What Is Art For?

The School of Life has started a series of fantastic short videos exploring many thought provoking themes, including this exploration of what is art for? 

How Do You Move A Picasso?

Recently, Picasso’s “Le Tricorne” was removed from the Seagram Building, where it had been on display for 55 years. Moving a canvas that age and size required extreme delicacy.

Marc Newson On Designing Watches

Despite the fact that almost everyone stopped wearing a watch more than a decade ago the introduction of the Apple Watch has awakened a conversation around horology. Here is the recently hired by Apple Marc Newson showing his portfolio. 

In this movie Marc Newson, in his London studio, tells us about the watches he's designed, including the first ones that he built himself in the late 1980s.

Flicking through a proof of his new book for publishers Taschen, Newson shows a 1:1 image of a model from 1986 that's as big as his fist, saying "I pre-dated the trend for large watches by about a decade."

Newson also talks about jewellery he's designed, the huge glass Atmos clocks powered by tiny changes in temperature and the hourglass full of ball-bearings that was his last product for the Ikepod watch brand he founded.

Mac Barnett: Why a good book is a secret door

Childhood is surreal. Why shouldn't children's books be? In this whimsical talk, award-winning author Mac Barnett speaks about writing that escapes the page, art as a doorway to wonder — and what real kids say to a fictional whale.

Is Technology Making Us Better Storytellers?

Technology has changed way we tell stories, but has it changed the quality of storytelling? At this year's Aspen Ideas Festival, a group of writers, artists, and producers weighed in. "We're revisiting the same explorations of the soul that have been going on for hundreds of generations," says House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon. Other panelists include Michael Eisner, Catherine Burns, Jay Allison, Paula Kerger, Jon Lovett, Yoni Bloch, Pete McBride, and Hari Kondabolu.