Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Prominent Publisher Lays Off Seven
The layoffs, which the company described as part of a corporate restructuring, come as major publishing companies have been buffeted by sluggish print sales...
Two Seattle Companies Say They Will Merge
Seattle’s ACT Contemporary Theatre and Seattle Shakespeare Company — two of the city’s most enduring theater companies — may soon become one entity, the...
Is AI A Threat To Our Egos And Sense Of Self Worth?
As artificial intelligence systems outpace human performance on an increasing array of cognitive tasks, they risk undermining the intellectual supremacy upon which we have long staked...
Is Technological Change Outrunning Our Ability To Evolve?
The modern world is replete with things that make our once-adaptive instincts go awry. - Phys.org
Adobe Called Out For Selling Ansel Adams-Style AI Work
“We don’t have a problem with anyone taking inspiration from Ansel’s photography,” said the Adams estate. “But we strenuously object to the unauthorized use of...
Symphony For 1000 Smartphones
“Even in a Mahler symphony, the largest number of performers you could have is 120,” says the Chinese-American composer from his New York apartment....
“Fake” Dega Bought For $1000 Online Turns Out To Be Real
The work was last seen in public in 1952 when Joan Llonch Salas leant it to a group exhibition at the Barcelona gallery Gaspar,...
The Arts Are Being Strangled By Increased Costs
Last year, data released by audience research company Patternmakers showed somewhat of a rebounding of audience numbers from COVID levels, which was promising. But it also...
Are Big Concert Ticket Sales Finally Softening?
Now with the streaming era and things like that, that it's really shifted, where instead of selling the tour to get people to buy...
Is This Year’s Maligned Venice Biennale The New Globalism Frame?
It is a symptom of the fact that the whole system of art consumption and display otherwise feels itself deeply vulnerable to all kinds of other...
Subscriptions Now Come In Many Flavors. What’s Working?
Are subscriptions in free fall, and if so, what does that mean for the continuing health of theatres? Are subscriptions still a viable model,...
Inside Student Life At The Curtis Institute Of Music
Even among conservatories, it is exceptional, with a wide age range — from preadolescence to post-baccalaureate adulthood — and a personalized approach, of schedules...
Philadelphia’s University of the Arts Owns Important Downtown Buildings. Now What?
The collapse of a major art school, which has operated and invested in Center City since the 1800s, will also put a large real estate...
Why Do We Read News? Anxiety? Entertainment?
How do the reasons we read the news line up with the reasons we say we read news? Do we claim dedication to noble civic virtues...
Big Shift In Popularity Of Giant Music Festivals
Events like Lovers & Friends, with big R&B names from decades past, sell out immediately while Coachella sales plummet. - The Guardian
The Delicate Politics Of Firing Your Funder
Under pressure from activists, both Hay and the Edinburgh international book festival have sacked their main sponsor, the investment fund Baillie Gifford, blowing a...
Is Queen’s Song Catalog Really Worth $1 Billion?
If the group achieve the $1 billion price tag, it will be the biggest deal of its kind, surpassing the $500 million (£393 million)...
NY Times Sues Worldle Over Its Wordle-Sounding Name
The creator of Worldle is vowing to fight back on the grounds that there are many other games with similar titles. “There's a whole...
The Orchestra Messiah?
His Decca recordings of Sibelius and Stravinsky are unconvincing — ceviche in patches, if not totally raw. His live concerts are perhaps more exciting,...
Time To Ban Smartphones In Schools
Children do not use cellular technology; the technology uses our children—by monetizing their data and converting their attention into advertising revenue. - The Walrus
The Pitfalls Of Today’s Movie Criticism
The biggest flaw for film writers, I began to realize, was that often writers are told to draft superfluous articles about celebrities to satisfy...
Be Prepared: A Weird Summer For Movies
Last weekend’s failures may mark the beginning of an unusual summer packed with Pyrrhic victories and well-reviewed but overlooked projects. Still, a bad Memorial...
Alternatives to Higher Education Are Proliferating
"Programs that address this discontent exhibit a remarkably consistent set of characteristics. They are interdisciplinary, integrating methods and perspectives—from, say, engineering and the social...
Canada’s Film Industry Is Struggling To Survive
Because despite success at Cannes — and a few unforgettable notes at the Oscars — Canadian films and filmmakers still make up a small sliver of...
The False Gods Of AI
Computers might in fact approach what we call thinking, but they don’t dream, or want, or desire, and this matters more than AI’s proponents...