Philosophy
video
Chemistry
A square inch in a Petri dish becomes a grand stage for chemical transformations
4 minutes
essay
History of ideas
The first Romantics
How a close group of brilliant friends, in a tiny German university town, laid the foundations of modern consciousness
Andrea Wulf
essay
Beauty and aesthetics
Attuned to the aesthetic
The ultimate value of the world can be discovered if you are sensitive to what is beautiful
Tom Cochrane
video
Evolution
Symmetry rules life on Earth – but it comes with many fascinating exceptions
9 minutes
essay
Beauty and aesthetics
What does art do?
Good art, laced with irony, ambiguity and suspense, is not obviously political. That’s what makes it politically interesting
Vid Simoniti
video
Ageing and death
‘It’s not beautiful, but it’s interesting’ – an ageing nude model surveys her body
4 minutes
video
Art
Can art in a swanky restaurant ever be transcendent? On Rothko’s Seagram Murals
15 minutes
video
Film and visual culture
At the movies with Pauline Kael – in the arthouse cinema where she got her start
19 minutes
video
Archaeology
Ancient Greek sculptures were colourful. Why does the white marble ideal persist?
6 minutes
video
Art
Dizzying discs and obscene wordplay – revisiting Marcel Duchamp’s 1926 film debut
7 minutes
video
Architecture
Why a sculptor pivoted from gallery installations to big-box stores design
9 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
For Ruskin, words couldn’t capture nature’s palette. So here it is in black and white
6 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
Does the artist’s intention matter, or is it indeed all in the eye of the beholder?
4 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
Why Caspar David Friedrich pits nature’s grandeur against the humble human
7 minutes
video
Dance and theatre
Technology, philosophy, randomness – how Merce Cunningham pushed dance to its limits
7 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
Not just a meme, but a masterpiece – why the Mona Lisa earns its exalted place in art
33 minutes
essay
Philosophy of science
The beautiful experiment
Science has become extraordinarily technocratic and complex. Is the simple and decisive experiment still a worthy ideal?
Milena Ivanova
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
Who, exactly, authored this AI-generated spin on Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo?
5 minutes
essay
Architecture
Being in a building
One of the great buildings of the Renaissance reminds us that buildings are made to be explored, smelled and even tasted
David Karmon
video
Music
Take in the sounds of silence via this unique performance of John Cage’s infamous piece
5 minutes
video
Neuroscience
Artists can flourish after brain damage. What does this say about neurology and aesthetics?
7 minutes
video
Chemistry
Liquid experiments show how beautiful things can happen when chemicals meet
6 minutes
essay
Music
Maestro of more than music
Look beneath the surface of Bach’s music and you will find a fascinating hidden world of numerology and cunning craft
Milton Mermikides
video
Dance and theatre
Close-up on kabuki – the colourful ‘pure entertainment’ of Japan’s Edo period
31 minutes