ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

IDEAS

Can Dogs Really Talk To Humans By Pressing Buttons?

Heaven knows there's a ton of social media videos purporting to show that the answer is yes. What do animal-cognition scientists think? - The New York Times Magazine

Versailles Was, Believe It Or Not, A Center of Scientific Advancement

"In 1666, Louis XIV established the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, which, unlike peer institutions in Italy or Britain, paid members a salary and covered their lodgings and equipment. … At court, (Louis XV and XVI) were routinely presented with the latest inventions or discoveries, sometimes even watching live demonstrations." - Artnet

While The Brutalist Gets Architecture Painfully Wrong, It Does Stand Up For Modernism And Genius

Tussling with history and mythology, the film "goes all in on the idea that we still desperately need the old dyad of genius and modernist progress, that great minds, great thoughts, great works of human creativity can still transform us spiritually and materially.” - Washington Post

In The UK, National Heritage Needs To Be As Concerned For Nature As For Buildings

“What we have at present is a rather stark hierarchy of heritage. Buildings and artefacts are granted high levels of safeguarding. Yet culturally important landscapes, trees and rivers are left relatively undefended. Why the lack of equivalence?” - The Observer (UK)

Globalization Gets A Bad Rap Now. But Globalization Has Been With Us For Centuries

Globalisation didn’t begin in the 1990s, or even in the past millennia. Remembering this older shared history is a path to a different tale, which begins much, much earlier. The tale of globalisation is written across human history. So why do we keep getting the story so wrong? - Aeon

Getting Our Heads Around Understanding Bullshit

To account fully for the phenomenon of bullshit, we require a conception that envisions the bullshitted to expect that someone completely unlike him or her in essential social ways, perhaps even the bullshitter her/himself, will admit the objections the bullshitted would raise, if s/he were allowed effective access to socially recognized means of objection. - 3 Quarks Daily

The Role Of Public Philosophy In Difficult Times

The practice of public philosophy is thriving today in a surprising number of forms. Different approaches give rise to meta-level questions about the nature of philosophy in general and the nature of public philosophy in particular. - 3 Quarks Daily

Can Animals Make Art?

If we take art to be something that is beautiful and consciously created – and animals consciously create things that look like art – shouldn’t we accept these productions as art, too? As Edgar Degas put it, “art is not what you see, but what you make others see”. - The Conversation

Why Even Thinking About Utopias Seems Remote

When national politics is becoming increasingly polarised, global conflicts are escalating to new temperatures, and the toll of the climate catastrophe grows deadlier, the mere mention of utopia risks generating side-splitting laughter. - Psyche

The Role Of Beauty In Science

Over the past three years, we have studied thousands of scientists on three different continents, asking them about the role of beauty in their work. Our research left us convinced that the core aesthetic experience science has to offer is not primarily about sensory experiences or formulas. - Aeon

Can What You Eat Change Your Brain?

In a sense, yes. The most extraordinary property of the gut-brain axis is that it is plastic. In the same way that your brain constantly takes in new information about the world around you, strengthening or changing connections via neuroplasticity, it also adjusts to signals from inside you. - The Guardian

What Fan Culture Reaction To Celebrity Deaths Teaches Us About Dealing With Grief

Fan communities coping with a celebrity loss do several things that help their members feel supported and connected to one another, which often also disrupts society’s typical reaction to grief. So, what can we learn from fans grieving celebrity deaths? - The Conversation

Is This The Year AI Enters The Physical World?

Expanding AI beyond its digital boundary demands reworking how machines think, fusing the digital intelligence of AI with the mechanical prowess of robotics. This is what I call “physical intelligence”, a new form of intelligent machine that can understand dynamic environments, cope with unpredictability, and make decisions in real time. - Wired

What The Arts Mean In The Long Run Isn’t What We Think They Do Right Now

“Many musicians and other creative spirits feel as if they have little significance or impact in our society. The prevailing metrics of success—money, power, whatever—relegate their work to the fringes and sub-fringes.” But let’s take a look at how the arts truly matter. - The Honest Broker

Why Are Airports Such Great Settings For Thrillers?

They’re intense places, and as we all know to our chagrin, they’re often "where your long-held plans can go awry.” - NPR

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