News and blog

We always like to see emerging technology here at Madhouse, and there was plenty on display at this year’s ad:tech exhibition.

It’s hardly contentious to state that Pablo Picasso was probably the greatest artist of the twentieth century: his life and career have been explored in forensic detail ever since his death in 1973. However, Tate Liverpool’s ‘Picasso: Peace and Freedom’ show is currently offering art lovers a great opportunity to investigate one of the less celebrated aspects of Brand Picasso: namely, his thirty-plus years as a card-carrying member of the French Communist Party. Typically, Picasso is characterised as something of a playboy, an incorrigible individualist, but this exhibition argues that this reading ignores his commitment to a number of progressive causes, not least his work on behalf of the many World Peace Congresses that occurred in Europe throughout the nineteen-fifties.

Architectural competitions can be exciting affairs, particularly when they’re accompanied by exhibitions that actively invite public comment and participation. They feature proposals for imagined futures, and the magic lies in the possibility that the potential buildings might become real – and we, as viewers, get the chance to have our say. Dinky little wooden models take on giant dimensions in our minds; slick CGI renders act as templates to be laid over reality; video presentations and expensively bound brochures tempt us into casting our vote in what can seem like an architectural ‘X Factor’ showdown.