Frankly, we’re still dubious, but here’s a claim by an expert: “Today, thanks to digital art, we have the opportunity to make art truly democratic, which meets both a real economic demand and a moral goal if we believe in the importance of art in life.” – The Observer
Tag: 03.30.19
Copyrighting Dance Moves Is A Messy Business Nobody Was Ready For
It’s not just about the Fortnite lawsuits. “Choreographers and performers have danced around this issue for more than a century. In 1892, Loie Fuller was denied a trademark for her famous ‘serpentine routine’ because back then, the law only protected works that told a story. Then came the modern dance movement. In the 1970s, copyright expanded to cover abstract and non-narrative movement. But like a lot of today’s viral artists, many dancers never bothered to register their work.” (includes video) – CBS
Constantine Orbelian Fired As General Director Of Armenia’s National Opera House
The Armenian-American maestro, a three-time Grammy nominee (he conducted Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s final album, Russia Cast Adrift), was named artistic director of the theater in Yerevan in 2016 and was given the additional job of general director the following year. The new culture minister dismissed him from the latter post, saying that it is against Armenian law for one person to hold both titles. Musicians and staff, who say Orbelian has raised standards there, are protesting. – Panaorama (Armenia)
Canada’s Stratford Festival On A Roll, Extends Its Star Director’s Contract
Under Antoni Cimolino’s tenure as artistic director, the Ontario institution has seen six consecutive surpluses and attendance surpass the 500,000 mark. – Toronto Star
The Artist Whose Dying Wish Turned Her Neighbors Into Curators
Life-altering: “It was a week after the funeral of textile artist and teacher Joan Charnley, who died, at 84, in the summer of 2016, that her solicitor got in touch with her neighbours, Julian Bovis and Nigel Durkan, to tell them she had left them her house – a tall, listed Georgian building in Uppermill, on the edge of Saddleworth moor outside Manchester – and that she would like, although she understood it might not be possible, for it to be turned into what she quaintly called an ‘art house.'” (They did it.) – The Observer (UK)
Jeff Bezos’ Security Chief Claims That Saudi Arabia Hacked Bezos’ Phone
There’s a lot going on here. And then there’s the layer wherein The National Enquirer‘s parent company tried to make sure Bezos and his security chief signed a contract saying they wouldn’t publish the findings. – The Daily Beast
Science Fiction Is Trying To Imagine A Way Out Of, And After, This Time Period [AUDIO]
Tobias S. Buckell: “Nora K. Jemisin was just saying on Twitter the other day that in science fiction we have this venerable tradition of using metaphor to dig at some of these problems—like race and power and structure and history—and that it’s been a mistake, because in the past we would always use the metaphor assuming that our fellow readers and fans of the genre were following along, getting the metaphor, and it turns out that they weren’t. In other words, you needed to be way more in-your-face.” – Wired
Agnès Varda Made The Invisible Visible
In The Gleaners and I and Faces Places, Varda paid attention to the France that feels left behind by the powerful and rich. But there was a secondary benefit as well: “She had wanted to pay attention to people who were ‘invisible.’ And she did. One of those people was her.” – The Atlantic
Butterworth’s Post-Atomic Wasteland
Two new collections of Michael Butterworth’s early short stories – stories he thought lost for good – show his early days as a literary SF writer. – Jan Herman
First, Reality Influences Epic Fantasy Novels, And Then You End Up With English Watchers On Hadrian’s Wall
Turns out that the watchers on the wall – that is, the members of English Heritage who staff Roman sites along Hadrian’s Wall, the border with Scotland – have been answering Game of Thrones fan questions for years, but now they’re going one better: “Its members will be decked out in black cloaks and shields, and will be posted at four main Roman sites along the historic structure … until the debut of the final season on April 14th.” – The Verge