In The Reputation Economy (Like Uber) Inflation Has Run Rampant

How did Uber’s ratings become more inflated than grades at Harvard? That’s the topic of a new paper, “Reputation Inflation,” from NYU’s John Horton and Apostolos Filippas, and Collage.com CEO Joseph Golden. The paper argues that online platforms, especially peer-to-peer ones like Uber and Airbnb, are highly susceptible to ratings inflation because, well, it’s uncomfortable for one person to leave another a bad review.

How Streaming Data Is Changing How (And What) Music Is Made

Streaming reflects what people will actually listen to on their own, when provided with infinite choices that aren’t entirely constrained by what radio programmers, retailers and record company executives put in front of them. With streaming services, “it’s more data-driven, and more give-the-people-what-they-want-driven, because it’s so limitless.”

How Orchestras Can Make Their Programming More Diverse

Derek Bermel, artistic director of the American Composers Orchestra: “I’ve spoken to several artistic administrators and conductors who insist that their audiences aren’t asking for more of the new; their internal research shows that their audience wants to hear what they already know. When I hear that argument, I think, ‘Well, of course! Audiences haven’t experienced what they don’t know, so how could they possibly be clamoring for it?’ One of the responsibilities of curators is to introduce the public to work they didn’t know existed or to help bring it into being. Five years ago, how many regular music theater patrons were yearning to see a hip-hop musical? We all know that answer: very, very few. Today it’s impossible to get tickets for Hamilton. Some of that audience is coming from outside the typical music theater audience; all the better!”

First Of Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s ‘Translated’ Shakespeare Plays Scheduled For Staging

In the fall of 2015, OSF announced the controversial project “Play on!”, in which 36 playwrights were commissioned to “translate” the 36 plays into modern English, creating companion works for the originals. The first product of the initiative, an English-Spanish version of The Comedy of Errors by Luis Alfaro, will debut in the summer of 2019.

‘Dancers Are More Intelligent Than They Get Credit For’, Says Dance Magazine

Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they? Even so, Jennifer Stahl reports: “Dr. Matthew Henley, a professor at Texas Women’s University [and a former dancer for Seán Curran], is gathering data to advocate for the value of dance as an intellectual practice – and build a framework for how to describe dance intelligence to non-dancers.”

Frick Collection Reveals Its Fourth Expansion Plan, Hoping This One Will Actually Get Built

“The irony is not lost on Ian Wardropper, the director of the Frick Collection: The very gated garden that upended the museum’s previous attempt to renovate its 1914 Gilded Age mansion is now the centerpiece of its revised design. … The new plan, by the architect Annabelle Selldorf, has situated several new elements precisely so that each provides a tranquil view of the garden.”