How Archaeology Regards Layers And Order

Past use doesn’t determine what we mean by uttering a word on a particular occasion, but it does shape what a speaker can intend to get across. If I am being cooperative, and I intend to make a request that you pass something on the table, I won’t use a word I know you don’t know. To do so would be to violate a tacit commitment to a basic principle of cooperation, which Grice argues underpins all communication. – Psyche

Choreographing Differently-Abled Dancers

“The choreographies are designed for the functionally diverse artists so that they can demonstrate their artistic qualities. As I create, I physically put myself in their place (wheelchair, etc.), testing and experiencing the choreography. I search for innovative ways someone with restricted movement can achieve the same intention, such as hitting the floor with the wheelchair to create what would be the percussion of footwork. – Dance Magazine

Architecture Critic Wins Pennsylvania State Senate Seat

Nikil Saval — a Bernie Sanders–endorsed democratic socialist, former editor of the literary magazine n+1, New York Times contributor, author of Cubed: Secret History of the Workplace, and community organizer — is replacing Larry Farnese Jr. a Democrat who has been state senator since 2009. He is also the first Asian American to be elected to Pennsylvania’s senate. – Curbed

A Robot Choreographer Explains Why Her Job Is Necessary

Catie Cuan, currently working on a mechanical engineering Ph.D. at Stanford: “There are a number of studies that demonstrate that how something moves is even more important [to a user] than how it looks. … I have a set of tools and ethics and practices and skills that I bring to the table, which is ingrained through years of dance training. I can bring those to the application of design, interaction and control mechanisms for robots.” – Dance Magazine

D.C. Begins Pilot Program To Restart Live Theatre

While almost all performance venues in the District remain closed, the first company there to produce a play under new local COVID-safety protocols is GALA Hispanic Theatre, with a staging of Spanish Golden Age playwright Lope de Vega’s El perro del hortelano (“The Gardener’s Dog”, usually known in English as “The Dog in the Manger’). Thomas Floyd reports on how it’s working. – The Washington Post