Brian Sholis
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Cofounder of Valise (valise.works), dad, autodidact, Chicagoan. Email is my social media.
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Articles by Brian Sholis
Hi everyone, This week, I’d like to begin with an administrative note: this iteration of Frontier Magazine will end its run on November 7. Frontier Magazine began as an annual print publication in 2015, not long after Frontier, the studio, was founded. It served then, as now, to celebrate big ideas and inspiring people and to advance the notion of design’s ability to accelerate positive change.
Hi everyone, It’s that special time of year when there are more events to attend than hours in the day. Next week is shaping up to be particularly busy for Torontonians interested in art and design. There is Azure magazine’s Human/Nature conference, the latest edition of the Art Toronto art fair, and this year’s Architecture and Design Film Festival. Plus, Frontier Magazine podcast guest Deb Chachra is delivering the Fred Kan Distinguished Lecture at the University of Toronto.
Hi everyone, More than a year ago, I wrote about how new technologies, like our most-used apps, can be used as tools for accessing and reflecting upon our experiences, emotions, and memories. Photography is itself one such technology, disclosing things about ourselves and our environments that we would not otherwise notice. This week, I return to the subject of photography with some notes on The Picture Not Taken (buy in the US or Canada), a new book by writer and photographer Benjamin Swett.
Tipping the Scales
Hi everyone, This week, a report from Azure Magazine’s inaugural Human/Nature conference, held last week in Toronto. With a mix of local and international participants, it offered an invigorating set of conversations around sustainability and design. Happy Halloween! I’m up to my usual trick: buying candy to give away at the door, then going out with my kids instead so that I have a full bag to return home to.
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.
Renovation Project
Hi everyone, For nearly two decades I’ve enjoyed reading the architecture critic Owen Hatherley, first on his blogs and later in many other outlets, from the LRB and The Guardian to Jacobin and the New Left Review’s Sidecar. Most of that commentary focuses on his native Britain and the built legacy of communism across Europe. So I was eager to read Walking the Streets, Walking the Projects (buy in the US or Canada), his new book on New York City and Washington, DC.
The Frontier Interview-Brock James on designing libraries
Hi everyone, The rain that incapacitated much of Toronto on Tuesday fell a week after the remnants of Hurricane Beryl passed through. Four inches in four hours, yes, but us and our choices are why it had the impact it did. My neighborhood lost power for ten hours; I picked my kids up from summer camp by navigating community-center hallways with my phone’s flashlight.
Let It Grow
Hi everyone, This week, a brief consideration of a recent book on Tokyo urbanism that, after going out of print, is now available again and worth your consideration. If you pick up a copy of Emergent Tokyo, I encourage you to read it along with your maps app’s “street view”; it was a pleasure to visually wander through the places being described. An administrative note: next week I’ll be celebrating Canadian and American holidays with my family, so you’ll receive the next issue on July 11.
Nothing Lives Alone
— 10 min read Hi everyone, For about a decade I worked as a photography critic, as an editor at Aperture Foundation, and (as mentioned last week) as a curator of photography at an art museum. I still turn to photographers—and artists using other lens-based techniques—for insights into how we relate to landscapes and the built environment.
I Can See Clearly Now
Hi everyone, Recently I’ve been reading a new academic essay collection about what goes in to exhibition designs, but rather than review it like last week’s piece on upfront carbon, I thought I’d share a more personal story of my formative encounters with exhibitions and how they shaped my first forays as a museum curator. At the end, I share a few ideas for how you can get more out of the exhibitions you visit. What shows have re-framed how you think about the form?
Enough Is Enough
The Built Environment — 5 min read Hi everyone, This week, I’m rethinking a lot of choices in light of Lloyd Alter’s engaging new book The Story of Upfront Carbon. If you’re intrigued by my review below, consider subscribing to his Carbon Upfront! newsletter. Hit reply or drop a comment below to tell me about a lifestyle change you’ve recently made with sustainability in mind. Until next week, Brian Takeaways from this week’s issue It’s carbon all the way down.
The Frontier Interview-Common Accounts, “The Death Report”
The Built Environment — 7 min read Hi everyone, This week, an interview with architects and researchers Igor Bragado and Miles Gertler, who together form the experimental design studio Common Accounts. Last week they released The Death Report, an anthology of writing and design projects that examines the “deep history and near future” architecture’s relationship to death.
Names On the Land
Hi everyone, This week, a story about the monuments and markers that surround us wherever we are—and the stories they tell when we take notice. In preparing the issue I came across the Historical Marker Database, which brings together several of my preoccupations: landscapes, history, and eccentric, volunteer-run efforts made possible by the internet. Though the below focuses on the United States, where I’m from, the database includes 120 markers here in Toronto.
The Frontier Interview-Virginia Hanusik
Hi everyone, This week, an interview with artist Virginia Hanusik about her remarkable new book Into the Quiet and the Light, which places her photographs of coastal Louisiana and its infrastructure into dialogue with contributors writing from many perspectives. It’s a meditation on interlocking systems of power and how, sooner or later, we all must adapt to changing environments. Close readers will recognize that Frontier Magazine is increasingly focusing on the built environment.
Postcards from the Edge
Hi everyone, This week, a short consideration of a book about “the new politics of suburbs.” I live in the west end of Toronto and orient myself toward nearby suburbs like Mississauga and Brampton as often as I do toward downtown.
The Frontier Interview-Terremoto
Hi everyone, Last week, the Ontario Association of Architects announced the winners of its 2024 Design Excellence Awards. I was delighted to see two buildings featured in this newsletter, KPMB’s new tower at Boston University and MJMA’s community center and park in Mississauga, on the list. Ditto for a performing-arts hall by Diamond Schmitt Architects, with whom Frontier is wrapping up a major editorial project, and LGA’s new Toronto Public Library branch, which I’ve enjoyed working from.
Seeking Fulfillment
Hi everyone, This week, I write about visiting an Amazon Fulfillment Center and Heike Geissler’s wonderful book Seasonal Associate. I am still processing the experience! Kudos to Charles, the one reader who guessed the “Easter egg” in last week’s newsletter (the links were to stories in five-year intervals going back twenty-five years 🤓).
Mapping (and visiting!) all of Toronto’s library branches
Last August, I wrote about breaking free from the Apple and Google maps duopoly, listing a handful of alternative apps then emerging. My favorite to use these past eight months is PamPam, co-founded by Helena Jaramillo and Carlo Joerges.
Passing It On
Hi everyone, Two shorter stories this week. One shares recent articles on architectural education; the other is an appreciation of art critic Roberta Smith. They are both about helping the next generation and reminded me of experiences earlier in my life. As always, I’d love to hear your feedback, to know what you’re reading and watching, and to be pointed to the projects inspiring you.
The Frontier Interview: Blaise Agüera y Arcas, “Who Are We Now?”
Technology — 10 min read Hi everyone, To create the data that underpins Who Are We Now? (Hat and Beard Press), Blaise Agüera y Arcas spent six years surveying thousands of anonymous American respondents about their identities, sexuality, gender, and behaviors. Their answers describe a startling variety of practices and beliefs.
Don’t Let This Message Make You Feel Guilty
Hi everyone, I’ve read Ian Bogost, a video game designer and author, for years. He’s a reliably interesting commentator on technology and often finds useful offline metaphors for online developments. This week, though, he published, “It’s Time to Give Up on Email,” a column that misdiagnoses a problem, doesn’t offer real solutions, and gives me an opportunity to defend something I love. And I’m not saying that just because I’m sending this message to your inbox.
Succession or Finale?
Hi everyone, This is the first issue sent via Ghost, our new platform. There is one thing to note: if you want to browse the archives on the website or comment on an issue, you’ll have to “log in” once. Enter the email address you used to sign up fort this list and you’ll receive a log in–link email. Once you do that, so long as you use the same browser, you shouldn’t have to log in again.
Round and Round
Hi everyone, I wrote last week that we are moving to Ghost. The nonprofit is presently living up to its name in an unfortunate way; until its team helps me complete some technical stuff, I’ll keep using Substack. I’m continuing to add all new subscribers onto the Ghost list, so I expect the transition will be seamless when it happens. Thanks for bearing with me. This week, updates on a few stories from last year, plus some more good links.
Breaking the Grid
Hi everyone, This week, an essay on calendars and the problems of coordination and contextualization, with a suggestion for a new kind of digital interface that can help us find time and find ourselves. This, plus further reflection on Frontier Magazine’s one-year anniversary, leads me to make an offer: why don’t we meet for a (virtual) coffee? I enjoy the feedback I get via social media and email, but I’d love to learn more about you and your interests.
The Frontier Interview: “Where Is Africa” with Anita N. Bateman & Emanuel Admassu
Hi everyone, Where Is Africa is a new book that intersperses long-form interviews with artists, architects, and academics with commissioned artistic interventions. Edited by curator and art historian Anita N. Bateman and architect and professor Emanuel Admassu, it explores representations of the continent—who gets to make them, how they circulate, what they mean.
Out of Circulation
In recent years, public libraries have been celebrated as “social infrastructure” and as “gathering pool[s] of narratives and of the people who come to find them.” They’ve also faced dramatic budget cuts, become battlefields in the “culture wars,” and been pressed into providing social services that far exceed their original mandates. New and newly renovated central libraries, especially (but not always!) in northern Europe, are vibrant “living rooms” for socializing and democratic participation.
My Favorite Music of 2022
No, that’s not a typo. I wrote most of these notes in early 2023, then I let them simmer for twelve months. I made slight modifications to the writing, but the picks themselves remain unchanged after another year of listening. The majority of the music I listen to gets categorized, in my family, as “A/E”: that can stand for ambient/electronic or, perhaps more accurately, abstract/experimental.
The Fault in Our Stars
Hi everyone, This week’s podcast interview with art collector and patron Kenneth Montague caps our first season. These conversations are so filled with insight that next year I want to talk with even more people about the ideas and ideals behind their inspiring work. We also want your input on year two of Frontier Magazine. Will you give me an additional 3–5 minutes of your time and fill out this short survey?
Art collector Ken Montague on Black joy and changing institutions from the inside
Ken Montague: I was determined as a collector to think about portraiture or Black portraiture in a new way that was going to be about, well, again, like my late father's phrase, “as we rise,” how we move forward. I really think that it’s possible, if you’re thoughtful about it, to establish a collection of portraiture that will be uplifting while being truthful to history and exploring ideas that I think are essential when we think about Black culture, Black identity, Black life.
Second Life
Hi everyone, Though I’ve now lived in Canada for seven years, I remain more aware of and connected to American than Canadian Thanksgiving. This week I’m reflecting on the year to date, and one of the things I’m most grateful for is the opportunity to write every week—and to know that writing is being read. Thank you for joining us on this venture. I hope that, if you’re among the one-third of our readers likely celebrating, you’re doing so in the company of loved ones.
Human After All
Hi everyone, We’ve found several limited use cases for generative AI at Frontier, such as quickly spinning up an image of a future we’re outlining or sorting through written input from workshops and experiences we’ve facilitated. At home, I’ve experimented with and read about AI a fair amount, but it has felt more exploratory, more stop-and-start, than propulsive or directional. Nothing I’ve used for myself has gained traction and become routine.
Are You Experienced?
Hi everyone, This week’s podcast is with the cofounders of Longform Editions, an experimental-music label based in Sydney. But even if you don’t listen to a single release, there’s much to enjoy in the discussion of their egaliatarian ethos, emotional sustainability, and the value of curatorial vision in an algorithmic world. You can listen or read a link-filled transcript here.
Longform Editions on running a record label like an art gallery
Hi everyone, Today’s episode is the second in a two-part “miniseries” about music and art. My conversation is with Andrew Khedoori and Mark Gowing, cofounders of Longform Editions, a “curatorial music practice” based in Sydney, Australia. As the language suggests, a curatorial music practice is distinct from a record label. I’ve admired how Andrew, who works in community radio, and Mark, who is an artist and designer, are rethinking the conventions of releasing music.
Artist, DJ, and writer Jace Clayton on optimism and the power of communal experiences
Jace Clayton: I think now, especially post-Bandcamp, we’re like, “Ohhhh, we need more distribution networks. We need more lines of communication.” Stuff is getting made in all sorts of ways. But then there is this very basic question: how do you find the good stuff? And most listeners don’t care about musicians, that’s why people pay money to Spotify. Fine. I’d like them to admit it: if you subscribe to Spotify, you don’t give a bleep about musicians.
Lost and Found
Hi everyone, Monday’s podcast interview, with Andrea Andersson of the Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought, is partly about that organization’s efforts to respond to and nourish communities in New Orleans. Today’s newsletter looks at another mid-size American city, St. Louis, where there is a unique opportunity to connect an art-museum exhibition to on-the-ground changes in its neighborhood.
Curator Andrea Andersson on the intelligence at the margins
Andrea Andersson: I will always be an advocate for the intelligence of the margin. I think marginalia in books, it’s where all our best ideas go to live. Margins and peripheral spaces are also places where things come together, right? It’s the edge of multiple things. The site where we do the work has invited artists to operate a little bit differently and perhaps sometimes even test their own systems and frequencies.
Second Life
Hi everyone, This week’s podcast features Deb Chachra, author of the new book How Infrastructure Works, which has changed how I see the world—not least by changing what I see in it. Check it out. Below, two stories about longevity and digital access, a subject I also considered in early September. Together they raise a question: how have you navigated losing a service or piece of software you relied upon? Hit reply or comment below and let’s share our scars.
Deb Chachra
Deb Chachra: We, you, me, anyone who’s alive today, we have the opportunity to not just live through, but contribute to a species-wide transition from struggle to security, from scarcity to abundance. We can be the best possible ancestors to future generations, putting them on a permanent sustainable path of abundance and thriving.
Stream Count
Hi everyone, Canadian readers may have missed this week’s podcast episode, which was released on Thanksgiving. It’s with Sari Azout, an investor and startup founder working toward a humane web full of “joy, connection, wisdom, and intellectual curiosity.” Listen (or read the link-filled transcript!) for more on knowledge-building as a shared effort. Below, three stories indirectly revolving around attention, an subject I return to often.
Stream Count
Mark Ruwedel is a landscape photographer based in Los Angeles. He has spent decades roaming the western half of the United States and Canada, artfully documenting, in overlapping long-term series, the give and take between humans and nature. As the following conversation makes clear, he has also spent years exploring how to photograph Los Angeles itself.
Sari Azout
Introduction Sari Azout: I come back to this question of feelings, right? At the end of the day, I want my internet and my life to be full of joy, connection, wisdom, intellectual curiosity. I want to feel creative. Brian Sholis: I’m Brian Sholis, and this is the Frontier Magazine podcast. In today’s episode I speak with Sari Azout, who builds digital products and advises and invests in startups.
Public Domains
Discover more from Frontier Magazine Frontier Magazine publishes weekly appreciations from the forefronts of architecture, technology, culture, and education. We share new ideas about how design and creativity accelerate positive change. Hi everyone, Today’s newsletter touches on public spaces and architecture, two themes discussed in Monday’s podcast.
Drew Austin
Drew Austin: In my neighborhood, a lot of cool new places have opened up and they become really popular really fast because the internet is such an efficient mechanism for people finding out about new things. It seems like it used to take people longer to find that stuff. So now everything just gets really popular, really fast, if it’s good or cool or whatever. And that’s fine.
Looking beyond concrete with Jochen Lempert
As the final installment of ourBeyond Concrete story series, guest editor Brian Sholis reflects on what it is to look beyond the concrete through his engagement with the photographic work of German artist Jochen Lempert. This summer, we’ve published a series of essays, interviews, and other stories that relate to the themes of Beyond Concrete, a season of programs that explore the urban ecosystems beneath the Gardiner Expressway, where human-made infrastructure intertwines with flora and fauna.
Anti-Social Media Social Media Club
Hi everyone, Welcome to those of you who signed up after the launch of The Frontier Magazine Podcast! I’m glad to have you on board for these weekly missives from the edges of culture. Today I’m expanding on the interview with Erin Kissane released on Monday with new social-media platforms to try, a great new tech-journalism site, and a funny and thought-provoking single-purpose app. What social platforms (if any!) are you finding nourishing these days?
Erin Kissane
Erin Kissane: We really tried to treat everyone inside and outside of the project like real human beings with real lives and needs. Our caution and our neutral tone were an expression of our really intense desire to not traumatize the people we were trying to inform any more than they had to be traumatized, to try to give them information that would allow them to make decisions about their lives in the least damaging way possible.
Introducing The Frontier Magazine Podcast
Hi everyone, I’m delighted to announce that First Things First, the podcast run by Paddy Harrington from 2018 to early 2023, is now The Frontier Magazine Podcast. I’m your new host, and beginning Monday you’ll receive a thoughtful, stimulating conversation every week for ten weeks. I’ll be speaking with writers, artists, curators, startup founders, and others about the ideas and ideals that inform their work and the ways that design and creativity accelerate positive change.
After-School Special
Hi everyone, At our normal publication hour I was participating in a lively panel discussion on architecture and design publishing hosted by DesignTO. Thanks to those of you who attended, and welcome to the many new subscribers who arrived this past week. Below is the second part of our “back-to school special”: a reflection on Wesleyan University president Michael S. Roth’s new book about being a student.
Way Out There-and Everywhere
Hi everyone, Next Wednesday, I’ll be joining editor Ashley Simone and architect and writer Wendy W. Fok on a panel about new approaches to publishing in architecture and design. The event is sponsored by DesignTO; you can find more information and register for the free livestream here. A little more housekeeping: thanks to the forty or so people who joined us at Frontier’s studio last Saturday to celebrate Are.na and a more creative and collaborative internet.
Lifetime Supply
Hi everyone, I’ve unlocked last Friday’s Supporter Update, which includes links to great new stories, podcasts, and videos related to our recent issues, plus a recommendation of one of my favorite artist-filmmakers working today. This week’s letter is about the frailty of our digital files. The majority of our communication and, for many of us, the majority of our work now takes place on computers, tablets, and phones.
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