Art director, M.Des. — Graphic art. Publication design. Research on mandatory positivity and its effect on freedom of the press and the media of architecture and “smart” cities. Invited to Harvard GSD, McGill, and UQAM. — michelechampagne.com
At stake is our sense of reality, truth and falsity.
Joseph CoxNew from 404 Media: Google Earth has introduced an AI feature that lets anyone fabricate completely bullshit satellite images. In our own tests, we added a “bomb blast and crater” to an area of Los Angeles. This is a misinformation time bomb, will 100% be abused www.404media.co/google-earth...
Bookmarked: the Montreal Street Photography Festival, from September 4–13, 2026. – Lydia Roberts, Vakho Khetaguri at Galerie Foil – More at WIP Works and Café Léo www.mspfestival.com
It’s remarkable what's happening in the Epstein dossier and how @francetelevisions.bsky.social keeps the reporting top of mind in panels like C dans l’air.
Affaire Epstein en France : qui est Gérald Marie ?YouTube video by C dans l'air - France Télévisionswww.youtube.comLet’s see if Steidl can turn this around.
Photobook publisher Steidl faces insolvency proceedings‘Times are very bad for the book industry'artreview.comThe gold standard on this is the Netherlands, which is also a tiny market. Publishers, newspapers and broadcasters—like former clients of mine @vpro.nl—produce general interest magazines and non-fiction books that are adapted as theatre, film and radio. Magazines and books are print and digital.
Malcolm MacMahonNow I don't think I'd get the commissions. @healey.bsky.social (who I think mostly posts on the bad place) probably gets the Bombardier play. I just think there's a demand for theatre that explains "what the fuck is going on here" that our non-fiction industry can't support.
A great addition to the UNESCO heritage list.
UNESCO World Heritage list - Announcements - e-fluxTashkent modernism inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage list.www.e-flux.comISBNdb’s site was a "test of market interest”.
Company Offering Printed Books to Train AI Stops After 404 Media CoverageCiting backlash, ISBNdb removed its webpages about training AI, denied ever buying, scanning, or selling a book for AI training, and said the site was a "test of market interest."www.404media.coThis reliance on media reports for knowledge is a common part of Toronto City Council’s blindness—something you would never see done to Amsterdam’s City Council. There is immense coordination between Amsterdam, the province of Noord-Holland, and the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure.
Matt Elliott"We're in the absence of a lot of information," admits City Manager Paul Johnson. The city never received a plan to expand the island airport, and has not received any official communication about the federal stance on expansion. They're relying on media reports.
A lifeline for Moriyama’s groundbreaking science centre.
Isaac CallanTwo years after the province announced the Ontario Science Centre’s closure, two city councillors say they want the province should hand over the keys to the city so local community groups can put it to use. #ToPoli #OnPoli globalnews.ca/news/1199751...
“Our cities have no lane of their own, and the disconnect between their economic importance and constitutionally assigned authority just keeps getting more obvious ... cities in Canada are responsible for approx 50% of public spending, but they collect just 12 cents of every tax dollar paid.”
Max FawcettCanada's premiers have a bad habit of bigfooting their biggest cities on everything from bike lanes to airports -- and denying them the economic and political autonomy they deserve. It's past time to fix that. And Ottawa can help. #cdnpoli www.nationalobserver.com/2026/07/29/o...
À Longueuil du 28 juillet au 27 septembre 2026.
René Lévesque dans l’œil de Bernard BraultPendant dix ans, le photographe a suivi l’homme politique dans le viseur de son appareil.www.ledevoir.com“Poor Mackintosh has been ruthlessly exploited .. versions of his designs appear on everything from tea towels to T-shirts .. his square motifs and etiolated lettering debased into a cliché of kitsch (“Mockintosh”), while his brilliant buildings have been left to rot.” – @edwinheathcote.bsky.social
Why the Glasgow School of Art deserves to be fully restoredYears after two devastating fires, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s art nouveau masterpiece faces an uncertain future. It’s time the government stepped upwww.ft.comObtained by the @washingtonpost.com from court filings, this photograph shows an industrial book warehouse that was alleged to figure in @anthropic.com’s Project Panama, which scans then destroys millions of books. It was published in January 2026: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
McGrath is right. The NIMBY claim is silly. And I’d add to the list of lost housing potential, noise, etc: the risk of economic harm, the thing that directly refutes the other unfounded claim of economic development. @alexbozikovic.bsky.social and @greglindsay.org covered the harm not long ago:
Doug Ford’s obsession to expand downtown Toronto airport would be economic vandalism‘Anything that dilutes Pearson’s hub function risks real economic harm,’ urbanist and futurist Greg Lindsay sayswww.theglobeandmail.comJohn Michael McGrathnot the core of the column but this bit is important to me personally
“‘It’s Billy Bishop for Alto, that was always the understanding,’ said one insider, referring to the federal government’s proposed high-speed rail.”
Toronto StarPremier Doug Ford told Prime Minister Mark Carney how “disappointed” he was that Ottawa is abandoning the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport expansion to allow commuter jets, the Star has learned.
Some societies value arts and culture. Others do not. I’ve been thinking of Slessor’s column all week. – cc @ambivalentlyyours.bsky.social
Michèle ChampagneCatherine Slessor is right: “While Notre Dame, damaged by fire in 2019, was the subject of a concerted national rebuilding that allowed it to reopen five years later, Mackintosh’s masterpiece still languishes more than a decade on, and seems no closer to being restored as a working art school.”
In Montreal, I often eat lunch outside. At Victoria Square you can find Fatboy’s Toni “mist green” tables and chairs with cute white parasols.
Oh The Urbanity!Another angle.
