The proposed expansion includes 46 art museums, adding to the country’s current total of 451 art institutions. Altogether, the increase will mean one museum for every 39,000 people, an improvement on the current ratio of one per 45,000 residents. – Artnet
Tag: 06.25.19
How “Game Of Thrones” Is Like Chaucer
The fate of Chaucer’s unfinished works suggests there may be something to be appreciated in the peculiarly suspended state in which fans of A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones currently find themselves. Should Martin be compelled to abandon his saga for one reason or another, he can console himself with the knowledge that the unfinished state of Chaucer’s texts did nothing to prevent John Dryden from declaring Chaucer to be the “Father of English poetry”. – Times Literary-Supplement
Non-Verbal Communication: A Dictionary Of What Our Gestures Mean
Francois Caradec’s Dictionary, newly translated into English by Chris Clarke, lists some 850 gestures that “successively address each part of the body, from top to bottom, from scalp to toe by way of the upper limbs”, and may be used as well as or instead of speech. They are numbered and ordered in a taxonomy running from 1.01 (“to nod one’s head vertically up and down, back to front, one or several times: acquiescence”) to 37.12 (“to kick an adversary in the rear end: aggression”). – Times Literary Supplement
End Of Anonymity? AI Can Match Anonymous Writing With Its Author
An artificial intelligence, or AI, successfully “recognizes” an author not as a person, but instead as the likeness of features that characterize a body of work. In order to find patterns across texts, the algorithmic “reader” uses a collection of textual traits—like frequently used words or punctuation—to draw conclusions about who wrote what.
Court Gives Trump-Connected Oligarch Who Used To Own ‘Salvator Mundi’ Go-Ahead To Sue Sotheby’s
“A federal judge in New York rejected Sotheby’s bid to dismiss a $380 million lawsuit where Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev accused the auction house of helping his longtime art dealer’s scheme to overcharge him on dozens of masterworks.” – Reuters
When Mexico Became The World’s Hotbed Of Surrealism
It wasn’t just Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. In the 1930s and ’40s, André Breton, Leonora Carrington, José and Kati Horna, Gordon Onslow-Ford, Wolfgang Paalen, and others flocked to Mexico City. As Kahlo once put it, “I never knew I was a Surrealist until André Breton came to Mexico and told me I was one.” – Artsy
Sculptor Charles Ginnever, Known For Large Outdoor Works, Dead At 87
“Working largely in steel, made massive geometric forms that often seemed to defy gravity — giant squares or slabs appearing to float in the air or balance precariously on a point. His works were deliberately made to be walked around; viewing them from multiple angles gave dramatically different experiences.” – The New York Times
Mariss Jansons Cancels All Summer Performances
On doctors’ orders, the 76-year-old chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, formerly music director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony, has withdrawn from concerts with the BRSO in Munich as well as appearances at (among others) the Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Riga Jurmala Festivals and the BBC Proms. – OperaWire
YouTube Stars’ New Big Thing? Excessive Over-The-Top Consumerism
After over 200 studies, we know that the more people endorse materialism, the worse their wellbeing. They’re less empathic, less prosocial, more competitive. They’re less likely to support environmental sustainability. They’re more likely to endorse prejudicial and discriminatory beliefs.” And you know, that sounds like what’s wrong with YouTube. –Wired
Google Is Building A Massive New Smart City In Toronto. Here’s What It Will Look Like
Sidewalk Labs, the smart-city startup from Google parent company Alphabet, has released its master innovation and development plan to turn a sizable swath of Toronto’s Lake Ontario shoreline into “the most innovative district in the entire world.” – CityLab