Modernism

10 cards. Each one is a 40-second story with a five-minute read behind it.

1. More than just minimalism: the complex legacy of Scandinavian designWe often associate Nordic design with clean lines and functional simplicity. But beneath the iconic Egg chair and sleek glassware lies a complex history of industrial innovation, …
2. Why governments prefer a map over the messy reality of peopleTo govern effectively, states need to make their subjects 'legible.' This means simplifying complex, diverse human lives into standardized data points. While this allows for large…
3. The genius of a man who lived in tiny scriptRobert Walser was a literary giant who spent most of his life in obscurity, working humble jobs and living in psychiatric institutions. His work, marked by profound alienation and…
4. The death of the grand story: why we no longer believe in ProgressWe are taught to see history as a straight line toward a glorious goal. But what happens when that overarching story collapses? In 1979, philosopher Jean-François Lyotard argued t…
5. How Sweden built one million homes to engineer a new class of democratic citizensBetween 1965 and 1974, Sweden launched the world's most ambitious building project. The goal was not just to house a growing population, but to modernize a nation and erase the re…
6. How modern art became a perceived threat to Western civilizationIn the 1920s, a radical shift in art and music sparked a paranoid backlash. To some, it was a liberation of personal expression; to others, it was a revolutionary attack on the ve…
7. The world's largest Art Nouveau complex was built to heal the sickImagine a hospital where the architecture itself serves as medicine. Between 1901 and 1930, Barcelona saw the rise of a massive complex that blended high-art Modernisme with clini…
8. The art of the declaration: why manifestos are rarely about logicAn art manifesto is more than a list of rules; it is a public declaration of intent designed to shock the status quo. From the 20th-century avant-garde to modern internet movement…
9. The high modernist dream: engineering a perfect society from a blank slateHigh modernism isn't just an aesthetic; it is a profound confidence in the power of science and technology to reorder the world. It seeks to master nature and human behavior by st…
10. The Rite of Spring's famous 'riot' wasn't called a riot until 1924.On 29 May 1913, Stravinsky's ballet about a pagan sacrifice opened in Paris to jeers, fights and an uproar that drowned out the orchestra. It became music's most famous scandal. B…

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