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Culture

Essays and videos on the arts, literature, travel, rituals and celebrations

Architecture Art Biography and memoir Dance and theatre Design and fashion Film and visual culture Food and drink Home Music Nature and landscape Rituals and celebrations Sports and games Stories and literature Subcultures Travel

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Abstract digital art of a web-like cosmic structure with purple and orange filament patterns, resembling a universe simulation.

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Cosmology

Rivers of galaxies

What is the shape of the Universe? The answer might be found in the most unassuming places here on Earth

Mark Neyrinck

Painting of a vast landscape featuring rocky hills, a woman with a child and distant snow-capped mountains under a cloudy sky.

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Nature and landscape

After independence, Mexico was in search of identity. These paintings offered a blueprint

15 minutes

Photo of an ocean sunset seen through a round window with a warm sepia tone across the sky and water.

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Language and linguistics

The grammar of a god-ocean

To truly explore alien languages, linguists must open themselves to the maximum conceivable degree of cosmic otherness

Eli K P William

Photo of a woman in a red coat gazing out a foggy window with a contemplative expression.

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Progress and modernity

Moving from Tibet to Beijing, Drolma reconciles big dreams with harsh realities

31 minutes

Vintage photo of people erecting tall structures in a tropical setting with palm trees and a thatched building.

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Art

A young Rockefeller collects art on a fateful journey to New Guinea

7 minutes

Photo of a man lying on a bed with white sheets, looking peaceful against a blue background.

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Consciousness and altered states

What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?

12 minutes

A large white cathedral with golden domes near a river, surrounded by trees with autumn colours.

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Architecture

The replica and the original

Architectural copies of lost structures require reckoning with history and heritage. At what cost is the past rebuilt?

Elizabeth Kostina

Blurry photo of a townscape with unfocused colourful lights strung across buildings in the evening.

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Ageing and death

Memories of friends and neighbours light the streets of a seaside village in England

11 minutes

Photo of ornate 18th-century women’s shoes with floral embroidery and green trim on a neutral background.

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Design and fashion

Walk in these

Shoes are deeply personal, literally moulded to our lives. But they create our social lives as much as express them

Matthew McCormack

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Music

The beat of goombay

Diasporas are made of vast constellations of countless people, fused together through memory, meaning – and music

Salwa Halloway

Cropped illustration of a person in a pink robe with orange patterns walking beside a horse, surrounded by grass and flowers.

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Gender

Taliban bride

Women in Afghanistan are prisoners in their own homes. This is the story of Marjan, married at 12 to a Taliban fighter

Zala & Asad Nariman

Photo of a modern house built over a waterfall, surrounded by dense green forest and a rocky stream.

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Architecture

A lush tour of Fallingwater – the Frank Lloyd Wright design that changed architecture

14 minutes

Vintage painting of a man with glowing eyes surrounded by floating spheres on a decorative background.

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Stories and literature

Merveilleux-scientifique

With brain swaps and death rays, a little-known French sci-fi genre explored science’s dark possibilities a century ago

Fleur Hopkins-Loféron

Photo of a woman in a floral headscarf with a man in the background against a rural autumn landscape under a clear sky.

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Home

Life moves slowly in a Romanian mountain village, shaped by care and the seasons

13 minutes

Abstract painting of textured forms resembling fibres and foliage overlaid on an antique map background.

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Art

Defying classification, fantastical artworks reframe the racism of Carl Linnaeus

8 minutes

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Film and visual culture

Space and time expand, contract and combust in this propulsive animation

5 minutes

Photo of a young woman in a pink hijab skateboarding on a ramp, with a building and a flag visible in the background.

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Sports and games

Young Palestinians find fleeting moments of freedom at a West Bank skate park

13 minutes

Painting of a man on a rocky cliff overlooking a foggy mountainous landscape, with a walking stick in hand.

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Art

Out of the fog

It’s a ‘failed painting’ that obscures the profound power of German Romanticism. Why do we love the ‘Wanderer’ so much?

Gianluca Didino

A painting of a mythical forest scene with centaurs, satyrs and wild animals in a chaotic setting.

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Nature and landscape

‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden

5 minutes

Abstract digital collage with classical statue overlayed by red lines, geometric shapes and layered images on a textured background.

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Stories and literature

Our narrative prison

The three-act ‘hero’s journey’ has long been the most prominent kind of story. What other tales are there to tell?

Eliane Glaser

Fisheye photo of a man in a suit leaning close to camera in a laundrette, with two people talking in the background.

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Gender

A catchy tune explains the world’s ‘isms’ – according to your mum doing the laundry

5 minutes

3D digital rendering of a cross-section of a Roman amphitheatre, showing architectural details and a large crowd inside.

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Architecture

A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power

17 minutes

Painting of a girl with a pearl earring in an ornate frame, viewed by three people in a gallery setting.

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Art

The ecstatic swoon

As Stendhal knew, the reason for art is to make you feel. Do not try to grasp the artwork: allow it to grasp you instead

Robert D Zaretsky

Black and white photo of a person in glasses and military attire standing in front of the Hollywood sign.

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Art

When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer

9 minutes