The New Mind-Reading Machines Are we really on the verge of inventing machines that will bee able to tell what you're thinking? "So far, it has only been used to identify visual patterns a subject can see or has chosen to focus on. But the researchers speculate the approach might be extended to probe a person’s awareness, focus of attention, memory and movement intention. In the meantime, it could help doctors work out if patients apparently in a coma are actually conscious." New Scientist 04/26/05
Posted: 04/26/2005 4:24 pm
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D.C. Museum Eliminates Guided Tours For Small Fry The National Gallery of Art is suspending its guided tours for groups of schoolchildren, and "reevaluating" its entire educational focus. The move won't save a lot of money, since the guided tours were given by volunteer docents, but museum officials had noted a sharp downturn in the number of students participating in the guided tours, and an uptick in the number of children wandering the museum on their own. Washington Post 04/27/05
Posted: 04/27/2005 6:23 am
Chicago's Art War This weekend, Chicago's annual art fair kicks off. And so does Chicago's other annual art fair. Oh, and the other one, too. In fact, the heated competition between two established fairs and one new upstart is garnering international attention, as lawsuits are filed, dates are juggled, and trash is talked. It's a full-fledged art war, and while no one seems to be sure whether such a thing is actually good for art, it's damned entertaining to watch. Chicago Sun-Times 04/27/05
Posted: 04/27/2005 5:42 am
Browsing A Globe's Worth Of Street Art "Not everybody can stroll the streets of Melbourne, Baghdad or Vilnius, Lithuania, looking for street art, but one website lets everybody do so virtually, by bringing international images of spray paintings, stickers, stencils and more to the masses. Known as the Wooster Collective, the New York City-based site houses an array of graffiti and street art from around the world. Artists and camera-happy passersby send in photos of their works and sightings, and site creators put them up in blog-style postings that ensure the pictures take center stage." Wired 04/27/05
Posted: 04/27/2005 5:26 am
Krens: Conquering The World, Guggenheim-Style Despite a showdown with his museum's biggest benefactor several months ago, Guggenheim Museum director Thomas Krens hasn't ratcheted down his ambitious plans. "The key to his business plan is hiring big-name architects to design buildings that will become tourist destinations in themselves, like the Guggenheim's Frank Lloyd Wright building on Fifth Avenue or its Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain. And though the museum's new leaders express caution about the budget, they share Mr. Krens's vision." The New York Times 04/27/05
Posted: 04/26/2005 6:16 pm
Mackie Wins Beck's Christina Mackie has won this year's Beck's Futures Prize for her sulpture and media installation. Mackie beat five other artists - Donald Urquhart, Luke Fowler, Ryan Gander, Lali Chetwynd and Daria Martin. BBC 04/26/05
Posted: 04/26/2005 3:47 pm
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After A False Start, Cleveland Back At The Proms One year after an embarrassing cancellation, the Cleveland Orchestra is returning to the BBC Proms festival this summer for the first time in eleven years. The orchestra's musicians forced last summer's cancellation when they refused to allow the BBC to stream online audio from their scheduled concert without additional payment. But since then, the musicians have negotiated a new contract which allows their management to grant such streaming rights to presenters. Music director Franz Welser-Möst will conduct the performance, which will take place in late August. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 04/27/05
Posted: 04/27/2005 6:12 am
Music & Art, Scratching Each Other's Backs Four years ago, Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Arts Festival decided that it needed more than just art to draw in the public, and launched a carefully tailored music component designed to dovetail with its existing visual art base. So far, it's been a winning scenario for everyone involved: since the performances, which take place in the midst of the art fair, are free, crowds are far bigger than they would be at a stand-alone show with an admission charge; and the guest performers bring in people who otherwise might not think to attend an art fest. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 04/27/05
Posted: 04/27/2005 6:04 am
Philly Orch To Record Again The Philadelphia Orchestra has signed with the Finnish recording label Ondine, giving it a commercial recording agreement for the first time in nearly a decade, and making it the only ensemble in the so-called "Big Five" of American orchestras to have such a contract. In signing on to the deal, the orchestra's musicians agreed to buck the national, union-negotiated recording agreements previously adhered to by all U.S. orchestras, and forego upfront payments in favor of a revenue sharing agreement, a provision of the deal which is already very controversial among other professional orchestras. Philadelphia Inquirer 04/27/05
Posted: 04/27/2005 5:03 am
Record Price For A Musical Instrument A bidder paid a record $2 million for musical instrument Friday, buying the "Lady Tennant" Stradivarious. "Made when Antonio Stradivari was 55 years old, the violin earned its name from one of its former owners – the wife of Scottish industrialist Sir Charles Tennant, who was given the instrument by her husband in 1900. The earliest known owner of the violin was the French player Charles Philippe Lafont, a contemporary of Nicolo Paganini." Gramophone 04/26/05
Posted: 04/26/2005 4:32 pm
Scottish Opera Loses Another Official Christopher Barron, chief executive of Scottish Opera, has become the third major executive to leave Scottish Opera. "Barron has been joint chief executive of both Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet since 2000. However, the two boards were split last year after the opera’s escalating debts forced a restructuring deal on the company, making Barron’s dual position untenable. His departure, which had been widely speculated for some time, follows that of chairman Duncan McGhie, who stepped down in July 2004, and music director Richard Armstrong, who announced in December that he would leave in the summer." The Stage (UK) 04/26/05
Posted: 04/26/2005 4:07 pm
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Call To Arms: Protect Culture From Attack Britain's cultural institutions have to take a stronger stand to resist attacks on culture says a prominent theatre manager. “When something from outside comes to threaten the existence of a particular piece of work, what is the function of the arts council? Its remit to protect the arts comes into profile.” The Stage (UK) 04/26/05
Posted: 04/26/2005 4:12 pm
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Boston Theatre Shuns Touring Shows, Hopes For Profit "Reeling from box-office losses, a downturn in theater attendance across the country, and unprecedented competition from Clear Channel Entertainment, [Boston's] Wang Center for the Performing Arts will revamp its mission and programs next season... Instead of relying on touring Broadway musicals to anchor its season, the nonprofit Wang will produce or coproduce its own shows, with an emphasis on 'event musicals' and family entertainment." Boston Globe 04/27/05
Posted: 04/27/2005 5:38 am
August Wilson Completes His 100 Years Twenty years in the writing, playwright August Wilson's 10-play tour through 100 years of American history gets its capstone this week with a production of "Radio Golf" at the Yale Repertory Theatre. The New York Times 04/27/05
Posted: 04/26/2005 6:20 pm
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Who Knew? Great Libraries Draw Readers Two bright new library buildings in the UK are proving very popular. "In a development watched with envy by library authorities across the country, visitor numbers have soared at the new libraries in Gosport, Hampshire, and Brighton, East Sussex. Book borrowing has gone up too. The pattern supports the official view that the decline in library use is the result of financial neglect rather than an inexorable flight from reading." The Guardian (UK) 04/23/05
Posted: 04/26/2005 5:54 pm
Harper Collins Sees a Down Year Publisher Harper Collins reports a 30 percent drop in profits. "The firm was hit by Sean Connery's decision last month to scrap plans for an autobiography, and it has also been plagued by rumours of in-fighting among executives, which it strongly denies. Operating profits were down from £15.4 million to £10.7m in the year to June 2004, according to accounts published last week. Turnover was down slightly at £165.5m." The Guardian (UK) 04/24/05
Posted: 04/26/2005 5:47 pm
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French Court Slaps Down DVD Copy Protection "A French court has ordered DVD vendors to pull copies of the David Lynch film Mulholland Drive off store shelves as part of an unprecedented ruling against copy prevention techniques. The appeals court ruled Friday that copy prevention software on the DVD violated privacy rights in the case of one consumer who had tried to transfer the film onto a video cassette for personal use. The ruling could be a major setback for the DVD industry, which places lock software on disks as part of its battle against piracy. The industry blames illegal copying for millions of dollars in lost revenues each year." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (AP) 04/27/05
Posted: 04/27/2005 6:08 am
Sounds An Awful Lot Like Public Access TV Technophiles have been saying for months now that "podcasting" - the do-it-yourself method of creating downloadable audio shows - will eclipse traditional radio, and a low-rated San Francisco station apparently believes the hype. KYCY-AM will shortly be converting its format from all-talk to do-it-yourself, giving a traditional broadcast outlet to podcasters across the globe. The station manager calls the "open source radio" idea a low-risk format, though it likely won't bring in big advertising dollars at first. Wired 04/27/05
Posted: 04/27/2005 5:20 am
A Screen Sex Taboo Falls "When, if ever, will an erotic film not marketed as pornography show a man and a woman enjoying spontaneous, passionate full-frontal sex? With the appearance of Michael Winterbottom's "9 Songs," the answer is now." The New York Times 04/27/05
Posted: 04/26/2005 6:25 pm
Toronto Film Center Gets $25 Million The Canadian government has committed $25 million toward a new Film Center for the Toronto International Film Festival. "Tuesday's announcement brings the total amount raised to $94.7 million to date. However, organizers still have a long way to go before a groundbreaking ceremony – expected for next spring. The campaign goal is to raise $196 million, designated to pay for capital funding, the creation of an endowment fund and ongoing operational costs." CBC 04/26/05
Posted: 04/26/2005 3:54 pm
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