“The KBS Symphony Orchestra moved to potentially replace 67 positions in its 100-strong orchestra on Monday, upping the ante against players in an intensifying labor dispute.” KBS, the state broadcaster of South Korea, spun off its orchestra in September 2012; many musicians, fearing for their job security, want to remain KBS employees and have been unwilling to sign contracts with the new management.
Tag: 03.16.15
My Work Is Not “Confessional,” Argue Memoirists
“Now that amateur autobiography and its detractors are everywhere, autobiographical writers are increasingly invested in defining and defending the value of their work. How can it escape the gravitational pull of solipsism? For a growing number of essayists, memoirists, and other wielders of the unwieldy ‘I,’ confessional has become an unwelcome label—an implicit accusation of excessive self-absorption, of writing not just about oneself but for oneself.”
When “Bitch” Is Not An Insult
“Bitch is, of course, one of the oldest ways to insult a woman in English: an 18th-century slang dictionary called it ‘the most offensive appellation that can be given to an English woman, even more provoking than that of whore.’ And yet, the word has evolved in unexpected ways, ending up with some strangely positive connotations.”
Amsterdam Museum Bans Artist For Threatening to Piss on the Art
“[A] judge slapped an unbending ban from the Stedelijk Museum on [Rob van Koningsbruggen] for saying that he would ‘piss all over’ a painting by Marlene Dumas ‘to improve it with a well-aimed stream.’ He had also threatened to urinate on a piece by Luc Tuymans.”
A Museum Designed For Taking Selfies (And Touching And Climbing On The Art)
A Manila venue called Art in island “helps jaded museum-goers regain a healthy perspective on art by allowing them to touch, sit on, and climb 3D approximations of paintings like Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night. With portions of each work slightly altered or left out entirely, the art isn’t even finished until you complete the picture.”
Could G.K. Chesterton Be Canonized By The Church?
“If the Catholic Church makes G. K. Chesterton a saint – as an influential group of Catholics is proposing it should – the story of his enormous coffin may become rather significant. Symbolic, even parabolic. … In his vastness and mobility, Chesterton continues to elude definition: He was a Catholic convert and an oracular man of letters, a pneumatic cultural presence, an aphorist with the production rate of a pulp novelist.”
The Man Who Will Design The Metropolitan Museum’s New Galleries
“In David Chipperfield, the Met has found an architect of personal reticence and sober intellect whose work can be bold and simultaneously deferential.”
Study: At What Age Are We Mentally At Our Peak?
“At what age do we really peak? Is there ever a point where, intellectually, we’re as good as we’re going to get?”
How The iPhone’s Slo-Mo Video Is Changing Dance
“For dancers, it’s become an incredibly useful tool for honing their craft. The newfound affordability of slow motion has enabled them to improve their technique, spruce up their audition reel, and isolate aspects of their performance that were once intangible.”
Inside Our Museums – Is Digital Clutter Drowning Out The Art?
“A question is what, exactly, in an age of expanded digital access, are museum audiences seeing? Through electronic media — cellphone screens, laptops, Pinterest and Skype — we can survey an extraordinary amount of art, see how it is displayed in museum galleries, zoom in on close-up details. But what are we missing by not putting these filters aside and just standing in front of the thing itself?”