Design, of course. “Cities need to design for the modes they want people to use because they already lost the opportunity once, says McPherson. In the 1890s, American cities experienced a bicycle boom so pervasive it changed women’s fashion. Bikes were such a popular mode of urban transportation that cities scrambled to build cycling superhighways for them. Yet bikes lost that valuable urban real estate as sprawling cities prioritized cars.”
Tag: 07.13.18
Oscar Wilde’s Final European Exile Was Not As Miserable As You Think
The conventional picture of post-prison Wilde is that of a depressed, impoverished, sick man hopelessly attached to his unworthy lover. But a new biography makes the case that – at least until his final illness – Wilde was liberated in Paris, at last able to live as he wished in a place where love between men was not a crime.
The High-Stakes, Highly Combative World Of Amazon’s Self-published Romance Authors
A genre that mostly features shiny, shirtless men on its covers and sells ebooks for 99 cents a pop might seem unserious. But at stake are revenues sometimes amounting to a million dollars a year, with some authors easily netting six figures a month. The top authors can drop $50,000 on a single ad campaign that will keep them in the charts — and see a worthwhile return on that investment. In other words, self-published romance is no joke.
Opera Australia Bets The Future On A (TK) Digital Revolution
Lyndon Terracini is staking much of the future and reputation of the national opera company on a digital revolution designed to immerse audiences and create an experience more akin to watching a movie than traditional opera. The glittering reptiles on the Joan Sutherland Theatre stage are part of the wholly digital production design for OA’s upcoming Aida. It’s the first step along a road Terracini says will revolutionise the way opera is staged and experienced.
Keeping Alive Armenia’s Centuries-Old Tradition Of Shadow Puppetry
The genre known as Karagyoz (meaning “black eyes,” after the trickster character at the center of the shadow plays) developed in the 14th century in the Ottoman Empire and became especially popular in Armenia in the 1700s. Now a troupe called Ayrogi is reviving the traditional art, often traveling through Armenia on horseback to perform in villages throughout the country.
How Frida Kahlo Created Frida Kahlo
“It’s a well-known fact that Kahlo would revise her year of birth (1907, according to her birth certificate), to align it with the eruption of the Revolution in 1910; what we don’t tend to appreciate is the way in which she consciously drew on Mexico’s religious and cultural traditions to shape her political and self-expression. Kahlo may have scoffed at a photograph of her solemn younger self dressed elaborately for church but, as time went by, forms of ritual, Catholic iconography, and cultural memory would structure her highly personal responses to her changing country.”
A Sign Language Developed Spontaneously By Deaf Kids Entirely On Their Own
“Of all the changes within Nicaragua to come out of the overthrow of the Somoza regime by the Sandinistas in 1979, perhaps the least anticipated was the birth of a new language. Nicaraguan Sign Language is the only language spontaneously created, without the influence of other languages, to have been recorded from its birth. And though it came out of a period of civil strife, it was not political actors but deaf children who created the language’s unique vocabulary, grammar, and syntax.”
Arts Festival Initiatives In America’s Heartland
Kansas City’s biennial is not the only major initiative to debut this summer in the American Midwest. Front International, a triennial in Cleveland, Ohio, also aims to draw attention to the under-represented art scene in the US’s Heartland. The region is a vague geography defined more by a state of mind: proudly homegrown but overshadowed by the rich coastal cities.
Kansas Governor Complains About Artist’s Flag Depiction And University Takes It Down
“Untitled (Flag 2)” by German artist Josephine Meckseper was intended to serve as commentary on the deep divisions in the United States, according to a statement by the artist. Meckseper drip painted a rough illustration of the U.S. on the flag and a striped sock in the left-hand corner to symbolize children imprisoned on the border. Some are viewing the work as an affront to active military and veterans. Among them is Kansas governor Jeff Colyer, who called for the flag’s removal in a statement Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia’s Now-Growing Art Scene Was Built By Women
“Despite many legal and bureaucratic challenges, Saudi women have been at the forefront of a growing cultural landscape. As a tsunami of government funding floods the Saudi Arabian cultural sector with the announcement this February of a planned $64 billion investment in the entertainment and cultural sector over the next decade, it is crucial that these waves of cash not wash away the legacy and achievements of these female pioneers.”