Drawing on footage shot for the upcoming documentary Children of The Wicker Man, this talk will consider the ways in which audiences and fans of the film have spent the past fifty years trying to understand every aspect of how this remarkable film came into being.
During this talk, looking at a selection of artists working across different mediums, we will explore how religion and spirituality have been addressed by contemporary artists between the 1950s and today.
This talk will look at the theme of ‘vanitas’ (the emptiness of the material world and the presence of death) in the history of art to better understand how past cultures have thought about the impermanence of life and how this type of thinking leads to a greater understanding of a life worth living.
The choices and actions of the current generation will reverberate through the lives of future generations. Should we factor future generations into our decision-making? If so, how should we go about this? What is it that we owe them?
Sophocles’ Antigone has been central to many philosophers’ and psychoanalysts’ thought. This talk offers a fresh interpretation of the play.
What good is sex? This talk draws on the work of Lauren Berlant, a leading theorist of sexuality, politics, and culture, to think about the place of sex and the erotic in contemporary culture.
The ancient Stoics have a simple yet compelling view of finding value in a material world. Virtue makes all the difference to our happiness or well-being. Using a range of ancient sources, we will explore and discuss Stoics ideas in much more detail in conversation together.
Simple in appearance, yet complex in execution, Sun Tunnels is a philosophical reflection on time and the cycle of nature. This talk will explore the different facets of this artwork to help us to rethink our modern conceptions ‘progress’ and ‘time’.
Sabi is another Japanese aesthetic concept that is closely related to wabi, but with a greater emphasis on the beauty of ageing and decay. Join our next calligraphy session and learn about idea of Sabi in Japanese culture.
This session will discuss Byung-Chul Han’s views. Han is one of the most prominent South Korean-born philosophers and cultural theorists. In his works, Han explores the late capitalist culture in its various facets, including concepts such as freedom, the internet, mental health, popular culture, religion, sexuality, social media, subjectivity, technology, and transparency.
