news
A Note From the Editors
by franknews
September 1, 2021
A note from the editors,
Two years ago, we spent a month looking at our grid system – we came away realizing that while we are deeply dependent on quick, readily accessible energy, very few people had an encompassing understanding of the system, the grid, that provided our energy.
That sense of disconnect is the same with much of the infrastructure that shapes our modern world. We take the ease that roads, damns, and powerlines provide for granted until they are strained or broken.
It’s painfully obvious that climate change is here, that society, as we know it, has changed, and that the infrastructure that maintains our society must change in response.
September looks at the intersection of climate and infrastructure.
-frank
news
Return to Plastics | A Personal Journey Through Time
by Rebecca Altman
January 22, 2019
Rebecca Altman's essay, American petro-topia, originally published in Aeon in 2015, jumps out at you line one. Her prose stays personal and poignant until its finish – so much so you barely realize the subtle, yet thorough education on petrochemicals, plastics, and American history she is giving you. It begins:
I knew it was late to be calling him. But that night, with the first warm breezes rustling the curtains, I could sense the coming spring and realised he would turn 73 soon.
Rebecca Altman is a writer and sociologist. Her work explores the social history of chemistry, plastics, pollution and environmental legacy— what we pass from one generation to the next. Below, frank animates an excerpt from her essay, "American petro-topia", narrated by Rebecca Altman herself.
Written and Narrated by: Rebecca Altman
Designed and Animated by: Sophie Feller
Original Score by: Jacques Brautbar