ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

WORDS

Can Graphic Novels Really Teach College-Level Math And Physics?

Two professors who use them explain how the format — visual information via image as well as text, in a form (comics) that very few people find intimidating — can get complex concepts across even to people with math anxiety. - The Conversation

70 Years After It Was Discovered, An Ancient Near Eastern Script Is Being Deciphered

"The researchers have proposed the name Eteo-Tocharian to describe the newly identified language, which is believed to have been, at one point, one of the official languages of the Kushan Empire" (200BC-700AD). - Artnet

Small Washington Town’s Library Under Siege By Book-Banners

The library director and board initially refused to move any of the books. But, more recently, the library has tried to assuage its adversaries, eliminating the entire young adult nonfiction section and intermingling those books with adult books. It has not worked. - Seattle Times

Iowa School District Used ChatGPT To Decide Which Books To Ban

Each of these texts was reviewed using AI software to determine if it contains a depiction of a sex act. Based on this review, there are 19 texts that will be removed from our 7-12 school library collections and stored in the Administrative Center while we await further guidance or clarity. - Iowa Gazette

Parisian Booksellers Explain How They Are Preparing For The 2024 Olympics

"With a diving suit and helmet, and with dark glasses, earplugs, and a plan for retreat to the countryside." "We'll of course have a few books, but in a corner." "We have other things to think about." "Maybe we'll do one window about sports. Maybe some French flags." - The Paris Review

London Evening Standard Is Hemorrhaging Money And Would Shut Down Without Its Deep-Pocketed Owner, Say Auditors

"The (paper) has lost a further £16m and said it was reliant on extra funds from its owner, Evgeny Lebedev, to continue publishing. … The business model of printing hundreds of thousands of free newspapers aimed at commuters has been hit hard, (with) little sign it will revive anytime soon." - The Guardian

Has The Culture Of Possessing Art Subverted The Power Of Art?

Selfie-takers in museums epitomise ‘possessive modes of looking’ that are a symptom of a history of art rooted in the conflict between how the art system (museum, art market) ‘alienates’ the work of art, against art’s ‘constituent alterity’, its ‘infinite capacity… to generate experience over time’ – or, in other words, its freedom. - ArtReview

How Ancient Rome Used Libraries To Project Power

Today’s libraries are a direct legacy of the Roman impulse to transcend practicality and invest arenas of knowledge with a sense of scale akin to that of churches – temples to a different creed – with their imposing porticoes and columns, their elaborate ornaments and staircases, their rows of desks and lofty shelves. - Psyche

The Pandemic Changed Many Things, Including What It Means To ‘Own’ A Book

In the fight over the Internet Archive, "it’s rarely this nasty, but free vs. expensive is a struggle that plays out continuously against all forms of media and entertainment. Neither side has the upper hand forever. "- The New York Times

Shakespeare Is Far Too Sexy For Florida

The state of Florida under Ron DeSantis certainly has come to resemble a parody of itself, and, well: "Students in a Florida school district will be reading only excerpts from William Shakespeare's plays for class rather than the full texts under redesigned curriculum guides." - NPR

After Bad Publicity, Amazon Removes Books ‘Generated By AI’ Under Author’s Name

At first, the behemoth company told author Jane Friedman that since she hadn't trademarked her name, there was nothing they could do. "It looks terrible. It makes me look like I’m trying to take advantage of people with really crappy books," Friedman said. - The Guardian (UK)

Can A BookTok ‘Sensation’ Become A Decent Movie?

Maybe! "Best-seller lists don’t fully convey the adoration that Red, White & Royal Blue has garnered on BookTok, ... where fans have shared their obsession with the escapist love story en masse, and videos tagged #redwhiteandroyalblue have received more than 500 million views." - The New York Times

Preserving Nigeria’s History by Digitizing Its Newspapers

"A nonprofit startup called Archivi.ng is attempting to digitise every edition of every newspaper – 50 in all – published in Nigeria since 1 January 1960, the year of independence from Britain. The archive will launch its first tranche of documents in September." - The Guardian

When Pro Hockey, Romance Novels, And BookTok Collide

"The niche world of hockey romance novels is getting mainstream attention after the wife of an N.H.L. player criticized book fans who she said had made comments and videos on social media about her husband that were 'predatory and exploiting.'" - The New York Times

A Johnny Appleseed For Prison Libraries?

"Reginald Dwayne Betts is the founder of Freedom Reads, a nonprofit with a mission to 'transform access to literature in prisons' by opening handcrafted micro-libraries in as many carceral facilities as possible. … With its 13-person team, it aim to open upwards of 1,000 libraries in the next three years." - Fast Company

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');