Feral girl summer proves we’re officially in our unhinged era
Following in the footsteps of goblin mode and all its deviant glory, this latest trend is yet another rebellious buck against the new wave of self-optimisation that most of us are sick and tired of seeing on our feeds. Hot on the heels of #goblinmode, a direct departure from the...
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South Korea has 15-acre floating city backed by the UN
Atop large, buoyant concrete platforms anchored to the seabed, a South Korean city will house 12,000 by the mid-century. Able to rise and fall with the water, this trailblazing project has now been backed by the UN. By the mid-century, some 800 million people will be residing in conurbations...
Is ‘main character energy’ pushing us further into self-absorption?
It might be easy to feel like we are the brightest glowing star in this experience called life, but taking main character syndrome to the extreme can be detrimental. It seems like everywhere you look these days somebody is telling you to be a little more selfish. Instagram is filled with...
Contactless payment implants are now officially a thing
In London, a tech company called Walletmor is implanting customers’ hands with contactless payment microchips. Is this the future of financial convenience, or a step too far? For the price of £230, which somewhat ironically is way beyond the contactless payment limit, London tech company Walletmor will implant your...
Tate galleries cut ties with Russian investors
After weeks of public pushback, all Tate galleries are cutting ties with billionaire Russian investors amid the war in Ukraine. Tate Group, the institution which operates Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, and Tate St Ives, has severed ties with Russian investors Viktor Vekselberg and Petr Aven. The two billionaires had...
Jack White calls for labels to launch vinyl record plants
In a statement and video, Jack White urges record labels to get serious about vinyl production. He says that supply chain issues and manufacturing bottlenecks need to be addressed. Jack White has asked major record labels to begin building their own vinyl pressing plants, citing industry wide shortages and...
Four sustainable design companies to watch out for this year
From carbon positive public seating, recycled surfboard tables, to papier-mâché guitars & repurposed plastic furniture – we’re rounding up some of the most innovative sustainable designs yet. It’s no secret that humans have historically neglected sustainability and longevity when creating designs for public spaces, appliances, and home furniture. Our affinity for ‘fast furniture’ has resulted in more than 12 million tons of cheap, unrecyclable homeware being sent to landfill by...
Studio Ghibli’s Nizo Yamamoto sells art to support Ukraine
Yamamoto works for the legendary animation company Studio Ghibli. He is selling an original piece of art to help support Ukraine’s relief effort via UNICEF. If you’re at all into animation, then you’ll be very familiar with Studio Ghibli. Heralded as one of the most influential and well-renowned animation companies in the word, Studio Ghibli is responsible for many classic films, including Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro. One of its animators,...
You Decide – is horror’s portrayal of ageing women problematic?
In the modern age of horror, elderly women playing the roles of ghoulish antagonists is fast becoming an obsessive genre trope. Many such films hold up in a commercial and critical sense, but is this perhaps indicative of harmful gender values still present within Hollywood? The Shining is one of my all-time favourite movies. Personal bias aside, though, one could argue that its most harrowing scene unintentionally sums up Hollywood’s...
These prefab ‘skins’ could make homes more energy efficient
One of our biggest challenges as we strive for a net-zero world is making existing buildings energy efficient. However, a German engineering start-up may have an ingenious solution to speed up the retrofitting process. Working smarter – and not harder – could be the solution to improving our current problem with inefficient buildings. In a bid to transition urban metropolises to net-zero over the coming decades, architects and city planners are...
