Barthes was a rock star of the writing world when he died suddenly in 1980 and, as with all rock stars, his death only led to a new lease of life. “Lately”, one commentator observed in 2012, “the posthumous corpus of Roland Barthes has been growing at a rate that rivals Tupac Shakur’s.
Tag: 09.28.17
Smuggling Contemporary Art Lessons Into North Korea
“Artist Mina Cheon, a professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art, … has successfully sent hundreds of USB sticks containing short videos of contemporary art lessons into North Korea as part of a new art project. … Arranged by thematic subjects such as art’s relationship to power, food, feminism, and money, the [ten] lessons trace major movements including pop art and abstraction.
Publisher Announces It Won’t Even Read Submissions Addressed “Dear Sirs”
“We at Tramp experience sexism in lots of ways all the time, being dreaded women. One really annoying way we experience it is when authors send us their manuscripts and do one or both of the following: 1. Addressing us as ‘Dear Sirs’ and 2. Sending us a cover letter in which they declare they do not read books by women.”
Inside The Mind And Writing Process Of John McPhee (Who Knows Everyone And Everything)
When reporter Sam Anderson called the New Yorker legend for directions to his Princeton home, McPhee said of Anderson’s tiny hometown, “I’ve been there,” and proceeded to recount the story of his mountaintop picnic there decades ago with (of all people) convicted spy Alger Hiss. McPhee remembered the name of the manufacturer of the little incline railway up the mountain (Otis Elevator) and the slope of the incline (60 degrees).
J.G. Ballard, Prophet Of Climate Change?
“Consider the images coming out of South Florida” – let alone Puerto Rico – “the past few weeks: sailboats capsized and clotting on the shore; high-rises looking on, humiliated by their reflection in the flooded streets; palm carnage. These could easily be used to illustrate J.G. Ballard’s 1962 novel, The Drowned World.” Hunter Braithwaite makes the case.
Hugh Hefner: A Progressive Force For Good? A New York Times Discussion
“Jesse Jackson hailed him as a strong supporter of the civil rights movement, while Larry King called him ‘a GIANT’ of free speech. Others noted that while Hefner loved to excoriate feminists in the pages of Playboy, he was a supporter of some of their causes, including abortion rights and the Equal Rights Amendment. … But how well does the idea of Hef the liberator of women really hold up? The New York Times Culture writers Amanda Hess, Wesley Morris and Taffy Brodesser-Akner joined [Jennifer Schuessler] in a discussion of Hefner’s social and cultural legacy.”
‘Dust To Glitter’ Occupation Of Berlin Theater Ends As Police Escort Activists Away
“Protesters associated with [a group called] Dust to Glitter had been occupying the [Volksbühne] since Friday night, declaring the building ‘property of the people’ in their initial statement. They intended to develop a ‘People’s Stage’ over the next three months, as well as an ‘anti-gentrification center’ and a ‘parliament of the homeless.'” (The protests were not aimed specifically at controversial new artistic director Chris Dercon.) Yet the occupiers left peacefully when the police arrived (though a few had to be carried away) – as one of the organizers said, “It seems that the theater workers were not entirely supportive of the occupation.”
The Oldest Institution In All France (1,153 Years!) Reopens As Paris’s Newest Museum
La Monnaie de Paris, the mint originally established in 864 by King Charles the Bald and functioning ever since, has been remodeled and opened to the public as a working museum devoted to monetary metallurgy through the ages. (150 artisans continue to work there on specially commissioned coins.) La Monnaie may soon face its first repatriation controversy, however: among its opening exhibits is the Treasure of Hué, looted by French forces from Vietnam’s imperial palace in 1886.
Septime Webre And Patricia Barker Talk About Their New International Gigs
“This summer, it was announced that two American ballet directors would be taking over major international troupes. Septime Webre is headed to Hong Kong Ballet, while Patricia Barker is taking the reins at Royal New Zealand Ballet. We caught up with Webre and Barker to get the scoop on their new posts and what’s coming next.”
Algorithms Have Improved The Art Experience. Is Our Art Becoming Dully Perfect?
“The immediate creative consequence of this sea change is that we are building more technical competence into our tools. It is getting harder to take a really terrible digital photograph, and in correlation the average quality of photographs is rising. From automated essay critiques to algorithms that advise people on fashion errors and coordinating outfits, computation is changing aesthetics. When every art has its Auto-Tune, how will we distinguish great beauty from an increasingly perfect average?”