The Gate Opened from Outside
An album track nobody was promoting crossed the sea two years later, carried by TikTok users in Thailand. Its journey followed none of the familiar rules.
CATEGORY
Art
A Blue More Precious than Gold
The price of paint once determined whose robes would be blue. A short history of ultramarine.
The Portrait Painters' Anxiety Returns
In 1839, photography alarmed portrait painters. Some 180 years later, AI image generation poses a similar question. What has technology taken from depicting people, and what could it never take?
Toward the Sound That Fades
Sakamoto's final years of music leaned toward sounds disappearing rather than resounding. Why do endings in sound move us? A quiet reflection on his work.
Cultivating Your Own Eye
Choose what speaks to you rather than a famous name. How to meet a piece you can live with for years.