briefs
Topic · across the network

Community

The word used for whatever is felt to be missing.

52
briefs
9
subjects
10:08
average
527 min
in total
Abstraction 407Absurdism 137Acoustics 220Acting 65Adaptation 372Addiction 95Adolescence 202Advertising 77Age of exploration 14Ageing 113Agriculture 100Algorithms 114Ambition 46Anarchism 38Ancient Egypt 17Ancient Greece 38Ancient Rome 30Animals 172Anthropology 23Apartheid 12Architecture 165Archives 32Argentina 10Art Deco 26Artificial intelligence 78Astronomy 81Attention 42Australia 32Automation 73Avant-garde 164Aviation 79Banking 72Banned works 40Bauhaus 12Beer 5Behavioural economics 22Berlin 16Big tech 6Biodiversity 136Biography 86Birds 41Black holes 20Blockchain 12Boxing 14Branding 77Brazil 43Bread 29Britain 131Brutalism 4Bubbles 3Buddhism 28Byzantium 10California 17Canada 18Capitalism 94Cars 468Celebrity 59Censorship 110Cheese 24Chefs 9Chemistry 104Chess 2Childhood 87China 109Chocolate 8Christianity 49Cinematography 343Cities 90Class 485Climate change 107Club culture 100Cocktails 2Coffee 11Cognitive bias 14Collecting 16Colonialism 284Colour 42Comedy 89Community 52Complexity 21Computing 309Consciousness 16Conservatism 14Conspiracy theories 8Cooking 178Corruption 38Cosmology 31Cover versions 64Craft 116Crate digging 42Creativity 8Crime 234Cryptocurrency 8Cryptography 24Cuba 10Cybersecurity 30Dada 12Debt 38Decision-making 28Decolonisation 46Deep time 80Democracy 45Denim 16Deserts 45Detroit 17Dinosaurs 12Directing 168Disasters 59Disease 109DJ culture 89Dreams 32Drones 5Drum machines 96Dystopia 69East Africa 28Ecology 337Economics 36Editing 72Education 92Egypt 12Electric vehicles 59Emotion 22Empire 92Endurance 49Energy 120Engineering 541Entropy 8Epidemics 13Equality 9Espionage 31Ethics 44Evolution 174Existentialism 106Expertise 2Exploration 49Extinction 23Failure 37Family 240Fandom 22Fascism 45Fashion 215Fast fashion 12Fear 34Feminism 122Fermentation 126Film music 81Fishing 12Folklore 71Food history 588Football 16Forests 31Forgery 7France 163Fraud 15Free will 13Freedom 16French literature 15Friendship 24Furniture 36Gambling 14Gender 63Generations 28Genetics 87Geology 96Germany 66Globalisation 74Gothic 32Greece 5Grief 126Habits 6Happiness 2Hardware 709Haute couture 22Headphones 8Hi-fi 12Hinduism 12Hoaxes 1Human history 23Human nature 41Identity 138Illustration 8Impressionism 6Improvisation 249India 89Indonesia 15Industrial design 342Inequality 13Inflation 4Information 34Infrastructure 280Insects 29Intelligence 8Interiors 31Internet culture 88Invention 329Iran 41Islam 40Islands 17Israel 9Italy 52Jamaica 10Japan 114Jewellery 5Journalism 34Judaism 13Justice 42Korea 41Language 70Law 90Leadership 20Learning 6Liberalism 1Libraries 6Literary criticism 26London 12Loneliness 61Los Angeles 62Lost works 9Love 67Luxury 55Machine learning 15Management 10Maps 5Marketing 21Markets 51Mars 6Marxism 26Masculinity 46Materials 138Mathematics 79Meaning 6Medicine 124Memory 82Mental health 70Mesopotamia 4Mexico 38Migration 95Minimalism 68Mining 30Misinformation 9Modernism 63Money 24Monopoly 32Mortality 61Motivation 2Mountains 16Museums 27Mysticism 11Mythology 60Nationalism 40Neuroscience 23New York 36Nigeria 7Nihilism 10Noise 31Nostalgia 33Nuclear 29Nutrition 17Oceans 48Oil 42Open source 45Painting 18Palaeontology 29Parenting 14Paris 18Partition 6Patents 71Patronage 14Perception 44Personal style 27Personality 2Persuasion 8Peru 10Philosophy 77Photography 37Physics 206Plants 26Platforms 89Podcasting 1Poetry 25Poland 17Policing 34Pop Art 16Populism 2Portraiture 6Portugal 18Postmodernism 23Power 91Prehistory 24Preservation 28Printmaking 21Privacy 11Probability 6Productivity 1Programming 54Prohibition 1Propaganda 35Protest 75Pseudoscience 17Psychology 80Publishing 22Punishment 16Quantum mechanics 44Race 145Radio 30Railways 35Rave 17Realism 47Record labels 19Recording 810Relativity 23Religion 154Resilience 15Restaurants 30Restoration 2Retail 94Revolution 58Risk 18Ritual 96Robotics 26Romance 96Russia 58Salt 9Sampling 246Satire 84Scandinavia 28Scientific method 186Screenwriting 26Sculpture 7Secularism 2Self-deception 14Semiconductors 73Sexuality 102Ships 18Silence 24Silicon Valley 17Slavery 35Sleep 2Smartphones 27Sneakers 15Social media 58Socialism 9Software 68Songwriting 180Sound design 332Sound systems 20South Africa 19South East Asia 30Space exploration 84Spain 18Special effects 41Spices 62Spirits 12Sport 82Startups 21Statistics 10Status 9Stoicism 4Storytelling 68Strategy 70Street food 99Streetwear 16Studio craft 508Subcultures 59Sugar 12Supply chains 115Surrealism 53Surveillance 21Sustainability 30Synthesis 232Tailoring 37Taxation 14Tea 24Textiles 97Thailand 11The American Revolution 19The American South 88The Arab world 41The Arctic 19The Balkans 17The Belle Epoque 13The body 29The brain 26The Caribbean 28The civil rights movement 62The Cold War 160The eighties 268The Enlightenment 29The financial crisis 19The First World War 39The food industry 157The French Revolution 9The Gilded Age 9The Great Depression 18The Holocaust 20The Industrial Revolution 93The internet 61The interwar years 135The Middle Ages 35The Moon 4The music business 169The Netherlands 10The nineties 26The Olympics 10The pandemic 13The Reformation 1The Renaissance 16The Russian Revolution 19The Second World War 102The seventies 58The sixties 28The space race 5The United States 19The universe 7The Victorian era 37Therapy 20Tokyo 11Trade 48Tragedy 22Translation 5Trauma 85Travel 5True crime 2Turkey 18Typography 54Uniforms 23Unions 8Urban planning 66Utilitarianism 1Utopia 5Vaccines 10Vegetarianism 15Venture capital 6Video games 291Vietnam 12Vintage 65Vinyl 6Virtual reality 11War 169Watches 4Water 11Weather 29West Africa 29Wilderness 10Wine 3Work 22Workwear 19Worldbuilding 121

books.briefs Books

All 1 in books →
12:00

The Plague

Albert Camus · 1947

Camus's 1947 novel of collective crisis. It's not really about a plague: it's an essay on solidarity, responsibility, and what keeps you acting when survival makes sense but meaning does not.

music.briefs Music

All 1 in music →
12:01

You Forgot It in People

Broken Social Scene · 2002

You Forgot It in People is a record built on refusal: to simplify, to centralise, to master. It is neither cohesive nor chaotic — it is densely occupied. Its value lies in how it forces attention to move laterally, not hierarchically.

film.briefs Film

All 9 in film →
13:00

American Utopia

Spike Lee · 2020

Spike Lee’s American Utopia films David Byrne’s Broadway concert as a sustained act of collective presence: twelve performers, wireless instruments, no sets, choreographed movement, and spoken interludes on connection and civic life. Shot by Ellen Kuras with formal rigour, it avoids spectacle in favour of clarity, repetition, and physical continuity — less a celebration than a rehearsal of unity.

13:00

Chan Is Missing

Wayne Wang · 1982

Wayne Wang’s 1982 debut is a black-and-white arthouse comedy-drama structured as a search for a missing Chinatown taxi broker. As two men interview locals, each offers a contradictory portrait of him — revealing not Chan, but the fractured, polyglot reality of Chinese American life. Shot on location with non-professionals, it privileges ambiguity over exposition, sound over subtitle, and absence over answer.

13:00

Don't Play Us Cheap

Melvin Van Peebles · 1973

Melvin Van Peebles’ 1973 musical film adapts his stage work into a vibrant, low-budget allegory: two demons infiltrate a Harlem birthday party to break it up, only to be undone by song, solidarity, and the unassailable groove of everyday Black life. Shot on location with a cast of stage veterans and non-professionals, it treats gospel, soul, and doo-wop as tools of social analysis — not backdrop. Its themes of communal resilience, class critique, and joy-as-resistance remain urgent, its form deliberately anti-spectacle.

13:00

Le Havre

Aki Kaurismäki · 2011

Aki Kaurismäki’s 2011 French-language drama follows Marcel Marx, a shoeshiner in the port city of Le Havre, who shelters Idrissa, an unaccompanied African boy evading immigration authorities. Shot in Kaurismäki’s signature deadpan style — flat lighting, sparse dialogue, deliberate pacing — the film frames solidarity as ordinary, not heroic. Timo Salminen’s cinematography and The Renegades’ restrained score reinforce its calm moral architecture. Though its thematic clarity and formal control earn widespread acclaim, its avoidance of psychological depth, particularly around Idrissa, leaves some relationships unresolved. Winner of the Louis Delluc Prize and the FIPRESCI Award at Cannes, it is a work of quiet conviction, not easy comfort.

13:00

Local Hero

Bill Forsyth · 1983

Local Hero (1983), written and directed by Bill Forsyth, follows an American oil executive sent to buy a remote Scottish village for a refinery. As he spends time in Ferness, his assumptions about progress, ownership and value quietly erode. With performances from Peter Riegert and Burt Lancaster, Chris Menges’ naturalistic cinematography and Mark Knopfler’s evocative score, the film traces a subtle transformation — not through drama or debate, but through stillness, repetition and quiet observation.

13:00

Madadayo

Akira Kurosawa · 1993

Madadayo (1993), Akira Kurosawa’s thirtieth and final film, is a quiet Japanese drama based on the life of academic Hyakken Uchida. Structured as a series of vignettes across decades, it follows Uchida’s retirement, wartime displacement, post-war rebuilding, and gradual ageing — all anchored by the recurring ‘Not Yet Banquet’. With restrained performances, even lighting by Takao Saito, and minimal music by Shinichiro Ikebe, it affirms endurance through repetition rather than resolution.

13:00

Miracle in Milan

Vittorio De Sica · 1951

Vittorio De Sica’s 1951 Miracle in Milan blends post-war Italian neo-realism with gentle fantasy. Set on a Milanese wasteland, it follows Totò — raised by a woman who finds him in a cabbage patch — as he helps build a self-governing shantytown, only to confront eviction by industrialists. When magic intervenes, it does so not to erase hardship but to affirm the dignity already present in mutual aid, shared labour and unguarded joy.

13:00

Sound of Metal

Darius Marder · 2019

Sound of Metal follows a metal drummer who loses his hearing and enters a deaf-run recovery community. Rejecting cure narratives, it charts his slow adaptation to silence, language, and stillness — not as loss, but as reorientation. Riz Ahmed’s performance and Nicolas Becker’s sound design anchor a film built on restraint, repetition, and tactile detail.

design.briefs Design

All 4 in design →
10:28

John Thackara

Thackara didn’t design things—he designed the conditions where design could matter for sustainability.
9:53

David Adjaye

Adjaye’s architecture doesn’t build objects—it builds conditions for civic belonging.
9:42

Diébédo Francis Kéré

Architecture that cools classrooms by 8°C without AC — because it was drawn in sand and built by everyone who would use it.
9:20

Kees Christiaanse

Christiaanse treats urban form as a social contract—walkable, mixed, unstyled—but never proves it works beyond assertion.

games.briefs Games

All 9 in games →
9:24

Final Fantasy XIV

Square Enix · 2013

Final Fantasy XIV (2013) is a subscription MMORPG rebuilt after failure. It runs on PlayStation 3 and Windows. Players choose a geolocated server and begin only as Disciples of War or Magic. Its UI unifies PC and console inputs. Translation enables basic cross-language communication. Crafting and gathering are locked at launch. The economy runs through market boards, not direct trade. It follows Final Fantasy XI (2002). It was developed by the Final Fantasy XI team using Crystal Tools.

9:16

Ultima Online

Origin Systems · 1997

Ultima Online is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game released by Origin Systems on 24 September 1997. It was Origin’s first persistent online game. It was partially designed as a social and economic experiment. Its initial features included persistent player housing, skill-based character progression without levels or classes, a craft-based and player-driven economy, and unrestricted player-versus-player combat. Servers enforced either consensual or non-consensual PVP depending on type — Trammel, Felucca, or Siege — each with distinct rules for combat, travel, and item loss. The release of Trammel led developers to rename the original world Felucca and make its environment more grim. Siege servers restrict players to one character slot and limit travel options. Ultima Online is one of the earliest graphical MMORPGs. Its success was pivotal in EA’s decision to make Origin an online-only company after the completion of Ultima IX: Ascension in 1999.

8:46

Dota 2

Valve · 2013

Dota 2 is a rigid, team-bound MOBA that demands mastery of role, map, and timing — with zero concessions to newcomers or casual investment.

10:47

EverQuest

Verant Interactive · 1999

EverQuest is a foundational 3D MMORPG that demands group reliance, punishes solo risk, and treats servers as persistent social spaces — not content delivery platforms.

9:05

EverQuest II

Sony Online Entertainment · 2004

EverQuest II is a 3D fantasy MMORPG for Windows PCs, released by Sony Online Entertainment on November 9, 2004. It is a sequel set hundreds of years after the original EverQuest, following the same strategy: persistent world, experience-based leveling, guild-driven advancement, and a robust tradeskill system that lets players craft spells, potions, armor, and more. It shifted to free-to-play on December 6, 2011, with optional subscriptions. Its core loop demands sustained group coordination, gear acquisition, and long-term social investment—making it viable only for players who treat MMOs as infrastructure, not entertainment.

10:38

Left 4 Dead 2

Valve · 2009

Left 4 Dead 2 is a tightly wound co-op FPS that uses procedural pacing and rigid inventory to forge intense, fleeting group cohesion — but collapses without live human coordination.

10:28

World of Warcraft

Blizzard Entertainment · 2004

World of Warcraft is a persistent, factioned, realm-based MMORPG where progression is linear, social coordination is structural, and player agency is bounded by scheduled content and systemic repetition. It launched in North America on November 23, 2004, and is managed by Blizzard’s Team 2.

technology.briefs Technology

All 1 in technology →
9:42

Discord

Discord replaced the forum with the server—but made persistence depend on invitation, not openness.

culture.briefs Culture

All 25 in culture →
10:26

Haight-Ashbury

Haight-Ashbury is the San Francisco district around Haight Street that became one of the main centres of the 1960s counterculture.
10:02

Burning Man

A beach bonfire became a desert city—but its rules were written a decade and a half too late.
9:16

Coworking

Coworking promised community but delivered real estate with Wi-Fi—and that’s still its most honest function.
10:03

Intentional community

Intentional communities are not utopian experiments—they are operational laboratories for democracy, income-sharing, and cohabitation under constraint.
9:32

Self-care

Self-care is not wellness—it is the daily work of staying well, staying alive, and staying connected.
9:24

Tribe (internet)

Digital tribes aren’t new social forms—they’re old words repurposed to mask how platforms classify us by grammar.
9:12

Zine

Zines are not nostalgia—they’re refusal made physical.

food.briefs Food

All 1 in food →

fashion.briefs Fashion

All 1 in fashion →
8:17

Martin Margiela

Martin Margiela

Maison Martin Margiela is a fashion house founded in 1988 in Paris through a collaborative venture with Jenny Meirens. Its debut show took place in fall 1989 at a derelict playground in a North African neighborhood on the outskirts of Paris. The show used an uneven runway and intentionally stumbling models to create a shocking public spectacle. The debut collection rejected contemporaneous extravagance in favour of ripped sleeves, frayed hems, and clumpy shoes. Local children hand-drew invitations in school art classes and sat in the front row to honour the community. The label’s trademark is a cloth badge numbered 0–23, attached with four small white tack stitches, exposed externally on unlined garments. Margiela consistently remained backstage and declined to take a bow after shows, distinguishing himself from peers. From 1988 onward, Margiela refused all formal interviews and photographic appearances.