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The Russian graphic illustrator and motion designer Vladimir Tomin is known for his web videos that deploy relatively simple video-editing tools to reality-warping effect. In his short Portals, views from a leafy autumn walk slowly break apart and shift back into focus, each time revealing a new scene. Although presented without any context besides Tomin’s words ‘Autumn is strange and beautiful, definitely in my top four of favourite seasons,’ the title and images perhaps suggest a reality unfixed from human time, and underpinned by pixels rather than particles. For more mind-bending work from Tomin, watch Outside and Sketches.
Video by Vladimir Tomin
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Wellbeing
Born in China, Zee seeks a gender-affirming life in the American Midwest
11 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
A whale hunt is an act of prayer for an Inuit community north of the Arctic Circle
8 minutes
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Music
The peculiar beauty of a song caught between composition and improvisation
3 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
A beginner’s guide to a joyful Persian tradition of spring renewal and rebirth
3 minutes
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Love and friendship
Love looks a bit different for a chain-smoking couple in a small apartment
11 minutes
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Biography and memoir
Passed over as the first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight carved out an impressive second act
13 minutes
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Engineering
A close-up look at electronic paper reveals its exquisite patterns – and limitations
9 minutes
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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