AxS
Number 1
The world feels like a Robert Graves poem, with everything outside in and inside out at the moment. The experience of watching the news alone feels like being awake during surgery.
In response, I've decided to experiment with a new format. Long-term subscribers may recall a flirtation with a '7x7' format – a link a day in essence, but it quickly became a chore to maintain consistency with the conceptual name. I've 'branded' this AxS which is not a particularly creative interpretation of art x science, but art offers joy and inspiration, while science offers truth, understanding and progress.
In short, AxS is a list of thematically curated links, most weeks with some commentary. I'll point to longer-form articles which I'll still continue to write. I have a bookmark manager in the form of Raindrop.io which works well, but it suffers from the problem of object permanence – if it isn't seen, it doesn't exist. It has devolved into a bookmark graveyard despite disciplined tagging and categorisation, so surfacing articles and sharing ideas here feels more worthwhile.
Richard Avedon takes centre stage in three events devoted to the photographer: a new book of oral history, “Richard Avedon: The Harper’s Bazaar Years,” which came out yesterday; the exhibition “Richard Avedon: Hollywood,” opening at the Beverly Hills Gagosian Gallery on November 4; and the release of the Netflix documentary “Avedon,” directed by Ron Howard, on November 11.
On the subject of photography, a Stephen Shore exhibition opened this past Thursday at The Photographer's Gallery in London. Celebrating 50 years since William Eggleston’s Guide (1976), this major exhibition showcases iconic and rarely seen dye transfer prints by an American pioneer of colour photography. I'm going to see it in a couple of days in between research meetings.
The exhibition looks particularly at the relationship between Eggleston's colour and the visual culture around him: advertising, television, supermarkets, roadside signage and commercial printing. It also considers what can be felt in his photographs through presence and absence, including the legacy of racial segregation in the South.
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition results were just announced. There are some excellent images, and as interesting as the behaviour shown in the grand prize winner is, I'm not convinced it has sufficient artistic and technical merit for overall glory. For an image simply to exist is insufficient in my opinion.
Some images that I particularly liked: Biting Back by Andrea and Maceo Grammatico, Andy Parkinson's 'Wings of Darkness' and 'Split-Second Escape' by Jens Cullmann. In referencing these images, I realise that I know two of these photographers having met them at WildPhoto and have bumped into Jens in Mana Pools several times. I am not a fan of the subjective judgement that declares one image as being better than another nor the apparatus that surrounds photographic competitions, but if these images are able to increase interest, concern and advocacy for nature and conservation, they serve their purpose well.
On the subject of serving purposes, I appreciate that sponsorship will always be a challenge, but I would have liked to have seen the competition organisers exercise more discriminating taste in their acceptance of a headline sponsor. The competition in its earlier years has twice taken title sponsorship from fossil fuel producers: British Gas/BG Group (1990–2003) and Shell (2006–07).
Its current lead corporate sponsor, Nuveen, manages a portfolio that campaigners say holds at least $78bn in fossil fuel investments, alongside Brazilian farmland linked to deforestation in the Cerrado. In 2022, nearly 300 pension clients and activist groups complained to the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), alleging greenwashing. I know there is inherent complexity in ethical investment and extrication but to agree a sponsor who contributes to the demise of the subjects you seek to advocate for is pyrrhic, unethical and short-term thinking.
I was reminded of Deeyah Kahn's Emmy winning and BAFTA nominated 'White Right: Meeting the Enemy' documentary recently. It feels prescient to share given the US political situation and proximity to mid-term elections. You can watch the full documentary on YouTube via the link. It actually reminds me of Dave Anderson's 2006 book 'Rough Beauty' in some ways and speaks of the systemic drivers shaping America which are emboldening the disenfranchised beyond its borders.
Photographed predominantly in the poor rural town of Vidor, Texas, Rough Beauty explores the character and burden of a close-knit community branded by its past. Vidor is reviled for its history of Ku Klux Klan activities, but behind the stereotype is a town of bootstrappers struggling to get by against a background of crushing poverty almost reminiscent of the Depression. Prior to becoming a professional photographer Dave Anderson worked for Bill Clinton at the White House, and then as a producer for MTV.
The inexorable march of AI or rather OpenAI in this instance has created an existential crisis writes Hannah Fry in New Scientist. I have seen a substantial amount of commentary and concern on this topic in STEM circles since a Navier-Stokes solution was proposed by OpenAI. It is not free of controversy and Scientific American provides a good summary.
On the wider onslaught of OpenAI on mathematical problem solving, Ellie Sleightholm provides an explainer on her YouTube channel if you don't want to wade through OpenAI's GitHub repo.
I also listened to a recent episode of The Daily (The New York Times podcast) which featured Steven Strogatz, professor of Mathematics at Cornell University who describes the excitement and grief of watching A.I. absorb work that gives people a sense of purpose. I've linked to the YouTube version but no doubt available where you get your podcasts.
The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) study is a major global research project that measures and analyses democracy across the world. It is based at the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. You can read the latest report here: "Unraveling The Democratic Era?"
What is being declared in the report is the unprecedented rate of decline in the U.S., a country deteriorating faster than any other modern democracy (its score on the Liberal Democracy Index (LDI) dropping by 24% in a single year. [1]). The U.S. global rank on the LDI fell from 20th to 51st place out of 179 nations. The report attributes the shift to executive aggrandisement, the undercutting of institutional checks and balances, the politicisation of the civil service and oversight bodies, intimidation of the judiciary, and attacks on the press, academia, and civil liberties.
A friend sent me Trace in jocular revenge for the various addictive word games and mind puzzles that I have sent to (unintentionally) corrupt his productivity.
And as a final note and reminder of humanity and the power of words, a poem a day is worth your time. Everything's a Fake was a recent favourite.
Added to my indeterminably long reading and watch list: Concrete, Kikuyu Land, Chamelon Corridors, and the Wildscreen Festival Selection List. Wildscreen Festival is currently in session and offers virtual passes as an elegant way of accessing some of the films which are on limited release. Avedon is now also on the watch list just as I cancelled Netflix for not having anything worth watching.
