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The magazine will feature exclusive interviews with artists, scientists, writers and creative thinkers.

On Complexity and Consciousness

Neil Theise is a Professor of Pathology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Through his scientific research, he has been a pioneer of adult stem cell plasticity and the anatomy of the human interstitium. Dr. Theise’s book, ‘Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being’ (Spiegel & Grau, 2023) calls on his studies in complexity theory to address topics such as consciousness studies and science-religion dialogue. In this interview he discusses his life, ideas and work.

A Geometric Universe

Primarily working with wood, Ben Rowe creates intriguing objects that draw the viewer into fascinating new worlds. Using geometrical shapes and mathematical laws applied in science and nature, he plays with notions of scale. Pulling down macro-objects such as asteroids and planets and blowing up micro-organisms, molecules and atoms, showing us their often overlooked, complex structures and frameworks, reflecting them back to us

Earth, A Cosmic Spectacle

Louise Beer is an artist and curator, born in Aotearoa New Zealand, now working England. Louise uses installation, moving image, photography, writing, participatory works and sound to explore humanity’s evolving understanding of Earth’s environments and the cosmos. Her experience of living under two types of night sky, the first in low level light polluted areas in Aotearoa, and the second in higher level light polluted cities and towns in England, has deeply informed her practice. She explores how living under dark skies, or light polluted skies, can change our perception of grief, the climate crisis and Earth’s deep time history and future.

Constant

‘Constant’, an AI film by Danny Ratcliff, follows Bailee from childhood through motherhood, chronicling her lifelong relationship with an AI companion. Beginning with Bailee’s birth in 2023. The narrative explores how trust with artificial intelligence, established early and nurtured over time, can become a cornerstone relationship. While some in our culture remain skeptical of AI technology, Bailee’s story represents what’s possible when a relationship is built on genuine partnership rather than fear of technology. The film culminates with Bailee introducing her five-year-old daughter Natasha to her AI companion, passing down the same trust that shaped her own life.

In Petri Dish We Sing

Through the lens of a stem cell clinic in the year 2135, ‘In Petri Dish We Sing’ envisions a world where embryonic stem cells (ESCs) become a raw, sustainable material that forms the very fabric of the city’s infrastructure. Inspired by MIT’s research on the Lemon Skin Chair and Yarli Allison’s exploration of the healthcare system and gender health gaps, the film envisions a society reconstructed from this regenerative substance, one that carries the traces of cellular memory.

At the heart of ‘In Petri Dish We Sing’ are three intertwined lives: the healer, inspired by Yarli’s uncle, who left his prestigious gynaecology career to return to inherited ancient healing practices that Western medicine cannot identify; a granny who, at 79 wishes to be pregnant again, made possible by stem cell echnology; and a grieving man who uses his late loved one’s stem cells to grow furniture. Their encounters unfold within the speculative infrastructure of a stem cell clinic, where care and repair could be reimagined.

On ‘Liquid Reflections’

In 1958, talented and fearless and eighteen years old, Liliane Lijn left her family home and moved to Paris alone to become an artist. Once there, she found an art world filled with the wild energy of creative revolution – peopled and controlled almost entirely by men. Based on personal diaries from the time, ‘Liquid Reflections’ is her memoir of these years of experiment and adventure. A revelatory account of a singular coming of age: a glittering portrait of the artist as a young woman. In this interview with Richard Bright, she discusses ‘Liquid Reflections’, revealing her experiences in an era when sexism was the norm.

On ‘The Creative Brain’

Anna Abraham is the E. Paul Torrance Professor and Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development at the University of Georgia. She is the author of ‘The Neuroscience of Creativity’ and the editor of the multidisciplinary volume ‘The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination’. In this interview she discusses her latest book, ‘The Creative Brain: Myths and Truths’, which draws on theoretical and empirical work in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, and offers an examination of human creativity that reveals the true complexity underlying our conventional beliefs about the brain.

Ludwika Ogorzelec: Shape in Time

The material of Ludwika Ogorzelec’s sculptures is space itself, and the line of wood, metal or glass is only the contour for the “crystals of space”. Her works are usually created in reference to the context of the cultures and places in which they are presented, most often in situ (in open space, often in architecturally shaped surroundings, in the interiors of exhibition halls of museums and galleries). In this interview with art and ecology author, John K. Grande, she discusses her ideas and work.