Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Why Our Ideological Fights Descend Into Fights About What Words Mean
The well-rehearsed rhetorical drama over this kind of conceptual terminology is only one of the ways in which arguments over definitions and usage have...
In The Middle Of The Night, Hong Kong Authorities Remove Tiananmen Memorial
The 26-foot-tall artwork, known as the “Pillar of Shame,” had stood at the University of Hong Kong for nearly a quarter-century and honored the hundreds, if...
American Contemporary Theatre Closes Its Acclaimed MFA Program
The program consistently ranked as one of the top five graduate acting schools in the country, after more than five decades educating such distinguished...
Man Buys $30 Drawing. Now It Could Be Worth Millions
“It was either a masterpiece or the greatest forgery I had ever seen,” he said. - The New York Times
An Iconic Chicago Building Is Saved
Chicago has a forest of imposing skyscrapers, and nothing else like this squat concoction of glass and steel that looks from the outside like...
Is The Golden Age Of Travel Over?
The old way it was practised, at vast scale, and across increasingly porous borders, has begun to look like it might be a terminal...
Is Paris’ Grand Palais Throwing Out Its Big Art Fair?
RX France is challenging the validity of the process, claiming that it has received two written commitments to the fairs from RMN-Grand Palais, the...
Omicron Shutdown Comes At A Bad Time For Broadway
This selective information release does little to quell anxieties, and resentment toward the Broadway establishment is often triggered. - Washington Post
How The Internet Changed Music This Year
The geeks among you will recognize that the words “decentralization” and “distributed network” invoke a nearly 10-year-old model of equitable Web-based information flow, one that’s currently...
I Think, Therefore I Have Language
So how does language and thought relate, then? And what is “thought”, anyway? Perhaps one way of answering both questions is to determine whether...
British Film Classification Board Rethinks Some Of Its Previous Ratings
Recent rereleases of films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Jaws have led the board to reconsider...
Seriously? Curators Crack The Top Five “Most Trusted” Professions
Curators enjoyed a 4% increase in trustworthiness across gender and political affiliation in 2021. Notably, however, advanced degree holders were much more likely to...
Big Entertainment Comes To Riyadh. But…
Mass entertainment events are no longer a novelty in the once austere kingdom, but there have been reports by local and foreign women that...
Can Machines Measure Common Sense?
Consciousness, thought, creativity, will, imagination, and agency — once considered to be explainable only through philosophical reflection were now reformulated as precisely defined cognitive...
Intelligence, Machines, And Why It’s Increasingly Difficult To Tell The Difference
Any of us have interacted with apparently thoughtful machines often enough—for instance, when on the telephone and trying, often fruitlessly, to get to a...
How The Met Museum Dances Around The Looting Of African Art
If you want to see an acrobatic display of ducking and weaving in a gallery by people trying desperately not to set off any...
Joan Didion, 87
Didion came to prominence with a series of incisive, searching feature articles in Life magazine and The Saturday Evening Post that explored the fraying...
Researchers: Where Your Sense Of Right And Wrong Comes From
The researchers found that higher conscientiousness – the tendency to be organised, hardworking and disciplined – was related to rating loyalty, authority and purity/sanctity as important...
The Essence Of Who You Are
The essence of selfhood is neither a rational mind nor an immaterial soul. It is a deeply embodied biological process, a process that underpins...
Sydney Theatres Band Together For Strict New COVID Policies
Their rules require all visitors to be fully vaccinated while on-site (excluding those under 16 years), and to wear masks while in the theatres and...
This Year In Art: Rise Of The NFTs
Nifty Gateway was quick to tout Pak as the most expensive living artist, surpassing Jeff Koons. Still, the Merge sale indicates that there is no shortage...
As Hollywood Withdraws From China
2022 will be a chapter marked not only by bilateral friction between the two superpowers, but by the Chinese film industry’s decoupling from the...
Hollywood Has Been Hooked On China’s Money. That May Be Over
The reversal of fortunes in China has begun to accelerate in the past year. In 2021, just 25 U.S. movies were released theatrically in...
Pittsburgh Symphony Expands Its Diversity Fellowship Program
The program will support four new fellows each season by the year 2025, making it one of the larger fellowship opportunities in the country. -...
Data: Impact Of Vaccination Rates On Attendance
The number of performances had the largest upside effect on ticket sales in September, with a 20% increase producing a 9% increase in ticket...
