A pair of British professors write about the AIR Network, a program they set up with colleagues to work with residents of Mukuru, a poor neighborhood in the Kenyan capital, using theatre, photography, drawing, and storytelling, to find ways to improve local air quality — and to push politicians to help. – The Conversation
Why Did Hollywood Make Classical Music The Theme Music Of The Bad Guys?
For Hollywood, classical music has become the trademark of villains. On screen, orchestral melodies accompany the meditations of mad geniuses and pouting serial killers. Norman Bates practices the Moonlight sonata in Psycho II. Sociopath Lou Ford relaxes to Richard Strauss throughout The Killer Inside Me. Alex Forrest, in Fatal Attraction, plots her revenge while listening to Madama Butterfly. – American Scholar
Sound And The Optimal Work Place (Too Much, Too Little…)
Gone are the sound-absorbing dropped ceilings and acoustical tile, cubicle dividers, wall-to-wall carpets, and upholstered chairs. In their place are reflective high ceilings with exposed H.V.A.C., hardwood surfaces, mesh chairs, and lots and lots of glass. The goal is a buzz, similar to the free-flowing coffee and beer that many provide to their clients. A common citation in the literature that promotes co-working is a 2012 study from the Journal of Consumer Research that concludes the right amount of ambient noise—seventy decibels, roughly the level of a household appliance like a vacuum cleaner, or about the volume you might typically use for a radio or TV—“enhances performance on creative tasks.” – The New Yorker
‘Thought Experiments In F# Minor’ — A Virtual Interactive Tour Of Walt Disney Concert Hall, Led By A Cat-Woman
“Created by Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, with original music by Ellen Reid and curation by Yuval Sharon, the tour reveals little of the Concert Hall’s history, instead zig-zagging between philosophical musings such as on Schroedinger’s Cat (the theoretical paradox of a cat inside a box being both alive and dead), footage of intimate performances from the Philharmonic, and whimsical vignettes.” Writer Matt Stromberg gives it a try. – Hyperallergic
Undisturbed Mayan Ritual Cave Discovered At Chichén Itzá
“Archaeologists hunting for a sacred well beneath the ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula have accidentally discovered a trove of more than 150 ritual objects — untouched for more than a thousand years — in a series of cave chambers that may hold clues to the rise and fall of the ancient Maya.” – National Geographic
An Autistic Musician Writes An Open Letter To Her Colleagues
“Allow me to introduce myself: I’m Chrysanthe Tan, a real-life, autistic violinist, composer, and recording artist, and in my near-decade of working in many music spheres, I’ve noticed an unacceptable, overwhelming status quo of autistic inaccessibility. … We are enthusiastic audience members, patrons, and guests. And so it’s time you adapted a permanent framework for improving autistic accessibility in your concerts, rehearsals, and other music organization efforts.” – NewMusicBox
A ‘Restrained Homage To Over-The-Top Art’: The Museum Of The International Baroque
Justin Davidson: “There’s a certain slyly subversive quality to the displays of manuscripts, ceiling frescoes, foods, scientific instruments, silverware, home furnishings, and scenes of Monteverdi opera and Shakespeare performed in Spanish. Here [in Puebla, Mexico], a formerly colonized people have placed the colonists’ culture on display, as if to acknowledge with a hint of surprise that Europe such an advanced civilization in the 17th and 18th century.” – New York Magazine
The Most Important Job On The Internet Right Now Is Comment Moderator (And It’s Awful Work)
“It’s where free speech, community interests, censorship, harassment, spam, and overt criminality all butt up against each other. It has to account for a wide variety of always-evolving cultural norms and acceptable behaviors. As someone who has done the job, I can tell you that it can be a grim and disturbing task. And yet the big tech platforms seem to place little value on it: The pay is poor, workers are often contractors, and it’s frequently described as something that’s best left to the machines.” – BuzzFeed
There Will Finally Be A Ballet Emoji (And No, It Won’t Look Like This)
A placeholder image that went viral last month had bunheads worldwide worried. But it’s merely a placeholder for engineers. – Pointe
How They Made That Amazing Opening Dance Sequence In Gaspar Noé’s ‘Climax’
“Shot in a single-take, the [five-minute] dance routine is more than just choreographed steps. It shows off the dancers’ individual styles which include voguing, an improvisational dance form that mixes exaggerated model poses with mime-like movement; waacking, characterized by rapid arm movements; and krumping, an aggressive and emotional dance born on the streets of South L.A.” Choreographer Nina McNeely talks to a reporter about the strange ways the sequence came together. – Los Angeles Times
Marcia Dale Weary, Whose Small-Town Pennsylvania School Produced Generations Of Ballet Stars, Dead At 82
In 1955, she founded what would become the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in an old barn in Carlisle, about half an hour west of Harrisburg. “CPYB is [now] known as one of the most prestigious ballet schools in the nation, with alumni holding positions in ballet companies such as New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and Pennsylvania Ballet.” – PennLive
Departing Conductor Of Savannah Philharmonic Departs Much More Quickly Than Expected
Peter Shannon, who was artistic director of the orchestra for all of its ten years, announced last fall that he’d be leaving his post at the end of this season. But the Philharmonic board said in a release on Monday that it had accepted Shannon’s immediate resignation last week. – Savannah Morning News
Italy And France Kiss And Make Up Over Leonardo’s 500th Anniversary
Last fall, the culture ministry of Italy’s new populist government took exception to the Louvre’s plan to assemble an unprecedented number of da Vinci’s paintings for a major quincentennial show this fall. A ministry official accused the Louvre of “[leaving] Italy on the margins of a major cultural event” when “Leonardo is Italian; he only died in France” and cancelled all loans from Italy for the event. But, after a meeting last week, differences have been ironed out and the Louvre show will proceed as planned. – Hyperallergic
Why It’s Important To Be Bored (At Least Occasionally)
UK psychologist and author Sandi Mann explores how embracing boredom and letting our minds wander can get us to step off the ever-accelerating hedonic treadmill, and might even encourage creativity. – Aeon
A Major New Player In Miami’s Visual Arts Scene Reveals Its Plans
The ArtCenter is finally announcing plans for its Cinderella-like windfall (one that, thanks to investments, has since swollen to $100 million, more than the endowment of any other South Florida visual arts organization, many of whom have been struggling to fund-raise even a fraction of that sum). It will be moving to the mainland Miami neighborhood of Little Haiti, where it will build a new $30 million, 40,000-square-foot art center with 22 studios for resident artists, a 2,500-square-foot exhibition space, a 120-seat theater, as well as classrooms and work spaces for an expanded array of instructional courses on mediums like painting and filmmaking. – The New York Times
Polemicist, Pornographer, Philosopher, Prisoner, And All-Around Good Egg: Denis Diderot (And Yeah, He Wrote The First Encyclopedia)
“He was and remains … a mensch. He is also a very French mensch. He is a touchingly perfect representative — far more than the prickly Voltaire — of a certain French intellectual kind not entirely vanished.” Adam Gopnik explains. – The New Yorker
Correlation Between Reading To Children And Creating Readers (Of Course)
Only 32% of British children under 13 are read to daily by an adult, for pleasure, down four percentage points on the previous year, and nine percentage points down on 2012. Most parents stop reading to their child by the age of eight, with just 19% of eight to 10-year-olds read to daily by an adult, across all socio-economic groups, down 3% on last year. Boys were less likely to be read to daily than girls at 14%, compared with 24%. – The Guardian
Quebec Radio Stations Pull Michael Jackson’s Music After Documentary
Jackson’s family and his estate have denounced the Leaving Neverland documentary in recent weeks through written statements, a lawsuit, and letters to HBO and Britain’s Channel 4, which also plans to air the film. Their central criticism has been the documentary’s failure to talk to family members or other defenders of Jackson, whom they insist never molested a child. – CBC
Blurred Lines: How Music Copyright Works Today (An Explainer)
Most music copyright infringement cases are settled out of court with shared writing credit — and royalties — as it’s extremely rare for these types of cases to make it to a jury. When it gets to that point, determining fault can be tricky. – Washington Post
Washington Ballet Executive Director Is Stepping Down
Said the 62-year-old Michael Mael, “I’m at the age where I need some balance. The ballet needs someone who is all in. Somebody who is at every single performance and every single donor event and social event. And that’s not where I am in my life.” – The Washington Post
Andrea Martin Breaks Four Ribs, Pulls Out Of Taylor Mac’s New Broadway Show
The Tony-winning actress was set to co-star alongside Nathan Lane in Mac’s Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus. (The lead roles are servants who have to haul away the dead bodies and clean up after Titus’s war.) The role has been recast, and the first preview performance has been postponed from March 5 to March 9. – The Hollywood Reporter
La Scala Under Fire For Putting Saudi Culture Minister On Board Of Directors
“Alexander Pereira, the Austrian chief executive and artistic director credited with bringing in more sponsors and creating a healthier balance sheet since his appointment in 2014, said the new board member” — Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Al Saud — “would bring in an additional €15m (£12.8m) over the next five years.” Saudi Arabia is, of course, in bad odor among many in the Western arts world, despite the Kingdom’s efforts to use culture to improve its image. – The Guardian
Brazil’s Great Sculpture Park, Inhotim, Reopens Following Disastrous Dam Collapse
“The deadly mudslides that resulted from the [Brumadinho] accident did not reach the sculpture park, which is around 20km from the site and had been evacuated, but more than 80% of its 600 employees live in the region, and more than 40 are related to some of the 300 workers and their families who died or remain missing.” – The Art Newspaper
Peter Hurford, Much-Recorded Organist, Dead At 88
He was best-known for his award-winning discs of the complete organ music of J.S. Bach, though his discography ranged from Handel and Soler to Widor and Poulenc. – Gramophone
Too Distracting? English National Opera To Cut Back On Supertitles
The opera company said the move had been prompted by a desire to “give audiences even more choice in the new season”, which will be announced in April. “This confirms ENO’s commitment to singing English, and allows those who find the use of surtitles distracting an opportunity to see an opera without their use,” chief executive Stuart Murphy said. – The Stage