[contextly_auto_sidebar id="rH31sHcPNX2fJ8BUGdeIZ6rMJes54987"] THE honest answer to that question is, Well, maybe. Today I have a Daily Beast interview with Andrew McAfee, an MIT researcher and co-author of the new book The Second Machine Age. His previous book, Race Against the Machine, took a cautionary look at how digital technology, including artificial intelligence, was leading to levels … [Read more...]
Artists Struggle For Studio Space
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="npP8u6de6KK3cPDVFRq7dyGjkAQtokuK"] OFTEN I wonder how visual artists -- most of whom are not rich and not famous -- are faring while the global art market booms and auctions hit new heights. Solid data is hard to find, and much of the market is opaque. But an illuminating new story makes clear: Rising rents make it hard for artists in big cities to hold their … [Read more...]
Photography on the Web: Getty Images Goes Free
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="wKTuBaBs4g6nEeAQFph8OgG0XKZQVL7g"] THE state of photographs and other images on the Web is fraught and confusing, and seems destined to become more of both with time. Vague tensions turn into lawsuits; the "free" crowd, sometime with tech-corporation lobbying, goes up against Hollywood lawyers, and on and on. I must admit, as someone who respects the need for … [Read more...]
The Future of Alternative Weeklies, and Chiming Indie
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ShQp9YeN13ifE3cCtt2c9QeB43k2DCRC"] DOES the alternative press have a future? Do these papers still matter to their cities? And how much of that future will be corporate controlled? Those are some of the topics that an editor at the Baltimore City Paper gets into in a smart op-ed today. Alt-weeklies have had a hard time of it over the last few years, Baynard Woods … [Read more...]
Artists in the Digital Age, and Falling in Love with Technology
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="qC3vge9cgA87c22YRZr5Mjkjf9EcoUPy"] HOW will the digital age shape the livelihood of artists, writers and musicians? There’s a new story in The New York Times that everyone who cares about the subject should read. It’s by Robert H. Frank, one of my favorite economists and the sharpest observer of the winner-take-all phenomenon, which may seem to have little to do with … [Read more...]
New NEA Chair and More on Starving Artists
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="0LTdLuqZwPqtzeNA2d7ehmGpnFkQovIb"] AT long last, we have a National Endowment for the Arts chair. The president has nominated Jane Chu, who runs Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Chu and has also been a performing pianist; she seems to be well-liked among people I know, considered “low key,” and capable. (This story, from Chu's hometown paper, … [Read more...]
Are the Arts Only For the Rich?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="aqiS16Ux4TDDRYOTuxApesEZ8xik6SGp"] TAKE the long view, and people and institutions have been trying to destroy culture, and the people who make it, for centuries. Among the latest attacks has been the category of the "cultural elite," and the implication that anyone who enjoys the arts or takes place in their making is not a real American. It's a weird mix of … [Read more...]
Movies and the 1 Percent
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="MXOnux5h60TpQeeW1oA2Sr2osSWsecFp"] SEVERAL of the big, prestigious films of recent months look at the Wall Street crash, corrosive greed, and economic insecurity. But how substantially do they engage with these topics? Is there a Chinatown or Network or The Wire -- narratives that wage a larger social critique -- in the bunch? I get into these questions in my new … [Read more...]
Reporting, the Digital Age, and the Disappearing Middle Class
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="UdzFLHqHKqJ9wXVQI1GqH0q0PFUfcGe7"] HOW are digital technology and the 21st century economy reshaping journalism, including arts reporting? I'll plan to dig into economy-of-culture questions on this blog as often as I can. Today, a business columnist gets into it quite smartly in a new piece. Michael Hiltzik’s Los Angeles Times column, “Supply of news is dwindling … [Read more...]
Week in Review: Obama on Art vs Factories, and More
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="UzOdqTdRr0f4bA3skq8em9vtTLiLXNnZ"] WHAT seems to have been a throwaway line on the impracticality of the "art history major" by President Obama is stirring up art-world folk. I first read about it in this Hyperallergic post, "Obama Loves Art History But Thinks It's (Economically) Useless," which describes him praising skilled manufacturing jobs over, you know, artsy … [Read more...]