“There is little doubt that scientific research plays an important role in enhancing our quality of life and improving our future wellbeing. However, today the term ‘the research shows…’ is often deployed because we find it difficult to justify music or art or indeed anything cultural as true or good in its own terms. Yes, cultural entrepreneurs will sometimes rhetorically affirm that music is important in its own right – but increasingly such declarations come across as ritualistic.”
Tag: 04.14.08
Why Are Most Airports Architectural Wastelands?
Airports, in short, are a logistical nightmare, and this is surely the reason that most of them today are such depersonalized wastelands.
Re-Engineering Your Ear For Better Bass
“An ear’s size is irrelevant; what matters are the properties of a shape that’s intrigued humanity for millennia, inspiring ancient Greek mathematicians and Renaissance painters and anyone who’s ever contemplated a nautilus shell or the center of a sunflower. As scientists better understand the cochlea, might they be able to tweak it? Could they someday make the bass on Junior Wilson’s ‘Dock of the Bay’ remix carry my brain out of my head and across the Pacific, just like it wants to?”
The Next Thing In Graffiti
While most graffiti crews use spray paint to mark buildings and urban infrastructure, Roth and Powderly, the artists behind the Graffiti Research Lab, have perfected a unique form of temporary high-tech graffiti they call laser tagging that utilizes a laser pointer in lieu of paint, a projector in place of a spray.
JK Rowling Says Court Case Has Sapped Her Creativity
Rowling told a New York court on Monday that the demands of the case had caused her to halt work on a new novel. The author, who wrote seven novels about the boy wizard, said the stress has “decimated my creative work over the past month.”
Rowling Testifies Her Work Is Being Stolen
J.K. Rowling testified before a packed courtroom in a lawsuit to block publication of a Harry Potter lexicon, telling a judge that the book amounts to a “wholesale theft” of nearly 20 years of her hard work. “We all know I’ve made enough money. That’s absolutely not why I’m here,”
How To Understand Computer Viruses And Spam? With Art Of Course
The only manipulation involved was color-coding, setting the virtual position of the camera, and some lighting effects. The project lives somewhere between pure art and information visualization.
Wanted: An iPod Experience For Theatre
“It might be argued that the relationship between careful planning and pure chance is the very essence of theatre; weeks of rehearsal offered up on the alter of the live performance, with only a whispered prayer for everything to be all right on the night. What I want is a more iPod-like relationship between careful planning and chance.”
Museum To Document Damage To Iraq’s Archaeological Heritage During War/Occupation
“The British Museum is to give new currency to Babylon’s legends with a major exhibition including details of how American and coalition troops have wrecked priceless archaeological remains in the ancient city during the occupation of Iraq.”
Sex Sells. Does Classical Music?
“Classical music’s move to the margins of popular culture came about for a lot of reasons–too numerous and disputable to discuss here–but let’s entertain one phenomenon that occurred in the larger culture that left the classical crowd behind: Sex, or, more precisely, sexy.”