Shortcomings

Shortcomings Shows the Loneliness of Refusing to “See” Race

Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel forces the reader to surveil the world through the eyes of its protagonist, Japanese American theater manager Ben Tanaka.
The Superman costume as worn by Christopher Reeve in Superman III

Still American?

A rumination on Superman, Black consciousness, and living the dream.
The Roman Countryside by Pietro Barucci

Ride ’em, Butteri! 

Long before spaghetti westerns, Italians were turned on to an image of the American West by Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show.
A map that shows mountains and roads in Xigu Cheng

Maps, Power, and Identity

The Ancient East Asian Maps Collection at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology demonstrates the power held and discursive work done by mapmakers.
Malay-language film poster for the 1940 film Roekihati, produced by Tan's Film.

The Lost World of Pre-War Malay Cinema

Using the few surviving copies of the 1940s magazine Film Melayu, historian Timothy Barnard chronicles the discourse surrounding the Golden Age of Malay film.
A spread from a yearbook featuring a collage of black and white photographs of students around campus and Portland

Keep Portland Yearbook Photos Weird

Across thousands of images, Portland State University's yearbooks captured both society's upheaval and the city's cultural metamorphosis.
Robert Englund in movie art for the film 'A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master', 1988.

Freddy Krueger, Folkloric Monster

Many aspects of Freddy Krueger's backstory and actions in A Nightmare on Elm Street echo portrayals of the folkloric bogeyman who targets children.
Bride of Frankenstein, 1935

Bride of Frankenstein

Drawn from the margins of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, the cinematic Bride of Frankenstein is never just one thing, and she never goes away.
John Cho

Why #StarringJohnCho Is Not Enough for Asian American Cinema

Filling more movie roles with Asian American actors may be the wrong goal if such visibility promotes stereotypes or buys into Hollywood's fantasies of power.
An undated Bay Area poster by a “punk with copymachine,” offering up free copies (BYO paper).

Xerox and Roll: The Corporate Machine and the Making of Punk

On the 85th anniversary of the first xerographic print, a collection of punk flyers from Cornell University provides an object lesson on (anti-)art in the age of mechanical reproduction.