Colin Raff proceeds into the biotic sculpture room

Pepsi Cola, Mel Ramos, 2005 From The Talks: Pablo Picasso once said “the chief enemy of creativity is good taste.” Would you agree with that? (Laughs) Picasso is so full of shit. He was a nasty guy; he really screwed over a lot of his friends. He did some...

Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman as Thor and Jane Foster, Thor, Paramount Pictures, 2011 by David A. Kirby For most people, the start of the summer blockbuster season would not be an ideal time to be examining movies for their scientific verisimilitude. Big, silly popcorn flicks are about explosions, muscled...

The world Bob Dylan and The Beatles made remains in its moment of creation all the more compelling to those who lived through it for its tantalising glimpse of a different self and an authentic life...

Visual Games: Photorealism in Crisis | by Kyle Chayka,

Kill Screen

In certain corners of the world of Super Mario 64, there are graphical glitches that turn a seemingly solid space into a splintered chaos of polygons...

From A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Brett Helquist From Los Angeles Review of Books: In Germany, there are pretty much only two categories: literature—work aspiring toward literary merit—and then just pure information, train schedules and the like. (Unfortunate example.) John Cheever’s “legacy” is based...

From Super Mario Clouds, Cory Arcangel, 2002 From Interview: MARY HEILMANN: What game did the clouds come from? CORY ARCANGEL: Super Mario Bros. HEILMANN: I wonder if the designers who did Super Mario Bros. looked at Georgia O’Keeffe. ARCANGEL: I feel like it’s possible. Those games aren’t art...

Goldeneye, Rare, 1997 by Daniel Reynolds Video games tend to channel their players down spatial and behavioral paths. The virtual worlds of games are constructions and, as such, they necessarily have ultimate boundaries. The internal boundaries and barriers of games work to contain players in certain ways. Depending on...