“Artists are being asked, even by the art world itself, to make work that’s easy, digestible, good for short attention spans, Instagrammable, marketable. Even the political stuff needs to be something one can “get” through the equivalent of a Hollywood pitch. Where does that leave the majority of our most dedicated artists?”
Tag: 08.20.17
The Dangerous Mythologies About Utopian Cultures
The idea of a group of people untouched and unblemished by modernity encouraged social scientists to see them as a control group when it came to asking questions about whether humans have an original nature that has been somehow sullied by civilization. Among the most popular questions are ones about the human capacity for violence and war. Are people inherently violent or was the slow march away from hunting and gathering that left us war-mongering and conflict-ridden?”
A £35,000 “Fake” Constable Is Authenticated As A £2 Million Original
“We were able to trace it back through various owners… right back pretty well to the brush of Constable himself. We found it in a sale sold by his son after his death which was a real slam dunker.”
Intergalactic Culture: Here’s How Voyager’s Golden Record Was Made
Etched in copper, plated with gold, and sealed in aluminum cases, the records are expected to remain intelligible for more than a billion years, making them the longest-lasting objects ever crafted by human hands. We don’t know enough about extraterrestrial life, if it even exists, to state with any confidence whether the records will ever be found. They were a gift, proffered without hope of return.
Study: How Our Creativity Changes As We Get Older
“How does the ability to come up with unusual ideas change as we grow older? Does it begin to flag in adolescence? Before then? To investigate these questions, we and our colleagues recently conducted several experiments, which we relate in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”
The Kennedy Center Honors Have Been Politicized. It May Be Difficult To Restore Their Place
“The Honors may be governed and selected by a nonprofit institution occupying a national memorial, but they are what passes in this country for knighthoods for the performing arts: the highest-profile awards bestowed for lifetime achievement in popular and high culture. Now that the culture wars have intervened, stoked by a president who has alienated many artists throughout the nation, one wonders whether the political taint will be so easily removed.”
Richard Florida’s Creative Class Problem
After fifteen years of development plans tailored to the creative classes, Florida surveys an urban landscape in ruins. The story of London is the story of Austin, the Bay Area, Chicago, New York, Toronto, and Sydney. When the rich, the young, and the (mostly) white rediscovered the city, they created rampant property speculation, soaring home prices, and mass displacement. The “creative class” were just the rich all along, or at least the college-educated children of the rich.
Can Arizona Theatre Company’s New Director Make It More Diverse?
As the state’s only member of the elite-tier League of Resident Theatres, with a $7 million budget and audiences in both Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona Theatre Company is better equipped than any other Valley company to be a leader on the issues of equity and representation for women and people of color — which, ironically enough, makes Ivers, who formerly led the Utah Shakespeare Festival, something of a “great white hope” for theater diversity here.
In Venezuela’s Turmoil, Gustavo Dudamel Has Become A Target – And Helped Win A Release For An Imprisoned Violinist
Los Angeles’ “Dudamel was involved in the talks to release Wuilly Arteaga, a Venezuelan violinist who gained a following on social media for playing music in the middle of violent street protests against President Nicolas Maduro. National guard forces arrested Arteaga during a demonstration last month; he was released Tuesday.”
Leslie Jones (Or Maybe Society) Has Come A Long Way Since Last Year’s Twitter Debacle
Jones on making fun of getting hacked by racist, sexist haters after Ghostbusters came out: “That’s what comics do. You’re not a good comic if you don’t face your pain right off. That’s like the No. 1 rule on a comic’s list. You help a lot of people when you do that. You can’t ignore the elephant — you’ve got to make the elephant laugh. Me and the elephant are friends.”