Saturday Feeling: New archives tell stories of daily life, seaweed's on the menu, and other stories for the weekend

It’s often been a complaint about history that we know how the kings and nobility lived but rarely hear of the lives of their subjects, the ordinary folk who cut wood for their kitchen fires and painted the intricate walls of their palaces. They may not be able to go that far back and fill those gaps, but contemporary archivists are collecting and preserving everyday objects of modern life that show reflect how we live. From chairs, locks and typewriters to advertisements, circulars, photos and letters, everyday objects are filling archives as companies and collectors build a history of contemporary India. Contemporary archives are vibrant, busy places that invite people in to see the collections in exhibitions, talks, workshops and other events. They’re no more dark, quiet places meant only for researchers and academics, though of course, these professionals benefit too when archiving is done with a view to build a narrative and include more people. Avantika Bhuyan and Abhilasha Ojha walk you through these contemporary archives, created by companies, foundations and institutions, to focus on histories that linger in our everyday lives, impacting our present. And through it, they’re reminding us of the paths that science, feminism, consumerism, rural movements, art, activism and cinema are taking in modern India.

The start of the Indian seaweed wave

India’s coastline has more than 840 varieties of seaweed, but it is largely overlooked as an ingredient by restaurants, which prefer to import nori and wakame. That’s changing as young entrepreneurs in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa harvest and sell seaweed to chefs and mixologists, who are beginning to use local sargassum and ulva in garnishes, broths, soups, crackers and cocktails, writes Sayoni Bhaduri. Seafood is the new ingredient to ask for when you're dining out.

In pursuit of the trophy watch

The broader luxury watch market may have slowed, but collectors continue to chase exceptional and rare timepieces, because—as anyone familiar with horology will tell you—an enthusiastic buyer is not the same as a true collector. So collectors still seek out those unusual pieces—double-signed dials, asymmetrical faces, vintage watches with personal engravings, and pre-1990 models with novel cases. The demand for such rare watches is tied partly to human nature, but also to shifting tastes among the ultra-rich and a transformation underway in the luxury market, writes Shrenik Avlani.

How layoffs became fodder for memes

A couple of weeks ago, when Block laid off 40% of its workforce, memes began doing the rounds. Just like Amazon employees shared memes during massive jobs cuts in January. We’re now inured to mass layoffs, especially after the covid shocks shifted our outlook towards job loss, writes Shephali Bhatt. When thousands of jobs were cut at once, it softened the stigma and got many people posting publicly about it, knowing that it wasn’t their fault. But somewhere along the way, those affected looked to humour for coping. Today, layoffs are one of many meme content formats, inadvertently desensitizing people to scroll past what needs to be sat with. It is changing how we perceive and process job loss.

Can AI make speakers truly smart?

The first wave of voice assistants promised a future where we would talk to our homes as naturally as we talk to each other. Instead, we got a decade of reminders, timers, weather updates, and the occasional Spotify playlist. Now, with artificial intelligence reshaping every corner of consumer tech, the smart speaker is poised for a reboot. AI-powered assistants like Alexa+ and Gemini could deliver the truly conversational, context-aware home assistant we've been waiting for, writes Abhishek Baxi after spending time using Amazon’s new Echo Show 8.