06.18.17 – ArtsJournal Wayback

Bullshit Studies As An Academic Discipline

A longread report on “Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data,” a full course taught by two data scientists at the University of Washington who believe that teaching bullshit detection is one of the main purposes of education – and crucial for a healthy democracy. (Be sure to look out for Brandolini’s Bullshit Asymmetry Principle.)

What It’s Like To Be Sofia Coppola

To be Sofia Coppola is to have grown up with certain advantages. The Coppola family tree is a verdant one: Sofia’s grandfather was composer Carmine Coppola; actors Jason Schwartzman and Nicolas Cage are her cousins; and her brother Roman produces her films through the family-run production company American Zoetrope. But lineage alone doesn’t determine who we grow up to become. At 46, Coppola, who has made six delicately distinctive feature films over the past 18 years, has built something of a stealth career.

Portrait Of An Arts Economy By The Numbers: Sarasota

According to the “Arts & Economic Prosperity Report V,” a data-intense survey released during the weekend by the nonprofit Americans for the Arts, Sarasota County’s arts and cultural organizations and audiences pumped $295 million into the economy in 2015, up 64 percent from $180 million in 2010, when the previous survey was taken.

‘Power Chords And Pollock’: A Theory Of Punk Rock And Abstract Expressionism

“It was after seeing the sharp distinction in approach, methodology and effect between Rancid and the concert’s headliners, Green Day, that a theoretical superstructure for punk rock struck me – one which can be linked to the history of art.” Noah Charney – who grants that “normally you don’t find ‘punk rock,’ ‘theoretical superstructure’ and ‘history of art’ occupying the same sentence” – makes the case.

Having Power, Over Time, Can Look A Lot Like Having A Traumatic Brain Injury

Power is a drug, or it’s worse than a drug. A psychology professor found during two decades of work that people “under the influence of power” act like they have brain injuries, “becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view.”

Chinese Censors Cut A Gay Kiss From ‘Alien: Covenant’

Though six minutes are gone, including some of the violence in the movie, but “China-based expats and local moviegoers were quick to pick up on the missing Doppelganger gay moment, which takes place late in the film between the two cyborgs Walter and David, both played by [Michael] Fassbender. Many said the removal of the gay kiss is much more jarring than the various cuts to the film’s violence.”

How Are We Supposed To Look At ‘The Cosby Show’ Now?

Yeah, we’ve got a problem. “As a nation, we’ve never known what to do with our fondness for the work of men who have become troublesome. We force ourselves to practice impossible moral surgery that hopes to cut off the artist to save the art. Mr. Cosby’s mistrial just further extends our permanent impasse with certain great figures and their problems.”

Jacob’s Pillow Is Going Beyond A Festival With Full-Year Residencies

The festival’s new leader said, “There is a crisis of ambition in this country for choreographers. … Choreographers need space and time to experiment with new works.”

Art Doesn’t Have To Come From Tortured Genius, Despite Our Myths

Actually, art is better when the artists are organized, or so say these two artists who have written a book about creativity.

Tag: 06.18.17