Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
The Idea Of Who Owns Ideas In The AI Age Is Getting Blurry
Whether AI can achieve true imagination is an open question, but for now, what separates humans from machines is not the ability to invent...
Writing Across Difference
Writing across difference is often maligned in contemporary conversations of literary craft—and for good reason—but I am of the opinion that the skill, in...
How Romance Novels Became A Hit In The Digital Age
“Why did romance writers, arguably the most mocked, maligned, and mistreated group of authors in history, become the most successful and innovative writers in...
This Weekend’s AJ Highlights
Good Morning: Here are this weekend's highlights:
Fired Dallas Black Dance Theatre Members Aren’t Giving Up The Fight "The dispute threatens to cloud the company’s...
This Week’s AJ Highlights
Good morning: Is the creative economy recovering? The Atlantic magazine reported this week it is now profitable and will return to publishing monthly in...
Today’s AJ Highlights
Good morning. London's National Gallery has now banned visitors from bringing liquids into its building after climate protesters have hurled liquids at art work....
A Small Demonstration Of The State Of AI-Created Movies And What’s Possible
Figuring out what’s possible is a fraught proposition when it comes to AI in Hollywood. - Wired
We Celebrate The Rise Of Indie Bookstores As A Victory. But What Are We...
The indie bookstore is a dialectical synthesis of the crusty old bookstore and the rationalized superstore. - The Baffler
What Our Language Reveals About Us
Our language is also infused with our sensory memories and experiences, and this allows it to be a source of pleasure and even transcendence,...
You’re A Successful Writer. And Yet You Can’t Make A Living At It
A 2022 report from the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) found that the median income of full-time authors had fallen by more than 60% since...
Boston’s Gardner Museum Buys A $22M Apartment Building
The deal shows how ingrained the Gardner is within the area—and seems to suggest that the museum views nearby commercial development nearby as a...
How TV Killed Itself
“When streaming starts, people have a choice they can make, and they make it. So what does cable do? They raised the prices. They...
How Our Brains Predict What The World Is
A big idea known as predictive processing says that your experience of the world is a simulated model constructed by your brain... In our brain’s...
Study: How Our Brains Attach Meaning To Words
They’ve discovered that the brain uses contextual clues to decipher meaning, implying that understanding words and sentences is a dynamic, interpretive process. - Harvard...
Philosopher Finds Logical Fallacy In The Way Patents Are Awarded
He explains that patent offices, when assessing an invention's patentability, have been inadvertently examining the cognitive abilities of the inventor rather than the invention...
The Pompidou’s Controversial Renovation Plans
The renovation plan and the closure it entails has not received much support within the art world. - Apollo
Today’s AJ Highlights
Good morning: So what defines success of an artistic project? How many tickets or books it sells? In the book industry this is an...
Art Fairs Are Strangling The Gallery Ecosystem
Smaller and midsize galleries are caught in a vicious cycle: they can’t afford to participate in top fairs, yet they can’t afford to miss...
How Does Someone Become the “Voice Of A Generation”?
What’s behind this phenomenon is generational thinking. It seems to be everywhere at the moment, providing the media with easy taglines, spreading cliches and...
The Problem With Malcom Gladwell’s Ideas
The problem is that he has chosen to be a farm stand that serves salty, fatty, sugary pseudo-thinking. His signature methodology is to convey...
What Defines Success For A Debut Novel?
What is the magic sales number an author needs to reach to prove their worth? 1,000? 2,000? The precise sales figure likely varies from...
Paramount Threatens to Drop Nielsen Ratings In Disputes Over Measuring Audience
Networks have long complained that Nielsen isn't measuring audiences as well as it should during the transition from linear to streaming, although a Nielsen...
How The Nobel Prize Became Brand Gold
The marketing whizzes at Harvard Business School haven’t written a case study on the genius of the Nobel Foundation, but perhaps they should. The...
Why Newly-Minted Nobel Lit Prize Winner Han Kang Isn’t Celebrating Her Win
“She said that with the wars raging between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, with deaths being reported every day, she could not hold...
A Star Architect Who Became A Cautionary Tale
The project looked pleasing on paper. Residents found it no better than a trailer park. Buildings leaked. Oriental Masonic Gardens closed a decade after...