“Steve Jobs, it seems, understood intuitively an important facet of our minds: we like to know where things come from. We like stories. We like nice tales. We need our myths, our origins, our creations.”
Tag: 04.07.12
What Happened To Philosophy In Fiction?
“What is the modern equivalent of the philosophical novel? How, if we happened upon one, might we recognise it? Assuming it is not enough for there to be a passing reference to Wittgenstein or Kant, or for pages to be sprinkled with words like “epistemological” and “ontological”, what does it look like?”
We Are Explanation-Seeking Animals
“So uncomfortable is it for us if something doesn’t have a cause that we strive to determine one, one way or the other, even absent the necessary evidence.” According to some researchers, the process of seeking – or making up – explanations for things is crucial to human cognition.
What’s The Great Art Of The Future? Data Visualization
“Why are we picking at [Damien Hirst’s] carcasses of creativity? We should instead be celebrating the really new and relevant: the rise of the data visualizers. Their medium is the one with momentum, the one genuinely changing how we think and feel. And it’s about to boom.”
Boys Choirs Suffer, Thanks To Early (And Ever Earlier) Puberty
“An unrelenting march of puberty sweeps voices into rebellion. Over recent decades, the already-short careers of their sopranos have started to end between six months and a year earlier, challenging them at times such as Easter, for which choral music such as J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion was written with difficult lines for boys free of hormonal woes.”
3D Goes Bollywood
Don’t think it’s all James Cameron (or Wim Wenders) – 3D is the medium of choice for many Bollywood filmmakers. Or at least, the medium of choice is converting 2D films with famous actors to 3D (and that’s not so different from Hollywood).
Artist Steps Down From Troubled Project In L.A.
“The Watts House Project announced Saturday that Edgar Arceneaux ‘has graciously stepped aside’ from his role as executive director. … Arceneaux, an artist who founded the community redevelopment project in 2009, had served as its leader and most visible spokesperson.”
As Modernist Buildings Age, Will We Save Or Destroy Them?
“Many of the stark structures that once represented the architectural vanguard are showing signs of wear, setting off debates around the country between preservationists, who see them as historic landmarks, and the many people who just see them as eyesores.”
How To Celebrate Easter? Sing Some Bach, Of Course
“Such masterpieces provide a firm challenge to the contemporary conceit that the modern world is always improving. The growing popularity of hearing the Bach Passions leading up to the Easter season in our ‘post-religious’ culture is an intriguing and exciting one.”
Booker Prize-winner Weighs In On The Israeli Theatre Debate
Howard Jacobson hits back at those who asked London’s Globe to withdraw an invitation to an Israeli theatre company. “If there is one justification for art… it is that it proceeds from, and addresses, our unaligned humanity. Whoever would go to art with a mind made up on any subject misses the point of what art is for. So to censor it in the name of political or religious conviction… is to tear out its very heart.”