For “collective effervescence” to occur organically, bodies need to be present, in the same space, dancing to the same rhythm. The function is to restore the social bonds and shared beliefs that are eroded by the drudgery of ordinary life. - The Guardian

More than 25,000 people are working at the site on any given day, building a design by Norman Foster, the celebrated British architect. The city is laid out in grids and includes about a five-mile stretch of government buildings. - The New York Times

Most discussions of AI and consciousness ask whether machines can experience anything. But maybe the real mystery is: If consciousness is not fundamentally related to higher cognition, then what kind of phenomenon is it? - Noema

In popular culture and pop psychology, crowds are often associated with strong emotions, excessive emotional expression and the uncritical spread of emotions. Commentators often link that crowd emotion in turn with uncontrolled behaviour and, in some cases, mindless violence. - Psyche

In both its depth and breadth, Hegel’s philosophy is perhaps rivalled only by that of Aristotle. - Psyche

Generalising comes so naturally that few of us are at any risk of undergeneralising, so we give it little thought. The focus on overgeneralising is understandable given its potential costs, such as the child assuming that a dangerous dog is just like the friendly dogs they’ve encountered to date. - Aeon

“In the heart of old Ljubljana, a mannequin with a bucket on its head welcomes visitors to a new and ambitious project – a museum focusing on the varied and sometimes antagonistic humour of the former Yugoslavia.” - The Guardian

“There are few words to describe the whiplash of coming face to face with a Joe & The Juice, a Sephora and a plethora of other shops and hotels and Times Square-style billboards after going through one of the most spiritually charged experiences of my life.” - Aeon

The news comes after the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation awarded the VIA a $2.5 million grant for the building project and the establishment of on-site arts programming. - Hyperallergic

University leaders are warning of financial turmoil in British higher education after new figures suggested a collapse in international student numbers would deprive the sector of vital income and undermine its future. - The Guardian

According to the resolution approved by the Trump-allied board, the inscription underneath the institution’s name would read: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.” - The New York Times

Events and related digital revenue are projected to account for half of Time's total revenue in 2026, up from 28% in 2023, the company confirmed to TheWrap. Time expects to hold 47 events this year, up from 11 in 2022. - The Wrap (MSN)

The oldest known brass instruments in existence are two smallish trumpets found inside the tomb of the boy pharaoh in 1922. Seventeen years later, for a live BBC broadcast from Cairo, a modern musician played one.  Bad idea. - CNN

BMG is the first significant rightsholder to ink a licensing deal with Suno since Warner Music Group announced an alliance with the AI company nine months ago. - MusicBusinessWorldwide

Scores are more available than ever: in multiple published editions, online in public domain collections, in libraries and elsewhere. But a manuscript, music written in a composer’s hand, has the almost magical power to make even the most distant giants feel near and alive. - The New York Times

They reveal that even as expenses ticked downward, donations fell 25 percent short of expectations last year, and that this year’s ticket revenue is on pace to earn about half of what the orchestra budgeted. - Washington Post

“The Mozarteum Foundation on July 15 unveiled 320 statuettes, barely … 20 inches high, showing Mozart with his dog. They were designed by German conceptual artist Ottmar Hörl. Within two weeks, more than 80 of the polymer figures had disappeared. By Wednesday, a total of 210 were missing.” - AP

The Strawberry Music Festival, held in the Sierra foothills near Nevada City in October, features American roots music of many types, including performances by major country stars. Co-founder Charlie Cran died suddenly in November, and his heirs, now the event’s owners, aren’t yet ready to present the festival properly. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

In Chicago, a lone statue of George Washington is now surrounded by “Other Washingtons,” which take the form of blue flags bearing the faces of Black Americans who bear the same last name. - CNN

Of international bodies, Unesco is active in keeping a record of the fate of cultural heritage worldwide, but a record is just a record. Its listing of Russia’s and Israel’s devastation of their hated foes is like watching a historic tragedy unfold in real time. - The Guardian

The Matisse illustrations, made for a limited-edition art book, were taken last December from the Biblioteca Mário de Andrade, where they were part of an exhibition presented jointly with the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art. Also stolen were five engravings by Brazilian artist Candido Portinari; they have not yet been located. - BBC

The Carabinieri have regained possession of Renoir’s “Fish,” Cézanne’s “Still Life with Cherries,” and Matisse’s “Odalisque on the Terrace,” which were stolen from the Magnani Rocca Foundation near Parma this past March. - AP

“Now, in service of an ideology that brooks no deviation from blind nationalism, Passport to Patriotism advances a shallow vision of U.S. identity with all the nuance of a propaganda reel and all the sophistication of the art project your first-grader brought home on Flag Day.” - Slate (MSN)

The affected sites include 196 arts education institutions, 141 museums and galleries, and historic sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Cultural institutions across 24% of Ukrainian territories and nearly half of the country’s community cultural centers have been damaged during Russia’s prolonged and deadly campaign. - Hyperallergic

“Until AI, there has been the expectation that no matter what is written in a book, It authored by a person, or people. There needs to be new terms in the social contract between reader and writer.” - Christian Science Monitor

Yes, Americans read less than they did forty years ago—not surprising, considering how many other forms of entertainment and information are competing for our time and attention. But does this spell decline or diversification? - The Bulwark

Like so many of us, I stopped writing letters as I spent more time online. But in the past few years, I’ve begun to see handwritten letters anew, as a form of resistance against the doom and disconnection of our digital lives. - Psyche

In fact, several editions of Homer’s epic have seen enormous increases in sales since Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation came out (with an additional boost for The Iliad), but none more than Wilson’s, which was briefly, last month, the second-bestselling title of any kind in the U.S. - Slate

“Last month, Penguin Random House India, working with Simon & Schuster India, Hay House, and a team of investigators, helped facilitate a police raid on two Delhi sites producing and storing pirated books. One was a full print-on-demand production line … and the other was a warehouse with more than 1,600 pirated copies.” -...

David Corn gave the Anthropic software a pleasantly meta seven-sentence plot summary as a prompt. Several minutes later, Claude produced a 6,000-word manuscript. Corn replied that that wasn’t novel-length, and Claude served up a narrative eight times as long. Corn: “I’ll cut to the chase: The novel isn’t so bad.” - Mother Jones

Looking across five major noncommercial formats — news/talk, contemporary Christian, classical, AAA (adult alternative) and jazz — RRC says combined cume across PPM and continuous diary measurement markets is 9.6% higher than it was two years ago at the end of Q1. - InsideRadio

That’s what Georgian filmmaker Uta Beria did with his latest feature, titled Tear Gas, filming amid demonstrations which have continued nonstop for more than 600 days. “We had a plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D,” says Beria. “And there were days where we needed to ... (simply) follow the flow.” - The...

"So that's how Ellison wants to prove that he will be a steward of (Hollywood's) flailing entertainment industry — by threatening to rip out a big part of its still-beating heart and implant it in Texas or Tennessee?" - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

“By threatening to leave the state because it doesn’t want the government to enforce the law, Paramount further proves the danger of its outsized power over the industry and what that will mean for writers and the creative community." - Deadline

If the art of filmmaking is inseparable from that of adaptation, it’s because almost all feature films are made by way of a fundamental form of adaptation: that of a script. - The New Yorker

“Choreographing a sea-witch straddling a man’s face until he suffocates (Widow’s Bay) is different from dramatizing the intimate moments of the 1990s’ most recognized celebrity couple (Love Story); both of those differ from creating the physical storytelling for almost every lead character across multiple sex scenes (Your Friends & Neighbors).” - Los Angeles Times...

Claire Salinda: “They finesse, they practice and pretend. And from their tinkering comes their version of right and good. ... It seems not so different from the fiddling I do in my own mirror … in an effort to more accurately portray who I wish to be perceived as that day.” - Los Angeles...

“The past year has seen an explosion of dance on the big screen. Behind some of (the) more technical sequences are dance doubles — professional dancers who step in for the actors and execute the choreography. But what does being a dance double actually entail? And how do performers book these roles?” - Dance...

“(For) this year’s NOW evening of world premieres at Vail Dance Festival, tap dancer/choreographer Michelle Dorrance … is creating a work with … Chelsea Hoy, co-artistic director of Chicago’s Trinity Irish Dance Company, for a cast that includes top New York City Ballet dancers” — who, says Dorrance, “are blowing everyone’s minds.” - Dance...

The drama which nearly derailed the company began in April 2024, when the company members voted to unionize and the then-executive director fired them en masse. That boss has now retired, the dismissed dancers moved on, and their successors — with no resistance from management — have joined AGMA. - The Dallas Morning News...

“A perusal of the archives shows how rich the Dance Division’s history has been, with a roster of teachers and students that reflects the arc of American dance in the 20th century. And the curriculum, a mix of ballet and modern dance, once seen as eccentric, now is the norm.” - The New York...

“In 1956, under the direction of Lew Christensen, SFB went to the Pillow with three programs featuring eight ballets by George Balanchine and Christensen himself. The performances were a tremendous success, and … helped propel SFB from regional significance to international renown.” Now, under Tamara Rojo, the company is back. - Pointe Magazine

The production, which had been scheduled for next February and March at Stratford-upon-Avon, is being postponed to a yet-to-be-announced date while the 60-year-old Clarke undergoes treatment for cancer. - The Guardian

“The comedians behind some thoughtful shows (this year) are exploring the vexed problem with a mixture of droll wit and intuitive wisdom." One of them created an AI replica of himself and interacts with it onstage; another recounts how he became convinced AI software was deliberately sabotaging his career. - The New York Times

This past season saw only six new musicals, the fewest in 25 years; the coming season will have at least eight, roughly the post-COVID normal. The shows have eight-figure budgets, and some have music by superstars (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dolly Parton, Prince), while others have familiar IP (Paddington, Benjamin Button, Black Swan.) - Broadway Journal

“When a show becomes a meme, the meme becomes the story, eclipsing the show itself. This phenomenon is here to stay. Thankfully, we’ll always have satire.” - The New York Times

Cell phones are the least of it. Yes, of course they occasionally find people having sex in the auditorium or restrooms, but they've encountered things even worse. - The Guardian

ATG Entertainment (originally Ambassador Theatre Group) owns seven Broadway houses, ten London venues, numerous theatres in Europe, and the discount app TodayTix. Now Emanuel’s company Mari, which owns Frieze art fairs and two large pro tennis tournaments, has agreed to acquire ATG for a rumored $6 billion. - The Hollywood Reporter

Admired for both beauty of voice and acting skill, she was also notably brave, handling boa constrictors as Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, appearing briefly topless at Covent Garden in Tippett’s The Knot Garden, and simulating oral sex as the Duchess of Argyll in Adès’s Powder Her Face. - The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)

“That I’ve been able to have this career, doing what I want, for sixty years. Hollywood’s been fair to me. I was always understood, I always had an audience. … I have more jobs than I’ve ever had in my life, so I’m not looking for a new one.” - The Hollywood Reporter

The renowned actor has played piano his whole life, and formally written music for at least 30 years, but it might still surprise many to learn that later this month Hopkins will release his debut album, "Life Is a Dream," on Decca Classics. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

She began her career as a singer, then became a promoter and impresario. She co-founded what started as a 1974 Duke Ellington tribute and, in 1979, became the Chicago Jazz Festival. She then created another event, which started in 1981 as the South Shore Jazz Fest and became JazzFest Heritage Weekend. - Chicago Sun-Times

After having memory issues while rehearsing a production at Chichester Festival Theatre earlier this year, the revered star is stepping away from full-scale work. She will continue giving performances of a two-person show which she’s been doing for many years and will do a short Beckett play next year. - The Times (UK)

“The actress Laura Linney, who graduated from Juilliard in 1990, was confused when Ms. Smith stared at the floor during her entire audition. ‘She wasn’t looking, she was listening,’ to Ms. Linney’s voice, the actress said.” - The New York Times