This week The World Economic Forum are highlighting 4 top stories:
What is hyperinflation,
the impact of climate change on the Alps,
a record breaking super computer and
the world’s first autonomous ship.
The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.
The exact sum of its parts, The Gallery House features spaces both grand and small, each expressing their own narrative. Crafted by Workroom, the super house stands as an exemplary piece of interior design and architecture. Situated in the well-established suburb of Toorak,
00:00 – The Local Project Print Publication 00:10 – Introduction to the Super House 01:27 – Creating Continuity with Materials 02:30 – Use of Stone in the House 02:47 – Landscape Design 03:21 – Natural Light 03:50 – A Sense of Timelessness 04:27 – What the Architect is Most Proud Of
The Gallery House sits amongst other large family homes and gardens. Despite its spatial openness, the super house is designed in allusion to experiences yet to come, flowing towards other aspects of itself and its context. A house tour of the property reveals the extent of its size. A true super house, the residence contains 4 bedrooms, 2 lounge rooms and vast, double-height voids. Workroom purposely conceals the size of the home from the street, creating anticipation and intrigue, using a curved concrete wall to the entry as a reveal of what is to come. The modern materials of concrete, terrazzo, timber and stone feature consistently in the super house. Subverting expectations, Workroom uses the characteristically heavy concrete to craft an elegant staircase that appears effortlessly lightweight, whilst timber and green stone facilitate an open connection to the lush landscaping. Embracing a raw materiality, Workroom creates a super house that will gracefully express the passage of time. With the capacity to visually evolve with age, The Gallery House is a successful interpretation of modern refinement.
This week: why is Tate rejecting an archive of material relating to Francis Bacon, 18 years after acquiring it?
Our London correspondent Martin Bailey tells us about his recent scoop that Tate is returning a thousand documents and sketches said to have come from the studio of Francis Bacon to Barry Joule, a close friend of the artist, who donated them to Tate in 2004. We then discuss the material with Martin Harrison, the pre-eminent Bacon scholar and editor of the catalogue raisonné of Francis Bacon’s work published in 2016, and to Sophie Pretorius, the archivist at the Estate of Francis Bacon, who went through the Barry Joule archive item by item. Victoria Munro, the director of the Alice Austen House Museum in New York, discusses this still too-little-known photographer, and her documentation of immigration to the United States and the lives of queer women in the 19th and early 20th centuries. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Weißes Bild (1994), a painting by the late Luxembourg-born artist Michel Majerus, now on view at Art Basel—Aimee Dawson, acting digital editor, is at the fair and talks to Giovanni Carmine, curator of the Unlimited section, in which the painting appears.
Sophie Pretorius’s essay Work on the Barry Joule Archive is in the book Francis Bacon: Shadows published by the Estate of Francis Bacon and Thames and Hudson.
For more on the Alice Austen House Museum, visit aliceausten.org. The podcast My Dear Alice is out in the autumn.
In February 2022, the British Isles were hit by three consecutive storms, some of the strongest seen in decades. In the days before the storms arrived, we decided to change the plan for our canoeing expedition whilst we were already on our way to Scotland. Instead of paddling the exposed lochs along the west coast, we opted for a more sheltered location. A glen tucked away right in the heart of the highlands. This film showcases the highlights of our journey.
What’s on the agenda of this year’s “Russian Davos”? Plus: we speak with the head of the Latin America desk at Reporters Without Borders and give you the latest art and culture news.
In its third public hearing to lay out its findings, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack showed evidence that the president knew his order to the vice president was unlawful.
A previously unidentified population of polar bears documented on the southeast coast of Greenland uses glacier ice to survive despite limited access to sea ice.
Chris Frost captures the magic of Dorset’s hidden woods Essential tips for successful mountain photography James Roddie introduces the art of camera trapping Vincent Munier discusses his stunning new nature film
The thought of finding alien life has fascinated people since the time of the ancient Greeks—but developments in astrobiology could be about to turn this possibility into reality. How do you hunt for life beyond Earth—and might this be the decade when we find it?
Chapters: 00:00 – Is there life beyond Earth? 00:56 – How has the search for life evolved? 02:36 – What signs of life are scientists looking for? 03:48 – What are biosignatures? 04:28 – How to find intelligent life 06:03 – How telescopes today have improved our search 07:52 – Expanding the search beyond Earth
Read more of Alok Sharma’s coverage on the search for life in space: https://econ.st/3zw1Hxt
When travel writer and novelist Mary Morris was badly injured in an ice-skating accident, she feared that her life of adventure was over. But a quote from Thomas Mann convinced her otherwise: “He would go on a journey. Not far. Not all the way to the tigers.” Thus began Morris’s three-year-quest — which does take her far, from Brooklyn to the jungles of India — to find a tiger in the wild. Like her much-lauded memoir Nothing to Declare, Morris’s latest book is a thoughtful, spiritual, genre-bending journey.
Soft Skull Press
Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria
By Noo Saro-Wiwa ’01JRN (2012)
Noo Saro-Wiwa spent her childhood in the United Kingdom, traveling back to her native Nigeria only on summer vacations. But when she was nineteen, her father, a journalist and activist, was killed by Nigerian police. Saro-Wiwa returned to her homeland to reckon with her father’s legacy and try to understand the history of the nation that killed him. Part memoir, part family history, and part travelogue, it’s an intriguing (and surprisingly funny) look at a very complicated country.
Mariner Books
Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am
By Julia Cooke ’13SOA (2021)
There’s nothing glamorous about flying these days, so it’s extra fun to tag along with Julia Cooke back to the 1960s, the golden age of air travel, when working as a Pan Am stewardess was peak cool. Cooke tells five such women’s stories, which run the gamut from the enviable (shopping sprees in Paris and beach holidays in the Philippines) to the unbelievable (evading the KGB in Moscow and smuggling a newsreel out of war-torn Pakistan).
Getty Research Institute
Meyer Schapiro Abroad: Letters to Lillian and Travel Notebooks
By Meyer Schapiro ’24CC, ’35GSAS, edited by Daniel Esterman ’65CC (2009)
Meyer Schapiro is known as one of the twentieth century’s most accomplished art historians. But in 1926 and 1927, he was still a Columbia graduate student, studying abroad in Europe and the Middle East. The letters that he wrote to his then fiancée, Lillian, as well as the notebooks that he kept, are ripe with budding observations on art and politics and represent a fascinating time capsule of intellectual life nearly a century ago.
St. Martin’s Press
Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World
By M. R. O’Connor ’08JRN (2019)
Technology has made wayfinding — “the use and organization of sensory information from the environment to guide us” — almost obsolete. But before GPS, or even written maps, humans purposefully traveled great distances across the earth. Journalist M. R. O’Connor draws on disciplines from neuroscience to anthropology to explore how they did it. Her findings are fascinating, and so is her journey to reach them, which takes her to the Arctic tundra, the Australian outback, and the islands of the South Pacific.
Jonglez Publishing
Secret Brooklyn: An Unusual Guide
By Michelle Young ’12GSAPP and Augustin Pasquet (2019)
Michelle Young, an adjunct professor of architecture at Columbia, is the founder of Untapped New York, a website dedicated to the secret corners and hidden gems of America’s biggest city. So it’s no surprise that her guide to Brooklyn is equally full of treasures — things like the world’s oldest subway tunnel and a museum built into the hallway of a Williamsburg apartment building. It’s an indispensable resource for visitors and residents alike.
Sarika Bansal
Tread Brightly: Notes on Ethical Travel
Edited by Sarika Bansal ’12SIPA (2021)
Editor Sarika Bansal is a true citizen of the world: she has lived on five continents, speaks four languages, and has traveled extensively. So she’s more than qualified to ask tough questions and offer wisdom about how to travel ethically. The essays and photos in her collection tackle topics like the ecological implications of cruise ships, the ways that study-abroad programs and “orphanage tourism” impact communities, and the role that privilege plays in exploration. It’s a timely wake-up call, with plenty of thoughtful ideas for the future.
Ecco
The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty
By Vendela Vida ’96SOA (2015)
One of the most alluring elements of travel is self-reinvention, an idea central to Vendela Vida’s captivating, mind-bending thriller. Upon arriving at her hotel in Casablanca, Vida’s heroine is robbed of her passport and all her belongings. Strangely liberated by the crime that stripped her of her identity, she starts posing as a famous film star, which takes her on a series of mysterious adventures. Vida’s writing is full of fun twists, and any armchair traveler will delight in her portrait of the sunbaked Moroccan city.
Kyle Books
Italy for the Gourmet Traveler
By Fred Plotkin ’80JRN (2014)
There are plenty of good reasons to travel to Italy, but for most people the food is high on the list. And Fred Plotkin — an expert on Italian opera and cuisine — is the consummate guide. He has tips on the best restaurants, gelato stands, markets, wineries, and olive-oil distilleries, from the bustling centers of Rome and Milan to tiny villages off most tourist-trodden paths. Plotkin is working with travel-guide guru Rick Steves on a new gastronomic guide to Italy, out in 2023. Until then, this fifth edition remains an excellent resource.
Seal Press
Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents
By Elisabeth Eaves ’99SIPA (2011)
Elisabeth Eaves lives by the notion that you can “go off into the world and let it carry you along.” Her memoir chronicles fifteen years of truly globe-spanning travel — from the busy streets of Cairo to the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Almost every new place comes with a romance, but Eaves is clearly reluctant to settle down with any of the men she meets. It’s a journey that will speak to anyone who craves the unknown and fears the mundane.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
Boomers Daily 