The Cabbagehead
Years ago, I studied the work of a photomontage artist called John Heartfield. “Heartfield” is the adopted name of Helmut Herzfeld (1891-1968), a German adamantly opposed to the rising Nazi party in the 1920s...
I am a digital immigrant
I only heard of the term “digital immigrant” a few days ago and would like to pay my rather belated respects to Marc Prensky, who, in 2001, coined the terms “native” and “immigrant” to...
Chord Change
The best news in many days came from Germany this morning, specifically from the church of St. Burchardi in Halberstadt. There, a performance of an organ composition by the irrepressibly inventive musician John Cage...
Alice and Bob and Spooky Effects in Time
The little comic strip reproduced here is from the NASA website. “Alice” and “Bob” are not people, certainly. They might be particles, but they don’t have to be. They’re pretty much complete abstractions, and...
Who do you think you are?
Lambert Wiesing, the only practicing phenomenologist I know, just published a book about the perception of self (Ich für mich). It’s a difficult argument, as you might expect. It turns out that proper philosophers have simply never...
Zooming life away
Apparently Zoom burnout has become a recognised condition. It’s a bit like what the virus is doing to us all, flattening, numbing, draining, insolating…stupefying? The British actress/comedienne, Diane Morgan got it exactly right, I think....