FYI #33
Jonathan Jones, naa (to see or look), a light installation evoking the stars above Gadigal Country, at the MCA until September 8
‘If I can capture in a few words my aspirations for our country, I believe that these testing times call for an unstinting focus on kindness, on care and on respect.’ Australia’s new Governor-General Sam Mostyn's swearing-in speech, at Parliament House, Canberra, this week.
‘Bookshops will never die. That’s why I bought one on Gumtree five years ago – and we’re still here’, by Matt Davis (co-owner of The Bookshop at Queenscliff), via the Guardian, My long-term local bookshop is closing. Very disappointing.
2024 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist revealed, via Perpetual
Fitzcarraldo Editions Makes Challenging Literature Chic, by Rebecca Mead, via the New Yorker
How This Artist Creates Intricate Artworks From Individual Coloured Threads, piece on artist Nathalie Dumont, via The Design Files.
Word Are Deeds: Rebecca Solnit the Power of Speech to Shape the Future, via LitHub
Meet the literary critics who are keeping the culture honest (and sometimes spicy), via LitHub. This list gave me some new writers and podcasts to investigate.
Generative AI is a climate disaster, by Paris Marx, via Disconnect
Podcast listening highlights this week:
Harriet Baker & Lauren Elkin: Rural Hours, via the London Review Bookshop
Leslie Jamison’s Search History, on Read This with Michael Williams
Down to Earth: A Farming Revival, via the Slightly Foxed podcast
The Biggest Over- and Underreactions of the First Half of 2024, via The Town with Matthew Belloni
How one night transformed British politics, one of the many episodes of The Rest of Politics I’ve listened to in recent weeks.
The bliss of the French Riviera, Portuguese fashion and cartography, the latest epsiode of Konfekt Korner