“I would like to think of every Zoom grid not as the death of architecture, but at its proliferation into different spaces that are trying hard to recreate, at the microscale of the individual grid square, a world made possible by the architecture that it exposes: a glimpse of a bedroom here, a garden there, a living room, a bookshelf. The absence of architecture is equally ostensible when for example, an image of the landscape is projected behind the person on the screen. We yearn for the presence of architecture even in a fake background in order to transport us, through the architectural imaginary, to other worlds.” – ArchDaily
Tag: 10.14.20
How Henry Ford’s Production Model Shaped Our Politics
https://bostonreview.net/class-inequality-politics/justin-h-vassallo-world-henry-ford-madeHenry Ford would likely find his relevance to the current crisis of globalization a testament to his “producerist” philosophy. But as historian Stefan J. Link writes in his new book, Forging Global Fordism: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the Contest over the Industrial Order, Ford’s peculiar ideals “projected a political (and moral) economy that hardly anticipated the American consumer modernity that emerged after 1945.” – Boston Review
How Do You Teach A Kids’ Choir Class When You Can’t Let Them Sing?
“Music teachers in Canada are being forced to improvise. Choir classes, for example, either must meet outdoors to rehearse or they simply hum and chant their way through class. Host Marco Werman speaks with Toronto-based Anita Elash about how music teachers are managing to keep music programs alive during the pandemic.” (audio) – PRX’s The World
40 Black Playwrights Talk About The Confounding Racism They Face In American Theater
Theatermakers from Lynn Nottage and Robert O’Hara to Jocelyn Bioh, Radha Blank and Dominique Morrisseau “share their own experiences with insidious racism — sometimes subtle, other times blatantly cruel even amid the Black Lives Matter statements issuing forth industrywide.” – Los Angeles Times
San Francisco Will Give Shutdown-Affected Artists ‘Universal Basic Income’
“The policy, billed as the Basic Income Pilot for Artists, outlines details including directing almost $6 million in funding to arts organizations, artists, art teachers, and cultural workers, in addition to a Universal Basic Income program. Under the basic income, 130 artists will be selected to receive the [$1,000] monthly stipend for at least six months, beginning in early 2021.” – Artnet
Mahmoud Yassin, Star Of Egyptian Cinema’s Golden Age, Dead At 79
“[He] had over 150 films to his name, with diverse roles ranging from romantic to serious, and from emotionally disturbed to upbeat and patriotic. His films included several based on stories by renowned Egyptian novelists, such as Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz and Ihsan Abdel Quddous.” – AP
The Serious Calculations Behind Allowing Performances Right Now
“Serious,” of course, is a cheater word that adds latitude to any discussion. At what point does a risk cease to be manageable and become serious? Many Canadians, pummeled by tendentious headlines and frightened by news anchors who have mastered the art of sounding ominous, have come to believe that there is no such thing as a COVID risk that fails to meet this threshold. The statistics bear looking at. – Scena Musicale
Fans Still Waiting For Ticket Refunds From TicketMaster Venue
Ticketmaster’s exposure to refund claims is uncertain. The company tells its customers that it pays refunds for all canceled shows in about 30 days. But the coronavirus shutdown has dealt a severe economic blow to Ticketmaster and its corporate parent, Live Nation Entertainment; the company reported that its revenue for the second quarter this year dropped 98 percent from the same period in 2019. – The New York Times
Please Take These Artifacts Back, They’re Under A Curse! Says Canadian Who Stole Them From Pompeii
“The 36-year-old woman, who gave only her first name of Nicole, sent a hand-written confession and apology along with the stolen objects — which include parts of an amphora vase, mosaic tiles, and shards of ceramics — to a travel agent in southern Italy, who then passed them along to officials. … She goes on to explain that she associates her youthful indiscretion with a long run of bad luck, including two bouts of breast cancer, a double mastectomy, and ongoing financial issues.” – Artnet
The Foreign Language That Shaped India For Centuries Before English Arrived
Historian Richard M. Eaton argues that there are two languages whose epic literature, poetry, and corpus of law, ethics, and philosophy molded the civilization of the subcontinent and its peoples. The first, obviously, was Sanskrit. The second was, when it arrived, every bit as foreign as English and came to be used as widely and in similar ways. In fact, by the 19th century India had produced a major body of literature in this language, as well as far more dictionaries than its native country had. – Literary Hub