Having tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies, I’ve temporarily moved my home office to Berlin. Last week the seminal German industrial group Einstürzende Neubauten released their new album Alles in Allem [All in All]. Timing is everything – right now is a perfect time to revisit the Neubauten’s 40-year legacy, and through it read the (music) history of Berlin: The Garden (1996), Sehnsucht (1981), Interim Lovers (1993), Letztes Biest (1985), Alles in Allen (2020).

This virtual symposium curated by Lilly Markaki reflects on the powers of desire reinvigorated by black, feminist, and queer perspectives. It runs from 28 – 30 May and features contributions by Nat Raha, Chandra Frank, Mijke van der Drift, Keti Chukhrov and Antke Engel.

Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno postulated on how the greatest danger to democracy would come from the mass-cultural apparatus of film, radio and television, and how they tend to operate to enforce conformity, quieten dissent and suppress thought. In this curious collage assembled from various TV clips, Horkheimer and Adorno address some of the founding principles of the Frankfurt School.

This incredible dystopian realist sci-fi novelette, recommended to me by climate change communicator Angela Chan, is a particularly striking read in these pandemic times. Angela runs wormworm.org and the London Chinese Sci-Fi Group @LondonChineseSF.

Drawing on the writings of Audre Lorde, Hannah Arendt, Naomi Klein and many more, in this collection of essays, writer and curator Cristina Morales shares her insights on what we can learn from the ways in which we are recovering from and resisting previous ways of being, living, and working. I’m particularly inspired by The Great Pause: A Decolonial Approach For Life Beyond Neoliberalism.

In this article for Domus, Richard Sennett writes on the implication of population density. What will cities, architecture and transport look like in our post-pandemic future?