even closer to home, requires action in the present. The question now is how to manage short term risk, like energy insecurity, without exacerbating the long term risks of climate change. A version of this story first appeared in the Climate is Everything newsletter. To sign up, click here. Contact us at [email protected].
Society’s Biggest Risks, Ranked by the World's Leading Experts
Every year the World Economic Forum (WEF) surveys more than 1,200 global risk experts, policy makers, and industry leaders to measure the weight of looming risks to global finance and stability over the next two and ten years. The WEF releases its Global Risks Report as world leaders and corporate titans convene in Davos for the annual conference to help frame the week’s conversations. While energy and food supply chains top today’s concerns, largely triggered by the pandemic’s lingering effects and conflict in Ukraine, the future fears of the global elite are finally intersecting with those of climate scientists. Natural disasters and extreme weather events, along with a failure to mitigate climate change, made it into the top five risks for the next two years. Meanwhile, the top six concerns over the next decade involve a climate angle, assuming that number six—large scale involuntary migration—is considered (as it should be) a result of climate change as well as conflict, or indeed conflict caused by climate change. Take the shrinking Lake Chad basin, which straddles the African nations of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria, as an example. The United Nations warned last year that the region, which covers 8% of the African continent and is home to 42 million people, “is particularly vulnerable to climate change related extreme events such as floods and droughts… with impacts on food security and general security in the region.” A new report released by the international human rights group Refugees International warns that climate change is accelerating conflict and migration in the region and needs to be better addressed before it risks destabilizing a wider area, with unknown repercussions for the economies of West Africa. The WEF’s poll respondents were probably not thinking about a shrinking Lake Chad when they fretted about the impacts of large scale involuntary migration, but such a movement could easily lead to risk concern number seven: erosion of social cohesion and societal polarization, also likely to be triggered by the impacts of climate change. Mitigating those future risks, whether in the Lake Chad Basin or even closer to home, requires action in the present. The question now is how to manage short term risk, like energy insecurity, without exacerbating the long term risks of climate change. A version of this story first appeared in the Climate is Everything newsletter. To sign up, click here. Contact us at [email protected].
Fusion power is 'approaching' reality thanks to a magnetic field breakthrough
Fusion power may be a more realistic prospect than you think. As Motherboardreports, researchers at the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have discovered that a new magnetic field setup more than tripled the energy output of the fusion reaction hotspot in experiments, "approaching" the level required for self-sustaining ignition in plasmas. The field was particularly effective at trapping heat within the hotspot, boosting the energy yield.The hotspot's creation involved blasting 200 lasers at a fusion fuel pellet made from hydrogen isotopes like deuterium and tritium. The resulting X-rays made the pellet implode and thus produce the extremely high pressures and heat needed for fusion. The team achieved their feat by wrapping a coil around a pellet made using special metals.The notion of using magnets to heat the fuel isn't new. University of Rochester scientists found they could use magnetism to their advantage in 2012. The Lawrence Livermore study was far more effective, however, producing 40 percent heat and more than three times the energy.Practical fusion reactors are still many years away. The output is still far less than the energy required to create self-sustaining reactions. The finding makes ignition considerably more achievable, though, and that in turn improves the chances of an energy-positive fusion system. This also isn't the end of the magnetism experiments. A future test will use an ice-laden cryogenic capsule to help understand fusion physics. Even if ignition is still distant, the learnings from this study could provide a clearer path to that breakthrough moment.
Fusion power is 'approaching' reality thanks to a magnetic field breakthrough
Fusion power may be a more realistic prospect than you think. As Motherboardreports, researchers at the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have discovered that a new magnetic field setup more than tripled the energy output of the fusion reaction hotspot in experiments, "approaching" the level required for self-sustaining ignition in plasmas. The field was particularly effective at trapping heat within the hotspot, boosting the energy yield.The hotspot's creation involved blasting 200 lasers at a fusion fuel pellet made from hydrogen isotopes like deuterium and tritium. The resulting X-rays made the pellet implode and thus produce the extremely high pressures and heat needed for fusion. The team achieved their feat by wrapping a coil around a pellet made using special metals.The notion of using magnets to heat the fuel isn't new. University of Rochester scientists found they could use magnetism to their advantage in 2012. The Lawrence Livermore study was far more effective, however, producing 40 percent heat and more than three times the energy.Practical fusion reactors are still many years away. The output is still far less than the energy required to create self-sustaining reactions. The finding makes ignition considerably more achievable, though, and that in turn improves the chances of an energy-positive fusion system. This also isn't the end of the magnetism experiments. A future test will use an ice-laden cryogenic capsule to help understand fusion physics. Even if ignition is still distant, the learnings from this study could provide a clearer path to that breakthrough moment.
Paintings of Half-Submerged Animals Foretell an Unsettling Future
Lisa Ericson, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (2022) (all images courtesy the artist)
In Lisa Ericson’s nature tableaux, land animals make unlikely bedfellows with coral reefs, and small mammals, birds, and bugs inhabit islands borne across waterscapes on the backs of turtles. The works are simultaneously natural and unnatural — Ericson’s hyperrealistic and detailed painting style renders her subjects beautifully and identifiably, but the situations in which we find them are uncanny, menacing, and unexpected.
“Ultimately, I’m trying to awaken or increase interest in the natural world around us, with all its beauty and complexity, while simultaneously drawing attention to the fact that our human behaviors are currently throwing all of that incredible diverse life into peril,” Ericson explained in an interview with Hyperallergic. “Along with our own existence, of course.”
Ericson’s creatures often find themselves battling a rising tide, with a waterline bisecting the picture plane. Animals cluster together atop cacti to stay dry or begin to blend with the world below the surface. In “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” a mountain goat seeks fleeting refuge from chest-level water, perched atop a crag inhabited by coral and visited by ocean fish. In “Late Warning,” a desert jackrabbit is situated uncomfortably atop a flowering cactus, getting an earful from a yellow-bellied bird sharing its precarious perch. These mammals cast side-eye glances at the viewer, seeking solidarity, or perhaps placing blame for the position in which they find themselves.
Balancing “the tension between worry and hope,” Ericson aims to portray the richness of our planet while bringing attention to its imminent disappearance.
“By creating these pieces, I’m doing the same thing I hope my viewers are doing — personally reckoning with the immense scope of our global climate disaster,” said Ericson. “Appreciating the intricate beauty of the stunning array of life and biodiversity that we’re still lucky to have on this planet, and considering the tragedy of its decline due to changing climates, habitat loss, and mass extinctions.”
Lisa Ericson, “Late Warning” (2022)
Parlaying nature scenes into teachable moments or unlikely team-ups, as in “Risky Business,” which portrays a flock of birds using a red fox as a ferry across knee-deep water, is just one of the reasons that Ericson’s work has the feel of parable or Aesop Fables — though she can identify numerous points of inspiration, within fine art as well as literature. She points to “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymous Bosch and books like Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood as inspirational narratives around manipulations of the natural world, but it’s easy to find points of resonance in the cautionary tone of folklore, or even creation stories that position the world on the back of a tortoise.
Ericson’s work has evolved over time from chimera-like scenarios featuring animal-habitat hybrids to what she describes as “dystopian pairings of animals and habitats” that comment on the climate crisis. The works speak to the ultimate interconnectedness of not only the human family, but of all creatures within and affected by the environment.
“We (humans) are having such a drastic impact on the natural world and all its inhabitants,” she said. “And we’re bringing about climate change that will be inescapable for most life on the planet. So in this way, at least, we are all very much connected.”
Lisa Ericson, “Treading Water” (2022)
Lisa Ericson, “Risky Business” (2022)
Lisa Ericson, “High Tide” (2022)
Paintings of Half-Submerged Animals Foretell an Unsettling Future
Lisa Ericson, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (2022) (all images courtesy the artist)
In Lisa Ericson’s nature tableaux, land animals make unlikely bedfellows with coral reefs, and small mammals, birds, and bugs inhabit islands borne across waterscapes on the backs of turtles. The works are simultaneously natural and unnatural — Ericson’s hyperrealistic and detailed painting style renders her subjects beautifully and identifiably, but the situations in which we find them are uncanny, menacing, and unexpected.
“Ultimately, I’m trying to awaken or increase interest in the natural world around us, with all its beauty and complexity, while simultaneously drawing attention to the fact that our human behaviors are currently throwing all of that incredible diverse life into peril,” Ericson explained in an interview with Hyperallergic. “Along with our own existence, of course.”
Ericson’s creatures often find themselves battling a rising tide, with a waterline bisecting the picture plane. Animals cluster together atop cacti to stay dry or begin to blend with the world below the surface. In “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” a mountain goat seeks fleeting refuge from chest-level water, perched atop a crag inhabited by coral and visited by ocean fish. In “Late Warning,” a desert jackrabbit is situated uncomfortably atop a flowering cactus, getting an earful from a yellow-bellied bird sharing its precarious perch. These mammals cast side-eye glances at the viewer, seeking solidarity, or perhaps placing blame for the position in which they find themselves.
Balancing “the tension between worry and hope,” Ericson aims to portray the richness of our planet while bringing attention to its imminent disappearance.
“By creating these pieces, I’m doing the same thing I hope my viewers are doing — personally reckoning with the immense scope of our global climate disaster,” said Ericson. “Appreciating the intricate beauty of the stunning array of life and biodiversity that we’re still lucky to have on this planet, and considering the tragedy of its decline due to changing climates, habitat loss, and mass extinctions.”
Lisa Ericson, “Late Warning” (2022)
Parlaying nature scenes into teachable moments or unlikely team-ups, as in “Risky Business,” which portrays a flock of birds using a red fox as a ferry across knee-deep water, is just one of the reasons that Ericson’s work has the feel of parable or Aesop Fables — though she can identify numerous points of inspiration, within fine art as well as literature. She points to “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymous Bosch and books like Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood as inspirational narratives around manipulations of the natural world, but it’s easy to find points of resonance in the cautionary tone of folklore, or even creation stories that position the world on the back of a tortoise.
Ericson’s work has evolved over time from chimera-like scenarios featuring animal-habitat hybrids to what she describes as “dystopian pairings of animals and habitats” that comment on the climate crisis. The works speak to the ultimate interconnectedness of not only the human family, but of all creatures within and affected by the environment.
“We (humans) are having such a drastic impact on the natural world and all its inhabitants,” she said. “And we’re bringing about climate change that will be inescapable for most life on the planet. So in this way, at least, we are all very much connected.”
Lisa Ericson, “Treading Water” (2022)
Lisa Ericson, “Risky Business” (2022)
Lisa Ericson, “High Tide” (2022)
Who Were the 5 Leading Female Abstract Expressionists?
Abstract Expressionism was an epoch defining art movement, encapsulating the spirited, emotional angst of post-war life in the United States. While historical accounts have tended to focus on the ‘boys club’ nature of the movement, led by macho, aggressive male artists including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Hans Hoffmann, a series of trailblazing women also played a key role in the movement’s development. Many have more recently received long overdue recognition for their role in defining the mid-20th century oeuvre. We celebrate just a handful of the pioneering female Abstract Expressionists who fought for their place amongst a male-dominated table and, in recent decades, are now gaining their rightful respect and recognition.
1. Lee Krasner
Abstract Expressionist painter Lee Krasner with one of her Abstract Expressionist artworks.
Lee Krasner was without a doubt one of the most important artists of the mid-to-late 20th century. Married to Jackson Pollock, she was often cast in his shadow by the press. But as recent retrospectives have proved, she was a ferociously ambitious artist with a formidable talent, and one of the leading female Abstract Expressionists. Early in her career in New York Krasner experimented with Cubist-style, broken imagery, blending collage and painting together. Later, with her ‘Little Image’ series, made in her Hamptons home studio, Krasner explored how Jewish mysticism could be translated into all-over, intricate patterns. These artworks, in turn, gave way to an unbounded freedom of expression in Krasner’s late career, as her paintings became bigger, bolder and more bombastic than ever.
2. Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler in her New York studio in the 1960s.
The legendary New York-based Abstract Expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler bridged a divide between the angst-ridden, over-wrought painterliness of her mostly male contemporaries, and the later, ambient and atmospheric school of Color Field painting. In her most recognized and celebrated ‘poured paintings’, Frankenthaler diluted her paint and poured it in aqueous passages over vast swathes of un-primed canvas from above. Then she let it form spontaneous patches of intense, vivid color. The results were deeply resonant, invoking distant, half-forgotten places or experiences as they drift across the mind’s eye.
3. Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell in her Vétheuil studio photographed by Robert Freson, 1983, via Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York
American artist Joan Mitchell earned her stripes as a key player in the New York School of Abstract Expressionism at a young age. While she relocated to France in the years that followed, she continued to pioneer a fantastically vibrant and fervent style of abstraction which earned her international recognition throughout much of her life. On the one hand, her paintings made a nod to the late flower gardens of Claude Monet. But they are far gutsier and more expressive, with wild tangles and ribbons of paint that seem to weave together to create living, breathing organisms on the canvas.
4. Elaine de Kooning
Elaine de Kooning in the studio.
While the name De Kooning is more commonly associated with the male Abstract Expressionist Willem, his wife Elaine was also a highly respected artist in her own right. She was also an esteemed and outspoken art critic and editor. Her paintings merge elements of figuration with a free-flowing and expressive abstract style, creating sensations of energy and movement on the flat canvas. Her turbulent subjects include bulls and basketball players. One of her most celebrated paintings was her portrait of John F Kennedy, made in 1963, which tore up the rulebook. On the one hand, it was unusual at the time for a female artist to paint a male portrait. It was also almost unheard of to depict a public figure in such a brash, wild, and experimental way.
5. Grace Hartigan
Abstract Expressionist painter Grace Hartigan in her New York studio, 1957.
American painter Grace Hartigan was a leading figure in the school of New York Abstract Expressionism. In her day she earned household-name status. Her art also featured in many of the most prominent survey exhibitions on Abstract Expressionism. Her freewheeling abstract paintings often have an underlying sense of structure and order, with ramshackle patches of color arranged into unlikely stacked, or geometric designs. She also merged elements of figuration into many of her most celebrated paintings, toying with a shifting balance between abstraction and representation.
Who Were the 5 Leading Female Abstract Expressionists?
Abstract Expressionism was an epoch defining art movement, encapsulating the spirited, emotional angst of post-war life in the United States. While historical accounts have tended to focus on the ‘boys club’ nature of the movement, led by macho, aggressive male artists including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Hans Hoffmann, a series of trailblazing women also played a key role in the movement’s development. Many have more recently received long overdue recognition for their role in defining the mid-20th century oeuvre. We celebrate just a handful of the pioneering female Abstract Expressionists who fought for their place amongst a male-dominated table and, in recent decades, are now gaining their rightful respect and recognition.
1. Lee Krasner
Abstract Expressionist painter Lee Krasner with one of her Abstract Expressionist artworks.
Lee Krasner was without a doubt one of the most important artists of the mid-to-late 20th century. Married to Jackson Pollock, she was often cast in his shadow by the press. But as recent retrospectives have proved, she was a ferociously ambitious artist with a formidable talent, and one of the leading female Abstract Expressionists. Early in her career in New York Krasner experimented with Cubist-style, broken imagery, blending collage and painting together. Later, with her ‘Little Image’ series, made in her Hamptons home studio, Krasner explored how Jewish mysticism could be translated into all-over, intricate patterns. These artworks, in turn, gave way to an unbounded freedom of expression in Krasner’s late career, as her paintings became bigger, bolder and more bombastic than ever.
2. Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler in her New York studio in the 1960s.
The legendary New York-based Abstract Expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler bridged a divide between the angst-ridden, over-wrought painterliness of her mostly male contemporaries, and the later, ambient and atmospheric school of Color Field painting. In her most recognized and celebrated ‘poured paintings’, Frankenthaler diluted her paint and poured it in aqueous passages over vast swathes of un-primed canvas from above. Then she let it form spontaneous patches of intense, vivid color. The results were deeply resonant, invoking distant, half-forgotten places or experiences as they drift across the mind’s eye.
3. Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell in her Vétheuil studio photographed by Robert Freson, 1983, via Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York
American artist Joan Mitchell earned her stripes as a key player in the New York School of Abstract Expressionism at a young age. While she relocated to France in the years that followed, she continued to pioneer a fantastically vibrant and fervent style of abstraction which earned her international recognition throughout much of her life. On the one hand, her paintings made a nod to the late flower gardens of Claude Monet. But they are far gutsier and more expressive, with wild tangles and ribbons of paint that seem to weave together to create living, breathing organisms on the canvas.
4. Elaine de Kooning
Elaine de Kooning in the studio.
While the name De Kooning is more commonly associated with the male Abstract Expressionist Willem, his wife Elaine was also a highly respected artist in her own right. She was also an esteemed and outspoken art critic and editor. Her paintings merge elements of figuration with a free-flowing and expressive abstract style, creating sensations of energy and movement on the flat canvas. Her turbulent subjects include bulls and basketball players. One of her most celebrated paintings was her portrait of John F Kennedy, made in 1963, which tore up the rulebook. On the one hand, it was unusual at the time for a female artist to paint a male portrait. It was also almost unheard of to depict a public figure in such a brash, wild, and experimental way.
5. Grace Hartigan
Abstract Expressionist painter Grace Hartigan in her New York studio, 1957.
American painter Grace Hartigan was a leading figure in the school of New York Abstract Expressionism. In her day she earned household-name status. Her art also featured in many of the most prominent survey exhibitions on Abstract Expressionism. Her freewheeling abstract paintings often have an underlying sense of structure and order, with ramshackle patches of color arranged into unlikely stacked, or geometric designs. She also merged elements of figuration into many of her most celebrated paintings, toying with a shifting balance between abstraction and representation.
Vanitas Painting or Memento Mori: What are the Differences?
Both vanitas and memento mori are vast art themes that can be found in ancient and contemporary artworks alike. Due to their diversity and very long history, it is sometimes hard for the viewer to have a clear image of what makes vanitas vs. memento mori to be as such. Notably, they are most often associated with 17th-century Northern European art. Because the themes have many similarities, sometimes it’s quite difficult for the viewer to understand the differences between the two. To examine the characteristics of vanitas vs. memento mori, this article will use 17th-century paintings that can serve as good examples to understand how the two concepts work.
Vanitas vs. Memento Mori: What is a Vanitas?
Allegorie op de vergankelijkheid (Vanitas) by Hyeronymus Wierix, 1563-1619, via Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The term “vanitas” has its origins in the first lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible. The line in question is the following: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanity, all is vanity.”
A “vanity,” according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is the act of being overly interested in one’s appearance or achievements. Vanity is closely related to pride and ambition regarding material and ephemeral things. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, vanity is frowned upon because it deals with impermanent things that avert our attention from the only certainty, namely that of death. The saying “vanity of vanities” has the purpose of emphasizing the uselessness of all earthly things, acting as a reminder of the coming of death.
A vanitas artwork can be called as such if it makes visual or conceptual references to the passage quoted above. A vanitas will convey the message of the uselessness of vanities in either a direct or an indirect manner. For example, the artwork can contain a display of luxurious things that emphasizes this. It can also simply show a direct and straightforward depiction of the passage from The Book of Ecclesiastes.
At the same time, the same message can be conveyed in a subtler manner that makes use of refined symbolism. For example, a vanitas can depict a young woman admiring her decorated image in a mirror, alluding to the fact that beauty and youth are passing and, therefore, as deceiving as any other vanity. With this being said, the theme of vanitas can be found in various forms in a multitude of artworks throughout time, ranging from direct to more subtle ways of representation.
What Is a Memento Mori?
Still life with vanitas symbols by Jean Aubert, 1708-1741, via Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The origin of the memento mori theme can be found in the same Latin phrase that translates into “remember you must die.” Similar to the vanitas, the memento mori puts an emphasis on the ephemerality of life and on the fact that life is always followed by death.
The meaning of memento mori is a cautionary remark that reminds us how even if we are living in the present and we enjoy our youth, health, and life in general, this is all illusory. Our current well-being doesn’t warrant in any way that we will be able to escape death. Therefore, we must remember that all men must die in the end and there is no avoiding it.
Just like the vanitas theme, the memento mori one has a long history ranging from ancient times, particularly the art of ancient Rome and Greece. The theme was highly popularized in the Middle Ages with the motif of danse macabre, which acts as a visual illustration for the memento mori saying.
To symbolize the inevitability of death, artworks usually employ the image of a skull to signal mortality. The theme is found quite often in painting, either in a direct or indirect way. The more direct case is when one can find the presence of a skull or skeleton that is associated with things or persons which can be linked to living. The more indirect way of showing the theme of memento mori is through the presence of objects or motifs that indicate the ephemeral character of life. For example, the presence of a candle that’s either burning or was just recently put out is a popular way to symbolize the transience of life.
Similarities in Vanitas vs. Memento Mori
Memento mori by Crispijn van de Passe (I), 1594, via Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
One of the most obvious similarities is that both themes have to do with death. When looking at vanitas vs. memento mori, they share a number of similarities; both in their main theme and also in the symbols that are used to depict and express their messages. Of the symbols used, one that is most common and can be shared by both works is that of the skull. The skull can act as both a reminder of the transience of vanities, but also as a reminder of the inevitable death of the individual.
Someone looking into a mirror is another similar motif that can act as both a vanitas and a memento mori, holding a very similar meaning to that of the skull motif. Besides this, some other similarities between the two can be found in the presence of expensive objects, such as rare fruits, flowers, or valuable objects. All of them have the ability to express the intended message of the uselessness of material things. Vanities are meaningless because they can’t change the impending death, while all material objects cannot follow us in death.
Besides the message of death, vanitas vs. memento mori works share the commonality of the same hope. Both of them intend to inspire the viewer with the promise of the afterlife. Even if everyone dies at some point during their life, there is no need for despair. One cannot fight against the inevitable but can turn towards God and religion to hope for a continued existence.
The promise of the immortality of the soul is an underlying message that is common in both vanitas and memento mori. The transcience of life and the uselessness of objects is emphasized because the viewer is invited to invest in what lasts beyond death, namely in the soul.
Why Are They Interconnected?
Bubble-Blowing Girl with Vanitas Still Life in the manner of Adriaen van der Werff, 1680-1775, via Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
One can justly wonder why the two themes of vanitas and memento mori are interconnected and tend to refer to each other. As was stated before, death is a phenomenon that is central to both themes. Because of this, vanitas and memento mori use a similar visual vocabulary. However, their interconnectedness goes beyond visual elements. Because of their similar message, vanitas and memento mori artworks attracted buyers from art collectors and average people alike, as people from all walks of life could relate to the inevitability of death. The transience of life has a universal appeal as death is certain for both rich and poor people. Therefore, artists made sure to offer a variety of paintings, often in the form of still-lifes with vanitas or memento mori themes which could be bought for an accessible price.
Because of this popularity, an impressive number of such early modern works survive today, helping us to better understand their charm, variety, and evolution. If these works didn’t make it into the private homes of individuals, the themes of vanitas and memento mori were also reflected in public spaces. For example, the motif of danse macabre (an element of the memento mori theme) can be found throughout Europe in various forms, oftentimes painted inside churches or other buildings which were visited very often. These themes spread even further in the public space by being featured on the graves of important persons as early as the late 15th century. Vanitas and memento mori were thus some of the most popular themes in art during this time.
Differences in Vanitas vs. Memento Mori
Allegory of Death by Florens Schuyl, 1629-1669, via Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
So far, we have emphasized the commonalities and connections between vanitas vs. memento mori. Even if the two have a great number of common points, they are still quite distinct themes that carry slightly different messages and undertones. In vanitas works, the emphasis is put exclusively on vain things and riches. Beauty, money, and precious objects are vanities as they are not necessary for our existence and don’t fulfill a deeper role except for that of being an object of pride. As it is known, pride, lust, and gluttony are associated with vanity, and the message of vanitas is to avoid these deadly sins and take care of the soul instead.
On the other hand, in memento mori artworks, the emphasis is different. Memento mori doesn’t warn the viewer against a specific type of object or a set of sins. On the contrary, it’s not so much a warning as it is a reminder. There are no specific things to be avoided. Instead, the viewer has to remember that everything is passing and that death is certain.
Now that these differences have been indicated, it must be said that vanitas vs. memento mori is more closely related to the Christian worldview because of its origin. Having its origin in the Book of Ecclesiastes, the vanitas message is more Christian, whereas the memento mori, having its origins in ancient Greece and Rome, isn’t tied to a specific religion. Due to this difference in origin, the two themes carry different historical contexts that affect the way in which they are perceived. The memento mori theme is more universal and can be found throughout different cultures. On the other hand, the vanitas is connected to a Christian space and appears to have some Stoic origins as well.
How to Discern Whether an Artwork is a Vanitas or a Memento Mori
Still life by Aelbert Jansz. van der Schoor, 1640-1672, via Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Now that the similarities and differences between vanitas vs. memento mori were discussed at length, this last section will offer a few tips on how to identify each of them. As previously mentioned, both themes use a common visual vocabulary to some extent. The main hint for identifying a vanitas from a memento mori is the overall message of the artwork. Does the painting highlight the vanities of human life by representing numerous luxurious objects? If yes, then the painting is more likely a vanitas. Does the painting contain more common objects such as a clock, a burning candle, bubbles, or a skull? Then the painting is most likely a memento mori because the emphasis is not on the finer things in life but rather on the passing of time and the coming of death.
It can be very difficult to rely on symbols alone to judge whether a work is a vanitas or a memento mori. A skull can be used to represent both themes, for example. Therefore, this is not the safest route in most cases. Nuances are very important to understand what underlying message is communicated. Is the skull decorated with jewels, or is it a plain skull? In the first case, that is a reference to vanities, while the latter is a reference to death.
This article offered an in-depth explanation of how the vanitas theme differs from the memento mori one. Both of them are fascinating yet difficult themes that are very common in art from ancient up to contemporary times. Therefore, a keen eye and a good understanding of the emphasis of artwork will make it possible for anyone to distinguish a vanitas from a memento mori.
Vanitas Painting or Memento Mori: What are the Differences?
Both vanitas and memento mori are vast art themes that can be found in ancient and contemporary artworks alike. Due to their diversity and very long history, it is sometimes hard for the viewer to have a clear image of what makes vanitas vs. memento mori to be as such. Notably, they are most often associated with 17th-century Northern European art. Because the themes have many similarities, sometimes it’s quite difficult for the viewer to understand the differences between the two. To examine the characteristics of vanitas vs. memento mori, this article will use 17th-century paintings that can serve as good examples to understand how the two concepts work.
Vanitas vs. Memento Mori: What is a Vanitas?
Allegorie op de vergankelijkheid (Vanitas) by Hyeronymus Wierix, 1563-1619, via Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The term “vanitas” has its origins in the first lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible. The line in question is the following: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanity, all is vanity.”
A “vanity,” according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is the act of being overly interested in one’s appearance or achievements. Vanity is closely related to pride and ambition regarding material and ephemeral things. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, vanity is frowned upon because it deals with impermanent things that avert our attention from the only certainty, namely that of death. The saying “vanity of vanities” has the purpose of emphasizing the uselessness of all earthly things, acting as a reminder of the coming of death.
A vanitas artwork can be called as such if it makes visual or conceptual references to the passage quoted above. A vanitas will convey the message of the uselessness of vanities in either a direct or an indirect manner. For example, the artwork can contain a display of luxurious things that emphasizes this. It can also simply show a direct and straightforward depiction of the passage from The Book of Ecclesiastes.
At the same time, the same message can be conveyed in a subtler manner that makes use of refined symbolism. For example, a vanitas can depict a young woman admiring her decorated image in a mirror, alluding to the fact that beauty and youth are passing and, therefore, as deceiving as any other vanity. With this being said, the theme of vanitas can be found in various forms in a multitude of artworks throughout time, ranging from direct to more subtle ways of representation.
What Is a Memento Mori?
Still life with vanitas symbols by Jean Aubert, 1708-1741, via Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The origin of the memento mori theme can be found in the same Latin phrase that translates into “remember you must die.” Similar to the vanitas, the memento mori puts an emphasis on the ephemerality of life and on the fact that life is always followed by death.
The meaning of memento mori is a cautionary remark that reminds us how even if we are living in the present and we enjoy our youth, health, and life in general, this is all illusory. Our current well-being doesn’t warrant in any way that we will be able to escape death. Therefore, we must remember that all men must die in the end and there is no avoiding it.
Just like the vanitas theme, the memento mori one has a long history ranging from ancient times, particularly the art of ancient Rome and Greece. The theme was highly popularized in the Middle Ages with the motif of danse macabre, which acts as a visual illustration for the memento mori saying.
To symbolize the inevitability of death, artworks usually employ the image of a skull to signal mortality. The theme is found quite often in painting, either in a direct or indirect way. The more direct case is when one can find the presence of a skull or skeleton that is associated with things or persons which can be linked to living. The more indirect way of showing the theme of memento mori is through the presence of objects or motifs that indicate the ephemeral character of life. For example, the presence of a candle that’s either burning or was just recently put out is a popular way to symbolize the transience of life.
Similarities in Vanitas vs. Memento Mori
Memento mori by Crispijn van de Passe (I), 1594, via Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
One of the most obvious similarities is that both themes have to do with death. When looking at vanitas vs. memento mori, they share a number of similarities; both in their main theme and also in the symbols that are used to depict and express their messages. Of the symbols used, one that is most common and can be shared by both works is that of the skull. The skull can act as both a reminder of the transience of vanities, but also as a reminder of the inevitable death of the individual.
Someone looking into a mirror is another similar motif that can act as both a vanitas and a memento mori, holding a very similar meaning to that of the skull motif. Besides this, some other similarities between the two can be found in the presence of expensive objects, such as rare fruits, flowers, or valuable objects. All of them have the ability to express the intended message of the uselessness of material things. Vanities are meaningless because they can’t change the impending death, while all material objects cannot follow us in death.
Besides the message of death, vanitas vs. memento mori works share the commonality of the same hope. Both of them intend to inspire the viewer with the promise of the afterlife. Even if everyone dies at some point during their life, there is no need for despair. One cannot fight against the inevitable but can turn towards God and religion to hope for a continued existence.
The promise of the immortality of the soul is an underlying message that is common in both vanitas and memento mori. The transcience of life and the uselessness of objects is emphasized because the viewer is invited to invest in what lasts beyond death, namely in the soul.
Why Are They Interconnected?
Bubble-Blowing Girl with Vanitas Still Life in the manner of Adriaen van der Werff, 1680-1775, via Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
One can justly wonder why the two themes of vanitas and memento mori are interconnected and tend to refer to each other. As was stated before, death is a phenomenon that is central to both themes. Because of this, vanitas and memento mori use a similar visual vocabulary. However, their interconnectedness goes beyond visual elements. Because of their similar message, vanitas and memento mori artworks attracted buyers from art collectors and average people alike, as people from all walks of life could relate to the inevitability of death. The transience of life has a universal appeal as death is certain for both rich and poor people. Therefore, artists made sure to offer a variety of paintings, often in the form of still-lifes with vanitas or memento mori themes which could be bought for an accessible price.
Because of this popularity, an impressive number of such early modern works survive today, helping us to better understand their charm, variety, and evolution. If these works didn’t make it into the private homes of individuals, the themes of vanitas and memento mori were also reflected in public spaces. For example, the motif of danse macabre (an element of the memento mori theme) can be found throughout Europe in various forms, oftentimes painted inside churches or other buildings which were visited very often. These themes spread even further in the public space by being featured on the graves of important persons as early as the late 15th century. Vanitas and memento mori were thus some of the most popular themes in art during this time.
Differences in Vanitas vs. Memento Mori
Allegory of Death by Florens Schuyl, 1629-1669, via Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
So far, we have emphasized the commonalities and connections between vanitas vs. memento mori. Even if the two have a great number of common points, they are still quite distinct themes that carry slightly different messages and undertones. In vanitas works, the emphasis is put exclusively on vain things and riches. Beauty, money, and precious objects are vanities as they are not necessary for our existence and don’t fulfill a deeper role except for that of being an object of pride. As it is known, pride, lust, and gluttony are associated with vanity, and the message of vanitas is to avoid these deadly sins and take care of the soul instead.
On the other hand, in memento mori artworks, the emphasis is different. Memento mori doesn’t warn the viewer against a specific type of object or a set of sins. On the contrary, it’s not so much a warning as it is a reminder. There are no specific things to be avoided. Instead, the viewer has to remember that everything is passing and that death is certain.
Now that these differences have been indicated, it must be said that vanitas vs. memento mori is more closely related to the Christian worldview because of its origin. Having its origin in the Book of Ecclesiastes, the vanitas message is more Christian, whereas the memento mori, having its origins in ancient Greece and Rome, isn’t tied to a specific religion. Due to this difference in origin, the two themes carry different historical contexts that affect the way in which they are perceived. The memento mori theme is more universal and can be found throughout different cultures. On the other hand, the vanitas is connected to a Christian space and appears to have some Stoic origins as well.
How to Discern Whether an Artwork is a Vanitas or a Memento Mori
Still life by Aelbert Jansz. van der Schoor, 1640-1672, via Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Now that the similarities and differences between vanitas vs. memento mori were discussed at length, this last section will offer a few tips on how to identify each of them. As previously mentioned, both themes use a common visual vocabulary to some extent. The main hint for identifying a vanitas from a memento mori is the overall message of the artwork. Does the painting highlight the vanities of human life by representing numerous luxurious objects? If yes, then the painting is more likely a vanitas. Does the painting contain more common objects such as a clock, a burning candle, bubbles, or a skull? Then the painting is most likely a memento mori because the emphasis is not on the finer things in life but rather on the passing of time and the coming of death.
It can be very difficult to rely on symbols alone to judge whether a work is a vanitas or a memento mori. A skull can be used to represent both themes, for example. Therefore, this is not the safest route in most cases. Nuances are very important to understand what underlying message is communicated. Is the skull decorated with jewels, or is it a plain skull? In the first case, that is a reference to vanities, while the latter is a reference to death.
This article offered an in-depth explanation of how the vanitas theme differs from the memento mori one. Both of them are fascinating yet difficult themes that are very common in art from ancient up to contemporary times. Therefore, a keen eye and a good understanding of the emphasis of artwork will make it possible for anyone to distinguish a vanitas from a memento mori.
Russians killed famous Kherson conductor who refused performing for the occupiers
In Kherson, the Russian occupiers killed the chief conductor of the Kherson Music and Drama Theater, Yuriy Kerpatenko. His death became known on October 14, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy reported.
It is noted that Yuriy Kerpatenko was shot by the Russian military in his own house after the conductor refused to cooperate with the occupiers.
The Ministry of Culture, referring to the regional mass media, noted that before the International Day of Music on October 1, the occupiers and collaborators planned to hold a “holiday concert” with the participation of the famous Hileya chamber orchestra. With this concert, the occupiers wanted to show the “restoration of peaceful life” in Kherson. Yuriy Kerpatenko was the chief conductor of the Hileya Chamber Orchestra.
After the start of a full-scale war and the occupation of Kherson, Yuriy refused to leave the city and openly demonstrated his pro-Ukrainian civic position.
Ukraine needs independent journalism. And we need you.
Join our community on Patreon and help us better connect Ukraine to the world. We’ll use your contribution to attract new authors, upgrade our website, and optimize its SEO.
For as little as the cost of one cup of coffee a month, you can help build bridges between Ukraine and the rest of the world, plus become a co-creator and vote for topics we should cover next. Become a patron or see other ways to support.
Become a Patron!
![Russians killed famous Kherson conductor who refused performing for the occupiers]()
Russians killed famous Kherson conductor who refused performing for the occupiers
In Kherson, the Russian occupiers killed the chief conductor of the Kherson Music and Drama Theater, Yuriy Kerpatenko. His death became known on October 14, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy reported.
It is noted that Yuriy Kerpatenko was shot by the Russian military in his own house after the conductor refused to cooperate with the occupiers.
The Ministry of Culture, referring to the regional mass media, noted that before the International Day of Music on October 1, the occupiers and collaborators planned to hold a “holiday concert” with the participation of the famous Hileya chamber orchestra. With this concert, the occupiers wanted to show the “restoration of peaceful life” in Kherson. Yuriy Kerpatenko was the chief conductor of the Hileya Chamber Orchestra.
After the start of a full-scale war and the occupation of Kherson, Yuriy refused to leave the city and openly demonstrated his pro-Ukrainian civic position.
Ukraine needs independent journalism. And we need you.
Join our community on Patreon and help us better connect Ukraine to the world. We’ll use your contribution to attract new authors, upgrade our website, and optimize its SEO.
For as little as the cost of one cup of coffee a month, you can help build bridges between Ukraine and the rest of the world, plus become a co-creator and vote for topics we should cover next. Become a patron or see other ways to support.
Become a Patron!
![Russians killed famous Kherson conductor who refused performing for the occupiers]()
The Misgendering of Joan of Arc
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Joan of Arc” (1882) (via Wikimedia Commons )
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but gender variance has existed throughout human history. Many Catholic monks and saints were gender-fluid, with some only discovered as such after death. Union Army soldiers cross-dressed as men and endured forced feminization after the Civil War. An entire German institution faced Nazi destruction for advancing the science of medical transition. If this seems unfamiliar, it’s because powerful people have worked tirelessly to maintain social dominance over our bodies, and TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) have stepped in as their cultural arbiters.
Despite its perceived novelty in mainstream media, transness — particularly transmasculinity — has evolved with science as we expand our understanding of the human body. Literature and art from the Middle Ages, too, reveal how women underwent extreme procedures to transition into men, all based on medieval speculations about the reproductive system, including that a vagina was just an inverted penis. With that in mind, I want to consider how art history has suppressed transgender histories, particularly with genderqueer martyr Joan of Arc.
Artistic renderings of Joan have de-emphasized the young French saint’s gender identity for centuries, as might be expected with such an influential historical figure. But the fact remains that the English crown burned Joan at the stake specifically for refusing to conform to gender and claiming that God ordered it. Joan’s place in trans, nonbinary, intersex, and asexual studies today thus represents a greater struggle to untangle how her image became so highly feminized.
Martin Le Franc, “Le champion des dames” (1440) (via Wikimedia Commons)
We know from historical records of the Hundred Years’ War era that Joan presented as a man with short black hair and wore shirts with shorts, doublets, leggings, and boots. Why, then, is she so damn feminine in artistic portrayals? While the only portrait made in Joan’s lifetime did not survive, other 15th-century works are well-preserved. Take for example a 1440 illumination by the poet Martin Le Franc that portrays Joan in the same scene as biblical heroine Judith, a fellow icon of art history, who passes Joan the decapitated head of Holofernes as if between generations. The French knight thus served as an early champion of women’s revenge, despite never advocating for such.
After the French Revolution, which saw the rise of an overtly patriarchal bourgeoisie, male artists continued to paint Joan as conspicuously feminine. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres depicted long, strawberry blonde hair and a patterned dress over Joan’s armored legs. Other 19th-century works were highly provocative in their sexual politics, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s final painting. Others by Jules Bastien-Lepage and Jules Eugène Lenepveu show periods in which Joan would have worn women’s clothing, including peasant origins and final moments at the stake, when the English crown forced her to burn as a woman.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, “Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII” (1854) (via WikiArt)
In the early 20th century, first-wave feminists in Britain and the United States used Joan’s likeness to advance the cause of women’s suffrage. Highly feminized illustrations appeared on political posters and magazines advocating for the right to vote and participate in the labor force. A Suffragette Weekly cover design by Hilda Dallas shows a shapely Joan with snatched waist and ruby red lips holding a banner for the Women’s Social and Political Union. Liberal feminists, therefore, viewed Joan as a womanly warrior against the patriarchy who also represented modesty and self-reliance during the rise of the “New Woman.”
Today’s French nationalists likewise perceive Joan as a woman who got things done. Followers of far-right leader Marine Le Pen (including Brigitte Bardot) describe the politician as a contemporary reincarnation, and she makes an annual pilgrimage to the gilded statue of Joan outside the Louvre. Hillary Clinton’s memoir What Happened, which famously blamed progressives for the 2016 election loss, claims that Joan “said a lot of interesting things” before death. No such evidence of gender variance exists here; rather, these powerful women claim Joan as a representative of bourgeois feminism, even if historical evidence suggests otherwise.
Jules Bastien-Lepage, “Joan of Arc” (1879) (courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
As contemporary feminism expands to uplift queer people of all genders, these reactionary forces are clinging to an aesthetic idea of medieval history as a proxy for anti-trans ideology. It seems hard to imagine this all happening without artists, such as those during the French Renaissance, visualizing these stereotypes — many of whom were cisgender men. Nonetheless, contemporary queer artists and writers are reframing Joan as an icon of trans and Christian identity, including Leslie Feinberg and Katy Miles-Wallace. As author Kittredge Cherry recently wrote, “Cross-dressing was illegal, but what really upset the church authorities, then as now, was the audacity of someone being both proudly queer AND devoutly Christian.”
To be sure, TERF ideology is a reflection of the ascendant far right, reinforcing notions of cisgender women’s biological inferiority and their continued subjugation. Looking online today, it’s easy to see the difficulties in proving that Joan of Arc may not have been a cis woman. Observe the controversy surrounding the Globe theater’s new production, I, Joan, which portrays Joan as nonbinary; unsurprisingly, TERFs have accused nonbinary playwright Charlie Josephine of canceling them. Even liberal feminists seem unwilling to acknowledge how this feeds right back into patriarchy, perhaps because they view Joan as one of few medieval women to achieve such fame for infiltrating male-dominated institutions. As Helen Castor writes, “there is incongruity in the idea that a medieval visionary who fought for the God-given rights of her king should become, half a millennium later, an inspiration to campaigners for women’s right to vote in democratic elections.”
Program cover design by Benjamin Moran Dale for the Woman Suffrage Procession, c. 1913 (via Wikimedia Commons)
American suffragist Inez Milholland appears on a poster for the March 3, 1913 procession, c. 1913 (via Wikimedia Commons)
Consequently, queer theorists working to untangle fascist far-right influences on medieval studies face discrimination from across the ideological spectrum. Dr. Gabrielle Bychowski, a professor at Case Western University who calls Joan the “Patron Saint of Dysphoria,” identifies how conservative notions of the Middle Ages perpetuate an “entrenched right” in the field. In her essays and scholarship, Bychowski argues that trans people actually existed back then, and that evidence for that was present in art all along.
“For centuries prior, there were numerous fictional examples exactly matching Jeanne, including assigned-female-at-birth French knights who transitioned to men and became warriors lauded for their martial skill,” Bychowski told Hyperallergic. “By the time Jeanne showed up in real life, therefore, the culture was already primed. Did Jeanne face persecution on the battlefield? Yes, but the French had enough of a cultural history that acknowledged trans men’s existence. And part of that is based on a patriarchal, misogynistic hierarchy in which men are believed to be inherently better than women.”
William Haskell Coffin’s 1918 poster for the United States Department reads: “Joan of Arc Saved France; Women of America Save Your Country; Buy War Savings Stamps.” (courtesy North Carolina Digital Collections)
Bychowski claims that transphobic historians often envision an imaginary past devoid of queerness and a future along similar lines. But in reality, social conditions of the time allowed for the acceptance of trans men over trans women, and Joan was far from the only warrior to be accepted as such. Any gaps in history, she claims, are due in part to a lack of representation in the field, allowing TERFs and white nationalists to appropriate Joan as a symbol of their conservative origin myths.
“The English clearly saw Jeanne as transgender enough to die for it,” Bychowski said. “You can see it in the retrial documents from the courts of continental Europe. France was England’s wartime enemy, and the original trial was obviously not a fair one, so the French sought to prove Jeanne’s innocence. Interestingly, they brought up Thomas Aquinas citing exceptions to the statutes that forbid cross-dressing, as well as St. Marinos the Monk, or Mary or Marina, to make their case.”
St. Marinos the Monk and St. Mary of Egypt as shown in the St. John the Merciful Polyptych, c. 16th century. Despite living as a man, Marinos is still portrayed as womanly. (via Wikimedia Commnons)
For many queer medievalists, researching this topic poses significant ideological challenges within academia. Earlier this year, Norwegian scholar David Carrillo-Rangel’s paper “Trans-Europe: Joan of Arc or the Performativity of the Abject” was rejected by the International Congress of Medieval Studies for being “thematically and qualitatively inconsistent” with their publishing standards. Carrillo-Rangel, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, examined the music video for Madonna’s “Dark Ballet,” directed by Emmanuel Adjei, which features queer artist Mykki Blanco as a Black, HIV-positive Joan, contending that interpretations like this introduce the possibility of a historically trans patron saint.
“It is a fact that Joan of Arc was burnt due to the habit of wearing men’s clothes, whatever the reason,” Carrillo-Rangel told Hyperallergic. “That, according to the most conservative version of the dictionary, allows us to talk about Joan of Arc as a crossdresser, and this is very important in terms of representation in art.”
Still from the Shakespeare’s Globe production I, Joan (photo by Helen Murray, courtesy Shakespeare’s Globe)
Carrillo-Rangel points to Ana Torfs’s slide projector installation “Du mentir-faux” (2000), in which the artist translates historical sources on Joan’s life and death into contemporary images of androgyny. Despite all challenges, Carrillo-Rangel believes that artistic interventions can help bridge the cultural divide among trans theorists and feminists, or at least inspire further investigation.
“Queer archives need to dig deeper into the past along with their important work documenting the history of activism in the 20th and 21st centuries,” Carrillo-Rangel said. “By redirecting the conflict to a queer-TERF opposition, we miss the conservative offensive of hegemonic masculinity to which both communities become accessories to further oppression.”
In times like these, it is important to remember how fascism really works. As an example, we can look to a piece of anti-British propaganda from the Nazi puppet government of Vichy France. Joan of Arc appears in chains with a bob haircut inside the phrase, Les assassins reviennent toujours sur les lieux de leur crime (Killers always return to the scene of the crime), comparing the Hundred Years’ War to the Allied bombing of Nazi-occupied cities. This cunning rhetorical strategy, which the far right still employs today, reframes the oppressor as savior by appealing to women’s perceived vulnerability. The task now should be to ensure that no one falls for this anymore.
The Misgendering of Joan of Arc
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Joan of Arc” (1882) (via Wikimedia Commons )
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but gender variance has existed throughout human history. Many Catholic monks and saints were gender-fluid, with some only discovered as such after death. Union Army soldiers cross-dressed as men and endured forced feminization after the Civil War. An entire German institution faced Nazi destruction for advancing the science of medical transition. If this seems unfamiliar, it’s because powerful people have worked tirelessly to maintain social dominance over our bodies, and TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) have stepped in as their cultural arbiters.
Despite its perceived novelty in mainstream media, transness — particularly transmasculinity — has evolved with science as we expand our understanding of the human body. Literature and art from the Middle Ages, too, reveal how women underwent extreme procedures to transition into men, all based on medieval speculations about the reproductive system, including that a vagina was just an inverted penis. With that in mind, I want to consider how art history has suppressed transgender histories, particularly with genderqueer martyr Joan of Arc.
Artistic renderings of Joan have de-emphasized the young French saint’s gender identity for centuries, as might be expected with such an influential historical figure. But the fact remains that the English crown burned Joan at the stake specifically for refusing to conform to gender and claiming that God ordered it. Joan’s place in trans, nonbinary, intersex, and asexual studies today thus represents a greater struggle to untangle how her image became so highly feminized.
Martin Le Franc, “Le champion des dames” (1440) (via Wikimedia Commons)
We know from historical records of the Hundred Years’ War era that Joan presented as a man with short black hair and wore shirts with shorts, doublets, leggings, and boots. Why, then, is she so damn feminine in artistic portrayals? While the only portrait made in Joan’s lifetime did not survive, other 15th-century works are well-preserved. Take for example a 1440 illumination by the poet Martin Le Franc that portrays Joan in the same scene as biblical heroine Judith, a fellow icon of art history, who passes Joan the decapitated head of Holofernes as if between generations. The French knight thus served as an early champion of women’s revenge, despite never advocating for such.
After the French Revolution, which saw the rise of an overtly patriarchal bourgeoisie, male artists continued to paint Joan as conspicuously feminine. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres depicted long, strawberry blonde hair and a patterned dress over Joan’s armored legs. Other 19th-century works were highly provocative in their sexual politics, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s final painting. Others by Jules Bastien-Lepage and Jules Eugène Lenepveu show periods in which Joan would have worn women’s clothing, including peasant origins and final moments at the stake, when the English crown forced her to burn as a woman.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, “Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII” (1854) (via WikiArt)
In the early 20th century, first-wave feminists in Britain and the United States used Joan’s likeness to advance the cause of women’s suffrage. Highly feminized illustrations appeared on political posters and magazines advocating for the right to vote and participate in the labor force. A Suffragette Weekly cover design by Hilda Dallas shows a shapely Joan with snatched waist and ruby red lips holding a banner for the Women’s Social and Political Union. Liberal feminists, therefore, viewed Joan as a womanly warrior against the patriarchy who also represented modesty and self-reliance during the rise of the “New Woman.”
Today’s French nationalists likewise perceive Joan as a woman who got things done. Followers of far-right leader Marine Le Pen (including Brigitte Bardot) describe the politician as a contemporary reincarnation, and she makes an annual pilgrimage to the gilded statue of Joan outside the Louvre. Hillary Clinton’s memoir What Happened, which famously blamed progressives for the 2016 election loss, claims that Joan “said a lot of interesting things” before death. No such evidence of gender variance exists here; rather, these powerful women claim Joan as a representative of bourgeois feminism, even if historical evidence suggests otherwise.
Jules Bastien-Lepage, “Joan of Arc” (1879) (courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
As contemporary feminism expands to uplift queer people of all genders, these reactionary forces are clinging to an aesthetic idea of medieval history as a proxy for anti-trans ideology. It seems hard to imagine this all happening without artists, such as those during the French Renaissance, visualizing these stereotypes — many of whom were cisgender men. Nonetheless, contemporary queer artists and writers are reframing Joan as an icon of trans and Christian identity, including Leslie Feinberg and Katy Miles-Wallace. As author Kittredge Cherry recently wrote, “Cross-dressing was illegal, but what really upset the church authorities, then as now, was the audacity of someone being both proudly queer AND devoutly Christian.”
To be sure, TERF ideology is a reflection of the ascendant far right, reinforcing notions of cisgender women’s biological inferiority and their continued subjugation. Looking online today, it’s easy to see the difficulties in proving that Joan of Arc may not have been a cis woman. Observe the controversy surrounding the Globe theater’s new production, I, Joan, which portrays Joan as nonbinary; unsurprisingly, TERFs have accused nonbinary playwright Charlie Josephine of canceling them. Even liberal feminists seem unwilling to acknowledge how this feeds right back into patriarchy, perhaps because they view Joan as one of few medieval women to achieve such fame for infiltrating male-dominated institutions. As Helen Castor writes, “there is incongruity in the idea that a medieval visionary who fought for the God-given rights of her king should become, half a millennium later, an inspiration to campaigners for women’s right to vote in democratic elections.”
Program cover design by Benjamin Moran Dale for the Woman Suffrage Procession, c. 1913 (via Wikimedia Commons)
American suffragist Inez Milholland appears on a poster for the March 3, 1913 procession, c. 1913 (via Wikimedia Commons)
Consequently, queer theorists working to untangle fascist far-right influences on medieval studies face discrimination from across the ideological spectrum. Dr. Gabrielle Bychowski, a professor at Case Western University who calls Joan the “Patron Saint of Dysphoria,” identifies how conservative notions of the Middle Ages perpetuate an “entrenched right” in the field. In her essays and scholarship, Bychowski argues that trans people actually existed back then, and that evidence for that was present in art all along.
“For centuries prior, there were numerous fictional examples exactly matching Jeanne, including assigned-female-at-birth French knights who transitioned to men and became warriors lauded for their martial skill,” Bychowski told Hyperallergic. “By the time Jeanne showed up in real life, therefore, the culture was already primed. Did Jeanne face persecution on the battlefield? Yes, but the French had enough of a cultural history that acknowledged trans men’s existence. And part of that is based on a patriarchal, misogynistic hierarchy in which men are believed to be inherently better than women.”
William Haskell Coffin’s 1918 poster for the United States Department reads: “Joan of Arc Saved France; Women of America Save Your Country; Buy War Savings Stamps.” (courtesy North Carolina Digital Collections)
Bychowski claims that transphobic historians often envision an imaginary past devoid of queerness and a future along similar lines. But in reality, social conditions of the time allowed for the acceptance of trans men over trans women, and Joan was far from the only warrior to be accepted as such. Any gaps in history, she claims, are due in part to a lack of representation in the field, allowing TERFs and white nationalists to appropriate Joan as a symbol of their conservative origin myths.
“The English clearly saw Jeanne as transgender enough to die for it,” Bychowski said. “You can see it in the retrial documents from the courts of continental Europe. France was England’s wartime enemy, and the original trial was obviously not a fair one, so the French sought to prove Jeanne’s innocence. Interestingly, they brought up Thomas Aquinas citing exceptions to the statutes that forbid cross-dressing, as well as St. Marinos the Monk, or Mary or Marina, to make their case.”
St. Marinos the Monk and St. Mary of Egypt as shown in the St. John the Merciful Polyptych, c. 16th century. Despite living as a man, Marinos is still portrayed as womanly. (via Wikimedia Commnons)
For many queer medievalists, researching this topic poses significant ideological challenges within academia. Earlier this year, Norwegian scholar David Carrillo-Rangel’s paper “Trans-Europe: Joan of Arc or the Performativity of the Abject” was rejected by the International Congress of Medieval Studies for being “thematically and qualitatively inconsistent” with their publishing standards. Carrillo-Rangel, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, examined the music video for Madonna’s “Dark Ballet,” directed by Emmanuel Adjei, which features queer artist Mykki Blanco as a Black, HIV-positive Joan, contending that interpretations like this introduce the possibility of a historically trans patron saint.
“It is a fact that Joan of Arc was burnt due to the habit of wearing men’s clothes, whatever the reason,” Carrillo-Rangel told Hyperallergic. “That, according to the most conservative version of the dictionary, allows us to talk about Joan of Arc as a crossdresser, and this is very important in terms of representation in art.”
Still from the Shakespeare’s Globe production I, Joan (photo by Helen Murray, courtesy Shakespeare’s Globe)
Carrillo-Rangel points to Ana Torfs’s slide projector installation “Du mentir-faux” (2000), in which the artist translates historical sources on Joan’s life and death into contemporary images of androgyny. Despite all challenges, Carrillo-Rangel believes that artistic interventions can help bridge the cultural divide among trans theorists and feminists, or at least inspire further investigation.
“Queer archives need to dig deeper into the past along with their important work documenting the history of activism in the 20th and 21st centuries,” Carrillo-Rangel said. “By redirecting the conflict to a queer-TERF opposition, we miss the conservative offensive of hegemonic masculinity to which both communities become accessories to further oppression.”
In times like these, it is important to remember how fascism really works. As an example, we can look to a piece of anti-British propaganda from the Nazi puppet government of Vichy France. Joan of Arc appears in chains with a bob haircut inside the phrase, Les assassins reviennent toujours sur les lieux de leur crime (Killers always return to the scene of the crime), comparing the Hundred Years’ War to the Allied bombing of Nazi-occupied cities. This cunning rhetorical strategy, which the far right still employs today, reframes the oppressor as savior by appealing to women’s perceived vulnerability. The task now should be to ensure that no one falls for this anymore.
Citing Copyright Concerns, Getty Images Bans AI-Generated Content
An image generated by DALL-E 2 based on the text prompt “1960s art of cow getting abducted by UFO in midwest” (image by Encik Tekateki via Wikimedia Commons)
With a new world of visual potential lately opened by artificial intelligence (AI) image generators such as DALL-E and Midjourney, there is also a new world of potential legal complications. Looking to get ahead of problems before they begin, Getty Images — a massive supplier of stock photography — has banned the upload and sale of all content generated using AI art tools. The technology can quickly generate multiple takes on imagery from user-supplied text prompts, with results that range from silly, to pretty realistic, to fairly nightmarish, to truly the worst thing ever.
But where is the source material for these AI bots coming from? For the most part, it’s being scraped and remixed from the work of human artists, who use the Internet as a venue for their work to connect with audiences and potential buyers. Not only do some see this as disenfranchising to artists who have worked hard to develop a personal brand, but it also presents legal quicksand for image sites that decide to trade in AI-crafted content.
“Effective immediately, Getty Images will cease to accept all submissions created using AI generative models (e.g., Stable Diffusion, Dall-E 2, MidJourney, etc.) and prior submissions utilizing such models will be removed,” reads a statement circulated this week by the company to media and its image providers. “There are open questions with respect to the copyright of outputs from these models and there are unaddressed rights issues with respect to the underlying imagery and metadata used to train these models.”
The statement went on to clarify that the limits on submissions do not prevent 3D renderings or impact the use of digital editing tools like Photoshop and Illustrator.
When asked by Hyperallergic how many images currently on the website will be impacted by the new policy, Craig Peters, CEO of Getty Images, said: “To our knowledge, it is extremely limited within our creative content library and there were already significant controls for our editorial offering. We are communicating with other companies and communities to understand perspectives with respect to these issues, how the legal or regulatory bodies might address and whether we might be helpful to resolve.”
Getty’s decision to remove and limit such content mirrors equivalent measures being instituted by image sites like Newgrounds and Fur Affinity.
“Our entire purpose is to bring creatives together into a safe, honest, and vibrant community to create fantastic images, and so the use of 100% machine-generated images, whilst an incredible breakthrough, is not something that helps our community,” reads a September 14 statement by PurplePort CEO Russ Freeman about banning AI art on the site. “I feel that using machine-generated imag
