Storytelling, the AI Surge and Virtual Beauty
Storytelling
Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free’s pgLang production company is expanding its creative reach with the launch of a global creative agency named Project 3 Agency. Founded in 2020 as a creative services company, pgLang has steadily grown in influence while staying true to its core philosophy, a community that “speaks different languages and breaks formats for the curious.”
This ethos now forms the foundation of Project 3 Agency. Project 3 is reshaping how brands connect with people through layered, meaningful stories and is built around the three essential pillars of storytelling: the beginning, the middle, and the end. It launches with 30 staffers spread among Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris and Asia. See more here
The AI Surge
Tech companies are racing to develop the world’s most advanced AI, investing billions into the infrastructure needed to support it, primarily massive data centers and powerful supercomputers. AI is a trillion-dollar transformation still in its early stages, and the potential for profits and investor demand drives this surge in development. It also comes at a cost: increased strain on energy grids and natural resources.
As AI reshapes industries, a recent Microsoft study, based on 200,000 real workplace conversations, challenges conventional wisdom by identifying 40 jobs AI is likely to replace and 40 that are safe. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang isn't sounding the alarm over job loss—instead, he's concerned we're not adapting quickly enough to create the jobs AI will demand. Read it here and here
Virtual Beauty
This summer, Somerset House London has a thought-provoking exhibition exploring the impact of digital culture and technologies on definitions of beauty today. The exhibition is both unsettling and sometimes beautiful, and questions how technology influences self-representation and who holds the power to define beauty.
Virtual Beauty also looks to the future with ‘Virtual Embalming’, a 2018 video by Frederik Heyman that considers how people want to be remembered after their death. Read more here and see more here and here
The Missing Shirt
Ex-Lioness Claire Rafferty and designer Hattie Crowther have launched the first-ever retro England shirt for women, made to honour the pioneers of the game. The shirt is the symbol women’s football has always deserved but never had. The Lionesses didn’t get their own kit until 2019.
When Hattie Crowther was asked to design The Missing Shirt, she knew it had to feel real, like something that could have existed but never did. Proceeds go back into grassroots football, helping give every young girl an equal chance to play. You can read more here
Literacy
Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book Club is a space for literary discovery, featuring her Monthly Reads, exclusive Q&As with authors, new releases, and curated recommendations from the Service95 team, designed to help readers see the world through new perspectives.
Each month, Lipa selects books that challenge norms and broaden horizons, offering a refreshing take on what a pop star’s reading list can be. Her picks range from feminist manifestos to genre-defying memoirs. See more here
Monitoring and Privacy
Stranger Eyes is a film by Yea Siew Hua exploring themes of surveillance, privacy, and the impact of technology on human connection. The movie features a couple in Singapore whose lives are disrupted when they face a police investigation into the disappearance of their daughter.
They start receiving videos of their daily life, leading them to question who is watching and why. The film delves into the psychological effects of constant observation and the blurring lines between victim and predator in a hyper-surveilled world. See more here