Doing Good(bye)

Hi everyone,

This is my last issue at the helm of Frontier Magazine. Below you’ll find a bumper crop of links, updates on past stories, and other notes. Get ready to open a bunch of tabs!

But first, a round of thanks and an administrative note. Frontier Magazine wouldn’t exist without readers like you. We’re grateful so many people have joined us, and that a meaningful subset of you have chosen to support this effort with a paid subscription. On Tuesday, we paused all paid subscriptions so that when we reveal the next version of this publication, you will have the same amount of “credit” remaining. And we’ll gladly process a prorated refund at that time. If you don’t want to wait and see, we understand—just reply to this message and we’ll sort it out.

Second, Frontier Magazine wouldn’t exist without the support of Frontier, the design office in Toronto founded by Paddy Harrington. Paddy, alongside past and current colleagues Tristan Marantos, Paul Twa, and Laura Sellors, share a bold vision: that a studio specializing in story, identity, and experiential projects could also contribute positively to broader conversations shaping the industries in which it works. This is exceptionally rare. Almost no studios run an editorially independent publication helmed by a writer who is not doing double duty as a designer.

I have benefited from that generous vision, and it’s been such a pleasure to dive into the worlds of art, technology, education, design, and, increasingly, the built environment for the newsletter. What you’ve read here has had no editorial interference—I’m looking at you, Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shien—and that freedom has led to writing and interviews I’ve enjoyed as much as any I’ve published in the past two decades.

So, thank you. If you want to know what’s next for me, hit reply and I’ll tell you, or visit my website. I know I’m eagerly looking forward to the next iteration of this publication. I hope you are, too.

Annnnnnd … scene,
Brian

🔗️ Good links

Longtime readers will know I’ve always got a few links to share. (My wife says sharing links is my “love language.”) Around this time last year, I sent fifty as a “Frontier miscellany”; at other times, I’ve sent a dozen. Below is an idiosyncratic tour through nearly two years of Frontier Magazine with updates and related stories.

🗞️📅 A few updates to stories covered here:

• Last week’s story about Azure Magazine’s Human/Nature conference focused on its first day through the theme of scale. Kongjian Yu was the second day’s keynote speaker; in this new Architect’s Newspaper interview, he discusses scaling up his Sponge City projects.
• In March 2023, I wrote admiringly of Patrick Bringley’s memoir of working as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This week, the New York Times notes that the book is in its tenth printing and Bringley’s debuting a new one-man play based on its stories.
• In January, I worried about increasing cyberattacks on libraries and other nonprofit and cultural infrastructure. Two weeks ago, I noted the Calgary Public Library announced it had been compromised; last week, it was the Art Gallery of Ontario’s turn. (Somewhat related: I’m delighted Mayor Chow’s administration is helping the TPL to open all 100 branches seven days a week.)
• Our third issue, in January 2023, featured Chinese architect Xu Tiantian of DnA_Design and Architecture. Readers in Montreal have ten more days to see the exhibition “Into the Island,” which features a film about another of Xu’s recent projects.
• In October 2023, I wrote about a talk given in Toronto by British writer Robert Macfarlane; the in-progress book he discussed that night, Is a River Alive?, is now available for preorder

👩🏻‍💻👨🏻‍💻 Some updates about past Frontier Magazine interviewees:

• I spoke with photographer Virginia Hanusik in May. She has since launched her book in New Orleans, Chicago, New York, and elsewhere, and it has appeared in many places (e.g., here’s an Architect’s Newspaper review). It’s also shortlisted in the 2024 Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards.
• I spoke with web designer and creative technologist Jake Dow-Smith in April. Since then, he has launched a few lovely websites and Soft, a camera app that “captures the rhythm of your environment using the analog sensors in your phone.” (I took the photo at the top of this newsletter using Soft.)
• In April, I interviewed two people at the landscape architecture firm Terremoto. One of them, cofounder David Godshall, is speaking on “new ecologies of radical kindness” at Otis College in Los Angeles on November 14. Follow Terremoto’s website and for an endless stream of fun pictures of in-progress work.
• In March, I interviewed AI researcher Blaise Agüera y Arcas. Two weeks ago, he spoke at an MIT conference offering “a speculative philosophy of planetary computation” and shared What Is Life?, the first part of his forthcoming book What Is Intelligence?. Read What Is Life? online.
• Last December, I interviewed art collector and Wedge Curatorial Projects founder Ken Montague for the Frontier Magazine podcast. This week, the Wedge Collection exhibition “As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic” opened at the Saatchi Gallery in London
• Since I interviewed Longform Editions cofounders Mark Gowing and Andrew Khedoori, they’ve put out two dozen releases. Among my favorites are Chuck Johnson’s Cypress Suite and Piotr Kurek’s The night we slept under an overhanging cliff.
• I interviewed Rivers Institute founder and curator Andrea Andersson last October. “Tina Girouard: Sign-In,” an exhibition she co-curated, remains on view at New York’s Center for Art, Research, & Alliances through January 12. It was reviewed in last week’s 4Columns by art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson.
• I interviewed Erin Kissane in September 2023. Recently she has delivered a wonderful talk at the XOXO Festival and delivered a huge research report on fediverse governance and the social internet

🏢👀 One last batch of buildings that caught my eye

• These farm sheds built with off-the-shelf pipes, heat-reflective sheets, and transparent vinyl, by Japanese firm Domino Architects
• Local firm Superkül’s single-floor Ridge House, which nestles into its surrounding landscape
• This simple but elegant Italian schoolhouse, built in just 21 weeks, designed by BDR bureau
• Montreal firm Bureau Tempo’s calm, slightly rustic loft on Atlantic Ave., one of Brooklyn’s busiest thoroughfares
• This small but muscular waterside brick apartment house in Belgium, by Olivier Fourneau Architects (more images here)
• More bricks in this Madrid restaurant interior by Estduio DIIR
• Jespersen Nødtvedt’s second “frame house,” which is lifted just off the ground and located in Copenhagen’s northern suburbs

Isn’t it all so inspiring? Focus on inspiration where and when you can. Be amazed. Take care.