Ruskin was a man who believed in angels but championed the most radical British artist of his time. He was a social reformer and utopian who was at heart a conservative reactionary and a puritan. He was a brilliant artist who ought to have been a bishop. He hated trains but invented the blog. How can it be that a man so celebrated in his time is only fitfully remembered now, 200 years after his birth – and then mostly for a salacious story. – New Statesman
How Leaders Bend History For Their Own Purposes
The past is once more being bent to suit present purposes in the hope of ushering in something that may one day look as bizarre as anything in this history of “past futures”. – New Statesman
Google Translate Is Actually Wittgenstein In Action
“Google employees have previously acknowledged that Wittgenstein’s theories gave them a breakthrough in making their translation services more effective, but somehow, this key connection between philosophy of language and artificial intelligence has long gone under-celebrated and overlooked.” Here’s an explanation. – Quartz
How Barber’s ‘Adagio For Strings’ Went From National Mourning Music To Dance Club Hit
It was played at the funerals of Einstein and FDR; TV and radio stations played it after JFK was shot; it’s been used to signify sadness in numerous films; orchestras added it to their concerts after 9/11. Then the electronica DJs got hold of it, and the remixes went over surprisingly well on the dance floor. – NPR
The Case Of The Ubiquitous Five-Floor Apartment Block, Or, Why American Cities All Look The Same
The style – “five over one – five stories of apartments over a ground-floor ‘podium’ of parking and/or retail” – is dependent on what’s called stick construction, a method begun in 1830s boomtown Chicago. Builders can find cheap material, and cheap, non-union labor, everywhere. Alert, though: “There’s a reason why stick wasn’t the default for big apartment buildings until recently, and why these buildings are limited in height: Sticks burn.” – Bloomberg Businessweek
Why Do Audiences Love Comedy, But Not Comedies?
That’s a bit of an exaggeration – audiences still enjoy seeing comedies at the theatre. But stand-up specials are eating theatre’s lunch. “TV was long seen as the enemy of theatre. … But TV was always fundamentally different than theatre. Comedy, on the other hand, shares a lot. It is a live art form, and the same romantic defenses you often hear of theatre you can also hear from comics—the beauty of its ephemerality, the present-tense nature of the form in a time when everyone is on screens.” – American Theatre
When Science Became Stories (Surprise – It Got Popular)
“That professionalization process had the effect of setting up boundaries between ‘scientists’ and anyone else who might be interested in science, so it led to the exclusion of a whole bunch of people from formal scientific activity. Arguably, popular science created its own demise by making science too popular and too successful.” – Smithsonian
A Project To Democratize The Publishing Of Art Books
Artist Publisher, a new online forum launched by the Chicago-based printing collective Temporary Services, aims to encourage online discussion of art books and to democratize knowledge of a precarious industry. – ARTnews
Chicago Opera Theatre’s New Director: Chicago To Lead New Opera Revolution
Ashley Magnus: “Right now, we’re in a golden era of American opera. Significantly more operas have been written in the US between 1997 and the present than in the 100 years prior. I would love for people to take risks and support new opera the way that they support exciting new projects in other art forms.” – WFMT
Publisher Betty Ballantine, Who Helped Create The Modern Paperback, Dead At 99
“Paperbacks had existed in the U.S. since colonial times, but in the 1930s were limited mostly to poorly made ‘pulp’ novels. … [Betty and her husband Ian] started out as importers of Penguin paperbacks from England and founded two enduring imprints: Bantam Books and Ballantine Books, both now part of Penguin Random House.” – Yahoo! (AP)
We Need A Different Way Of Thinking About Digital Art
The art market is tied to the system of uniqueness. It is still hard to sell digital files on sticks. But uniqueness contradicts with the nature of digital work, as digital files are identical and can be copied endlessly. This cries out for a new attitude towards digital art and its value that does not lie in uniqueness. It is the opposite. It lies in the accessibility of the works for everyone, from every part of the world. – The Observer
The Viral Influencer Market – How Organizing Attention Works
Sociologists Jennifer Earl and Katrina Kimport have studied the ways that protest tactics and schemes have spread out of political culture and into other spaces, especially entertainment. They coined the phrase “ubiquitous movement practices” to describe how petitions, boycotts, and the like—once tactics used solely for political goals—are now deployed across all kinds of social and cultural concerns from trying to ensure Family Guy remains on the air to trying to get the Postal Service “to issue a Marx Brothers stamp.” – The Atlantic
Steven Soderbergh On How The Movies Have (Are) Changing
“What I don’t understand is why everyone in this business thinks there is one template that is gonna be the unified field theory of “windowing” [or how long a movie screens in theaters]. The minute that I knew, which is usually around Friday at noon, that Logan Lucky wasn’t going to work and that Unsane was definitely not gonna work—as soon as that happens, the studio should let me drop the movie on a platform the next week.” – The Atlantic
For Black Talent Agents, It’s Hard Out There In Hollywood
“Pushes for greater diversity onscreen have been mirrored in some Hollywood corridors of power with varying degrees of effort and success. But the number of partners and department heads of color at talent agencies, those hypercompetitive firms where careers traditionally start in mailrooms or assistants’ pools, remains vanishingly low. … Here, seven black agents — six with major agencies, one who runs her own boutique company — speak candidly about the barriers they have faced, the isolation they have felt, and the changes they are beginning to see.” – The New York Times
Star Singer/Songwriter Ryan Adams Accused Of Manipulation, Abuse
Adams has seven Grammys and 16 albums, and was seen as a champion of women artists’ careers. But some now say that Adams’s rock-star patronage masked a darker reality. In interviews, seven women and more than a dozen associates described a pattern of manipulative behavior in which Adams dangled career opportunities while simultaneously pursuing female artists for sex. – The New York Times
The Thriving Theatre Scene In Mexico’s Prisons
“There are fifteen professional theatre companies in Mexico within detention centers, and hundreds of inmates participate. Two companies — the one at Santa Martha Acatitla prison and one called A Shout of Freedom — regularly present shows inside the jails for their fellow inmates, their families, and even the general public.” – HowlRound
Fox News Rejects Ad For Oscar-Nominated Anti-Nazi Documentary, Calling It “Inappropriate”
The documentary focuses on a 1939 pro-Nazi rally in New York and warns that fascism could happen here. The movie – A Night At The Garden – is competing in the documentary category and the ad for it – a 30-second spot was called “It Can Happen Here.” Producers had wanted to buy a spot on the Sean Hannity Show. – The Hollywood Reporter
Postcard From The Edge (Of Elko): A Report From The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering
“The event has come here for 35 years, but it feels much older. At moments, it seems like 1884, when the trail drives were still happening … But cowboy poetry is more contemporary than it wants you to believe.” – Literary Hub
Could Daniel Harding Finally Hit It Big In The US?
The English conductor, who started out as a wunderkind protégé of Simon Rattle in Birmingham, has a solid career in Europe, but he had a difficult time when he debuted with the big American orchestras in the ’00s. Now 43, he’s in the States leading the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra on its tour. Can he find success here? Zachary Woolfe talks to Harding, and to such observers as Rattle and Deborah Borda. – The New York Times
What Are Museums To Do About The Sackler Name They Have Everywhere?
The Sackler family has been giving millions to art institutions for half a century. Now they, and the recipients of their generosity, are coming under heavy pressure from activists protesting the opioid crisis, because the Sacklers own Purdue Pharma, which has made and marketed OxyContin for 23 years. Thing is, many different Sacklers have been donors, and not all of them have had any involvement with OxyContin. Reporter Peggy McGlone looks into the issue. – The Washington Post
London Theatre To Focus On ‘Research-Driven’ Performance
University College London’s Bloomsbury Theatre, now back in action after a 3½-year renovation, aims to re-examine “traditional ideas about the role of theatre in a research-intensive university.” UCL’s new Performance Lab “will explore how live performance and research can inspire each other, bringing artists and organisations into the theatre to work with researchers from fields including science, technology, art and design.” – The Stage
Mel A. Tomlinson, Who Danced With Three Of America’s Great Ballet Companies, Dead At 65
A performer “of powerful, regal demeanor,” Tomlinson was a member, in turn, of Dance Theater of Harlem, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and New York City Ballet. He was most celebrated for his performance in the Balanchine-Stravinsky ballet Agon, which he learned from its originator, Arthur Mitchell, at DTH and from Mr. B. himself at NYCB. – The New York Times
Anne-Sophie Mutter And Grandmaster Flash Win 2019 Polar Music Prize
The violin soloist and the hip-hop trailblazer, as well as the peace-through-music nonprofit Playing for Change, will each receive an award of one million Swedish kronor (more than $108,000) from the fund created by ABBA’s late manager and publisher, Stig Anderson. – Billboard