Cultural Criticism

The obsession with shopping for hidden treasure pictures is drastically changing these spots.

On a larger scale than this article from the NY Times, this is one of those things that worries me when governments try to digitise classrooms: “It could happen that the children of poorer and middle-class parents will be raised by screens, while the children of Silicon Valley’s elite will be going back to wooden toys and the luxury of human interaction”.

How to make art more valuable: have it involved in a public spectacle. But this his hardly new, see the story of the Mona Lisa and how it got popular after it was stolen.

In effect, the auction house, with the support of Banksy, brought together the split ends of contemporary art: the work of traditional craftsmanship and the art-event, with its reactionary social media hue and cry.” More here.

I have to say that my breakfast doesn’t really change much. Fun article on changes in breakfast habits around the world.

Nice video on what mainstream yoga imagery usually leaves out , via @kottke.

DNA tests are becoming on of my pet peeves: “marketing campaigns for genetic-ancestry tests also tap into the idea that DNA is deterministic, that genetic differences are meaningful. […] making DNA out to be far more important in our cultural identities than it is, in order to sell more stuff” Recommended read from The Atlantic.

Via @1843magazine: the old supersonic Concord plane that could fly from Paris to New York in about 3.5 hours as a symbol for the Jet Set lifestyle and indifference to the environment. Read about it here.

Monetization of attention and the weird children’s videos it produces.