Here’s what’s positively occupied my attention recently:
🔁 Reinforcement learning for large language models (LLMs)
🌬️ Diffusion models for language modeling:
📚 Readables
👷 Hamming, Richard (2020). The art of doing science and engineering: learning to learn. Stripe Press.
🌏 Lindgren, Simon (2023). Critical Theory of AI. Polity.
🗺️ Agüera y Arcas, Blaise (2025). Who Are We Now?. Hat & Beard Press.
🧙♂️ Nadler, Steven (2020). Think Least of Death: Spinoza on How to Live and How to Die
🧠 Clark, Andy (2024). The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality
🎬 Viewables
🎞️ Conte d’été (A Summer’s Tale), Éric Rohmer, 1996
🎞️ 风流一代 (Caught by the Tides), 贾樟柯 (Jia Zhangke), 2024
🎞️ The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015
🎞️ Playtime, Jacques Tati, 1967
🎞️ Matthew Barney: No Restraint, Alison Chernick, 2006
🎞️ Chocolat, Claire Denis, 1988
🎞️ Նռան գույնը (The Colour of Pomegranates), Սերգեյ Փարաջանյան (Sergei Parajanov), 1969
🎞️ Русский ковчег (Russian Ark), Александр Сокуров (Alexander Sokurov), 2002
🎞️ Sirāt, Oliver Laxe, 2025
🎞️ قهرمان (A Hero), اصغر فرهادی (Asghar Farhadi), 2021
🎞️ O Agente Secreto (The Secret Agent), Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2025
🎞️ Linka Linka (一个夜晚与三个夏天), གངས་སྒྲོན་ (Kangdrun), 2025
🎞️ 狮子城 (The Lion City), Yi Sui/Tang Bo Qi, 1960
🎞️ Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, Neo Sora, 2023
🖼️ Heman Chong: This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness, Heman Chong, 2025
🖼️ Rirkrit Tiravanija: SAY YES TO EVERYTHING, Rirkrit Tiravanija, 2026
🎭 Iphigénie en Tauride (Iphigenia in Tauris), Christoph Willibald Gluck, 1779;
Tan Shou Chen with The Opera People with and Wayfarer Sinfonietta, Wild Rice Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, 2025
👯 Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas, 1982;
Danced by: Laura Bachman, Yuika Hashimoto, Singtel Waterfront Theatre at Esplanade, 2026
📸 … and here are some snaps (not all recent)
