It’s not a magazine, it’s not a film, it’s not content, isn’t that the modern Paradigm? At its third and final installation, Paradigm—a digital publication that immersion-blends cultural theory, art, and fashion—hosted its creators and their friends at the Roxy Hotel’s namesake cinema for a Monday night viewing of their latest issue, best described as a multimedia project (but really, you had to be there for the full effect). Upon entry to the interactive issue titled Recognition vs. Expression, we were handed sealed perfume vials with a photo of model and director Bella Newman on them along with the instruction “smell to exit.” The scent is a collaboration between Paradigm founder Katharina Korbjuhn and perfumer Marissa Zappas, artist Kay Kasparhauser, and Newman herself. “It smells like… hot girl on the subway, it’s 4:45pm in August, it’s so hot, maybe she doesn’t eat that well but still, a hot experience,” says Kasparhauser. For the signature Paradigm scent, Bella is enfleurage-d (“rubbed in Vaseline, wrapped in Saran Wrap and gauze, then scraped off and made into a tincture,” according to Zappas, though her actual sweat wasn’t used in the perfume we were given), captured both in the fragrance and Kasparhauser’s lens.

Before the screening, photographer extraordinaire Daniel Arnold gave a pithy speech introducing the hostess Korbjuhn, looking truly fabulous in furs: beige ones for a coat, black ones for her tiny fuzzy vest. Actress Lauren Fern was there to support her friend, also named Daniel, telling me, “We’ll scream and you’ll know it was Daniel’s work.” Her Daniel (surname Gaines) did costumes for the issue, styling contributor, model, and now actress Aaron Phillip in a sexy Schiaparelli LBD, for example. In my favorite segment, various interview clips with well-regarded artists like Chloe Wise and Werner Herzog are cobbled together into a short Instagram reel-like video, questioning what it means to be successful. The issue is emceed by Sydney Lemmon. In her hit play JOB she plays the patient but tonight Lemmon’s on the other side of the couch as a therapist guiding you through the hills and valleys of the issue. Recognition vs. Expression is an ode to artists lost in their art, for artists and by artists, with plenty of questions and few answers. After a found footage video of Björk, the screen asks: “What was the last thing you put soul into?”

Then as the credits rolled, finally a scream from Fern: “Daniel!”