Christopher McMichael

Christopher McMichael is a writer, journalist and filmmaker. He has a PhD in Politics from Rhodes University and is fascinated by the relationship between social conflict, technology, power, paranoia and art. His work has appeared in The Mail and Guardian, The Daily Maverick and New Frame among others.

Latest Posts

Christopher McMichael / Thought

WeWork and the Guru CEO Con

At the beginning of 2019, WeWork was known for renting out co-working offices. With locations spanning from New York to London and even good...

Christopher McMichael / Thought

The Global Water Crisis and South African Culture

Mad Max: Fury Road, which starred South African actress Charlize Theron and was filmed in Namibia, was the most critically acclaimed&n...

Christopher McMichael / Thought

Gothic is the Pain You Feel and Not the Clothes That’s on Your Back: A Review of Darkly by Leila Taylor

Some surprise was expressed recently when Travis Scott featured 90s gothic metal icon Marilyn Manson on the bill of his Atlanta-based Astr...

Christopher McMichael / Wokeness

Not in My Neighbourhood – Scenes from a Global Urban War

Technocratic buzzwords like urban renewal and gentrification provide a bland gloss for a much more sinister and violent reality. In cities t...

Christopher McMichael / art&culture

Bringing the Ocean to Joburg: The Holding Water Project at POOL

The ocean is the medium which has facilitated globalisation and cultural exchange, but also colonialism and imperialism. As environmental ...

Christopher McMichael / art&culture

Savage Messiah by Laura Grace Ford

Late capitalist urbanisation is the ultimate synthesis of paranoia and boredom. Cities are defined by increased security and surveillance, c...

Child playing with ball near veld fire. Phola, Mpumalanga. 2018

Christopher McMichael / Photography

Daylin Paul – Documenting the Broken Land

As the reality of climate breakdown and ecological collapse becomes more apparent, cultural producers are forced to confront a terrifying pr...

Christopher McMichael / music

Kanye West and The Crisis of The Neoliberal Self

In merely a decade, the release of a new Kanye West album has gone from being an eagerly anticipated cultural event to a frustrating exercis...

Christopher McMichael / Features

Ganja Beatz – Growing their field of dreams

Music producers are the sonic architects of popular culture. Great producers capture the raw feeling of performers, while also knowing how t...

Christopher McMichael / art&culture

Exterminator Music – William Burroughs and Pop

William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll by Casey Rae, University of Texas Press 2019 The American novelist, William Burroughs w...

Christopher McMichael / Wokeness

Cancelling the apocalypse?: The era of environmental breakdown and climate strikes

As I write this, huge tracts of the Amazon are on fire, blanketing surrounding cities in a sickly, nuclear winter- like pall of smoke. Meanw...

Christopher McMichael / Thought

Bouncers, bullets and pills: the criminal underbelly of South African nightlife

The Mafia is not an outsider in this world; it is perfectly at home. Indeed, in the integrated spectacle it stands as the model of all advan...