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Smart News / Smart News Arts & Culture

Eeek!

Zombie Movies Are Never Really About Zombies

Zombies have offered a way to work out cultural fears about everything from race to climate change

A woodcut from a 1720 history of "witches and wizards"

How New Printing Technology Gave Witches Their Familiar Silhouette

Popular media helped give witches their image

Even the venus fly trap, which takes an active role in catching its prey, is almost nothing like us.

Getting to the Roots of “Plant Horror”

From the serious—pod people—to the farcical—”feed me, feed me!”—this genre has produced some strange stuff

"Crack!"

The Comic Artists Who Inspired Roy Lichtenstein Aren’t Too Thrilled About It

Lichtenstein’s use of comic art and styles made him one of America’s most famous pop artists, but some have comic artists have a bad taste in their mouths

This paper log for Interface Message Processor shows the very first online communication.

These Two Small Letters Heralded the Beginning of Online Communication

Their message is far more profound in retrospect than it was at the time

The Boston Public Library Is Digitizing 200,000 Vintage Recordings

With the help of the Internet Archive, the recordings from the Sound Archives Collection will one day be available for free streaming and download

Cool Finds

Einstein’s Maxims on Life Fetch $1.8 Million at Auction

The notes were given as a tip to a Tokyo bellboy in 1922

This Artist Is Crowdsourcing “Singing” Sand From Around the World

Amsterdam-based artist Lotte Geeven is making sand symphonies for a public artwork debuting next spring

"MonstroCity," the outdoor section of St. Louis' City Museum

American South

A Look Inside an Iconically Quirky St. Louis Museum

A veritable playhouse of salvaged materials and crafted objects, the City Museum has entertained the young and young at heart for two decades

Take Five (2006), Tom Lamb

Trending Today

This Gallery Is Dedicated to Coal Miners’ Art

The Mining Art Gallery showcases works created by the thousands of miners who’ve lived and worked in the Great Northern Coalfield

A shot from the famed 1965 film version of Boris Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago"

How Boris Pasternak Won and Lost the Nobel Prize

Today in 1958, the “Doctor Zhivago” author won the Nobel Prize, but the Soviets made sure he never got it

Songbook From the 16th-Century Spells Out Samurai Customs, Tactics and Baby Names

The newly translated Japanese text offers kernels of advice to warriors who had yet to face battle

California Becomes First State to Introduce Gender-Neutral Birth Certificates

The new law also makes it easier for residents to legally change their sex designation

Cool Finds

Stone Age Britons Feasted While Building Stonehenge

A new exhibit shows that the builders gorged on animals from as far away as Scotland

A centuries-old hun luang puppet is seen in a Thailand museum. Artisans there have recently revived the style of theater using them.

After 149 Years, Thailand’s Royal Puppets Dance Again

The ancient art of Hun Luang all but vanished until passionate artisans revived the style in time for the late king’s royal funeral

A marble bust of Napoleon that has resided in Madison borough hall for 85 years has been revealed to be a long-lost artwork by revered French sculptor Auguste Rodin.

“Lost” Rodin Sculpture Discovered in New Jersey Borough Hall

It took decades for someone to notice the artist’s signature, which was facing the wall

Memorial to a species, Brent Stirton, South Africa, Grand title winner 2017

Art Meets Science

Tragedy and Beauty of Nature on Display in This Year’s Best Wildlife Photos

The 16 award-winning images range from whimsical birds to the tragic aftermath of a poaching raid

Reaching the summit of the Matterhorn made Annie Smith Peck well-known.

Three Things to Know About Pants-Wearing Mountaineer Annie Smith Peck

Peck wasn’t wealthy and her family, who did have money, didn’t approve of her globe-trotting, mountain-climbing, pants-wearing lifestyle

None

John Z. DeLorean Thought He Was Designing the Car of the Future

Instead its almost-instantly out-of-date styling made it a legend

George Saunders poses with his book Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Five Things to Know About 2017 Man Booker Prize Winner George Saunders

He becomes the second America to win for his book “Lincoln in the Bardo,” an experimental ghost story that explores the grief of the 16th president

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