Is the world going to hell?
His bold new exhibition draws on the work of Steven Pinker, Our World in Data, and Human Progress to document how much life has improved since the good old days.
https://reason.com/video/2023/05/18/now-is-better-says-legendary-designer-stefan-sagmeister/
----------
Is the world getting better? Or is it on the verge of collapse?
Stefan Sagmeister emphatically believes that things are looking up, and his art exhibition "Now Is Better" showcases a bold new way to convince the world that he's right. He takes actual paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries, disassembles them, and creates new works by juxtaposing them with data visualizations of just how much things have improved since the good old days.
Some works chart the incredible decline in deaths on the battlefield, from famine, and from natural disasters while others map how much cheaper food and lighting have become in real terms. One piece documents the explosion in the number of guitars per person on the planet—an indicator of growth in leisure and entertainment—while another charts the persistent belief that crime is always rising despite its well-documented decline.
A heralded graphic designer who has designed album covers for Jay-Z, The Rolling Stones, and Lou Reed, Sagmeister has won two Grammy Awards, including one for his design of the Talking Heads' boxed set Once in a Lifetime. Born in Austria in 1962, he's called New York City home since the 1990s. He draws on sources such as Our World in Data, Human Progress, and the work of Steven Pinker, who has written the foreword to a book version of the "Now Is Better" series coming out later this year.
In a wide-ranging conversation, Sagmeister tells me why it's so important to acknowledge and defend material progress, why art and commerce aren't enemies, and what he loves about the New World he's adopted as his homeland and how that ties into the "Now Is Better" project.
Photos: Morteza Nikoubazl/Polaris/Newscom; Stefan Sagmeister
Camera and Video Editor: Kevin Alexander
Motion Graphics: Isaac Reese
-
1:23:40
ReasonTV
26 days agoTed Nordhaus: How bad is climate change?
1.52K8 -
LIVE
Edge of Wonder
6 hours agoGobekli Tepe: Evidence Found that Proves Noah’s Flood is Real
843 watching -
1:25:59
TheMonicaCrowleyPodcast
6 hours agoThe Unseen Power Plays of the Left
9687 -
LIVE
Right Side Broadcasting Network
3 days agoLIVE REPLAY: President Trump Delivers Remarks in Racine, Wisconsin - 6/18/24
7,569 watching -
1:19:25
Redacted News
5 hours agoBREAKING! NATO & Russia are 3 MONTHS away from FULL WAR, Serbia and Hungary warn | Redacted Live
89K180 -
2:17:41
Tucker Carlson
5 hours agoGlenn Greenwald: Antisemitism, Attacks on Free Speech, and Everything You Need to Know about Brazil
132K365 -
LIVE
The Big Mig™
21 hours agoNASA Exposed w/ NASA Expert Bart Sibrel
1,551 watching -
1:28:39
Battleground with Sean Parnell
6 hours agoExposing J6 w/ Brian Lupo & Alfredo Luna
27.5K32 -
2:01:21
Revenge of the Cis
5 hours agoEpisode 1340: Filler Up
36.9K5 -
1:41:12
Michael Franzese
5 hours agoWhat's in the mind of a MASTER con artist? | Sitdown with Matthew Cox
38.4K40