Nate Heller surveys the, er, concept – from Marcel Duchamp right up to Tino Sehgal’s no-paper-trail-whatsoever performance pieces and Darren Bader’s “lasagna on heroin” (a hunk of lasagna injected with heroin) – and considers such issues with conceptual art as insuring it (tricky) and storage (doesn’t need much).
Tag: 08.29.18
AO Scott: How Reviewing Movies Has Changed
“It still matters to my colleagues and me that we experience a film in aesthetically optimal conditions — projected on a big screen in a dark room with no distractions — even if many of our readers will end up watching at home.”
Highly Regarded LA Central Library Lit Program Directors Out In Wake Of Mural Artists’ Deportation Controversy
The Los Angeles literary landscape shifted significantly this week with the departure of Louise Steinman from ALOUD, the reading series based at the downtown Central Library that she founded and ran for 25 years. A representative of the Library Foundation confirmed the departure of Steinman and ALOUD associate director Maureen Moore, who was the driving force behind the rotunda exhibit “Visualizing Language” by Oaxacan artists that gained international attention.
‘The Walking OED’: Oliver Sacks’s Widower Remembers His Etymophilia (Love Of Words)
Bill Hayes: “He delighted in etymology, synonyms and antonyms, slang, swear words, palindromes, anatomical terms, neologisms (but objected, in principle, to contractions). … Oliver loved words so much, he often dreamed of them, and sometimes dreamed them up. One morning, six years ago, I found a phrase he’d written on the white board in the kitchen. All it said was ‘5 a.m. Nepholopsia.'”
Why The Rock-Dominated Pop Music Canon Is Finished
I suspect we may be at the end of the age of the canon, for now at least. For all those mixed bills at festivals, and playlists that place Beyoncé next to Black Midi, I suspect best-ever lists, from here on, will be specialised. They are more likely to go by genre, in specialist titles: the best hip-hop album ever, the best metal album ever, the best electronic album ever. It’s simply easier to do it that way than to attempt to evaluate the relative worth of Lemonade against Led Zeppelin IV.
Why The ‘Overtourism’ Devouring Europe Will Be Difficult To Fix
“Managing a tourist destination is something like managing a natural resource, like a mine or a fishery; a sustainable level of tourists brings widespread gains to the local economy, but too many ruin it for everyone. … That so many different forces” — especially technological developments — “play into overtourism highlights the difficulties of doing much about it.”
How To Tell ‘Deepfake’ Videos From Genuine In The Blink Of An Eye
What’s a deepfake video? It uses the type of artificial intelligence system known as a “deep neural network” to study a large body of images of an individual and then synthesize new moving images based on the existing ones – in other words, to create video of that individual doing something she never actually did. Inevitably, deepfake videos of political candidates will appear, possibly as soon as this fall. How can we spot them? Prof. Siwei Lyu and two colleagues have worked out a way. (The headline above is not metaphorical.)
Who Should Next Run Washington DC’s National Gallery
With Earl Powell’s 26-year tenure coming to an end, the museum has the opportunity to revitalize its programs and modernize its operation, according to interviews with 22 current and former employees and industry experts. The selection of its next leader — expected to be made next month — could determine whether it continues to hew to the past or emerges at the forefront of a quickly evolving museum industry.
NY Times Critics Try To Make Peace With The Jukebox Musical
“Ben Brantley and Jesse Green, the Times‘s chief theater critics, joined the critic Elisabeth Vincentelli to answer the big questions: Why are the bad ones so bad? Why are the good ones better? And are there good ones? Scott Heller, the theater editor, played referee. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation, set to the music of Abba, the Go-Go’s, Donna Summer, Bob Dylan and more.”
Engagement, Philanthropy, And A Regional Arts Boom
There are more rich people than ever, they’re spread out all across the country, and they’re giving back to hometown institutions at “big city” levels. Throw in continued support from loyal foundations, and that’s a recipe for what American Theatre called Cleveland’s “urban renaissance.”