Think about it: Parasite and Squid Game are pretty weird: intense drama, occasional shocking violence and dark satire jumbled with juvenile humor and an almost childish innocence. What does this strange mishmash come from? The difficult, disorienting past hundred years South Korea has lived through. - The American Scholar
Longtermism might be one of the most influential ideologies that few people have ever heard about. I believe this needs to change because I have come to see this worldview as quite possibly the most dangerous secular belief system in the world today. - Aeon
"Similar mergers and acquisitions have become a common way to bolster the struggling print industry, but if radio were to take on a major newspaper, that would be a first." - The Verge
In unionized industries, this takes the form of collective bargaining and, where necessary, voting for strikes. In non-unionized industries, which make up the vast bulk of the American economy, it shows up in workers leaving their jobs and looking for higher-paying ones. - The New Yorker
Graeber and Wengrow offer a history of the past 30,000 years that is not only wildly different from anything we’re used to, but also far more interesting: textured, surprising, paradoxical, inspiring. - The Atlantic
Why? Because Facebook, Instagram and TikTok keep taking down their nude artworks — Peter Paul Rubens, Egon Schiele, even the Venus of Willendorf — for violating obscenity rules. - ARTnews
Like most digital technologies, the quality of deepfakes is increasing at an alarming rate, and it is clear that even the most complex deepfake tools will be as easy to use as Instagram filters in the very near future. - Shelly Palmer
One irony of contemporary art that critiques or transcends the institution is just how central the institution remains to it. Indeed, the complexity of the art ecosystem as a reflection of global power is at the heart of Forensic Architecture’s origin story. - The New York Times
It's not "the students’ fragility, it’s that their approach illustrates the difference between radicalism and progressivism. It’s an example of a strain of thought permeating campuses, one that blithely elides that difference in favor of preaching only “social justice.” - The New York Times
"People in power have always had a way of working nuance to their advantage. If consent is also nuanced, are we ready to admit that creativity and power go hand in hand?" - Hyperallergic
The new Disney Plus documentary on Dr Anthony Fauci, which explores the personal side of the controversial figure, has a certified 91 percent approval rating from critics and a mere 2 percent from audiences. - The Spectator
Julie Bargmann, whose firm is called D.I.R.T. ("Dump It Right There") has been given the first Oberlander Prize, a $100,000 biennial award for landscape architecture. Justin Davidson explores how Bargmann's approach leaves onsite as much as possible of what’s there and uses nature for cleanup. - Curbed
Esperanza Spalding: "You may know who you're writing for, the instrumentation, the length. … But once you actually start populating the spaces with notes and phrases, it changes. You can't know what the shape of something you've never done before is going to be." - San Francisco Chronicle
"Graphene is a two-dimensional carbon allotrope whose molecules bind together through a phenomenon called Van der Waals forces. … It can be produced in large, thin sheets; it blocks ultraviolet light; and it is impermeable to oxygen, moisture, and other corrosive agents." - Artnet
Suni Reid, who's done the show in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, alleges their contract wasn't renewed because they requested a gender-neutral dressing room. Producers say they supported Reid, financially and otherwise, and withdrew the contract only after learning they were being sued. - The New York Times
The purpose of the Paycheck Protection Program was to let businesses hobbled by the pandemic retain their employees. An AFSCME study found that, out of 7,500 eligible cultural institutions, 228 large ones got $771 million, half the total — and let go of 28% of their staff. - Hyperallergic
The worry is that scientific processes have been undermined by perverse incentives to the point that it’s difficult to know what to believe. - London Review of Books
The 23-foot tower of naked bodies twisted together, some mid-scream, was created by Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt and is the last remaining Tiananmen commemoration on Chinese soil. - Washington Post
Stutzmann, a former contralto from France who's currently principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, will start an initial four-year term at the ASO's helm next fall. She'll be the only woman currently serving as music director of a year-round orchestra in the US. - The New York Times
