What did people used to believe they lost when they lost their privacy? Surprisingly, it turns out that a large number of people began to speak of privacy in a self-conscious way only toward the end of the nineteenth century. As is often the case, the first defenders of privacy became aware of its value at the moment they were on the verge of losing it.
Tag: 08.18
Jay Nordlinger: It’s Okay If Great Music Isn’t Popular
The Bach B Minor Mass is great. Is it relevant? I don’t know. It’s great. Is greatness relevant? Relevant to what? I think art can be liked and loved and appreciated. It instructs us and consoles us and thrills us and lifts us up. But this mania, this fashion, this fad for relevance is bizarre.
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Still Sorting Out The Relationships Between Art And Money
The role of money is more obvious now. People can look at works in an auction preview or catalogue and see the price— and price dictates how we view the artwork. But art dealers as we know them had their advent in the 19th century. Prior to that, art was about commissions from the wealthy. Again: rich merchants, royalty and the church. They were the gatekeepers. They determined which artists got commissions and which artists did not.
Smithsonian Asks: What’s The Role Of Art Today?
In a series of conversations and essays, the Smithsonian explores how art interacts with the contemporary world and how its role is evolving.
Tim Berners-Lee Invented The Internet. It Went Wrong. Now He Has A Plan To Fix It
From the beginning, in fact, Berners-Lee understood how the epic power of the Web would radically transform governments, businesses, societies. He also envisioned that his invention could, in the wrong hands, become a destroyer of worlds, as Robert Oppenheimer once infamously observed of his own creation.