In 2002, the world was astonished by the appearance of the new opera star Anna Netrebko at the Salzburg Opera Festival. She was young, incredibly talented and smashingly glamorous, almost akin to the legendary Maria Callas. She quickly became the face of the world new opera and also the face of the new Russia and of the post-Soviet space. Like a speeding ro…
The present has made a pressing matter of the future. The crises of the present—climate change, biodiversity crises, the foreseeable scarcity of resources, energy consumption, and (more) pandemics—have thrown human existence, or at least the specific lifestyles we cultivate, into question. One probable future that looms on the horizon is of particular concern: if pro-ducts continue to be ma…
Preferable Futures delves into the question of possible, probable, and desirable futures amidst the pressures of climate change and digitalization. Through a diverse range of perspectives, the book explores ways to negotiate and create desirable futures using the concept of transformation design in theory and practice, economic business simulations, and recent humanistic theories. This thought-…
While the usefulness of periodization in general has been questioned before,1 the established periodizations of Central and Eastern European art histories have not been systematically compared or criticized. At the heart of the issue is the relation-ship between Western models of periodization and the emerging discipline of art his-tory in the region. Wes…
Long, long ago, in a certain tsardom there lived an old man and an old woman and their daughter Vasilisa. They had only a small hut for a home, but their life was a peaceful and happy one. However, even the brightest of skies may become overcast, and misfortune stepped over their threshold at last. The old woman fell gravely ill and, feeling that her end was near, she called Vasilisa to her bed…