In his novel Que notre joie demeure (Héliotrope, 2022), Kevin Lambert describes “starchitects” in the world of globalized capital – architects who owe their prestige to fabulous projects that rarely reflect social reality. Lambert’s main character, Céline Wachowski, celebrated Montréal architect and founder of Les
Virtual reality scientists are now developing an interface that can release different smells associated with the images that the VR headset transmits. After inconclusive attempts to present films with odours in the 1950s, currently proposed interfaces show promising signs. Up to now, the metaverse simply
In his book Penser la pornographie (PUF, 2003), philosopher Ruwen Ogien (1947–2017) rejects the arguments of pornophobes, both conservative and progressive alike. While some consider pornography as a threat to the nuclear family and the traditional values it represents, others criticize the degradation of human
In the late 1990s, psychologist and sociologist Judy Singer1 developed the notion of neurodiversity, which was associated first with autism and advocacy for the rights of people with autism, then expanded to other types of neurodivergence such as ADHD, learning disabilities (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, dysphasia),
In his posthumous book Confessions of the Flesh (Pantheon Books, 2021), Michel Foucault (1926–1984) analyzes how early Christianity considered sexuality. This fourth instalment on the sexualized body follows the volumes published in his lifetime—The Will to Knowledge (first English edition in 1978), The Use of
In an essay titled “Der Erzhäler,” translated into English as “The Storyteller,” philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) offers a stunning proposal concerning experience and wisdom. Taking a work by Russian storyteller Nicolai Leskov (1831–1895) as an example, Benjamin makes the following hypothesis: “The art of storytelling
Russian and U.S. film industries recently got involved in a rivalry regarding the release of a film, several scenes of which were filmed in the International Space Station (ISS). Even if the ISS has often served as a model for various film scripts since its
The Museum Is Not Enough is the intriguing title of a book intended to be the first part of a collective reflection that the team at the Canadian Centre for Architecture instigated, regarding the role of institutions and the challenges to be faced regarding “contemporary
If there is an urgent matter that must dominate government decisions from now on all over the world, but more precisely those of the industrialized countries such as Canada, it is certainly the one linked to climate. Regardless of efforts to create a balance between
With the dismantling of monuments of controversial figures, calls to change the names of streets and public places, as well as protests seeking a just recognition of minority groups, the public sphere, associated with the democratization of exchange between citizens, has undergone profound change, even
Unless you are Robinson on his desert island, the arrival of Covid-19 and the current public health crisis along with the ensuing debate, notably on its origins, has reminded us of an obvious fact that (
The idea of dictatorship straightaway evokes a political regime in which the authority mostly rests in the hands of a single person. In just two centuries, this mode of power has risen in parallel (