“These days neural approaches to art — so-called neuroaesthetics — are all the rage. We find it somehow compelling to think that the brain holds the answers to the questions about, well, everything that matters to us, including art. It’s hard not to be impressed by the excitement scientists feel as they try to hunt down aesthetic experience in the brain using the advanced methods and technologies of cognitive science. But art is an elusive quarry, and it leaves its clumsy predator flailing in the dust.”
Tag: 09.08.15
How Copyright Is Killing Internet Memes
“Do we end up with this predatory content environment, where people share something, and it becomes prominent, and the rights-holder goes after everyone who shared it? That could devastate the ecosystem: “Meme practice is so important to Internet dialogue, and to how Internet culture functions.”
What’s It Like To Be Inside The LA Philharmonic’s Virtual Reality Machine?
There are a bunch of nice aspects of the program. Depending on “where you are,” the balance of sound changes, like it would in real life, so you hear more viola if you’re near the violas, more flute if you’re by the woodwinds, etc. The L.A. Phil also added abstract visualizations of the music to give viewers something else to look at while they listen. For me these elements were distracting, but I can see how they might add engagement for someone who is new to watching “live” classical music.
LA Philharmonic – The New Virtual Reality Orchestra
“I stood on the moon with Microsoft’s HoloLens. I perched in the forest as Reese Witherspoon wandered by in the movie Wild. And I nearly wept during Lost, director Saschka Unseld’s animated short about a severed robot hand lost in the woods. But no programming has moved me as much as four minutes of classical music put together by the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra’s crack digital initiatives team.”
Is “Effective Altruism” A Threat To The Arts?
For those dedicated to supporting culture, the scariest part of the effective altruist movement is that it seems to resonate strongly with the new generation of young, data-driven donors.
Has The Indianapolis Museum Become a Country Club?
Not surprisingly, what once was a lively and socially diverse spot, where local families — including some from adjacent low income neighborhoods — mingled with museum visitors, was vacated. The adjacent Lilly Nursery was also empty.
John Perrault, 78, Art Critic, Artist, Poet (And ArtsJournal Blogger)
“Perreault is best-known for being an early proponent of avant-garde movements like Minimalism, Land art, and Pattern and Decoration during the late 1960s and the ’70s. … He also had an eye for artists who would ultimately become canonical. As a result, he achieved a following from artists, critics, curators, and readers of all kinds.”
White Guy Can’t Get His Poem Published; Submits It Under Chinese Pen Name; It Gets Selected For ‘Best American Poetry 2015’; Kerfuffle Commences
The strange tale of “The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve” by Michael Derrick Hudson, alias Yi-Fen Chou – and how, when Hudson came clean to this year’s editor, Sherman Alexie, Alexie included it anyway.
What Exactly IS ‘Political Correctness,’ Anyway?
“Specifically, most of us are not entirely sure what that term actually … means. Stop for a moment, and think for yourself: How would you define the term?
The Uniquely American Myth Of Satanic Cults
“This is what happens when hypervigilance and moral panic take precedence over accepted scientific methodologies and hard evidence.” (And no, tis article explains, the Satanic Temple is not, in fact, a cult; It’s not even very Satanic.)