Column

  Internet meme courtesy of the author

 Internet meme courtesy of the author

When, if ever, is language natural? In her November column, Adina Glickstein contemplates writing unburdened by digital posterity and what freedom might lie beyond consent.

 Photo: Adina Glickstein

Photo: Adina Glickstein

Barely sated, Adina Glickstein gets to the bottom of a TikTok culinary trend.

 Vivienne Westwood in SS 2017, detail. Photo: Juergen Teller

Vivienne Westwood in SS 2017, detail. Photo: Juergen Teller

Is it possible to have style undressed? And what do we lack if we lack clothes? In her July column, Joanna Walsh ponders the hard work of taking (almost) everything off.

 Caroline Calloway and her cat, Matisse. © Casey Brooke

Caroline Calloway and her cat, Matisse. © Casey Brooke

As pre-orders roll in for her new memoir, Scammer, the disgraced influencer spills the beans to Adina Glickstein about grifting, gendered fame-seeking, and the it-girl as a startup.

We feel either too big or too small for our clothes. In her June column, Joanna Walsh considers the monstrous feminine, oversize fashion, and the hard work required to make us “fit.”

 North Face x Gucci linen puffer from a campaign shot in Iceland, 2021. Courtesy: Gucci. Photo: Jalan and Jibril Durimel

North Face x Gucci linen puffer from a campaign shot in Iceland, 2021. Courtesy: Gucci. Photo: Jalan and Jibril Durimel

“Fashion is the future, clothes are what we already wear.” In her May column, Joanna Walsh ponders how fast fashion’s accelerationism plays with seasons, desire, and the virtual, projecting us into an elsewhere we’ll never venture into.

 Nile Koetting, Cherry script , 2023, e ink display animation, 9.5 x 12 x 2 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Parliament, Paris

Nile Koetting, Cherry script, 2023, e ink display animation, 9.5 x 12 x 2 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Parliament, Paris

Two exhibitions in Paris – Nile Koetting at Parliament Gallery and the group show “Au delà” at Lafayette Anticipations – conjure data’s limitations in the face of the divine.

 Congolese Sapeurs

Congolese Sapeurs, members of the Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People)

What is style? It’s not fashion, or clothing; it’s only ever personal, but never entirely personal. In the first installment of Spike’s NEW COLUMN, Joanna Walsh ponders why we yearn for ten-piece wardrobe plans or call for Derrida to get style. 

 Rosemarie Trockel, Replace Me , 2009. © Rosemarie Trockel and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022

Rosemarie Trockel, Replace Me, 2009. © Rosemarie Trockel and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022

Claiming to automate labor, is AI actually creating more busy work for humans?

 Still from “EVERY ANGEL IS TERRIFYING,” produced by Praxis Society, 2023

Still from “EVERY ANGEL IS TERRIFYING,” produced by Praxis Society, 2023

Hearing murmurs of crypto city-states in the making, Adina Glickstein ponders the complicated politics of exit.

 Miu Miu, fall 2022 ready-to-wear collection. Photo: Filippo Fior 

Miu Miu, fall 2022 ready-to-wear collection. Photo: Filippo Fior 

Forget Y2K; the 2010s are already back again. But retromania leads us down into a labyrinth of data horror, writes Adina Glickstein in her February column. 

 Still from Toshi Hoo, Raymond Kurzweil, Anthony Waller,  The Singularity Is Near , 2010 (detail)

Still from Toshi Hoo, Raymond Kurzweil, Anthony Waller, The Singularity Is Near, 2010

Will we still set New Year’s resolutions when our consciousness lives on computers? Adina Glickstein rings in 2023 with transhumanists, goblins, and worms. 

 Courtroom sketch of Elizabeth Holmes being cross-examined by prosecutor Robert Leach, November 30, 2021. REUTERS/Vicki Behringer

Courtroom sketch of Elizabeth Holmes being cross-examined by prosecutor Robert Leach, November 30, 2021. REUTERS/Vicki Behringer

This month, Adina Glickstein considers three girls’ grifts – and the startup-ification of subjectivity that might be the real crime after all.  

 Steven Warwick, Scarecrow , 2021. Photo: Angele Balducci

Steven Warwick, Scarecrow, 2021. Photo: Angele Balducci

Being bad feels good. This month, Adina Glickstein chats with the artist Steven Warwick about scapegoats, salvation, and Stanley Kubrick.

 Urbit graphic design by Romina Malta

Urbit graphic design by Romina Malta

Is Dimes Square a Network State? At Urbit Assembly, Adina Glickstein looks for an exit.

 BeReal meme remixed by the clothing brand Praying, posted to Instagram @praying

BeReal meme remixed by the clothing brand Praying, posted to Instagram @praying

Adina Glickstein clocks some parallels between social media’s latest compulsion and cinema’s angsty Danes.

 Extinction meme via @angelicism01archive2 on Instagram

Extinction meme via @angelicism01archive2 on Instagram

Adina Glickstein writes a travel diary from the end of the end of the world.

 Katonah Yoga "Wraps for Rapture"

Katonah Yoga "Wraps for Rapture" diagram. © Katonah Yoga Center

In her new column "User Error," Spike Editor-at-Large Adina Glickstein charts the volatility of love and the crypto market, and finds solace in nightcore and Avril Lavigne conspiracy theories.