ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

IDEAS

Perhaps We Never Will Learn Much From Studying The Past

Or at least, we'll learn that we repeat our mistakes. Take the pandemic, for instance. We need to study the now, one historian says - the problems of this pandemic "are 21st-century problems and demand 21st-century approaches." - Wired

The Value, And Persistence, Of Complaint

Sara Ahmed: "The work of revolution comes from what you learn by trying to build more just worlds alongside other people. ... It is a fundamentally life-affirming task to build institutions that are not dependent on the diminishment of the life-capacities of others." - The Paris Review

Time To Take Play More Seriously

"You're making connections between different parts of the brain which haven't necessarily been connected before and then you're repeating it. It's through this process of repetition that you're helping to strengthen the connections between these different brain areas." - BBC

Hot Topic Du Jour: Why Is Everyone Upset About “Don’t look Up?”

Critics, audiences, and activists have both savaged and praised the movie, and the backlash has highlighted the difficulty of conveying an urgent message with comedy. Has political satire lost its power? Or has reality become so absurd that it’s now beyond parody? - The Atlantic

NFTs? A Really Dumb Idea

It’s possible to see a purpose for cryptocurrencies, but NFTs are (for now) almost comically bereft of anything most of us would associate with social or cultural value. At the moment it’s Pudgy Penguins for the masses. - Nautilus

Insisting That Art Focus On Social Justice Is A Narrow View Of How Art Works

Consider those charitable foundations that have decided to stop funding the arts, or to only fund arts activities that explicitly promote diversity, equality, and justice. This is the reductionist notion that has steered philanthropic giving away from traditional “high culture.” - American Purpose

Should Art Be “Relevant?” Jed Perl Thinks Not

Perl’s thesis, most succinctly framed in his concluding chapter, is that the arts, rather than being obliged to convey utilitarian messaging, must instead remain “the products of a process that stands apart from so much of our social, economic and political life.” - The New York Times

Do Our Digital Lives Need An Intervention?

It’s clear that the internet needs design innovations—and brake mechanisms—to reduce its noxious impact. Our suffering arises, in part, from the speed and volume of our social interactions online. Maybe we can build our way toward fewer of them. - The Atlantic

Global Disarray Is Growing. Do We Have The Creativity To Stop It?

The gap between global challenges and responses is large and growing. And the resources needed to turn things around – especially collective will and skillful diplomacy – are in short supply. - Project Syndicate

Art As Transporting Experience? Sure — But Where To?

The idea of artworks as portals to other worlds dates back several centuries, and it has become a commonplace way of talking about our experiences with art. - Psyche

Fascinating: Have We Got So Much Data That We’re Entering Into A Post-Hypothesis Era In Science?

The complexity that this wealth of data has revealed to us cannot be captured by theory as traditionally understood. “We have leapfrogged over our ability to even write the theories that are going to be useful for description,” says computational neuroscientist Peter Dayan. - The Guardian

How AI Is Replacing Millions Of Jobs

While AI job automation has already replaced around 400,000 factory jobs in the U.S. from 1990 to 2007, with another 2 million on the way, AI today is automating the economy in a much more subtle way. - VentureBeat

The Irish Government Is Planning To Pay A Basic Income To Two Thousand Artists

The artists - visual and performing - will earn a basic payment each week to pursue their arts, for up to three years. - BBC

You Can’t Change Your Self

So don't try. Instead, "figuring out how to do something a little less or a little more is likely to yield the best results for most people, even if it’s not going to turn you into a different human." - The Atlantic

Why A 2004 Two-Muppet-And-A-Rock Clip Went Absolutely Viral In Early 2021

Perhaps it's obvious, but just to be clear: "The rock is a metaphor for pandemic denialism, and Elmo represents the vaccinated — those who, now in year three of pandemic life, are fed up with the false beliefs surrounding Covid-19." - The New York Times

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