“Starting from the premise that aesthetics were just another social construct rather than a product of universal principles, postmodernist thinkers succeeded in toppling hierarchies and nullifying the literary canon. Indeed, they were so good at unearthing the socioeconomic considerations behind canon formation that even unapologetic highbrows had to wonder if they hadn’t been bamboozled by Arnoldian acolytes and eloquent ideologues.”
Category: AUDIENCE
What A Musician Thinks Might Improve Classical Concerts
“People are becoming more creative about using visual effects, such as lighting and sometimes images, in order to bring a certain aspect of the music to life.”
Expertise Can Be So Very Overrated (Especially In Critics)
“The problem with demanding a certain kind of knowledge or a certain kind of expertise in criticism, then, is that it can end up presupposing, or insisting upon, a certain kind of conversation.”
We’re Tracked From The Earliest Moments Of Our Lives Now – But Sometimes The Numbers Are Wrong
“I had been tracking my sleep for three years when I discovered that even if I hadn’t periodically cheated, everything I thought about ‘quality’ was, in fact, suspect.”
Libraries Need To Innovate With A Lot More Than Coffee (Though Coffee’s A Good Start)
“Despite massive cuts to budgets and opening hours over the past few years, a third of the population uses libraries (50% in poorer areas). A fifth of people still don’t have the internet at home and more still don’t know how to use it.”
What Large-Scale Puppets (And Theatre That’s For Fun) Mean To Audiences
“Over time, I’ve narrowed it down or finessed it to: A puppet is an inanimate object that’s manipulated in such a way that an audience believes it is alive and thinking.”
The Rust Belt Theory Of Really Great Culture
“On the one hand, these cities have a richer cultural legacy than younger but more economically ascendant cities such as Phoenix and Charlotte; meanwhile, their offerings are far more affordable than those in creative-class capitals such as New York and Boston, where theaters and concert halls can fill seats with deep-pocketed local elites and high-spending tourists.”
How Data Is Changing Our Relationships With Customers
“Data now feels so central to business success that without an ongoing, data-mediated relationship with their customer base, we may be looking at an environment where data-poor brands will struggle to compete effectively.”
Are We In The Next Phase In E-Books?
“What is now being proven is that market is not infinitely elastic. Most of the data we see suggest that ebook sales growth has stopped. Ever-growing supply and stable demand is a toxic formula for the prospects of each successive ebook published for that market. My own hunch is that Kindle Unlimited is simply the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Why Airlines Have An Interest In Making You Suffer
“Here’s the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as “calculated misery.” Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded in order to make people want to pay to escape it. And that’s where the suffering begins.”