It’s how technology gets used that drives innovation, not the design/idea people. “Knowing about technology is not the same thing as understanding the scientific theories involved. Just as innovators commonly understand the fundamentals of a technology better than subsequent users, so users can acquire knowledge that would never have occurred to the innovators.”
Tag: 05.07.07
Banksy Feels The Burn
“Having fashioned himself as a sort of painterly Publius, Banksy surfaces from time to time to prod the popular conscience. Confronted with a blank surface, he will cover it with scenes of anti-authoritarian whimsy: Winston Churchill with a Mohawk, two policemen kissing, a military helicopter crowned by a pink bow. Typically crafting his images with spray paint and cardboard stencils, Banksy is able to achieve a meticulous level of detail.”
Computer Replicates What Impressionists Saw
“It’s no secret that both Degas and Monet had failing vision. What’s never been clear is what did that mean for them.” Now “an ophthalmologist has used the Gaussian filter and other Photoshop wonders to replicate how the artists saw the world later in life. The verdict: The painters couldn’t paint the same way anymore because they couldn’t see the same way.”
Sotheby’s Profit Up
“The company said income from continuing operations was 37 cents a share, compared with a loss a year earlier of $3.94 million, or 7 cents a share, Sotheby’s said today in a statement. Revenue rose 54 percent to $147.4 million.”
Is Family TV Disappearing?
“Everyone — network executives, major advertisers, ordinary folk answering poll questions — seems to agree, or at least say they agree, that network television needs more shows about families, for families. And yet that’s not what’s on during prime time these days, as cable TV and the Internet keep carving up viewers into smaller and smaller niche audiences.”
Spiderman Rules The World
Spiderman opened in 107 countries this weekend. That’s 47 percent more countries than the previous record. “Spider-Man 3 crushed the North American record with an estimated three-day total of $148 million in the U.S. and Canada, topping last summer’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. And it piled up unprecedented opening numbers in Japan, South Korea, India, Russia, Italy, Mexico, Brazil and elsewhere since its Tuesday launch in many territories.”
Ferneyhough Joins Elite Group Of Composers
“British composer Brian Ferneyhough was awarded the 2007 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize last week in Munich, in a ceremony at the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. He receives Eu 200,000 and the satisfaction of joining an elite group of laureates, including Benjamin Britten, Olivier Messiaen, Mstislav Rostropovich, Witold LutosÅ‚awski, Luciano Berio, Hans Werner Henze, György Ligeti, Claudio Abbado, Maurizio Pollini, Helmut Lachenmann, György Kurtág, Daniel Barenboim and others.”
What Gerard Mortier Intends For NY City Opera
“Mortier said he would seek to enlarge the budget, which the company said was $40 million, to $60 million. The extra money would go toward increasing the size of the orchestra to 85 players from nearly 70, adding rehearsal time, paying for costlier new productions and doubling the top fee for singers, to $7,000 per performance from $3,500. Leading singers at the Met can earn $15,000.”
Mobile Short Video Yes (But Where Are Advertisers?)
“While short, multiepisode cellphone series are growing in popularity, the lucrative advertising dollars prevalent in other entertainment segments — and which studios rely on for profit — have been slow to migrate to the supersmall screen.”