Douglas McLennan
Glenn Lowry: Cultural Institutions On The New Cultural/Political Landscape
“We now know that our world as we thought we understood it is far more fragile... wars that seemed inconceivable now happened, we’ve...
Instagram’s Secret Sauce Is Algorithmic Curation. Can It Beat A Human Curator?
Since November 2022, organizers have uploaded images from the Met’s collection of public domain works to the @thealgorithmicpedestal account on Instagram. Whichever posts the platform’s algorithm...
The Defacing Of A World Heritage Site – Graffiti, Crime, Fear…
The anti-government protests that exploded in late 2019 hit the city hard. Shops were looted, windows smashed and walls were covered in graffiti. Some of the...
The Long Odessey Of Making “Tar”
“Tár” not only got made and released—a fact that seemed to confound its writer-director—but has inspired vigorous discussion, whether about its insights into sexual abuse and...
The Complicated Path Of Criticism
By the first decades of the twentieth century, national organizations had established standards for the credentialling of lawyers, doctors, and nurses. The professionalization of...
Artists Sue AI Art Generator Companies
The artists taking action—Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, Karla Ortiz—"seek to end this blatant and enormous infringement of their rights before their professions are eliminated by a...
The War On AI Art Is Dumb
We are used to hearing such petulant ressentiment, especially in connection with the 20th-century avant-garde in the figurative arts: “I could have entered a...
Scientist Sues US Copyright Office To Grant Copyright To His AI-Generated Art
Stephen Thaler’s motion argues that the work in question “satisfies the requirements set forth in the Copyright Act”—that because Thaler “invested and owns the...
What Made Jeff Beck A Great Guitarist
He was a guitarist’s guitarist who seemed to be the humble protagonist at the centre of a plethora of seminal moments in pop history....
UK Vinyl Record Presser To Double Production To Meet Demand
Press On Vinyl opened in Middlesbrough in early-2022 with the aim of producing 50,000 records a month. - BBC
Banff Centre Appoints New President
The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity announced that Chris Lorway would be appointed to the role of President and CEO of Banff Centre....
Gina Lollobrigida, 95
“In the immediate period after the war and throughout the 1950s there was one face that represented Italian beauty in the eyes of the...
Hilary And Bill Write Novels. But How Much Of Them?
Using a technique called “stylometry”, it can be established that James Patterson probably wrote most of The President is Missing. Stylometry uses computers to...
How The Brain Calculates Escape
Escape behavior offers useful insight into the brain’s inner workings because it engages nervous system networks that originated in the early days of evolution....
Charting The Rise Of Art For Screens
The shift to screen life has been decades in the making, and generations of tech-savvy artists have been charting those changes. - The Wall Street...
Math – The Core Of The Ideas That Propel Our World
Mathematics belongs firmly within, not outside, the Modernist revolution in art and thought that reconfigured minds and lives. So why would any writer who...
The Nineteenth Century: The Age Of Musical Amateurs
Mozart worked from 1781 as a freelance musician. Beethoven, too, survived on publishers’ commissions and charitable sponsorship. If they had been born two centuries...
How Russia Is Plundering Ukraine’s Art
Ukrainian officials say that Russian forces have robbed or damaged more than 30 museums — including several in Kherson, which was retaken in November,...
How To Win A Literary Prize (Hint: It’s Rigged)
The game is rigged. It is rigged like capitalism is rigged. There is no puppet master, no conspiracy, only a field where advantages, to...
Andrew Litton Talks About Conducting For Ballet
It’s very hard to explain to musicians who don’t know ballet, but “One” is everything to a dancer — even though it may have...
A “Pre-Colonial” Africa Never Existed
The concept of ‘precolonial’ anything hides, it never discloses; it obscures, it never illuminates; it does not aid understanding in any manner, shape or...
How Will Women Conductors Change The Culture Of Conducting?
What is authority as it pertains to conducting? If music itself cannot be gendered, why has the conductor’s role been gendered? - Aeon
Nazi Loot Claim On Van Gogh Worth $250 Million
In 1987 the work was auctioned for £25m, but the heirs of the German Jewish banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who owned it until the...
Studies: How Making Theatre Helps You Think
Theater involves “active learning” — getting up on your feet to take in information, rather than merely sitting at a desk. “When you put...
Lessons From Hamline University: Who’s Really In Charge?
Does academic freedom really only mean as much freedom as your most sensitive students can stand, and the careers of scholars in the hands of students...