Ceiling of the Louvre Abu Dhabi (photo by me)

Aesthetics for Birds

I own and am chief editor of the aesthetics and philosophy of art blog Aesthetics for Birds. I edit and oversee most of the material that appears there, and I regularly write pieces for it.

Taco Bell and the Paradox of Ironic Appreciation (2023)

An essay about ironic appreciation and why I find it puzzling (reprinted from Bloomsbury Contemporary Aesthetics)

The Performative Wokeness of Netflix's The Chair (2021)

A critical review of the television show The Chair

"Terms of Art" Series (2020)

A collection of fifty important terms in art and aesthetics, each with its own entry and explanation

Black Panther and Crossplay: Why Cosplay Is More Important Than You Think (2018)

A defense of the importance of cosplay to our sense of ourselves in the social world

The Metaphysics and Linguistics of Emoji (2017)

A brief look at emoji as a communicative objects and the metaphysical and linguistic issues they raise

High Art, Low Art, and the Status of Aesthetics (2014)

A short essay arguing that low art is not necessarily bad art, nor is high art necessarily good art

Other Essays

A Plea for Emoji (2018)

An essay on the philosophical dimensions of emoji: metaphysical, linguistic and communicative, and phenomenological and social, for the American Society for Aesthetics Newsletter

Toward a More Respectful Discourse (2016)

Reflection on the experience of being ambiguously racialized in contemporary academia, for the Philosop-her blog

Interviews

Philosophy Illustrated (Segment: Red Square) (2022)

A segment on Arthur Danto's "Red Square" thought experiment, for the New Books Network podcast

Appreciation, Exploitation, and Taylor's Versions (2022)

YouTube interview with Brandon Polite for Philosophers
Discussing Art

The Global Emoji Experience (2022)

Interspersed segments for a YouTube video, by Keith Broni of Emojipedia

How Emoji Have Changed How We Communicate (2022)

Segment on emoji for NPR's The Colin McEnroe Show

Dionysus Awards (2022)

An episode of Stanford/NPR's Philosophy Talk podcast discussing the films "The Power of the Dog" and "Passing"

Being Mixed Race in BC (2021)

Interspersed interview segments in a video for the Canadian Broadcasting Channel (CBC)

Aesthetic Subtlety and Heavy-Handedness (2020)

YouTube interview with Brandon Polite for Philosophers
Discussing Art

YouCollective Pathmaker Podcast Interview (2019)

American Philosophical Association Member Interview (2018)

Subtlety (2015)

An interview for Philosopher's Zone, Australia Broadcast Company (ABC) Radio National

Presentations

"Care and Justice" and "Agency and Alienation" (2022)

Presentations to the British Columbia Nurses Union (BCNU)
Annual Meeting