Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Second-Lowest Oscar Ratings Ever
The early results showed a 56 percent improvement on the 9.6 million people who watched last year’s event, according to ABC, though Sunday night’s show...
Why Do We Still Need Religion?
Part of the reason people are attracted to religion is that its rituals – the standing, sitting and kneeling in unison, the singing, the...
Revival Of Surrealism In A Surreal Age
Certainly, if you consider what’s currently happening in visual arts, it appears that we are in a major Surrealist revival. The most prominent bellwether...
The Quantifiable, Scientific Measure Of Art
Art historians may say that they do not need numbers. There is the art: you just need to look, think, and write. But that...
Studies: Children Learn As Much From Guided Play As From Adult Instruction
Researchers looked at 39 studies of play and included 17 in a meta-analysis that found when children ages three to eight engage in guided...
The Oscars’ Audience Problem
The Oscars face a litany of problems, some of which are out of the organization’s control and others that are self-inflicted. Those include the...
What Happens When Students Learn History Through Video Games
Academic historians must now grapple with a new breed of students “for whom Paradox is the historical mother tongue and actual history is only...
San Francisco’s Iconic TransAmerica Tower To Get Major Restoration
The project is expected to cost $400 million, with $250 million to renovate the pyramid Redwood Park and the Mark Twain Street located on...
Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky: No Excuse For Russian Artists Not To Oppose Russian War On...
Baryshnikov, the actor and ballet star, launched a fundraising drive to support Ukraine. But he also said Russian stars who do not speak out should...
Museums Are Trying To Make Money On NFTs
Cash-poor museums to generate money by selling nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. Last year, NFTs, usually pegged to the high-flying but volatile Ethereum cryptocurrency, took the market...
Scientists Are Trying To Shape Dreams. Creepy? Or…
The Dormio enables a limited shaping of the images that appear during sleep’s first stage. Yet this is enough to give bite to the...
Pandemic Has Forced A Rethink Of Creative Uses Of Public Spaces
The regeneration of cultural destinations and tourism is a key objective, but more so, the pandemic has prompted a critical rethink on pressing concerns...
Have We Reached Peak Podcast?
“Because we have seen so much growth over the last few years, the No. 10 show is getting more downloads than the No. 10...
After 40 Years, SFJazz Director To Step Down
Randall Kline was the driving force behind the opening of the $64 million SFJazz Center at Franklin and Fell streets, which opened its doors in 2013 as...
What Artists Say Versus What They Do (Climate Change, For Example…)
Renee Fleming’s comment that, as a singer, she doesn’t travel as much as instrumental soloists came just a few minutes after mentioning that she...
New Shakespeare Theatre Based On 1629 Design To Open
Prescot is believed to have been the site of the only purpose-built Elizabethan theatre outside London, built in 1593. No plans of the original...
Why Did Two “Civilians” Steal A $160M de Kooning?
For all intents and purposes, Rita and Jerry Alter were a totally normal couple living in the New Mexico suburbs—except for one thing. They...
The Importance Of Skepticism For Democracy
The sceptical way of life, on Sextus’ presentation, follows a certain rhythm. You feel puzzlement about something. You search for knowledge about it. You...
EU Passes Sweeping New Rules For Big Tech
With these actions, Europe is cementing its leadership as the most assertive regulator of tech companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft....
What Spotify Paid Musicians Last Year
The streaming giant said 52,600 artists earned more than $10,000 (£7,500) from Spotify in 2021. Of those, 130 were paid more than $5m (£3.8m)...
Quote Mill: Do These References Actually Mean Anything?
Think of all the speeches peppered with statements attributed to revered predecessors. Listeners are supposed to infer that the speaker has drawn upon a...
Today’s Slang Versus Yesterday’s Cool Words
Whenever I see people in old movies say “Swell!” or the like, I always wonder what other kinds of things they said when we...
Is Our Ability To Distinguish Geometry What Distinguishes Humans?
What was the simplest task in the geometric domain — independent of natural language, culture, education — that might reveal a signature difference between...
When Bad News Strikes Your Small Arts Organization (Can You Recover?)
Growth under these conditions is incredibly difficult, and of course the pandemic has thrown a giant monkey wrench in operations for nonprofits around the...
Using VR To Study Pompeii’s Design Choices
The paper argues that eye-catching elements in a Pompeiian home would have been important status symbols, with buildings designed to highlight some features while...
