Stories

Marina Abramović Is Making Art With, Of All Things, Balloons

“Snowy/Windy/Spring on Planet Z, the latest installation by the performance artist Marina Abramović, opened earlier this month at New York’s new Balloon Museum, which bills itself as ‘the first permanent home for inflatable art’.” - The Guardian

Research: Why We’re Bothered More When We Think People Are Wrong (And It’s Not Just A Different Opinion)

Our new research finds that people are more disturbed by others’ beliefs when they feel those beliefs are not merely different from their own but are based on incorrect information. - The Conversation

Some Media Outlets Are Adapting Their Investigative Journalism Into Video Games

“More than three billion people globally play some form of video games. For a media industry with falling revenues and growing audience distrust, games — ranging from simple quizzes to fully-fledged downloadable games and augmented reality experiences — have become a new way to engage and inform audiences.” - Nieman Lab

Dance USA’s New Director On The State Of The Field

The entire field is facing heightened levels of uncertainty, and we have not been spared. Dance/USA needs to reimagine and rebuild its business model. Our existing organizational strategy and structure are not sustainable. I took this job knowing that that was the case. - Dance Magazine

The Onion’s Takeover Of InfoWars May Be The Most Interesting Media Story Of The Year

Since The Onion took over Alex Jones’s rabidly right-wing media property and turned it into a parody of itself, the brand has gotten hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. What could have been a one-note joke has become a real business, with viewership exceeding Jones’s own. - TheWrap (Yahoo!)

Microdramas Are Surging As Hollywood Chases TikTok

Microdramas may be the only thing that’s growing in Hollywood. The format is expected to generate $1.5 billion in revenue in the U.S. this year and jump to nearly $2 billion next year, according to research firm Omdia. - Reuters

National Symphony Announces New Season (No Kennedy Center)

The orchestra said that from September to June, it will stage some 60 performances at six venues across the region. - Washington Post (MSN)

Researchers Use AI To Define Musical “Fingerprints” Of 20 Jazz Greats

In a new paper in Nature Machine Intelligence, three University of Cambridge researchers used AI to help better define the musical tics of 20 of the most celebrated jazz pianists of all time. - Scientific American

The Rijksmuseum Has Digitized 840,000 Artworks And Put Them Online

The museum promised to “bring the museum to you,” and it has delivered not only with its extensive digital collection, free for downloading, sharing and editing with a free Rijksmuseum account, but also with informative series on its website. - Open Culture

To Prepare For Playing St. Francis Of Assisi, This Baritone Went To Live With Franciscan Monks

Canadian baritone Philippe Sly, currently starring in the Salzburg Festival’s production of Messiaen’s six-hour opera St. François d’Assise, is staying at the Kapuzinerkloster, a monastery across the Salzach River from the venue, eating with them in the refectory and attending every prayer service he’s available for. - The New York Times

ByteDance Signs AI Copyright Deal With Motion Picture Association

ByteDance and the Motion Picture Association on Monday signed an ​agreement to strengthen copyright safeguards ‌on the Chinese company's AI video and image-generation models, months after the ​Hollywood trade group challenged its ​handling of intellectual property. - Reuters

Why Reading Fiction Is Good For Your Brain

The amount of fiction people read seems to be a better predictor of language ability than nonfiction, research finds. And, perhaps even more importantly, research has found that fiction is linked to better social cognition and an increased understanding of the world as a complex place. - Washington Post

What Are The Best Art Emojis? Getty Curators Have Thoughts…

Curators at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles have taken those variations as an invitation to judgment. In a series of recent social media posts, the museum is rating the appearances of art-adjacent emojis across different platforms and operating systems, leavening scholarly expertise with a liberal sprinkling of cheek. - The New York Times

Why Writing Detectors For AI Won’t Work

Either human speech and AI speech progressively assimilate, causing a collapse in any meaningful distinction, or language becomes a contested social signal. This second scenario would essentially be a game of whack-a-mole across the English language. - Washington Post

A Veteran Boston Critic On The Real Problem Behind The Boston Symphony Mess

“This crisis largely seems unconcerned with serious musical issues, such as the quality of the playing and the choice of repertoire.” Lloyd Schwartz reminds us that those issues are what really matter here — and that they don’t militate in Andris Nelsons’s favor. - WBUR (Boston)

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