• As the streaming wars enter phase 2, TV takes inspiration from the past

    With Netflix losing subscribers for the first time in a decade we now move to phase 2 of the streaming wars, and dozens of services clamoring for your attention. But curiously, the future of television is starting to look a lot like old-fashioned broadcast TV.

    Read more… New Atlas, August 2022

  • The ups and downs of vertical cinema

    Over the past decade smartphones have increasingly normalized vertical videos, yet most content is still produced using horizontal frames. Is it time to turn your TV on its side and embrace the future? Or is vertical video just a passing trend, fundamentally unsuited to how we want to watch things?

    Read more… New Atlas, September 2020

  • The story of the Moon across a century of cinema

    The history of the Moon in cinema is a compelling parallel to the story of the Moon in popular consciousness. As the world's perception of the Moon changed, so did the cinematic stories we told, and this chronology of the Moon on film tells the story of how we, as a civilization, have entirely changed our view of our lunar neighbor over the past 100 years.

    Read more… New Atlas, July 2019

  • Science Fiction Cities: How our future visions influence the cities we build

    For over a century, science fiction filmmaking has presented us with depictions of our future cities. Some have been bright, shiny and positive, while others have been dark, dirty and rough. As we look forward to a 21st century filled with massive mega-cities, and extraordinary technological innovation, we must ask how are our science fiction visions influencing the cities we build, and what can we learn from some of these prescient fictional texts?

    Read more… New Atlas, July 2018

  • Netflix vs. cinema: How a disruptive streaming service declared war on Hollywood

    Netflix is shooting for Oscar glory with its latest epic gangster film from Martin Scorsese, but Hollywood is not making it easy for this disruptive startup to take a place in the modern ecosystem of film distribution.

    Read more… New Atlas, October 2019

  • The hyper-fragmented mess of streaming TV ... and how it's only getting worse

    In August Disney announced it will be withdrawing all of its content from Netflix. The company plans to start up its own streaming service incorporating its giant library of content. The announcement hit the entertainment industry like an atomic bomb. This was one of the world's biggest content providers saying it was going to go its own way. So just how much more fragmented can the streaming world get before consumers turn sour?

    Read more… New Atlas, August 2017

  • Biometric Mirror starkly demonstrates how facial recognition systems amplify human bias

    Innocuously set up in the corner of a library foyer at the University of Melbourne in Australia is a confronting social experiment tailored to highlight the fundamental flaws behind modern facial recognition technology. Called the Biometric Mirror, this interactive installation asks people to step up and have an AI application determine a variety of personality characteristics using current facial analysis systems. I tried it, and it concluded I am weird and aggressive.

    Read more… New Atlas, August 2018

  • The right to disconnect: The new laws banning after-hours work emails

    A new study has found you may be suffering from excessive stress and anxiety about work expectations even if you don't actively check work emails in your off-hours. In today's ultra-connected world, with many people often getting work emails sent to their smartphones, a growing number of countries and companies are endorsing "right to disconnect" laws, recreating a much-needed boundary between work and home.

    Read more… New Atlas, August 2018

  • How fake news is being co-opted by governments around the world to suppress dissent

    A most concerning trend to arise over the past year or two has been the tendency for authoritarian leaders around the world to take the term ‘fake news’ and use it to directly suppress dissent. Vague anti-fake news laws are being instituted in several countries around the world and civil liberties groups are suggesting they are being used by despotic leaders to silence opposition and quash free speech.

    Read more… August 2018