“This time, the Luxembourg artist [Deborah De Robertis] sat in front of an exhibition by Araki, a Japanese photographer known for his images of bound naked women, in a transparent kimono. … Between her thighs was a watermelon, which she ate while moaning loudly. Visitors, far from being shocked, applauded her before security officers put an end to her show.” (In case you don’t recall the previous incident, here’s a refresher.)
Emoji Is The World’s Fastest-Growing Language – But Who Are The Keepers Of Its OED?
“It started with 176 icons. Now it’s grown to 1,800. But who decides what becomes an emoji? We lift the lid on the California coders who live and breathe smiling cats and banned aubergines.” (Note to Americans: aubergine is British for eggplant.)
Helsinki Guggenheim Construction Blocked By Finnish Nationalist Party
“A plan to build a Guggenheim museum on the Helsinki waterfront – joining the likes of those that grace New York, Bilbao and Venice – appears close to collapse because of a political row. It’s all about money and austerity. The co-ruling nationalist Finns party has blocked state aid for its construction.”
BBC2 Television To Change Saturday Night Schedule To Arts Programming
“The channel said from autumn it would replace the jumble of repeats normally shown at that time with programmes dedicated to arts and culture. Patrick Holland, the editor of BBC2, said arts were central to the channel’s mission. ‘I want BBC2 to be the most creative channel on TV,’ he said.”
Even At 75, Curious George Is Still Great, Says Michael Dirda
“It’s really little wonder that these boisterous yet gently soothing books endure. Consider, for instance, the over-the-top masterpiece of the series, Curious George Gets a Medal. It begins quietly when the little monkey receives a letter. He puts it aside and – like Chekhov’s gun – that letter remains in the background for many pages, nearly forgotten, until it reappears at a dramatic turning point. Before that, though, George …”
Did Shakespeare Really Invent All Those Phrases The OED Says He Did? Nope
“Shakespeare did not coin phrases such as ‘it’s Greek to me’ and ‘a wild goose chase’, according to an Australian academic. In an article for the University of Melbourne, Dr David McInnis, a Shakespeare lecturer at the institution, accuses the Oxford English Dictionary of ‘bias’ over its citation of Shakespeare as the originator of hundreds of words in English.”
Art Handlers And Auctioneers Sentenced For Thefts From Paris’s Leading Auction House; Union Ordered To Disband
“In March, 49 people were put on trial charged with organised theft, conspiracy to commit a crime and handling stolen goods. … Their scam was rumbled following an anonymous tipoff, which led to a police operation that recovered thousands of paintings, sculptures and other objects stolen from auctioneers Hôtel Drouot.”
Cities Don’t Have Gates Anymore. But What If They Did?
In a time of urbanization, refugee and “arrival cities,“ as well as metropolitan regions with multiple urban centers, could a city provide an entry differentiating itself from its barrios, suburbs and exurbs? If so, what form would this entry take, or would it have any form at all?
Our Modern Workspaces Have Been Designed To Look As If You Don’t Exist
“Across these diverse spaces, the two most consistent design principles are openness and a banishment of personal clutter. The new office presents itself as the interior design equivalent of everyone’s friend. It is comfortable and always available, a temporary platform onto which workers alight for meetings and some deskwork before fluttering off to another meeting, the home office, another job. But importantly, leave no trace behind. Remember: You have never been here.”
What Uncertainty? This Year’s ARTnews List Of Top 100 Art Collectors
“Some market observers were saying that collectors had recently gotten “cautious,” and that the air was thinner than usual for artworks priced in excess of $10 million. But one thing was for sure: the stalwarts—those collectors on our list—were there, their checkbooks at the ready and their keen eyes out for quality.”
LA’s Visual Art Scene Is Booming. But Can It Last?
“The gallery scene here has expanded before—notably in the 1990s—but this time the expansion has an internationalist, big-money feel… The question—posed frequently by gallerists, artists, and journalists—is whether this growth can support itself in a city long known for its scarcity of serious collectors.”
Study: A Measurable Bias About Rap Music
“Those who were told the lyrics were from a rap song perceived them to be more negative overall,” the researchers report. They were also more likely to favor regulation of the lyrics, and more likely to believe they were literally true.
‘The Simpsons’ – The Best TV Show Ever? Definitely, Say Matt Zoller Seitz And Alan Sepinwall
“The Simpsons is so ambitious, intimate, classical, experimental, hip, corny, and altogether free in its conviction that the imagination should go where it wants, that to even begin to explain all the things The Simpsons is, and all the things it does, you would need an immense Venn diagram drawn on a football field, each circle representing different modes of comedy.”
Culture Is Dead, And Entertainment Killed It, Writes Mario Vargas Llosa
“The great majority of humanity does not engage with, produce or appreciate any form of culture other than what used to be considered by cultured people, disparagingly, as mere popular pastimes, with no links to the intellectual, artistic, and literary activities that were once at the heart of culture. This former culture is now dead, although it still survives in small social enclaves, without any influence on the mainstream.”
Signifying Nothing And Everything: How Harambe The Gorilla Became The Perfect Meme
“Over the summer, Harambe evolved from ordinary tragedy to perfect meme: defined only by its ability to replicate … In a reversal of Marshall McLuhan’s classic dictum, Harambe is the message that became a medium, capable of carrying any signal, without becoming identified with any of them.”
Fort Worth Symphony Musicians Vote To Authorize Strike
“The strike authorization vote comes as the American Federation of Musicians Local 72-147 plans to reopen contract negotiations with symphony management on Wednesday morning. Musicians rejected a proposed four-year deal that included lower annual pay on Sunday.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.06.16
Bach’s Brandenburgs: Liberated by The Sebastians?
The world probably wouldn’t be appreciably different had Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos not been discovered sitting on some shelf, possibly unplayed and unexamined, for a century or so after they were finished in 1721. … But the Brandenburg Concertos are so singular in Bach’s output, [and] in the history of concertos, that their impact on audiences was inevitable. … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2016-09-06
Gard Foundation Symposium–Our Communities: Begins Today
Today marks the beginning of The Robert E. Gard Foundation’s gathering … Our Communities: A Symposium on the Arts is a reflection on the state of arts/community connections … Since this is a by-invitation-only event, I have been tasked with keeping the outside world apprised of at least some of the discussions that take place there. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-09-06
Leonard Weinglass, Our ‘Modern Clarence Darrow’
Other defense attorneys may have been more famous – William Kunstler, for example – but radical leftists of a certain age remember the late Leonard Weinglass with special feeling. … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-09-06
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Oops – Warner Reports Its Own Site For Violating Copyright, Demands Google Take It Down
“It also asked the search giant to remove links to legitimate movie streaming websites run by Amazon and Sky, as well as the film database IMDB. The request was submitted on behalf of Warner Brothers by Vobile, a company that files hundreds of thousands of takedown requests every month.”
Nieman Celebrates 100 Years Of Pulitzers – So Why Is Criticism Conspicuously Absent?
“I couldn’t help but notice a revelatory lacuna. There were no critics or writers on the arts among the announced participants. None of the subjects of the panels (‘Power in the Home,’ ‘Power in the Nation,’ ‘Power in the World’) appear to deal with issues raised by arts and culture coverage. Winners of awards in Investigative Journalism, History, Public Service, Poetry, Drama, Feature Writing, Editorial Writing, General Non-fiction, Photography, and Commentary are represented — but nothing in the august line-up acknowledges there is a prize for Criticism.”
Does The Glamor-Driven Music Business Work Anymore?
“Consider this fact: more people watched The Great British Bake Off the previous week. Online streams for the MTV show were up, but that offers little consolation to promoters who depend on TV advertising to fund their gala events. Those golden days when Miley Cyrus twerked her way to MTV rating success now seem a blurred, distant memory.”
Artists And Cultural Figures Jailed In Turkey’s Post-Coup Crackdown
“Artists, newspaper cartoonists and cultural figures are among the 35,000 people who have been detained in Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s crackdown after the failed military coup in July.”