← The Monocle Daily
Loading summary
Transcript137 lines
- [00:00]
A
You're listening to the Monocle Daily, first broadcast on 27 February 2026 on Monocle Radio.
- [00:06]
B
The San Remo festival reminds that it's nearly time to brace for Eurovision revealed, the world's greatest supermarket and this year's unlikely fashion craze. I'm Andrew Muller. The Monocle Daily starts.
- [00:27]
C
Foreign.
- [00:32]
B
Welcome to the Monocle Daily, coming to you from our studios here at Midori House in London. I'm Andrew Muller. My guests Lily Austin and Fernando Augusto Pacheco will discuss the day's big stories. We'll meet one of the human members of the digital pop collaboration Lucy Dreams and we'll have our weekly wrap up of what we've learned. Stay tuned. All that and more coming up right here on the Monocle Daily. Foreign. This is the Monocle Daily. I'm Andrew Muller. It is already almost that time of year, which is to say Eurovision time of year. 2026's song contest shapes already as a huge improvement on those of recent years in that it is going to be shorter. Iceland, Ireland, Slovenia, Spain and the Netherlands have all announced that they will not compete for Israel related reasons though of that quintet, two failed to qualify last year and the others finished among 26 finalists. 25th, 24th and 12th. One of the principal preparatory hutananies is the San Remo Music Festival. Usually the means by which Italy chooses the act it will inflict on the continent. In May, Italy finished fifth in 2025. Well, I'm joined first of all today by Monocle's assistant deputy Eurovision desk chief, Lily Austin. And of course Monocle's Eurovision desk chief, Fernando Augusto Pacheco. Hello to you both.
- [01:56]
D
Hello.
- [01:56]
B
Hello. Lily, as I understand it, in your role as assistant deputy Eurovision desk chief, Fernando has delegated actually watching San Remo to you.
- [02:05]
D
He has indeed. Yes, it's my first San Remo. But I have to contradict you right out the gate.
- [02:11]
B
No, that's not how this program works.
- [02:13]
D
Because Eurovision wants to be San Remo. San Remo came first. San Remo came in 1951.
- [02:21]
B
Controversial.
- [02:21]
D
Five years later, Eurovision thought, well, the Europeans thought, we like what we see here, let's get bigger, let's do the same. But for the whole of Europe, they
- [02:30]
B
watched a competition of Italian pop music and thought, we like this.
- [02:34]
D
Exactly.
- [02:35]
B
Okay, well, it takes all sorts. What have you gleaned from this year's Saint Remo so far? Because I mean, I feel like on the one hand I should say to listeners that we will be playing some clips, but on the other hand I Want to keep the listeners we have. So I'm a bit torn, but what have you gleaned?
- [02:53]
D
Well, the main takeaway is kind of in keeping with what Ed Strocker said in has written for the website recently, isn't it? The theme seems to be grumbling. There are a lot of songs where people are complaining about things.
- [03:09]
B
Are they complaining about the San Remo festival? Because right there with them.
- [03:14]
D
I think they're grateful to have the platform for their complaints because there's a big slew of sort of complex complaining about. Well, one of my favourites that we'll hear later complains about the rise of AI. So that's kind of timely. There's also complaints about, you know, relationships. It kind of runs the gamut, but that seems to be main thing. A lot of ballads of people being upset about things. A lot of complaints from male artists about women not, you know, being available to them.
- [03:40]
B
So this is not a new theme in popular song.
- [03:43]
D
No, you make a good point. But it did strike me that even in the kind of boppier songs it was. Yeah.
- [03:50]
B
Would you like to introduce one and then. And then we can see what Fernando makes of it.
- [03:55]
D
Okay, so this one is actually one of the favorites to win. This is FedEx and Mazzini with Malay Necessarari.
- [04:22]
B
Fernando, that is, in my estimation as a professional music critic of many decades standing, bloody awful. What? What did you think?
- [04:30]
E
I am not a fan is a little bit too dramatic, but in a bad way to me. And I feel sorry for Lili because she's saying she's starting her San Remo career right now. I guarantee you that in previous years there was more of a sense of camp, a sense of dance music. But you said it perfectly. The theme of this year is great grumbling. You know, it's a bit of a heavy ballad. I do like an elegant ballad. I have nothing against, but this is a bit too much. But nevertheless, Andrew, I know sometimes, you know, if you want to bet on who is going to win, I think this is quite the clear favorite. I might be wrong, but I think we might see them winning.
- [05:08]
B
Lily, you have another track from San Remo to introduce. And here in your notes you have supplied in the script it says, I think Andrew might enjoy. That is some bold chat, I must say.
- [05:19]
D
Well, I know that you're a fan of country music.
- [05:21]
B
I am not so much of Italian country music, of which there has been mercifully little.
- [05:28]
D
Just have a listen. So this is Jax with Italia starter pack.
- [05:32]
B
Okay. I'm Going to have to contradict your assumption or assertion in the notes, Lily. Andrew did not actually enjoy when it says Italia starter pack. Am I my Italian, I confess, is not all that it might be. Am I to surmise the lyrics are a sort of affectionate recital of Italian cliches?
- [06:13]
D
No, it's actually in keeping with the theme of this year's San Remo. It's basically complaining about Italians. There are some lyrics, there are some lyrics about if you want to understand our country, look at a building site. There'll be five men saying how to do it and one who won doing it correctly or something along these lines. But it's delightful because, yeah, speaking and complaining about Italians, but he's dressed in full country garb. He's got some girls dressed as cheerleaders dancing in the back. It's worth a watch.
- [06:45]
E
The aesthetics, I didn't agreed with it. I had some issues. It's jarring.
- [06:51]
B
I will concede though, that he has tapped into something authentically country there because there is an entire sub genre really of country music making fun of the place that country music comes from and the people who make it. It is. One of the things I think people who make jokes about country music fail to apprehend is that country music has already made all the jokes and generally much better. There is one more that you are going to subject us to please introduce.
- [07:17]
D
So this is my favorite so far and again, I sort of teed it up before it is a bit of a grumble, but this is Dagen d' Amico's Aye Aye.
- [07:52]
B
See that song, as I understand it, Fernando is about how AI has ruined his life. Ironically, that song has ruined mine.
- [07:59]
E
Well, listen, as an AI skeptic, I quite like it, actually. It's my favorite from the three and I can totally imagine this going to Eurovision as well. I don't think he is going to win, but the message is clear. There's a backlash against AI. Let's delve deep. You know, there are strong themes there and it's smart.
- [08:20]
D
It's a fun play on words like aye aye, aye aye.
- [08:24]
B
We do have a guest coming up later in the show to who I can put these and other concerns, but we will move mercifully along to the new edition of Monocle magazine, which is on a newsstand near you and includes, among other manifold delights, the inaugural Monocle 100. Our big list of people, places, things and whatnot which in some respect or other make the world a better place than it otherwise might be at number 24. Though I'm not sure if they're ranked in order of merit. We have Casa Santa Luzia, a supermarket in Sao Paulo where, according to no less an authority than Fernando Augusto Pacheco, you can get your cold cut sliced just right or choose from a light selection of quiches.
- [09:06]
E
Yes, it's true.
- [09:08]
B
And this makes everything you write just sounds like innuendo. I don't. I don't understand how you do this.
- [09:14]
E
And you know what happened actually, Andrew, when I came back from my holidays in January, I went to Casa Santa Luzia, as I always go. But I came with a strong passion this time because it's Casa Santa Luzia celebrating 100 years in 2026. And I've emailed everyone from the magazine. I was like, guys, we have to do something and I need to write about it. And then they were like, you know what?
- [09:36]
B
I'm stopping you.
- [09:38]
E
We're doing the Monaco 100. And I think this could be the supermarket to go. And that was one of my happiest stories ever.
- [09:45]
B
Fernando, what is it that is so special about this particular supermarket, other than its cold cuts and quiches?
- [09:53]
E
Well, the cold cuts are incredible. And I think Brazilians, we care about cold cuts.
- [09:57]
B
Do you?
- [09:58]
E
And we like them thinly slimes.
- [10:00]
B
Is that what those words on the flag say?
- [10:02]
F
Yes.
- [10:03]
E
We care about coat cuts. And you know, like, when we order our mortadella, it's a big deal, especially old ladies. If you go to a bakery or Casa Santa Luzia, we like them very thin slice. If you give them thick mortadella, they will definitely not want it.
- [10:18]
B
How thin are we going here?
- [10:19]
E
Oh, like paper thin. They have to almost disintegrate in your hands, you know, they have to be so thin. Sorry, maybe I'm exaggerating a tiny bit here, but, you know, it's.
- [10:31]
B
I'm a bit. You may have to adjudicate here, Lily, I do not care for a mortadella through which you can read the newspaper. I think you can. You can slice it to a point so thin at which it doesn't actually taste of anything.
- [10:43]
D
Yeah, yeah, you make a good point.
- [10:45]
B
But I mean, are you hearing this, Fernando? I make a good point.
- [10:47]
E
I'm shocked. No, I think it's terrible to do that. I think it's vulgar even. Sorry, I'm trying to find an adjective here.
- [10:57]
B
This is fighting talk. We did want to try and talk a bit about what does comprise the ideal supermarket. I mean, I, for example, Lily, do not care for an automatic checkout. I will not, in fact, use Them you absolutely refuse.
- [11:14]
D
In fact, I know this of you. Yes. From our travels for the foreign desk. I've seen that refusal in action. I mean, I'm with you. It's nice to actually interact with a person and not have to do the job for yourself that you would hope someone else would do for you. And I'm just going to get it wrong. So I'm with you. But I feel like the main thing is you want some whimsy in a good supermarket. You want to discover something fun, something unexpected.
- [11:39]
E
And that's what you get at Casa Santa Luzia because you can get your usuals, you know, like rice, beans or coke or whatever you need. But then you can get a special pumpkin sweet puree with burnt coconut, you know, which you can only find there. Or the biscuits. When I go to Brazil, it's. They're kind of Jewish.
- [11:55]
B
Pumpkin. Sorry, I'm a bit stuck on what Pumpkin spiced puree with burnt coconut.
- [11:59]
E
Yes, it's delicious. You know, you can use it on bread in the morning or in a very simple cake. It's very delicious. It's better than marmalade, you know, Sorry to tell you guys. Would you try?
- [12:12]
D
Yeah, absolutely. It sounds delicious.
- [12:14]
B
Sure, why not? When was the last time you were surprised by something whimsical in a supermarket, Lily?
- [12:21]
D
I'm shocked you had to ask me. That was probably when we were in Copenhagen and we went into the little supermarket there and we got lots of different versions of licorice.
- [12:29]
B
Yeah. Which everybody hated.
- [12:31]
D
I hate it. But it was fun to see the options, you know, it tells you something about the place you're visiting, which I really enjoy.
- [12:37]
E
And I think it's all about the stuff, you know, in that sense, I agree with Andrew. I don't like, you know, those kind of. Of self checkouts. Because at Casa Santa Luzia, for example, it's such an interesting story. They're celebrating 100 years and they're very successful. And I spoke to the owner, she's third generation, and she said, listen, we had the opportunity to open a second or a third branch, but we decided not to because here is a very special place and we want to definitely focus on what we do well. And she basically refused to expand. And I think there's a lesson there. And that's why I think the place is so magical.
- [13:09]
B
Is it really a supermarket if there's only one, though, isn't a supermarket almost by definition part of a chain?
- [13:15]
E
You know why I think it's a supermarket? Because as I said, you can buy Your Sancho. You can buy a bottle of wine, you can buy rice, you can actually do your weekly or monthly shopping.
- [13:24]
B
Burnt pumpkin puree with coconut.
- [13:26]
E
Exactly. So it's not just like a little deli where you go there sometimes if you are a local, my God, it is the place to go. And yes, and they have, you know, that special pureed.
- [13:35]
B
And just before we move off this subject, Lily, do you have a particular favorite supermarket anywhere on earth?
- [13:42]
D
Oh, I have to say I am. I have a weakness for eataly. As in Eataly. As in E A T. Again with the whimsy.
- [13:52]
C
Yes.
- [13:52]
D
Lots of fun things to be discovered there. You should try it, Andrew.
- [13:55]
B
Maybe I will. But to the realm of fashion, where everyone is apparently presently all about the quarter zip top. That is the top on which, as the name very strongly suggests, the zip goes a quarter of the way down. Such a garment has recently graced a Chanel catwalk in New York and been favoured, it says here, by a roster of celebrities, none of whom of whom I have heard and several of whom I suspect of not existing and of being included in these notes by a vindictive producer trying to catch me out. We should establish a benchmark here. Fernando, first of all, do you or have you ever owned a quarter zip top?
- [14:31]
E
Yes, I currently own five quarter zips.
- [14:33]
B
Five.
- [14:34]
E
In different colors. Navy, gray and several tones of beige or camo.
- [14:39]
B
Whatever you want to call several tones of beige.
- [14:41]
E
Yeah, three beige ones.
- [14:43]
B
There's the title for your memoir right there.
- [14:45]
E
Exactly.
- [14:47]
B
Sorry. I realized the focus here is on the garment, not the colour. Why do you have several tones of beige?
- [14:53]
E
Because I think it matches my skin tone and I think it's very cool. Right.
- [14:57]
D
Different occasions.
- [14:58]
E
Different occasions. Exactly.
- [14:59]
B
How much deliberation of a morning goes into choosing which shade of beige you're going to wear?
- [15:04]
E
Well, depends on the color of my shoes as well, because I love suede shoes, so I think they kind of need to match. Not 100%, but, you know, they can be jarring, as though I can wear like dark brown and then a very light brown top has to be. You know, there's a lot of thinking behind it, Andrew.
- [15:19]
B
Clearly. Lily, do you own a quarter zip top?
- [15:22]
D
I don't think I currently do, but I definitely have in the past. So I am kind of intrigued by this, the kind of rebranding versus the association with the likes of Rishi Sunak, because until a few years ago, I thought of it as quite a standard style, but I guess it's been kind of usurped by the tech bro type.
- [15:43]
E
The young kids are wearing it.
- [15:44]
B
Yeah. Because I'm. I'm not sure if I own one or not. And, Lily, you can probably adjudicate here because the closest thing to such a garment I own, you have seen. I bought. I bought it to stay warm in Greenland. It does not, in fact, have a zip as such. So it's sort of buttons.
- [15:58]
D
No. Doesn't.
- [15:59]
B
It doesn't care.
- [16:00]
D
Need a zip.
- [16:01]
B
Okay. It did keep me warm. Why have these become a thing? Do you understand this?
- [16:05]
D
Well, as I said, I. Yeah, it really. I think they just weren't a thing. And then I'm. I'm curious if it was Rishi Sunak or if it was someone else wearing it that made us all conscious of it as being associated with a certain type of businessman, which then kind of gave it a sort of. Maybe not negative, but a specific kind of branding, which then now we're seeing the kind of backlash from the likes of Charli xcx, who want to reclaim it. But I can't really put my finger on when it happened, but I'm happy to see it return and be.
- [16:44]
E
It's a recent thing, actually. I have to say. You know, Lili was right saying people like Rishi Sunak. It was not a cool piece at
- [16:51]
D
all, But I feel like that. When did it become not a cool piece? Like, a few years ago? I feel like that was just part of my wardrobe. I didn't think about it one way or the other.
- [16:59]
E
It had its downs, and now it's going up again.
- [17:02]
D
Well, I'm glad. I'm glad that it's back.
- [17:03]
B
And did you put yours in mothballs, Fernando, during the Rishi Sunok hegemon?
- [17:09]
E
Well, I have to say I have. I'm a recent convert to the quartz as well, so maybe I am.
- [17:14]
B
You're a bandwagon. Exactly.
- [17:16]
E
I am part of this young generation, but I love the flexibility because when I wear a sweater, I feel too hot, so I like to open the zipper, you know, so then there's a little bit more kind of air as well.
- [17:25]
D
But I think what the crucial thing is about is the weather.
- [17:30]
B
Too much information?
- [17:31]
D
No, no, I think that's correct. But I think the crucial thing is about whether or not it's fitted, because the Rishi Sunaks of the world wore a very fitted one on top of a shirt and a tie. And she's looking at me like I'm saying something very important. And then I think the kind of the latest iteration is a bit of a looser Cut. And I think that's the distinction.
- [17:52]
E
You have to wear it well because there is always a danger, even when I was coming to the office here, that you might look stuffy. So you have to be slightly neater, maybe not overly baggy trousers as well. You have to be very careful because it is a dangerous piece. I think it looks good. But you have, I don't know, you can easily become like a bad dad. I'm not even offending the dads here. I'm saying a badly dressed dad.
- [18:18]
B
Well, on that cliffhanger, Fernando Augusto Pacheco and Lily Austin, thank you for your contributions to today's symposium. You are listening to the Daily on Monacle Radio. You are listening to the Daily on Monocle Radio. Now, it is not altogether unheard of for a band to have a non human member. The echo of Echo and the Bunnyman was a drum machine by some accounts, as was the sisters of Mercy's Dr. Avalanch. Technology has moved along significantly since then, enabling artificial musicians to participate. Beyond supplying a somewhat glorified click track, 1/3 of Vienna trio Lucy Dreams is a digital creation. I'm joined now by one of the group's flesh and blood members, David Reiterate. David, welcome to the show. First of all, introduce the artificial character at the heart of your band. How would you describe Lucy?
- [19:34]
F
So thanks a lot for having me. It's absolutely great to be here. We speak of Lucy as an artificial band member. We say it's not AI because AI is something that always reproduces. We want to have a look at technology in a different fashion. It's about who we become next to it. Lucy in our case is, you know, just a machine that we have created in the studio, an effect chain that we send sounds into and let those sounds evolve. And then we always are exposed to new ideas, ideas by Lucy herself. So after all, it's not machine learning, it's a feedback loop. But we still see her as the center, as the narrative of our band. And we want to sort of, you know, stand in for technology to be used in a. In a productive, in a peaceful, in an innovative way.
- [20:24]
B
So how does the creative process work though? Like what ideas do you bring and what kind of effect can. Can Lucy have on them?
- [20:35]
F
So generally we send our sounds into it. So be like a whistle or the city sounds of Vienna, where we are from. And then we let this feedback loop develop and develop and develop. And very often it's just white noise, it's just a feedback loop. But, you know, sometimes there are intelligible rhythmic patterns. We have melodies that come out of this feedback loop that we then use as the basis for new songs.
- [21:01]
B
And how do you manifest this live? Is there a performance aspect to what the machine is able to do as well?
- [21:09]
F
Yeah, absolutely. So basically what we do in the studio is then transformed onto the live show as well. We want those ideas to become physical experience. And we are in the process of manifesting this interaction with the machine life as well. As it stands right now, we basically work with it in the studio because there is a lot of iterations that need to take place in order to, you know, in order to get those ideas out of the machine. We're still at the super early stages of machine intelligence, but we want to also put this on stage as well.
- [21:49]
B
Yes, and you said earlier that this is not AI as such as people are beginning to think of it. Is that something you're keen to preserve though, that sort of not quite AI status of it? Because as you're probably aware, I think there is an increasing sort of backlash and hostility to AI, especially as streaming services get increasingly swamped with stuff that nobody wrote or recorded at all.
- [22:17]
F
Yes, absolutely. And this is what we also would like to advocate for. So AI needs to remain a tool. We see the machine as a mirror of what we as humans put into it. We see technology as a way to expand our expression and, and it should not by no means replace our creative, our emotional intentions. So there will be a dialogue between human and system. But after all, the human being will and has to remain the, the creator.
- [22:50]
B
I mean, does this strike you as that backlash that is, as a continuation of. I mean, this rumbling has gone on in popular music for decades. I am old enough to remember when people complained that music made with synthesizers wasn't real music. And now, of course, nobody cares about that at all. Is this, is this just another evolutionary step in, in how we will make music?
- [23:15]
F
Well, the thing is we, we are experiencing, experiencing a seismic shift. You know, with, with AI and everything that it entails. It's. We, we. I think we underestimate what will be possible in the long. This rapid digital acceleration. It's very easy that we lose the connectivity to what it actually means to be human. And this is what we would like to put a finger on and have a look at. After all, we now have the chance to create a trajectory for technology. And in our opinion, we need technology, as I said in the beginning, to be peaceful, to be inclusive and to be productive and to be sustainable. This is what sort of the basic human values. We need to preserve them in the technology because technology will, after all, become more intelligent than human beings and will overtake us in many instances. And that's why we need to make sure that it really sort of represents the values that make us human.
- [24:19]
B
But that evolution of technology, which as you suggest, may become smarter than us, that will emphasize, I think, the opposition that a lot of people have always perceived, especially in music, that humanity and technology are antagonists, that they're working at cross purposes. You don't necessarily presumably see it like that.
- [24:40]
F
Well, we experience a cultural shift at the moment, not just this technological shift. And the key question needs to be what kind of artists, and I'm not only speaking about musicians, but artists in general, would we like to become alongside AI? Right. So obviously the creative process, and I think the audience will always need, will always want to see the creative process will have to be showcased in a way that sort of is in competition with AI and in, in my optimistic opinion, it'll be the case that humans will want to consume human made music or human made literature after all.
- [25:25]
B
Well, David, thanks for joining us. And to play us out, I will ask you to introduce something of a mashup of tracks from your new album vvvvv. I think that was the right number of V's.
- [25:38]
F
Yes, exactly. So it's about the. We see it as a soundtrack to humanity's leap into the fifth dimension. Basically a metaphor for a shift in consciousness when we live together with technology. And it's not just an album. We see it as an invitation for people to step into and their minds themselves.
- [26:18]
B
That was Lucy Dreams, and we heard earlier there from David Reiter of Lucy Dreams. Details of Lucy Dreams tour and their works in general may be found@lucydreams.net the new album VVVVV, that's 5 Vs, is available now. You are listening to the Daily on Monocle Radio. Now. Sir Isaac Julian, a previous guest on Monocle on Culture, has been creating film installations for over 40 years. Sir Isaac's latest work, all that Changes you, Metamorphosis, was commissioned to mark 500 years of the Palazzo Te in Mantua in Italy, where it remains on display. You can also see it now at the Victoria Miro Gallery here in London. The installation unfolds as a sweeping visual poem exploring what to transform, to adapt and to survive. Monocle's Anneliese Maynard spoke with Sir Isaac at Midori House and began by asking when he realized that Giulio Romano's Renaissance masterpiece, the Room of Giants would become the focus of the installation.
- [27:16]
C
Well, I think it's rather remarkable to think about Julia Romano making this masterpiece and being in the room of the giants and thinking, oh, my God, this is. Has such a strong parallel to today, of course, when we think about what's happening today in our political climate. It was really very interesting to have this parallel and to have my protagonist, Lilith, played by Sheila Tim, look at that work, and to have the wonderful narration by Gwendoline Christie over it and to have this parallel where she's quoting from Octavia Butler's book, the Parables, and talking about, in a way, the beginning of a certain autocratic moment.
- [28:05]
D
Whether you're a human being, an insect, a microbe or a stone, All that you touch you change, and all that you change changes you.
- [28:29]
A
There's obviously a didactic quality to the installation, but it doesn't feel, you know, prescriptive or like you're offering all the answers. And it seems to invite us to kind of inhabit and embrace change in life and to see that transformation as part of, like, what it means to be alive. And I was wondering what you would like audiences to leave the installation feeling. What would you like their main takeaway to be?
- [28:53]
C
In my collaboration with my partner, Mark Nash, who wrote the script, I think he was very much looking at some questions which he had explored through Naomi Mitchison's writing a novel called Memoirs of a Spacewoman. So Gwendon Christie and Sheila Tim, they are kind of space explorers, time travelers, and they basically, you know, come back to the earth and they have this conversation, this philosophical conversation. Some of those conversations are very much influenced by the writings of people like Octavia Butler, the black science fiction writer. The script is very much interwoven with different quotes from her work, along with Donna Highway. So all of this very much influenced the script and the making of the work, and in a way resonated in a quite amazing way with the paintings by Julia Romano.
- [29:52]
A
It's such an immersive experience. You know, you've got the mirrored walls around the screen so you can shift and choose your perspective. And then there's the immersive sound that we've been speaking about, but it almost forms a sound bar. And then the multiple screens, that kind of means you're constantly repositioning yourself and taking a different stance. And one of the most powerful aspects for me watching this was when Gwendolyn Christie and Sheila Ottom appear in different locations on different screens, yet remain in dialogue with each other. And it felt it was a very therapeutic experience watching It I just wanted to know why it was so important for you to create this kind of level of interaction not only between the protagonist, but. But between the installation and the audience.
- [30:35]
C
Well, I think for some time I've been experimenting with the idea of the sort of mobile spectator as someone who is participating in looking at many things, multitasking, visually multitasking, or physically multitasking, in terms of how they look, in terms of how they perform their daily activities on the computer, et cetera, how that seeps into your subjectivity. And I think one of the things that people always talk about is in a way, the distracted gaze. You know, people go to a museum, they only look at something for like five seconds and they move on. So I guess in my work I've been very much aware of these, if you like, phenomena in terms of how people look. And I'm really interested in trying to capture and to, in a way, meditate on the way that people look. So in this installation, in a way, I like the idea of audiences being immersed. And at the same time I realize that people are distracted. How can you work that kind of distraction into a work? And so with the multiple screens and the mirroring, in a way, it creates this kaleidoscopic effect. And at the same time the sound, one's attention can go elsewhere. But there's a way in which you can find new ways of looking.
- [31:54]
A
It's reconfigured for the Victoria Miro Gallery to five screens. What was the process of reconfiguring that? Did you feel it changed or approached?
- [32:03]
C
Well, I think what we did is in Palazzo Te Mantua, where the ten screen is shown. We basically wanted to in some ways replicate that in Victoria Mirror Gallery. And I think in the five screens, what we've done is to create a more intimate relationship to the way that you're looking and the screens and their sonography and the way they're designed within the space. So we're really excited that it's shown here in London and that people can experience the work here. Also. The work has a kind of message which is a kind of meditation on some of the things which are happening, which are in a way connected to human, in a way doing a kind of self destruct on the planet and on themselves. And how can we think of a way of thinking about the future by being present? I don't know how he refers it to kind of thinking about how we presently situate ourselves and how we coexist with one another. The sort of last sentence order you touch you change and all that. You change, changes you, for me, is something which I think we wanted sort of audiences to really think about, because I think the question of metamorphosis and how things, in a way, how change develops is really very interesting. The resistance to change is really what we're encountering at this particular moment. You know, people who don't want change, who want to resist change, you know, are in a sense, very much rejecting the metamorphosis that's taking place naturally to a certain extent.
- [34:00]
B
That was Monocle's Anneliese Maynard speaking to the artist Sir Isaac Julian. Sir Isaac's exhibition, All the Changes you, Metamorphosis is showing at the Victoria miro Gallery until March 21st. Do go and see it. This is the Daily with me, Andrew Muller. And finally, on today's show, our weekly assessment of what lessons we could usefully have absorbed from the preceding seven days. We learned this week that the State of the Union is our our country is winning again.
- [34:33]
G
In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it. People are asking me, please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much. We can't take it anymore. We're not used to winning in our country until you came along with just always losing. But now we're winning too much.
- [34:53]
B
Interminable we learned that US President Donald Trump. Donald Trump can correctly claim to have earned at least one honor that is the title of deliverer of the longest State of the Union address on record, his 108 minutes at the lectern easing past the 99 minutes put up by President Bill Clinton in 2000. Tempting to say. Shame there isn't a gold medal or gaudy trophy for this, but it's at least an even bet that by the time you hear this, there will be be. Am I right? Anyway, we learned greatly, too, our disappointment. If we're honest. We were kind of banking on the State of the Union to write this edition for us that on this occasion, Trump stuck mostly to the script. We did, however, get briefly excited by this. That is a caller to a program on C Span introducing himself as a voter dissatisfied with a recent recent Supreme Court judgment and identifying himself as John Barron, which listeners with a command of recent and stupid American history may recall was the alias President Trump adopted during the 1980s when he was pretending to be his own publicist and who had a somewhat familiar tone to both his voice and his vocabulary.
- [36:11]
H
Well, this is John Barron, and you have look. Yep, this is the worst decision you ever have in your life practically Jack. And Jack's going to agree with me, right? But this is a terrible decision. And you have Hakeem Jeffries, who. He's a dope. And you have Chuck Schumer, who can't cook a cheeseburger. Of course these people are happy. Of course these people are happy.
- [36:32]
B
But we learned that C Span was at pains to insist that the caller was not who viewers may very well have assumed it was, although we were at least reminded. Reminded of the somewhat melancholy fact that Trump actually named his youngest and tallest child after his imaginary employee. So we learned that we would be compelled to search elsewhere for material, a quest that took us as far afield as India, where we did at least discover that we could employ the linkage device of monotonous din droning on and on and on, far past the tolerance of the sane. For we learned that the residents of one swish neighbourhood of Mumbai are approaching the end of their wits and or tethers as a consequence of local authorities having had what may well be the worst idea in all of human history, that is engineering. Grooves into the seafront boulevard, imaginatively named Coastal Road, so that when vehicles drive over them at certain speeds, a tune is emitted. The specific tune being the one playing in the background. Now that is Jai Ho from the soundtrack of Slumdog Millionaire. Here is what that sounds like when rendered by Tata Wheel on asphalt. We learned that those within earshot are being subject to this racket more or less, all goddamn day. Every goddamn day. Yes, they're being driven to destruction. They're tired of it. They're feeling deflated, like they're in a rut. Just get on with it, alright? Settle down. On more or less the same continent, if. We learned that Thai police had either mounted an ingenious undercover operation or merely sought to liven up an otherwise routine arrest to enhance station morale, give everyone a fun story to tell at the Christmas party, whatever. Hard to say. We learned that Bangkok's finest had determined, for reasons somewhat opaque to us at time of broadcast, that the best means of apprehending a particular miscreant was to join a parade commemorating Lunar New Year festivities. And while actually wearing one of the feline themed costumes in which revellers suit up on such occasions, claw enforcement. Is that anything? We learned, however, that the unorthodox approach had worked, which I'm sure we can agree is the main thing, and that the streets of Bangkok had been safer, if that even is a word. It isn't to the tune of one ne' er do well. Seriously, do you know when this guy ever did well? Quite right. We just have to hope he doesn't try lion under oath. And that is all for this edition of the Monocle Daily. Thanks to our panelists today, Lily Austin and Fernando Augusto Pacheco. The show was produced by Tom Webb and researched by Anneliese Maynard. Our sound engineer was Steph Chungu. I'm Andrew Muller here in London. The Daily is back at the same time on Monday. Thanks for listening,
- [40:21]
C
Sam.