Issue 002
July 2026
In this issue
Introduction to SideQuests, Issue 002
Kayleigh Timmer
To embrace the willingness to question, explore, wonder, be creative and curious; to think, to look: that is the call at the core of Issue 002.
What Time Is It? Philosophy Time!
Werner F. Smith
In the Adventure Time universe, the limits of possibility are not restricted by either the rules that govern our world, or by conventional patterns of thinking.
Eat, Sense, Remember, Repeat: What Makes Comfort Food so Comforting?
Cara Brits
Choosing ‘comfort’ food offers us an escape from the real world: a metaphorical womb – warm, soft, and undemanding of perceptual load.
Flirt, Fumble, Repeat: The Phenomenology of Love Island
Tamia Sadé Moodley
The villa, then, isn’t a fantasy apart from us. It’s a mirror held up to the fragile, dramatic, often awkward way we live our own lives.
An Instagram Smile: Exploring The Being and Ethics of a Cyber Presence
Gisela Diedericks
Through the lens of Heidegger’s ontological pluralism, my ‘Instagram smile’ is reinterpreted as an instantiation of my being.
Fabulating Futures in the Digital Condition
Chantelle Gray
The very conditions of possibility for thinking have become subjected to the logic of algorithmic reason and extractivism, which threatens our lifeworlds.
A Problem for Metaphysical Dualists in the Future of AI Debate
Ragnar van der Merwe
We should consider all aspects of a system before making claims about its ontological status and be aware of mistaking the model for the world.
The Death of the Outsider in the Age of the Machine
Asheel Singh
The outsider threatens to reveal something different: a new order, a new way of being, a new set of governing principles, perhaps.
Aesthetics and AI: Synthetic Mimesis and the Question of Artistic Nudity
Jenna Wilkinson
The question regarding the inclusion of AI into art must be analysed, for if something is not sentient can it ever truly be naked? Can it ever truly be art?
Before You Look, You Are Told What You See
William Shaer
The over-explained artwork is not an isolated phenomenon, but a symptom of a wider condition in which the space of encounter is steadily shrinking.
The Work of Looking
Odette Graskie
It is the work of looking which can fill us with wonder. It is tied to the amount of attention we give, the way in which we see. The act of looking itself becomes the reward.
Empathy Machines: Why We Need Stories
David Mann
Stories, then – our stories and the stories of others – can be understood as empathy machines.
Hyperart/Thomassons, or Noticing the Urban Vestigial
Daniel Rathbone
While it is easy to come across a seemingly useless object in your neighbourhood, finding a Thomasson is a bit more challenging.
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