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In 1981, the US Department of Energy and the civil engineering company Bechtel Corp assembled a task force to help tackle the problem of how to warn future humans to stay away from radioactive nuclear waste sites thousands of years into the future. Perhaps the strangest solution came from the French author Françoise Bastide and the Italian semiologist Paolo Fabbri, who proposed genetically engineering cats to change colour in response to radiation, and creating a mythology of danger around those cats. An exploration of unusually creative problem-solving, the French director Benjamin Huguet’s film probes how the once-obscure, decades-old ‘ray-cat solution’ has recently found new life.
Director: Benjamin Huguet
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Architecture
West Africa was once an architectural laboratory. Is it time for a revival?
12 minutes
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Work
A Swedish expat in the Philippines wonders: what’s up with people sleeping at work?
14 minutes
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Biography and memoir
The unique life philosophy of Abdi, born in Somalia, living in the Netherlands
29 minutes
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Art
‘If you’re creative, why can’t you create a solution?’ One artist’s imaginative activism
17 minutes
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The ancient world
An ancient Roman’s hilarious (and perhaps relatable) response to a social snub
2 minutes
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Ethics
For Iris Murdoch, selfishness is a fault that can be solved by reframing the world
6 minutes
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Death
A hunter’s lyrical reflection on the humbling business of being mortal
6 minutes
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Love and friendship
After his son’s terrorist attack, Azdyne seeks healing – and his granddaughter
25 minutes
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Art
More than breathtaking, ‘The Birth of Venus’ signalled an aesthetic revolution
19 minutes