Tag: 09.30.20

Tokyo’s Transparent Public Toilets Were Designed By A Pritzker Prize Winner

“Yes, these colorful, see-through stalls turn opaque when occupied. When not, you can literally see right through them. … The architect behind these one-of-a-kind Tokyo toilets is Shigeru Ban, winner of none other than the Pritzker Prize, the world’s most prestigious architectural prize. And when you take a deeper look into the work of the architects behind these transparent restrooms, the source of such creativity becomes more than obvious.” – Metropolis (Tokyo)

Yes, Reading Is Important, But It’s Not A Moral Good In Itself

Katherine Gaudet on trying to make children into lifelong readers: “I teach humanities courses to undergraduates; I facilitate reading groups at public libraries; I have seen over and over how engagement with literature leads to understanding, empathy, and exploration. What I don’t believe in anymore is the moral undertone of reading promotion: that people who read for pleasure are more good and more deserving than those who don’t.” – Literary Hub

Words We Can Grab From Elsewhere

“I’m really against translating or editing foreign speakers’ texts into seamless English. Not only because I know this disadvantage as a second language speaker (and writer) who has a hard time expressing the same ideas in a different medium. But also because any meaning carried by a given text is strongly nuanced by the author’s linguistic choices.” – Eurozine

The Ethics Of Euphemism In News Reporting

“What some studies have found is that people are actually more likely to use euphemisms to save face socially than in consideration of the feelings of others. This, coupled with the desire to sound neutral, objective, and authoritative, can lead journalists to use euphemistic language to reframe a story obliquely, even when the facts themselves are indisputable.” (For instance, collateral damage or officer-involved shooting or misrepresentation.) “Such tentative reporting not only reveals hidden biases and value judgments, it also can fall into ethical traps that have real-world and legal repercussions.” – JSTOR Daily

Taking The ‘Ology” Out Of Musicology: A Dozen Scholars Talk About Where The Field Is Headed

“Ever since the 1980s, and the 1985 release of Joseph Kerman’s hallmark Contemplating Music, the traditionally separate fields of musicology and ethnomusicology have been undergoing a reinvention. Today, music scholars (note the conspicuous absence of terminology) are grappling with the field’s complex, colonial history, its purpose and articulation, and even its name in novel ways. Their work is a reflection of the field’s proverbial coming of age.” – WQXR (New York City)

NPR Wants To Broaden Its Audience. What Could It Learn From The BBC?

“The BBC eventually had to succumb to the public’s demands to hear what it wanted, not what [BBC founder John] Reith wanted them to hear. … In the United States, public radio never attracted an audience near as diverse as NPR’s founding purposes hoped. Public radio sincerely welcomed all, but those who chose to listen represented such a narrow type that ‘NPR listener’ became a meaningful term.” – Current

Peter Marks: What I Learned Watching An Experiment Unfold

“Rex Daugherty — whose work I’ve reviewed several times — and I were both interested in how artists and critics could learn more about each other’s functions, could demystify our roles in some small way. Social media has brought many reviewers into far closer proximity with theater artists than ever before. It occurred to us that exploring how the mistrust that often develops between critics and artists might be mitigated was worthwhile, especially when live theater has been sidelined and many theater events are occurring in the digital space. I ended up learning far more than I contributed.” – Washington Post