“Manet portrayed his model as more than an object to be considered, but a subject who is also considering us. … [It] is her unflinching gaze that struck Manet’s contemporaries with feelings of violent unease. She was not just another nude model depicted for the pleasure of the spectator. Rather, in giving us a courtesan regarding us, Manet created a new kind of encounter between patrons and painting.”
Tag: 03.08.13
The Problem With Arts Research
“One of the biggest challenges to the legitimacy of arts research might be… that the field often produces research reports with obscured, oversimplified, or simply absent methodological details.”
Aboriginal Rock Art Endangered By Australia’s Mining Boom
“[M]ining, industry and urbanisation surge across a landscape which harbours millions of images at more than 100,000 rock-art sites. State and territory heritage laws have proved weak in protecting the works, under governments keen to cash in on the mining bonanza.”
Arthur Conan Doyle Estate Sued For ‘Copyfraud’
Leslie Klinger, an attorney and Sherlock Holmes scholar, has filed a legal case against the (notably litigious) Doyle estate for falsely asserting copyright over material that is actually in the public domain.
Les Ballets Trockadero De Mumbai: Drag Troupe Takes Up Traditional Indian Dance
“Lavani is a folk dance, traditionally performed by women for men. The popularity of Bin Baykancha Tamasha (or Performance Without Women) and other female-impersonation groups in Mumbai suggests that the city may slowly be getting comfortable with flamboyant expressions of male sexuality.”
Trees On Top Of Skyscrapers? Er… No
“Want to make a skyscraper look trendy and sustainable? Put a tree on it. Or better yet, dozens. Many high-concept skyscraper proposals are festooned with trees. On the rooftop, on terraces, in nooks and crannies, on absurdly large balconies. Basically anywhere horizontal and high off the ground.”
The Rise Of Conference Culture
The Convention Industry Council says that conferences attract more than 200 million attendees a year–that’s a lot of lanyards. Everyone seems seduceable, from music lovers and techies (South by Southwest kicked off this week in Austin, Texas) to overachievers looking for epiphany (one attendee at last month’s TED tweet-preached, “If you’re not leaving your cynicism at the door, you’re doing it wrong”).
It’s 100 Years Since We First Started Talking Jazz
“The word “jazz” didn’t appear in print with any frequency until March 1913, exactly a century ago. What’s more, it doesn’t seem to have had anything to do with music, nor was the word coined in New Orleans.”
A New Jeeves Novel? Is The World Mad?
“There never was a more self-deprecating natural born genius than Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, whose appreciation of his own oeuvre lay in direct inverse proportion to the rapture enjoyed by its readers. He would probably be flattered that so gifted a novelist [as Sebastian Faulks] is to publish Jeeves and The Wedding Bells in November, though if he was peeved he would be infinitely too polite to let on.”
How Many Canadians Does It Take To Make A Symphony?
Try 5000.