Evil, Vertigo, Energy, Fresco, Babel
How We Become Genocidal
Then & Now | YouTube | 27th January 2021
Addressing an age-old question: how do normal people end up participating in evil? One obvious factor in 1930s Germany was the abhorrent conditions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles: "the frustration of basic human needs is almost always experienced relative to some other group." And so the Jews became the behind-the-scenes orchestrator of everything Germans feared and resented (1h 1m 48s)
The Art Of Framing: Hitchcock's Vertigo
Danny Bellini | YouTube | 19th March 2018
Visual analysis of Vertigo, maybe the most enigmatic film of the 20th century. The argument is that left-to-right movement represents clarity and progress, while right-to-left movement represents confusion and regress. For example, "throughout these painful moments of watching Scottie change Judy into Madeleine, he's always forcing her into the left of the frame" (12m 59s)
How Many People Did Nuclear Energy Kill?
Kurzgesagt | YouTube | 2nd February 2021
Answer: not as many as you might think. "One study found that nuclear energy actually saved two million lives between 1971 and 2009 by displacing fossil fuels from the global energy mix." And while Chernobyl and Fukushima have killed hundreds directly and (possibly) thousands indirectly, the Banqiao Flood—a Chinese hydro-power accident—may have killed over 240,000 alone (10m 39s)
Marc Chagall's Ceiling for the Paris Opera
The Canvas | YouTube | 25th January 2021
...is flat-out awe-inspiring—flowing, colorful, playful, endlessly complex. And yet many feel that the "luxury and classical aesthetic of the red and gold theater do not concord whatsoever with its new multicolored ceiling", that the "inconsistency created by the placement of a modern work of art in a premodern setting disrupts the intended harmony." The tension, ultimately, is left unresolved (7m 14s)
Otherworldly Video Of The Week
An eerie tour through an animated reconstruction of Borges's Library of Babel
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