Book Chapters by Emile Frankel
I 愛 AI, Aesthetic Calculations, 2024
The Blazing World, Formling, 2019
An arctic image makes news cycles from Russian occupied Yuznhy Island. In the township of Belushy... more An arctic image makes news cycles from Russian occupied Yuznhy Island. In the township of Belushya Guba polar bears lie yellowing, prostrate in dunes of garbage. The photo is taken by the Instagram account friend_of_your_friend complemented with the hashtag: НОВАЯ земля "NEW land" "NEW earth". 1 It's a scene far from National Geographic's more familiar 2017 cover story: "Heart-Wrenching Starving Polar Bear on Iceless Land". The article shows a polar bear wandering a too warm ground (ribs protruding, fur soured by its own decaying body). It draws comparison to another famous photo: mother and daughter polar bear stranded on a prematurely melted shard of ice, floating out into the ocean forever until death (how much longer must they float?). Both pictures have received onerous attacks from climate change denialists. National Geographic issued a spineless apology: "we said 'this is what climate change looks like.' While science has established that there is a strong connection between melting sea ice and polar bears dying off, there is no way to know for certain why this bear was on the verge of death." In 2019 Belushya Guba, white bears feast on rubbish. The new material vitality of the North Pole is plastic. Bottle and can and bag are ruby and gem and diamond. Constellation and aurora borealis are half-transparent orts. Although bears, these lucky ones look up at the camera smiling with mouths like us. In a mobile flash sunken eyes see food from the remains of our world. Trash caddies from the heartland filling fur-stomachs. Perhaps these bears are not hungry for the first time in their lives.
Reviews by Emile Frankel
Stray Landings x The Barbican Centre, 2018
In the late Renaissance, the once ethereal spacing of chords became suddenly earthen and aurally ... more In the late Renaissance, the once ethereal spacing of chords became suddenly earthen and aurally muddied with the invention of the harpsichord. Choirs were automated by a single playing hand, and onlookers lucky enough to see this instrument up close discovered that harmony was in fact clearer than ever, visually mapped out by the movements of fingers carving shapes upon keys. For those who tried to theorise the ways in which music might be a prayer for the future, the harpsichord was an ascetic hymn to connect being with heaven. Gaping mouths were replaced by delicate fingers parsing wooden notes and the eyes not the ears were newly tasked with trying to understand what sacredness sounded like.
Uploads
Book Chapters by Emile Frankel
Reviews by Emile Frankel