In Brief
Monica Lewinsky Casts a Shadow on Bill Clinton's Presidential Portrait
Is there a veiled allusion to Monica Lewinsky in the portrait of Bill Clinton on display in the National Portrait Gallery?
Becca Rothfeld
Art
"BitchCoin" Currency Challenges the Way We Buy Art
A new project from Sarah Meyohas and the Brooklyn-based Where gallery explores the future of art in a world where both art and the market are increasingly immaterial.
Opinion
The Philosophical Anxiety Behind #TheDress Controversy
The dress controversy is compelling because it touches, however unsophisticatedly, on some of the oldest and most difficult questions in philosophy of mind.
Art
From Creepy Kids' Books to Puckish Erotica, an Illustrator's Improbable Oeuvre
French illustrator Tomi Ungerer has worn many hats, none of them obviously compatible with any of the others. A cartoonist, political satirist, and illustrator of both children’s books and sadomasochistic erotica, he has designed a cat-shaped kindergarten for a German school and condoms for a French
Interview
Plotting Your Favorite Novels Visually
Matthew Jockers, a professor at the University of Nebraska, is at work compiling data from novels in an attempt to determine if they share a set of common plots.
Opinion
Microsoft HoloLens Renders the Internet in 3D
The cyberpunk literary tradition anticipated a series of real-world technical developments in which the digital and the spatial converge.
Opinion
The Hypocrisy of the Artistic and Critical Left
It’s time for us to ask why the industries with some of the loftiest ideals and the most vocal commitments to progressivism still far so far short of reasonable expectations.
Interview
New App Lets Users Outsource Their Relationships
Part art project, part philosophical experiment, and part functional app, pplkpr is an app that “tracks, analyzes, and auto-manages your relationships.”
In Brief
Woodcut Kitty Porn of the Edo and Meiji Periods
A new exhibition coming to the Japan Society this spring brings a different perspective to bear on our feline friends.
Art
Searching for Ourselves Amid the Monstrous
Beautiful Beast, a show that opened at the New York Academy of Art last week, is situated at the intersection of the monstrous and sublime.
In Brief
Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It, Is to Read This Book in 24 Hours
Increasingly, the simple act of reading may not be flashy enough to compete with televised competitors.
Art
Picturing a Communist Revolution in the US
Different artists disagree as to how communist convictions are best or most effectively visualized, and the best part of The Left Front is the methodological tension that underwrites the varied approaches on display.