Famed for his 1991 international bestselling novel Generation X which popularised the titular term, the Canadian Douglas Coupland is celebrated both as a writer and an artist. He is often preoccupied with our relationship to work. He has published 13 novels, two short stories collections, seven works of nonfiction (including a biography of the philosopher Marshall McLuhan, who coined the expression “the medium is the message”), and is currently a Financial Times columnist. In his art he has investigated pop culture and the military, in various media. He has been an artist in residence at the Google Cultural Institute in Paris. His 2018 installation Vortex, at the Vancouver Aquarium, invited visitors to “take an imaginative journey to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and immerse yourself in the ocean plastic pollution crisis”. The big thinker speaks with Vincent Heeringa. Supported by NZ Contemporary Art Trust and Canada Council for the Arts.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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