“One of the biggest criticisms of the Peak TV era is the phenomenon of Netflix Bloat. We’ve all constantly got so much good television to watch that we’ve become much less tolerant when serialised programmes take their foot off the . … But with an anthology series, you can just dip in and out.” Problem is, “by their very nature, anthologies are notoriously patchy affairs. Every episode requires a brand new idea, and good ideas are hard to come by.” — The Guardian
Tag: 11.29.18
Preserving The Literary History Of Embattled Kurdistan
A visit to the Zheen Archive Center in Sulaimani, where “two optimistic, broadminded brothers and an all-women team of crack manuscript preservationists are building a collection of books, manuscripts, and papers that have survived hundreds of years of language bans and the mass destruction of property” during Saddam Hussein’s anti-Kurdish pogroms and the attacks and occupations by ISIS. — The Believer
The Fraught Role(s) Of Native American Arts And Artists In Modern-Day America
“Native people frequently note that the word ‘art’ is virtually unknown in indigenous languages. Today, making a living as an artist is mediated by market forces with demands of its own. At stake are complex dynamics that weave together identity and culture with non-Native expectations about value based on authenticity. This inevitably involves stubborn stereotypes born from lack of knowledge. It also means that the Native artist, no matter the genre or medium, wittingly or unwittingly is cast in the role of educator.” — Los Angeles Times
Ask Six Directors To Chat For A Few Hours, And You Get A Wide-Ranging Discussion About Everything From Netflix To IPhones
Spike Lee says, “This is a good time to be a filmmaker … the more places that stream, they need product. They need people, they need young people. And it gives filmmakers an opportunity because there’s just more outlets.”
No One Saved Filmstruck, So Stop Celebrating
Indeed, this was all a master class in PR spin. “It’s difficult to not see the WarnerMedia item as anything other than a previously determined property-maximization plan, reframed as a response to bad press.”
Transforming The Image Of Blackness
Afro-surrealist artist – and Ferguson documentarian – Damon Davis says, “We need to be able to imagine the world as we want to see it. … It can’t solely be based on anger because you’ll burn out.”
How Did Producing And Consuming Get So Far Apart?
Most of us live in a state of general ignorance about our physical surroundings. It’s not our fault; centuries of technological sophistication and global commerce have distanced most of us from making physical things, and even from seeing or knowing how they are made. But the slow and pervasive separation of people from knowledge of the material world brings with it a serious problem.
An Artwork Powered By Visitor Biometrics. Any Concerns, People?
The Hirshhorn Museum has an artwork that is generated and powered by visitors’ fingerprints and heart rates. Cool, right? But what about the data collected by this piece? Are you willing to just “give” away your fingerprint?
Our Culture Is Built On Trust. But As That Trust Melts Away…
To understand the crisis liberal democracy faces today – whether we identify this primarily in terms of “populism” or “post-truth” – it’s not enough to simply bemoan the rising cynicism of the public. We need also to consider some of the reasons why trust has been withdrawn.
How Scientists Are Studying How We Respond To Music
Contemporary work on music perception embraces a variety of disciplines and methodologies, from anthropology to musicology to neuroscience, to try to understand the relationship between music and the human mind. Researchers use motion capture systems to record people’s movements as they dance, analyzing the gestures’ relationship to the accompanying sound. They use eye tracking to measure changes in infants’ attentiveness as musical features or contexts vary. They place electrodes on the scalp to measure changes in electrical activity, or use neuroimaging to make inferences about the neural processes that underlie diverse types of musical experiences, from jazz improvisation to trance-like states to simply feeling a beat.