Culture

Our curated articles offering new takes on the big themes and questions in our culture. Plus reviews of books, film, media and experiences. Culture is one of four key themes covered by Seen & Unseen.

Essay
  1. AI
  2. Culture
A complex of linear and metal parts in a machine-like sculpture.

Machines and their ghosts

Simon Cross
What impacts has artificial intelligence had on society, past, present and future? Simon Cross explores just where have our machines got us.
13min read
Review
  1. Culture
  2. Trauma
a group of women stand and sit around a table lit by a gas lamp.

The overwhelm

Belle Tindall
What follows is an act of female emancipation. Belle Tindall reviews the Oscar-winning Women Talking.
5min read
Review
  1. Culture
  2. Re-enchanting
An illustration showing a horse standing, sniffing a mole held by a boy while a seated fox looks on.

Re-enchanted: swimming with Charlie Mackesy

Belle Tindall
Fascinated by the astonishing success of the whimsical The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse, Belle Tindall probes at the deep wisdom of Charlie Mackesy’s enchanting, not to mention Oscar-winning, modern fable.
7min read
Review
  1. Culture
  2. Film & TV
A cinematic view of a child holding an image that lights up their face.

Love letters to cinema

Yaroslav Walker
Yaroslav Walker is warmed, bored, and then revived as he reviews The Fabelmans, Babylon, and Empire of Light.
9min read
Review
  1. Culture
  2. Film & TV
Image of the apartment block from the famous sitcom Friends

I’ll be there for you

James Cary
Friends is about being friends. Not family. But also family. Sitcom writer James Cary unpicks what makes the show tick.
7min read
Review
  1. Art
  2. Climate
An image of the Amazonia

Our human tribe

Jane Cacouris
A famed photographer's exhibition about Amazonia prompts Jane Cacouris to consider the wider issues.
5min read
Essay
  1. AI
  2. Culture
An AI-created painting of a scene comprising a lap top user holding their face, with candles in the foreground

Dethroning creativity: why does AI art make us feel so icky inside?

Daniel Kim
Creative Artificial Intelligence generates a disquiet within. Daniel Kim explores why it confronts our humanity.
14min read
Review
  1. Books
  2. Culture
A diver swims above a crashed plane lying on the sea bed.

Cormac McCarthy's harrowed inheritance

Austin Stevenson
Written before the death of Cormac McCarthy, Austin Stevenson reviews the acclaimed author's last sibling novels, exploring the frugal conversations within them and how dialogues shape virtue.
7min read