The Freedom Bird: Storytelling at Campsfield detention centre
A hunter was walking in the woods when he saw a bird with feathers of gleaming gold. It began to sing, but instead of a beautiful tune it squawked: “nah nah na nah-naahh”. The huntsman was irritated that such a beautiful bird had such an ugly song, and he threatened to shoot if it were […
Glassy-Eyed: A polemic against glass buildings
The vogue for christening new additions to the London skyline with cheerful nicknames began with the “Gherkin” in 1999. Ever since, architectural practices seem to have taken these nicknames as an affirmation of their work, or rather a tool to secure affirmation. A panoply of skyscrapers with eq
The Spider: Is the internet becoming conscious?
Originally conceived between the 1960s and ’80s as a communications network for the disparate US defence agencies, the internet was later turned into a limited scheme for research institutes to communicate and collaborate with one another. Gradually, the TCP/IP protocol was developed and prolifera
Phage: The antibacterial arms race
In 1896, Cambridge graduate Ernest Hankin could be seen furiously paddling a small canoe through the Ganges of India. Under a glaring sun, he measured decay in corpses recently consigned to the holy waters. Hankin describes collecting samples from these bodies: fighting off snapping turtles, plungin
No Man’s Land: Inside Women-Only Spaces
The renovated old vicarage in the small Yorkshire village of Horton-in-Ribblesdale is a perhaps unlikely setting for Britain’s only not-for-profit, cooperatively run holiday centre for women and children. But since 1980 the Women’s Holiday Centre (WHC) has been providing a place for wome
Keeping the Memory Alive (and Profitable): The problem of dead artists
There has never been a better or a worse time to be a dead celebrity. In 2012 the annual revenue generated in the USA by dead celebrities was estimated by Forbes at $2.25bn. Their work will remain; their profits are ensured but their legacies are not. After an adulatory obituary and a flurry of resu
On Reading an Evil Book: Reflections on Mein Kampf
Hitler wrote Mein Kampf at the fortress-prison at Landsberg am Lech, a roughly Abingdon-sized town in the Bavarian countryside west of Munich. He had been incarcerated there for his ill-starred attempt to overthrow the Bavarian government in 1923, and, feeling the need to at once set his doctrine do
Window-Shopping for Enlightenment: A Tour around London’s Church of Scientology
“Discover your true potential,” beckoned the golden, beatific faces on the screens lining the building. Rain dribbled, with the occasional whip of wind, as I looked up: “The Church of Scientology” emblazoned in gothic script over a shield. After some pirouetting indecision, and a furtive gla
Rebranding Boredom: How boredom can be a commercial venture
The patient cocks his thumbs out and draws his fists to his chest. Music tinkles in the back of the advert as the camera retreats and he turns, with his penis tucked between his legs, his hands performing a charade of nipples. Other patients flick at a light switch and a fountain of water is [&helli