The distance between a mechanical watch and a modern smartphone seems to embody the divide between the pre-digital and digital worlds. We imagine that people used to live among eccentric, fiddly, physical gizmos, whereas now we navigate a network of infallible devices animated by code. But the digital age is often more fiddly. - The New Yorker

In civic life, decisions are increasingly driven by data, by algorithms, by statistics. Without the ability to understand or even grapple with the numbers and their implications, people are easily disenfranchised and manipulated. - The New York Times

Thinking through—rather than just thinking—is important. A thought or an idea is never that precious. People have thoughts and ideas all the time, many of them preliminary. Sometimes people mistake their feelings for thoughts and ideas, which are in turn mistaken for absolute truths. - Harper's

Just as Copernicus reimagined the architecture of our solar system five centuries ago, we are once again in a revolution that pivots on planets. A new science called astrobiology has changed the night sky. - Noema

And possibly even creepier, on a privacy scale, than FB: “It is jarring when you just had a loved one pass away and you go and you find out that their information, and not just their information, but also their photos, are available online.” - Slate

Can a theory of “dark forests” (and how we can’t reside in them forever) help all of us? - Hyperallergic

The team discovered three sites in total, in a survey area the size of Scotland's capital Edinburgh, “by accident” when one archaeologist browsed data on the internet. - BBC

When digital materials are vulnerable to sudden removal—whether by design or by attack—our collective memory is compromised, and the public’s ability to access its own history is at risk. - Internet Archive

"Where the governor sees Russian imperialism, Odesan artists, writers, musicians and scholars and their friends in Ukraine and across the world see a high-handed cancellation of cultural figures who are integral to the city’s 230-year history." - Prospect (UK)

"(This will be) the first time since at least 1888 the newspaper won’t have even one reporter dedicated to covering the city’s cultural life," said the paper's union. "The Sun will continue to cover news developments in the arts and food industries, but ... (not) the soul of features reporting." - TheWrap (Yahoo!)

Before the experiment, managers estimated hybrid would reduce productivity by 2.6%. After the six-month experiment they estimated it increased productivity by 1%. Those working under the hybrid model had a higher satisfaction rate, and 35% lower attrition. - Harvard Business Review

"Is it normal for a French visitor to pay the same price ... as a Brazilian or Chinese visitor?" said Rachida Dati, who wants the proposed €5 surcharge to fund upkeep of national heritage sites. "The French people should not have to pay for everything on their own." - The London Standard

"Dedicated to Schubert, it marks a welcome return to a composer whose music Pollini had not taped since the 1980s. But what makes the program so remarkably poignant is that Pollini is joined by his son. … Daniele Pollini discussed the new Schubert album in an interview." - The New York Times

Over the past three days, the streets of Toulouse, France, hosted an urban opera titled The Guardian of the Temple—The Gates of Darkness, in which three massive robotic puppets of mythological creatures performed in several locations around the city. - The Atlantic

“I feel very passionately about Halloween music. It’s camp. It’s carnal. It’s macabre. It’s, like, silly. It’s the only holiday where all of those get to exist at once.” It’s also an $11.6 billion business. - The New York Times

"I definitely did not know that it was this widespread," she said. "I’ve heard from people all over the world, mostly about sexual abuse and harassment in schools and orchestras, but also psychological and physical harm done to people as children, students, and even employees of classical music institutions." - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

Rosemary Brown produced approximately 300 musical pieces in a variety of styles, according to a list of manuscripts in the British Library. She claimed they were the creations of the spirits of composers that included Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. - The Conversation

“More than half of the Conservatory was burned. All the instruments were broken, thrown outside. You start seeing cases of instruments as soon as you get close to the Conservatory on the streets. Violins, we had more than 50, completely smashed. Cellos, more than 40, completely smashed.” - BBC

The development would include up to 300 affordable housing units, a public open space, and 45,000 square feet set aside for a possible Whitney and High Line office expansion, according to the mayor’s office. - Hyperallergic

A two-part essay by Ben Davis in which he considers (Part One) what exactly it is about a work that can give someone the physical response he calls "aesthetic chills" and (Part Two) why visual art doesn't seem to induce those chills as often as other art forms do. - Artnet

While the exact terms of the deal—or the company’s new valuation—were not disclosed, a Sotheby’s spokesperson said that $800 million of the cash injection has been earmarked for paying down the auction house’s $1.65 billion long-term debt. - ARTnews

Most scholars believe that the enormous embroidery, which depicts the Norman Conquest, is missing a key scene: the coronation of William the Conqueror as King of England on Christmas Day 1066. Hélène Delprat has been selected to create what she describes as "neither a restoration nor a reconstruction." - Artnet

"Could the Hirshhorn be a major institution? These days, Director Melissa Chiu says it should assume its role as 'the national museum of modern and contemporary art.' The notion would have invited laughs in 1974." - The Washington Post (MSN)

"Everyone who works (in the job) has stories about the expensive, delicate, sacred and impossibly large things they’ve had to pack into a crate and ship somewhere:" weird things such as an electric chair, and difficult things like a 3,000 pound pre-Columbian artifact amidst an ice storm. - The Washington Post (MSN)

The 18th edition of the now-118-year-old guide has expanded sections on copyright, inclusive language (yes, it endorses the singular "they"), and how to credit non-text-based media and material generated by artificial intelligence. - Los Angeles Review of Books

Just the last few decades, hundreds of thousands of people speaking hundreds of languages have arrived in New York from heavily minority and Indigenous zones of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. At the very moment when languages worldwide are disappearing at an unprecedented rate, many of the last speakers are on the move. - LitHub

The phenomenon — in which bookstores open at midnight on a title's release date, so readers can get their fix as quickly as possible — started with the Harry Potter and Twilight series. Now publishers of serious literature are picking up the practice for some hotly-anticipated novels. - Publishers Weekly

Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell blurred the lines - long-listed for the Booker, won a Hugo - but the author herself, not too long after the surprisingly, epically popular novel came out, collapsed, unable to write for years. - The New York Times

“Of course the death of Charlotte was horribly sad, but far worse in my opinion was the moment when, during Wilbur the Pig’s hour of greatest need, the girl who owned him decided she’d rather go on the ferris wheel with Henry Fussy.” - The Guardian (UK)

“Reading books is a battle in a way that, once upon a time, it wasn’t. That is to say: it’s never a battle while I’m inside the activity itself but granting myself permission to get inside it can be.” - Tom Cox

Today’s automated social-media feeds deliver increasingly indistinguishable content now sometimes generated by artificial intelligence; in the face of this onslaught, we crave content with evidence that a real person actually stands behind the products or works being touted. - The New Yorker

As researchers have noted, the less an actual audience is visible or known, the more communicators depend on their imaginations. Because journalists can never know precisely who consumes their work and why they do so, they instead form mental constructions of audiences. That has material consequences. - NiemanLab

"Unlike their bosses, some of whom ascended to the heights of authority in their 30s …, young professionals today … see no clear path to the top. Not one that isn’t blocked by an all-powerful boomer who’s been perched in a corner office since the Bush administration. The first one." - The Hollywood Reporter

"In a saturated and unregulated landscape, some creators — with little to no training on how to cover crime — try to humanize the people who have suffered. I spoke to four creators for this story, all women. … They prioritize empathy for victims and their loved ones." - Nieman Lab

Serial is, after all, a spinoff of long-running public radio hit This American Life. After Serial's massive success, countless people wanted in on true-crime audio, from individuals with home studios to big commercial outlets. The market got flooded, the corporations started cancelling. Is public radio-style funding the way forward? - Nieman Lab

For instance: "'I’m buzzing': The movie is better than Madame Web.” - Vulture

"The impact of artificial intelligence ... can already be seen across film, television and music, but to some extent dance seems insulated, as a form that so much relies on live bodies performing in front of an audience." Yet several choreographers (most notably, Wayne McGregor) are working with the technology. - The Guardian

"Acknowledging that the idea sounds inadvisable, (director James) Bonas and (choreographer Helen) Pickett explained in interviews what they saw instead as promising: Dostoyevsky’s hefty 19th-century novel has a clear dramatic line, and a small core of complex characters … And the book is a will-he-get-caught page-turner, Pickett added." - The New York Times

In the midst of the pandemic, one real estate management firm “said they needed tenants who would show up to work.” So the Paul Taylor Dance Company took advantage of a real estate law loophole, renovated, and moved in. - The New York Times

It's nothing new for visual art institutions to host new and experimental dance works, but there's been a real uptick in recent years. Why? Opinions differ (not least because the boundaries between choreography and performance art are sometimes blurry). - Art Basel

 It is a huge part of the country’s arts scene, quietly flourishing and influencing new generations of dancers and choreographers. - The New York Times

"Its popularity and reach are evident throughout the country, especially among the dozens of companies, in Seoul and other cities, that share dancers, choreographers and designers. And several of those companies are making a name for themselves internationally." - The New York Times

Jani Lauzon has maintained she is Métis and her play 1939—now touring Canada—is based on her father’s experience at a residential school. What if none of it is true? - The Walrus

The owner of Blood Manor, one of New York's top Halloween attractions, explains how much he has to spend every year — not just on performers and animatronic figures, but makeup (up to $20,000 for 23 nights), stage blood, fog, and odors. Not to mention insurance and year-round rent. - The New York Times

While theatre leaders have stressed that they are committed to the safety of their audiences, they have also pointed out that Martyn’s Law – officially, the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill – could stretch the resources of already cash-strapped venues. - The Stage

That’s right, tourists (and New Yorkers), there are some ways to find those deals - though not, perhaps, if you want to see Robert Downey Jr or Rachel Zegler. - NPR

A play about the future of writing - and large language models, aka AI. - The New York Times

"The Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training will become part of Rowan University in New Jersey, almost four months after it was cast adrift following the sudden closure of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia." - WHYY (Philadelphia)

She began her career as a backup dancer in Elvis Presley movies and made countless guest appearances on TV series, but she's best remembered for brilliant comedic turns in the films Young Frankenstein, Mr. Mom, and Tootsie, for which she received an Oscar nomination. - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

"Gérard Depardieu's trial on charges of sexual assault has been postponed until March because the French actor is in poor health, a court in Paris has said." - BBC

Brannon Braga, the writer who took over Voyager showrunning duties from her, said, “Her memory will live on in many ways, but perhaps most of all in the character of Captain Janeway, who reflected the best dimensions of Jeri herself.” - Variety

But somehow, she remains a mystery - and there’s a biography race on to define her. - The New York Times

Although he was widely known as an art critic for the Village Voice during the mid-1980s, and even though he has continued to write literature and art criticism in the decades since, Indiana had by the beginning of the 21st century faded into relative obscurity, with many of his books going out of print. - ARTnews

She had spent decades as a TV and public radio journalist and host, and, this past February, she suddenly found herself unable to utter anything but gibberish. Here's how her neurosurgeon identified and remedied the problem and how she and the therapists recovered her ability to speak. - The New York Times