As chief of new product development for Philips in 1960, Ottens invented the first portable tape recorder. But it was reel-to-reel, a format which he (like many) found frustratingly bulky, so he set out to invent a tape that would fit in a jacket pocket — and wound up transforming the audio world. Yet later, he quite matter-of-factly stated...
"Today, in London’s seven top orchestras, women only account for 3% of all the timpani and percussion positions. In fact, there are more men called David with jobs in percussion than there are women." - The Guardian
Dancing on the tips of the toes has always been part of the ballerina mystique; traditionally, men have done it only for comedy. Now there's a crop of male ballet dancers who are taking pointe work seriously, and they want the rest of us to take it seriously, too. - The Guardian
The opera's wardrobe team crafted the mask from materials used in making its corsets -- with a billowy shape aimed at allowing ample room for singers to belt out song, while tightly sealing in aerosols that could potentially spread the virus. - NBC
"It seems like a good time, as the pandemic continues to block live performances in all but a few socially distanced, outdoor shows, to revisit the topic of performing for the camera. … Their responses range from poetic to practical to pensive to feeling trapped-in-a-digital-prison and beyond, … the musicians all say their professional careers now and forever...
Yahoo may be seen by much of the minivideo app's Gen Z core audience as a dinosaur, but Yahoo News has been on TikTok for only a year and is now the third most popular news outlet on the platform, ahead of CBS and NBC News and The Washington Post. The Yahoo News account's bio reads "Yes, we still...
"Too often, arts-based approaches undermine rather than support equity, as Richard Florida … now acknowledges. … How does one ensure arts-based development avoids this outcome and instead promotes equity?" One of the final reports from ArtPlace America (a ten-year, multi-institutional project researching creative placemaking that ran from 2010 to 2020) offers some promising case studies. - Nonprofit Quarterly
"Subscription packages for some of Broadway's biggest hits are being sold at a handful of the nation's performing arts centers, while a host of others have booked dates and plan to subscriptions later this spring. Although performances are almost six months away and could change, … the return of Broadway road shows is critical to the financial recovery...
An antiquities dealer in Jerusalem came forward in 1883 with what he claimed were fragments of the original book of Deuteronomy. After scholars at the time pronounced them forgeries, the dealer committed suicide and the fragments eventually disappeared. Now a scholar, working with old photos and transcriptions of the fragments, argues that they are an early (and somewhat different)...
" On 29 January, the government of prime minister Mark Rutte became the first in Europe to approve a central mechanism for repatriating colonial loot. … Now, a research consortium of nine museums and Amsterdam's Vrije Universiteit is preparing to launch a €4.5m project in June that will develop practical guidance for museums on colonial collections." - The Art...
"Theatres, cinemas, museums and other cultural spaces have been shut since France's last full lockdown in October, and … thousands marched in cities across France last Thursday to demand they reopen with social distancing. The Paris march ended with around 50 people forcing their way into the shuttered Odeon Theatre and refusing to leave. Similar actions were seen on...
A month before "meme stocks" like GameStop and AMC Entertainment took flight and captured the public imagination, many of the world’s entertainment giants were the beneficiaries of a nine-figure windfall driven by retail trader enthusiasm. - The Hollywood Reporter
"During this period of soul-crushing boredom, it would be valuable to pay more attention to what people are feeling and thinking, rather than trying to distract and lull them; to collect our daydreams, reveries and thoughts from this time, and let expectations and desires find common expression." - The Guardian
"AI as scientist conception runs the risk of missing out on a — the — characteristic feature of AI, particularly machine learning. Once this feature of machine learning is thrown into relief, AI as artist seems a more fitting conception." - 3 Quarks Daily
The UK’s theatrical culture is obsessed with the idea of theatre as storytelling, both as a discourse and as a conditioning of what the work is and should be like. This is extremely rigid: theatre is not storytelling but an experience. In London almost every season announcement sounds the same, everyone seems to be saying, “We are telling new...
