Books
A Minimalism of Ideas, Rather Than Things
In The Longing for Less author Kyle Chayka searches for a minimalist mindset that isn’t “obsessing over possessions or the lack thereof but challenging our day-to-day experience of being in the world.”
The Latest
Why Did the Guggenheim Decommission a Donald Judd?
The Guggenheim recently repurposed the term, “decommissioning,” to designate works in its permanent collection that it has “deemed to be non-viable.”
Film
Minimalism Takes Flight
Within the many intersections between cinema and minimalism, there’s a fascinating thread of nonfiction filmmakers depicting air travel.
The Hacker Aesthetic of Minimalist Code
Ask most programmers about minimalist programming and they invoke the word elegance, yet working with extreme code minimalism often means exposing the chaotic underside of our engagement with logic.
Articles
How Normie Minimalism and Farmhouse Chic Took Over Contemporary Design
An aesthetic of minimalism in architecture and interior design has been sold to consumers of high design for decades now in the pages of Dwell and the endlessly scrollable interfaces of websites like designboom and ArchDaily.
Getting to Noh: Myths of Japanese Minimalism
The stereotype of Japan as a “less-is-more” kind of country is, in fact, quite misleading.
Podcast
Our Obsession With Less and Its Co-option by Silicon Valley
Kyle Chayka’s new book, The Longing for Less: Living with Minimalism, probes the corporate world’s love of minimalist design and what it might mean.
Sunday Edition, Minimalisms: ⬜ From Daitokuji to Normie Modernism ⬛
This week, we explore the notion that less is more as Minimalisms, yes, plural, is the focus of this Sunday Edition. While most people may associate the term “Minimalism” to the modern art movement that originated in 1960s New York, …
Photographs From the George Floyd Protests Show Minneapolis in Mourning
The killing of another Black man, George Floyd, in one of the largest cities in the US has ignited protests across the country. The site of his murder has become a makeshift memorial site for his grieving community.
Required Reading
This week, a mural for George Floyd, chilling images of a CNN reporter’s arrest, anti-racism resources for white people, Trump’s ghost writer, Barry Schwabsky on Hal Foster, and more.
Music • Weekend
Dancing in Place
Some music has perked up, even within the strictures of chill.
Books • Weekend
The Fertilizing Power of Funk
Fred Moten’s innovative poems investigate the fugitive philosophy of Black sound.