Art

Notes and explorations in the history of art.

  • MPB map

    The artists of Música Popular Brasileira placed on two axes — time and influence — from choro and samba roots through Bossa Nova and Tropicália to today.

  • MPB artists & their key songs

    Every artist from the MPB map, with their main stylistic contributions and key songs or albums — one card per idea.

  • Reading — the facts

    Is reading up or down? What about book sales? How concentrated is it, and what does reading provably do to cognition? The numbers, with sources and their caveats.

  • Culinary world map

    The world divided into 182 culinary regions — Brittany, Oaxaca, Sichuan, not countries — each with a card on its particularities, signature dishes, defining ingredients and chefs.

  • Dishes of the world

    The signature dishes of every culinary region — one card per dish, with what it is and why it matters.

  • Ingredients of the world

    The defining ingredients of every culinary region — one card per ingredient, with the role it plays in its region's cooking.

  • Artistic map

    Some 500 artists placed on two axes — time and influence — linked by known lines of influence, from Phidias to the present.

  • Artists & their ideas

    Every artist from the map, with their main ideas and key works — one card per idea.

  • Movements & schools

    The movements and schools of art history — what each one claimed, the artists who carried it, and the works that define it.

  • Culinary map

    The great chefs and gastronomes placed on two axes — time and influence — linked by lines of teaching and reaction, from Apicius to the New Nordic kitchen.

  • Chefs & their signature dishes

    Every chef from the culinary map, with their main concepts and signature dishes — one card per idea.