“Former Pitchfork and Spin editor-in-chief Puja Patel is launching Totei, a publication dedicated to ‘craft and craftsmanship.’ The online magazine will publish content weekly, including profiles of artists and musicians, photo essays, reported features, and interviews. Crucially, Totei aims to spotlight rarely seen materials showing how art is created.” - Semafor
A prominent Israeli legal organization is threatening legal action against the Canadian Museum for Human Rights over an upcoming exhibit on the Palestinian Nakba, alleging the Winnipeg museum is promoting a politically one-sided narrative that could fuel antisemitism and violate federal law. - Winnipeg Sun
The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture more than doubled its operating budget and staff, and the city earmarked $26.2 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to bolster Boston’s creative sector. All that is set to change, as federal pandemic funds run out and the city cuts grant programs to balance the budget. - WBUR
We’re selling vibes, textures. A sunset on the hills in Chianti, riding a bike on an island in Sicily. Imagine us discussing it in parliament with an Italian accent: l’importanza del made in Italy. We use the English expression unironically. It’s aimed at Americans. - The Dial
“If you want a deep dive into Chicago arts and culture, check your phone at the door: The ‘unplugged’ trend is growing locally among arts groups responding to a collective desire for more phone-free experiences.” - WBEZ (Chicago)
The head of France’s biggest film producer, Canal+, has said the group will no longer work with hundreds of cinema figures who signed a petition voicing concern over the growing influence of the rightwing billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré. - The Guardian
Stanford has always been a haven for aspiring techies, but recent events have taken the school into uncharted territory. A.I. is everything. We talk about it at the dining halls and in history classes, on dates and while smoking with friends, at the gym and in communal dorm bathrooms. - The New York Times
As it turns out, tech jobs may be drying up after years of students rushing to computer science. Who needs to code? AI does that for you. What AI can’t do – yet – is the stuff that makes us human: empathy, emotion, psychology, critical thinking. - Irish Times
"In the new wall text accompanying a portrait of Mr. Trump, the impeachments are mentioned in a list of important events from the president’s first term.” - The New York Times
The head of one viral marketing firm says 90 percent of what we see online is advertising. And of course, “the point of this kind of marketing is that nobody is supposed to notice it. But lately, the machinery has started to show.” - Vulture
"Every time I see a video on Instagram that’s like, ‘Hollywood is cooked,’ what follows is the most stupid dog shit I’ve ever seen in my life.” - Variety
“If a paper has ‘incontrovertible evidence that the authors did not check the results of LLM generation,’ such as hallucinated references or “meta-comments” left by an LLM, authors will be banned from ArXiv for a year.” The responses have been … er, interesting. - The Verge
“The current system of unpaid reviews undermines the standards of the peer-review process. It produces late reviews and excludes large segments of the research community who cannot afford to work for free. If you have a financial commitment from the reviewer, it creates a lever for expecting quality. Payment creates accountability, not corruption.” - InsideHigherEd
“Employees and artists are speaking out about turmoil in the San Francisco Arts Commission, alleging that its leader has been chronically absent and arguing that it's harming the arts by cutting staff and changing how it funds artists.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)