Beauty Price

The Beauty Of Everyday Things

Graham McKay | Misfits' Architecture | 4th February 2024

Thoughts on the aesthetics of handmade objects in the age of total mass production. The Japanese philosopher Soetsu Yanagi was bemoaning this in 1933, and the effects have only become more pronounced — what we’re left with is “poorly designed and overpriced goods”. The writer’s own shelves, though, contain mass produced ceramics that have been designed to look handmade (2,200 words)

The Price Is Wrong

Sharon Su | Van | 15th February 2024

Bad editing is making it difficult to perform works by a wider range of classical composers. The Black American composer Florence Price is one such — the sheet music available today is so badly put together that it is barely usable. “It’s like being told to memorise a Shakespeare monologue and discovering that the only available copy of Hamlet’s speech begins ‘To beef or not to beef’” (3,400 words)