“Long before our modern age — of television, computers, computer games, and the Internet — it was possible to ignore or to forget our humanness. The powerful seductions of Technology make it even easier to forget. Does the Net that snares so many of our waking hours make us more human, or less?”
Tag: 06.08.08
Daniel Libeskind’s New Jewish Museum Lights San Francisco
“Unlike other Jewish museums around the country, this one, founded in 1984 and formerly housed in modest quarters on Steuart Street, doesn’t collect objects, have a permanent collection or focus on the Holocaust. It puts on contemporary exhibitions and programs exploring Jewish art and culture from many viewpoints, involving Jewish and non-Jewish artists and audiences.”
Behind The Recording Industry’s War On Fans
“Since 2003, labels have filed more than 28,000 lawsuits against individual file sharers. Only one suit has reached trial. Jammie Thomas, a single mother who was ordered by a federal jury in Minnesota last October to pay $222,000, is waiting for the federal court’s decision on her request for a new trial. Despite the RIAA’s efforts, data suggest that demand for pirated content remains strong.”
Taming The Edinburgh Fringe
“The age-old battle cries about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe being too risqué (from bestiality to bible bashing, take your pick) have been joined in recent years by growing fears that the once spontaneous has become too commercial.”
A Degree In Buffy-ology
“Since it ended, Buffy The Vampire Slayer has spawned enough academic books on the philosophy surrounding the roles of friendship and feminism to fill a 15-foot-wide bookshelf at the college in Arkadelphia.” Now a conference…
Up In Smoke – A Debate Over Smoking Onstage
“Ever since 2003 when New York City banned smoking in enclosed public spaces, theater directors have been walking a thin line between artistic freedom and legal necessity.”
Ground Zero For Theatre? Colorado
“Colorado has 97 theater companies that have produced at least one play in the past 12 months, a statistic that usually engenders such disbelief from outsiders. Only about half present full seasons, but, all told, our theaters produce about 400 works per year, drawing more than 1.5 million patrons and $50 million in revenue.”
Riccardo Muti In America
A self-confessed “simple man, essentially a southern Italian peasant,” the music director-designate of the Chicago Symphony said he didn’t own an iPod and that, until just the other day, thought iPod was the name of a racehorse.
A Matter Of Survival – The Arts In A Digital World
“Countless recent studies have coalesced around the same conclusion: Participation in the performing arts is changing drastically and, in many cases, declining. Fewer people are going to operas, plays and dance performances, according to the federal government’s Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. That decline is even more pronounced among 18- to 24-year-olds.”
Defaced Painting In Pittsburgh Was A Loaner
“The museum’s conservation experts are hoping to salvage the painting. It was on loan to the Carnegie Museum of Art as part of the 2008 Carnegie International exhibit, one of eight works by Ms. Celmins depicting the night sky.”