ulises studio's digital images stage hypnotic procession of golf carts tracing invisible lines
all images by Ulises studio Curious Conformity reflects on structures of routine
The project reflects on deeper structures of routine and alignment, through a guiding statement that serves as its philosophical core: 'In the garden of order, not all harmony is freedom. We follow lines drawn long before us, mistaking movement for meaning. But the perfect path rarely asks questions. Let the loop unsettle you. Let the pattern reveal its silence,' add the designers. Ulises frames the work as a meditation on conformity, not as oppression, but as seduction. In the world of Curious Conformity, the loop is beautiful, the alignment comforting. And yet, beneath the surface, a question lingers: who drew these lines? Why do we follow? With no clear beginning or end, the fields in Curious Conformity become symbolic landscapes of obedience, scenes where progress dissolves into pattern, and calmness conceals control. Drawing from speculative design and digital animation, Ulises studio blurs the lines between visual pleasure and conceptual tension, crafting a work that is as charming as it is quietly subversive. Read More Phaidon's Forthcoming "Mid-Century Modern Designers" Book
white golf carts glide in perfect formation across green fields
the vehicles move without drivers, tracing silent, looping paths
a surreal ballet of repetition and alignment unfolds
loops repeat endlessly, inviting deeper reflection
READ SOURCE
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In a New Volume Out This Fall, Annie Leibovitz Revisits Her Women
'This project was never done,' Annie Leibovitz once said of Women, the landmark book of portraits she created in 1999 with her late partner, Susan Sontag. Speaking to The New York Times nearly two decades later, Leibovitz made clear that the project—then touring the globe as an exhibition—wasn't meant to be finite. 'It's not one of those projects that will ever have an ending.' Making good on that concept, this November, 25 years after its original publication, Women is returning in a new slipcased edition: a two-volume set from Phaidon pairing the original book with an entirely new companion volume of portraits made between 2000 and the present. Together, they offer a sweeping meditation on femininity, power, vulnerability, and the visual vocabulary we use to define all three. Left: Susan Sontag; Right: A showgirl Photo: Courtesy of Phaidon The original Women was a deeply personal endeavor—not only due to Sontag's involvement (she penned the incisive essay that accompanied the imagery), but also because of the reverence with which Leibovitz approached her subjects. The portraits of Louise Bourgeois, Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Eileen Collins weren't simply about visibility—they were about legacy. Sontag's text, first excerpted in Vogue in 1999, interrogated the very idea of a book of women's portraits, positing that no such effort for men would be received in the same way. 'But then a book of photographs of men would not be undertaken in the same spirit,' she noted. 'Each of these pictures must stand on its own. But the ensemble says, so this is what women are now.'
Washington Post
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A treasure trove of new books to read during Pride Month
The dazzling variety of current and upcoming books on LGBTQ themes is a reassuring reminder of how far we've come. This year, fans of queer romance can read books set in the worlds of Formula 1 ('Crash Test'), clandestine Victorian clubs ('To Sketch a Scandal') and Italian restaurants ('Pasta Girls'). In July, Phaidon is publishing a lavish survey of global queer art as a companion piece to Jonathan D. Katz's Chicago exhibition 'The First Homosexuals,' while the queer Korean vampire murder mystery 'The Midnight Shift,' by Cheon Seon-Ran, will draw first blood in August. Joe Westmoreland's autofiction classic 'Tramps Like Us,' a sort of gay(er) 'On the Road' first published in 2001, is being reissued. Alison Bechdel is back. There are two new studies, one by Daniel Brook and another by Brandy Schillace, of the groundbreaking LGBTQ advocate and sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, whose books were burned by the Nazis. Phil Melanson's entertaining historical fiction debut, 'Florenzer,' imagines the early life and same-sex longings of Leonardo da Vinci against the backdrop of a conflict between the Medici family and the Vatican. The novel, which owes a debt to Hilary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall' trilogy in the detail and immediacy of its telling, feels freshly contemporary in its papal intrigue and plutocratic power battles. These books — and those I discuss at greater length below — are variously warm, comic, sad, jubilant, curious, violent and erotic. Each has insights of its own to offer, but they're united by their awareness of the continuing vulnerability of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer people. 'Gaysians,' which is 'Flamer' author Mike Curato's first graphic novel for adults, doesn't shy away from violence, racism and transphobia, outside the community or within it. The colors of the trans flag give the book its dominant palette, working especially well for its many nightclub scenes. 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Though she is, by training, a mycologist — a fungi specialist — she embraces all life forms, a disposition derived from her understanding of diversity being nature's 'very premise.' Sometimes this embrace borders on the erotic; one might well blush reading how, 'turgid with spring rains, mushrooms carefully arrange themselves into fruiting bodies, poking up through the soil to disperse their spores.' True to its nonbinary ethos, the book is really many things: an account of growing up in New York's Hudson Valley surrounded by snakes and slugs; a survivor's memoir about the path to healing following a childhood sexual assault; a story about growing to love one's own 'ambiguous,' 'amorphous,' 'amphibious' nature. It can sometimes feel a bit more like a manifesto than a work of science — 'How we treat swamps is an indicator of our societal health' is a typical assertion — but the radical-green politics are all part of the book's charm. 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When James, our sensitive, stammering hero, comes out in 2002, Britain is still a year away from repealing Section 28, a sliver of legislation that effectively quashed discussion of sexuality in England's schools, and he is left feeling like a stranger in the only home he's ever known. While delivering milk bottles one morning before school, he meets Luke, a boy lodging with his aunt and uncle while his dad is in prison. Before long the strong-jawed Luke is all James can think about — but does Luke feel the same way? The book's appeal may depend on its readers' willingness to take adolescent romantic longing as seriously as we do when we're young. It succeeds because Hewitt knows when to stop — he casts a spell, like first love, that he knows can't last forever. Or can it? Throughout this short book, Hewitt muses on the passage of time, the way 'the years spin like this all of a sudden,' and considers how easy it might be for time to fold in on itself and the world to revert to an earlier state, taking us with it. The consequences of such a regression for our narrator, and for us all, are potentially dire. We have plenty of regressions to worry about outside of fiction, not least from the Supreme Court, which hinted only last year that it may be willing to revisit marriage equality. Progress in immigration reform also appears vulnerable: Lin, who finished 'Deep House' before January, has observed of the crackdown under Trump that 'our paranoia has become the reality.' Yet there is some consolation to be found, amid all this, in the humor, hope and humanity in the stories still being told. Charles Arrowsmith is based in New York and writes about books, films and music.
Business Mayor
27-04-2025
- Business Mayor
ulises studio's digital images stage hypnotic procession of golf carts tracing invisible lines
Curious Conformity, the latest digital work by Ulises studio, meditates on repetition, order, and quiet resistance. The studio presents a series of looping digital images and videos where white golf carts glide across saturated green fields in perfect, hypnotic formation. Empty of drivers, the vehicles trace silent trajectories in line, a surreal ballet of repetition and quiet coordination that evokes both harmony and unease. The work continues Ulises' exploration of surreal minimalism and speculative worlds, inviting viewers to question the systems we follow and the illusions we live inside. Rendered with the studio's signature digital aesthetic, Curious Conformity places movement at the center of its conceptual inquiry, not as freedom, but as habit. The perfectly looping motions mimic rituals we perform without noticing, drawing attention to the tension between aesthetic satisfaction and philosophical disquiet. all images by Ulises studio Curious Conformity reflects on structures of routine The project reflects on deeper structures of routine and alignment, through a guiding statement that serves as its philosophical core: 'In the garden of order, not all harmony is freedom. We follow lines drawn long before us, mistaking movement for meaning. But the perfect path rarely asks questions. Let the loop unsettle you. Let the pattern reveal its silence,' add the designers. Ulises frames the work as a meditation on conformity, not as oppression, but as seduction. In the world of Curious Conformity, the loop is beautiful, the alignment comforting. And yet, beneath the surface, a question lingers: who drew these lines? Why do we follow? With no clear beginning or end, the fields in Curious Conformity become symbolic landscapes of obedience, scenes where progress dissolves into pattern, and calmness conceals control. Drawing from speculative design and digital animation, Ulises studio blurs the lines between visual pleasure and conceptual tension, crafting a work that is as charming as it is quietly subversive. Read More Phaidon's Forthcoming "Mid-Century Modern Designers" Book white golf carts glide in perfect formation across green fields the vehicles move without drivers, tracing silent, looping paths a surreal ballet of repetition and alignment unfolds loops repeat endlessly, inviting deeper reflection READ SOURCE
