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A defense of the proscenium arch is a defense of limits. Dominic Dromgoole calls the old box “liberatingly restrictive” — a form like the sonnet or the 12-bar blues, the frame Chekhov and Brecht needed something to push against (The Guardian). Two stories show what happens when a limit goes. Live Auto-Tune is now a routine stage instrument, no longer a confession (The New York Times), and in China AI video generation is already cranking out the smartphone micro-dramas Hollywood keeps warning itself about (Los Angeles Times). Removing a constraint isn’t removing a form. The question is which form replaces it — see Jill Lepore’s tech billionaires, who read science fiction as blueprint rather than warning (The Atlantic).
The Smithsonian’s frame is being redrawn from outside. Lonnie Bunch’s resignation opens the first secretary search that starts with the White House already dictating what the exhibits should say (Washington Post) — while the institution puts up a 9/11 exhibit Congress ordered it to build, for an administration that accuses it of distorting history (Washington Post). Quieter but structural: Operabase, the scheduling backbone the entire opera industry runs on, has been sold to an events company (The Violin Channel). Shared infrastructure is now somebody’s product.
France reports the Bayeux Tapestry lost two threads out of 70 meters on its way to London (Le Monde).
All of our stories below.