Posts that discuss politics and current events.
Sometimes, an irresistible writing prompt presents itself. Bruno Latour, a French philosopher and anthropologist whose work I’ve learned a great deal from, has started a new research/activist project (as he occasionally does), to collect ideas and experiences related to the … [read more]
Book piles accumulate in my office and on my night table all the time. Books are visual signposts of where my head is at, what’s next on the thinking agenda, of the big and small topics that make up the project that is Carsten’s head.
Ai Weiwei’s Human Flow, at two and a half hours, is neither light entertainment nor what most would think of as a seasonal movie. It is currently in an extended run in two of Toronto’s theatres supporting more cerebral fare … [read more]
Art is not a mirror to reflect the world, but a hammer with which to shape it. This statement is variously attributed to Bertolt Brecht, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Leon Trotsky and Karl Marx, and is probably apocryphal in all cases. The … [read more]
The CBC’s Fifth Estate, a documentary show that presents a weekly 60 Minutes style documentary, recently aired the corporation’s official public reckoning with the Jian Ghomeshi affair. (We know there’s perhaps some sort of report still to come from the … [read more]
I. It reads like the grand, slightly preposterous plot of an espionage thriller. Perhaps one of those ‘grand tapestry’ style novels with lots of different characters and sub-plots, carefully unfolding towards an inevitable narrative climax. Like The Girl with the … [read more]
“My name is Carsten, and I don’t like upgrading.”—”Hi Carsten!” I’ve become that guy. I never used to be that guy. You know, the guy who’s content with the technology he has because it’s working fine for him. The guy … [read more]
The more you ‘live life transparently,’ the more you post to your social networking life stream, the more ‘friends’ and acquaintances you pick up along the way, the more you invite trouble. Well — that may be stating it strongly. … [read more]