Restless Modernity: How sleeplessness reflects the peculiarities of contemporary life
“We live as we dream — alone…”—Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Attempting to characterise any period of history by one quality or sensation is, at best, a good way to cause an argument: at worst, a lazy oversimplification. Is the zeitgeist of a given era something that is generated
Male Nude, Man Ray (1933)
I remember my primary school art teacher exclaiming with impatience over a rather wonky still life sketch of a shoe: “Where are these black lines you’re drawing? Do you really see them?” What she meant was that real things, made of matter, don’t appear with black felt-tip outlines. Man
The Age of Extinguished Reason
We have not always had light. According to Hesiod’s epic poem, ‘Theogony’, the luxury of light was hidden by Zeus as a cruel punishment for deception. Prometheus, in an act of treachery, stole fire from Mount Olympus by smuggling a lit torch to mankind. His punishment was eternal – chained t
Gaia
“Look at its spine, Josh,” Daiyu said. The hologram flickered in front of the two of us as she scrolled through 2-D slices, presenting cross sections of a creature resembling a small, ape-like mammal. Or maybe a monkey, I’d forgotten which one used to have the tail. The perspectives th
13/06/17: The Oxford Documentary Society presents: The ISIS
The Oxford Documentary Society is very pleased to announce this event to end our year. We present The ISIS. Screening are documentaries from their broadcasting team—showcasing some of Oxford’s finest work in the field at the moment. These films have a far reaching variety in terms of their subje
Shakespeare and Shoes
As a schoolboy in Cape Town in the 1960s, I lapped up books by the American satirical writer, Richard Armour, the author who once reminded us that libraries are “places where you lower your voice and raise your mind”. Although the racially-segregated libraries of apartheid South Africa symboli
Far Away
What are you doing just now? Perhaps you’re rinsing a coffee cup Warm water caressing your hands Sea waves lap over ankles Deliberately digging your toes into the sand Speaking with a relative And something they say confirms that hope or fear you have about these days. Sunk in the sofa with siblin
Stories from Ukraine: Mezhyhirya Part I
Mezhyhirya is an estate on the outskirts of Kyiv where former Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, lived. When he fled Ukraine at the end of the Maidan protests in 2014, protestors entered his house and occupied it. This film is about the two people who are still there, now running the house as a
The Bengal Boer
The monthly British periodical, The Oldie, has a column called ‘I Once Met’. The magazine’s aged readers are encouraged to put down their walking sticks, stop chewing their false teeth, dust off their memories and submit tales of chance encounters with the famous–or notorious–faces of thei