Francis Bacon: Man and Beast
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Francis Bacon, the English artist whose life and radical painting during the second half of the 20th century continues to throw up new revelations and blockbuster exhibitions.(...)
China’s Social Credit Model, Part II
The most frequent misconception around China’s Social Credit System (SoCS) is to conflate it with their massively more advanced and covert surveillance and security state.(...)
China’s Social Credit Model, Part I
As winter descends across Europe, fears over a new surge in infections, driven by the latest Coronavirus variant, are reviving authoritarian anxieties. (...)
Pandemic Rebels and Fascist Longings
Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, opposition to anti-contagion efforts has been led by a small number of fringe groups and quasi-movements linked together by social media.(...)
The Rebirth of English Satire
In Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), English writer Robert Burton offered a precise explanation for the phenomena of laughter as that which seeks to "condemn the world of folly". (...)
The Citadel, Directed by John Smith
Emerging from the early morning fog, the polymorphous skyline of London's financial centre can just about be glimpsed.(...)
Vaccine Passports and Human Rights
As vaccination programmes in Europe and America accelerate, there is increasing clamour for their benefits to be fast-tracked through the use of vaccination or immunity passports.(...)
Science and Governing the Emergency
The phrase "being led by the science" has been repeated like a battle cry by leaders across Europe since the first cases of COVID-19 appeared on the continent in February.(...)
Pinkcourtesyphone and Coronavirus Politics
Dark ambient music is an unlikely vehicle for contemporary social criticism.(...)
London Calling (COVID-19 Remix)
I've been very lucky in lockdown. I'm on the first floor of a small block, not two dozen floors up, shut into a little box where the windows don't open and the lift is always broken.(...)