rtraba

Recent Posts

• A trip to Georgia

  By rtraba on October 9, 2018 • ( 0 )

  

  Tbilisi – Georgia – sits quietly on a corner of the Caucasus, not Europe anymore, not Asia yet. The vast landscapes of solitude are beyond the barren mountains. Renaissance and Enlightenment are somehow on the other side of the Black Sea…. Read More ›

• Existenzminimum in Hampstead

  By rtraba on August 27, 2018 • ( 1 )

  

  There was a time when Modernism‘s programmatic fracture with exhausted ways of building, dwelling, thinking was celebrated the world over. In architecture, official recognition started pouring in with the famous 1932 MOMA “International Style” exhibition (catalogue): honors followed on both sides… Read More ›

• Digital Vanguardism: Internet Trends 2018 & Adair Turner

  By rtraba on August 11, 2018 • ( 1 )

  

  Apropos Digital Vanguardism, two nice pieces of information are out: [A] – Mary Meeker’s long awaited “Internet Trends 2018” report is finally out. It takes time to digest it – but well worth the effort. Main takeaways: 1. growth harder to… Read More ›

• Apostasy

  By rtraba on August 10, 2018 • ( 1 )

  

  A stuffy atmosphere pervades Kingdom Hall, the suburban assembly point for the small community of Jehovah witnesses in the magnificent ‘Apostasy’ –  the debut film by Dan Kokotajlo. With skew face closeups reminiscent of Dreyer’s Johan of Arc, and a masterful… Read More ›

• Stillness – “can art ever be more complete, more powerful?”

  By rtraba on March 30, 2018 • ( 0 )

  

  Just when one feels overwhelmed, the mind cannot stop wandering around, thinking becomes pointillist and will not rest. Here enters Mark Rothko. No need for words. Just listen to the compelling message that Simon Schama attach to this one true… Read More ›

• “Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less” (Marie Curie)

  By rtraba on March 22, 2018 • ( 2 )

  

  Quick notes jotted down after the splendid seminar / conversation between Yuval Harari (of “Homo Sapiens” and “Homo Deus” fame) and Thomas Friedman – not less well-know journalist for the NY Times – in the splendid setup of Westminster Methodist… Read More ›

• Smart Creatives

  By rtraba on March 4, 2018 • ( 1 )

  

  The best cultures are aspirational. “Over time many companies get comfortable doing what they have always done, with a few incremental changes. This kind of incrementalism leads to irrelevance over time, especially in technology, because change tends to be revolutionary… Read More ›

• Ross: The Industries of the Future

  By rtraba on February 2, 2018 • ( 2 )

  

  The importance of a book like “The industries of the future”1 by Alec Ross can hardly be overstated.  By his own admission, “This book explores the industries that will drive the next 20 years of change to our economies and societies”… Read More ›

• Silicon Valley and Utopia

  By rtraba on January 20, 2018 • ( 4 )

  

  In a deep contribution (“Occidente senza Utopie”, Il Mulino, 2016: see video below: Italian), Massimo Cacciari argues first that there is a substantial conceptual difference between ‘Utopia’ and ‘Prophecy’ – where the latter denotes the act of the outsider addressing the… Read More ›

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