“Soon you could be chatting with your computer about the morning news. An AI has learned to read and answer questions about a news article with unprecedented accuracy.”
Tag: 06.20.16
Fight Over Building A George Lucas Museum Goes Bare-Knuckles Chicago-Style
The Chicago Park District on Sunday accused Friends of the Parks of issuing an “outrageous” list of demands that is “nothing short of extortion” and will likely be the “final nail in the coffin” of efforts to keep movie mogul George Lucas’ museum in Chicago.
There May Be No Accounting For Taste, But The Internet Will Try, Nevertheless
Louis Menand: “The science of preferences dates back to the origins of the advertising and public-relations industries, but the Internet has provided it with a vast new field of operations. Compared with television, which basically had advertisers throwing tomatoes at barns labelled, for example, ‘Women eighteen to thirty-four,’ the Internet is a precision instrument.”
Disney Animation Surges As Pixar Declines?
Disney’s rebound has led to increased one-upmanship within the Mouse House. According to one source, “Pixar’s attitude is, ‘We’re Pixar.’ And Disney is like, ‘Well, then, why don’t you have the highest-grossing animated film of all time?’ ”
More And More Independent Presses Are Opening Bookstores
“Suddenly, an increasing number of independent presses are going into the retail book business, morphing into full-service community hubs for book browsing and expanded literary programming. Some see retail floor space as an opportunity to bring more customers and supporters to their front doors. Others see it as an important source of income to support the publishing. All say it fulfills their missions as the literary hearts of their communities.”
Study: How Dependant Is Our Taste In Art On Social Pressures?
“What if our partiality to particular artists is, consciously or unconsciously, calibrated to line up with the preferences of our peers — and/or to distinguish ourselves from people we’d rather not be associated with?”
How Hollywood Blockbusters Can Explain The Rise Of Donald Trump And Bernie Sanders
“The summer blockbuster [in 2016] has gone from something to be enjoyed with popcorn and a Coke to something that may possibly shatter your existential reality. Needless to say, all these blockbusters made for consumption here and abroad have a common theme: the world is ending and (almost) no one can save us, except for an unlikely anti-hero.”
Watch A Conservator Clean The Gunk Off A Van Gogh
“This video from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston takes us behind the scenes of the conservation work necessary to restore Vincent van Gogh’s Houses at Auvers. According to [conservator] Lydia Vagts … the ‘gunk’ … comes from previous cleanings, and includes varnish residues, wax residues, and cotton fibers.”
The Performance Artist Who Thinks He Can Dance (He’s Right, Sort Of)
“A few days before Ryan McNamara’s performance piece Battleground premièred at the Guggenheim, last month, his cast of nine dancers had clocked an impressive six hundred and fifty hours of rehearsal. Unfortunately, they’d practiced together for only one of them. That might have caused most choreographers to panic, but McNamara isn’t a choreographer, he’s a performance artist, and fragmentation is kind of his thing.”
It’s Time To Stop Arguing Over The Term ‘Nonprofit’
“It’s for us to change the world, but not that word. That is the prerogative of the U.S. government, which created and sustains the confusing terms ‘nonprofit’ (not existing or done for the purpose of making a profit) and the distinct and different ‘not-for-profit,’ which merely serves as a classification in the U.S. tax code.”