FT Weekend Magazine - February 15-16 2020

CAN THE WORLD KICK ITS OIL HABIT?By Anjli Raval

FEBRUARY 15/16 2020

3FT.COM/MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 15/16 2020

Issue number 857 • Online ft.com/magazine • Editorialinquiries 020 7873 3282 • Advertising inquiries 020 78733121 • FT Weekend Magazine is printed by the WalsteadGroup in the UK and published by The Financial Times Ltd,Bracken House, 1 Friday Street, London EC4M 9BT© The Financial Times Ltd 2020 • No part of this magazinemay be reproduced in any form without the prior expresspermission of the publisher

5 SimonKuperThe revenge of themiddle-class anti-elitist

6 InventoryAuthor Patrick Ness

8 TechWorldFake news in the time of coronavirus

10 Robert ShrimsleyPost-Brexit fish talks:set to go swimmingly

10 Letters

12 Can theworld break its oil habit?As demand hit a record 100millionbarrels a day last year, Anjli Ravalreports on whether we can cutback in time to save the planet

20 ‘In the studio, anything canhappen’Peter Doig has defied trends tobecome one of art’s most celebratednames. He talks to Peter Aspdenabout being an outsider, avoidingpainterly clichés and why relocatingto Trinidad took him ‘by surprise’

28 Observations: foul playJulia Ebner went undercover for twoyears to study how extremists areusing video-game techniques – withdeadly real-world consequences

32 Up close and personalSearching through Dorothea Lange’sphotographic archives, Sam Contisdiscovered a different side to thegreat American documentarian.By Griselda Murray Brown

36 After El BulliWhat’s Ferran Adrià been cookingup since he closed his legendaryrestaurant? Nicholas Lander reports

38 Honey&CoBaby back ribs with clementines

41 Jancis RobinsonTry Tokaji, but keep it dry

42 MyAddressesChefGreg Marchand on Paris

43 I’d be lost without…seaweed, says chef Tom Kemble

44 TimHaywardlittlefrench, Bristol

45 Games46 Gillian Tett

America’s other border crisis

@FTMag

Cover illustration by Justin Metz

‘I was enjoying what I was making. Whetherother people took to it was another story’An interview with artist Peter Doig, p20

EVAVERMANDEL

‘Cutlery is optionalhere, but best avoided’Honey & Co’s baby back ribswith citrus, p38

‘Instead of chasing themice, I joined them’Julia Ebner on going undercover tounderstand online extremism, p28

5FT.COM/MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 15/16 2020 ILLUSTRATION BY HARRY HAYSOM

[email protected] @KuperSimon

graduates who chat about Lacan at dinner par-ties with TV producers…” (though Cummingsis himself an Oxbridge humanities graduate).Yet whenever our man has got anywhere nearthese frauds, theyhave snubbedhim.TheBritishConservative grandee Ken Clarke’s dismissalin 2014 of Ukip voters as “elderly male peoplewho’vehaddisappointing lives”was typical.Over the decades, this man has incurred

uncountable psychic slights from big-city types.In her book How To Lose A Country, the Turkishwriter Ece Temelkuran recalls an Anatolian

businessmanasking: “Doyoureallyneedamem-bership card to get into a disco in Istanbul?”He’dbeen turned away from one, she explains, “sup-posedly because of the card issue”. She breaks itto him that there are no cards. Eventually, thisman’s snubbed caste brought the populist RecepTayyip Erdogan to power. “That same business-man,” Temelkuran writes, “bought the disco towhich he had been refused entry and turned itintoa ‘familyrestaurant’,which inTurkeymeansa conservativeno-alcohol establishment.”Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, too,

has replaced big-city journalists, civil servants,judges, diplomats and the heads of state com-panies with the party’s own people. The Trumpadministration is doing something similar. Thisrevenge is much of the point of populism. OnJanuary 31, many Brexiters spent their ultimatemoment of triumph attacking elitist traitorsinsteadof celebrating.Even now, most journalists and academics

still overlook the provincial middle class. Thesocialist-realist figure of the laid-off factoryworker remainsmore compelling.AnandMenonand Matt Bevington of the UK in a ChangingEurope, a research group now starting a projecton “comfortable Leavers”, note that the generalpolitical focus on “left-behind” or “hard-to-reach”peoplehas influencedacademic research.Populist politicians themselves seldom men-

tion their most loyal supporting class. Trumpboasts of a “blue-collar boom”, while Johnson isfocusing on a smaller fraction of Leave voters,the northern working classes. In Britain, saysBevington: “The people who were ignored [thenorthernworkingclass]arenownot ignored,andthe people who were not ignored [the southernmiddle class] arenow ignored.”The provincial middle classes can console

themselves with one thought: they madethe revolution.

Here’s a character rarelymentionedin the contemporary politicaldebate. He (he’s usually a man)lives in a suburbor small town.Hewasn’t born with a silver-spoon,and he worked his way up, whichwasn’t always fun. Now he ownshishomeandearnsabove-averageincome. He is scathing of big-cityelites with posh accents who goteasyliveshandedtothem.Inshort,he’s amiddle-class anti-elitist.

You find him across the western world: inNew Jersey and Long Island, around the Englishsouth-east, the Milan agglomeration and in thequiet suburbs of Rotterdam. The comfortablyoff populist voter is the main force behindTrump, Brexit and Italy’s Lega. Yet he’s largelyignored, while the conversation about populismrevolves around an entirely different figure: theimpoverishedformerfactoryworker.PunditsareforeverexplainingwhypoorSunderlandvotedforBrexit,butrarelywhywealthyBournemouthdid.In most developed countries, populism is less aworking-classrevoltthanamiddle-classcivilwar.Sowhydowell-offpeoplevoteagainstthesystem?The stats reveal the middle-classness of pop-

ulism. About two-thirds of Trump voters in2016 had household incomes above $50,000(then about the US average), according to theAmerican National Election Study. Most BritishLeavevoters lived in thesouthofEngland,and59per cent weremiddle class (social classes A, B orC1), writes DannyDorling, geographer at OxfordUniversity. In the Netherlands, two-thirds ofsupporters of far-right Thierry Baudet are mod-erately orhighly educated, saypollsters Ipsos.Imagine one of these voters, a small business-

owner or accountant in Britain, not in London,earning £60,000 a year. (Much of what followsalso applies to his small-town equivalents else-where.) He isn’t keen on positive discriminationforwomenorpeopleofcolour,oronhightaxes. Infact,hedoesn’twantanyonetoget“handouts”. InaNatCenSocialResearchstudyoftheBrexitrefer-endum,“affluentEurosceptics”werethesegmentof the electorate least likely to have financialtroubles (marginally less so than “middle-classliberals”), andmost likely tobe anti-welfare.This man’s advance has been slow. He has

neverbeeninvitedintothefast laneof life: thetopuniversities, the biggest firms, the major corpo-rations.He feels, with some justification, that hisexclusion has been unfair – based on his accent,schooling, clothes and unfamiliarity with trendyconversational topics. He realised years ago thatso-calledmeritocracy is a fraud.Big-city professors, journalists and civil serv-

ants with fancy degrees – people who stronglyresemble politicians such as Hillary Clinton,Elizabeth Warren and Ed Miliband – seem tohimmanifestly full of shit. Dominic Cummings,Boris Johnson’s right-hand man, captured thissentiment when he evoked “Oxbridge English

‘Pundits are forever explainingwhy poor Sunderland votedfor Brexit, but rarely whywealthy Bournemouth did’

SIMONKUPEROPEN ING SHOT

The revenge ofthemiddle-classanti-elitist

6 FT.COM/MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 15/16 2020

COLIN

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AGES‘I never thought

being awriterwasat all possible forsomeone likeme’

I NVENTORY PATR ICK NESS , AUTHOR

PatrickNess,48, is theauthorof10books foradults, youngadultsandchildren.He is the secondauthorever towin theCarnegieMedal twice, and thefirst towintwoyears in succession.Healsowrites for televisionandfilm.

Whatwas your childhoodor earliest ambition?To be a surgeon, for the sole reason– and Imean it – that, as a kid, IthoughtMarkHarmonwas cuteon St Elsewhere. I am clearly a losstomedicine. I never thought beingan authorwas at all possible forsomeone likeme froma tiny town.But I always say, “Real writers don’twrite, theywrite anyway.” I neverthought it was possible; I wroteanyway. And hey, it worked out.Private school or state school?University or straight intowork?Traditional American public [state]school that you see onTV,whichwas perfectly fine. Though I didgo to a private church school forthe third grade called, truly, TheEmmanuelHolinessAcademy. Iwastoo young to feel oppressed. I wasa full-timeundergraduate andhada full-time job to pay for it.We’vealways had tuition fees inAmerica,and they’ve always been awful.Whowasor still is yourmentor?I’ve never had one. I always admirefrom afar.Howphysicallyfit are you?I’m a distance runner and havedone fourmarathons. This ismainly so I can eat ice cream.Ambitionor talent:whichmattersmore to success?Bothmatter equally, and it’s a liarwho says otherwise. You’ve got to atleast have the hubris to put yourselfout there or nothingwill ever getread, but it has to beworth readingor hubriswill avail younothing.Howpolitically committedare you?I vote, butmostly I stay away fromonline arguments about it.Whatwouldyou like toown thatyoudon’t currentlypossess?I’mnot very big into things.Amilitary childhoodhas leftmefeeling like I’d be able tomove onamoment’s notice if I needed to.I prefer experiences, and one I’d liketo have is a trip to theAntarctic.What’syourbiggestextravagance?I have no expensive vices, hobbiesor collecting desires. I throw awayallmy extravagance on ridiculouslycomfortable travel. I am a tallman.A bigger seat is worth the extra.

Inwhatplace are youhappiest?In front of a plate of top-qualitysalmon sashimi.What ambitionsdoyou still have?To not repeatmyself. I’m soworriedabout creative complacency. It’sthe death of goodwriting. I alwaysneed to be properly, productivelyterrified in any particular projector I don’t think it’ll turn outwell.Itmakesme pay attention. That,and being a bit on the side forMarkRuffalo. Callme, Ruffalo.Whatdrives youon?Agiant Protestant ticking clock. Iwas raised byRapture believers, andeven though you can set that beliefaside, the urgency of getting all yourlife’swork done before theworldends stayswith you. I hear thatclock ticking away and fret that I’mnot getting enoughdone. It’s goodfor productivity; less so for relaxing,forwhich I have little talent.What is the greatest achievementof your life so far?All I ever wanted growing upwasto publish one book and hold it inmyhand. Everything since then hasclearly been amistake that I expectevery day to be rectified.Whatdoyoufindmostirritating inotherpeople?Nearly everything.If your 20-year-old self could seeyounow,whatwouldhe think?He’d be so relieved hewas stillalive, and hewouldn’t believe hiseyes at all the things hemanagesto do. The poor kid. I’ve got a lot ofcompassion for him.Whichobject that you’ve lostdoyouwishyou still had?As I said, I’mnot big into “things”.What is the greatestchallengeof our time?Fresh reality TV formats. Also,climate change.Doyoubelieve in anafterlife?No, so cram this lifewith all you can.If youhad to rate your satisfactionwithyour life so far, out of 10,whatwouldyou score?Who’s forcingme?What power dothey have overme tomakeme slapdownanumber to sumupmyentirelife?What kind of bureaucraticmonster are they? Can I fight them?Are they bigger thanme?

Interview byHester Lacey.TheUK tour of “AMonster Calls”,from the novel by PatrickNess,inspired by an idea by SiobhanDowd,is at Chichester Festival Theatre untilFebruary 15 – nationwide dates untilJune; amonstercallstheplay.com

ILLUSTRATION BY PÂTÉ


China’s coronavirus hasalso sparked an epidemicof online panic.WhenSars hit in 2003, 6 per

cent of China’s populationwasonline; now almost 60 per centare. The average user ofWeChat,the country’s dominant socialmedia platform, spends 90minutes a day on the app. As aresult, whilemore than 40,000patients in China are fighting thevirus, the entire country is facingan onslaught of onlinemedia–much of it disinformation.There are important upsides to

the proliferation of socialmedia inChina. It enables citizen reportingof a kind rarely seen in the country– such as video blogs fromWuhan,the city at the heart of the epidemic.Such independent reporting isessential in China’s tightly state-controlledmedia environment.

At the same time, however,the flow of information is biggerthan ever. Receiving informationstraight to your phone, in real time,canmake you feel like the virus isclosing in on you – even if it’s not.Being surrounded by panic-

inducing headlines, whether trueor false, has its own impact onhealth. A recent study in the Lancetabout the impact of theHongKongprotests onmental health foundthat spendingmore than two hoursa day following such events onsocialmediawas associatedwithan increased likelihood of post-traumatic stress and depression,although the direction of causalityis unclear.Amid the deluge of coronavirus

news, some find it hard todistinguish between real and fake.Last week,my grandpa textedmeonWeChat: “Viruses are scared ofacid. Twice a day... dab a cottonbudwith strong vinegar and stick itinside your nose. It will help greatlywith the current virus outbreak.”

I didn’t reach for the cotton buds.Friends toldme they had receivedsimilarmessages from relatives,asking them to dab sesame oil intheir nostrils or avoidwearingwool.They often came via thatmosttricky of social arenas: the familygroup chat.Manymessages, likemy

grandpa’s, were copy-and-pasterumours that looked at first glancelike genuine texts.Many beginwith conversational openings:“A friendwhoworks in a hospitaltoldme…”Others include a cry ofurgency: “I just got thismessage!”Or: “Important news.”Suchmessages remindme of

those that circulated ahead of lastDecember’s UK election, after theYorkshire Evening Post reportedthe story of a sick child forcedto sleep on the floor of a hospitalbecause of a lack of beds. Once thestory broke, social-media poststrying to discredit it proliferated,often openingwith: “A friendwho isa nurse toldme…”

Fake news in thetimeof coronavirus

In response, JamesMitchinson,editor of the Post, asked one critic:“Why do you trust [this socialmedia account’s] claim over thenewspaper you’ve taken for years ingood faith?”In China, though, people are

increasingly unsurewhether theycan take the state-censoredmediain good faith. There has beenwidespreadanger at the governmentover its hushing up of virus casesin the early stages of the outbreak,and over the police punishmentof the youngwhistleblowerdoctorwhohadwarned of a newstrain of coronavirus, andwho,tragically, died from it lastweek.The first step in dispelling

misinformation is establishing analternative source of credibility.Conversationswithin families couldbe one potentmethod for this.In reality,most ofmy friends here

have decided the bestway to dealwith it is to let it be: “It’s harmless,”said one friend,who referred to theChinese tendency to give healthadvice as an expression of care.Otherswho seek to confront theirrelatives have been exasperatedby the fact theymight trust a blogmore than their granddaughter.“Grandparents buy into theConfucian idea that you shouldn’tcorrect your elders,” another said.There’s also the question of

where to start when unpickinga lie.While health rumours canoften be corrected, perniciousconspiracy theories are anothermatter. One friend sentme amessage fromher grandmaclaiming theAmerican Freemasonshad created the coronavirus to killoff Chinese people. “I knowmygrandma sends thesemessagesbecause she cares aboutme,”myfriend said.As current events in China

unfold, all of us will need to showpatience – and care – in fightingback against falsehoods.

TECH WORLDNOTES FROM A DIGITAL BUNKERBY YUAN YANG IN CHINA

My grandpa messagedme: “Dab a cotton budwith strong vinegar andstick it inside your nose”’

Yuan Yang is the FT’sChina tech correspondent

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Reply

Post-Brexit fish talks:set togo swimmingly

To contributePlease email [email protected]. Includea daytime telephone number and full address(not for publication). Letters may be edited.

ILLUSTRATION BY LUCAS VARELA

ROBERT SHRIMSLEYTHE NATIONAL CONVERSATION

The British economy couldsoon be sleepingwith thefishes. As the stress pointsof post-Brexit negotiations

take shape, there are fears that thegovernment’s pledge to protectthe nation’sminnow of a fishingindustry could torpedo a trade deal.Oh yes, the future of fish is going

to be one of the big issues of thenext stage of Brexit. And yet wemight begin towonder if even BorisJohnson is quite as committed toprotecting British fish as he claims.For a start, almost nothing

is being done to halt the freemovement of fish. European shoalsare entering Britishwaters withoutany documentation or anythingclose to a Tier 1 visa.Many claimto be fleeing persecution andseek asylumon environmentalgrounds under the rules governingexceptional leave to sustain.Equally, huge numbers of

British fish are showing no regardfor the limits of UK territorialwaters, blithely swimming intointernational seas where theycan be swept up by Europeantrawlers. These fish traffickers arekidnapping British fish for profitand then sending them to themainland, where few survive.Already, there are plans for

more coastal protection vessels anddrones tomonitor shipping areasfor foreign trawlers and asylum-seeking brill. But if Britain is seriousabout protecting its fish, it is goingto need to go further. Nothing lessthan anAustralian points system isnecessary to separate and designateBritish fish from economicmarinemigrants. It is going to be quite atask to complete the paperwork onthe entire ecosystembefore the endof this year’s transition period, soministers accept theremay be somedisruption on the border.Clearly, the nationwill want to

keep and attract highly skilled fishsuch as cod, bass and turbot. Thesespecies will be awarded large points

totals,making it easier for them toenter the territorial waters. Extrapoints will, naturally, be awardedfor proficiency in English, althoughofficials stress that an ability tospeak it will not be a requirementas long as the fish commit tolanguage classes. Obviously, thosefish seeking full settled statuswill at some point have to take acitizenship test tailored to theircircumstances. Entrants wouldbe expected to know the dates ofCaptain Cook’s voyages, the Britishname for the god of the ocean(Captain Birdseye) andwho ownsGibraltar (correct answer: we do).The quality of the job on offer

to fishmigrants will also berelevant. There are relatively fewpoisson points for those destinedfor low-value fish and chip shops.However, fishwith a pre-offer ofemployment at one of Rick Stein’srestaurants should sail in. Salmonis particularlywelcome. One officialsaid: “We are building a ladder andEurope is going to pay for it.”Therewill, however, be limits on

low-skilled pollock – also known asfalse cod –which has been slippingthrough the net (seewhat I didthere) and entering Britishwatersin high numbers to the discomfortof the indigenous fish community.Other British fish have stressedthat they have nothing against the

pollock butmerelywish to controlits numbers before they put astrain on key infrastructure andservices. Some of the incoming fishhave been jumping thewaiting listfor homes and hatchery places.It is hoped thatmuch of the low-value fish can be resettled on theEuropeanmainland, which hasalready shown an openness tomarinemigrants, while in Scotland,nationalists want their own visato attract fish to key Scottish posts.Sadly, London says this won’t workas there are inadequate provisionsto stop the fish swimming south.There have also been concerns

that a number of British fish areseeking alternative citizenship as aresult of Brexit. The Irish embassyreports an influx of passportapplications fromfishwith Irishgrandparents, as thosewho canseek to guarantee their rights tofreemovement across EUwaters.British fish,meanwhile, will

be eligible for a blue passportand able to use the new 50p coinwith themarvellous inscription“Peace, prosperity and chipswithall nations”. It sounds terriblyinspiring but if the negotiationsget tough, the scalesmay yet fallfromour eyes.

“Inside the trial of aNaziconcentration camp guard”(February 8/9)was an amazingarticle. Only thing I can say is: whatwould you have done in thisman’splace? Be honest, because youmight find the answer disturbing.gro_w_th via FT.com

With somany perpetrators youhave to wonder whether a Truthand Reconciliation approachwouldhave been better – for all but theworst crimes.Making them confessto what they’d done – in return fora pardon –would have highlightedtheir culpability and documentedthe evil. It would also havemadeHolocaust denial impossible.Bob, freelancer via FT.com

Agood piece fromMr Shrimsley(“Farage and the fruitcake timebomb”, February 8/9). Brexitersthink it’s all over but don’t seemaware that you have to keep onmaking your case. Remainersthought it was so self-evidentlyin our interests to stay in the EUthatwe stoppedmaking the case.Now I’m a fruitcake, I’ll happilybang on about it every day.Chris Lancashire via FT.com

ReGillian Tett’s “TikTok, teensand the dangers of fleeting fame”,(February 8/9). Our commsdepartment partneredwith TikTokon a corporate social responsibilitycampaign and the reachwe gotwas incredible. I gotmy 12-year-old daughter to put it onmyphoneandwas inspired by seeing somanyteenagers create clever pieces ofshort-form content. It is a skill todevelop and test your content for anaudience to try and increase likes.I’m aware of the downsides but let’srecognise there are some upsides.Oisin via FT.com

[email protected]@robertshrimsley

Have you ever tried to detoxonabusiness trip toNewYork? Check outour top tips for a healthier stay in Manhattan on ft.com/globetrotter,the FT’s new digital city guides for themodern business traveller

@prixsalop Febuary 7This is a brilliant piece. A mustread. It encapsulates the wholeheart-wrenching dilemma ofdealing with past crimes &collective responsibility & guilt

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CAN THEWORLDKICK ITSOIL HABIT?Demandhit a record 100million barrelsa day last year, even as the fossil fuel hasbecomepolitically and environmentallytoxic.Anjli Raval reports onwhetherwecan cut back in time to save the planet.Illustrations by JustinMetz

13

CAN THEWORLDKICK ITSOIL HABIT?Demandhit a record 100million barrelsa day last year, even as the fossil fuel hasbecomepolitically and environmentallytoxic.Anjli Raval reports onwhetherwecan cut back in time to save the planet.Illustrations by JustinMetz

13


coalandgasarestartingtobedisplacedbylower-costrenewables inelectricitygeneration,oilhasa stranglehold over the transport sector, andthe petrochemicals industry is a fast-growingconsumerof refinedproducts.

Aside from the commercial interests of oil-producer nations and corporations, there isa practical question: how will the world func-tion without amaterial on which we depend sodeeply?Doalternatives exist for itsmyriad, andoften invisible, uses? And can any drop in oilusagehappenquickly enough?

“Thewhole of human prosperity andwealthhas been based on our exploitation of oil andother fossil fuels, so it is an almighty under-taking. To just remove them from our energysystemwithinadecadeortwoiscompletelyfan-ciful,” saysKingsmill Bond, an energy strategistatthink-tankCarbonTracker,whichiscallingongovernments and financial institutions to alignthemselves with a low-carbon economy. “Theproblem is absolutely immense. But humanityis capable of spectacular achievements.”

Throughout history, energy has been at theheart of how civilisations have prospered. Forcenturies, people burnt wood for warmth andforcooking. Inthe19thcentury,coalemergedasthepreferredfuelandenabledindustrialisation.Butitwasintheearly20thcenturythatcrudeoil– plants and animals that livedmillions of yearsago, compresseddeepunderground –propelledthe mass transit of people and goods, fosteredmodern lifestylesandenabledhigher standardsof living thaneverbefore.

Yet humanity’s improved wellbeing hascome at the expense of the planet’s. The earthhas warmed by 1C since pre-industrial timesandis likely toheatupbyanother2Cbytheturnof the century – overshooting the targets of the2015Paris climateagreement.A2018UNInter-governmental Panel on Climate Change reportshowed warming beyond 1.5C risked irreversi-blechanges–fromthemassextinctionofspeciestoextremeweatherandecosystemchangesthatthreaten global stability.

History does not inspire confidence inhumanity’s ability to wean itself off particularenergies. Even after the world began movingfrom coal to other fuels, coal did not disappear.Withtheemergenceofeachnewsource,wehavesimply added it to the mix rather than replac-ing oldones.

“It usually takes 70 years for energytransitions, such as the one from wood to coal,to happen at a natural speed. We need to see agreater magnitude of change, in fewer than 30years,” saysNick Stansbury, headof commodityresearch at Legal & General InvestmentManagement, where he helps oversee $1.3tn infunds. “Weneed tomake a bigger change, twiceas fast as it has ever happened before. This is nowaygoing tobeeasy.”

Climate activists argue that, unlike before,it is now a matter of urgency. Yet the IEA – theindustry standard-bearer, which itself has beencriticised for being too fossil fuel-friendly – haswarned that even if governmentsmeet existingtargets, carbonemissions are set to rise throughto 2040. Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-oldSwedish activist, argued last month that com-mitments by companies and cities towards ▶

45-minute helicopter ride over aquamarinewaters, 240km west of Abu Dhabi, brings youto the Ruwais refinery. Perched along the coast,thelabyrinthofpipesandcolumnsthatformthevast oil-processing complex seems to emergedirectly out of the sand.

The United Arab Emirates, which has someoftheworld’scheapest-to-extractcrudeoil,pro-duces about three million barrels a day (b/d),making it one of the world’s biggest producers(the US, at number one, produces 13 million).Most of theUAE’s output is piped to oil tankers,which criss-cross oceans to deliver barrels tocustomers.Butaboutaquarterisrefineddomes-tically, at places such as Ruwais, where crude isdistilled intoproducts thathavebecomevital toourmodern existence: petrol for cars, diesel fortrucks and jet fuel that propels aircraft.

The world runs on oil. The dark, oftenviscous liquid is the single biggest contributorto the world’s energy mix, at 34 per cent ofconsumption, followed by coal at 27 per centandnatural gas at 24per cent. But the fossil fuelhas also quietly seeped into other aspects of ourlives: from paint, washing detergents and nailpolishtoplasticpackaging,medicalequipment,mattress foams, clothing and coatings fortelevision screens.

Last year, global demand reached a record100 million barrels a day, driven in part bythe needs of rapidly industrialising emergingmarkets. This is why Sultan Al Jaber, head ofthe Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc)that operates Ruwais, is spending $45bn toexpandthecountry’srefiningandpetrochemicalcapabilities. “We are doubling our refiningcapacity,” Jaber told foreign oil executives andreporters at the company’s headquarters lastyear. “No one in the region or in the industry atlarge isundertaking suchamassiveexpansion.”

Even as our thirst for oil seems insatiable,it is becoming politically and environmentallytoxic.As theworldwakesup to the catastrophicimpact of climate change, from rising sea levelsand drought to wildfires and crop failure, sci-entists have warned of a need to rapidly shiftaway from fossil fuels. Yet when it comes tooil demand, there is little sign of this happen-ing. Our usage has jumped almost 63 per centover the course of a few decades – up from 61.6million b/d in 1986. The International EnergyAgency(IEA)forecaststhat ifgovernmentscon-tinue with current policies, global demand willreach 121millionb/dby2040.

How theworld can provide abundant energysupplies while dramatically reducing emis-sions has become one of the defining issues ofour time.Thechallenge ishuge. Inorder tokeepglobal warming “well below” a 2C increase, theIEA says theworldwouldneed to stomach a fallin oil consumption to 67 million b/d by 2040.Environment analysts argue that we need tolearn to survive on far lower levels – about 10million b/d – andultimately remove it fromourenergy systementirely.

Governments are beginning to take someaction, from incentivising the purchase of low-emissions vehicles to funding cleaner energyresearch. But the climate protesters scaling oilrigs, defacing energy company headquartersand denouncing the banks that fund crudeproduction face considerableopposition.While

A


‘Theproblem is absolutelyimmense. But humanityis capable of spectacularachievements’Kingsmill Bond, energy strategist


Breakdown of what a barrel of oil can produce

SOURCES: EIA; IEA FT GRAPHIC: GRAHAM PARRISH; DREAMSTIME * Totals do not add up to 42 gallons due to rounding

Based on an average 42-gallon* barrel of US crude, 2018

Petrol

Residual fuel

Hydrocarbon gas liqui

ds

Jet fuel

Other products

/distillates

Ultra-lowsulphur

distillate

Used for internal combustion engine cars,motorbikes, trucks, boats and other vehicles.Highly refined gasoline can be used as aviation fuel

Propane, for space and water heating, cookingand crop drying. Ethane is used in plastics,anti-freeze and detergents. Butane is used forcamping fuel and cigarette lighters. Ethyleneand propylene are used by the petrochemicalsindustry to make plastic food packaging andcaps, construction components, piping,electrics, films and fibres

A highly refined kerosene that is used topower aircraft. It has a much lower freezingpoint and remains liquid even when airtemperatures drop to about -40C

Petrol 19 gallons

Hydrocarbon gas liquids 2

Diesel used in Europe and North America forheavy construction, electricity generatorsand to power trucks, buses, tractors, boats,trains and cars

Ultra-low sulphur distillate 11

Jet fuel 4

A by-product used in boilers andfurnaces for heating homes andbuildings, for industrial heating and forproducing electricity in power plants

Residual fuel 1

Asphalt for road construction, lubricants,waxes, petroleum coke, and for plastics,medical items and clothing

Other distillates/products 6

100MBarrels of oil areconsumed every dayaround the world.Demand could reach121 million b/d by 2040


◀ “net”-zero emissions in several decades’ timewere useless. They needed to fall, not breakeven. “Weneed real zero,” she said.

Nick Mabey leads a London-based climatethink-tankcalledE3G,whichispushingtoaccel-erate the green transition. He attributes thedifficulty in displacing oil to its entanglementwith major industries, from defence to energyand finance, and its deep links to geopolitics:“Agovernmentwillneedtotransitiontocleanerfuelsbutalsomaintainarmssalesandkeepautoworkers on side. Unravelling this requires deepstructural change.”

Tucked away in the English coun-tryside an hour’s train journeywest of London, teams of scientistsare trying to decipher the futureof transportation. Behind a glassscreen, a robot sits on a motorbikeas its wheels spin over a rolling roadused to simulate real life. Perfor-mance data is collected as differentformulas of fuel areused.

This is BP’s fuel research and developmentcentre inPangbourne, nearReading,where theUK oil and gas company is testing the fuels andlubricantsusedforcars, trucksandmotorbikes.The goal is to develop high-performingproducts with lower oil intensity that releasefewer emissions.

The fastest way to begin curbing oilconsumption would be to start with theeasiest-to-eliminate areas. Displacing theroughly 4 per cent of demand used for powergeneration is seen as low-hanging fruit givenmore cost-effective – although not necessarilyemissions-free–alternativesalreadyexist, suchas gas and renewable electricity.

Another quick win would be to use oil moreefficiently. “We have to get ahead of the game,”says Anne-Marie Corr, BP’s fuels technologydirector and a 32-year veteran at the company(she retired in December). As she speaks, her

eyes scan the cars parked in the showroom. Onecontains an internal combustion engine – rep-resenting the system she has spent most of hercareer working on; another is a hybrid, and thethirdanelectricvehicle. “Weneedtounderstandwhat we need to develop… 2040 seems far awaybut it takes time todevelop theseproducts.”

Cars, trucks and other road vehiclesmake upmore than 40 per cent of global oil usage.Whenyou add in aircraft, ships and trains, transportaccounts forabout60percent. Soanyattempt toreduceouroil habit hinges on this sector.

In the UK, petrol and diesel already containup to 7 per cent biofuels but, given growing con-cerns about climate change and air pollution,governments are expected to enact stricter fuelstandards. A 5 per cent improvement in theaverageefficiencyofnewEuropeaninternalcom-bustion engine vehicles would lead to an annualreduction in carbondioxide emissions of 1.8mil-liontonnes,saysCorr,equivalenttoreplacingonemillionnewcarswithbattery-operatedones.

Yet environmentalists say that striving tocreate the next hydrocarbon superfuel is merelytinkering around the edges of the problem. “Fuelefficiencywilldonothingtochangethefleet,”saysMabey.HepointstoDaimler’splanstostopdevel-oping internal combustionenginesaltogether.

Electric cars are an alternative – but they arenot yet a panacea. Their use may have grownrapidly over the past decade, but last year theystill accountedfor just2percentofnewcarssold.Even if every new car was electric from now on,analysts say it would take 15 years to overhaultheso-calledglobalcarparc,whichnownumberssome 1.3 billion vehicles. To accelerate electriccar use, governments need to send the righteconomicsignals.TheUKthismonthannouncedplans tobanthesaleofpetrol,diesel andpossiblyhybrid cars by 2035. States would also needto bring down costs, incentivise research intoadvanced battery technology and roll out morecharge points. And the environmental benefitswill only be truly realised if electric cars arepowered by renewable electricity from wind orsolar, rather than coal or gas-firedgeneration.

Predictinghowsoontheworld’sfuelhabitswillchange is something that energy chief executives

such as Ben van Beurden at Royal Dutch Shellareagonisingover.“Youcouldhaveonescenariothatsaysoilandgas isgoingtoveryquicklypeaknow,”hesays.“Itwillbecomeadiminishingper-centage of the energymix… but you can also gotoo early and too fast in investing in the [alter-native] energy of the future.” He believes thatprematurely giving uponoil and gas “is just nota smart strategy”.

Growing demand for oil could be dented byelectrifying two-wheelers, vans for “last mile”parceldeliveriesandcommuterbuses,aswellasincreased ride-sharing. But displacing it in, say,heavy-duty trucks is harder. Oil’s unique quali-ties give it a stubborn advantagewhen it comesto engines, providingmuch greater energy den-sity than lithium-ionbatteries.

Shipping and aviation – barometers of globaltrade – are other oil-guzzling industries wheretechnological breakthroughs face cost and scal-ability challenges. For shipowners, liquefiednatural gas still presents an emissions problemwhilebatterypowerandalternativefuelssuchasammonia and hydrogen bring their own issues.In aviation, there are high hopes of electrifyingsmall and medium-sized aircraft, but for long-haul jets the challenge is greater. The potentialuseofbiofuels is also controversial.

More than15percentofoil demandgoes intonon-combusteduses, includingpetrochemicals.A hefty chunk of this is for single-use plastics,found in packaging and drinking straws. Evenif this falls thanks to plastic bans and widerrecycling, huge investments are still beingmade in developing complex plastics andpetrochemical substances.

Twoothersectorsthataccount forsignificantoil use are buildings and industry. This includesheating and cooking, as well as oil used forconstruction vehicles and industrial processes.Someof these are easier todisplace thanothers.Oil might be better than gas for an industrialboileras ithasahigherenergydensity,while thediesel in a forklift truck is easier to eliminate.

“Wehaveasenseoftheorderinwhichwewantto go – from easiest-to-reduce emissions to thehardest-to-abate,”saysJasonBordoff,whoheadstheCenter onGlobal EnergyPolicy at ColumbiaUniversity. For the most difficult to displacesectors, part of the answer might be massiveinvestment in carbon capture technologies andoffsets such as planting trees. “Ultimately, theworld has tomake value judgments aboutwhattemperaturetargetitwantstohit,”Bordoffadds.“If we can stabilise warming at 2C it will be oneof the greatest achievements in human history.But it’s not enough.”

BP started life in 1908 with an oil discoveryin what was then Persia. Today, the companyis rolling out electric charge points, sees itselfas a player in renewable power and this weekannounced an ambition to reachnet-zero emis-sions by 2050 or sooner. But for now it stillgenerates the bulk of its profits from, and fun-nelsmost of its cash into, its legacybusinesses.

In August, even as pressure in the westmounted for BP to demonstrate its low-car-bon credentials, the company announced ithad agreed to formapetrol stationnetwork andaviation fuels business in India with MukeshAmbani’s Reliance Industries. Bob Dudley, ▶

‘Weneed tomake abiggerchange, twice as fast as it hasever happenedbefore. This isnowaygoing to be easy’Nick Stansbury, head of commodity research at LGIM


◀ BP’s then CEO, said: “India is set to be theworld’s largest growthmarket for energy by themid-2020s.” BP is not alone in pursuing new oilconsumers in developing countries as demandbegins to stagnateelsewhere.France’sTotal andthe state energy giant Saudi Aramco are amongforeign companies seeking a foothold in Indiaas they bank on the country’s swelling middleclasses todrive consumption.

This points to a broader dilemma. Shouldcountries that have not yet fully industrialised– where hundreds of millions of people endurepoverty and a lack of basic infrastructure – notenjoy the same fossil-fuelled development thatthe west took advantage of? How much of theburden of reducing our oil habit should thesemarkets be expected to shoulder?

The monsoon season in India last year sawsome of the worst rainfall in decades. Climatechange is disrupting seasonal cycles – firstbringing heatwaves and droughts, then floodsand landslides. Hundreds of people died andthemilitary airlifted food packages to strandedvillages. Yet despite experiencing some of theworst effects of climate change, India’s access toaffordable fossil fuels remains a priority for itsgovernment. While the country has one of themost aggressive renewable power capacity roll-outprogrammesworldwide, it alsoneeds cheapoil, gas and coal tomeet energy demand that isforecast tomore thandoubleby2040.

“In India, solar energy and other renewablesources of energy are becoming increasinglycompetitive,” says Dharmendra Pradhan, thecountry’spetroleumminister.Butoilandgas,headds, are commodities “of necessity – whetherfor the kitchens ofmarginalised populations ortheglobetrottingprivilegedclasses... Itwouldbedifficult for us to give up fossil fuels completelyatthisstageofourdevelopmentalcycle–ourpercapita carbon emissions is low compared to theworld average.”

India buys foreign crude for more than80 per cent of its oil needs, which is whyPradhan believes the world’s third-largest oilconsumer could be the “golden goose” for bigMiddleEasternproducers. Indeed, theprospectof rising demand in Asia and Africa partly

explainswhy theUAE’sAdnoc aims to increaseproduction capacity to five million b/d by2030.The company is alsopart of a consortiumdeveloping a $70bn oil refinery project in theIndian state ofMaharashtra.

Theworld’saddictiontooil isoftencomparedwith tobacco. But while smoking is somethingpeople can choose to do, using energy is not.Mohammed Barkindo, secretary-general ofOpec, the oil exporters’ cartel, said in a recentspeech: “The almost one billion people world-widewhocurrentlylackaccesstoelectricityandthe threebillionwithoutmodern fuels for cook-ingarenot just statisticsonapage.Theyarerealpeople…Nobody shouldbe left behind.”

Someoil analysts, suchasChristyanMalekatUSbankJPMorgan,believethereductionoftensoftrillionsofdollarsinnewoil investmentsamida backlash against fossil fuels could create an“acute shortfall” in suppliesandsetoilpricesoncourse to hit $100 a barrel. “The cost of energywill escalate if we can’t replace it with renewa-bles andothernon-oil sources quickly enough,”he says. “This will hurt western consumers…and, not least, emerging-market countries thatcan’t functionwithout low-cost energy.”

Yet the cost of climate change couldbe far greater – and the world isrunning out of time. The IEA’s“sustainable development sce-nario” charts a way for the globeto avoid a temperature rise ofmore than 2C while simultane-ously guaranteeing widespreadaccess to energy. But the agency isclear: this outcomewould require

“rapid andwidespread changes across all partsof the energy system”.Who, or what, will provemost effective at driving such change is yet tobe seen.When the titans of global business andpolitics gathered in Davos last month, climatechangewas top of the agenda. Yet few could sayhow exactly the transition away from oil andother fossil fuels would take place. Instead, USpresident Donald Trump used his speech toassail environmental “alarmists”. Thedemandsof climate advocates, he told reporters, were“unrealistic, to apoint you can’t live your lives”.

Despite the challenges, not everyone feelshopeless about the world’s chances of trans-forming its energy future. Christiana Figuereswas the Costa Rican diplomat who brought theleaders of 195 countries together in 2015 to signthe Paris agreement. The image of her in a roll-necksweaterandcheckedblazer,holding raisedhands with then UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, marked a high point for multilateralefforts. Figueres, who was the UN’s top climatechange official between2010and2016, remainsrelentlesslypositive.(Sheevenleadsanenviron-mental organisationcalledGlobalOptimism).

Although the 2019 climate talks in Madridended in disarray, she believes the prospectof cleaner air, better health outcomes, moreliveablecitiesandenergysecuritywillbeenoughtoencouragegovernmentstokeepthedealalive.“I don’t demonise anyone,” she says by phone

Oil demand by sectorMillion barrels per day

Cars include two- and three-wheelers. Non-road includes aviation,marine and rail. Non-combusted includes petrochemicalsSOURCE: BP ENERGY OUTLOOK, 2019

Transport

120

100

80

60

40

20

02010 15 20 25 30 35 40

Estimates

PowerBuildingsIndustryNon-combusted

Non-road transportTrucksCars

SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY

World oil consumptionMillion barrels per day

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

2000 2019 2030 2040

Current policies – if the world continues alongits current path, with no further policy changesStated policies – incorporates today’s policyintentions and targetsSustainable development – maps out rapid andwidespread changes across the energy systemto limit temperature rises to below 2C

‘Governments have losttheirmojo andhave fallenbehind compared towherecompanies are’Christiana Figueres, formerUNclimate change chief


fromahotel inDavos.Theblamegame,shesays,is not helpful; countries that are dependent onthe use of, or income from, fossil fuels are in atougher place. “The important thing is: howquicklydoyoumovebeyondyourstartingline?”

In London, some fund managers – such asNatasha Landell-Mills – believe investors havea vital role to play in prodding corporationsand governments. Last year, Landell-Mills’scompany, Sarasin & Partners, which invests onbehalf of charities, private clients and institu-tions, sold just over 20 per cent of its shares inShell. In a letter to Shell’s chairman, she said itsplans to grow oil and gas production were notaligned with global climate goals: “It cannot bein the interests of the millions of people whoselong-termsavingsareinvestedinyourcompany,for you to produce fossil fuels in such volumethat planetary stability is threatened.” Sarasinhas since sold a further 30per cent.

Diverting investment away from the fossilfuel industry – despite some companies beingthebiggest dividendpayers in theworld – is onewaytocurbitsuseandshiftattitudes.Theenergysector’s share of the S&P 500 today is alreadydown to about 4 per cent, from more than 11per cent in 2010. While pressure has largelybeen on the producers of fossil fuels, difficult-to-decarbonise industries, their financiers andauditors are also under scrutiny. “I ask compa-nies, ‘Canyoucommityourbusiness toaligningwith net-zero emissions by 2050’? More oftenthannot theanswer is, ‘Howdowedothatwhenthe future is so uncertain?’” Landell-Mills says.“Yes it is uncertain, but climate change is accel-erating. So we all have a responsibility to act…Capitalshouldflowtowardssolutionstoclimatechange rather than causes.”

Figueres argues that while it is not up togovernments to find the technologies to decar-bonise the world, it is up to them to incentivisetheirdevelopment–particularlycarboncaptureand storage solutions. She believes states willbe key to rolling out new energy infrastructureand increasing taxes on carbon-intensive fuels.“If governmentsplaceapriceoncarbonandthisis increased over time, this is a very importantincentive todecarbonise,” she says.

Around the world, individuals are takingto the streets and risking arrest to demand cli-mate action, but their impact will depend onstates and industries taking a lead. Figueres isencouraged by the signs that investors and cor-porations are beginning to act. “Governmentshavelosttheirmojoandhavefallenbehindcom-pared towhere companies are,” she says.

She notes that Larry Fink, chief executive ofthe world’s largest fund manager, BlackRock,wrote in his January letter to clients of the needtoassess the impactofclimatechangeoninvest-ment risks. “I believe we are on the edge of afundamental reshaping of finance,” he wrote,announcing plans to increase the group’s sus-tainableassetstenfoldfrom$90bntodayto$1tnwithin adecade.

“Every day we see more and more compa-nies and financial institutions that understandthe risk of high-carbon assets,” says Figueres.“Nomatterwhereyou look, themovement is inthat direction.”

Anjli Raval is theFT’s senior energy correspondent

34%Oil’s share of energyconsumption, making it thesingle biggest contributor tothe world’s energy mix,ahead of coal and natural gas

2%Proportion of all carsproduced globally in2019 that were electric.There are 1.3 billionvehicles worldwide

20

‘INTHESTUDIO,ANYTHINGCANHAPPEN’Peter Doig has defied trends tobecomeone of contemporaryart’smost celebrated names. Hetalks to Peter Aspden about beingan outsider, avoiding painterlyclichés andwhy relocating toTrinidad took him ‘by surprise’.Portrait by Eva Vermandel

20

‘INTHESTUDIO,ANYTHINGCANHAPPEN’Peter Doig has defied trends tobecomeone of contemporaryart’smost celebrated names. Hetalks to Peter Aspden about beingan outsider, avoiding painterlyclichés andwhy relocating toTrinidad took him ‘by surprise’.Portrait by Eva Vermandel

22

I n the climax to the 1980American slashermovie Friday the 13th, whichwould spawna bloody flurry of sequels, television showsand video gamesworthmore than half-a-billion pounds, aman is decapitated bythe film’s heroine, who is in turn suddenlydragged into the depths of a lake by ahideously disfigured aggressor. In between

the two gruesome scenes, there is a brief andstartlingly beautiful shot of the resting heroinealone in a canoe, her armhanging limply towardsthewater’s crystal-clear surface.It was this lyrical interlude, rather than the

mayhemenveloping it, that caught the eye ofPeter Doigwhen he saw themovie. “The film isnotworthwatching,” Doig tellsme dismissively inhis east London studio and living space. “But I wasso surprised by that scene. I wondered, has theart director been looking atMunch, or is it just acoincidence?” The image stayedwithDoig, and itwould become a keymotif in his laterwork,mostnotably in “White Canoe” (1990-91), a technicaltour de force of dramatic abstraction, andmoreexplicitly still in “Canoe Lake” (1997-98), inwhich it is turned into amenacing tableau ofacidic greens.Doig is one of themost renowned figurative

painters in the world, and his work has oftenbeen comparedwith that of EdvardMunch.But themediation of the Norwegianmaster’snightmarish visions through an undistinguishedpiece of popular culture shows that the influencecan be both obvious and oblique. Likemanyof Doig’s late baby-boomer contemporaries –he was born in 1959 – the richness of the era’smusic andmovies has played as strong a rolein his cultural formation as HenriMatisseand Paul Gauguin, the painters to whomhe isoften compared.Themost remarkable sight in his studio is not

themany paintings (only a couple are his own)that crowd the high walls, but a pair of squarespeakers, originally used in amovie theatre inthe 1950s, which stand next to each other andare the size of aminibus. (He bought them froma rockmusician whomhe declines to name.) Inanother corner, there is an eclectically curatedcollection of vinyl albums and two turntables.In 2007, “White Canoe”was sold at auction on

a dramatic evening that suddenly diverted theart world’s attention to Doig. The artist’s workhad been steadily increasing in value duringthe course of a career that stubbornly declinedto follow prevailing trends. “White Canoe”wasestimated to fetch about £1mwhen it was offeredat Sotheby’s in London. But themarket was in analtogether friskiermood: the painting sold for£5.7m, breaking the auction record fora living European artist.“I didn’t expect anything like that,” says

Doig quietly. “It suddenly gaveme a great dealof recognition. It was not something I was after.But then you question what it is that youwereafter. Once you get into that world, it is almostlike there is no turning back. You’ve entereda game.”

23

Thegame tooka long time to catchupwithDoig. He was born in Edinburgh but movedwith his family to Trinidad when he was two,where his father worked in shipping, and thenagain to Canada four years later. He did notmove to London until 1979, where he attendedWimbledon and St Martin’s art schools, alreadythinking that he was, and wanted to be, a painter.

London was not yet an important player inthe contemporary art world, but Doig immersedhimself in the city’s galleries: “I was seeingso much for the first time, Ed Burra, [Max]Beckmann and German expressionism, it wasvery exciting.” His work, however, was not somuch based on the new experiences to be foundon the capital’s streets, as on his own memories,freshly refracted through the urban landscapesaround him.

He made frequent trips to Canada in the 1980s:“I would take lots of photographs, building upa stock of images” – and then bring them to hisstudio in London to work on them. “I startedto make these Canadian landscapes that werenot real, but based on films, and these fantasiesabout the outdoors.” Early recognition cameshortly after his graduation from Chelsea Collegeof Arts in 1991, when he won the WhitechapelArtist Prize, and was given a solo exhibition at theWhitechapel Art Gallery.

One of the paintings on show was“The Architect’s Home in the Ravine” (1991),in which a famous modernist home in Torontois all but obliterated by a dense, wintry screenof trees and twigs, conveying a complicated,beautifully rendered relationship betweenman-made building and untameable nature.He continued on the theme in a series ofpaintings of the modernist apartments designedby Le Corbusier in Briey-en-Forêt in France, inwhich Doig had spent time working with somearchitecture students.

“I hadn’t intended to make paintings of thebuilding, but I took some photographs andthey surprised me. I was nervous because[Le Corbusier] was such an icon. Did I reallywant to connect myself with him? In fact, the firstcommercial gallery show I had, they wanted toshow those paintings. I wasn’t sure, but thought,‘Yeah, why not?’ But I could sense they werenervous about the other ones.”

More problematic for some critics were theseries of snow paintings Doig made, referencinghis memories of Canadian winters. “It is funnylooking back on it, but they were termed kitschand overly sentimental at the time,” he recalls.“The dominant trend in cutting-edge paintingwas quite minimal and conceptual. And I wascoming into that scene as a painter makingsnowy paintings.”

Did he find that intimidating?“It was challenging. I certainly didn’t want

to start making things I didn’t want to make.I was enjoying what I was making. Whether otherpeople also took to it was another story.” Someat least, did: Doig won the John Moores prizefor a “snowy” painting, “Blotter”, in 1993.▶

Clockwise from top left: ‘WhiteCanoe’, 1990-91; ‘Blotter’,1993; ‘Canoe Lake’, 1997-98

‘I WAS ENJOYINGWHAT I WAS MAKING.WHETHER OTHER PEOPLEALSO TOOK TO IT WASANOTHER STORY’

22

I n the climax to the 1980American slashermovie Friday the 13th, whichwould spawna bloody flurry of sequels, television showsand video gamesworthmore than half-a-billion pounds, aman is decapitated bythe film’s heroine, who is in turn suddenlydragged into the depths of a lake by ahideously disfigured aggressor. In between

the two gruesome scenes, there is a brief andstartlingly beautiful shot of the resting heroinealone in a canoe, her armhanging limply towardsthewater’s crystal-clear surface.It was this lyrical interlude, rather than the

mayhemenveloping it, that caught the eye ofPeter Doigwhen he saw themovie. “The film isnotworthwatching,” Doig tellsme dismissively inhis east London studio and living space. “But I wasso surprised by that scene. I wondered, has theart director been looking atMunch, or is it just acoincidence?” The image stayedwithDoig, and itwould become a keymotif in his laterwork,mostnotably in “White Canoe” (1990-91), a technicaltour de force of dramatic abstraction, andmoreexplicitly still in “Canoe Lake” (1997-98), inwhich it is turned into amenacing tableau ofacidic greens.Doig is one of themost renowned figurative

painters in the world, and his work has oftenbeen comparedwith that of EdvardMunch.But themediation of the Norwegianmaster’snightmarish visions through an undistinguishedpiece of popular culture shows that the influencecan be both obvious and oblique. Likemanyof Doig’s late baby-boomer contemporaries –he was born in 1959 – the richness of the era’smusic andmovies has played as strong a rolein his cultural formation as HenriMatisseand Paul Gauguin, the painters to whomhe isoften compared.Themost remarkable sight in his studio is not

themany paintings (only a couple are his own)that crowd the high walls, but a pair of squarespeakers, originally used in amovie theatre inthe 1950s, which stand next to each other andare the size of aminibus. (He bought them froma rockmusician whomhe declines to name.) Inanother corner, there is an eclectically curatedcollection of vinyl albums and two turntables.In 2007, “White Canoe”was sold at auction on

a dramatic evening that suddenly diverted theart world’s attention to Doig. The artist’s workhad been steadily increasing in value duringthe course of a career that stubbornly declinedto follow prevailing trends. “White Canoe”wasestimated to fetch about £1mwhen it was offeredat Sotheby’s in London. But themarket was in analtogether friskiermood: the painting sold for£5.7m, breaking the auction record fora living European artist.“I didn’t expect anything like that,” says

Doig quietly. “It suddenly gaveme a great dealof recognition. It was not something I was after.But then you question what it is that youwereafter. Once you get into that world, it is almostlike there is no turning back. You’ve entereda game.”

23

Thegame tooka long time to catchupwithDoig. He was born in Edinburgh but movedwith his family to Trinidad when he was two,where his father worked in shipping, and thenagain to Canada four years later. He did notmove to London until 1979, where he attendedWimbledon and St Martin’s art schools, alreadythinking that he was, and wanted to be, a painter.

London was not yet an important player inthe contemporary art world, but Doig immersedhimself in the city’s galleries: “I was seeingso much for the first time, Ed Burra, [Max]Beckmann and German expressionism, it wasvery exciting.” His work, however, was not somuch based on the new experiences to be foundon the capital’s streets, as on his own memories,freshly refracted through the urban landscapesaround him.

He made frequent trips to Canada in the 1980s:“I would take lots of photographs, building upa stock of images” – and then bring them to hisstudio in London to work on them. “I startedto make these Canadian landscapes that werenot real, but based on films, and these fantasiesabout the outdoors.” Early recognition cameshortly after his graduation from Chelsea Collegeof Arts in 1991, when he won the WhitechapelArtist Prize, and was given a solo exhibition at theWhitechapel Art Gallery.

One of the paintings on show was“The Architect’s Home in the Ravine” (1991),in which a famous modernist home in Torontois all but obliterated by a dense, wintry screenof trees and twigs, conveying a complicated,beautifully rendered relationship betweenman-made building and untameable nature.He continued on the theme in a series ofpaintings of the modernist apartments designedby Le Corbusier in Briey-en-Forêt in France, inwhich Doig had spent time working with somearchitecture students.

“I hadn’t intended to make paintings of thebuilding, but I took some photographs andthey surprised me. I was nervous because[Le Corbusier] was such an icon. Did I reallywant to connect myself with him? In fact, the firstcommercial gallery show I had, they wanted toshow those paintings. I wasn’t sure, but thought,‘Yeah, why not?’ But I could sense they werenervous about the other ones.”

More problematic for some critics were theseries of snow paintings Doig made, referencinghis memories of Canadian winters. “It is funnylooking back on it, but they were termed kitschand overly sentimental at the time,” he recalls.“The dominant trend in cutting-edge paintingwas quite minimal and conceptual. And I wascoming into that scene as a painter makingsnowy paintings.”

Did he find that intimidating?“It was challenging. I certainly didn’t want

to start making things I didn’t want to make.I was enjoying what I was making. Whether otherpeople also took to it was another story.” Someat least, did: Doig won the John Moores prizefor a “snowy” painting, “Blotter”, in 1993.▶

Clockwise from top left: ‘WhiteCanoe’, 1990-91; ‘Blotter’,1993; ‘Canoe Lake’, 1997-98

‘I WAS ENJOYINGWHAT I WAS MAKING.WHETHER OTHER PEOPLEALSO TOOK TO IT WASANOTHER STORY’

24

Clockwise from top left: ‘TwoTrees’, 2017; ‘The Architect’sHome in the Ravine’, 1991;‘Moruga’, 2002-08;‘Lapeyrouse Wall’, 2004

◀ “I got a call from a guy at Frieze magazine aftertheir first article about me,” says Doig. “He saidif he had known I did paintings like that, theywouldn’t have run the piece. He said it lookedlike a Christmas card painted by mouth.”

How did he react to that? “It had to be acompliment, surely?” he responds with asoft chuckle.

Doig gradually built his reputationas askilled craftsman, a painter’s painter, at thevery time when those skills became abruptlyunfashionable. This was the rambunctiousera of the so-called Young British Artists, andthey began to dominate both the discourse ofcontemporary art, and the wider art market,which was also attracting new entrants. I ask Doigif he felt a sharp sense of being outside a “scene”.

“I think I did, yes. I still have that feeling.”Surely not?“Well, I still understand what that feels like,”

he elaborates. “It is a long time from when youleave college, at 22, to your late thirties, earlyforties, working away, before you make anythingconsidered to be of any great significance.Fortunately, London was very different then.You could live cheaply, in squatted studios,ducking and diving, as they say.”

Meanwhile, both dealers and artiststhemselves were changing their client lists andpractices to accord with the vibrant new wave ofconceptualism. “Not mentioning any names, butI went to the studio of a friend, and his work hadcompletely changed,” recalls Doig. “I made somecomment, and he said, ‘Yeah, I’ve had a re-spray.’I thought it was quite funny. And fair enough.”

I ask whether he ever felt tempted to do thesame. “No, I didn’t. I wanted to continue what Iwas doing. To do something deliberately crafty,and personal. Something to do with my own lifeandmemories, but on a scale that could be takenseriously, and, in a way, compete.”

Did it really feel like a competition? “Well, inthose days, you had to drag around your paintingsto all these competitions, hire a van, pay £50 toenter, go to some huge warehouse, and all thesepaintings are going by – ‘Next!’ – there is anelement of competition in that. Your paintinghad to stand out.”

Doig’s life, and career, took a significant turn in2000 when he was invited back to Trinidad on aresidential programme with his friend and fellowartist Chris Ofili. “It took me by surprise,” hesays of his arrival there. “I never expected to bemaking work based on something that was rightin front of my face.” His work changed – therewas, almost inevitably, more colour and greaterlushness. But anyone expecting him to go the fullGauguin might have been disappointed.

The sense of detachment, of refraction, thathe had developed in his practice stayedwithhim. “I was literally looking out of the window,seeing motifs that would appear in the paintings.But it didn’t have to be real. It didn’t have toconnect with the real world. It was very muchwork done in the studio. And in the studio,anything can happen.”▶

‘THINGS BECOME MOREMYSTERIOUS IN THE DARK.SHADOWS BECOMEINTERESTING TO ME’

25

24

Clockwise from top left: ‘TwoTrees’, 2017; ‘The Architect’sHome in the Ravine’, 1991;‘Moruga’, 2002-08;‘Lapeyrouse Wall’, 2004

◀ “I got a call from a guy at Frieze magazine aftertheir first article about me,” says Doig. “He saidif he had known I did paintings like that, theywouldn’t have run the piece. He said it lookedlike a Christmas card painted by mouth.”

How did he react to that? “It had to be acompliment, surely?” he responds with asoft chuckle.

Doig gradually built his reputationas askilled craftsman, a painter’s painter, at thevery time when those skills became abruptlyunfashionable. This was the rambunctiousera of the so-called Young British Artists, andthey began to dominate both the discourse ofcontemporary art, and the wider art market,which was also attracting new entrants. I ask Doigif he felt a sharp sense of being outside a “scene”.

“I think I did, yes. I still have that feeling.”Surely not?“Well, I still understand what that feels like,”

he elaborates. “It is a long time from when youleave college, at 22, to your late thirties, earlyforties, working away, before you make anythingconsidered to be of any great significance.Fortunately, London was very different then.You could live cheaply, in squatted studios,ducking and diving, as they say.”

Meanwhile, both dealers and artiststhemselves were changing their client lists andpractices to accord with the vibrant new wave ofconceptualism. “Not mentioning any names, butI went to the studio of a friend, and his work hadcompletely changed,” recalls Doig. “I made somecomment, and he said, ‘Yeah, I’ve had a re-spray.’I thought it was quite funny. And fair enough.”

I ask whether he ever felt tempted to do thesame. “No, I didn’t. I wanted to continue what Iwas doing. To do something deliberately crafty,and personal. Something to do with my own lifeandmemories, but on a scale that could be takenseriously, and, in a way, compete.”

Did it really feel like a competition? “Well, inthose days, you had to drag around your paintingsto all these competitions, hire a van, pay £50 toenter, go to some huge warehouse, and all thesepaintings are going by – ‘Next!’ – there is anelement of competition in that. Your paintinghad to stand out.”

Doig’s life, and career, took a significant turn in2000 when he was invited back to Trinidad on aresidential programme with his friend and fellowartist Chris Ofili. “It took me by surprise,” hesays of his arrival there. “I never expected to bemaking work based on something that was rightin front of my face.” His work changed – therewas, almost inevitably, more colour and greaterlushness. But anyone expecting him to go the fullGauguin might have been disappointed.

The sense of detachment, of refraction, thathe had developed in his practice stayedwithhim. “I was literally looking out of the window,seeing motifs that would appear in the paintings.But it didn’t have to be real. It didn’t have toconnect with the real world. It was very muchwork done in the studio. And in the studio,anything can happen.”▶

‘THINGS BECOME MOREMYSTERIOUS IN THE DARK.SHADOWS BECOMEINTERESTING TO ME’

25

26

‘THE AIM OF THE FILM CLUB WAS TO “CREATETHE KIND OF ATMOSPHERE THAT MADE YOUFEEL YOU WERE PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER”’

Clockwise from left: ‘Bather(Sings Calypso)’, 2019; Postersdesigned by Doig for his filmclub: ‘Tokyo Story’, 2004; ‘BlueVelvet’, 2003; ‘Pierrot le Fou’,2004. Facing page: ‘TheHarder They Come’, 2005

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27

◀Anxious, he says, to avoid lapsing into painterlyclichés in his new surroundings, he tookpaintingshe had already startedwith him to the Caribbean.Andpostcards. “I discovered someold postcardsin a junk shop inOld Street. They remindedmeofTrinidad, in fact theywere of south India. Imadepaintings of them.They looked likeTrinidad, buttheywere fromOld Street.”

Surely the sheer effect of the light must haveaffected his painting? “I had to block it out.I didn’t particularly like it. It was too intense.I covered the windows of the studio with thislayer of canvas-coloured cotton. I read thatBraque did that.” He was equally inspired bythe hours that followed sunset. “Things becomemore mysterious in the dark. Shadows becomeinteresting to me.”

Far from the naive celebration of a naivenatural world, Doig’s Trinidad paintings – hemade a more permanent move to the islandin 2002 – wrestle with post-colonial themes.A series of his most Gauguin-like works showyoungsters playing beach cricket, while the“Moruga” painting depicts a local re-enactmentof Christopher Columbus’s arrival on the island(Doig sourced the story from a local newspaper).

A recurring motif in his paintings is the prisonisland of Carrera, which is adjacent to Trinidad,and with which he became better acquaintedwhen he saw an exhibition of the prisoners’artworks. He went on to visit the prison, andstill regularly speaks to inmates there. “They

are lifers. But often they are just caught up incircumstances. You are with a group of friends,stealing a car, something happens and someonedies. And then…” he clicks his fingers, “your life isjust…” He doesn’t finish the sentence.

Something of that menace is seen in one ofDoig’s most striking recent paintings, 2017’s“Two Trees”. Three figures are caught in amoonlit scene that suggests wrongdoing,contrition, fear. Doig explains to me the rangeof references that inspired each figure, collectedthrough the combined results of research andhappenstance. But they seem secondary to theoverall effect of almost religious foreboding, toldin a moment of high drama. The painting washung in a side room of Vienna’s KunsthistorischesMuseum in a 2018 exhibition, near PieterBruegel’s 1565 masterwork “Hunters in theSnow”, another work rich with cryptic allusion.

Doig’s engagement with Trinidad has becomemore profound in recent years. With the artistChe Lovelace he founded StudioFilmClub,which held free screenings of classic movies inan old rum factory and for which he designedthe posters. The first film to be shown was the1972 Jamaican reggae-drenched crime dramaTheHarder They Come. “It had never been shownon TV because of its content, and I wonderedhow many people had actually seen it.” The aimof the club, he says, was to “create the kind ofatmosphere that made you feel you were part ofsomething bigger”.

Doig’s own world is also expanding. Later thismonth, he is the subject of a survey at Tokyo’sNational Museum of Modern Art, his first majorshow in Asia. He says he has enjoyed allowingthe curators to “have their own ideas about theinstallation” and is evidently happy with theresults. He will continue to commute betweenLondon, New York and Trinidad, where he hasbuilt a large studio, but immediate plans are inabeyance, following the death of his ex-wife atthe end of last year.

The light has dimmed inside his studio, andwe turn to his record collection,which is full ofrarities, oddities and classics.He puts on someKraftwerk, and the roomfillswith old-fashioned,thumping analogue sound.Atmy request, herecommends some essential calypso albums.OneofDoig’s latest series of paintings is of RobertMitchumon the beach inTrinidad, andhe tellsmethat the film star hadmade a “not bad” albumofcalypso songs based onhis stay there in the 1950s.

“It was an amazing time for music, clubs,intrigue. The record made me wonder what hegot up to all day long. You can’t find out anythingabout it.” He smiles half-resignedly, but he knowsthat when facts dry up, the artistic imaginationjust gets started, and that is when Peter Doigcomes into his own.

PeterDoig’s first solo exhibition in Japan is on atTokyo’s NationalMuseumofModernArt fromFebruary 26 to June 14;momat.go.jp


Seen in this context, gamification seems tobe a particularly 21st-century phenomenon.Its roots, however, go back a lot further and stemfroma farmorewholesome source. Arguably,it was invented by the breakfast-cereal industryin the early 20th century, when small gamescould be found in cornflakes boxes. The ideawas to turn the family breakfast into a feel-goodexperience, with a little surprise that wouldcreate an additional entertainment incentive.

More than 100 years on, this idea iseverywhere.Marketing efforts, customer loyaltyprogrammes and employee incentive systemsall use elements of gamification. Interactiveranking systems, real-time progress bars andachievement updates provide stimuli that tapinto our competitive instincts and love of games.From the swipingmechanisms in dating apps,which are designed for you to playfully chooseor refuse a potential partner, to the rewardsystems for Uber drivers, which show theirprogress, customer ratings and opportunitiesformaking extramoney – the idea underpinsthe growing experience economy.

But extremists are also early adopters ofinnovation. And from Isis to the internationalalt-right, ideological fringemovements haveexploited gamification techniques to tap intonew audiences. By tailoring their propagandaand recruiting in this way, they have beenable to attract youngmembers and raisetheir profile globally.

I spent two years undercover in 12 extremistgroups across the ideological spectrum – fromIsis hackers and femalemisogynists to thewhite nationalist networks that radicalised theChristchurch perpetrator. These infiltrationsalso turned into a kind of game forme.How farwould I get?Howmuch informationwould I beable to obtainwithout being unmasked? Therewas, of course, a sort of adrenaline kick to it.

But thesewere notmy primary reasons forspendingmy spare timewith peoplewho believethat an international racewar is imminentorwhowant to establish a global caliphate.▶

Foul playExtremist groupsare deliberately applyingvideo-game techniquesto their propaganda,warns Julia Ebner,who spent two yearsundercover chartingthe deadly, real-worldconsequences

Haveyouever imagined that it’s all just agame? Preparing to give a speech, going intoan importantmeeting, scheduling a romanticdate, even simple things like doing thegroceries or paying the bills? As a kid, I usedto turn tedious homework exercises andnerve-wracking exams into games inmyhead.I still do this sometimes inmy day-to-daylife when Iwant to escape boredomor fear.Working through hundreds of emails aftercoming back fromannual leave becomes somuchmore bearable when I rewardmyselfwith a little treat for every 20th one I finish.Walking on to a big stage appears somuch lessintimidatingwhen I imagine thatmy audienceconsists of a crowd of human-like robots.

Forme, adding game-playing elements tosituations that are not games – a concept calledgamification – is awonderful thing. Gettinglost in an imaginedworldwhere reality isn’tmore than a simulation, a thought experiment,can be oddly comforting. But like somanybrilliant innovations, this can also be used as aweapon.When a far-right gunman livestreamedhis attack on two Christchurchmosques inNewZealand inMarch 2019, the first commentto appear beneath the video said: “Get the highscore.” The second one asked: “Is this a Larp?”Larps, short for Live ActionRole Plays, aregames inwhich the participants physicallyembody their characters.

To some of those users observing eventsunfold on the far-right extremist 8chanforum, this was still a game. Even after watchingthe perpetrator shoot dozens ofMuslimsin real time, theywere unable to grasp that51 innocent civilians had just been killed.Some sympathisers of the Christchurch attackerwere quick to create video-game-style remixesof the livestreamed atrocity, whichwas filmedfromafirst-person shooter perspective. Theloss of reality was by design. The attack hadbeen carefully orchestrated as an entertainmentprogramme for thosewho lurk in the darkestparts of the internet.

Observations


Illustrations by Jinwha Jang


Seen in this context, gamification seems tobe a particularly 21st-century phenomenon.Its roots, however, go back a lot further and stemfroma farmorewholesome source. Arguably,it was invented by the breakfast-cereal industryin the early 20th century, when small gamescould be found in cornflakes boxes. The ideawas to turn the family breakfast into a feel-goodexperience, with a little surprise that wouldcreate an additional entertainment incentive.

More than 100 years on, this idea iseverywhere.Marketing efforts, customer loyaltyprogrammes and employee incentive systemsall use elements of gamification. Interactiveranking systems, real-time progress bars andachievement updates provide stimuli that tapinto our competitive instincts and love of games.From the swipingmechanisms in dating apps,which are designed for you to playfully chooseor refuse a potential partner, to the rewardsystems for Uber drivers, which show theirprogress, customer ratings and opportunitiesformaking extramoney – the idea underpinsthe growing experience economy.

But extremists are also early adopters ofinnovation. And from Isis to the internationalalt-right, ideological fringemovements haveexploited gamification techniques to tap intonew audiences. By tailoring their propagandaand recruiting in this way, they have beenable to attract youngmembers and raisetheir profile globally.

I spent two years undercover in 12 extremistgroups across the ideological spectrum – fromIsis hackers and femalemisogynists to thewhite nationalist networks that radicalised theChristchurch perpetrator. These infiltrationsalso turned into a kind of game forme.How farwould I get?Howmuch informationwould I beable to obtainwithout being unmasked? Therewas, of course, a sort of adrenaline kick to it.

But thesewere notmy primary reasons forspendingmy spare timewith peoplewho believethat an international racewar is imminentorwhowant to establish a global caliphate.▶

Foul playExtremist groupsare deliberately applyingvideo-game techniquesto their propaganda,warns Julia Ebner,who spent two yearsundercover chartingthe deadly, real-worldconsequences

Haveyouever imagined that it’s all just agame? Preparing to give a speech, going intoan importantmeeting, scheduling a romanticdate, even simple things like doing thegroceries or paying the bills? As a kid, I usedto turn tedious homework exercises andnerve-wracking exams into games inmyhead.I still do this sometimes inmy day-to-daylife when Iwant to escape boredomor fear.Working through hundreds of emails aftercoming back fromannual leave becomes somuchmore bearable when I rewardmyselfwith a little treat for every 20th one I finish.Walking on to a big stage appears somuch lessintimidatingwhen I imagine thatmy audienceconsists of a crowd of human-like robots.

Forme, adding game-playing elements tosituations that are not games – a concept calledgamification – is awonderful thing. Gettinglost in an imaginedworldwhere reality isn’tmore than a simulation, a thought experiment,can be oddly comforting. But like somanybrilliant innovations, this can also be used as aweapon.When a far-right gunman livestreamedhis attack on two Christchurchmosques inNewZealand inMarch 2019, the first commentto appear beneath the video said: “Get the highscore.” The second one asked: “Is this a Larp?”Larps, short for Live ActionRole Plays, aregames inwhich the participants physicallyembody their characters.

To some of those users observing eventsunfold on the far-right extremist 8chanforum, this was still a game. Even after watchingthe perpetrator shoot dozens ofMuslimsin real time, theywere unable to grasp that51 innocent civilians had just been killed.Some sympathisers of the Christchurch attackerwere quick to create video-game-style remixesof the livestreamed atrocity, whichwas filmedfromafirst-person shooter perspective. Theloss of reality was by design. The attack hadbeen carefully orchestrated as an entertainmentprogramme for thosewho lurk in the darkestparts of the internet.

Observations


Illustrations by Jinwha Jang


Observations

◀Therewould have been less risky games.The truth is, I felt increasingly like I was hittingawall inmy research on extremistmovements.At the Institute for Strategic Dialogue

(ISD),my colleagues and I use sophisticatedsocial-mediamonitoring and analysis toolsand collaboratewith top data scientists atMIT.We are able to perform complex networkanalysis, trace the roots of disinformationcampaigns and assess the reach of violence-incitingmaterials.And yet, therewere questions that were

left unanswered, channels that remainedimpenetrable and concerns that leftmesleepless at night: howdo extremist groups’recruitment and socialisation processes work?What are themotivators that drive people toextremist networks, andwhatmakes them staythere? So, I decided to spendmy sleepless nightson the other side of the cat-and-mouse game.Instead of chasing themice, I joined them.

When Ifirst startedworking in thefieldofcountering violent extremism after finishingmy studies in 2015, I focused almost exclusivelyon jihadists, researching for theQuilliamFoundation, whichwas founded by formerIslamist extremists. But in the aftermath of theIsis-inspired terrorist attacks across Europe, theUK and theUS, I realised that the internationalfar-right was benefiting from the fears sparkedby the Islamist extremist atrocities. In 2016,I wrotemyfirst book on the vicious circlebetween Islamist and far-right extremism.My aimwas to shed light on the effects of“reciprocal radicalisation” that I felt wereprofoundly underestimated in policy andsecurity circles.It was in 2017 that I witnessed the

gamification of hate first-hand. One day,the far-right influencer TommyRobinson,a co-founder of the nationalist English DefenceLeague, paidme a surprise visit at theQuilliam office. He and his cameraman cameto confrontme over a Guardian article I had

Some sympathisers ofthe Christchurch attackerwere quick to createvideo-game-style remixesof the livestreamed atrocity


written thatmentioned him.He livestreamedthe confrontation, which he dubbed “TrollWatch 3”, to his 300,000 supporters on Twitter.The videowas part of a larger operation

to discredit “mainstream”media outlets andthink-tanks reporting on the far-right. But theconsequenceswere real.What followedwasamassive hate storm,with death threats andsexual threats reachingme andmy colleagues.I learnt how the gamification of hateworksthe hardway.Since then,my investigations have shown

me clearly how the lines between the digitaland the real have become disturbingly blurryformanymembers of virtual subcultures.Sometimes they only realise that after shock orsurprisemoments. Following the Christchurchattack, I observed howmultiplemembers offar-right extremist online networks announcedtheir departure from these groups, saying theywere afraid theywould gomad.After I reached out to some ofmy own

harassers on Twitter, they apologised and saidthey didn’t want to hurtme. It was only thenthat in their heads Imade the transition froma non-playable character (NPC) in their gameto a human being.Far-right extremist groups have hijacked

video-game platforms, including the gamingchat appDiscord. For example, the organisersof thewhite nationalist rally in Charlottesvillein 2017 established several channels onDiscordto facilitate communication and co-ordinationahead of the event, whichwas followed byawhite supremacist driving his car into acrowd of protesters, killing one of them. In theDiscord channel of the neo-Nazi trolling armyReconquista Germanica you even got promotedto higher “military ranks”when you carried outa particularly successful hate campaign againstminority communities or political opponents.At its peak, the group of far-right extremistsusing Discord counted 10,000 “foot soldiers”and had the declared goal of influencing theGerman national elections.

I knew itwould not belongbeforewe sawthe first intersection oftrolling and terrorism:‘gamified terrorism’

their expected racewar. The EncyclopediaDramatica, aWikipedia alternative usedby far-right gamers, ran half-ironic, half-celebratory entries on the attacks, rankingtheNorwegian terrorist Anders Breivik asthe record holder among real-life first-personshooters. Calls for “higher scores” can turninto a call for inspirational terrorism, givingrise to a new competition for virtual scoresin return for real lives.Inmany corners of the internet therefore,

this kind of radicalisation, intimidation andmanipulation continues to thrive. Platformslike 8chan (now replaced by 8kun) and theEncyclopedia Dramatica have been takendown but little has been done to counter thewider problem. The businessmodels of social-media platforms and online forums haveamplified and rewarded the gamificationof hatred and terrorism and, increasingly,mainstreampolitics.In themonths before the 2016US election, the

international alt-right co-ordinated large-scaleoperations ononlinemessage boards to influencethe political discourse inTrump’s favour. Theuse ofmemes and trolling rapidly spread toEurope and theUK in the run-up to strategicallyimportant elections and referendums.The algorithms ofmost online platforms

are designed tomaximise the time users spendthere. Thismeans they prioritise content thatcaptures our attention. Sadly, it turns outthat addiction and emotional arousal throughfear, anger and indignation yieldmaximumhuman attention. It is the responsibility of bothlawmakers and tech firms to prevent extremistsusing their architecture as amegaphone forgamified hate and terrorism. Unless we regulateagainst the online ecosystemof the extremefringes, it’s likelywewill have towatch therepetition ofmore heinous real-life shooters.

Julia Ebner is a senior research fellow at theInstitute for Strategic Dialogue. Her book “GoingDark” is published by Bloomsbury on February 20

Beyond gamifying their operations, violentfar-right extremists have also created theirown “mods” (modifications) for actual videogames. There arewhite power versions of themost popular shooting games like Counter-Strikeand strategy games like Civilisation and CrusaderKings. The neo-Nazi website Daily Stormerhas launched its own PokémonGo challenge,which involves finding “gyms” that are usedas battlegrounds by PokémonGo players anddistributing recruitment flyers.

At the Institute for StrategicDialoguewehave longwarned of the exploitation of gamingculture and gamificationmechanisms byextremistmovements.Whenmy colleagues andI started doing briefings on the topic a few yearsago, few policymakers and security servicestook our concerns seriously. Having spent timewithin range of extremist groups both onlineand offline, I knew it would not be long beforewe saw the first attack at the intersection oftrolling and terrorism: “gamified terrorism”.Evenmore unfortunately, games are designed

to be repeatable.When terrorismmeets gaming,there is a high likelihood of copycat attacks.In 2019 alone, the Christchurch shootingkicked off a series of deadly incidents that allfollowed similar gamification patterns.Video-game-like elements and gaming

language featured heavily in the documentsleft behind by the perpetrators of attacksin Poway and El Paso in theUS, andOsloandHalle in Europe. The shooter in Powaycited Christchurch as a catalyst and postedamusical playlist alongwith his shooting.The gunman inHalle livestreamed his attackon the gamers’ platformTwitch and used hisown 3Dprinted gun in reference to “weaponcrafting” in gaming.Again, glorifying pictures of the shooters

were shared across far-right extremist onlinecommunities. Sympathisers hailed theChristchurch attacker as a “saint” for inspiringa newwave of attacks that would accelerate


Observations

◀Therewould have been less risky games.The truth is, I felt increasingly like I was hittingawall inmy research on extremistmovements.At the Institute for Strategic Dialogue

(ISD),my colleagues and I use sophisticatedsocial-mediamonitoring and analysis toolsand collaboratewith top data scientists atMIT.We are able to perform complex networkanalysis, trace the roots of disinformationcampaigns and assess the reach of violence-incitingmaterials.And yet, therewere questions that were

left unanswered, channels that remainedimpenetrable and concerns that leftmesleepless at night: howdo extremist groups’recruitment and socialisation processes work?What are themotivators that drive people toextremist networks, andwhatmakes them staythere? So, I decided to spendmy sleepless nightson the other side of the cat-and-mouse game.Instead of chasing themice, I joined them.

When Ifirst startedworking in thefieldofcountering violent extremism after finishingmy studies in 2015, I focused almost exclusivelyon jihadists, researching for theQuilliamFoundation, whichwas founded by formerIslamist extremists. But in the aftermath of theIsis-inspired terrorist attacks across Europe, theUK and theUS, I realised that the internationalfar-right was benefiting from the fears sparkedby the Islamist extremist atrocities. In 2016,I wrotemyfirst book on the vicious circlebetween Islamist and far-right extremism.My aimwas to shed light on the effects of“reciprocal radicalisation” that I felt wereprofoundly underestimated in policy andsecurity circles.It was in 2017 that I witnessed the

gamification of hate first-hand. One day,the far-right influencer TommyRobinson,a co-founder of the nationalist English DefenceLeague, paidme a surprise visit at theQuilliam office. He and his cameraman cameto confrontme over a Guardian article I had

Some sympathisers ofthe Christchurch attackerwere quick to createvideo-game-style remixesof the livestreamed atrocity


written thatmentioned him.He livestreamedthe confrontation, which he dubbed “TrollWatch 3”, to his 300,000 supporters on Twitter.The videowas part of a larger operation

to discredit “mainstream”media outlets andthink-tanks reporting on the far-right. But theconsequenceswere real.What followedwasamassive hate storm,with death threats andsexual threats reachingme andmy colleagues.I learnt how the gamification of hateworksthe hardway.Since then,my investigations have shown

me clearly how the lines between the digitaland the real have become disturbingly blurryformanymembers of virtual subcultures.Sometimes they only realise that after shock orsurprisemoments. Following the Christchurchattack, I observed howmultiplemembers offar-right extremist online networks announcedtheir departure from these groups, saying theywere afraid theywould gomad.After I reached out to some ofmy own

harassers on Twitter, they apologised and saidthey didn’t want to hurtme. It was only thenthat in their heads Imade the transition froma non-playable character (NPC) in their gameto a human being.Far-right extremist groups have hijacked

video-game platforms, including the gamingchat appDiscord. For example, the organisersof thewhite nationalist rally in Charlottesvillein 2017 established several channels onDiscordto facilitate communication and co-ordinationahead of the event, whichwas followed byawhite supremacist driving his car into acrowd of protesters, killing one of them. In theDiscord channel of the neo-Nazi trolling armyReconquista Germanica you even got promotedto higher “military ranks”when you carried outa particularly successful hate campaign againstminority communities or political opponents.At its peak, the group of far-right extremistsusing Discord counted 10,000 “foot soldiers”and had the declared goal of influencing theGerman national elections.

I knew itwould not belongbeforewe sawthe first intersection oftrolling and terrorism:‘gamified terrorism’

their expected racewar. The EncyclopediaDramatica, aWikipedia alternative usedby far-right gamers, ran half-ironic, half-celebratory entries on the attacks, rankingtheNorwegian terrorist Anders Breivik asthe record holder among real-life first-personshooters. Calls for “higher scores” can turninto a call for inspirational terrorism, givingrise to a new competition for virtual scoresin return for real lives.Inmany corners of the internet therefore,

this kind of radicalisation, intimidation andmanipulation continues to thrive. Platformslike 8chan (now replaced by 8kun) and theEncyclopedia Dramatica have been takendown but little has been done to counter thewider problem. The businessmodels of social-media platforms and online forums haveamplified and rewarded the gamificationof hatred and terrorism and, increasingly,mainstreampolitics.In themonths before the 2016US election, the

international alt-right co-ordinated large-scaleoperations ononlinemessage boards to influencethe political discourse inTrump’s favour. Theuse ofmemes and trolling rapidly spread toEurope and theUK in the run-up to strategicallyimportant elections and referendums.The algorithms ofmost online platforms

are designed tomaximise the time users spendthere. Thismeans they prioritise content thatcaptures our attention. Sadly, it turns outthat addiction and emotional arousal throughfear, anger and indignation yieldmaximumhuman attention. It is the responsibility of bothlawmakers and tech firms to prevent extremistsusing their architecture as amegaphone forgamified hate and terrorism. Unless we regulateagainst the online ecosystemof the extremefringes, it’s likelywewill have towatch therepetition ofmore heinous real-life shooters.

Julia Ebner is a senior research fellow at theInstitute for Strategic Dialogue. Her book “GoingDark” is published by Bloomsbury on February 20

Beyond gamifying their operations, violentfar-right extremists have also created theirown “mods” (modifications) for actual videogames. There arewhite power versions of themost popular shooting games like Counter-Strikeand strategy games like Civilisation and CrusaderKings. The neo-Nazi website Daily Stormerhas launched its own PokémonGo challenge,which involves finding “gyms” that are usedas battlegrounds by PokémonGo players anddistributing recruitment flyers.

At the Institute for StrategicDialoguewehave longwarned of the exploitation of gamingculture and gamificationmechanisms byextremistmovements.Whenmy colleagues andI started doing briefings on the topic a few yearsago, few policymakers and security servicestook our concerns seriously. Having spent timewithin range of extremist groups both onlineand offline, I knew it would not be long beforewe saw the first attack at the intersection oftrolling and terrorism: “gamified terrorism”.Evenmore unfortunately, games are designed

to be repeatable.When terrorismmeets gaming,there is a high likelihood of copycat attacks.In 2019 alone, the Christchurch shootingkicked off a series of deadly incidents that allfollowed similar gamification patterns.Video-game-like elements and gaming

language featured heavily in the documentsleft behind by the perpetrators of attacksin Poway and El Paso in theUS, andOsloandHalle in Europe. The shooter in Powaycited Christchurch as a catalyst and postedamusical playlist alongwith his shooting.The gunman inHalle livestreamed his attackon the gamers’ platformTwitch and used hisown 3Dprinted gun in reference to “weaponcrafting” in gaming.Again, glorifying pictures of the shooters

were shared across far-right extremist onlinecommunities. Sympathisers hailed theChristchurch attacker as a “saint” for inspiringa newwave of attacks that would accelerate


From left: Untitled (Hands);Untitled (Dan Dixon, Age 5); Untitled


UP CLOSEANDPERSONALDorothea Lange’smost famousphotographs, taken in theDepression-era AmericanDustBowl, represent only a smallpart of her life’swork. Delvingthrough the artist’s archives,SamContis discovered anotherside to the great documentarian.ByGriseldaMurray Brown


From left: Untitled (Hands);Untitled (Dan Dixon, Age 5); Untitled


UP CLOSEANDPERSONALDorothea Lange’smost famousphotographs, taken in theDepression-era AmericanDustBowl, represent only a smallpart of her life’swork. Delvingthrough the artist’s archives,SamContis discovered anotherside to the great documentarian.ByGriseldaMurray Brown


Clockwise from top: Helen cutting John’s hair, 1952;California desert mountains, San Luis Obispo County,Feb. 1937; Imperial Valley, 1939; A very blue eagle.Along California highway, Nov. 1936; Untitled

‘This desire to get closer,and to show thesefragments of the body –I felt a connection inthe way we worked’Sam Contis


“I knewDorothea Lange in thewaythatmost people do,” SamContistellsme. “I knew her as the author of‘MigrantMother’, as this – this wordshe didn’t like – ‘documentarian’ of theGreat Depression, of the Dust Bowl era.”

I am speaking to Contis on the phonefromNewYork. She never knew Lange –who died in 1965 – but having spent threeyears rifling through her photographicarchives in Oakland, California, she hasa new understanding of her vision.

“Thework Lange is famous for actuallycomes from a short span in her lifetime,”Contis explains. Iconic images such as“MigrantMother” comemostly fromthe late 1930s, when shewas workingfor the Resettlement Administrationprogramme (later renamed the FarmSecurity Administration programme) asa photographer documentingmigrationand agriculture. But the photographs inLange’s archives, which span her entirecareer and havemostly never been seenpublicly, reveal a very different artist.

Contiswas struck by how contemporarythe pictures seemed. Lange photographedfamily, strangers and landscapes in astrikinglymodernway. Her croppedcompositions – often fragments of bodies –have a stark, surreal quality.

Contis’s new book,Day Sleeper, is aselection of Lange’s photographs fromthe archive, butmany of them could beContis’s ownwork. The two photographershave amutual interest in certain visualmotifs – such as hands – and croppedcompositions. Contis notes that Lange’s

picture of her young son sleeping in thesun “felt very close” to one she herselfmight havemade.

Looking at Lange’s sequences ofphotographs, Contis began to understandhow sheworked. “I saw her getting closerand closer and closer [to the subject],”she says. “I’ve looked throughmy owncontact sheets and I’ve watchedmyselfmake the samemoves, the same steps andadjustments. This desire to get closer, andto show these fragments of the body – I felta connection in the wayweworked, andthat surprisedme.”

When Contis first visited Lange’sarchive in 2017, her ownDeep Springsproject had just been published.A photographic study of an elite,all-male liberal arts college in a desertvalley near Sierra Nevada, it sharesLange’s interest in isolated body partsand bodies in the landscape.

Lange is “having amoment”,Contis suggests, because her workresonates with our own political andenvironmental conditions. But shestresses that, for Lange, the personal waspolitical. Even Lange’s tender portraitof her other son as an adult, having hishair cut by his wife, is shot throughwithpolitical currents. It was taken next toa valley whose homeswere about to becleared for theMonticello Dam. Langethe documentarian and Lange the familyportraitist are one and the same.

“DaySleeper:DorotheaLange –SamCurtis”is publishedbyMACK

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Clockwise from top: Helen cutting John’s hair, 1952;California desert mountains, San Luis Obispo County,Feb. 1937; Imperial Valley, 1939; A very blue eagle.Along California highway, Nov. 1936; Untitled

‘This desire to get closer,and to show thesefragments of the body –I felt a connection inthe way we worked’Sam Contis


“I knewDorothea Lange in thewaythatmost people do,” SamContistellsme. “I knew her as the author of‘MigrantMother’, as this – this wordshe didn’t like – ‘documentarian’ of theGreat Depression, of the Dust Bowl era.”

I am speaking to Contis on the phonefromNewYork. She never knew Lange –who died in 1965 – but having spent threeyears rifling through her photographicarchives in Oakland, California, she hasa new understanding of her vision.

“Thework Lange is famous for actuallycomes from a short span in her lifetime,”Contis explains. Iconic images such as“MigrantMother” comemostly fromthe late 1930s, when shewas workingfor the Resettlement Administrationprogramme (later renamed the FarmSecurity Administration programme) asa photographer documentingmigrationand agriculture. But the photographs inLange’s archives, which span her entirecareer and havemostly never been seenpublicly, reveal a very different artist.

Contiswas struck by how contemporarythe pictures seemed. Lange photographedfamily, strangers and landscapes in astrikinglymodernway. Her croppedcompositions – often fragments of bodies –have a stark, surreal quality.

Contis’s new book,Day Sleeper, is aselection of Lange’s photographs fromthe archive, butmany of them could beContis’s ownwork. The two photographershave amutual interest in certain visualmotifs – such as hands – and croppedcompositions. Contis notes that Lange’s

picture of her young son sleeping in thesun “felt very close” to one she herselfmight havemade.

Looking at Lange’s sequences ofphotographs, Contis began to understandhow sheworked. “I saw her getting closerand closer and closer [to the subject],”she says. “I’ve looked throughmy owncontact sheets and I’ve watchedmyselfmake the samemoves, the same steps andadjustments. This desire to get closer, andto show these fragments of the body – I felta connection in the wayweworked, andthat surprisedme.”

When Contis first visited Lange’sarchive in 2017, her ownDeep Springsproject had just been published.A photographic study of an elite,all-male liberal arts college in a desertvalley near Sierra Nevada, it sharesLange’s interest in isolated body partsand bodies in the landscape.

Lange is “having amoment”,Contis suggests, because her workresonates with our own political andenvironmental conditions. But shestresses that, for Lange, the personal waspolitical. Even Lange’s tender portraitof her other son as an adult, having hishair cut by his wife, is shot throughwithpolitical currents. It was taken next toa valley whose homeswere about to becleared for theMonticello Dam. Langethe documentarian and Lange the familyportraitist are one and the same.

“DaySleeper:DorotheaLange –SamCurtis”is publishedbyMACK

DORO

THEA

LANGE/SA

MCONTIS,

FROM

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Ferran Adrià devised 1,846different dishes whileheading up his legendaryrestaurant on theCosta Brava before heclosed it in 2011. So what’sthe great Catalan chefcooking up now?Nicholas Lander goes toBarcelona to find out

AfterEl Bulli

From top: Ferran Adrià in his El Bulli kitchen, 1995; spice jars on display in therestaurant; with chef de cuisine Maxime Gilbert (left) and executive chef RichardEkkebus, at Amber at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, 2015

Ihave knownFerranAdrià, theexceptional Catalan chef, since1996when I first went to El Bulli,the restaurant on the CostaBrava that hemade so famous.Since thenwehave become

quite close friends.Ourmeetingsstart andfinishwith a series of hugs;wehaveworked together; I ate atEl Bulli just before it closed in 2011;and I even cooked for himonce inour house – roast grousewith all thetrimmings! Yet communicationhas never been easy.Adrià speaks Catalan and

Spanish (which, unfortunately,I don’t) – and only a fewwords ofEnglish.Weboth speak French butAdrià’s is rapid-fire and soon slipsinto Catalan. So, whenwemet inBarcelona last year, the sommelierFerran Centelles –who started atEl Bulli in 1998, when hewas just17 –was an invaluable translator.Adrià, 57, appears to have

changed very little over the years.He still wears the same relaxedclothes. He still has the samequantity of hair, thoughwithmoregrey. Andhe still bristleswithenergy. Above all, his eyes have lostnone of theirmanic intensity.These eyesmust have played

a vital role duringAdrià’s 25 yearsin charge of El Bulli. Preparedby 48 chefs for amaximumof50 customers, El Bulli’s disheswerefamously inventive: the “Texturedvegetable panaché”, for example,which took three years to create;“Twoways of presenting chickencurry”, which included a curry icecream; and, in 1994, theworld’sfirst foam, incorporatingwhitebeans and sea urchins.Five times, El Bulli was voted

the top restaurant on the planet bytheWorld’s 50Best. In 2009, Adriàappeared inThe Simpsons, achievingthe ultimate pop-culture accolade.El Bulli closed two years later.

For the past four years, Adriàhas been holed up in a two-storeyoffice in the centre of Barcelonaplanning its afterlife.His anonymous premises are

reached via a narrow and rathershuddery lift. Inside, we passcases stuffedwithmemorabilia.Magazine covers and newspapercuttings hang from the ceiling –the cover of Timemagazine, thefront page of TheNewYorkTimesand the front page of the FinancialTimes the day after he announcedEl Bulli’s closure in January 2010whenhewas only 47,mainlybecause hewasworn out.“We are building the future

for the next generation of chefs,”saysAdrià.He fixes his eyes onmeand says, “Tellme,Nick, what is G

ETTY

IMA

GES

36 FT.COM/MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 15/16 2020 37

The personal part lies in the factthat there has probably never beena closer association between acertain style of cooking (molecular,whatever thatmay be), a place( El Bulli) and a chef (Adrià).

The historical answer lies in thefiles and cupboards that fill thefloor below.Here, Adrià’s teamhascompiled an enormous referencelibrary devoted to the history ofcooking and especially la nouvellecuisine, which revolutionisedFrench cooking in the late 1960s.

AsAdrià flicks through copies ofGault &Millau, the leading Frenchculinarymagazine of the era, heturns and says: “Butwhere are thevisual records of all thewonderfuldishes these French chefs created?There is not one. And thatmustbe a huge disappointment foreveryone – for the chefswhowereso inspirational, for the customersof the time and for the subsequentgeneration of chefs.”

Adrià and his teamareworkinghard to ensure that this sad stateof affairswill not befall their owngreat culinary revolution.

Nicholas Lander is the FT’sRestaurant Insider

molecular cooking?” But beforeI can stammer out an answer, headds: “Youwill have to tellme,because I don’t know.”

He’s joking, of course.WhileAdrià is not a fan of the term“molecular gastronomy”,which heconsidersmisleading, he is still seenas one of its leading exponents.

He andhis teamare buildingan archive. “Wehave digitisedmorethan 150,000 items, including allmy recipes fromday one,” he says.“Andwewill rename the restaurantsite 1846. Thiswill take its namefrom the number of distinctiverecipes I created and the fact that itwas also the yearAuguste Escoffier,the founder of the principles ofFrench cooking, was born.”

Today, the site is poised towelcome elBulli 1846, a creativitycentre for chefs and otherprofessionals. Buildingworks arealmost complete and it should openimminently. The first “students”can apply online.

Back in Barcelona, Adrià standsup abruptly. (Sitting or standing, itis hard to imagine him staying stillfor long.) “Comewithme,” he says,as if I were a juniormember of hiskitchen brigade.

– Lavazza, Barclays, Nestlé andPepsiCo to name a few.

“These associationsmade all thispossible,” he says, gesturing to thedisplay cabinets. There are old staffuniforms and papier-mâchémodelsof howEl Bulli was laid out. Thereare prototypes of pieces of kitchenequipment that Adrià adapted,such as the Pacojet. “Creativecookery books” line bookshelves.

Heading over to one cabinet,Adrià says, expansively: “By2023, all of this will be housed ina 6,000 squaremetremuseumat a yet unspecified location inBarcelona. This will be – alongwiththe 35 bookswe’re publishing…myculinary legacy.”

This cabinet is extremelycolourful. “These,” Adrià explainswith pride, “are the physicalreplicas of themany ingredientsI created so that the dishes can bebrought back to life on the plate.”

Butmy initial question remains:why has Adrià, assisted by aconsiderable team that includesSoler’s son Panxo and daughterRita, devoted somuch time, effortandmoney into preserving thislegacy? The answer is both personaland historical.

We stop at the first ofmanyglass-topped cupboards to examinea photo of Adrià with the chefsAlain Ducasse and Paul Bocuse.He is justifiably proud of thisphoto and of the next two exhibits– admiring notes fromHestonBlumenthal of The Fat Duck andRené Redzepi of Noma.

“Comewithme,” he exhorts,again.We arrive at two largewalls, which run thewidth ofthe building. “This wall containsthe secret of howEl Bulli madeitsmoney.”

While the restaurant nevermademoney, the business as awhole did.Essentially, it was a consultancyandmentoring companywith arestaurant attached.

“Wewere only open sixmonthsof the year, fromMay to earlyOctober, because that was theperiodwhen the customers wouldwillingly reach us,” says Adrià.That gave us plenty of time to focusonworkingwith companies whowould pay for the association.”

On the wall hangs a list ofthe companies that alignedthemselves with Adrià, the lateJuli Soler (his genial businesspartner) and the El Bulli brand

FT.COM/MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 15/16 2020

Ferran Adrià devised 1,846different dishes whileheading up his legendaryrestaurant on theCosta Brava before heclosed it in 2011. So what’sthe great Catalan chefcooking up now?Nicholas Lander goes toBarcelona to find out

AfterEl Bulli

From top: Ferran Adrià in his El Bulli kitchen, 1995; spice jars on display in therestaurant; with chef de cuisine Maxime Gilbert (left) and executive chef RichardEkkebus, at Amber at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, 2015

Ihave knownFerranAdrià, theexceptional Catalan chef, since1996when I first went to El Bulli,the restaurant on the CostaBrava that hemade so famous.Since thenwehave become

quite close friends.Ourmeetingsstart andfinishwith a series of hugs;wehaveworked together; I ate atEl Bulli just before it closed in 2011;and I even cooked for himonce inour house – roast grousewith all thetrimmings! Yet communicationhas never been easy.Adrià speaks Catalan and

Spanish (which, unfortunately,I don’t) – and only a fewwords ofEnglish.Weboth speak French butAdrià’s is rapid-fire and soon slipsinto Catalan. So, whenwemet inBarcelona last year, the sommelierFerran Centelles –who started atEl Bulli in 1998, when hewas just17 –was an invaluable translator.Adrià, 57, appears to have

changed very little over the years.He still wears the same relaxedclothes. He still has the samequantity of hair, thoughwithmoregrey. Andhe still bristleswithenergy. Above all, his eyes have lostnone of theirmanic intensity.These eyesmust have played

a vital role duringAdrià’s 25 yearsin charge of El Bulli. Preparedby 48 chefs for amaximumof50 customers, El Bulli’s disheswerefamously inventive: the “Texturedvegetable panaché”, for example,which took three years to create;“Twoways of presenting chickencurry”, which included a curry icecream; and, in 1994, theworld’sfirst foam, incorporatingwhitebeans and sea urchins.Five times, El Bulli was voted

the top restaurant on the planet bytheWorld’s 50Best. In 2009, Adriàappeared inThe Simpsons, achievingthe ultimate pop-culture accolade.El Bulli closed two years later.

For the past four years, Adriàhas been holed up in a two-storeyoffice in the centre of Barcelonaplanning its afterlife.His anonymous premises are

reached via a narrow and rathershuddery lift. Inside, we passcases stuffedwithmemorabilia.Magazine covers and newspapercuttings hang from the ceiling –the cover of Timemagazine, thefront page of TheNewYorkTimesand the front page of the FinancialTimes the day after he announcedEl Bulli’s closure in January 2010whenhewas only 47,mainlybecause hewasworn out.“We are building the future

for the next generation of chefs,”saysAdrià.He fixes his eyes onmeand says, “Tellme,Nick, what is G

ETTY

IMA

GES

36 FT.COM/MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 15/16 2020 37

The personal part lies in the factthat there has probably never beena closer association between acertain style of cooking (molecular,whatever thatmay be), a place( El Bulli) and a chef (Adrià).

The historical answer lies in thefiles and cupboards that fill thefloor below.Here, Adrià’s teamhascompiled an enormous referencelibrary devoted to the history ofcooking and especially la nouvellecuisine, which revolutionisedFrench cooking in the late 1960s.

AsAdrià flicks through copies ofGault &Millau, the leading Frenchculinarymagazine of the era, heturns and says: “Butwhere are thevisual records of all thewonderfuldishes these French chefs created?There is not one. And thatmustbe a huge disappointment foreveryone – for the chefswhowereso inspirational, for the customersof the time and for the subsequentgeneration of chefs.”

Adrià and his teamareworkinghard to ensure that this sad stateof affairswill not befall their owngreat culinary revolution.

Nicholas Lander is the FT’sRestaurant Insider

molecular cooking?” But beforeI can stammer out an answer, headds: “Youwill have to tellme,because I don’t know.”

He’s joking, of course.WhileAdrià is not a fan of the term“molecular gastronomy”,which heconsidersmisleading, he is still seenas one of its leading exponents.

He andhis teamare buildingan archive. “Wehave digitisedmorethan 150,000 items, including allmy recipes fromday one,” he says.“Andwewill rename the restaurantsite 1846. Thiswill take its namefrom the number of distinctiverecipes I created and the fact that itwas also the yearAuguste Escoffier,the founder of the principles ofFrench cooking, was born.”

Today, the site is poised towelcome elBulli 1846, a creativitycentre for chefs and otherprofessionals. Buildingworks arealmost complete and it should openimminently. The first “students”can apply online.

Back in Barcelona, Adrià standsup abruptly. (Sitting or standing, itis hard to imagine him staying stillfor long.) “Comewithme,” he says,as if I were a juniormember of hiskitchen brigade.

– Lavazza, Barclays, Nestlé andPepsiCo to name a few.

“These associationsmade all thispossible,” he says, gesturing to thedisplay cabinets. There are old staffuniforms and papier-mâchémodelsof howEl Bulli was laid out. Thereare prototypes of pieces of kitchenequipment that Adrià adapted,such as the Pacojet. “Creativecookery books” line bookshelves.

Heading over to one cabinet,Adrià says, expansively: “By2023, all of this will be housed ina 6,000 squaremetremuseumat a yet unspecified location inBarcelona. This will be – alongwiththe 35 bookswe’re publishing…myculinary legacy.”

This cabinet is extremelycolourful. “These,” Adrià explainswith pride, “are the physicalreplicas of themany ingredientsI created so that the dishes can bebrought back to life on the plate.”

Butmy initial question remains:why has Adrià, assisted by aconsiderable team that includesSoler’s son Panxo and daughterRita, devoted somuch time, effortandmoney into preserving thislegacy? The answer is both personaland historical.

We stop at the first ofmanyglass-topped cupboards to examinea photo of Adrià with the chefsAlain Ducasse and Paul Bocuse.He is justifiably proud of thisphoto and of the next two exhibits– admiring notes fromHestonBlumenthal of The Fat Duck andRené Redzepi of Noma.

“Comewithme,” he exhorts,again.We arrive at two largewalls, which run thewidth ofthe building. “This wall containsthe secret of howEl Bulli madeitsmoney.”

While the restaurant nevermademoney, the business as awhole did.Essentially, it was a consultancyandmentoring companywith arestaurant attached.

“Wewere only open sixmonthsof the year, fromMay to earlyOctober, because that was theperiodwhen the customers wouldwillingly reach us,” says Adrià.That gave us plenty of time to focusonworkingwith companies whowould pay for the association.”

On the wall hangs a list ofthe companies that alignedthemselves with Adrià, the lateJuli Soler (his genial businesspartner) and the El Bulli brand

FT.COM/MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 15/16 2020


Just whenwe need themmost, citrusfruits come through. In the very deadof winter, when every part of uswantsto shut down and hibernate, they arrivein all their exuberant glory to jolt oursenseswide awake and remind us thatthere is still joy in theworld. On thedrabbest of days, a bowl of oranges

and lemonswill brighten up the darkest room,glowing in their sunny colours. And few thingscan be as uplifting as the simple act of peeling aclementine – the fleshy feel of the peel, the spritzof scented oil, that bright sweet sharpness withthe first bite…

So if, like us, you feel the need to celebratewinter, we can think of nothing better thanthis: a rack of baby back ribs that has spent aconsiderable amount of time in the ovenwitha simple but extremely potentmarinade ofclementines. The fruity freshness balances therich, savourymeat perfectly.

Indeed, baby backs are cuts worth knowing.They tend to be a bit leaner andmeatier thanspare ribs and, while theymight be slightlymoreexpensive, they are still an economical way tofeed a crowd.

You can break it down to individual ribs orplace thewhole Flintstones-esque rack on thetable. Cutlery is optional here, but best avoided.Youwant people to get stuck in, have some sauceon their faces and fingers that need licking. That’sthe best bit, after all.

Babybackribswithcitrus

Rack ’emup

By Itamar Srulovich. Recipe by Sarit [email protected]

A feast for six to eight

You could halve thisrecipe and feed just threeor four, but it does takerather a lot of oven time,so I always think it’s worthdoing two racks at a time.

For the salt rub• 3 tbs sea salt flakes• 1 tbs roughly groundcoriander seeds• 1 tsp roughly groundblack pepper• Zest of two clementines

For themarinade• 4 clementines (use thetwo zested ones here),quartered, about 400g• 100g dark brown sugar• 4 tbs cider vinegar

• 2 racks of baby back ribs(pork, each about 900g)• 1 orange, cutinto segments• 1 large onion, cutinto segments

1—Mix the sea salt,coriander seeds, blackpepper and clementinezest together for the saltrub and sprinkle all overthe racks on both sides.Set aside for two hours.

2—Make the marinade ina food processor, blitzingthe clementines, darkbrown sugar and cidervinegar into a smoothpaste, skin and all.

3—Heat an oven to 180C(fan assist). Place theorange and onion wedgesin a tray large enoughto contain the racks inone layer. Lay the ribson top, bone-side down.Cover with a third of themarinade and pop intothe oven, uncovered,for 30minutes.

4—Remove and bastewith another third ofthe marinade. Add acup of water to thebottom of the tray tokeepmoist (the watershould not touch theribs). Roast for a further30minutes uncovered.

5—Remove from theoven and baste for the lasttime with the remainingmarinade. Check if thereis any water left in thebottom of the tray. Ifnot, add somemore.Cover and return to theoven, reducing the heatto 160C (fan assist).Cook for another hour.

6—Remove and baste thetop of the ribs lightly withthe liquid in the bottom ofthe tray, adding a coupleof tablespoons of water,if needed. Cook foranother 30minutes,before removing thecover and crisping upthe top for the last 10minutes before serving.

38

Photographs by Patricia Niven



With recommended retail prices and UK importers where relevant.

FOR VALUE• Kardos 2018£12 Boutinot• Patricius 2018£13.95 Enotria & Coe• Grand Tokaj 2018£14.60 Pol Roger• Barta, Pince Egy Kis 2018£14.95 Corney & Barrow• Disnókö 2018£15 González Byass• Tokaj-Hétszölö Organic£16 Les Caves de Pyrène• Füleky 2014£17.50 Amathus Drinks• Tokaj Nobilis, Rány 2018£17.50 Novel Wines

• Royal Tokaji,Mézes Mály 2017£20 Bibendum• Gizella 2018£21 Wine Rascals• Zsirai Winery 2016£21.35 Jascots• Dobogó 2016£23 Liberty Wines• Szarka Pince,Juharos 2018£24.49 Top Selection

FOR QUALITY• Any Szepsy wine£34.50-£97.48Top Selection

• Zsirai, Szent Tamás 2018£30.62 Jascots• Sauska, Birsalmás 2017£37.50 Berkmann

Did youknow that this isFurmint February?Youmight not evenknowwhatFurmint is. It’s not a breath

freshener or a sweetmeat but thesignature grape variety ofHungary’smost famouswine, knownasTokajiinHungarian and once knownwidely as Tokay. In the 18th century,when sweetwineswere the heightof fashion, Tokaji was considered anelixir of life. It was quite possibly themost famouswine in Europe.After the collapse of

communism in 1989, westernwine companies flooded into thevolcanic Tokaj region to investin its vineyards and its networkof cellars, lined typically withthick blackmould. And sincethen, there has been nothingshort of a revolution, leading toamost impressive upgrade inthe quality of this historic wine.Instead of churning out cheapsticky stuff for Sovietmarkets,local expertise has been allowed– nay, encouraged – to flourish.Yet this has been a distinctly

qualified success. The problem isthat sweet wines are regrettablyso unfashionable. Andwhile thenobly rotten sweetness of Tokajiis amply balanced by a crystallineacidity that can preserve it fordecades, people still aren’t buyingthis sort of wine – known asTokaji Aszú – in great quantities.(Aszú is theHungarian namefor grapes andwines affected bynoble rot, the process bywhichfungus attacks grapes,makingthem extremely sweet.)Another problem is that

summers have been getting hotterand drier. As a result, the numberof vintages in which the noble rotfungus (which needs humidity)does its sugar-concentratingwork andAszú berries areproduced has declined from anaverage of about six per decadeto three. The really sweet winesthat characterise Tokaji are,therefore,much,muchmoredifficult tomake these days.

In 2000, Tokaj’s uncrownedking of winemaking, István Szepsy,experimentedwithmaking a drywine from the Furmint grown in aparticularly characterful vineyard,Úrágya, in the delightfully namedvillage ofMád. At a presentation ofhis wines in Budapest in 2010, heexplained: “It wasmade by chance.I didn’t want tomake drywinesbecause I didn’t believe in themthen, but we didn’t have enoughAszú grapes toworkwith. I tastedthis and thought, ‘Hmmm.’” Itwas still amiracle of complexityat 10 years old, even if it lackedthe absolute tension of Szepsy’snext attempt at a dry Furmintin 2003. This beautiful winewasmade from a part of the highly

regarded Szent Tamás vineyardthat Szepsy reckonedwasn’tsuitable for sweet wine production.After Szepsymade his examples

in 2000 and 2003, it came to thegeneral attention of Tokaj wineproducers that these drywineswere rather good andmight beconsiderably easier to sell thanmore expensive sweet wines.Since then, dry varietal Furmint

has really caught on, and single-vineyardwines, both sweet anddry, have become a focus forTokaji producers. Royal Tokaji, forexample, the producer foundedwith encouragement frommyfellowwinewriterHugh Johnson,made its first dry Furmint in 2009;and recently renamed its entry-level version TheOddity in anattempt to persuade people to tryit out of curiosity. Today,most ofthe 120 producers in the Tokajregion tend to assign a good half oftheir grapes to drywine initiallyand then leave the rest on the▶

Recommended dry Furmint wines

‘Instead of churning outcheap sticky stuff for Sovietmarkets, local expertise hasbeen allowed to flourish’

TryTokaji, but keep it dry

JancisRobinsonWine

Tasting notes onPurple Pages ofJancisRobinson.com.International stockists onWine-searcher.com.

As imagined by Leon Edler


◀vine, hoping that noble rot willeventually arrive and yield theAszú berries needed for a sweetwine. Yet, asHungarianwinewriter László Bálint pointed outin a recent seminar in London:“Hoping for Aszú can be a realrisk. If youwent all out for Aszú,you’d go bankrupt in a year.”Furmint is an ancient grape

variety that seems to haveoriginated in Tokaj, where it is byfar the dominant grape, althoughthere is also a little perfumedHárslevelü and grapeyMuscat.Furmint is also now grown in

other parts of Hungary, in Croatiaand north-eastern Slovenia, whereit’s known as Šipon andwheresome rather well-priced dryvarietal examples such as thosefromVerus and Dveri-Pax canbe found.Although Furmint has a

wonderfully strong character –all fire and brimstone on a driedapricot base – it is not that easytomake a fine dry wine from it.It has particularly thick skinsfull of chewy phenolics, so care isneeded tomake dry whites that arenot too astringent. For the samereason, yields should not be toolow, otherwise these dry Furmintswould be just too concentrated.

This year is the second FurmintFebruary and 36 producershave been to London to drumup enthusiasm for the grape.I concentrated on the drywinesand found quite a variety of styles.Somewere slightly too obviouslyoaky, while others were relativelysimplewinesmade in stainlesssteel. Clearly, dry Furmint hasthe ability to age: the Füleky2014, for example, was stillfresh and remarkably lively fora five-year-oldwine. That said,I found a slightly stale beeswaxcharacter in some other olderwines that was a little off-putting.Most of themwere 100 per

cent Furmint, and I assumedthat blending with other grapesmight dilute the quality, but, infact, Gizella’s Furmint with 15 percent Hárslevelü was delightful.This producer seems particularlyconscientious, making wineswith notable purity. Yet the onewhose wines really stood outwas Szepsy. Dry Furmints tendto retail in the UK for about£12 to £25 a bottle but a retailprice of £34.50 was given inthe tasting booklet for Szepsy’sEstate Furmint, while the famousÚrágya and Szent Tamás single-vineyard bottlings were £58.50and nearly £100 respectively.Other producers whosewines

stood out forme, for quality and/or value, were Barta, CarpinusFamily, Disnókö, Dobogó, GrandTokaj, Szarka Pince and Zsirai.

More columns at ft.com/jancis-robinson

—When I amnot cooking at Frenchie, I like to letmy hair down at LeRubis(above left) in the first arrondissement. It’s where all the chefs in Paris gowhen they’re not in their own kitchens, the menu changes every day andthe owner is a great friend of mine. Lately, one of my favourite dishes hasbeen a roti de veau avec un foie de girolles (roasted veal with foie grasand girolle mushrooms), washed down with many glasses of Brouilly.

— I would recommend The French Bastards to anyone. Owned by threeyoung guys, this boulangerie/patisserie is in the Oberkampf, which isknown for being the “cool” district. I love their new inventions, such as“cruffins” (above right), and I never leave without a bag of pastries. Butthe bread is something truly special. Don’t go without trying their babka.

—Adar is one of the best places in the city for a quick lunch. Chef TamirNahmias used to work withme at Frenchie before he opened it. HemakesFrench-Israeli food, which is something of a novelty in Paris.

— I also love Racines in the Passage des Panoramas. Simone Tondo’smenu changes daily, depending on what ingredients he can find. I lovehow he makes Italian dishes a little bit “French”, even if it’s just by usingFrench ingredients. Every city needs a fantastic trattoria.

— At night, I like socialising at Aux Deux Amis, which is also in theOberkampf. You’ll be lucky to get a seat but it’s worth trying. There arealways interesting people to meet and the dishes are perfect for sharing.

Greg Marchand is chef-patron of the Frenchie restaurants in Parisand London; frenchie-restaurant.com

MY ADDRESSES— PARISGREG MARCHAND, CHEF

‘Furmint has a wonderfullystrong character but itis not that easy tomakea fine dry wine from it’


Seaweed is the backbone to our kitchenlarder. From sea lettuce (whichmakes great canapé crackerswhendehydrated in the oven) to nori (very

versatile when blitzed into a powder), everytype of seaweed has its ownparticular flavour.Many ofmy favourite early foodmemories

involve Japanese cuisine;my love of seaweedbegan in childhood.Weused to go for dinnerat a local sushi restaurant. In addition to that,regular visits tomy Japanese step-grandmaMiwako’s housewere rewardedwith deliciousplatters ofmaki and temaki rolls, andmymumused to spreadhummus over sheets ofnori, then roll themup as a snack. I rememberbeing obsessedwith their smell and crunch.The glutamates in seaweed create umami,

which canbe harnessed inmanyways. Partof ourmise en place is tomake kombudashi,a base stock of kombu andwater. This issoaked overnight and cooked gently at 60C(anyhotter and it can becomebitter). Thedashi is thenused to give extra depth to fishsauces andmeat broths, while the leftoverkombu is braised for 48 hours in sake,mirinand soy. This transforms the texture fromtough to tender; the flavour is almost likeiodine-infused liquorice.We also use kombu

to cure salmon and trout – seaweedhydratedwith sake is laid flat on the fish for 24hours.We then cure the fishwith salt and sugar. Theresult is a powerful, lingeringmineral taste.Kombu vinegar is a larder staple, which

Imake using La Guinelle white Banyulsvinegar fromTheVinegar Shed.Whencombinedwith a kombu infusion, this isa perfect way to pep up a sauce. Anothermust-have inmykitchen is pickled dulse.I’m currently using it as a base for a seaweedbeurre blanc, that’s split withwakame oil.Wakame has a very distinct flavour that’sreminiscent of black tea – great for adding atouch of smokywoodiness to dishes.Weuse seaweedpowders regularly at

ThePass too. I love blitzing nori and foldingit into butter. It can be spread across a pieceof sole and baked or brushed over a rackof saltmarsh lamb.And it pairs brilliantlywith potatoes and root vegetables. Butmyfavouriteway to use it iswith steamedPertuisasparagus accompanied by a hollandaisesauce and a little kick of kombuvinegar.

TomKemble is the head chef of Tom Kembleat The Pass in South Lodge Hotel & Spain Horsham,West Sussex

ANNA

BU

KLIEW

ER

I’D BE LOST WITHOUT...

SeaweedIts powerful, lingering taste can be harnessed in amyriad of ways,making for an essential pantry staple, writes TomKemble


RestaurantsTim Hayward

‘These little sweetheartstasted like they’d beenprancing in the clear,cold seas 15 minutesbefore they perishedon the plancha’

WHOLE GUINEA FOWL, WILD OREGANO AND OLIVES (LEFT) AND PRUNE AND ARMAGNAC TART. PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIRSTIE YOUNG

It shouldn’t surprise anyoneto hear that another fineindependent restaurant hasopened in Bristol. These daysit seems to happenwith suchregularity that I am consideringsome sort of season-ticketarrangement into TempleMeads.If other parts of the country areto get any kind of look-in, we canonly skim the surface of the city’sscene but chef Freddy Bird is a bitof a culinary grande fromage thereand so his latest launchwarranteda special trip.littlefrench sits in a rank of

bijou shops inWestbury-on-Trym,awondrous twee nook just offtheDowns – if estate agents failto use theword “idyll”, they areuncharacteristically underselling.I’d suffered something of a

disaster on theM4 onmywaydown, involving a blowout, a70mph skid and awheel change inthe rain, butmy date, recognisingmy unstable state, orderedfrom the long and poetic wine

for an entire geological epoch andthen dressed inMadeira sauce.The sweetbreadswere on point

but the sauce needs extra criticalappreciation because it’s a bit of asynecdoche for what Bird is up tohere. Nobody bothers tomake vealdemi-glace anymore. I’m prettysuremost cooks have no ideawhatit is and those that do either can’tbe botheredwith the faff or can’tsee its place in a contemporaryrestaurant. They’re right, it’s atotal faff, but Bird knows its place:veal demi-glace is – almost literally– the “base” of French bistrocookery and, as such, reassuresand delights the food nerd.You could call “Chanterelle

and Beaufortmacaronade” poshmacaroni cheese, but only if youwere comfortable that such adescription covered the deeplyseductivewiles of theHaute-Savoie’s best-kept secret and thefrankly pheromonic humof thesewildmushrooms. If they took thisdish “up theDowns” and buriedit deep, I would oink, squealand root it out withmynose.Now, like some burned-out old

addict scoring the good stuff onelast time, I felt wonderful thingsflowing throughmy veins, tanglednerves smoothing out and jarredsynapses reconnecting.We calledfor a tranche of brill, leeks,Bayonne hamwith beurre rouge,a gorgeous, beard-coating andvinous unction, and to balance thejoy, gem lettucewith a fine herb,anchovy, crème-fraîche dressing.(I think I ordered this last throughguilt but I’m selling it as a triumphof balance and prudent choice).Vieille Prunewas offered as it

is in only the very finest of places.Two hours ago, I’d have needed it tosettlemy shrieking nerves. Now itwas a joy, the perfect punctuationto awarmand gorgeous evening.JonathanGold oncewrote:

“[The] first responsibility of anygreat restaurant is to keep you inthe bubble, the soft-serve cocoonof illusionwhere you forget theworld exists for anything but yourpleasure.”With his attention todetail, his clear and apparentlove of his craft, and his absurdlylabour-intensive, old-fashionedstocks and glazes, Bird nails it…and it centresmy soul.

list and got in a plate ofmilk-fed Pyrenean lamb chops andkidneyswithDijonmustard.Lollipops for grown-up apexpredators... sweet, fattily crisp,flanked by a gutsy little kidneyandmollifiedwith pipe-clearingmustard. I could feel it going down,everymouthful, righteningmyrelationshipwith a brutal world.Wine and kidneys on-board,

I could adjourn to the bathroom,scrape the last of the oil, brakedust and burnt rubber offmyfingers and calm the shakes… awisemove as the langoustines withmayonnaise deserved the digitaldexterity of a vascular surgeon.But God, it wasworth thework.I’m not sure quite howmuchBristol is still a viable seaport,but these little sweethearts tastedlike they’d been prancing inclear, cold seas 15minutes beforethey perished on the plancha.If I was the sort of chapwho

worried aboutwhat happened tothe rest of themilk-fed lamb (I’mnot), I would have been reassuredwhen its ductless glands appearedonmyplate, alongwith chunks ofpig’s trotter that had been cooked

littlefrench2B North ViewWestbury ParkBristol BS6 7QBlittlefrench.co.ukStarters £8-£12Main courses £15-£20

littlefrench,Bristol

[email protected];@TimHayward


All the answers hereare linked in someway. Once you’vespotted the link, anyyou didn’t know thefirst time aroundshould become easier.

1.Which title forJesus is first usedby John the Baptistin the Gospel ofJohn, chapter one?

2.What was the lastfilm by the MarxBrothers (above) tofeature ZeppoMarx?

3.Which Natocountry has thesecond largest army,after America?

4.Which book seriesby RL Stine is the

second biggestselling in history,afterHarry Potter?

5. First used in 1870sAmerica, whichphrase means thekind of politicsin which a localrepresentativemisuses federalfunds to benefithis constituents?

6.Which phrasemeaning a strange,disorientatingsituation comesfrom the title of theopening chapter ofAlice’s Adventures inWonderland (right)?

7.Which number onesingle of the 1980sincludes the lyrics:

“Stick a deckchairup your nose”?

8.Which Broadwayshow, written byEric Idle, won the2005 Tony awardfor Best Musical?

9.What’s the commonword for London’sYeomanWarders?

10.Which footballclub were originallycalled ThamesIronworks?

+ =

2 3 5 6 7 8

00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00

1

11

9

13

4

12

10

14 15

16

19

21

24

26

28

22

18

20

25

17

23

27

The Across clues are straightforward, while the Down clues are cryptic.

Who or what do these pictures add up to?

The CrosswordNo 475. Set by Aldhelm

A Round on the Linksby JamesWalton

The Picture Roundby JamesWalton

Answers page 10

ACROSS1Kin (6)4 Trip, stumble (4, 4)9 Short-tempered (5)10 Position, place (9)11Commonwildduck (7)12Outdo, eclipse (7)13 Demonstrate (4)14 Alienate (8)17 Fire-startingwood (8)19 Adoration (4)22 Passage, route (7)24 Distantsettlement (7)25Most popular TVviewing period (5, 4)26Of the pelvicbone (5)27Honour (8)28 Rude, risqué (6)

DOWN1Primaryway ofworkinginwooded region (8)2 Smith’s jobwithLondon police isdispensing lawwithalternative outlook,finally (9)3Amateur playmany embraced (6)5Writer and authorearnsmillions, right?Possibly (6, 7)6Co-operation isworking after troublereturns (7)7 I’ll avoid losinglid, perhaps – thereyou go! (5)8 Bell’s doppelgänger (6)10Hilarious scamincluding dodgy dietpills – heartless (4-9)15City districtorganisedmotions forfinancial expert (9)

16 Take second halffor food inNew York state (8)18Number processedwaste that’s not aproblem (2, 5)20 Increase setchanges forlittle dog (4, 2)21Hall has a greatvictory removing thelast two characters (6)23One offer foreast stand (5)

Solution to Crossword No 474

A A S E A S O N TM A A A U A R A EO W N E D A D O NN A D A I A E A NO U T S U R C EC A R A A A A A SH E A R T L E S SR A P A O A N A EO N S E T A C L E

O

I C K E T AA E A N A WC A S T E RA S A E A OA N R O NA L A A A GA E A R T HA S A A A EP S Y D R A

E

M A A A E A L A AA X I O A O R PT A N A P A S A II N T R O D U C EC A E A L A R A CA I R R E V E R E

MA A A I A DH N A G EA D A N A DA U N T I LA L A L A YN T L Y A A

A

GamesG

ETTY

IMAG

ES

46 FT.COM/MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 15/16 2020ILLUSTRATION BY SHONAGH RAE

[email protected]; @gilliantett

state government. In North Carolina, the reversehasoccurred(andsinceRepublicanshaverecentlycontrolledmore state legislatures, they tend tobeaccusedof gerrymanderingmostoften).As Persily has warned, this means that

“courts are notmere referees of the redistrictingprocess; they have become active players oftenplaced in the uncomfortable role of determiningwinners and losers in redistricting, and,therefore, elections”.This is presumably not what the Founding

Fathers intended, leastofallsincethelegal frame-

workthatunderpinsall this is itselfcontradictory.Constitutional lawstipulates thatdistricts cannotbe created to reflect racial biases and shouldhave equal populations; state laws mostly indi-cate thatdistricts shouldbecontiguous, compact,competitive, uphold existing political subdivi-sionsandembody“partisan fairness”.But if you create a district that is “competi-

tive” (that is, politically balanced), it is probablynot “compact” due to social clustering. If youcreate a district without paying attention to race(ie “blind”), you may form a less diverse one;conversely, if you try to dilute racial groups, theymight losetheirvoices.Toputitanotherway,any-thing other than ruling lines on amap (as Persilytried)will sparkcontroversy.Of course, there is one possible solution: the

entire process could be taken out of the hands ofelected officials and given to non-elected bureau-crats or citizen juries. Jim Gregory, a Republicanstate representative in Pennsylvania, recentlycalled for the creation of an “IndependentCongressional Redistricting Commission” com-posedof local citizens. “Creatingdistricts that aredrawnby thepublic,without being taintedby thepowers of incumbency and party registration,will ensure competitive elections,” he argued inanopinionpiece thismonth.But while some states (such as Arizona and

Washington) have tiptoed towards using non-partisan local commissions, this is sometimesdeemed“undemocratic”,andtrustinbureaucratsis very lowrightnow.The grimreality is thatAmerica’s political dis-

trict map is likely to become even messier afterthe next census and election – both in termsof political fights and those ridiculously weirdlines on the map. That is good news for somelawyers, or anyone who wants to build politicalsupport by whipping up partisan fights. But it isdismal for democracy.

Acouple of decades ago, NatePersily, a lawprofessor at StanfordUniversity, was asked by a court tohelp draw up the boundaries for apolitical district in Georgia after abitterpoliticalfight.Theexistingboundarieswere,as

inmany US districts, a crazymessof wiggles. Persily sketched out aneat, logicalsquareonamap.Thenhe discovered there was a moun-tain that split the district in two

–whichunleashedanewfight.On another occasion, he tried to settle a redis-

tricting fight in upstate New York by drawing aneat circle around the city of Buffalo. That wasalso shot down; his rational diagram threatenedto merge two bizarrely convoluted districts andlocalpoliticiansfeareditwoulddilutetheirpower.“Redistricting is an impossible problem to

solve,” Persily lamented last week at the SocialScience Foo conference in San Francisco. He pre-sentedmaps showing disputed districts in NorthCarolina, Florida and Pennsylvania. These weremarked with such head-spinningly bizarre linesthattheymighthavebeendrawnbyahyperactivetoddler. “You can either be blind or be fair whenyoudrawadistrict,”hesaid.“Youcannotbeboth.”This is a crucial and depressing point to con-

sider as America heads for viciously partisanelections this November, particularly since theseoccuramidthedecennialcensusthatisusedasthebasisforredistricting(orredrawingboundariestoensureeachdistricthasanequal shareofvoters).Ever since theAmerican republicwas created,

the system for setting borders has been contro-versial and prone tomanipulation. This is partlybecause, in the US (in contrast with many othercountries), the power to set these bordersmostlysits in thehandsof elected state officialswhomayhave incentives to favour theirownpolitical side.The term “gerrymandering”, for example,

was coined in 1812 after Massachusetts gover-nor Elbridge Gerry created a peculiarly shapeddistrict that benefited him. In subsequent cen-turies, the practice spread to such a degree that,in 1987, then president Ronald Reagan declared:“Gerrymanderinghasbecomeanationalscandal.”These days, the battles have intensified to a

new level. That is partly because big data andmapping techniques aremaking it easier forpol-iticians to make microlevel predictions abouthowpeoplewill vote – creatingnew incentives tofine-tune districts.It is also because Americans are increasingly

living in geographical clusters with like-mindedpeople, creating enclaves that are permanently“red” or “blue”. So much so, in fact, that barely10 per cent of congressional seats are deemedtruly competitive in the2020race.Meanwhile, political parties are increasingly

ready to challenge borders in court. InMaryland,Republicanshave launched legal suits against theboundaries created by a Democrat-controlled

‘Ever since the republic wascreated, the system for settingborders has been controversialand prone tomanipulation’

GILLIANTETTPART ING SHOT

America’s otherborder crisis

Documents

FT Weekend Magazine - February 15-16 2020