How An Iranian Director Made His Award-Winning Film In Secret — And Was Then Smuggled Out Of The Country "Mohammad Rasoulof had been imprisoned for his work before, and he knew that his The Seed of the Sacred Fig — which ultimately got a 13-minute ovation and a special jury prize at Cannes — would land him there again....
Good morning: One of the most likely impacts of AI will be a massive explosion of new art -- books, music, images, video. This will be brought about by AI tools making it easier to create work. Here's a good early example: A new company called Spines, automates the process of getting a book into print. "The platform can...
Good morning. When books go out of copyright (finally), anyone can use them to republish, remix, re-interpret. "To turn a profit, you just need a basic understanding of the internet: Public-domain manuscripts are available for free through Project Gutenberg, while eye-catching covers can be mocked up in minutes on Canva, a free-to-use design suite. From there, aspiring publishers bring their...
Good morning. Lots of consequential stories this week. One I find particularly intriguing is this story from Harvard Business Review. It takes on the notion of success in the digital age being defined by the ability to scale. Because creating copies of digital products costs practically nothing, the ability to sign up hundreds of millions of users/subscribers/viewers costs very...
Good morning: When voters elected far right governments in Hungary and Poland, the new leaders started changing the rules for how government would work. Among the measures were laws to crack down on culture and media. This week, The US House voted to allow the Treasury Secretary to classify any non-profits as "terrorism-supporting" and strip them of their nonprofit...
Good Morning: We're at the stranded assets part of the cable television business. Comcast has decided to spin off its cable networks (though not NBC). Networks include MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, E!, Syfy and Golf Channel. It's the clearest sign yet that the cable TV model is dying before our eyes. Comcast, which itself is bleeding subscribers as customers...
Black Artists And Performers Claim Egypt For Africa At The Met“By staging performances within the Met’s hallowed halls, these artists challenge traditional narratives of Egyptian art as solely Middle Eastern, highlighting its African roots.” – The New York Times
Restoration Of Rembrandt’s “Night Watchman” Begins In Public“Restorers at the Rijksmuseum are working in a specially designed glass chamber in full...
How To Select Ten Books To Represent A Quarter Of A Century“Once we got back about ten years, I had a much better sense of what had lasted, what was really lastingly good and not just shiny. … The closer we get to the present the less perspective we have.” – Reactor Magazine
In Colorado, There’s No History Without Art...
Festival Attendance Might Be Down, But Glastonbury Sells Out In 30 Minutes Despite concerns about declining attendance at music festivals globally, Glastonbury's rapid sell-out reflects enduring demand for live cultural experiences, raising questions about accessibility and ticketing systems. – BBC
How People Focus Attention On Art Has Changed. Museums Need To Change Too "Claire Bishop argues that social media and...
Good morning. One of the revolutions in marketing brought about by AI will be going from getting your message out in front of the right people to having AI agents that will make relationships and "persuade" people. Spotify is testing a version of this. The streaming service, which has made its mark with algorithms tuned to users' choices, has...
Good Morning: In a delicious irony, the humor publication The Onion has won an auction to buy Alex Jones' InfoWars website. The site said: “The Onion is proud to acquire Infowars, and we look forward to continuing its storied tradition of scaring the site’s users with lies until they fork over their cold, hard cash,” said The Onion CEO...
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Theater Festival Brings Solace To Capital Of Troubled Burkina FasoIn Ouagadougou, the festival Récréâtrales offers a glimmer of hope amid political instability and violence in Burkina Faso, showcasing the resilience of the arts in times of crisis. – AP
Has The Internet Trapped Fiction In A No-Man’s Land?This essay questions how digital reading has flattened narrative structures in fiction, suggesting...
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In The Theatre, Digital Tickets And Programs Erase The Physical Record Of Attending This piece explores the impact of digital-only tickets and programs, questioning how the loss of physical mementos affects our memory of theatrical experiences and the tangibility of cultural participation. – Public Books
Reconsidering Antiquities: American Museums And The Ethics Of It All Reflecting on the extensive...
Good morning: For months big AI companies have been touting how AI will change things. In the past few weeks, we're starting to see it. Starting with online search. AI-powered search is radically different from the traditional Google search we're used to. Instead of returning lists of thousands of websites where you might find your answer, the new AI...
Good morning. Here are this weekend's highlights:
How The Pandemic Has Reshaped Cultural PhilanthropyThe pandemic spurred a shift in arts funding, with donors increasingly focused on social justice, equity, and supporting smaller, community-based organizations, altering the landscape of cultural philanthropy in profound ways. – The Art Newspaper
The Quiet Rise of Eco-Set Design in Theater Theater companies are adopting sustainable practices...
