A Public Humanities Project
Do you know that feeling when a lightbulb goes on, geographically speaking, and an abstract locale suddenly takes its place on your mental map? Like when I read Middlesex before moving to Detroit. Even though the metro city is a Read More …
The following short story is inspired by Julie Julison’s photographs. I take a step forward as the rubble rolls under my stiff shoes. Cracks mar the surface of the path as I force myself on my daily walk through what’s Read More …
Odds are, you’re reading this blog post on your phone or laptop. When did you last update its operating system? When was the last time you replaced it with a newer model? A month ago? A year? Five? More? The Read More …
A grid. A network. A convergence of lines. A web? At first glance, this image immediately inspires movement. I admit that the term movement is quite broad, but this image brings aspects of movement into play that then inspire larger Read More …
From Italy’s Maritime Mountains to Motown: Ferrania in Detroit Ferrania, which is the name of a tiny village, a factory, and a brand, is located in Italy’s maritime Alps in the region of Liguria. You get to Ferrania by taking Read More …
The following poem is inspired by Jack Cronin’s photograph. This poem seeks to engage in and explore ideas on analog, nature, ways of looking, and the Anthropocene. It is intended to be read alongside the photograph featured both above and Read More …
In a nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie opens on an apparently primordial desert landscape, where a few bored-looking girls play with porcelain babies as a narrator describes the history of dolls in voice-over. A shadow falls Read More …
Ferrania, originally the Italian company Società Italiana Prodotti Esplodenti (SIPE), began in 1882 as a factory that produced nitrocellulose-based explosive powders. When demand for this powder decreased following the “Red Terror” in Soviet Russia, the factory turned toward producing celluloid, Read More …
On July 21st, I went to see Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer in IMAX at the Michigan Science Center. The film is a fast-paced set of interwoven narratives that tell the story of historical figure J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of Read More …
What is the Anthropocene? The Anthropocene is a new (albeit unofficial) term for the geological epoch in which we are currently living. The previous epoch, the Holocene, spanned over 12,000 years, but with the dawn of the Anthropocene, we have Read More …