Are we really on the verge of inventing machines that will bee able to tell what you’re thinking? “So far, it has only been used to identify visual patterns a subject can see or has chosen to focus on. But the researchers speculate the approach might be extended to probe a person’s awareness, focus of attention, memory and movement intention. In the meantime, it could help doctors work out if patients apparently in a coma are actually conscious.”
Tag: 04.26.05
Call To Arms: Protect Culture From Attack
Britain’s cultural institutions have to take a stronger stand to resist attacks on culture says a prominent theatre manager. “When something from outside comes to threaten the existence of a particular piece of work, what is the function of the arts council? Its remit to protect the arts comes into profile.”
Toronto Film Center Gets $25 Million
The Canadian government has committed $25 million toward a new Film Center for the Toronto International Film Festival. “Tuesday’s announcement brings the total amount raised to $94.7 million to date. However, organizers still have a long way to go before a groundbreaking ceremony – expected for next spring. The campaign goal is to raise $196 million, designated to pay for capital funding, the creation of an endowment fund and ongoing operational costs.”
Gossip Rules – Art Of The Buzz
Jerry Saltz ponders the cult of personalities and gossip currently flashing through the New York art world. “Gallerist Kenny Schachter describes the phase we’re in as “economics-ism” and “bottom-line aesthetics,” by which I think he means that now art is considered successful if it’s shown in a gallery or bought by collectors. Fitting in and conforming have become aesthetic criteria. Tautology rules. Many artists find all this depressing and regularly disparage the carousing and ask if it’s possible to get their work out without behaving in bogus ways. Not to sound like a Creed song, but no matter how serious an artist is, it’s almost impossible to behave this flippantly and still maintain one’s credibility.”
Why A Pop Music Conference Rocks – Money
Seattle’s Experience Music Project pop music conference is compellingly interesting, writes Robert Cristgau. “The short explanation is that EMP isn’t exclusively academic—of the 180 presenters this year, only 84 ID’d themselves that way, including many grad students and wearers of multiple hats. Nor were all the nonacademics journalists; we heard from several alt bizzers and quite a few artists, literary and performance as well as musical. Big tent is a fantasy often invoked and seldom achieved in cultural studies circles. But beyond the boldness, imagination, and actually existing openness, EMP’s tent is so roomy for one simple reason: money.
Are Recording Companies Dumping CDs As Part Of Antitrust Settlement?
Major US recording companies lost an antitrust case and were told to give millions of CD’s to libraries as part of the $143 million settlement. But it appears that the CD’s being offered are overstocked recordings the companies couldn’t sell anyway. “The impression one gets from the list is that the record companies are just unloading overstock. It appears many libraries will receive too many copies of some titles and others they don’t want at all.”
Disease Afflicting Great Pipe Organs Of Europe
“A mysterious epidemic of organ “leprosy” is sweeping Europe, corroding pipes and threatening to silence some of the continent’s most renowned instruments. The European Union has mounted a major effort to save them, even though it is not yet known whether modern central heating, air pollution or something else is causing the problem. Organs were the personal computers of their era, the most complicated devices made by humans.”
Movie Sanitation Smells
Congress has passed a law that allows companies to “sanitize” (read: take out) parts of movies they don’t like. “The implications are dramatic: If sanitizers can alter a creative work without the permission of the author, will they be able to redo the Bible? Shakespeare? What, in short, does intellectual property mean anymore?”
Where Art And Technology Intersect
Technology holds a big place in our imagination these days. And artists are looking at the intersections of tech and art. “The Cyberarts Festival’s 70 exhibitions combine computer technology with dance, poetry, music and digital images. Many of them, like Imaging Place, use satellite pictures and the global positioning system to examine the effects of location on memory and thinking.”
Promoters Sue Universal For Overcharging Artists
Two US music promoters are suing recording giant Universal for $100 million, claiming the company forced them to submit falsely inflated invoices. “Universal used these to make top names such as Nelly unwittingly pay for other artists’ promotion, the promoters say.”