The now-famous video of Spot the Robot dancing to “Uptown Funk” was created (as was Spot) by a contractor for DARPA searching for new ways to make robots useful to the military. “Considering the military applications of dance and choreography may seem peculiar, but there is abundant history to examine here.” – Dance Magazine
Tag: 02.17.20
Study: Does A Company’s Political Advocacy Affect Consumer Behavior? Yes. But…
That a company engaged in conservative or liberal political activity did not affect Republicans’ opinions of that company, but it did for Democrats. (As previously reported, Democrats didn’t care one way or another if a Jones Corp engaged in liberal activities.) That means the 33% drop in opinion when Jones Corps engaged in a conservative agenda was entirely driven by participants who identified as Democrats. – Harvard Business Review
Tory MPs Warn Boris Johnson Not To Attack The BBC
“This is not a fight the BBC is picking nor a contest my party promised if we got elected. If the BBC ends up in decline, it will be the government which will be accused by the very people we will rely on for support at the next election.” – BBC
For South L.A., A Sort Of African-American High Line
It’s not an elevated park, and it’s not on disused train tracks (in fact, it’s tied in with a new light rail line), but Destination Crenshaw (as it’s called) will be a 1.3-mile-long public space along Crenshaw Boulevard, with landscaping, murals and other public art, and plazas — all intended as community gathering places to affirm the area’s African-American identity as the pressures of gentrification increase. – New York Magazine
Crystal Bridges Changed The Landscape Of American Art. Now It’s Taking On Contemporary Art
The effects Crystal Bridges has had on the region are more than clear. And later this month, the museum is going one step further. It’s opening a satellite contemporary art center, the Momentary, which, by all accounts, is expected to further solidify the impact art has had on this town that once counted the Walmart Museum as one of its biggest cultural attractions. – Artnet
An Open-Ended, Ambiguous, Multi-Perspective Opera Made To Resist Reduction
Yuval Sharon: “If there was a straightforward message, there would certainly be simpler and more direct ways to communicate it than by creating this enormous operatic experience. Opera’s power lies in its complexity and its ability to create complication, to help us experience complex visions of the world. It’s something we need more and more desperately and why I think opera has an underestimated political power. Reducibility, along with didacticism, has been something all of us have actively resisted in this process.” – San Francisco Classical Voice
The Radical Plan To Remake Paris Into A “15-Minute City”
The idea, floated by the city’s mayor, is to redesign urban life so that all the essentials – for work, play, shopping, culture – are within 15 minutes of every resident of the city. It would change how resources are allocated and would rework how people get around. – CityLab
Rarity: Vienna Kunsthalle Museum Replaces Director With A Three-Person Collective
Founded in 1992, the Kunsthalle Wien is a large exhibition space with no permanent collection. How does a triumvirate lead such a venue in practice? Surely much more time is spent on meetings and co-ordination? To whom do the 35 staff report? WHW say: “We don’t have specific tasks, so no one is in charge of something. Decision-making is at the level of the collective. We have a single email address for staff [to contact us].” – The Art Newspaper
New Director Is Making Britain’s Oldest Dance Company Hot Again
The mission of Benoit Swan Pouffer, formerly artistic director of the now-closed Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and now at the helm of Rambert, “is to reinvigorate a repertory company founded in 1926, and he is well on track.” – Dance Magazine
15,000-Year-Old Wall Carvings Found In Spanish Cave
“Experts have discovered a cave full of prehistoric carvings in northern Spain. Among the hundreds of rock carvings, some believed to be 15,000 years old, are vivid depictions of horses, deer, and bulls, as well as a wealth of mysterious and abstract symbols. Unlike the famous prehistoric paintings at Altamira in northern Spain, the recently discovered cave art in Catalonia is carved directly into the soft surface of the rock.” – Artnet