Category: issues

Clifford Stoll is on a mission. “In his most recent book, ‘High Tech Heretic,’ Stoll writes that computers ‘dull questioning minds with graphical games where quick answers take the place of understanding.’ In his book, Stoll skewers calculators, laptops, desktops, and cell phones as gizmos that do nothing to provoke critical thinking. Instead, they swallow time and waste money that should be spent on books and teachers.” – The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Singapore’s arts scene is tightly controlled by the government. Last month a production of “The Vagina Monologues” was banned by the censors. “The actors submitted the script, including stage directions. Part of the performance involved briefly projecting a picture of a vagina as a backdrop. Choo says the performance could have proceeded without the image but the theatre group refused a change. They were denied a license and will probably lose any government funding.” – New Zealand Herald

“The Australia Council has just thrown a shirtful of public money at an advertising agency to tell the arts community that it has to stop being “elitist” and make everyone feel relaxed and comfortable about the arts. Presumably when everyone is convinced that fingerpainting and being Richard Tognetti are equally easy, they’ll start queuing for Schoenberg. It’s enough to make me throw the papers across the room. But I don’t. I heckle, silently. Well, almost silently. I do a lot of muttering.” – Sydney Morning Herald

One South African artist applies to start a porn site so he can finance his art. Thus the extent of “the frustrations felt by many over the state of the arts in South Africa, where the only certainty is uncertainty. Will the country’s last remaining permanent orchestra, the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic, still be around in 2001? Will Pretoria’s State Theatre survive? Will lottery funding help to revive the performing arts? Will SA arts and culture help brand the country as a tourist destination and as the export product it once was during its theatrical high point in the ’70s and ’80s? – Sunday Times (South Africa)

Statistics say that Americans are joining groups in fewer numbers – from bowling leagues to the Boy Scouts, we’re not the “joiners” we once were. Is this a bad thing? Is our sense of community slipping? “A curious thing about this decline of community – or of ‘social capital,’ to use the favored public-policy term – is that America appears to be awash in ‘community.'” – Boston Globe

Tod Machover and MIT’s thinky Media Lab have set up shop in Ireland. “They believe Dublin will host the creation of an entirely new, large-scale art form that combines a variety of media. ‘We need to figure out what comes after theatre, what comes after cinema,’ Machover says. ‘We’re hoping to develop a large part of it in Ireland.'” – Irish Times

Nomura will buy London’s boondoggle Dome and turn it into a “state-of-the-art entertainment park using the latest in electronic effects and devices, and developing a further tranche of 50 acres around the site to offer shops restaurants cafes and a ‘Camden Lock’ ambience.” – London Evening Standard

“There is a direct connection between the ethics of a society and its architecture and art. Today’s culture of ugliness and ‘geography of nowhere’ need to be replaced by a physical and cultural environment that enchants life, inspires faith, and encourages learning. The spiritual and evangelical communion more and more Americans seek requires a cultural language that artists and poets alone can provide.” – The Idler

“The exodus of artists from Santa Monica has been both rapid and dramatic. When consultants hired to gauge the extent of the problem conducted a survey of artists’ spaces in May, there were 156 live/work and studio spaces left in the city. After the report on “Strategies To Preserve and Enhance Affordable Artist Housing and Studio Space” was typed up, the number had dropped to 117. By the time the final draft was presented to Santa Monica’s Arts Commission on July 10, there were only 78 studios left, half the number just two months ago.” – LA Weekly

A debate rages in Australia about the value – or lack thereof – of a liberal arts degree. But those defending the idea of a liberal arts education are missing a crucial point, writes one critic. The fact is, he says, is that the quality of liberal arts teaching is low in Australian universities because the schools don’t pay enough to attract quality teachers. – Sydney Morning Herald