It’s a particularly stark reminder that no organization is purely good when money is the major organizing principle. The art and search for meaning that constitute the best expression of humanity will always be diluted here. In this case it’s cut by the worst expression of humanity, war. It’s also a stark reminder that people with blood on their hands will always have a chance to rehabilitate their image. – The Baffler
Tag: 12.27.18
The Smithsonian And National Zoo Will Be Shut Down In The New Year
All of the museums, and the National Zoo, will be closed as of January 2 because of the government shutdown. – NPR
Pittsburgh’s Mattress Factory Has Had A Truly Terrible 2018
Are things looking up at the contemporary art museum that lost its founder and saw labor complaints related to abuse by a staff member? Maybe. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A New Chapter On Restitution Of Plundered Art
All eyes are now on France. Despite the legal hurdles, restitutions are possible but only through a drawn-out process. President Macron’s decision earlier this month to return 26 plundered items to Benin “without delay” will have to be approved by parliament. Similarly, when the Muséum de Rouen discovered a “toi moko”—a tattooed head of an ancient Maori warrior—in its collection in 2011, restitution to New Zealand had to be approved by a special act of parliament, which took four years. – The Art Newspaper
Live-streaming Games Is The New Media Frontier
From a critical remove, streaming is a strangely liminal space, one not yet secure in its place in the media landscape. It’s a land of opportunity and nonsense, a media format beyond its Wild West stage yet not quite formed into something that can be subjected to mainstream media analysis. Streaming is a place for big-time, multi-million-dollar celebrities. It’s also a place where marginalized people form communities around games and people they love, where niche gaming communities like speedrunning can grow healthily. – Wired
The BBC’s Film Critics Show On TV Goes Bust
The BBC has promised to replace Film with another show, but the challenge is how do you cover movies for a BBC One audience? The problem the BBC has is that movie broadcasting has been subject to a populist online revolution.
John Waters Says All His Work Is Political (‘But I’d Never Say That!’)
Among the other things he says: “The National Brainiac, that’s what I really wish I could edit. Imagine me being the editor of a tabloid for intellectuals. Imagining hiding outside their apartments for bathing-suit pictures of Philip Roth.” (Also: “Sample sales are vicious.”) — ARTnews
How Our Brains Know Where We Are (Our GPS)
The recent marriage of neuroscience with the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence that have really strengthened this perspective. Work at this interface has shown that a brain that uses an absolute, invariant model of the world to model and negotiate changing environments requires more computational resources than one that uses relative information. – Nautilus
Actor-Director Hunter Foster, New Artistic Director Of Redhouse In Syracuse
The 49-year-old is a Broadway veteran, with leads in Urinetown and Little Shop of Horrors under his belt, but he didn’t start directing in earnest until five years ago, at Bucks County Playhouse, where he stayed on as artistic associate until this job came up. — The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)
Women Are Inventing Their Own Nashville Country Music
Even though the stranglehold of bro country has given way to various softer, smoother gestures, the men of the format still dominate terrestrial, satellite, and streaming playlists. But it’s not like country’s rising generation of women are content to keep following a prescribed promotional path that’s leading only to frustration and a sense of futility. I’ve found it illuminating to consider how the moves that Morris, Cam, Musgraves, and so many others are making count as artistic and professional survival strategies. – Slate