“Many great buildings have always been a kind of work in progress. The idea that ‘old’ buildings, that is those dating from before the modern movement, or the 1960s, were always better made than new ones, is simply not true.”
Tag: 09.16.07
Building As Digital Image
Boston public broadcaster WGBH has a new home. “This is the first serious example in Boston of a kind of architecture we’re beginning to see elsewhere, in Times Square, for example, in which the architectural façade of a building is no longer made of the traditional brick, stone, steel or glass but is, instead, an ever-changing, programmable image. Call it digital architecture. Architecture and media become one… That nightmare, though, is in the future, and for now, here at WGBH, digital architecture looks pretty good.”
The Case Against Blockbusters
Are blockbuster exhibitions of great art worth it? “When works of art are transported, they are easier to steal. And a surprising number are stolen en route from one museum to another. Serious damage during transport is much more frequent than museums admit. The very popularity of blockbuster shows creates one critical disadvantage: it makes it almost impossible to appreciate the art itself.”
China’s Dance Forward
“Modern dance in China is searching for its heart, and its identity, as it emerges from a tradition of collectivism that viewed all artists as cheerleaders for the Communist Party. With the government loosening its grip, practitioners of the art form are finding opportunities to experiment and grow. But while its star rises abroad, Chinese modern dance also finds itself confronting commercial pressures and more subtle forms of government entanglement, as well as a struggle to build a quality audience at home.”
Christopher Wheeldon’s Career Dance
“The British Balanchine has relaunched himself as an Anglo-American Diaghilev, a successor to the despotic impresario whose Ballets Russes brought together the early 20th-century’s finest musicians, dramatists, painters and dancers in an extravagant synthesis of all the arts.”
Slumming (And Other Vices)
“I am uncomfortable with the phenomenon of cultural tourism in the British theatre, whereby a comfortable metropolitan audience sits and watches working class characters – invariably from deprived parts of the country – suffer. The audience emerges from the performance either titillated by the exotic experience or reassured that their lives aren’t like that.”
Aussie Versus Aussie
“No two cities in the same country have the degree of cultural rivalry that prevails between Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.”
Living Proof Of The Power Of Poetry
“Tess Gallagher is nothing if not proof that poetry can transform a life. Her alcoholic father beat her; her brother died in a car accident at the age of 15; her second husband was an alcoholic; and her third, Carver, died young of lung cancer. Yet I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to another interviewee who has laughed so much or been so open.”
A Buzz-Free Toronto Film Festival
Aren’t film festivals all about the buzz? “So was there any single film at TIFF 2007 that earned universal praise and set the colony vibrating?” Maybe not…
When A Bird Speaks (Scientists Listen)
“The world lost its most famous bird brain this month: Alex, an African gray parrot who lived in a Brandeis laboratory and possessed a vocabulary of nearly 150 words. Yet as remarkable as Alex was – he could identify colors and shapes – he was not alone. The songs of starlings display a sophisticated grammar once thought the sole domain of human thinking.”