Ten of Our Favorite Long Reads to Immerse Yourself In

Get your cup of tea and get comfortable: here is a selection of ten long articles or essays on the arts, design, entertainment, and fashion.

Charles James Lewis – Reading by the window

1. Loheland at 100

The Loheland Schule für Körperbildung, Landbau und Handwerk (Loheland School for Physical Education, Agriculture and Crafts) has many things in common with the Bauhaus – both were founded in 1919 distancing less than 200 km from each other, both wanted to be testing grounds for modern art and intellect – but there was one main difference: Loheland’s students were all female. Promoting an interdisciplinary curriculum that incorporated different art forms, gymnastics, and spiritualism, Loheland wanted to educate “a new generation of women”. This essay by the MoMA is a read that surprises.

2. Disappointed in the World’s Most Viral Video

This article looks at the most watched music videos of all time and tracks what are the common themes in them. It turns out to be a critique of society’s tastes, done with Despacito playing in the background.

3. Whatever Ηappened Τo Τhe Golden Age of Television?

Very often people describe series they have been watching on Netflix as “okay” or “mediocre”. The advent of streaming platforms changed the way in which tv shows are envisioned, produced and payed for and the consequences on the creativity and quality of the shows are looked at in this read.

4. Linda Nochlin’s Classic: Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?

I first read this essay – one of the first major works of feminist art history – a month ago as part of the reading material of one of my courses. It is as relevant and important as it was in 1971, when it was first published by ArtNews.

5. Goga Ashkenazi: The First Female Oligarch of Fashion

This is the story of Goga Ashkenazi. She went from being the founder of an oil-and-gas company in Kazakhstan to owning the fashion house Vionnet, a radical switch she felt necessary to follow her life-long love for fashion and creativity. The article follows her around her life in Kazakhstan, Oxford, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles and Milan, mentioning several surprising acquaintances of hers.

6. How Infectious Diseases Design Bathrooms

Bioethitist and journalist Elizabeth Yuko show how bathroom design has been influenced by public health concerns such as the outbreaks of tuberculosis, cholera, and influenza. She then questions how the current global pandemic could influence bathroom design: will more people insert bidet attachments in their bathrooms as a solution to toilet paper shortages? It is a surprisingly entertaining read.

7. Utopia, Abandoned

Ivrea was for a while the most progressive company town in the world. Olivetti – the famous typewriter and accounting machines manufacturing company – envisioned the city as an ideal space for its employees, with modern architecture produced by some of the best architects of the time and live-performances over lunch. When the company was progressively forced to reduce its operations and cut staff, the town felt the repercussions as well. This long read is a reflection on city design, social ideals, and the passing of time.

8. Hippie Inc: How the Counterculture Went Corporate

This article analyses how elements typically associated with the hippie culture – meditation, mindfulness, “sacred sound journeys” – have been incorporated into the corporate cultures of big companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Nike, Procter & Gamble and General Motors, or better put: the heart of that capitalism that the hippie movement was opposing.

9. Inside Frieze

Writer Micheal O’ Connor takes us into Frieze, the one-week art fair that takes place in London every October. It is considered a non-negotiable must-attend event for the who’s-who of the global art world. He talks about his almost mystic experience that culminates with the realization that the fair as a whole is a work of art in its own right.

10.  Can Art World Kick Its Addiction To Flying?

The Frieze fair discussed in the previous article is only one of many events across the globe that arts professionals feel they must attend. The amount of flying necessary to get to all these events has come under scrutiny through the work of climate activists. This long read reflects on the role of arts in the climate crisis and the problems of all this flying around, proposing a slower pace in the art world – “with residencies instead of junkets, commissions instead of short-term installations” – as a solution.