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Eradicating Speech Isn’t Free Speech

Most college students, according to a FIRE report published this week, do not believe that speakers who hold various conservative beliefs should be allowed on campus; I am grateful that these students do not (yet) run a whole country, as the ayatollahs do. - The Atlantic

AI-Generated Images Flood Online Art Sites Provoking Fierce Debate

The arrival of widely available image synthesis models such as Midjourney and Stable Diffusion has provoked an intense online battle between artists who view AI-assisted artwork as a form of theft (more on that below) and artists who enthusiastically embrace the new creative tools. - Ars Technica

New AI Image Tools Disrupt Notions Of Ownership, Authorship

These new AI capabilities confront the world with a mountain of questions over the rights to the images the programs learned from, the likelihood they will be used to spread falsehoods and hate, the ownership of their output and the nature of creativity itself. - Axios

Filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, 91

"His use of long takes, jump-cuts and actors’ asides to the camera all changed the filmmaking vocabulary. He once famously stated that every film needs a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order." - MSN (The Washington Post)

The Future of Video Editing?

Runway's "Text to Video" demonstration reel shows a text input box that allows editing commands such as "import city street" or "make it look more cinematic" (applying an effect). It depicts someone typing "remove object" and selecting a streetlight with a drawing tool that then disappears. - Ars Technica

150 Years Of Technological Progress That Changed The World

It really looks that we had as much technological change and progress between 1870 and today as we had between 6000 BC and 1870 AD. - Vox

Why So Many Book Bans? Facebook

"It’s absolutely beyond creepy—and therefore totally in keeping with Facebook’s general vibe—that adults are spending time avidly thumbing through children’s books to look for anything they might consider vaguely 'pornographic' (or, you know, vaguely affirming of non-white or queer identities)." - LitHub

Russia’s War On Wikipedia Editors Ramps Up

Editors have been doxxed, threatened, and arrested. "Doronina of the Wikimedia Foundation’s board of trustees said that Russia’s state agencies could target one of those editors any day. 'You cannot predict who is going to attack. It’s not a bear, it’s a pack of bears,' she said." - Nieman Lab

When ABT Tried To Break Ballet Out Of The 18th Century

"Audience members generally rustle their programs and shift in their seats when performers are onstage. But on that late October evening inside Lincoln Center in 2021, 'it was so quiet,' remembers. 'Absolute silence.'" - Mother Jones

The Tangled Strings Around Freedom Of Speech

Free speech requires a robust exchange of views without the coercion of threats and violence, and self-censorship in response to social pressure is a genuine risk. Yet by definition, there is no free speech if one person is allowed to make an argument and another is not allowed to object to it. - The Atlantic

Why We Need To Think About Science Literacy In A Different Way

Several lines of contemporary scholarship emphasize what might be gained by moving from a focus on science education to a focus on reciprocal power-sharing, cooperation, and exchange between researchers and citizens. - Boston Review

Inside Riccardo Muti’s Relationship With The Chicago Symphony

“You are the last orchestra and the most important orchestra where I have been music director. Your memory will accompany me in my heart to the end of my life. You, Chicago, are the Symphony of my heart. Grazie.” - New City

DALL-E, The AI Software That Generates Art, Figures Out What’s Just Beyond The Frame Of Famous Paintings

Some of the images, like Grant Wood's American Gothic and van Gogh's The Night Café and Hokusai's The Wave, work pretty well.  Others, like Munch's The Scream and Kehinde Wiley's portrait of Barack Obama, wellll ... (We can't decide about Leonardo's Last Supper and Picasso's Guernica.) - Artnet

The Philadelphia Orchestra Was In London, About To Play Beethoven’s “Eroica”.  Then The Queen Died.

The concert itself was cancelled, but that doesn't mean the orchestra didn't perform: instead, these musicians from the capital of the rebellious 13 colonies played a two-piece tribute to Her Majesty that moved just about everyone. - The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Avant Garde: I Used To Be A Contendah!

An avant-garde likes to present itself as insurgent and radical, yet the logic of the metaphor suggests that a new group will soon be coming along to replace it. Today’s avant-garde is always liable to congeal into tomorrow’s orthodoxy. - The Nation

Bernard Shaw, CNN’s First Chief News Anchor, Dead At 82

"(He) was the cable news channel's lead anchor for two decades until his retirement in 2001.  During his tenure, Shaw anchored major breaking news events, like the attempted assassination of President Reagan in 1981, the Tiananmen Square student revolt in 1989 and every presidential election." - The Hollywood Reporter

Calder Gardens — After 25 Years Of Start-And-Stop, A Space Dedicated To The Sculptor’s Work Will Be Built In Philadelphia

Located on Benjamin Franklin Parkway just opposite the Rodin Museum and Barnes Foundation, Calder Gardens will include both a building (designed by Herzog & de Meuron) and landscaped outdoor spaces to display a rotating selection of Calder's mobiles and stabiles. - The Philadelphia Inquirer

“For Such A Small Venue, The Variety Of Spaces Is Remarkable”: Inga Saffron On Calder Gardens

"At a time when Philadelphia architecture rarely rises above the goal of extracting money from land, Calder Gardens promises to be a work of art itself. Ideas about Calder's creativity and Philadelphia's history are embedded in every detail. Yet the design is no mere intellectual exercise." - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Australia Is Having An Extraordinary Debate On Cultural Policy

‘When you get it right, it affects our health policy, our education policy, our environment policy, foreign affairs, trade, veterans’ affairs, tourism… A nation with a strong cultural policy is a nation where we know ourselves, know each other and invite the world to better know us.’ - ArtsHub

The Art World (And The Courts) Have No Idea How To Deal With AI Images And Who Owns What

“While it’s absolutely true that this AI art couldn’t exist if it weren’t trained on copyrighted images and the work of artists, the end result is something we don’t have a precedent or parallel for,” Baio told me. “This technology is a black-box machine that generates high-quality imagery endlessly. - The Atlantic
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