The Chowk (2024)

08/04/2023

Bermudians are some of the most water-conscious people in the Western world, and this consciousness is built into their homes. The blindingly white, limestone Bermuda Roof—an architectural rain-catch concept with roots dating back to the 17th century—is singularly responsible for making human life possible in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The roof of each home is mandated, by law, to catch and redirect rain into underground cisterns that serve as islanders’ primary source of freshwater....

Bermudians are some of the most water-conscious people in the Western world, and this consciousness is built into their homes. The blindingly white, limestone Bermuda Roof—an architectural rain-cat…

05/04/2023

Little Goat Productions’ documentary Funny Business is the first feature length, insider look at some of the best known cartoonists for the venerable New Yorker magazine. The film won a CINE Golden Eagle Award for excellence in filmmaking.

Little Goat Productions’ documentary Funny Business is the first feature length, insider look at some of the best known cartoonists for the venerable New Yorker magazine. The film won a CINE Golden…

01/04/2023

Welcome to the "Museum of Failure", a new museum in Sweden that takes a look at history's biggest failed products featuring cool gadgets, electronics. The museum in Helsingborg, Sweden founded by Samuel West is meant to teach its visitors about innovation and learning through failure.

Welcome to the “Museum of Failure”, a new museum in Sweden that takes a look at history’s biggest failed products featuring cool gadgets, electronics. The museum in Helsingborg, S…

30/03/2023

On the artist's 170th birthday, read about how his legacy reached us.

“What would have happened if Jo had not put [Vincent] on the map?” asks the Van Gogh Museum’s director, Emilie Gordenker. “Without her, we would not know van Gogh now as we do.” Photo by Beyza Eren…

29/03/2023

Once a thriving international trade hub, the archeological site of Hegra (also known as Mada'in Saleh) has been left practically undisturbed for almost 2,000 years. But now for the first time, Saudi Arabia has opened the site to tourists. Astute visitors will notice that the rock-cut constructions at Hegra look similar to its more famous sister site of Petra, a few hundred miles to the north in Jordan....

Once a thriving international trade hub, the archeological site of Hegra (also known as Mada’in Saleh) has been left practically undisturbed for almost 2,000 years. But now for the first time…

27/03/2023

On the World Theatre Day, explore some elaborate sets from 20th Century New York theatres.

On the World Theatre Day, explore some elaborate sets from 20th Century New York theatres. “Porgy and Bess” in 1935 Noël Coward’s “Present Laughter,” Plymouth Theatre 1947. “Point Valaine,” 1935 at…

22/03/2023

The Yaodong (窑洞) is a type of architecture developed in the Loess Plateau in the north of China. The name literally means “cave building” and describes a series of buildings carved into the earth.The region has a wide temperature range during the year, with cold and dry winters and hot summers; the earth surrounding the interior spaces in the Yaodong helps keep them isolated in both conditions....

The Yaodong (窑洞) is a type of architecture developed in the Loess Plateau in the north of China. The name literally means “cave building” and describes a series of buildings carved into the earth.T…

18/03/2023

Beauty has been thought of as the only aesthetic quality worth worrying about. People strove to create it. They defined ugliness as its absence and blandness as its insufficiency. Buildings that didn’t go far enough were deemed unsuccessful and those that went too far were deemed pretentious. Even so, it was important to try because buildings were either Architecture if they tried, or vernacular or industrial buildings if they didn’t....

Beauty has been thought of as the only aesthetic quality worth worrying about. People strove to create it. They defined ugliness as its absence and blandness as its insufficiency. Buildings that di…

15/03/2023

Explore the earliest known photographs of Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Simpson, a British surgeon assigned to the Indian Medical Service, had been sent to the strategically located city not only as a military doctor, but also as a documentary photographer, tasked with…

11/03/2023

The woman who owns this home commissioned Juniper Books—a company that specializes in custom residential libraries—to style and stock hers. They sourced books based on her guidelines and printed unique custom jackets to display the graphics she chose. The apartment came with the library when she bought it, and since she loves old books, it made sense to fill it up....

The woman who owns this home commissioned Juniper Books—a company that specializes in custom residential libraries—to style and stock hers. They sourced books based on her guidelines and printed un…

08/03/2023

Famed for its indigo shade of the ocean and its place-specific knit pattern, the iconic sweater known as ‘the gansey’ has been worn by Cornish sailors on seaward journeys since the 18th century. In the short film Cast Out With Love, based on a poem of the same name, the UK-based filmmaker Greg Dennis takes viewers through the crafting process, from sheep-shearing to dying to knitting, capturing traditional techniques that have deep cultural, coastal roots....

Famed for its indigo shade of the ocean and its place-specific knit pattern, the iconic sweater known as ‘the gansey’ has been worn by Cornish sailors on seaward journeys since the 18th century. In…

04/03/2023

Candy Crush Saga arrived on mobile devices in November 2012, five years after the release of the iPhone but just as such shiny machines were hitting the mainstream. The game sat in your pocket next to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, gamified social media that could likewise be described as ‘free to play’. During a decade of stagnant wages, these companies also scored billions in revenue from the sustained attention of their users, though not from microtransactions like Candy Crush Saga but profitable data that could be sold to third parties....

Candy Crush Saga arrived on mobile devices in November 2012, five years after the release of the iPhone but just as such shiny machines were hitting the mainstream. The game sat in your pocket next…

01/03/2023

Eddy Goldfarb, who is ninety-eight, created such classics as the bubble gun, chattering teeth, and Kerplunk! Here’s how he did it. Compliment this piece with a history of another iconic "toy": the Video Game Cartridge.

Eddy Goldfarb, who is ninety-eight, created such classics as the bubble gun, chattering teeth, and Kerplunk! Here’s how he did it. Compliment this piece with a history of another iconic “toy&…

25/02/2023

A lasting legacy of Morgan’s career, then, is her completed work, particularly the buildings she designed for Progressive Era women’s organizations, which supported her throughout her career. The Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) was one of these. Morgan’s design for the YWCA in San Francisco’s Chinatown, founded in 1916, connects deeply to California history and shows the racial tensions in a state now celebrated for its acceptance....

A lasting legacy of Morgan’s career, then, is her completed work, particularly the buildings she designed for Progressive Era women’s organizations, which supported her throughout her career. The Y…

22/02/2023

Read about Grant Wallace's tryst with spirituality and art.

I saw image after image of automatic writing, celestial alphabets, color-washed charts and diagrams covered in mathematical equations and writing, all so beautiful and mystifying, evidence of a pro…

18/02/2023

Just when you think you have seen it all... here come the copepods!

A passion for the infinitesimal leads a photographer to discover the countless creatures that live unseen in the ocean To really enter this world, you need to look through a magnifying lens. There …

15/02/2023

Layering has always been the name of the game!
See Amy Arbus' work, straight from the streets of New York

“The only direction I was given was to photograph anyone that made me turn my head,” Arbus explained looking back on her work. “The theory behind the whole On the Street page for ten years was that…

12/02/2023

The Chowk is back to publishing!
This time, come dive into the world of advent calendars.

“Instead of one big gift, draw it out,” she adds. “Slow time down a bit by counting the days ’til this happens.” Read the fascinating history of the holiday tradition …

30/11/2022

Explore one of the largest markets in Kyrgyzstan, Dordoi Bazaar!

Gulzada explained the importance of the bazaar: “I don’t even know how many people work here. And first, it is those people who trade, who live. Thanks to Dordoi, the tradespeople live; the porters…

06/11/2022

In his analysis of Rothko’s work, Payne takes viewers on a deep dive into the historical context and making of the murals, including how they were delivered to the Tate in London on the same day Rothko was discovered dead by su***de in his New York studio. In doing so, Payne hints at the inherent tensions between money and artistic intention that extend far beyond Rothko’s Seagram project. Much of art is bigger than itself. Explore how women's eyebrows in paintings have been symbolic of their social station here.

In his analysis of Rothko’s work, Payne takes viewers on a deep dive into the historical context and making of the murals, including how they were delivered to the Tate in London on the same day Ro…

02/11/2022

Discover the Avant- Garde Women of Chicago!

Chicago inspired women artists of various backgrounds to draw similar conclusions: a new art was called for to advance the struggle for freedom by imagining other worlds. Brandon Truett traces the …

29/10/2022

What do cats and Caliban have to do with Cyprus? Read on to find out!

So much of Limassol exists to gratify visitors. But when tourists fail to resort to a resort, the city suffers an identity crisis. Spaces intended for amusement hang in suspense, haunted by their l…

22/10/2022

As he tenderly runs a string of Buddhist prayer beads through his fingers, Rinjin says that customarily, it is the monastery that people come to for spiritual safety and well-being but now it appears as though the monastery needs protection from this faceless man-made enemy. Read this sobering account of a history barely surviving here. But the monasteries that have stood through centuries ...

As he tenderly runs a string of Buddhist prayer beads through his fingers, Rinjin says that customarily, it is the monastery that people come to for spiritual safety and well-being but now it appea…

19/10/2022

“Color … is more like religion,” he wrote in 1945. “It is in the blood, an essential part of the psychic make-up of an individual.” It’s a view that still resonates, even today. Read this fascinating history about color by Ellie Howard here. As design researcher Jianne Whelton asked: “What privileged color that it should combine with the term psychology?...

“Color … is more like religion,” he wrote in 1945. “It is in the blood, an essential part of the psychic make-up of an individual.” It’s a view that still resonates, even today. Read this fascinat…

15/10/2022

See an interesting piece of urban history from London!

The short documentary Nubia Way (2022) tells the story of this historic small neighbourhood, which was built from scratch by Black Londoners, mostly from Caribbean backgrounds, in the 1990s as part…

12/10/2022

Read about the crumbling Bradlaugh Hall in Lahore!

Lahore today can feel like a city of security checks and gated passages, tall walls and barbed wire, closed-circuit cameras and concrete barriers. […]Lahoris find ways to subvert urban interd…

01/10/2022

Stadiums have more to say! Read their counterhistories here.

Stadiums do more than reflect a vision of urbanism crafted by elite classes and their architects. And they do more than provide entertainment for sports fans. Stadiums are akin to other commemorati…

28/09/2022

Read this fascinating conversation between Leslie Kern and Sophie Gonick of Public Books about what a Feminist City could be!

Read this interview of Leslie Kern by Sophie Gonick about her new book Feminist City. In her timely new book, Feminist City, Leslie Kern confronts many of these urban practices, revealing their gen…

24/09/2022

Street art often contains entire histories within itself and acts as a record keeper of public memory. Read one such story here.

THE PHOTO WAS MEANT AS a kind of a mug shot, so authorities could keep tabs on him. Yet the camera did not capture a man trapped so much as a compelling, mythical radiance—the figure is poised, his…

21/09/2022

Read more about Paula Rego's Legacy here.

It is not as if the expectation of composure eluded Rego’s women, however. What we get in her paintings is a construct of women who are first and foremost taut as a result of being pulled in the tw…

17/09/2022

An interesting treatise of what the future of monuments could look like!

Riding along the Lakefront Trail, if you blink, you miss the Balbo Monument. There is no warning, no signpost, no marker, no reason to notice. With no context, we do not know what sits in this land…

14/09/2022

Read this fascinating account of the history of lipsticks!

The first known lipstick was created somewhere around 3500 BCE and was worn by Queen Schub-ad of ancient Ur. The lip tint contained a mix of “white lead and crushed red rocks” and became so popular…

10/09/2022

See how this iconic building was constructed, presented by the people who built it.

The Chrysler Tower … stands by itself, something apart and alone. It is simply the realisation, the fulfilment in metal and masonry, of a one-man dream, a dream of such ambition and such magnitude …

07/09/2022

This ancient discovery is a testament to human exploration!

THE AREA AROUND AL-ULA IS famous for the iconic tombs at Hegra (Mada’in Saleh). These were built by the Nabataeans in the first century. However, archaeological excavations unearthed remains of an …

03/09/2022

"For years, social scientists and media critics have warned that violent acts within video games might promote real-world aggression, even though the evidence for such a link is equivocal at best. Yet the same experts and pundits have largely ignored what I consider a far more serious problem: intense emotional experiences within the game that can lead to genuine trauma. Game designers do not pay nearly enough attention to psychological safety, particularly regarding the bonds that develop between players and the characters they identify with....

“For years, social scientists and media critics have warned that violent acts within video games might promote real-world aggression, even though the evidence for such a link is equivocal at …

31/08/2022

"I started wondering: Have people always been this weird about eyebrows? As the most easily mutable facial feature, women’s eyebrows have often been sites of intense scrutiny and have gone through seemingly endless, rapidly changing trend cycles around the world. So let’s take a quick tour of how these ideals have shown up in art across civilizations throughout history: from bushy, to bold, to completely bare. " Isabella Segalovich takes us through the wild history of women's eyebrows through various eras and places of the world. Read this fascinating history here.

“I started wondering: Have people always been this weird about eyebrows? As the most easily mutable facial feature, women’s eyebrows have often been sites of intense scrutiny and have gone th…

27/08/2022

"Built environments are a reflection of the social order and dynamic ideals of society. Neighborhoods and cities are cultural relics shaped by diverse communities, some of whose voices are heard louder than others. In the past few decades, Indian metropolitans have been booming with urbanization. Holding cities back from being Utopian hubs of growth is spatial inequality. The residential segregation that patterns the cities of India can be understood through the caste system....

“Built environments are a reflection of the social order and dynamic ideals of society. Neighborhoods and cities are cultural relics shaped by diverse communities, some of whose voices are he…

24/08/2022

How did people make maps without planes?
TLDR: By being wrong a lot!

See this quick and fascinating story of how people mapped the world without being able to see it from above.

20/08/2022

Read about an underrepresented side of the history of print literature in India.

“It was one of the most seminal publications that celebrated Dalit literature — a writing movement produced by people belonging to the lowest stratum castes in India — and it marked the inter…

17/08/2022

"Boykin, Alabama – also known as Gee’s Bend – is, at first glance, a somewhat unremarkable place. An overwhelmingly Black community with a population just above 200, it resembles a great many quiet towns in the Southern United States. (...) But the arresting array of colours and patterns frequently seen hanging alongside them hint at why Gee’s Bend has come to be considered a cultural centre for this American art form, and home to a collective of celebrated artists....

“Boykin, Alabama – also known as Gee’s Bend – is, at first glance, a somewhat unremarkable place. An overwhelmingly Black community with a population just above 200, it resembles a great many…