Nigerian singer Síkírù Àyìndé Barrister (1948-2010) pioneered fújì, a Yorùbá genre of popular dance music. In February 2024, historian Saheed Aderinto’s documentary on the musician’s life and times premiered. The Conversation Africa’s Wale Fatade asked Aderinto about the film and the music it brings to our attention. What is fújì music? Fújì fuses Islamic philosophy...
He will unveil a monumental new tapestry at Art Basel Hong Kong Sometimes it takes a village to make an artwork – or rather, a group of highly skilled artisans from your hometown. This is the case for Tsherin Sherpa’s installation Stairways to Heaven (2024), soon to be unveiled in the Encounters sector at Art Basel in...
Ahead of Art Basel Hong Kong, we take stock on what is driving art collectors in the region The mainland art world is keenly watching whether this year’s Hong Kong art week can buy the Chinese art market, which saw a rebound in 2023, as noted in The Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report 2024....
Score another one for artificial intelligence. In a recent study, 151 human participants were pitted against ChatGPT-4 in three tests designed to measure divergent thinking, which is considered to be an indicator of creative thought. Divergent thinking is characterized by the ability to generate a unique solution to a question that does not have one...
The tone and tuning of musical instruments has the power to manipulate our appreciation of harmony, new research shows. The findings challenge centuries of Western music theory and encourage greater experimentation with instruments from different cultures. According to the Ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras, ‘consonance’ – a pleasant-sounding combination of notes – is produced by special relationships...
Archeologists have long used the shapes and styles of pottery as a proxy for ancient cultures. But how does the cultural alignment of ceramic forms arise? To explore this question, Tetsushi Nonaka and colleagues asked 21 potters in three different communities—one in France in Bourgogne and two in India in Bulandshahar district, Uttar Pradesh—to throw...
The founder of the experimental exhibition space Blank Canvas in Malaysia embodies an innovative approach to philanthropy ‘I was born and grew up in Malaysia. I studied philosophy in Singapore. I then worked in Hong Kong, and later in Shanghai before moving back to Hong Kong. I’m a Management Consultant and my professional career has...
100 years after the birth of Surrealism, meet the heiresses of Leonor Fini, Leonora Carrington, and Meret Oppenheim For so long, they were only shadowy figures – when it came to public memory, in any case. But in the last several years, their rich and complex work has finally started to be uncovered. Leonor Fini (1907-1996), Leonora...
The three qualities that matter most in real estate also matter the most to graffiti artists: location, location, location. In Miami and Los Angeles, cities that contain some of the most expensive real estate in the U.S., graffiti artists have recently made sure their voices can be heard and seen, even from the sky. In...
Smart accessories are increasingly common. Rings and watches track vitals, while Ray-Bans now come with cameras and microphones. Wearable tech has even broached brooches. Yet certain accessories have yet to get the smart touch. University of Washington researchers introduced the Thermal Earring, a wireless wearable that continuously monitors a user’s earlobe temperature. In a study of six...
