Tag Archives: Object Lessons
“The Age of Oil”
Masks as agents of change
An excerpt from Mask by Sharrona Pearl Masks enable. They provide literal and metaphorical cover for that which we wish to ignore, obscure, hide from ourselves. In this way they enable and even create our own hypocrisies in a variety of contexts: for football players, whose masks simultaneously protect and endanger; for women’s faces and… Read More »
Descartes’s Stove
Guest post by Hsuan L. Hsu, author of Air Conditioning Because they were available long before artificial cooling, heating technologies are at the center of many early Western writings that reflect the cultural underpinnings of thermal comfort and air conditioning. Among the most eloquent examples of ambient temperature as a precondition for thought is the… Read More »
Spirit of the matter: relics and the mysteries of materiality
Guest post by Ed Simon, author of Relic “And since at such time miracles are sought,I would have that age by this paper taughtWhat miracles we harmless lovers wrought.” – John Donne, “The Relic” Behind a glass window and atop silk brocade lies the corpse of Zita in a gold-trimmed, blue habit. She is no… Read More »
Glitter and the Fishing Lure
While researching my Object Lessons series book on glitter, I learned the surprising fact that one of the major commercial uses for this substance is in fishing lures. After finishing the book, I decided to investigate this phenomenon a bit deeper—and fell down what can only be described as a rabbit hole into another world.
How #Kiev Became #Kyiv
Guest post by Elizabeth Losh When Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the citizens of the world to “come to your squares” and “make yourselves visible and heard” to support his besieged country, he invoked powerful memories of the 2013-2014 “Maidan Revolution,” a mass protest against Russian influence, which brought tens of thousands of people out… Read More »
Keep cool during Women’s History Month
Guest post by Megan Volpert In Atlanta, where I live, there were already a handful of 70-degree days during the first week of March. Whatever project I’m immersed in when Women’s History Month arrives tends to inform this annual time of reflection on the themes of my people, so the recent launch of the Perfume… Read More »
