Is the Internet Broken? How Technology, Social Media and AI Changed Us

Is the internet broken?  What would your answer be?  My knee-jerk response, with little to no reflection, is “bloody hell, yes”.  Yet giving it a little more thought, I think my response is more likely to be “it’s as broken as you want it to be”.  Throughout history, we have had cultural revolution after cultural revolution – and whether our distant ancestors would like us (or vice versa) if we were to somehow meet, we’ll never know. My guess is that they would be bewildered by us, frankly.  Yet each new development presented different opportunities to different people.  Take literacy – after its development, some wrote poetry while others scribbled graffiti on walls (Pompeii is a great example, where it survived unlike the scrolls the poetry was written upon).  Then there was television.  The BBC (which made this video) set out to inform and educate the masses, while the commercial channels quickly got the upper hand (viewer wise) by bestowing us with gifts like the soap opera and the advertising break.

And then, of course, there is the internet.  On one hand, we have the likes of Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia) who wish to disseminate and make available knowledge that in terms of its accessibility, our grandparents could only dream of.  Now we can settle arguments in a second, a few clicks and swipes…  but fifty years ago, if you were debating the name of the capital of Mongolia, and you didn’t happen to have an encyclopaedia to hand, the correct answer would take a while to ascertain.  You get my drift.  On the other hand, we have a host of companies trying to sell us their product at any cost, social media turning our children into slavering zombies and artificial intelligence, which isn’t always right and doesn’t care either way.  Add engagement algorithms into the mix and perhaps the tool had become the master…

There’s a clip in the video below about just that, really.  When asked about the internet by an interviewer “But it’s just a tool, isn’t it?”, David Bowie responds with: “No it’s not. It’s an alien life form”.  Perhaps he could have added “intent on world domination not by death and destruction but by stealth and seduction”.  The video features interviews with several people who know what they’re talking about, including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Hatelab director Matthew Williams, author (whose novels are free on Project Gutenberg so he puts his money, as it were, where his mouth is) and activist Cory Doctorow. There are also some students at the University of Cardiff, who seem equally as baffled and bewildered by both the past and the present, bless ‘em.

Let me stop babbling. Have a look at the video.

Avantgardey – Buzz Runner Official Music Video (アバンギャルディ)

Get ready for a buzz explosion! The official music video by Avantgardey for their single Buzz Runner, is finally out – and it doesn’t disappoint.  As chaotic and visually stimulating as you might expect.  Although there is no cohesive story to the video, I would say it is something along these lines.  You might not get what you expect from social media and often people will post things about you that are hurtful and unnecessary.  However, take solace in the fact that you are an extraordinary individual with real inner strength and resilience – not to mention the ability to eat cakes many times your size and deal with the occasion Tyrannosaurus Rex without any problem whatsoever.  Your presence is going to blow up! Well, that’s just my take on it – I think there is plenty of scope for you to make of this what you want to make of this, and there may be something of a cautionary tale embedded in here... somewhere!   As ever for this group, it’s deliriously frenetic and positively joyous – an Avantgardey video always makes my day simply because of its incredible joie-de-vivre.

I'm not entirely sure what Buzz Runner itself means.  It reminds me of Blade Runner, so there could be a connection there, except that here the girls are rushing after the buzz of the online moment, not androids! Answers on a postcard, please!   I think it is about the lengths people go to in order to attract attention on social media. After all, the first line translates as Likes are oxygen, my oxygen.

At the time of writing, this only just premiered on YouTube.  However, fans are already absolutely loving how chaotic, hilarious, and packed with detail the new video is, with many saying there is they are going to have to watch it numerous times in order to take everything in.  The early viewers also praised the incredibly elaborate visuals and the unique, quirky personalities of each member.  There are several memorable moments that they have pointed out - Nona's dash, Miyuu's "killer eye-beam," Sei-chan's adorable opening, Pani's sky bowl, the water backflip, and the unexpected lion (not to mention the T-Rex!).  So, you could say that the reaction is very positive!

The track itself was choreographed by akane, the leader and creative force behind Avantgardey, who also contributed to the music and lyrics.   If you like Avantgardey, then the video will not disappoint.  If you are new to this Japanese sensation, then… where have you been?

Toomorrow (1970): The Lost Olivia Newton-John Sci-Fi Musical That Was Meant to Launch a Trilogy

When I first started to watch this clip from Toomorrow, I initially thought that it was a very cleverly rendered pastiche of late 1960s pop music.  The colours were spot on, the costumes were groovy and the music very much of its time.  Then I had a wait a second moment because the girl singer in the clip looked remarkably like a young, pre-Grease Olivia Netwon-John (or Neutron-Bomb as we would sometimes call her).   Sure enough, a little research (OK, reading the video's information) told me that it was indeed a 21 year old ONJ, from a 1970 science-fiction musical (the first?). It was about a band kidnapped by aliens (a couple pictured below) to save their species… with music. I’m not alone in thinking this was a modern-day, very clever take on the late Sixties.  Many people have commented on this on YouTube, with one saying: was going to comment that this is the most period-accurate sendup I've ever seen... then realized why it's so "accurate".

If anything, that made me scratch my head even more, because being a bit of a science-fiction buff, I might not have been old enough to watch this movie on its first release, but I would almost certainly have caught it later on TV (and it looks harmless enough to be repeated ad infinitum as part of summertime scheduling) or on video release. That was, after all, how I had discovered a number of films, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Planet of the Apes and Barbarella – I could go on.  There was a treasure trove of films from the late sixties for me to get my teenage paws on.  But not Toomorrow.  I had not even the vaguest recollection of this film – and I would almost certainly have given it a watch had I known of its existence, particularly because of Newton-John’s subsequent global stardom. 

Bottom of the Well: A Touching Animated Story About a Mouse and Friendship

This is short but very sweet.  A young mouse, out on an expedition, falls down a well.  Now, that might not end well (ah!), but at the bottom, in despair, he meets a new friend who might be the key to his survival.  Yet, this involves sacrifice.  I won’t tell you anymore because spoilers, but give it a watch, particularly if you are feeling a little down in the dumps today.  The screenshot above might give you a small clue, but I have no doubt that Bottom of the Well will cheer you up!

This animated short was the thesis film for two young creatives at SVA (School of Visual Arts in New York).  Xinyu Shen directed and produced, created the story and worked on the animation and editing.  Meanwhile, Charlie Yuyung Luo was co-producer and contributed character modelling, look development and the 2D cutscene animation.  Together they have created something very sweet – and very special.  Have a watch below.

Remembering Kevin Keegan: His Forgotten Hit Single, Head Over Heels in Love (1979)

We're not a sports website, so we won't pretend to be experts on Kevin Keegan's remarkable football career (although I really like him when I was a kid). Like millions of others, though, we were saddened to hear of his passing. While he will forever be remembered as one of England's greatest footballers and most charismatic managers, there's another, rather unexpected chapter in his story that many people may have forgotten - or perhaps never knew. In 1979, at the height of his fame, Keegan ventured into the music charts with Head Over Heels in Love, a surprisingly successful single that became a hit in several European countries (Top Ten in Germany, where he was playting at the time) and remains a fascinating footnote in the career of a true sporting icon.

The outpouring of tributes following Kevin Keegan's death reflects not only his extraordinary football career but also the affection in which he was held as a person. Just on this obscure YouTube video alone, fans are remembering him as "King Kev," a footballing legend and a true gentleman whose influence stretched far beyond the clubs he played for and managed. One supporter recalled following whichever team Keegan played for as a child, while another said he was the reason they became a Newcastle United fan in 1994. Others remembered his trademark curls, describing him as their first crush, or simply mourned the loss of a hero who inspired generations. Even listeners who first encountered him through his recording with Smokie shared their sadness. The messages came from across Europe, with one fan poignantly observing that "Germany mourns an exceptional English player," underlining Keegan's enduring international appeal.

As fans around the world remember Kevin Keegan the footballer, it's worth also remembering Kevin Keegan the entertainer. Head Over Heels in Love may never rival his achievements on the pitch, but it remains a charming reminder of a time when one of football's brightest stars wasn't afraid to try something completely different.

Coming Soon: The People of 1926

Last year we brought The People of 1925 figuratively back to life in an article that went beyond the politics of the day to focus on ordinary people leading everyday lives. It attracted a wider readership than we expected, so we've decided to follow it up with The People of 1926.

The research is taking a little longer than anticipated (just as it did last year), but look out for the article over the next few weeks. As before, we'll be exploring the faces, fashions, and fragments of ordinary lives from 1926, and, where possible, discovering what happened to those people afterwards.

Meet Justin Time: The Homemade Talk Show Host Who Pulls No Punches

I had an email from one of my former students, Will Ross, the other day.  It was short and sweet (which was surprising considering the reams he used to write for classwork just, I suspect, to extend my marking misery). Regardless, he moved on to pastures (and professorial victims) new and I thought I’d seen the back of him. But oh no – he just had to share his latest video with me because “I remembered that Welsh people have a sense of humour too”.  I should refer him to something widely but incorrectly attributed to Dylan Thomas: “The Welsh pray on their knees on Sunday, but prey on their neighbours for the rest of the week”.  It’s a bad play on words, but if you enjoy that kind of thing, then watch Will’s video; it’s full of them…

We have former roving but sadly disgraced (don’t ask) reporter Justin Time - who occasionally changes his name – reduced to producing his own TV Chat Show at home.  Never mind, he has the coup of the century – any century - an interview with Adolf Hitler (who just happened to be in the area promoting his new vegetarian cookbook and believes that Justin still works for the BBC).  Justin doesn’t spare the sometime dictator – he goes straight in for the kill with a series of questions that are a combination of probing, persistent and provocative. No, sorry. They’re puerile, preposterous and piss-taking – which is what makes them funny. I must admit I missed a few of the punchlines the first watch, but Mr Time quickly beats the boy from Branau into a corner where there is just one (not even a last) resort…

I think if Terry Jones had had access to video technology, then this is exactly the kind of thing he would have been making in his Colwyn Bay living room.  It’s rough around the edges, for sure, but it did what it set out to do – provoked laughter.  Have a watch – and yes, of course I am featuring this just in case Will is hailed as a comic genius in ten years.  I will also be available for interview (for a small fee) where I can expound on Will’s classroom antics, but could I have Louis Theroux rather than Justin Time, please?  He might let me off more lightly.

Twin Islands: A Beautiful Animated Short About Twins, Gods and the Curse of Symmetry

When the gods wish to punish us… and if you’re twins, then your run the risk of double trouble.  This animated short from Rubika students tells the story of a pair of twins who are rescued by the gods and are gifted a place to live.  Twin Island East for one, and Twin Island West for the other.  The only problem is that the gods (twins themselves) ordain that everything must go two by two in a kind of cult of symmetry.  That leads to a big problem when the queen of Twin Island West gives birth… and it isn’t twins!

To find out what happens, watch the video the below.  This very professionally made animation is the work of directors Manon Sailly, Charlotte Sarfati, Christine Jaudoin, Lara Cochetel, Raphaël Huot, and Fanny Teisson with music and sound design by Valentin Lafort. Voices are by Daphné Westelynck, Robert Bennett, and Eon Ballinger.  There is a little twist in the tale, so watch to the very end!

Robert Wun FW26 Haute Couture: Childsplay and the Art of Wearable Imagination

We don’t usually feature fashion on Kuriositas, but when this video of Robert Wun's FW26 (which stands for Fall/Winter 2026 in case you didn't already know) Haute Couture show, Childsplay, popped up in my feed, I felt I had to share because these clothes are something else.  The event took place on Wednesday, 8 July 2026, during Paris Haute Couture Week at the Dôme de Paris – and if your reaction is like mine, it will be something along the lines of who the hell is ever going to wear these?

I remember being schooled on haute couture by a friend.  She told me that the question was almost an irrelevance – that it wasn’t the point of the exercise.  That, of course led to more questions from me…  

The answer was (with a slight roll of the eyes, if I remember correctly) that haute couture sits somewhere between fashion and art. The runway pieces are not designed for everyday life; they are a showcase of imagination, craftsmanship and what a designer can achieve when there are no practical limits. Think of them less as clothes and more as wearable sculptures. Well, that was me told – and so since then I have always looked at these events less cynically.

Childsplay is a perfect example. Robert Wun takes the memories and imagination of childhood – toys, fairy tales, balloons and dressing up – and transforms them into astonishing works of couture. It is playful, but underneath the fantasy is an incredible level of skill, with some pieces taking hundreds of hours to create.  I can't imagine the hours of work that went into my favorite from this show, the spacegirl outfit - you will know which one I mean when you see it!

So, who actually wears them? A very select group: celebrities, performers, collectors and wealthy private clients. Wun’s clients have included Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Cate Blanchett, Cardi B, Adele, Celine Dion, Florence Pugh and Naomi Osaka, among others. Many of the looks they wear are custom-made rather than identical to the runway versions. Robert Wun’s creations have appeared on red carpets and major events, where the clothing becomes part of the spectacle itself. For these buyers, a couture piece is not simply an outfit; it is a one-of-a-kind work of art.  

And perhaps that is why Childsplay is worth watching. You may never own one of these creations, and you may never have an occasion to wear one, but for a few minutes Robert Wun reminds us of something we often lose as adults – the joy of imagination without limits.

What Are Those Things on Giraffes’ Heads?

Perhaps we spend so long looking at the main creature feature of giraffes – their elegant, incredibly extended necks – that we miss other interesting bits.  That may be the case with those things on the top of their heads (and we don’t mean their ears!).  So, what are they and what are they used for?  The Ark in Space, our sibling site, has a new feature on this most interesting anatomical oddity with a cool gallery of giraffes to boot. So, nudge nudge, wink wink, pop over and take a look!

They certainly have the most fascinating of faces…

First Image Credit Second Image Credit

Tanked: The Award-Winning Animated Short About Two Lobsters, Love and Karma

Have you ever had a romantic moment interrupted? It can be annoying – and it is certainly the case for the two lobsters in Tanked an award winning animated short by Duncan Rudd.  Their tango in a tank is interrupted by the chef, who has a dinner order to fulfil and a sadistic gleam in his eye.  Well, you know what karma is…

Tanked was something of a passion project for Rudd, who fitted it in around family and work commitments over a period of nine months.  Although this animation is short and sweet, the production values are very high – you feel that you know the lobsters well from almost the outset – and the chef is a great villain.  If you enjoy this, then perhaps try Paul Rudd’s The Ballad of the Pale Blue Dot which we featured on Kuriositas last year.

Haka Pei: Easter Island's Ancient Extreme Sport That Sends Warriors Racing Down a Volcano

Take two banana tree trunks, lash them together, point them downhill and jump on board.  Get your mates involved and turn it into a competition.  You might not associate Easter Island with extreme sports, but they have been part of the island's culture for centuries (with the occasional hiatus).  There is no doubt that the highlight of the annual Tapati Rapa Nui Festival is the Haka Pei competition. Although the festival also celebrates Rapa Nui culture through singing, swimming, cooking demonstrations and countless other events, few can compete with the spectacle of hurtling down the side of an extinct volcano wearing nothing more than a loincloth and body paint. Image Credit

The origins of this sport trace back to an ancient Rapa Nui rite of passage, where young people tested their courage by taking on the daring haka pei descent. Completing the challenge proved they possessed the bravery and resilience expected of adults, earning some the status of matato'a - elite warriors. In this tradition, the haka pei marked the passage from childhood into adulthood.

Another account tells a different story. Rather than a coming-of-age ritual, the haka pei may have been a form of warrior training, designed to instil fearlessness and prepare fighters for clashes between rival clans on the island.

Does the exact origin of the sport matter?  Not to the huge crowds gathered at the bottom of the hill, waiting to see how each of the twenty or so competitors will fare.  Who will travel the furthest? Or who will be unfortunate and be flung off their fragile sled half-way down?  The anticipation is huge, not least among the competitors, and it is great to see how they congratulate each other so enthusiastically when their mission is complete.  The hill is covered in grass, but beneath that thin layer lies volcanic tuff capable of breaking bones when riders crash. And crashes do happen. As you might imagine, health-and-safety officials are not among Haka Pei's biggest fans. However, it all seems the height of fun for young men with more courage than common sense!  Flippancy aside, I can’t think of a better way to keep an ancient culture alive.  Watch the video below to enjoy haka pei in all its glory for yourself.

Can AI Come Up With Original Ideas? Rational Animations Explains AI Brilliantly

This video by Rational Animations begins with Babbage's Analytical Engine, which may leave you wondering why. Well, he did design history’s first programmable computer and even though it was back in the Victorian era, a video about AI must start somewhere. Of course, as the video is called Can AI Come Up With Original Ideas? we know that more is to come – and it gets to Aletheia and Google’s AlphaEvolve in due course.

Babbage’s design was never built, so the steampunk era remains (more or less) a fantasy.  His ideas were expanded upon by Ada Lovelace, who took things to another level by wondering whether machines – computers – could come up with their own ideas. Now, Ada thought that they couldn’t (not Babbage’s at any rate).  After all, artificial intelligence lacks artifice, therefore intelligence (not to get too philosophical). Or does it?

Coming up to our own day and age, it is the lack of clarity around what counts as a new idea that complicates things.  As an English teacher, I will certainly go with the fact that each and every story ever told usually revolves around (at least) one of six basic plots So although something may seem fresh and original - Harry Potter, for example, thirty years ago - it often succeeds because it repackages something timeless for a new generation.

And so, it’s up to you to see what comes next by watching the wonderfully told video below – and I have to say the animations are just brilliant too.  Do our machines simply follow our instructions with a little randomness thrown in (aka genetic algorithms) or is there more at play here, such as neural networks? Who can say, but I certainly didn’t think I would be coming across stochastic parrots today – or grokking for that matter (sounds a bit Carry On, if you ask me). Watch the video and decide for yourself whether today's AI is doing anything genuinely original.  I watched it twice – and I will admit, I did enjoy it the first time, but the second time was to understand it. It doesn’t half pack a lot into 13 minutes.

Just before you watch the video, I asked Chat GPT what it thought of the video – in a nutshell.  It said: “Watching it is a bit like following Alice down the rabbit hole, except the White Rabbit is Charles Babbage and the Cheshire Cat is a stochastic parrot.”  Ah, the times in which we live.

Echo & the Bunnymen’s Brussels Is Haunted: A Beautiful, Melancholic Return to Form

I didn’t realise that Echo & the Bunnymen was still going as a band, but after hearing Brussels is Haunted, I am glad that it is.  I remember Ian McCulloch leaving the band in the late 1980s and then there was a resurrection in the late 1990s with Evergreen, but after that I lost track. They are now apparently a two-piece, with original members Will Sergeant on lead guitar and programming and Ian McCulloch on vocals, rhythm guitar and keyboards.  So, you can tell I’m not a diehard Bunnymen fan, but I think Brussels is Haunted is a great track. Plus there is a new album, Apples for Isaac coming out in September.

You can watch the video below, which is by Jef de Smet, and an intriguing, animated piece that matches the mood and the lyrics perfectly.  Even though I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a performance of the song as such, the video is a fantastic evocation of Brussels as a place of ghosts, memories and faded glamour - a city where history, art and personal stories seem to linger in every street and square. Like the song itself, it feels both nostalgic and slightly unreal, capturing that very Bunnymen combination of beauty, mystery and melancholy.  Plus, any song that namechecks Plastic and Bert Bertrand is going to get a listen or two from me…

Brussels Is Haunted feels like Echo & the Bunnymen turning Brussels into a dreamscape where personal memories collide with European history. The city is haunted not by ghosts alone, but by wars, art, romance and lost moments - from World War I, Waterloo and World War II to the imagined threat of World War III. In classic Bunnymen fashion, melancholy, myth and destiny blur together: Brussels is haunted because we are.

As a quick aside, while I wrote this, I put Ocean Rain on – because why not? I’ve already put a sell-by date on myself by saying I remember the original split and so a little wander down memory lane wasn’t going to do me any harm.  I think almost anyone of my generation will recognise the opening chords of Silver – the first track on the album and although I believe that most people will say The Killing Moon is the standout track on the album, for me it’s The Yo Yo Man.  It’s amazing to think how the Bunnymen pumped out four brilliant albums over the first five years of the 1980s (and that we took it for granted!).  I seem to remember McCulloch describing Ocean Rain as the greatest album ever made – and he wasn’t that far wrong, frankly.   Brussels Is Haunted is pretty good, too… and after decades of Bunnymen mythology, perhaps the only thing left is to mythologise the mythology itself.

Mount Nemrut – Home to Gods Beheaded

The Adiyaman Province of Turkey in the south east of the country is not wealthy – it is still classified as a developing rural region. Yet 25 miles from the small town of Kâhta the visitor discovers the remnants of once fabulous wealth.  High on the summit of Mount Nemrut is a huge but little visited necropolis, home to the beheaded gods of the past.

Image Credit Flickr User birasuegi

The Wee Tiny Gallery - London's Newest Art Hot-Spot for the Borrower Community

The Borrower community is agog with excitement. At last, they have The Wee Tiny Art Gallery on London’s Princelet Street, near Brick Lane: a space where people of their diminutive stature can admire fine art at reasonable prices. Who am I trying to kid? They’re going to borrow it, of course. Even so, it saves them from scaling enormous walls just to inspect a painting, and its contents are perfectly sized to fit into any cosy little niche at home. As you can imagine, queues are already forming.  Image Credit

Image

Flippancy aside, you would probably walk straight past it - zooming out shows you just how tiny it is. Created through a collaboration between McKay Lenker Bayer of the Tiny Art Show, illustrator Holly Welch, and small-spaces builder and artist John Connors, this miniature masterpiece is both a gallery and a work of art. Showcasing Holly Welch’s exquisitely detailed miniatures within a beautifully crafted structure, it is almost certainly the smallest art gallery in London and the UK - and quite possibly the smallest in the world.  We would ask a Borrower, but not one seems currently available for comment...

 The video below by Daft Monkey goes into more detail about the Wee Tiny Art Gallery. Press play and it will go straight to the part about The Wee Tiny Gallery (about the five minute mark, although the rest of the video is very interesting too!).

 

 If you would like to see how it was made, here is a short video by the artists.

  

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Bog: The Beautiful Irish Animated Short That Explores Grief and Memory

Bog is an enigmatic, beautifully made animated short, written and directed by Éabha Bortolozzo and Jack Kirwan. Our young protagonist, Oisin (pronounced  uh-SHEEN and meaning Little Deer) embarks on a poignant journey through the mysterious depths of the bog.  There, he uncovers the buried memories of his beloved father. Guided by the majestic spirit of the Great Irish Elk, he confronts his father's pain and suffering, gradually coming to understand the emotions that have shaped them both. As he descends ever deeper into the earth, Oisin also discovers a greater understanding of his own feelings and learns how to express them with honesty and clarity.

Among others, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor lends his voice to the film. One of Ireland's most acclaimed actors, he is best known for playing the unforgettable Nidge in Love/Hate, while international audiences will recognise him as Ebony Maw in Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. His impressive screen career also includes Peaky Blinders, Dublin Murders and numerous acclaimed stage productions.

For me, the fact that the spirit animal spoke the Irish language, while Oisin spoke English (even though they understood each other fully) added an extra layer of melancholy to the story.  It may not have been deliberate, but it underlines the profound changes that Ireland has been through over the last few centuries – and represents something else that was taken away from the Irish people.  Watch Bog below.

Alan Turing: The Father of AI, the Enigma Codebreaker and the Turing Test

Can machines think?  Alan Turing may have shortened the war by cracking Enigma,  but it was answering this question  that may well have been his greatest achievement.  This great, highly informative video from History Extra shows how, as part of a group of mathematicians, Turing imagined machines that could think and solve problems independently of human intervention. This was, of course, more than seven decades ago…

After the war, Turing turned his attention to the possibility of machine intelligence. In 1950, he published his groundbreaking paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence, in which he introduced the Turing Test - also known as the "imitation game" - as a way of assessing whether a machine could demonstrate intelligent behaviour. The ideas he explored remain highly relevant in our age of generative AI.  I wonder what he would make of the collage of his life I just requested from an AI model (top)?

Turing’s death by suicide at the age of just 41 reflects the times in which he lived. He was unable to play the imitation game of pretending to the world to be heterosexual and so, despite the accolades for his war-work, he was pursued and prosecuted for being himself. This led to his death.  Later, of course, he would be celebrated as the father of modern computing – I just find it a desperate shame that he died thinking that his reputation was irrecoverably damaged. 

Watch the fascinating video about Turing’s life and achievements below.

The Strange Comfort of the “Retreat”: Why We Keep Leaving Home to Get Better

The Promise of Elsewhere

Nobody teaches us to say it, and yet everybody says it. I just need to get away for a while. We say it after bad years and bad news, after burnouts and break-ups, and sometimes after nothing we can name at all. The curious thing is not that we say it, but what the sentence assumes — that whatever is wrong with us is somehow anchored to where we are, and that a sufficient quantity of distance will loosen its grip.

It is a very old assumption indeed. For as long as human beings have been getting themselves into trouble, they have been packing their bags and going somewhere else to get better. The question worth asking is why we remain so certain that it works. Image Credit Wikimedia

The Ancient Roots of Retreat

The retreat, it turns out, is one of humanity’s most persistent inventions. The ancient Greeks travelled considerable distances to sleep in temples dedicated to Asclepius, the god of healing, in the hope that a cure would arrive in a dream — an early example, perhaps, of the restorative mini-break. The early Christian hermits went further still, walking into the Egyptian desert to be spectacularly alone with their thoughts. Medieval pilgrims wore out their shoes on the road to healing shrines, and monasteries perched themselves on mountains and remote islands with what can only be described as deliberate inconvenience.

It would be easy to mistake all this for escape, but that rather misses the point. The hermit was not running away from the world so much as constructing a silence in which he could hear himself think. To retreat, in the original sense, was not to flee. It was to create enough distance from one’s ordinary life that one might return to it as somebody slightly different.

Tollund Man: The 2,400-Year-Old Bog Body That Still Fascinates the World

I have always been a little uneasy about human bodies in museums, regardless of their age. It isn’t a disquiet based on religion, but around the issue of permission.  I’m opting for cremation when my last page turns, and that will avoid me becoming the Tollund Man of the year 4000 no matter what the cause of my demise (hopefully). I wouldn’t want people gawping at my human remains – although I can think of any number of people who would probably relish the thought of people looking at them thousands of years in the future. Not my kind of immortality, I’m afraid!  We will obviously never know what Tollund Man or Grauballe Man, two of Denmark's most famous 'bog bodies,' preserved for over 2,000 years in peat bogs might  think of the ultimate fate of their bodies.  It’s unlikely that they would even understand the concept of a museum, let alone their place in it.  And besides, besides, besides…

On to the video. Ole Nielsen of the Silkeborg Museum walks us through the discovery of Tollund Man, whose case was as cold as can be (even though his death was not natural), but whose face is the best-preserved from pre-history that we have and who gives us many clues about what life was like in the way back when.  The team at the museum also use cutting-edge technology to see more of Tollund Man’s physiology – and the results are remarkable.  What I always find even more fascinating, though, are the reconstructions of ancient faces - and there is one at the museum which shows us what Tollund Man would have looked like just before he died.  I used that to ask AI to visualise him in his native habitat - that's the image you see at the top of this post.

As I said, I do have some reservations around bodies being exhibited in museums, but was a little comforted (if that is quite the right word) by one of the comments on the video by @LPdedicated.  It goes: “I worked at Silkeborg Museum and every morning when I opened the exhibition, I would just sit in the room with the Tollund man in silence for a few minutes before I went to my office… Fun fact: every year at the start of November his birthday is celebrated at campus".  So, although he could never envision what would happen to him after his death let alone give permission, at least Tollund Man had some at least one thoughtful companion in the museum.  I am sure the commenter is not the only one to have spent time reflecting in this manner – and there aren’t many people who have been dead 2,400 years whose birthdays are still celebrated. So perhaps TM wouldn't be too unhappy about it, after all.

I digress.  Watch the fascinating video about the Danish bog bodies below.

Fire: An Atmospheric Animated Short Capturing the Horror of Wildfire

As you (may) know, at Kuriositas we like to showcase some of the best student-created animated shorts.  Many, if not most of them, tell stories that are action-heavy, which helps show off the technical prowess of the students.  Fire is something quite difference.  While it certainly covers the elements that the students must show in order to complete their degree, this tells and altogether different story.  As such it is refreshing to see a group of collaborators take such a distinct and different pathway to the norm.  What we get initially is a beautifully rendered series of images of a languid summer’s afternoon, almost as if time has stood still.  It's a perfect summer's day. A cat is our protagonist (if it can be called that) as he meanders around the yard and inside the house. Yet even as he does so, there is a steadily increasing sense of unease that something isn’t quite right.

Of course, the house has been abandoned due to an encroaching fire.  It’s a prescient piece of filmmaking in that respect, as so much of Europe has been impacted by successive heatwaves over the last few months.  As the fire encroaches, its impact is felt. This is an impressive piece of animation, one that had me transfixed from start to finish.  Congratulations to the directors, Baptiste Fraboul, Esther Lamassoure, Julie Le Forban, Valentin Serre, Léna Gittler, and Florent Sabuco of École des Nouvelles Images for producing something so special. Fire was produced by Julien Deparis, and sound design was by Pierre-François.  I would also like to specially mention the soundtrack by Mathis Coopman which superbly catches the atmosphere of the disaster in a very Pink Floydy kinda way, combining with the animation to create something truly cinematic.  No wonder this animated short has won awards!

Watch Fire below.

Do graphics still play a major part in gaming?

Graphics used to be the headline act. For years, gaming’s biggest selling point was simple. How real can we make this look? 

Each new console generation arrived with a quiet sense of anticipation, bringing sharper textures, richer lighting, and more detailed worlds to explore. You could feel the progress, even in small moments. 

The release of the PlayStation 3 almost 20 years ago, that transition from the 480i standard definition era to 720p/1080p HD, was one of the most notable improvements to happen in one big jump.

The way light hit a surface, the way a character moved, the way a landscape stretched out in the distance.

Trailers leaned into that sense of discovery. They lingered on environments, on faces, on tiny details that showed how far things had come. There was a kind of fascination in seeing familiar ideas rendered with just a little more clarity, a little more depth.

Playing a new game felt like stepping into something that had been carefully built to be seen as much as experienced. There was time to take it in, but now expectations have shifted with the rise of esports. 

Competitive players see graphics differently. A dropped frame can cost a match. Visual clarity is information, not feeling. Graphics create fairness, not atmosphere. A new generation of players will sit in front of Twitch streams and be able to watch, interact, and even use top US online casinos to bet on live video games. 

The Curious History of Bingo: From Italian Lottery to Global Phenomenon

Image by DesignUni on Magnific 

Few games have travelled as far, or changed as many times, as bingo. It has been a Renaissance-era state lottery, a French parlour game for the aristocracy, a German teaching tool for schoolchildren, and a beloved fixture of seaside halls and community centres. Today it lives happily on screens around the world. The story of how a simple game of matching numbers spread across five centuries and several continents is one of the more delightful curiosities in the history of play.

It Began in Renaissance Italy

The earliest ancestor of bingo can be traced to Italy in the 1530s, shortly after the unification of the country's various states. A national lottery called Il Gioco del Lotto d'Italia was established, and remarkably, a version of it still runs in Italy to this day. Players chose numbers in the hope of matching those drawn, and the game became a reliable source of revenue for the state. This early lottery contained the essential seed of bingo: numbers, chance, and the communal thrill of the draw. As the reference work Encyclopaedia Britannica notes, the game has carried many names and forms across the centuries, but that core lottery mechanic has stayed remarkably constant.

Svolværgeita: Jumping the Goat's Horns

If the first words that just came in to your head were never in a million years, then you are probably in good company.  The Svolværgeita mountain in Norway was first climbed just a little over a century ago in 1910.  Yet since then a tradition has emerged among the mountaineering fraternity: those who reach the goat’s horns jump them. Because they can.

Image Credit Flickr User Sonia Marotti

The town of Svolvær in Norland County nestles below the mountain. It is situated in Lofoten (which we have visited before on Kuriositas) on the south coast of Austvågøy, and faces open sea to the south with the mountain directly to the north.   It is easy to see where the goats horns got their name. There are two spiky rocks which only the most experienced rock climbers can (safely) reach.

What NOT to Do If You Crash Land on an Alien Planet – A Brilliant Animated Short by ESMA Students

Lurks should be a training video for the Intergalactic Federation of Planets called “What NOT to do if you crash land on a mysterious alien planet” because the protagonist does so many things wrong.  You would think that she has never watched a horror film before – and this trope-laden animated short by ESMA graduation students deliverers them one after another (after another).  Now, reading back, that doesn’t look like much of a plug for this, but I found it immensely entertaining (although I desperately wanted some sort of final twist in the tale, right at the end, which did not appear but which could have raised the bar here, in terms of structure and storytelling). 

The planet, spacecraft and character animation (especially the monsters) are extremely well realised, especially considering this is a student film.  There are any number of technically very difficult sequences in this short, and hats off to the team for delivering them with great aplomb.  Altogether, a chilling cautionary tale of how to survive an alien environment – or not.  The students who created this are Kelssy Abdou , Ikram Benmaza, Mélodie Carn, Amanda Cere, Adrien Chaumier, Maëlle Couzinier, Maëline Dalous, Victor Del Campo and Aglaée Pons. Music was by Valentin Guay with sound created by Tristan Le Bozec, Guilhem Favard and Jose Vicente.  Well done to everyone involved in the project.

The Frog that Turns Blue

The Moor Frog of Central Europe has a trick up its sleeve when it comes to getting a mate. The male turns blue for a week each year but it's perhaps not for the reason you think!  Pop over to the Ark in Space to discover the real reason (and it’s not to attract a mate!).

Image Credit Wikimedia

The Sky Blue Mushroom

It looks like it could be something offered to Alice just before she makes a journey in to Wonderland but this sky blue mushroom is not a product of the imagination of Lewis Caroll.  It can be found on both islands of New Zealand – and bizarrely enough in a few places in India.

Image Credit Flickr User Ewan-M

International Klein Blue: A Stunning Short Film About Yves Klein's Iconic Colour

 

There are very few artists whose names have become inseparable from a single colour. Mention blue, however, and many people will think immediately of Yves Klein, whose obsession with an intense ultramarine hue gave the world International Klein Blue (IKB).

This beautifully crafted live-action short is Jan Hellwich's thesis film at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Inspired by Klein's own diary entries and writings, it explores the artist's conviction that blue was far more than a colour: it was the embodiment of the infinite, found in the endless meeting of sea and sky.

The imagery is glorious. Manuel Villasante Ayuso, Voicu Dumitras and Finn Fluche are wonderfully cast, moving through sun-drenched landscapes where the dazzling blue sky becomes as important as the characters themselves. The cinematography perfectly complements Klein's poetic reflections, including his delightfully eccentric complaint that birds flying across the sky were making holes in his greatest work of art.

Part philosophy, part visual poem, this is an assured and atmospheric debut from Hellwich, and a fitting tribute to one of modern art's most distinctive figures.

Lapis Lazuli: How the World's Most Precious Blue Pigment Became Ultramarine

Lapis lazuli is the semi-precious stone from which the pigment ultramarine is made.  The relationship works like this – the mineral Lapis lazuli contains lazurite.  There is evidence that it was mined in the mountains of Afghanistan as long ago as the 7570 BC. For centuries, artists ground lapis lazuli into powder and then used an elaborate purification process to separate the blue lazurite from the other minerals. The resulting pigment - natural ultramarine was one of the most expensive pigments ever used and often cost more than gold, and appeared in many paintings of the renaissance, notably to form the gorgeous blue of the robes of the Virgin Mary.

This video explores the history, science and artistic importance of lapis lazuli, the rare blue stone used to create the pigment natural ultramarine. The presenter visits artist and historian David Margus, who demonstrates how the stone is transformed into pigment by crushing it into a fine powder. As the rock is broken apart, the sulphur within it becomes apparent, and we learn that its unusual chemistry is responsible for the brilliant blue colour.  I wanted a valuation of the great lump of Lapis lazuli featured in the video but, alas, that was not forthcoming.  Regardless, this is very interesting!