Once again, Inner Space and Outer Space have collided in their paired dance through the frontier of our culture.

The art and architectural designs of Delhi-based Sanjeev Shankar explore India's everyday acts of innovation.

Neither all-seeing God nor infinitely cunning Devil, the surveillance video turns us all into suspects who can never prove our innocence or deny our guilt. Larry Frolick reports on the technology that keeps us in limbo — until the next big thing comes along.

ART | Russians have for decades fashioned functional objects from such cast-off items as forks, plastic bottles and onion bags. Collector Vladimir Arkhipov sheds light on the artful labours collected in his archive of "post-material folklore".

FILM | American experimental filmmaker Jim Finn takes on Kim Jong Il, and his theory of Juche literature and cinema.

ARCHITECTURE | Havana's most conspicuous foreign mission is the former Soviet (now Russian) embassy, a brutalist obelisk-tower that's inspiring contemporary Habanero artists to reimagine the city's past and future.

During my recent Brazil excursion to research the book I stopped in Salvador, without much of a specific agenda. I had long wanted to visit, mostly because the city and the surrounding state of Bahia, predominantly Afro-Brazilian, have had such a definitive influence on the country's culture (from samba to candomblé and capoeira).

(Photo: Heidelberg Project, Michael Takasaki) Following up on last post: In Detroit, at least, there’s already a number of projects underway that are designed to staunch the bleeding in neighborhoods struggling with urban decay and foreclosure. Boing Boing led me to James Griffioen’s marvelous set of photos of the abandoned Detroit Public School Book Depository, which [...]

[Photo: Heidelberg Project] While staying in Detroit, we head out toward 8 Mile and stop at the Heidelberg Project. It’s a two-block public art exercise that consumes the sides of houses, empty lots, the sidewalk, and even the trees of a long depressed, black (but once racially integrated) Eastside Detroit neighborhood. Tyree Guyton, who grew up [...]

More scribblings from recent trip to New York City, in part for book-related research. & in part to confirm that what happened on November 4 actually did happen. (Pics from Lisa K.) November 10, 2008 Paying sporadic attention to the news one item stands out: Gun and ammo sales are booming surging (insert your own punning headline [...]