Ahead of tomorrow’s UK cinematic release of Moonlight, director Barry Jenkins speaks to the FT and Danny Leigh about the film, his poor upbringing, like that of Moonlight’s principal character, in Miami, and his journey into the industry. Leigh does a great job of revealing the curiosity of the man.
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The right to a view: glass, class and our transparent lives
“This metaphor of transparency got carried through to the psychopathology of the domestic. It was a built expression of the idea that light cleanses and that interior dark corners should be purged.” A very nice look at the architectural debates and practical issues with using glass as walls. How transparency has turned into a supervised dystopia.
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The tracksuit takeover
“When I see a man in a tracksuit, he can look as successful and powerful as a man who would conventionally wear a suit.” An interesting look at the power and influence of casual sportswear, and its fashion and catwalk history.
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Can high-rise buildings ever work as cohesive living spaces?
Despite the negative question there is mostly cause for celebration (or consternation if you’re a density doubter) in these case examples, starting from the Barbican and moving to chiefly Asia, there are first-hand experiences of living in high-rise blocks and the sense of community that remains.
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How Tate Modern transformed the way we see art
“More than ever, museums determine points of cultural reference. And that means picking sides.” An interesting opinion piece-cum-historical analysis of how Tate Modern has become the 7th most visited museum in the world, via spectacle, experiment and a subversion of the power relationship between artist and curator.
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Why cultural institutions should accept oil money
Re: BP sponsorship. This interesting opinion piece at the FT points out that many of the artefacts in the museums and galleries are there as a result of the complex relationships between money, politics and culture. Note: Paywalled, but access can be granted via searching for the title in a search engine.
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Digital natives still yearn for an analogue life
This is subject to FT’s paywall, but if you search the title in Google news you’ll be able to access it. It’s an opinion piece from Stephen Witt, author of the excellent book “How Music Got Free”. Here he talks about our yearning for the physical, despite how entrenched our lives are in the digital.
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How the Mad Men lost the plot
Superb essay by Ian Leslie, as he gets to the bottom of advertising’s sticking point, its failure to reproduce its conventional media success in the digital sphere. “Ad agencies have fervently embraced the digital gospel. But by doing so, say the doubters, they lost sight of what made the industry valuable in the first place.”
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The evolution of the summer blockbuster
The marketing and business strategies behind summer blockbuster releases. An analysis of the methods that contribute in making films so hot.
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