“Powered by an artificial intelligence text generator, the video game [AI Dungeon] can be played on smartphones or computers, offering players a choice of five genres: fantasy, mystery, apocalyptic, zombies, or cyberpunk. At the beginning of each game, the AI generates the first lines of a unique and genre-specific adventure — prompting players to type in their next actions. Players can type whatever they want, and the AI storyteller responds and adapts the adventure.” – Publishers Weekly
What Will Happen When Our Brains Can Talk Directly To Computers?
Voice recognition, like that used by Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa, is a step toward more seamless integration of human and machine. The next step, one that scientists around the world are pursuing, is technology that allows people to control computers — and everything connected to them, including cars, robotic arms and drones — merely by thinking. – The New York Times
New Documentary Examines $60 Million Art Fraud
For 15 years, Knoedler had procured and sold at least 40 fraudulent paintings – an astounding $60m of forged work attributed to such modern American masters as Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell. It was, according to Driven to Abstraction, a new documentary on the scandal, “the greatest forgery hoax ever of modern American art”. – The Guardian
How Choruses Are Figuring Out How To Sing Together
There are few answers about this disease. But the choral community has come together to figure out how 54 million people in America who sing in a chorus can do so safely. Choral leaders have developed software for online singing and created virtual choirs. Companies are inventing face masks that can be worn for singing. Several universities, including the University of Cincinnati, are conducting studies on the spread of aerosols while singing or playing instruments, and how it can be mitigated. – Cincinnati Business Journal
Discovery: US Teen Wrote 20,000 Wikipedia Entries In a Language They Don’t Speak
Alongside Gaelic, Scots is one of the indigenous languages of Scotland. The thousands of Wikipedia entries written in it make up one of the largest collections of the Scots language you can access online for free. The problem is an American teenager from North Carolina — who can’t speak the language — wrote 49 percent of all the entries. – Engadget
Why Americans Are Such Terrible Writers
If your children are in secondary school and are not writing essays, they are being swindled of their chance to do well in college. If you are a college student who is rarely required to submit a paper, you are being cheated of your chance to do well in life. – Intellectual Takeout
She Said She Would Write The Essay Herself
On reading, and really feeling, Virginia Woolf as a middle-aged writer. – LitHub
The Coming Coronavirus Changes To Museum Architecture
Some ideas: “Study the chokepoints, bottlenecks, and pinch points that museums share—such as the entrances, queuing zones, and access area for exhibits. … Look at ways that all food may be consumed outdoors, which works for museums with the right environmental conditions. Similarly, those cultural venues may have opportunities for outdoor temporary exhibitions, if their artworks and exhibits can be properly protected.” But that’s all with the hope that this will be temporary. With a vaccine, and in a few years, we’ll know more. – American Alliance of Museums
Banksy Funded (And Painted, Using A Fire Extinguisher) A Refugee Rescue Boat
The boat ran into trouble over the weekend – every refugee aboard was rescued by another boat – because it was overloaded, but: “Named after Louise Michel, the 19th century French feminist and anarchist, the boat features elements of Banksy’s idiosyncratic visual language.” The refugees await what’s known as “a Port of Safety,” in official terms. – Hyperallergic
Boston Center For The Arts Pushes Back Artist Evictions To 2022
OK, so, the Center for the Arts’ “Studio 551 initiative was conceived to create opportunities for visual and performing artists in an increasingly expensive city, offering a range of temporary residencies lasting six months to six years.” Sounds good, right? But: “To make way for the program, the organization initially planned to issue evictions by May 2020 for the 40 or so artists with long-term leases.” Sure, the evictions are delayed (again), but … what? – The Boston Globe
Alice Koller, Author Of ‘The Feminist Walden,’ 94
Koller, author of An Unknown Woman, inspired many women to consider their lives as full and complex – but she wasn’t necessarily pleased with her own experience. “It is a paradox that her life provided inspiration for so many, even as she continued to struggle. In 1991, Bantam republished An Unknown Woman, and it’s now a sought-after title on Amazon.” – The New York Times
Disabled Theatre Workers Want More Than Just A Discussion Panel
Truly, one more discussion? As a Gen-Xer might say, big whoop. Here’s a list of action points for when theatre resumes – or to work on right now. – American Theatre
Studios, Unions Closer To Deal For Return To Work In The U.S.
Sources say that the “major issues are testing protocols, sick pay and travel to work sites.” Studios cautiously say they hope to resume shooting after Labor Day, September 7. – Variety
The Joys Of Music Reaction Videos
Is it time for, say, Beethoven reaction videos? Because this was the experience of someone hearing “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the first time: “Watching the full gamut of human emotions – gentle contemplation, wistful sadness, wide-gobbed amazement – shimmer across his face, as the song lunges from one operatic movement to the next, is nothing short of wonderful. ‘WHERE HAVE I BEEN?!’ he asks at the end, on the verge of tears.” – The Guardian (UK)
For The First Woman To Lead A Prestigious Paris Theatre, Accusations Of Bullying Lead To Her Firing
Ruth Mackenzie was the first woman to run the Théâtre du Châtelet, the first woman to hire a Black artist to direct a play at the French theatre, and also, she says, the first woman director fired for unsubstantiated accusations of bullying. Of an inquiry’s final report, Mackenzie says: “It says some rude things about me. … It says I don’t speak French very well, and it says some people in the theater found it culturally hard to adjust to my vision. But it could not prove bullying. Nonetheless, they have fired me, citing bullying.” – The New York Times
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Musicians Sign A Contract Through 2025
Just a year after a protracted and bitter lockout, the musicians approved a multiyear contract that, while it includes COVID-19 related wage cuts (for administration as well as for musicians), restores the money over time, giving the BSO time to recover. The chair of the Players Committee: “What’s happened at the Baltimore Symphony in the past year is nothing short of miraculous.” – Baltimore Sun
What Happens If Studios Decide They Truly Don’t Need Movie Theatres?
First of all, this timeline is a terrible one; can we jump to another one? But basically, this all hinges on how Tenet performs in theatres versus how Mulan performs on Disney+. – Vulture
Chadwick Boseman, King In ‘Black Panther’ And Jackie Robinson In ’42,’ Has Died At 43
The actor, who also played James Brown in Get on Up and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016, but had never spoken publicly about the diagnosis, and kept on working during much of his treatment. “Boseman’s Panther became an icon for children of color, coming at a time when representation was only just beginning to become a priority in Hollywood.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Is New York Over?
The city is indeed at a moment of reckoning—not simply because of the pandemic, but because of what it had already become. After the fiscal crisis of 1975, New York and its economy were restructured around tourism, high finance, luxury retail, and real estate. On the glittering surface, things had never looked better. By 2019, New York was richer than it had ever been before, its population at an all-time high and its forests of glass towers rising ever higher. Nearly 65 million tourists a year were flocking to the city—more than six times the number who came when the city teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. Beneath that glittering surface was a lot of emptiness. – The Atlantic
What’s Lost When Film Festivals Go Virtual
Festivals can serve as coronations, bestowing status or, even better, controversy. (Almost inevitably, “Joker” took home Venice’s top prize, the Golden Lion.) More valuably, they can channel the conversation toward worthier less-shiny objects. At a festival, you find yourself talking to strangers: in lobbies, shuttles, at bars, in snaking lines or seated next to you, as a way of sharing enthusiasm. – The New York Times
Eight Trends In Recent Book Cover Art
These days, book covers are all about nature; they’re festooned with flowers, swirling with birds and littered with leaves. Those aren’t the only trends we’ve noticed, however. Here’s a look at eight, with a couple of samples from each category. – Washington Post
“I Didn’t Realize How Much I Missed Applause”
“For the past several months, I’ve really only heard applause in small, sporadic outbreaks, and it’s only hitting me lately how much I miss the stuff.” – Washington Post
David Hallberg Looks Back On His Final Days At The Bolshoi
In 2011, Hallberg joined the Bolshoi Ballet as a principal, the first American (and one of the few foreigners) ever to do so. In 2019, he danced what would turn out to be his final performances there, and perhaps anywhere. A New York Times photographer followed him over his last months at the Moscow theater, and here he talks with Roslyn Sulcas about some of the photos. – The New York Times