Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
AI Unlocks Much Creativity — Also Much Potential Danger
The perils associated with AI are not abstract doom scenarios but are very real. They are intricately entwined with issues that impact all areas...
Even While Australian Arts Groups Are Struggling, Some Festivals Are Breaking Attendance Records. Why?
It’s not all doom and gloom. Many of our larger arts festivals are achieving record turnouts and box office highs, as ArtsHub discovered while surveying recent...
Today We Model Everything To Understand It. But There Are Limits
Modelling, in general, is now routine. We model everything, from elections to economics, from the climate to the coronavirus. Like model cars, model airplanes,...
What Taylor Swift Studies Teach; Madonna Studies Were First
Humanities professors, for their part, have already begun enlisting Swift as a silent partner. The organizer for the first international academic “Swiftposium,” to be...
The Reason Small Noises May Drive You Nuts
Trigger sounds might be triggering only when they’re made by your spouse, or when you’re already upset. The reason, according to new research, is...
Singer Jill Clayton, 82
Clayton established herself as an innovator in the 1970s and ’80s, sparring with instrumentalists in avant-garde settings and using electronics to alter and extend...
Does Our Language Really Shape Our World View?
Each language seemingly compels us to talk in a certain way and to see things from a particular perspective. But is this just an...
Italy’s Undersecretary For Culture Has Been Indicted For Art Theft
The current undersecretary for culture in the Giorgia Meloni government has been indicted for the alleged theft of a painting by Rutilio Manetti, a renowned 17th-century...
“Sopranos” Creator: The Era Of Quality TV Is Over
David Chase, who wrote the HBO series about the New Jersey mafia that many credit with starting a golden age of television, said that...
Does AI Mean The End Of Intellectual Property?
My right of ownership of some piece of intellectual property bars everyone else from using that property without my consent. I.P. rights have an...
Magic Bullet Syndrome: These Kinds Of Solutions Don’t Exist
If a magic bullet was truly effective in solving this problem, there would be no need for many different proposed solutions. But today, that...
AI Comes For Comic Book Creators
There is a lot of money involved - the global comic book market is worth an estimated $15.5bn (£12.2bn) a year, while the animated...
Spanish Police Make Mass Arrests After Climate Change Activists Assault On Museum
Per police statements, the 22 individuals arrested were linked to 65 climate demonstrations, including halting traffic and flinging paint and other viscous substances at federal...
The Art Market Enters 2024 In A State Of Confusion
Many market players find themselves anxious and confused. There’s a growing fear about gallery closings and collectors dumping art. Younger dealers, who’ve never lived...
Magnificent Obsession: The Man Who Spent Decades Building The World’s Greatest Stereo In His...
Building the world’s greatest stereo would mean transforming the very space that surrounded it — and the lives of the people who dwelt there....
Why Do Museums Focus So Much On Getting Young People, When Older People Are...
Why have museums not been more attentive to older people? Perhaps we feel anxious that the younger generation will not develop a lifelong habit...
The Pittsburgh Symphony Is Playing Well. But The Audience Is Missing. What To Do?
In the fall, the Pittsburgh Symphony averaged about 1,000 listeners per concert, or less than half of the capacity of Heinz Hall. This is...
An Argentine Man Has Spent Two Decades Reviving An All-But-Dead Indigenous Language
His painstaking work with a linguist has produced a dictionary of roughly 1,000 Chaná words. For people of Indigenous ancestry in Argentina, he is...
Trust In Universities Is Plummeting. There Are Good Reasons For That
The most recent debacle at Harvard, in which large swaths of academia seem to have conveniently forgotten what the term plagiarism means so they don’t have to admit...
The Crisis At Substack Is Of Its Own Making
The company wanted to have it both ways: to exert the cultural influence of a major media company without shouldering any more responsibility (or...
Scammers Are Stealing Artists’ Music And Posting To Streaming Platforms
The streaming ecosystem, say critics, is easily gamed. For $20, artists can buy an annual subscription to a music distributor, a company that can...
The Word Tags That Get You To Click On Netflix Shows
The two- or three-word tags, meant to convey the gestalt of a show or movie, regularly help viewers choose a show from the service’s...
“Memorization” Could Force AI Companies To Rest And Start Over
Although it would set generative AI back in the short term, a responsible rebuild could also improve the technology’s standing in the eyes of...
Young Musicians Are Starting To Follow The Taylor Swift Career Playbook
This recalibration of the rules of engagement between artists and labels is also a result of the democratisation of information about the byzantine world...
Why Is Sondheim More Popular Now Than When He Was Alive?
The hottest ticket on the Great White Way at the moment, judging from what people are willing to pay for it, is Sondheim's notoriously...