“Psychologists at Dundee and St Andrews universities claim the work of poets such as Lord Byron exercise the mind more than a novel by Jane Austen. By monitoring the way different forms of text are read, they found poetry generated far more eye movement which is associated with deeper thought. Subjects were found to read poems slowly, concentrating and re-reading individual lines more than they did with prose.”
Tag: 04.03.05
Scottish Art In Danger Of Devolution
The director of the National Galleries of Scotland warns that a proposal to redistribute art across the country’s galleries will backfire. “What will happen in Scotland unless we are very careful is that local authorities will say to themselves that they need to have a museum which they do not have already, so all the smaller galleries and museums in Perth, Dundee and Auchterarder – places like that – will all have art centres. If you do have a geographical redistribution of works of art in Scotland, it will mean that the relatively small metropolitan collections will be redistributed, or the monies will be redistributed from them, which will make them ineffective.”
When All Of The Knowledge Of The World Comes Together
We’re in a new era of globalization, writes Thomas Friedman. “We are now in the process of connecting all the knowledge pools in the world together. We’ve tasted some of the downsides of that in the way that Osama bin Laden has connected terrorist knowledge pools together through his Qaeda network, not to mention the work of teenage hackers spinning off more and more lethal computer viruses that affect us all. But the upside is that by connecting all these knowledge pools we are on the cusp of an incredible new era of innovation, an era that will be driven from left field and right field, from West and East and from North and South.”
The Colors Of NPR
Does National Public Radio have a diversity problem? ” ‘Public radio news and information audiences tend to be curious about their world, enjoy learning and are heavier consumers of information than the general population. . . . Our own research finds that these characteristics are present in both groups of listeners, black and white.’ But doesn’t that let public radio off the hook by pretending its focus on white culture is really just a focus on a transcendent culture – blaming the lack of minority listenership on the fact that not enough minorities go to college?”
August Wilson: A Century Of Plays
“August Wilson has almost completed his series of plays chronicling the 20th Century. “His output over the past 20 years has been prodigious. His name is frequently mentioned in the same breath as Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, and Tennessee Williams. O’Neill set out to write a cycle of plays chronicling the life of a single American family over time, but he completed only one play before he died. Wilson is about to achieve his ambitious goal, and for years to come his cycle will be studied as a reflection of the black ethos in the 20th century. But Wilson is not without his detractors.”
Historic Britain – Have The British Fallen Out Of Love With The Past?
“It is no secret that historic buildings have not been a government priority in recent years. While museums and the Sports Council have seen their grants rise, English Heritage has been starved of cash. Perhaps more importantly, the British public appear to be losing interest in our stately homes and grand buildings. Seekers of our country’s cultural past are more likely to want to look inside the home where John Lennon grew up in Liverpool rather than an elegant country house.”
Art Since 1900: Adding Up A Century
The big new art history “Art Since 1900” is “formidably high-brow.” It “is spectacular, gargantuan and painstakingly conceived so that it can be read in a number of ways. The authors have selected what they consider to be a defining event for every year and written essays about each one. But within those essays are signposts to other entries, so that if you were interested in a particular strand of thought, you could follow it throughout the century. The possibilities of this are endless and it’s not long before you realise that the book could be not 700 but 7,000 pages long, depending on the historical maps you choose to draw up for yourself.”
Canadians And Their Reading Habit
Canadians are voracious readers, spending $1.1 billion on books last year. “In fact, money spent on books is the third-highest category of cultural spending in the country, just after newspapers ($1.22-billion) and visits to movie theatres ($1.18-billion). Significantly more dollars are shelled out for books than are spent on live performing-arts events ($824-million) and more than double the amount spent on live sports events ($451-million).”
Ring-Heads: Roaming The World For Wagner
What is it about Wagner’s Ring cycle that provokes such passionate fans? “Not surprisingly, hard-core classical music addicts who travel the world in search of their next Ring fix have dubbed themselves Ringheads. Think Deadheads, the devotees of the Grateful Dead — minus the preshow, herb-laden party in the parking lot.”
Gender-Casting – Fighting The “Lady-Harpist”
“Historically, until recently the harpist might well have been the only woman in a symphony orchestra. Orchestras had been an all-male preserve except for one, lone instrument – the harp. Played by the lady harpist. From the days when Marie Antoinette and her kind sat around in salons and plucked in a gracious, ladylike way, the harp has usually been seen as a feminine instrument. Which is limiting.”