Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
What Makes A Song Great – Lyrics Or Music?
While a melody can tether you to a song, however, it’s the lyrics that make you want to excavate it. The best songs pull...
When Hoaxes Were Invented And The Era Of English Gullibility
The rise of newspapers and magazines meant that tales of the bizarre and the outrageous could circulate widely and quickly, while the rapid increase...
What Drove The 60s Boom In British Jazz
"In 1966, 1968 – this was a time of liberation. We were all involved in anti-apartheid marches, CND marches, embracing different cultures. It all...
Show Of The Year: Six Of The Most Beautiful Paintings In The World
Why would a display of just six Titian paintings at a small New England museum qualify as the art event of the year, and...
How Fan Fiction Is Changing Writing
In online communities, the number of voices informing a work grows as readers comment on one another’s posts and learn together. - The Atlantic
Cinematographers Call On Producers To Stop Dangerous Long Working Days
“Reasonable rest demands that the employers not treat our members like machines that can just work until they are broken and then be replaced.” -...
Folger Theatre Gets A New Artistic Director
Karen Ann Daniels, 45, has been director of the Public Theatre’s Mobile Unit since 2019 and before that had similar audience-engagement responsibilities for six...
Do Women Philosophers Do Different Philosophy?
Underlying this question is a sense that our voices are not seen as philosophers’ voices, but primarily as women’s voices. It is as if...
When The Wires Of Our Brain Get Crossed
Some 4 percent of the population experiences this kind of cross-sensory linking, and studies have shown it’s more prevalent in creative people. - Nautilus
New “Jeopardy” Host Steps Down
"Over the last several days it has become clear that moving forward as host would be too much of a distraction for our fans...
Yeah, Truth, Reality And Facts. But Our Culture Runs On Feelings
A pragmatist ethics calls for prioritising feelings instead of facts, because a truly humanist democracy is sentimentalist rather than rationalist. - Aeon
Disney Adds AI: Are You Ready To Speak With Your Favorite Fantasy Character?
How long before Disney replaces the humans who portray characters in its parks with machines? Today, impressive robot stuntman; tomorrow, creepy robot Cinderella signing...
Music Teacher Makes Interactive Map Of 500 Forgotten Women Composers
“We’ve never given them the place they deserve in history. They don’t appear in musical history books, their works aren’t played at concerts and...
How International Students Are Propping Up Higher Education
International students the product of a system that has blurred the lines between immigration and education in an unofficial, ad hoc arrangement meant to...
What Do Students Need To Know?
The anodyne blandness of the term “general education” should not distract us from its critical place in the curriculum. General education forces a question...
Ravinia Recreates Leonard Bernstein In An Immersive Experience
What sticks, at least on a first viewing, is the technology at play—the light, the sound, the figures that look real enough to embrace. -...
A Cultural History Of Color
The Optical Society of America lists 2,755 primary colours, while paint manufacturers now offer more than 40,000 dyes and pigments, so many, says Fox,...
What The Cuttlefish Might Teach Us About The Ability To Remember
Most elderly people would have flunked a human version of the team’s experiments. But all of the cuttlefish passed, “an incredibly complex thing for...
What’s In A Name? Why Parents Are No Longer Naming Their Kids Alexa
Seven years ago, Amazon released Alexa, its voice assistant, and as the number of devices answering to that name has skyrocketed, its popularity with...
There’s Nothing Benign About Even Subtle Design Changes In Social Media
Social-media and streaming apps constantly change aspects of their “user experience,” which includes digital-interface design, to push users toward new features. - The New Yorker
Will Streaming Theatre Still Be Viable Once Stages Reopen?
“In the last few months, the requests for either virtual or digital performances from streaming have really dropped off dramatically. They’re still happening, but...
In 2014 A Town Painted Over A Banksy. This Time It Placed Guards To...
Criticism was fierce last time, so they don't want to take any chances. - BBC
Our AI Is Increasingly Built On Homogenized Data. That Could Be A Real Problem
Foundational models have some very real downsides. They create “a single point of failure, so any defects, any biases which these models have, any...
London’s Public Art Mound Is A Disaster. But…
It might seem confusing why local councils would choose to fund tourist projects like the Mound when they are getting rid of permanent spaces...
Why We Get Caught Up In Cults
“It doesn’t take someone broken or disturbed to crave that structure . . . we’re wired to. And what we often overlook is that...
