As Paris embraces early autumn, a new season of exhibitions is getting underway across the city. Here are four shows worth catching this September:
Eva Gonzalès: A Free-Spirited Artistat Petit Palais (15 September 2026 – 24 January 2027)
Despite working alongside the generation of Manet, Morisot and Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès had not received a major retrospective until now. Bringing together almost one hundred paintings, pastels and prints, the Petit Palais looks beyond her reputation as Manet’s only pupil to make the case for Gonzalès as an exceptional artist in her own right.
Andy Warhol: Line and Imageat Musée du Luxembourg (16 September 2026 – 10 January 2027)
This Paris exhibition turns to a less familiar side of Andy Warhol’s practice, his drawing. Around 150 works trace the role that drawing played throughout his career, from his early commercial illustrations to preparatory studies for some of his best-known images. These are accompanied by paintings, photographs and archival material.
Kerry James Marshall: The Historiesat Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (18 September 2026 – 24 January 2027)
Kerry James Marshall receives his first exhibition in France with The Histories, bringing together 70 works, which include eight new paintings created for specifically this show. Known for placing Black figures at the centre of monumental compositions, Marshall draws on the traditions of Western art and focuses his attention to how history and representation are constructed.
Monet: Painting Timeat Musée de l’Orangerie (30 September 2026 – 25 January 2027)
Marking 100 years since Claude Monet’s death, Painting Time considers the artist’s fascination with capturing the passage of time. His famous series of haystacks and cathedrals reveal how the same subject could be transformed by changing light and atmosphere, before the exhibition arrives at the monumental Water Lilies that make the Orangerie itself such an iconic place to witness Monet.
As a leading designer leather brand of China, Grotto was founded in Hong Kong in 2001. Rooted in leathercraft, the brand is dedicated to innovative design and timeless craftsmanship.
At a time when algorithms and efficiency increasingly shape consumer choice, original designer leather goods brand Grotto reaffirms this belief through its brand philosophy “Difference Is a Gift.” The very qualities that make each person unique and impossible to replicate are, in fact, among the rarest gifts of our time.
As the global fashion industry enters an era in which “difference” has become increasingly difficult to define, individuality itself has become worth reclaiming and defending. Against this backdrop, Grotto enters its 25th year.
The brand recently announced multihyphenate artist Cai Xukun, known as Kun, as its first global brand ambassador — positioning the partnership around a shared creative spirit and introducing its new brand philosophy, “Difference Is a Gift.”
For Grotto, its 25th anniversary is more than just a milestone. It marks a deeper evolution of the brand’s perspective and vision — from 25 years of accumulated dedication toward a broader global narrative.
A Shared Creative Spirit
In choosing its first global ambassador, Grotto defines this collaboration as a search for a creative reflection of shared values.
Kun’s multifaceted career embodies the spirit of “Difference Is a Gift.” He is a singer, music producer and music video director. The seamless movement between these creative roles defies any single label.
Even more compelling is the evolution of his creative journey in recent years — from the center of the spotlight toward creation, reflection and self-renewal; from externally defined identities toward authentic self-expression. This inward confidence resonates deeply with Grotto’s long-standing commitment to celebrating individuality.
The brand’s perspective has similarly evolved — from an advocate of individuality to an observer of authentic everyday life. Rather than pursuing grand narratives, Grotto turns its attention to the countless individuals whose lives remain untouched by standardization. It speaks both to what we receive and to the talents we possess — something precious that every person offers to themselves and to the world.
Making ‘Difference’ Tangible
For Grotto, bringing “Difference Is a Gift” to life means embedding difference into its materials and construction. This allows the brand’s identity to emerge through a design language that can be experienced through touch and appreciated over time.
In its choice of materials, the brand rejects the uniformity of machine production in favor of handcrafted leather. Its signature Black Stone leather exemplifies this philosophy. South African sheepskin is vegetable-tanned for three months at a century-old Italian tannery before artisans repeatedly hand-work the leather and leave it to dry naturally.
The pressure of each movement and the changing flow of air determine the unique character of every hide. Industrial production creates perfection; craftsmanship creates difference. No two Grotto bags in the world share the exact same grain.
Grotto’s distinct identity comes from more than its materials alone. Since its founding, the brand has made the upward-pointing arrow its visual signature, integrating the spirit of “Born for Freedom” into the character “个” with its Chinese name. Over the past 25 years, this arrow logo has evolved into one of Grotto’s most recognizable symbols in China.
The Stone collection, crafted from signature Black Stone leather, extends the brand’s expression of nature and freedom into the realm of product design. Inspired by the forms of natural rocks, each bag features a silhouette shaped by organic landscapes, while the leather develops its distinctive, unpredictable creased texture through hand manipulation.
As a result, every Black Stone bag becomes a one-of-a-kind creation and has grown into one of Grotto’s most iconic and enduring collections.
The Stone collection is one of Grotto’s most iconic and enduring designs.
A highlight of the anniversary collection is the innovative Double Z, which reinterprets the classic Boston bag through a distinctive “bag-in-bag” construction and dual-zipper design. When shut, it presents a refined, understated silhouette. When open, it reveals layered detailing and contrasting interior colors.
One bag offers two distinct expressions, reflecting the modern individual’s effortless movement between restraint and ease, the inner self and outward expression. This original design has already received international recognition, winning the U.S.-based MUSE Design Awards.
The Double Z collection reimagines the Boston bag with a bag-in-bag design.
25 Years of Long-term Commitment
Behind “Difference Is a Gift” lies the brand foundation Grotto has built over the past 25 years. The brand is guided by the values of understated design and continuous innovation. Grotto sources vegetable-tanned leather from Tuscany, Italy, collaborates with leading tanneries worldwide to develop exclusive leather materials and ensures that every Grotto leather good is handcrafted by artisans in its in-house atelier.
Handcrafted in Grotto’s in-house atelier.Artisans hand-work each Oyster hide.
Sustainability is embedded in every detail of the brand’s production and craftsmanship. All partner tanneries are certified by the Leather Working Group (LWG), whose internationally recognized auditing system — developed from standards established by the British Leather Technology Centre (BLC) — evaluates energy efficiency, carbon reduction, environmental protection and management practices.
Hardware components are crafted from medical-grade stainless steel using PVD vacuum electroplating technology, producing no industrial wastewater and complying with the European Union’s RoHS and REACH requirements. Stitching thread is supplied by Germany’s AMANN, certified under the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System, while edge finishing uses Italy’s Fenice water-based edge paint that meets ZDHC standards.
Product packaging is made from FSC-certified recycled paper pulp. The brand also offers long-term maintenance and repair services, extending the life of every bag. This commitment to longevity reflects Grotto’s pursuit of timeless design — an enduring respect for craftsmanship and time.
Sustainable production with international certifications reflects a long-term commitment.
On the global stage, Grotto has appeared at Milan Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week and Berlin Art Week. The brand has also launched a global e-commerce site, offering international consumers a unified brand experience and laying the foundation for long-term global operations.
As it celebrates its 25th anniversary, the brand takes its new philosophy, its first global ambassador and its latest collections as the foundation for a more comprehensive global narrative. Even after 25 years, Grotto’s ethos remains that “Difference Is a Gift.”
August had plenty of exciting new releases in store, from inventive literary fiction to an inside look at the world of professional tennis. Here are five cover designs that especially caught our eye last month.
Etna by Paul Yoon Cover design by Oliver Munday (Scibner, 4 August)
The combination of pink and olive green, paired with the melancholic drawing of a dog wandering away, makes Etna the kind of cover that makes you linger in a bookstore.
The Cruelest Game by Matthew Futterman Cover design by Oliver Munday (Doubleday, 4 August)
There’s something about a good tennis-themed cover… The minimalist colour palette lends The Cruelest Game a neat sense of balance, and the warped racket at its centre adds just enough tension and intrigue.
Unprecedented Times by Malavika Kannan Cover design by Sara Pinsonault & artwork by Shyama Golden (Henry Holt, 18 August)
The watermelony colours, the gorgeous painted artwork, the strange mask that immediately raises questions about the story behind it. What’s not to love?
Life of M by Rachel Cusk Cover design by Rodrigo Corral (Faber & Faber, 27 August)
Cusk covers never disappoint, and Life of M is no exception. A woman’s eyes caught in what appears to be a set of crosshairs immediately draw the viewer in, while the positioning of the title and author’s name anchors the design.
Sunrise by Téa Obreht Cover design by Adriana Tonello (Random House, 11 August)
The warm ombré from yellow to red feels instantly comforting, which makes the skull at the centre all the more intriguing. There’s something autumnal about this one, arriving just as the season begins to turn.
As the heat that defined the summer begins to fade and autumn arrives in London, the city’s exhibition calendar is picking up again. From medieval treasures to contemporary sculpture, here are four exhibitions worth exploring this September.
The Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum (10 September – 11 July 2027)
Nearly 1,000 years after it was made, the Bayeux Tapestry returns to Britain for what is set to be one of London’s biggest museum events of the year. Stretching almost 70 metres, the extraordinary 11th-century embroidery recounts the struggle for the English throne that culminated in William the Conqueror’s victory over Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Its loan from France offers a rare chance to see one of the most famous surviving works of medieval art up close.
Frieze Sculpture at Regent’s Park (16 September – 1 November 2026)
Ahead of Frieze London in October, Regent’s Park becomes an open-air gallery with the return of Frieze Sculpture. This year’s edition brings together works by 11 international artists, including Conrad Shawcross, Tarini Sethi and Angel Otero, scattered throughout the park’s south-east corner. Curated by Fatoş Üstek, the free exhibition offers a more relaxed way to experience contemporary art outside the bustle of the main fair, with sculpture placed in conversation with the surrounding landscape.
Modern Painting from the Courtauld and Reuben Collections at the Courtauld (18 Setptember 2026)
Bringing together major names in European modernism, the exhibition features works by Cézanne, Modigliani, Léger, Picasso and Magritte drawn from the Courtauld’s collection. Among them are Cézanne’s Turning Road (1905), in which the landscape is broken down into blocks of colour, and Modigliani’s Nude (c.1916), an example of the artist’s unique approach to the human figure.
The Unclassified at Korean Cultural Centre UK (25 September – 31 December 2026)
The Unclassified brings together Meekyoung Shin, Ayoung Kim, siren eun young jung and Gala Porras-Kim to question how institutions preserve and interpret objects and histories. One highlight is Shin’s Korean Classic: In Use, for which soap sculptures have spent the summer in public spaces around the UK, changing as people handle and use them before they return to the gallery.
Employee productivity depends on having the right people, skills, schedules, and resources in place. Workforce management helps organizations coordinate these elements while supporting business goals and employee needs. It covers areas such as scheduling, time tracking, forecasting, attendance, workload allocation, and performance monitoring. When these processes are organized effectively, employees can spend less time dealing with administrative problems and more time completing meaningful work. The approach also gives managers better visibility into staffing levels and workload distribution, helping them make informed decisions. Effective workforce management can therefore create a structured environment where employees understand their responsibilities, have manageable workloads, and can perform their roles more efficiently.
How Workforce Management Optimizes Employee Scheduling
Effective scheduling ensures that employees are available when their skills and services are needed. Managers need to consider factors such as employee availability, experience, workload, and the number of people required to meet business objectives.
A well-planned schedule can reduce staffing gaps and prevent employees from being overwhelmed. It also gives workers greater clarity about their working hours and responsibilities. Automated scheduling tools can further simplify the process by helping managers assign appropriate employees to specific jobs.
Using Workforce Management to Balance Employee Workloads
Uneven workloads can create productivity problems. If some employees have too many tasks while others are underutilized, teams may struggle to work efficiently. Workforce management provides managers with greater visibility into workloads across departments, roles, and locations.
This information helps organizations identify coverage gaps and allocate responsibilities more effectively. Managers can also recognize when additional employees or specific skills are required to handle demand.
Balanced workloads can reduce unnecessary pressure and help employees concentrate on their responsibilities. It may also reduce the need for excessive overtime, which can contribute to fatigue and lower performance.
How Workforce Management Improves Time and Attendance Tracking
Accurate time and attendance information helps managers understand employee availability and working patterns. Manual tracking can create administrative work and increase the possibility of errors. Workforce management tools can automate time tracking through time clocks, online timesheets, point-of-sale devices, and mobile applications.
Reliable records help organizations monitor attendance, regular working hours, absences, and overtime. This information can also support more accurate payroll processing.
Workforce Management and Data-Driven Performance Monitoring
Organizations need reliable information to understand whether employees and teams are meeting productivity expectations. Workforce management can help HR leaders track important workforce indicators, including headcount, retention, absenteeism, and other performance-related information.
Data can reveal patterns that may otherwise remain unnoticed. For example, increasing absenteeism or declining performance may indicate that a team requires additional resources, support, or changes in workload distribution.
Managers can also use productivity benchmarks to monitor progress over time. Regular performance reviews allow organizations to recognize achievements while identifying areas that require improvement or additional guidance.
How Workforce Management Reduces Absenteeism and Overtime
Absenteeism and excessive overtime can place additional pressure on teams. When employees are unexpectedly absent, other workers may need to take on extra responsibilities, while managers may have to make last-minute schedule changes.
Workforce management tools can help organizations track absences, leave balances, and staffing levels. This makes it easier to prepare for planned time off and maintain appropriate coverage.
Monitoring working hours can also help managers identify situations where employees are regularly working overtime. Schedules can then be adjusted or workloads redistributed when necessary.
Using Workforce Management to Improve Employee Engagement and Wellbeing
Productivity is influenced by how employees experience their workplace. Workforce management can support a more organized employee experience by providing easier access to schedules, work information, and relevant tools.
Clear communication and transparent scheduling can help employees understand what is expected of them. Efficient workload allocation can also reduce unnecessary pressure and prevent individuals from becoming overwhelmed by excessive responsibilities.
Self-service capabilities can give employees greater control over routine activities, such as viewing schedules or receiving updates. This can reduce dependence on managers or HR teams for basic information.
Conclusion
Workforce management can improve employee productivity by creating better alignment between people, workloads, schedules, and business requirements. Effective scheduling helps ensure appropriate staffing, while workload management prevents employees from becoming unnecessarily overwhelmed. Accurate time and attendance tracking gives managers useful information, and workforce analytics supports more informed performance decisions.
The approach can also help organizations manage absenteeism and overtime while improving transparency and the employee experience. Technology makes these processes easier by automating repetitive activities and providing accessible workforce information.
I often wonder about the quiet lives of influencers, what the people whose SEO captions and sticky smiles turn into when the camera turns off. Do they solemnly pick up the trash they’ve littered during an Amazon unboxing? Who scrubs the pans after each cooking video? And as a matter of fact, turn the camera around so people can see the less-than-savory areas of the home, or the room one is filming in. It’s a plastic life, heavily edited and featured, where you’re unable to distinguish between what you’re doing for content and what you’re doing for life. Or is there a difference?
This is the dilemma Natalie Heller Mills, the snarky and paranoid protagonist of Yesteryear, finds herself in. Actually, it’s worse—she’s a traditional influencer who lives on Idaho’s Yesteryear Ranch, who is the picture-perfect mama to six littles, who assist her in videos and show off their Target hauls cutely, but when the camera turns off, are basically as foreign to Natalie as a stranger. Junebug, the youngest, is continually forgotten, recalling Kate Berlant’s metafictional character of herself as a broadly famous actress, struggling to recall her children’s names. Natalie is damned to a life of hell, providing the following: her body, to be a good Christian wife for her doltish husband, Caleb, the son of an established political star, care for her children (when the nannies, who are coldly called as such, aren’t with them) and content to her hungry viewers. Her lightly cluttered kitchen must seem authentic, but not too much so, lest hordes of trolls come to bite (Natalie refers to them as the “Angry Women” who project their dissatisfaction with their own life onto her). If this isn’t enough, one day, she wakes up dropped into the year 1855 onto a real farm where her hands actually have to get dirty scrubbing the laundry and milking the cows. Be careful what you wish for, indeed.
Frightened and cold, Natalie attempts to escape only to get her foot mangled in a bear trap, then resigns herself to whatever fate she must endure. Her children, roughly the same age but all with different names and temperaments, guide her in this new realm of manual labor, and she most often relies on Mary, a randomly stern sixteen-year-old, effectively the matriarch after Natalie has been complaining and running away so much. Caleb is gruffer than before, and treats the demands of the farm seriously. As if to fully submerge her in the antiquated life, he smacks her the first time she runs away. “A good wife doesn’t speak to her husband that way,” he says after she snarls at her.
The novel alternates between the present (well, past) and Natalie’s coming-of-age as a college girl who finds a home in the Christian club. There, she meets Caleb, and quickly realizes he doesn’t have the dreams of his father, or really, any dreams at all. One day after he’s applying to jobs sluggishly she suggests—what about that crazy idea we had on our first date to own a farm? With his father’s funds, they can afford a tract of land, and it’s less a realization of their dreams than a way to keep Caleb occupied and out of the way. Natalie, basically paid to raise his children, is left to her own devices.
Yesteryear is clearly eager to touch on many things—politicization of masculinity, religious fanaticism, the influencer/mother divide, trappings of tradition—and it’s excusable, sometimes, when it does so inelegantly. A jobless Caleb spends all day listening to conspiracy-addled podcasts run by bearded men warning of societal feminization that he labels, without help, the “Manosphere,” that now-ubiquitous term that really only popped up after the 2024 election. Doug’s nativist presidential stump speech, and the fanbase he cultivates, are awfully Trumpian—“CIVIL WAR IS COMING,” one T-shirt on a spectator reads. These clunky, transparent grasps at mirroring reality are forgivable for a novelist who has a lot of things on her mind, but other errors are less so, like when Natalie’s assistant is noted as nineteen on one page, two pages later as twenty, or when she requests a “nonfat oat milk cappuccino,” which combines two separate milks. Nitpicky errors aside, you know what Burke is trying to tell you, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth listening to.
But the book’s fiercest commentary comes from its prickliest subject. For a novel so blisteringly massive—an instant bestseller, a movie adaptation starring Anne Hathaway in the works a year before the novel’s release—Yesteryear is surprisingly critical of Christianity. Natalie is bound to the word of God, which provides a balm and a torture as she navigates the ancient life. (Like her real life, too.) Unable to find an answer as to why she was dropped in this nightmare, she determines the whole thing is actually a test from God to determine if she’s a good follower, to keep her docile and accepting when Old Caleb, virtually a stranger, says it’s time to make another child. Her delusions are pitiful, and it’s only with Yesteryear’s continual bruise-poking that you get the parallels that both of her lives are relying on the same out-of-reach goal. Through Him, all things are possible, she tells herself.
This acerbic line of thinking gives Yesteryear a welcome, snappy radicalism. In an interview with The New Yorker, Burke said that she had gone down two separate rabbit holes, one of researching tradwives and influencers and one Marxist bender (brought on by her husband, sort of the opposite of a conspiracy-driven Caleb.) Fascinating dual influences notwithstanding, the book’s ideas tumble toward a lousy ending, a letdown of the 400 previous pages (but, with everything in the sky, it’s difficult to bring them all down gently). Natalie never quite gets the difference between fantasy and reality together. And Yesteryear is a riotous thriller that’s eager and willing to speak about What It Means To Be Alive Today. Like the novel itself, it’s an overwhelming jumble, but has its moments.
Stories can begin with almost anything. Strange dreams. Personal encounters. Existing influences. The problem is turning that spark into something with a beginning, middle, and end. That’s why it’s normal for most fiction writers to have a notes app with a graveyard of story ideas. Pilot chapters that trail off mid-scene. Or characters with no plot attached. That’s where AI tools for writing stories can prove useful.
A recent comprehensive survey and analysis found that51% of fiction authors surveyed have used AI. And yes, theseAI tools assist in developing ideas, building characters, shaping plots, generating scenes, and keeping a narrative moving.
With that in mind, here are five picks that help you avoid hitting a wall when writing stories.
Top Five Best AI Tools for Writing Stories
Sudowrite
Sudowrite is well-regarded for fiction writing. Its main highlight is its proprietary model, Muse. An advanced narrative AI that never fails to write unique prose with no filters. This also lets users explore mature themes. Beyond that, it offers a suite of tools that help with the parts of storytelling that often take the most creative energy. Canvas, Brainstorm, and Visualize are made for planning and exploring possibilities. Describe, Story Bible, Write, and Expand help users get past blank-page syndrome. Rewrite and Feedback are for polishing.
Key Features:
End-to-end story assistance that preserves user voice and direction
Supports a diverse set of languages
Dedicated AI assistant for managing and improving existing stories
Pricing:
Free Trial
Hobby & Student Package – $19 per month
Professional Package – $29 per month
Max Package – $59 per month
Real Use Case:
Mystery stories can be tricky to write. Like having a detective discover a clue but not knowing what should happen next. Sudowrite can help brainstorm several possible developments. This allows for different directions to consider.
Novelcrafter
Image Credit: Novelcrafter
Novelcrafter combines AI-assisted writing with a structured workspace for developing stories. Two powerful offerings lead the way. Codex helps build a memory system. That means writers can use it to store and organize their characters, lore, and locations. Genre Guide, on the other hand, assists with monitoring character chemistry, multi-POV arcs, and spin-off creations. Novelcrafter stands out for consistency because it references every detail while planning, writing, and polishing the narrative.
Key Features:
Complete story writing and planning suite
Supports syncing of Claude, OpenAI models, and Gemini
Collaboration tools for team writing and editing
Pricing:
Free Trial
Scribe Package – $4.48 per month
Hobbyist Package – $8.96 per month
Artisan Package – $15.68 per month
Specialist Package – $22.40 per month
Real Use Case:
Novelcrafter can be useful for fantasy writers. It’s easy to lose track of a story with several kingdoms and characters. But the Codex can keep everything organized to help maintain continuity.
Squibler
Squibler offers a more direct approach to AI-assisted storytelling. With its dedicated tools for writing stories and novels, users can generate structured narrative content from prompts. Writers just need to define the characters, genre, and vital plot details. By setting the tone, users receive a draft that aligns with the intended theme and creative direction. Squibler also handles conventions well, with a dedicated genre selection. What’s more, the tool lets writers explore alternate versions of scenes, openings, or endings.
Key Features:
Built-in writing, character, and screenplay templates for getting a solid starting point
Supports more than 80 languages
AI-assisted brainstorming, writing, and editing
Pricing:
Free Package
Plus Package – $29.99 per month
Pro Package – $89.99 per month
Real Use Case:
Aspiring writers can use Squibler to develop their vague premise into characters, conflicts, and a potential storyline. This makes it easier to get a workable draft.
NovelistAI
Image Credit: NovelistAI
NovelistAI is designed around AI-generated storytelling. Up close, writers can use this tool to produce unique stories, add character depth, and maintain a consistent narrative. How? Its advanced AI technology can ensure proper pacing and engaging conflicts. NovelistAI also gives every character distinguishable personalities and profiles. At the same time, it’s capable of catching plot holes and potential inconsistencies. And there’s more. Users can get smart suggestions for dialogue and scene development without losing their voice.
Key Features:
Multi-genre support that adapts to any writing style and convention
Supports over 88 different languages
Access to a library of free books for creative inspiration
Pricing:
Free Package
Premium Package – $12 per month
Pro Package – $48 per month
Real Use Case:
NovelistAI can help writers who aren’t sure what kind of story they want to pursue. The tool can generate different concepts, premises, and narrative possibilities to show which direction sparks a stronger idea.
Inkfluence AI
Inkfluence AI may be a broader platform than just writing stories. But it serves the purpose well. Users just need to explain what story they want to create. Select a genre, specify the topic, target audience, intended tone, and the AI crafts a chapter-by-chapter outline on its own. There’s even an integrated editor that lets writers rewrite, format, and polish the story. And while most tools stop at a manuscript, Inkfluence AI goes further with cover art and formatted export.
Key Features:
Translates output into more than 30 languages
Exports in PDF, EPUB, DOCX, and KDP-ready formats
Built-in cover creator and designer
Pricing:
Free Package
Creator Package – $9.99 per month
Premium Package – $19.99 per month
Real Use Case:
Early stages of writing can be a hassle. Even so, Inkfluence AI can help writers explore different character conflicts and potential turning points. All before deciding which ideas belong in the final plot.
Choosing the Best AI Tools for Writing Stories in 2026
Most stories die because writers don’t know where to begin, how to continue without drifting away, or because they don’t have a direction for how to end it. In short, not every story needs the same kind of help. That’s what makes this list of AI tools for writing stories useful.
That said, choose based on where you’re struggling. Where a story stalls determines which tool actually helps. Sudowrite sharpens the prose. Novelcrafter is better suited to stories with complicated characters and worlds. Squibler makes it easier to turn a rough premise into a structured narrative. NovelistAI encourages experimentation with different story ideas. Inkfluence AI handles a story all the way to a publishable book.
Cinematographer and writer Piper Yu has spent the last decade trying to answer this singular, recurring question: what is the price of being alone and how much do you pay to show up even when you don’t want to? That theme shows itself throughout three script drafts, which also loosely serve as an autobiography. The Better Place is a script tells the story of a young man obsessed with his teacher, stemming from memories of leaving home to go to the ocean as a teenager and instead of getting solace found exile. In Sunset, Yu splits the fear of inadequacy across two brothers. One brother chooses to move aimlessly and avoid taking risks and the other tries to outdo everyone else in order to escape feeling inadequate. Emergency Contact (Yu’s current writing/production project) is the most literal example of that fear of inadequacy. This is about a caregiver who finds herself physically and emotionally isolated in a foreign land (the U.S.) after living there for many years and not really integrating into society. Yu based this character off of her own struggles building a support system here in NYC.
There is a consistent pattern here and it could be viewed as both a strength or weakness. The commonality among these three films created around the same wound suggests a filmmaker that is still processing personal experience vs. someone that has processed their experiences and now has new ideas to explore. It remains unclear if Emergency Contact will represent a resolution of that issue or just another version of the same theme.
As a professional, Piper Yu works as a generalist because she wants to: director, cinematographer, editor and colorist, usually all at once, shooting on Alexa, Red, Sony, Panasonic and BlackMagic cameras, cutting on Premiere, Resolve and Avid. Since moving to Brooklyn from Taipei, her resume is filled with branded commercials and commercial jobs including: Midea, iFFALCON, plus multiple jobs for the cocktail bar Double Chicken Please. Some of her earlier work in Taiwan included: music video production for SKR Music and Chiming Publish, assisting with camera equipment on shoots for Uniqlo, Decathlon and NYT T Brand Studio, same day post-production editing for Taiwan Plus.
Yu’s festival history includes: Bad Daughter selected for Kyoto Cinematica; a top ten placement for Ulam Asian in a 48-hour filmmaking competition sponsored by the Asian International Film Festival; a nomination for Fatima at Queens World; and screenings of The Better Place at Women Make Waves and Windows of Formosa. Yu has not yet made a feature-length film. Her commercial reel stands as a technical achievement in its own right: a Midea dishwasher ad for Amazon, a iFFALCON social media campaign, plus directing work for Double Chicken Please’s fifth anniversary film.
What I find to be the more compelling narrative of the two (and perhaps more compelling than each individually) is the way in which Yu’s short-form confessionals contrast against her commercially-driven work. Yu’s personal projects are where we see her authorial voice; Yu’s commercially-driven work is where we see her technical abilities put to use and rewarded. While these two worlds have not intersected on any one large-scale project, Emergency Contact, currently in development, represents Yu’s first opportunity to take her recurring themes of isolation outside of the confines of the short-film circuit and determine if her skills as a generalist will translate into a cohesive directorial identity.
Compared to the slots of today, old mechanical slots had a simpler, more visible mechanism, which is one reason some players say they still find them appealing. The player put the coin in the slot, pulled a lever and waited for the mechanical reels to come to a stop. There weren’t the graphics, animations and fancy bonus mechanics typically seen today, just instant results delivered by the mechanical gears, springs and levers within the cabinet.
We should point out that their simplicity does not mean they were fairer than modern machines, as that’s just not true. Modern gaming machines are more regulated than ever to ensure they deliver random and fair outcomes. That said, some players may describe the older mechanism as feeling more transparent, simply because its physical parts were visible and easier to follow.
When the Reels Were the Mechanism
Charles Fey built the Liberty Bell in San Francisco in 1895. Historical accounts of the machine, including records held by the Nevada Gaming Control Board and slot-machine historians, describe its cast-iron gears, springs and stopping mechanism as adaptations of the coin-operated vending and clockwork engineering already common at the time. It was less a gambling innovation than a mechanical one — the same core principles that governed music boxes and early cash registers, repurposed to spin three weighted reels and stop them at a readable position.
The very first slots were all powered mechanically and would typically dispense tokens to winners that could be exchanged for prizes in the establishment they were located. According to the RNG testing company Gaming Laboratories International, machines such as the first popular three-reel slot, the Liberty Bell, would rely on the reels and mechanical mechanisms to deliver random results. Air, friction, speed and timing would all have an influence on how the reels stopped.
For most players, the experience was easy to understand. The reels and the symbols would spin, and if they landed in a certain combination, they’d win a prize. The player could see with their own eyes how the mechanism was working.
Modern Systems are More Hidden
According to U.S. Patent 4,448,419, filed by engineer Inge Telnaes and issued in 1984, the shift accelerated when microprocessors were introduced to control reel-stop positions electronically. This was built on electromechanical machines from the 1960s and 70s, which had already added circuit boards to control payouts. From that point on, the reel functioned as a display rather than the actual mechanism determining the result.
As for more modern slot machines, how they work is not anywhere near as visible. The reels no longer have a part to play in determining results, and it is hidden software and mathematical algorithms known as random number generators that now determine the outcome of each spin.
Even though the player might see the symbols spinning on the reels, that visual representation means nothing to the result. The outcome is already decided by the slot’s underlying RNG the moment the spin button is pressed. The spinning, graphical effects and animations that look like they have come from top video games are just there for visual purposes.
How Modern Slots Are Tested for Fairness
What players can no longer see has been replaced by testing and certification. Independent laboratories such as Gaming Laboratories International audit random number generators and verify that a game’s mathematical model performs as declared before it reaches the market.
In Canada, gaming is regulated at provincial level. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, for example, requires slot games to be tested by an independent laboratory and certified as random before they can be offered through the province’s regulated iGaming market.
Return-to-player, or RTP, is often misunderstood in this context. It does not decide individual spins. It is the long-run percentage of stakes a game is designed to pay back across millions of results, derived from the game’s underlying maths. Any single session can fall well short of it or well above it, so it shouldn’t be used to predict or plan individual results.
Anyone concerned about their play can find free, confidential support through GameSense, ConnexOntario, or their own provincial responsible gambling helpline.
The Trade-Off Between Simplicity and Technology
Old mechanical slots may have been easier for players to understand because the reels, symbols and mechanisms were all visible. Modern slots, on the other hand, are not as easy to understand, but they operate within considerably more developed regulatory and testing frameworks.
The main difference between the two is where the reassurance comes from: older machines put their mechanics on display, while modern slots rely on independent testing and regulation to demonstrate that their outcomes are random. Whichever version appeals more, both represent a specific moment in mechanical and computing history: one built from visible gears, the other from mathematics no one can see.
Font have announced a new LP, American Bully XL, arriving November 13 via Acrophase. The follow-up to their 2024 debut Strange Burden is led by the gorgeously radiant new single ‘Texas’. “It was time for us to leave more sky in the songs,” the band remarked. Take a listen below.
The new track was written in the wake of the Kerr Country Floods in Texas. “Pretty much everyone I know from home was just one or two degrees away from someone who lost a loved one in the flood,” Font’s Thom Waddill explained. “So the state was on our minds when we came up with the initial idea together in one of our final improv sessions in the Long Beach studio. The file of the idea that we passed around for months was just called ‘Texas’. I was intimidated by writing a song with that title. It wasn’t until I moved up to Brooklyn months later that I found the chords and lyrics to put on top of it. I was listening to a lot of country, like a lot of people do after they move away from Texas. There’s a lot of Lyle Lovett in this song.”
Waddill, Anthony Laurence, Jack Owens, Roman Parnell retreated to Long Beach, California for a three-week recording stint at Dutch Interior’s home studio. The group found themselves exploring “tension between the electronic and the acoustic,” in their words, “the programmed and the natural, the abstract and the confessional.”
American Bully XL Cover Artwork:
American Bully XL Tracklist:
1. Bad Faith
2. Punish Task
3. Night Sight
4. Noon Room
5. Wilderness2
6. Cling
7. Texas
8. You
9. Bang Bang
10. Atom
11. American Bully XL
