When he started at Columbia as a sophomore this past September, he didn’t worry much about academics or his GPA. “Most assignments in college are not relevant,” he told me. “They’re hackable by AI, and I just had no interest in doing them.” - New York Times (MSN)
The technology has given ChatGPT users control over the visual languages that artists have honed over the course of their careers, potentially devaluing those artists’ styles and destroying their ability to charge money for their work. - The Atlantic
For what it’s worth, most Americans share this sense of declinism when it comes to movies, music, and TV, telling pollsters that these things peaked somewhere between the 1970s and the 2000s. - Noahpinion
“The imposing structure ... is visibly uneven in places, particularly the grand dome, which for hundreds of years has sat atop four columns of different dimensions. … The team will remove the lead covering the main dome and look for ways to strengthen the fragile joints between the semi-domes and the main cupola.” - The Guardian
Demis Volpi succeeded longtime director John Neumeier only last summer. Now almost half the company’s principal dancers have resigned, and more than half signed a letter to the city’s chief culture official complaining of bad management and a toxic working atmosphere. - Tageblatt (Stade/Hamburg) (via Google Translate)
Nadya Tolokonnikova, who spent almost two years in a Russian penal colony as punishment for a notorious performance at Moscow’s Orthodox cathedral, will spend nine days inside a replica prison cell installed at the museum. Visitors can watch her eat, sleep, and so on through peep holes and a security camera feed. - The New York Times
“’The Shameful Dream’ … is a short story about a Londoner named Caffery Bone. Fleming’s protagonist is the literary editor of Our World, a periodical designed to bring power and social advancement to Lord Ower,’ its owner. … (It) appears in this week’s Strand Magazine along with another obscure work, … Graham Greene’s ‘Reading at Night.’” - AP
“Tony Award-winning playwright John Logan is donating $40,000 to Berkeley Repertory Theatre — the same amount the company was set to receive from the federal agency to support the Ground Floor, its new play development program.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
The decision, issued in a case brought by 21 state attorneys general, ruled that Trump’s executive order to close the agency violates the separation of powers doctrine and Administrative Procedures Act and ordered the rehiring of all terminated employees and restoration of all cancelled funding. - Publishers Weekly
Alexander Shelley, who was just 35 when he succeeded Pinchas Zukerman in 2015, will leave Ottawa in the summer of 2026 and begin his next job, music director of the Pacific Symphony in Orange County, California. He is also artistic director of the arts center and orchestra in Naples, Florida. - Ottawa Citizen
“First it was HBO Go, then it was HBO Now, followed by HBO Max and ultimately just Max. But now, Warner Bros. Discovery is rebranding its streaming service yet again to: HBO Max (Yes, you read that right).” - TheWrap
The complaint itself alleges that children as young as 13 years old worked grueling 15-hour training schedules at least six days a week, in exchange for little pay and inadequate education. - NPR
“The identikit all-female spectacle we know so well is the opposite of how the cancan first began in the working-class dancehalls of Paris, where it was a social dance full of spontaneous improvisation – and performed primarily by men. It was much later that it became a theatrical spectacle for the well-to-do.“ - The Guardian
Experts, historians, and Indigenous groups argue the item isn’t just surplus inventory but part of the country’s origin story. They are calling for its preservation in Canadian archives. - The Walrus
Some arts suppliers have been preparing to pass the costs of tariffs on to their consumers. Canal Plastics Center, a plastics fabrication company in SoHo, raised their prices by about 10 to 15% last month, a spokesperson for the store said. - Hyperallergic