With the Internet of Things, and more broadly the layering of networked computers into every interaction, the function of almost anything, or the availability of any service, can be made contingent on the provider and the customer keeping a good relationship, subject to terms of service set unilaterally, revocable at will. - Commonplace

Now that so many of us say that we mistrust or distrust things like Big Pharma and the government, we need to think about what the consequences of a breakdown in institutional trust would be. - Psyche

What A.I. imperils is not human creativity itself but the ability to make a living from creative endeavor. - The New York Times

Whether it’s thanks to Gen-Z or thanks to a (terrifying) nonstop surveillance state intertwined with our televisions and speakers, CDs and DVDs are making a comeback. - Washington Post (Yahoo)

The group Operation Bluebird claims Elon Musk’s X has legally abandoned Twitter (not to mention the word “tweet”), and wants to relaunch. If you “reserve your handle" at twitter dot new, you’ll even see a surprise hashtag. - Ars Technica

The rewriters who didn’t get a credit: “The way that Writers Guild arbitration process works is that if you arbitrate for credit and you don’t get credit, the Writers Guild forbids what they call compensatory credit. … Jim Carrey’s dentist has a credit on this movie, and we don’t.” - Vulture

As the world becomes more digital, more "optimized", and more isolated, the value of embodied, shared, human experience increases, not decreases. And we’re already seeing the backlash begin. - Blair Russell

While the heyday of technology gurus, developer ninjas, SEO rockstars and at least one digital prophet have long since passed, calling salaried communications professionals “storytellers” and the practice of storytelling appears to only have picked up in popularity. -The Wall Street Journal

“The judgement means that Pussy Riot’s activities are now banned in Russia. Any individual or organization found to be supporting the group’s actions or social media posts could also face prosecution following the decision.” - ARTnews

The Hodge Report, as it’s called, recommends that the agency, Arts Council England, not be abolished but that its procedures and strategy need thorough reform. Among the major recommendations are streamlining the excessive paperwork required from applicants, eliminating the controversial “Let’s Create” strategy, and devolving much grantmaking to the regional level. - The Guardian

Combining, after a fashion, its two main businesses, greeting cards and television, the company has begun offering branded cruises and seasonal theme parks — and customers are responding very positively so far. - The Hollywood Reporter

“It remains to be seen whether rebuilding churches and mosques will encourage social cohesion and religious peace in a still-fractured society. There are fewer than 70 Christian families living in Mosul, down from a pre-2014 population of 50,000.” - The Art Newspaper

It found that 87% of artists have incorporated AI into at least one part of their process. AI is powering a new era of self-sufficient artists. Artists are beginning to write, produce and promote their work at a level previously only achievable with a team around them. - Hypebot

Gabriela Lena Frank was named Composer of the Year; Jakub Hrůša, music director of London’s Royal Opera and music director-designate of the Czech Philharmonic, is Conductor of the Year; bass-baritone Gerald Finley is Vocalist of the Year; and San Diego Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer is Impresario of the Year. - Musical America

While the company broadened both its repertoire and its audience during Sharon’s six years as artistic director (he departs at the end of this season), he and the board have agreed that, at this time, the company simply doesn’t have the money to realize his creative ambitions. - Detroit Free Press (MSN)

“The San Antonio Philharmonic is planning regular concerts at the Scottish Rite (Cathedral and Auditorium), despite the cancelation of holiday events and reports the group has been given an eviction notice to vacate the premises.” - San Antonio Report

The world is now witnessing a renewed investment in large-scale cultural venues that aim to restore music’s physical and communal dimensions. These projects attempt to reframe the basic act of listening, not through screens, but in a space shared by hundreds or thousands of people. - YNet News

Spotify observes “the first big jump” in holiday-song streaming on Sept. 1, she noted. Activity ticks up again the next month; holiday playlist creation in the U.S. rose 60% from October 2024 to October 2025. Come November, for many listeners, it’s “all Christmas music all the time.” - The Wall Street Journal

Sellers tracking the market downturn started slapping lower price-tags on their pieces as well, which stoked momentum in the second half of the year. Overall, Sotheby’s and Christie’s sales topped $13.2 billion in 2025, up from $11.7 billion the year before. - The Wall Street Journal

In Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, a bumper crop of lavishly funded art and history museums is growing. They’re largely designed by foreign architects and, at least for now, developed and run by foreign consultants. Is enough local talent being trained to take over in the future? - Artnet

Small museums, looking to raise their profiles and educate the masses, are turning their paintings, sculptures and tapestries into the unlikely stars of TikTok microdramas. - The Wall Street Journal

“The National Museum of Libya – housing Africa’s greatest collection of classical antiquities in Tripoli’s historic Red Castle complex – had been closed for nearly 14 years due to the civil war that followed the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s downfall.” - The Guardian

There is another way of looking at the shake-ups and shutdowns that have defined the art trade in 2025. Instead of a collapse, the process might better be thought of as the right-sizing of an industry where collectors were not alone in making big speculative bets on enormous growth that simply did not materialise....

Guerrero said the biennial—which is the longest-running survey of contemporary art in the US—will interrogate themes such as kinship and infrastructure to try and shed light on how artists connect with the world, but also sometimes reject it. The event will also question the US’s role in global affairs. - ARTnews

The organization announced on December 1 that it intends to phase out all public programming, beginning with the discontinuation of its Forms & Features workshops and Library Book Club in the new year. A more recent statement stressed that the Foundation is transitioning into a grantmaking organization. - Publishers Weekly

Whereas the modernists and postmodernists tended to use low culture as a vast reserve of references, tropes, and stock characters to be deployed as needed within the novel-as-polyvocal-assemblage, our recent crop of “genre-benders” instead work from within the given structures of genre plots, out of which they develop more traditional “literary” elements. - LA Review of...

Kasey Meehan, director of the Freedom to Read program at free-expression advocacy group PEN America, said Randolph County’s decision to dissolve its library board is among the most severe penalties she has seen in response to a controversial book. - Washington Post

“’It’s such an illustrative word,’ said Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster’s president. ... ‘It’s part of a transformative technology, AI, and it’s something that people have found fascinating, annoying and a little bit ridiculous.’” - AP

Around 15 percent of all the reference questions received by her staff are written by generative AI, some of which include imaginary citations and sources. This increased burden placed on librarians and institutions is so bad that even organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross are putting people on notice about the...

“It’s only a matter of time before we are able to build models that generalize better from less data in a way that is more creative.” - Wired

With the rejection official, Paramount will need to persuade WBD shareholders to tender their shares at that price, or to submit a higher bid than its $108 billion offer that would shift the outcome of the dealmaking. - The Hollywood Reporter

“For Warner, what was missing was a clear declaration from Paramount that the Ellison family” — Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison and his father, tech mogul Larry Ellison — “had agreed to commit funding for the deal.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

You couldn’t avoid the irony: The drama for how traditional Hollywood will be devoured is now as entertaining as anything Hollywood could ever come up with. - The Hollywood Reporter

The AI had taken elements of similar recipes from multiple creators and Frankensteined them into something barely recognizable. In one memorable case, the Google AI failed to distinguish the satirical website the Onion from legitimate recipe sites and advised users to cook with non-toxic glue. - The Guardian

“It takes place in the dead of winter, ... when the awards season race … is nearly over. Perhaps as a result, the festival has, in recent years, been somewhat overshadowed by its sister events (in Cannes and Venice). A new director, Tricia Tuttle, is trying to change things.” - The New York Times

“The US president alleged the broadcaster 'intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively' edited his 6 January speech before the insurrection, in an episode of Panorama just over a year ago.” He is seeking $5 billion for defamation and $5 billion for violating Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. - The Guardian

“Having worked with the Ballets Russes, most notably with Vaslav Nijinsky …, Marie Rambert became a pioneer in British ballet: setting up a ballet school, and then establishing her own company, the first in the UK, Ballet Rambert, which she led for 40 years after its founding in 1926.” - Bachtrack

“Average seat occupancy is 97 percent, among the highest in Europe. … Now with confidence in its survival skills” — and an adept, energetic director — “the ballet company is eager to raise its profile from a company of regional importance to one that can rank among Europe’s best.” - The New York Times

The magazine, called something else earlier, has been around since before the Great Depression. In the 1960s, though, "dance emerged as a potent form of political expression.” - Dance Magazine

“(LA)HORDE is a choreographic collective running the National Ballet of Marseille and rewriting the ballet rulebook for a new era. Their work blends classical techniques with surprising influences, from queer nightlife to the political history of social dance.” - BBC (video)

Pittsburgh’s production has evolved its own traditions and superstitions. During some performances, performers pass a Heinz ketchup packet while onstage, like a hot potato. Whoever has it at the end loses. Another tradition: Dancers owe a dollar for every mistake. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The National Ballet of Canada’s costumes, designed by Broadway mainstay Santo Loquasto, have absorbed a lot of wear, tear, and sweat over three decades. Here wardrobe chief Stacy Dimitropoulos, resident cutter Chris Read, and several company dancers talk about costume care and maintenance. - Toronto Life

One could say that they just put an actor in a bear suit, but it really isn’t that simple. There’s some real theatrical magic at work. - The New York Times

Drawing on data from 92 Australian performing arts organisations with annual turnovers of between $250,000 and $4 million, the survey charts the persistently lagging salaries of small-to-medium arts company employees – even in roles that enjoyed healthy increases over the past two years. - ArtsHub

“Liberation” was the only clear-cut consensus choice among the professional critics, as you’ll see below. - New York Theatre

A Céline Dion jukebox musical dressed up as a spoof of James Cameron’s blockbuster movie retold from the pop diva’s point of view, Titanique ran for three years Off-Broadway and has since been staged on four continents. The show can head to Broadway thanks to the early closing of The Queen of Versailles. -...

One way is by, let’s say, not being intense with their audiences. “My first covenant is with the audience, and I care about what they think. … People don’t want to spend money on a show they don’t think they’re going to like.” - The New York Times

“I embarked on this endeavor, partly fueled by a desire to bring to life onstage a sense of lives caught between the certainties of the past and the unknowable future. I wanted theatergoers to ponder the possibilities of each present moment.” - The New York Times

In the 1960s, he was producer and then host of flagship arts magazine Monitor before supervising all music and arts programming. He co-founded London Weekend Television, then hosted ITV’s first major arts program, Aquarius. In the mid-1970s, he returned to the BBC, presiding over a golden age of arts on television. - The Telegraph...

Now 32 and being held without bail as a suspect in the murder of his parents, Nick was 15 when he entered drug rehab for the first time. He see-sawed between attempts at recovery and relapses with heroin and cocaine ever since. - The New York Times

Reiner was “a writer, director, producer, actor and political activist whose career in Hollywood spanned more than six decades and included some of the most iconic titles in movie history,” and a political activist who "emerged as a force in California politics.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

News broke late Sunday night that "the Los Angeles Police Department said it was investigating an ‘apparent homicide’ at the couple’s home in West Los Angeles.” - The New York Times

“He has outlived mentors, co-stars, romantic partners and several studios. He’s even outlived the jokes about his performance in Mary Poppins. These days his mangled cockney accent is regarded with more fondness than contempt.” - The Guardian (UK)

“The works under her pen name came to define Ms. Wickham’s career. She wrote nine Shopaholic novels, which sold tens of millions of copies and were translated into dozens of languages.” The writer announced a glioblastoma diagnosis in an Instagram post in 2024. - The New York Times