Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Human Use Of Alphabets May Be Much Older Than We Thought
“The longer the sequence of symbols, the more likely that writing is involved,” Schwartz said, distinguishing alphabetic writing from semasiography, which refers to “signs...
Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Reopens After Hiatus And Reorganization
Following an 18-month hiatus, Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre plans to reopen on January 30 with new leadership, a new business model, and a newly renovated lobby. The 36-year-old company,...
Mark-Anthony Turnage: Why Audiences Struggle With Contemporary Music
He has an explanation: “People feel trapped. If you go to an art gallery and there is a picture you don’t like, you can...
Edinburgh Festival Warns That Funding Cuts Puts Festival At Risk
Nicola Benedetti, a Grammy-winning classical violinist who became the festival’s director in 2022, said in an interview with the Guardian she feared the creative arts...
Study: No, Monkeys Couldn’t Randomly Manage To Type Shakespeare
It concludes that there is simply not enough time until the universe expires for a defined number of hypothetical primates to produce a faithful...
What Fan Culture Reaction To Celebrity Deaths Teaches Us About Dealing With Grief
Fan communities coping with a celebrity loss do several things that help their members feel supported and connected to one another, which often also...
How The Reviled Nietzsche Was Rehabilitated
After the war, Nietzsche was practically radioactive. In the newfound German Democratic Republic (GDR), where he was officially declared a “pioneer of fascism,” his...
An Alternative History Of The 20th Century Literary Canon
The unexpectedness of some of Frank’s choices is just what makes the book entertaining. He tackles some 32 novels, in a series of case...
AI Suggests Iconic Painting Wasn’t By Raphael
The team used pictures of verified Raphael paintings to "train the computer to recognize his style to a very detailed degree, from the brushstrokes, the color...
Berkeley Arts Organizations Are In Distress
These are desperate times for art organizations and music venues in Berkeley, pummeled by rising labor and production costs and lower theater attendances. -...
Director of Blume Studios Events
Blumenthal Arts seeks an innovative leader and event producer to serve as Director of Blume Studios Events.
A Star NYCB Dancer Gets Her Hearing Back
Sara Mearns, who dances with startling presence and in-the-moment authority, has been open about her struggles with mental health, but her public posts about...
Is This The Year AI Enters The Physical World?
Expanding AI beyond its digital boundary demands reworking how machines think, fusing the digital intelligence of AI with the mechanical prowess of robotics. This...
Can BAM Reinvent Itself Through AI?
On the face of it, “The Golden Key” is a digital toy you can interact with to generate wild yarns. But on a deeper...
Grace Glueck On Discovering Yourself Through Writing
The things I wrote down so urgently were not fixed thoughts projected from my brain onto the page. What I considered thought was a...
The Man Who Knew Too Much? An 18th Century Genius Who Anticipated The Digital...
Over the years, Gottfried Leibniz’s reputation continued to grow as more unpublished work came to light, some of which would make him the godfather...
Is It Really True That Men Aren’t Reading Books?
According to studies by the Pew Research Center spanning 2011 to 2021, Americans read an average of 14 books per year — likely pulled up...
Takeaways From This Year’s Golden Globes
In the past, Globe voters have been eager to put new television shows on the awards map. But not this time. And Globes voters...
Speed-Novelist: Just How Was Barry Malzberg Able To Be So Prolific?
In his peak decade, from 1967 to 1976, Malzberg wrote at least 68 novels and seven story collections along with scores of still uncollected...
Dick Wolf Built A “Law And Order” TV Franchise Powerhouse. Now He’s Taking On...
Though Mr. Wolf is finally entering streaming, the debut of “On Call” is really a moment that underscores how the streaming world — and...
The Vinyl Music Revolution Comes At Great Environmental Cost
The ongoing vinyl revival, which was perhaps truly minted in 2017, when Sony Music announced it would begin producing vinyl records for the first...
Eye-Tracking Study: How Children See Art Differently
The children provided with child-focused, narrative-driven labels engaged with the artworks in ways we did not see at all with those who read adult-focused...
Pop Musicians Are Trying To Make Touring More Eco-Friendly
There’s a groundswell of artists — notably Billie Eilish and Coldplay — changing how concerts are staged from the bottom up. These eco-minded musicians are following in the...
Ten Most-Interesting Museum Acquisitions Of 2024
We’ve parsed through museum acquisitions lists and compiled 10 notable additions to United States institutional collections in 2024. - Hyperallergic
Why The Rock ‘N Roll Hall Of Fame Shouldn’t Exist
The Hall of Fame is about old and dead people; rock’n’roll is about the young and living. The Hall of Fame tries to reform...