The Learned Pig

Art – Thinking – Nature – Writing

Category: Thinking

  • Animals Out of Place

    Animals Out of Place

    There’s a post on Instagram; a photo mottled with gallery reflections, close-up and a little oblique. It shows a vintage glass slide of a zookeeper and his charge. It’s not the best image but has an instant power. The keeper, wearing a peaked cap and a stern expression, holds high a short, straight chain. On…

  • Announcing…

    Announcing…

    The Learned Pig is changing. Since launching in November 2013, The Learned Pig has taken an instinctive approach to editorial. We have published what feels right to us and we have published as often as we can. We are very proud of the work we have done so far and the brilliant people we have…

  • Art in a deteriorating world

    Art in a deteriorating world

    An epistolary exploration of art’s moral responsibilities   “In the era of not yet, barely daring to guess of how soon,” wrote Welsh-British writer Horatio Clare about the melting sea ice, the planet’s air conditioner, in his book Icebreaker, published less then two years ago. Now the scientists dare to guess, and red lights on…

  • A Line / Align

    A Line / Align

    “A walk marks time with an accumulation of footsteps. It defines the form of the land. Walking the roads and paths is to trace a portrait of the country…” – Richard Long, Selected Statements and Interviews, Haunch of Venison Press, 2007     There is a rich history underfoot, and the very act of walking is…

  • Architecture for All

    Architecture for All

    Maria-Chiara Piccinelli is director of PiM.studio Architects in London. She is a strong believer in the importance of public spaces for a city to thrive, and in the crucial role nature plays within architecture. She began her career in Italy, and has since worked in Tokyo, Edinburgh and Paris with Kengo Kuma & Associates, and…

  • Rewilding the Exhibition

    Rewilding the Exhibition

    When artist Beatrice Searle approached me about co-curating an exhibition and symposium responding to the rewilding movement, I was struck by the potential richness of the topic. I had only met Beatrice once, to chat about her project For the Journey and Return, which I had written about for a magazine. Since then, we have…

  • Join The Learned Pig!

    Join The Learned Pig!

    The Learned Pig is looking for two new section editors to take a lead as we expand and adapt our editorial offering over the course of 2019. Each new section editor will take charge of one editorial thread and help to shape its direction. Currently these are art, thinking, nature, writing, but we will be…

  • Noticing the Invisible

    Noticing the Invisible

    In cities, we don’t usually see polluted air in front of our eyes, but its impact may still be felt inside our lungs. According to Open Air Laboratories at Imperial College, “In contrast to the visible smogs that affected cities in the past, much of the air pollution in the UK today is largely invisible…

  • The Land Incanted

    The Land Incanted

    The words “incanted” and “enchanted” share the same etymological root. An incantation is defined as “the use of spells or verbal charms spoken or sung as a part of a ritual of magic” also “a written or recited formula of words designed to produce a particular effect” To walk out into any wilderness; to become…

  • Last Glacial Maximum

    Last Glacial Maximum

    We often look to the past in order to understand the present. Those in northern Britain who engage in such an activity will eventually encounter an impenetrable wall of ice. In the deep-time cycles of cold and warm, stadial and interstadial, scientists call this most recent freezing episode the ‘Last Glacial Maximum’. It is the…

  • Paradise Past

    Paradise Past

    In The Land of Black Gold (which is part of the collection of Tintin books and happens to be one of my favorites) there is an episode where Thomson and Thompson are traveling through the desert and they come upon a set of tire tracks in the sand and they follow them believing that it…