If, as Shakespeare suggested, all the world’s a stage, do we have a ‘true self’?
The 20th-century Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman believed that we adapt to roles – lover, customer, worker – based on circumstance, and are constantly concerned with how we’re appearing to others. This short animation explains why Goffman’s view of humanity left no room for a ‘true self’ – an actor behind all the roles we play.

videoTechnology and the self
Inside a tattoo parlour where hateful images are covered for free
11 minutes

videoHistory
In the face of denial, this film uncovers the hidden scars of Indonesia’s 1998 riots
21 minutes

videoMathematics
Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths
4 minutes

videoPhilosophy of mind
‘Am I not at least something?’ A surreal dive into Descartes’s Meditations
3 minutes

videoSocial psychology
What happened when a crypto scam swept over a sleepy town in the Caucasus
18 minutes

videoHistory
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes