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Culture

Essays and videos on the arts, literature, travel, rituals and celebrations
All those naked Greeks… | Aeon
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essay

Art

All those naked Greeks…

Men in ancient Greek art exercise, fight battles, pursue lovers and mourn lost friends, all without their pants on. Why?

Sarah Murray

How John Keats writes a poem | Aeon
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video

Stories and literature

What makes John Keats’s ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ so enduringly powerful?

10 minutes

Making a Noh mask | Aeon
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Dance and theatre

How a Noh mask-maker summons a lifelike face from a single block of wood

16 minutes

The art of rules | Aeon
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essay

Art

The art of rules

Conceptual art often confounds. The key is to understand the rules of the artwork and the aesthetic experiences they yield

Sherri Irvin

A philosophy of secrets | Aeon
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Thinkers and theories

A philosophy of secrets

Jacques Derrida was fascinated by the figure of the Marrano Jew, whose identity could barely be told even to themselves

Peter Salmon

Ancient wine drinking | Aeon
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video

The ancient world

What wine vessels reveal about politics and luxury in ancient Athens and Persia

16 minutes

The sonnet machine | Aeon
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Stories and literature

The sonnet machine

A sonnet contains an emotional drama of illusion and deception, crisis and resolution, crafted to make us think and feel

Timothy Hampton

David Goldblatt in Johannesburg | Aeon
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Art

David Goldblatt captured the contradictions of apartheid in stark black and white

15 minutes

How to mourn a forest | Aeon
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Anthropology

How to mourn a forest

The Marind people of West Papua deploy mourning not only to grieve their animal and plant kin but as political resistance

Sophie Chao

Drawings of my BF | Aeon
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video

Love and friendship

When drawing your muse hundreds of times becomes an exercise in love

7 minutes

WoodSwimmer | Aeon
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video

Biology

A dazzling slice-by-slice exploration of wood exposes hidden patterns and hues

2 minutes

Ndagukunda déjà (I love you, already) | Aeon
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video

Family life

In Rwanda, Sébastien finds traces of personal history in the wake of national tragedy

21 minutes

Shakespeare’s First Folio | Aeon
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Dance and theatre

Leaf through Shakespeare’s First Folio for a riveting journey into theatre history

13 minutes

How to design architecture for wildlife | Aeon
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Architecture

Modern architecture should embrace – not ignore or repel – the nonhuman world

8 minutes

Disorient yourself | Aeon
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History of ideas

Disorient yourself

Now associated with childhood fun, the swing has a near-universal history of ritual transgression and transformation

Javier Moscoso

Still life | Aeon
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video

Philosophy of mind

An enigmatic ‘story of consciousness’ told through 19th-century engravings

7 minutes

A history of the world according to Getty Images | Aeon
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video

History of technology

Who owns history? How remarkable historical footage is hidden and monetised

18 minutes

The art of two-way art | Aeon
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Language and linguistics

A master palindromist spells out his 40-year ‘love affair with reversibility’

6 minutes

Dark Goya | Aeon
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video

Art

Tracing Goya’s ‘dark’ journey from Spanish court painter to macabre visionary

51 minutes

Meaning beyond definition | Aeon
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Knowledge

Meaning beyond definition

In science our concepts have neat, hard edges. In poetry our concepts stretch and expand. Both are necessary for knowledge

James Camien McGuiggan

Honey, I sold the kids | Aeon
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Family life

Honey, I sold the kids

We have laws to protect children from factory work. Why aren’t they protected from parents who monetise their lives online?

Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore

Nalujuk Night | Aeon
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video

Rituals and celebrations

Beware the Nalujuit! A rare glimpse into a chilling Labrador Inuit tradition

13 minutes

Everything is a remix: AI and image generation | Aeon
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video

Future of technology

Artificial ‘creativity’ is unstoppable. Grappling with its ethics is up to us

23 minutes

Making a moon jar | Aeon
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video

Design and fashion

Refined towards imperfection – a ceramic artist recreates a rare Korean treasure

15 minutes