Hobbes, Cave, Dalí, Reef, Drone
Anarchism: Vignettes Against Hobbes
Then & Now | YouTube | 9th March 2021
There are plenty of societies where Hobbes' Leviathan is conspicuously absent (the Inuit, Bushmen, Pygmies, Semai, Maghribi) but even in 1950s America, a researcher studying Wisconsin businessman was surprised to find "a world in which law was not central, where custom, and other non-contractual social practices, provided order" (17m 15s)
Traces
Les Films du Nord | Vimeo | 26th April 2019
Animated short: a tribesman and his apprentice venture deep into an ancient French cavern to paint the walls only to find themselves battling a malevolent cave lion instead. The stunningly-wrought images, apparently achieved through hand-arranged sand and paint on glass, bring a level of visceral power missing from most modern animated films (13m 10s)
Salvador Dalí’s Weird Musical World
Listening In | YouTube | 11th March 2021
Dalí claimed to be "against music," and when musical instruments show up in his paintings, they are always mutilated in some way: cracked, misshapen, pried open, melting. In one unsettling work, a man cowers underneath the ominous shadow of a grand piano. Perhaps this can be traced back to his childhood piano, which his father used to display books illustrating dangerous diseases (12m 10s)
The Libertarian Utopia That Almost Caused A War
Soliloquy | YouTube | 10th March 2021
...a chaser to the first video: the true story of some American libertarians who set up a stateless society called the Republic of Minerva on an island near Fiji in 1971. The territory was almost immediately invaded by Tonga, angering Fiji and causing international tensions—but it seems the libertarian utopia was never destined for success (6m 22s)
Browser Video Of The Week: Katy Gero on Computational Poetry
The Browser talks to poet, essayist and AI researcher Katy Gero. "Oftentimes computational poets are closer to conceptual artists – they're interested in using computers to write poems that humans wouldn't write. The computer is meant to add something new or different or complicate the process in some way. But that's not typically what I see out of AI researchers, because they're not poets" (2m 16s)
Breathtaking Video Of The Week
A swooping drone shot through a bowling alley that simply boggles the mind
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