Severin Matusek

Functionalist theories, building on Durkheim’s insights, analyze totemism in terms of its social functions. From a functionalist perspective, totemism contributes to social cohesion by providing a shared system of beliefs and practices that reinforce group solidarity. The totemic system establishes social boundaries, regulates behavior through... See more

Held at the Bradbury Building and the historic Hearst Estate, the Imaginative Assemblies used blindfolded deep-listening, tactile modeling, and facilitated dialogue to probe this central question. This process collected 30 hours of audio (18GB), 4,500+ photos (16GB), and 60+ hours of film (6.7TB) across all sessions. The resultant report documents... See more

The TV show The Wire had a phrase about how people navigate the risk of failure inside more traditional institutions: “You can’t lose if you don’t play.” In the tech world, the logic reverses. The drawbacks of a collective fallacy are smaller than not participating in the next innovation, so the rule becomes, “You only lose if you don’t play.”

Is it the writer’s role to be strategic or truthful?