Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Generative AI Will Force Us To Rethink Human Creativity
If a computer system has no intelligence, creativity, or understanding but can mimic these qualities, when does it become a distinction without a difference?...
We Read Them Of Course. But What Actually Makes A Book?
The word “information” predates Gutenberg. But once printing took off and books proliferated, new kinds of books had to be invented to track, organize...
Data: Diversity in The Museum, Gallery And Auction Worlds
For the 2022 edition, we examined representation in U.S. museums and the art market for work by Black American artists, female-identifying artists, and Black...
The Future Of Movie Special Effects
The Avatar sequel comes at a time of great debate in the VFX world about the working environment and treatment of VFX artists in...
“Nutcracker” As Vehicle For Dance Injuries
Accidents in "The Nutcracker" are so common there are injuries named after the ballet. A nutcracker fracture is a foot fracture of the cuboid bone. -...
2022’s Movie Box Office Could Hit $9 Billion — A Healthy Rebound
On the high end, it’s a 22% jump from what Comscore is expecting 2022 to final at, that being $7.4B. This year’s domestic box...
What The Invention Of Photography Has To Teach Us About The Advent Of AI...
In addition to the effects on what to see, cameras brought a new awareness to the nuances of how to see. - Wired
How Mass Cancellations Will Re-order The Streaming Landscape In 2023
The story of the year was undoubtedly HBO Max; Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zaslav made radical changes to the streaming structure and axed many in development, renewed,...
Turbulence At Fractional Ownership Art Fund
Throughout 2022, and at times before, the company has weathered conflicting business strategies, rifts between management and key teams and non-existent human resources practices,...
Milwaukee Symphony Had A Good Fall, But Some Unusual Audience Patterns
"What we’re seeing throughout the entire performing arts sector at least in Milwaukee is people are coming out for the traditions and the pieces...
The 2022 Visual Art World’s Biggest Controversies
2022 was a year chock-full of controversies in our industry as museum masterpieces were covered in mashed potatoes, artists fretted about being replaced by...
The Earth Is Losing Its Memory
How does a billion years go missing? The Great Unconformity has long been a geological mystery, in no small part because it is a...
How Historians Made A Video Game To Better Tell A History
History is not a window into the past, but something made by people looking at the past through whatever evidence survives. Rather than hiding...
Charting The Decline Of Programming On Cable TV
All of the major cable network operators — A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery — have seen annual output...
Hollywood’s New Creative Crisis
The danger of the current moment is a second hollowing: the relegation of even lower-budget productions to commercial oblivion, the ever-widening gap between the...
Revisited: More Sinister Readings Of Classic Poetry
There is hope in these poems, but it’s something made in the face of grim predictions. - The Guardian
The Original Mickey Mouse Copyright Is Finally Expiring. So What Will Happen To The...
The matter is more complicated than it appears, and those who try to capitalize on the expiring “Steamboat Willie” copyright could easily end up...
We’re Fascinated By Musical Prodigies. Should We Be?
The spectacle of a pint-size virtuoso — in any field, not just music — feels otherworldly, and it inspires an almost lurid fascination that...
How The Publishing World Fared In 2022
The return of shoppers to physical retailers was good news for bookstores. ABA reported a record number of members, while Barnes & Noble began...
How Matisse Transformed His Art After His Body
The new limitations of his body became an opportunity for renewal. There is a lesson here about what it means to care for the...
Physicists Create Nano-Sized Music Recording
Physicists at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) used a 3D nanolithography tool called the Nanofrazor to cut the smallest record ever. The tune they "recorded,"...
Leveraging (And Investing In) The Art Markets
When it comes to artist-driven community work, private versus grant funding isn’t an either-or proposition. Using the art market “is not just about making...
Some Of The Artists We Lost This Year
The creative people who died this year include many whose lives helped shape our own — through the art they made, and through the...
Art Platform Is Hiding Images Protesting Posting Of AI-Generated Art
ArtStation (which was acquired by Epic Games in 2021) is considered to be the leading online portfolio and community for artists working in video...
US Copyright Office Rules AI-Generated Art Can’t Be Copyrighted
The United States Copyright Office (USCO) has initiated a proceeding to reverse an earlier decision to grant a copyright to a comic book that...
