An Alternative History Of The Mythologies Of Silicon Valley
It is only now, a decade after the financial crisis, that the American public seems to appreciate that what we thought was disruption worked more like extraction—of our data, our attention, our time, our creativity, our content, our DNA, our homes, our cities, our relationships. The tech visionaries’ predictions did not usher us into the future, but rather a future where they are kings. … Read More
Opera Philadelphia’s Bet On The Future Of Opera (And What’s Fueling It)
A costly experiment? Surely, since box office revenue in these spaces is small relative to cost of production. Without philanthropic support, the project would be untenable. What Opera Philadelphia is discovering is that there are donors particularly anxious to invest in the future … Read More
A Fascinating Test: An Algorithm That Can Predict Artistic Success?
The idea is simple. Within these algorithms, notes are treated like the DNA of music. It all starts with an initial population of ‘songs’– each a random jumble of notes stitched together. Over many generations, the algorithm breeds from the songs, finding and rewarding ‘beautiful’ features within the music to breed ‘better’ and ‘better’ compositions as time goes on. I say ‘beautiful’ and ‘better’, but – of course – as we already know, there’s no way to decide what either of those words mean definitively. The algorithm can create poems and paintings as well as music, but – still – all it has to go on is a measure of similarity to whatever has gone before. … Read More
The Art Of Defining What’s Offensive
What makes something offensive is that it presents an unwelcome viewpoint that creates discomfort, bruises egos, and hurts feelings. When people take offence, they are trying to silence those who offend them. Call this concept of offence offence-as-hurt. The main theoretical counter to this view is to argue that offence is not about ‘hurt feelings’, but about real harm. … Read More
Is American Ballet Theatre Trying To Do Too Much? (And Not Enough?)
Alastair Macaulay: "How many admirable policies can any company honor at one time? Currently it looks as if Ballet Theater has discarded Fokine, Ashton, Tudor, and — a big departure — the international stars from its scheduling. And who can notice Ballet Theater’s admirable purity of classical style? Its too-many-cooks approach to ballet obscures that." … Read More
How Alexa Will Change How We See The World
For the moment, these machines remain at the dawn of their potential, as likely to botch your request as they are to fulfill it. But as smart-speaker sales soar, computing power is also expanding exponentially. Within our lifetimes, these devices will likely become much more adroit conversationalists. By the time they do, they will have fully insinuated themselves into our lives. With their perfect cloud-based memories, they will be omniscient; with their occupation of our most intimate spaces, they’ll be omnipresent. And with their eerie ability to elicit confessions, they could acquire a remarkable power over our emotional lives. What will that be like? … Read More
Trump Tower Sues Estate Of Art Dealer Who Died In Fire
The Trump Organization has filed a lawsuit seeking $90,000 in unpaid common charges and fees from a Trump Tower resident– six months after he died in a fire that engulfed his Fifth Avenue apartment. Trump Tower did not have sprinkler system that might have put out the blaze … Read More
Fewer People In Their 20s Are Working. Could It Be Cheap Entertainment Has Captured Them?
Over the past few decades, labor force participation has sharply dropped for men ages 20-34. Theories about the root cause range from indolence, to a lack of skills and training, to offshoring, to (perhaps most interestingly) the increasing attractiveness and availability of leisure and media entertainment. In this essay, we propose that the drop in labor participation rate of young men is a result of a combination of factors: (i) a decrease in cost of access to media entertainment leisure, (ii) increases in both the availability and (iii) quality media entertainment leisure, and (iv) a decrease in the marginal signalling utility of (conspicuous) consumption goods for all but the highest earners. … Read More
Soon It Won’t Be Possible To Spot Fakes – Video, Pictures, Sound… (And Then What?)
We’re rapidly approaching a point where actors will have a new source of revenue. Sooner than later, instead of offering Robert Downey, Jr. $50 million to play Iron Man, the movie studio will offer him a nominal licensing fee to use his likeness applied to an anonymous actor. Sound crazy? As technology improves (and it is improving at an exponential pace), it will become harder for us to discern what is real and what is fake. … Read More
How Richard Florida’s “Creative Class” Was The Wrong Prescription
Florida’s central aim, as I read it, was to have cities and states rethink industrial policy—but not by ignoring housing, transportation, health policies and other important aspects of running large cities. Rather, I read it as forcing a serious look into the economic consequences of cultural spaces. Sadly, his book and corresponding creative class thesis gave many urban policy professionals the cover to give up on the constellation of policies and remedies aimed at decreasing inequality, and widen the wealth gap. … Read More
On The Reservation, The Art Bus That Comes To You
On South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, a substantial number of Native households earn income by creating and selling art. But many of these residents lack access to the transportation and financing that would enable them to market and grow their businesses. So - the Rolling Rez, a mobile art bus that travels... … Read More
Philadelphia Remembers Gerry Lenfest As One Of America’s Great Philanthropists
In a span just shy of two decades, they gave away more than $1.3 billion to charity — money spent on expansions at the Curtis Institute of Music and Philadelphia Museum of Art, to substantially fund the creation of the Museum of the American Revolution, for college scholarships to students in rural Pennsylvania, to fund hospitals, literacy programs, and nature preserves, and on and on. Wednesday's three-hour-plus tribute offered seemingly no end of testimony to their generosity, a montage of institutions transformed and individual lives changed. … Read More
Inside Disney’s Super-Secret Vault
OK, it's not actually super-secret, and it's not a vault - it's the Walt Disney Animation Research Library, "a silent, temperature-controlled labyrinth that underlines Disney’s zealous protection of its past and huge ambitions for its future." … Read More
LA’s Literary Community Furious About LA Public Library Actions In Popular Program
The Los Angeles Library Foundation on Wednesday announced the hiring of a new programming director, weeks after the organization became enmeshed in a controversy over the firings of two previous longtime directors at the library, Louise Steinman and Maureen Moore. … Read More
British Theatre ‘At Risk’ After Years Of Neglect Is Damaged More By Arson
The Burnley Empire Theatre is on the list of Theatres At Risk in the UK, and might be moving up from its spot at 14th after the fire. But it's not alone, says an adviser at the Theatres Trust: "Heritage crime is a blight on the historic buildings in the UK and unfortunately it is all too common for empty theatres to be attacked in this way." … Read More
Premium Classifieds
President & CEO, Tennessee Performing Arts Center
The board of Tennessee Performing Arts Center Management Corporation seeks a visionary and entrepreneurial President & CEO to guide the board in making the most important strategic decisions about … [Read More]
Master’s in Arts Management in NYC – for Active Performing Artists
The New School's MA in Arts Management & Entrepreneurship is designed for active performing artists seeking the business skills, strategies & inspiration to drive new careers in arts … [Read More]
Spoleto Festival USA – Director of Finance / Chief Financial Officer
Spoleto Festival USA, internationally recognized as America’s premier performing arts festival, seeks a Director of Finance to oversee an approximately $8 million operating budget, $16 million … [Read More]
Director of Development, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center seeks an exceptional Director of Development, a key executive position, to join the organization at an exciting time of institutional accomplishment and … [Read More]
Director of Development
Music of the Baroque, one of Chicago's most respected chorus and orchestras, seeks a Director of Development to help deliver its ambitious plans up to and beyond its 50th anniversary in the 2020-21 … [Read More]
Getty Leadership Institute – Executive Education for Museum Leaders
The Getty Leadership Institute is now accepting applications for 2019 programs. GLI is celebrating 40 years of empowering museum leaders to advance their institutions and the field. GLI … [Read More]
Assistant Arts Professor of Dance History
New York University/ Tisch School of the Arts Department of Dance seeks to fill a full-time Assistant Arts Professor position in Dance History to begin in Fall 2019. This is a multiyear, non-tenure … [Read More]
How Is Country Music Dealing With Its Own Me Too Movement?
Hm. Not that well. "While there have been conversations behind closed doors about certain gatekeepers ... there hasn’t been a tipping point like what’s happened in Hollywood with Weinstein. As one singer told Rolling Stone during an investigation that looked at harassment in country radio, 'Nashville is a town of subtleties. Everything is covered by a friendly gauze.'" … [Read More]
Turns Out Television Is A Hotbed Of Immigrant Stereotypes
A new study from USC Annenberg says that "immigrant characters on television are still underrepresented and largely one-dimensional." … [Read More]
The Moment When Poetry And Punk Collided
The day that Patti Smith and Sam Shepard met, she didn't even know his real name (nor did she for a very long time afterward), but their meeting changed theatre, poetry, and punk. … [Read More]
Are Movie Theatres Back?
Maybe! "The U.S. box office has made roughly $9.3 billion in 2018 so far, nearly a 9% increase from last year." (And it's not all from Black Panther.) … [Read More]
What Books Have Made Poet Danez Smith Into The Artist He Is?
The British poet says that "Patricia Smith’s Blood Dazzler teaches me what a book of poetry can look like. In form, heart, focus and humility it’s everything I hope to give to the reader. Smith is the greatest living poet. Every book is better than the last." … [Read More]
Blumhouse Dominates The (Scary) Movies, And Now It Wants To Take On TV
Low-budget horror movies have made Blumhouse an awful lot of money. Can its film formula work in a much more crowded TV market? If they do, it won't be because of jump scares. "Blumhouse executives explained that only 20 percent of the studio’s television projects will be traditional horror fare." … [Read More]
Why Did Sesame Street, Such A Happy Show, Want To Feature A Grump Like Oscar The Grouch?
It's all thanks to a cab driver from the Bronx, who drove Muppeteer Carol Spinney to his first meeting with Jim Henson. … [Read More]
This Is What Germans, Watching Brexit, Are Thinking About Great Britain
Whew: "If you act like you are the center of the world, you should actually be the center, or something close to it. As things currently stand, though, the British soon won't even be within shouting distance of the center of Europe. The United Kingdom is currently demonstrating how a country can make a fool of itself before the eyes of the entire world." … [Read More]
What’s The Artistic Moment We’re Living Through?
Hysterical surrealism. Heck, there's a whole subgenre of foreclosure art. And then there are movies like Sorry to Bother You. "The register is manic horror-comedy rather than depressively dystopian. I’ve noticed the same tone in other works, including contemporary poetry about inequality and market ruin." … [Read More]
The Sociologist-Poet Whose Artistic Career Just Blasted Into The Stratosphere, With A Lift From Marvel Comics
Eve Ewing has had quite the year, with a book of poetry, a play co-authored with Gwendolyn Brooks, and then a new work of sociology coming out this week. But then there's Marvel. "In August, Dr. Ewing caused minor pandemonium on the internet when she announced that she had been hired to write Ironheart, the first solo title featuring its character Riri Williams, black girl genius from Chicago." … [Read More]