“Roughly 90% of our members are affected,” said Horace Trubridge, general secretary of the Musicians’ Union. “This will force musicians out of the profession. Our members also do a lot of event work – weddings and conferences – that has also fallen off a cliff, coupled with the fact that most of our members subsidise their income from live performance by teaching and studio recording work which of course they can’t do now either.” The idea that universal credit is going to keep these people’s heads above water is a nonsense. – The Guardian
Tag: 03.24.20
This Book Fair Isn’t Being Cancelled, It’s Making Itself Virtual
“Book festival Wordplay, originally slated to take place in Minneapolis in May, will now happen virtually in April and May in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. All of the original 100+ participants, including Alison Roman, Michael Ian Black, Charles Yu and Scott Pelley, are still slated to take part in the festival.” Steph Opitz, Wordplay’s founding director, tells a reporter how it’s coming together. – Forbes
Cincinnati Ballet And Playhouse In The Park Were In The Middle Of Building New Homes When The Pandemic Hit
“First, you should know that neither group is on the brink of institutional disaster. The Playhouse has $10 million more to raise [out of almost $50 million] before the fall. The ballet’s project, according to the company’s web site, was 94.8 percent funded as of Feb. 25.” – Cincinnati Enquirer
Buffering … — Why Video Teleconferencing Is Still A Pain In The Wherever
“[Online conference calls] come with problems — technical, cultural, and practical. And a lot of the challenges we have with [them] come down to the many small quirks of the internet. … Despite four decades of evolving technology, video conferencing is a sort of low-level magic that still konks out half the time. Here’s why.” – Tedium
Is This Chatbot My New Best Friend?
To give users a personalised experience, the deep learning bot gathers information about conversation partners by asking them questions, adapts to their conversational style and, over time, attempts to mimic them. Beyond companionship, Replika’s creators believe that the technology could eventually serve as a conversational stand-in for deceased loves ones. – Aeon
Maybe Figuring Out How To Get Your Work To An Audience Is Part Of The Creative Challenge
Playwright Nick Green created the Social Distancing Festival website to host rehearsal videos, designs, photos, excerpts and other pieces of work that have been cancelled or postponed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. He put out a call for submissions on Saturday, March 14. By the next day he had 23,000 page views and, as of Thursday, 270,000 unique visitors. – Toronto Star
Asked If France ‘Missed The Boat On #MeToo’, Isabelle Huppert Throws The Interviewer Out
Laura Cappelle has plenty of good things in her profile as well, but yes, this happened: “In a matter of seconds, Huppert is on her feet and walks away from me, manifestly irked. ‘Listen, here, now I have to work.'” – The Guardian
Devastated US Arts Industry Looks For Government Assistance
It has not been an easy sell, coming at a time when many pillars of the economy, from airlines to restaurants to public transportation, are facing existential crises and needing handouts themselves. But it is a fight the country’s museums and performing arts groups are used to waging. – The New York Times
How Theater In America Handled It Last Time There Was A Pandemic
To find out, you have to go back 102 years to the 1918 influenza epidemic. “Even when people knew in advance the closures were imminent and that deaths were surging, they didn’t relinquish theatregoing easily.” – American Theatre
Arts Council England Pledges £160 Million To Arts For Virus Response
The money is intended to prevent artists and arts organisations from going bust, but is also designed to help them come up with creative responses “to buoy the public” during the lockdown. – The Guardian