AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- “Enslurrification” — How Culture At Large Is Melting Together Into “One Half-Resolved Substance”
Ben Davis: “In the non-metaphorical world, slurry means an unresolved mix of liquid and solid. …. The word comes to mind with this very pervasive kind of content that’s gunking up my feed, where different content types are running together into one half-resolved substance. Where everything assumes the qualities of everything else.” – Artnet
- Hope For AI: Consciousness Across Generations
Might the relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence follow a similar logic—a hope of consciousness helping consciousness across generations? Perhaps the best thing that we’re put here for is indeed to see; but our vision is limited. – 3 Quarks Daily
- Steep Drop In International Students At US Colleges This Fall
Arizona State University reported a fall semester decline for the first time since 2020. Declines have been announced at universities in Texas, Missouri and Illinois. The state of Massachusetts is expecting about 10,000 fewer new international students this year. – NPR
- Compared To AI, CliffsNotes Look Pretty Good, Says Professor
“CliffsNotes for students who struggle to get through Brontë, Woolf, or Shakespeare seem laughably analog in the time of ChatGPT, but CliffsNotes offer genuine analysis and even scholarship. The difference between CliffsNotes and today’s computerized counterparts encapsulates the disintegration of knowledge, particularly of reading comprehension.” – Literary Hub
- Museums Are Under Fire. Remaining Silent Is Not An Option
Museums serving audiences of color are becoming targets of immigration agents. Amid these changes, the voices of some directors and curators seem to have dimmed both here in the U.S. and internationally, perhaps reasonably seeking to avoid unwanted attention. As much as I understand this impulse, I cannot embrace it; instead, I choose to speak. – Artnet
ISSUES
- Museums Are Under Fire. Remaining Silent Is Not An Option
Museums serving audiences of color are becoming targets of immigration agents. Amid these changes, the voices of some directors and curators seem to have dimmed both here in the U.S. and internationally, perhaps reasonably seeking to avoid unwanted attention. As much as I understand this impulse, I cannot embrace it; instead, I choose to speak. – Artnet
- He Bought Sotheby’s. Trouble Followed
For those caught up in the experiment, it has been torrid in the extreme. Since 2019, hundreds of employees have left Sotheby’s—up to a quarter of the workforce, according to some estimates—including dozens of specialists who bring in the consignments essential to the company’s bottom line. – The New Yorker
- Old Master Portrait Looted By Nazis Spotted In Real Estate Ad, Then Disappears
Portrait of a Lady, by Baroque artist Giuseppe Ghislandi, was part of the trove of works belonging to Amsterdam art dealer Jacques Goudstikker which Hermann Goering bought up in a forced sale. Dutch journalists noticed the painting in a real-estate-listing photo in Argentina, but it was gone when police arrived to search. – AP
- Minneapolis Institute Of Art To Hold Its First-Ever Exhibition Of Crop Art
Crop art — works using corn kernels, sunflower seeds, or other agricultural products as their media — has long been a feature of the Minnesota State Fair. Next month, nine works, the pick of this year’s (ahem) crop, will be on display at the museum. – The Minnesota Star Tribune
- How Are We Defining Art Movements In The 21st Century?
Gone for the most part are the -isms that defined artistic movements in the 20th century: Cubism, Surrealism, Fauvism, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism. Manifestos too are increasingly rare. – ARTnews
MEDIA
- “Enslurrification” — How Culture At Large Is Melting Together Into “One Half-Resolved Substance”
Ben Davis: “In the non-metaphorical world, slurry means an unresolved mix of liquid and solid. …. The word comes to mind with this very pervasive kind of content that’s gunking up my feed, where different content types are running together into one half-resolved substance. Where everything assumes the qualities of everything else.” – Artnet
- Steep Drop In International Students At US Colleges This Fall
Arizona State University reported a fall semester decline for the first time since 2020. Declines have been announced at universities in Texas, Missouri and Illinois. The state of Massachusetts is expecting about 10,000 fewer new international students this year. – NPR
- Trump Brings The Culture Wars To Museums And Parks
Those supporting Trump’s actions say they will restore national pride, but critics in the arts and parks, as well as a number of Democrats, argue they whitewash history and do not tell people the full story. – The Hill
- The Last Days Of Arts Criticism?
Arts criticism has been vanishingly difficult to break into for ages, no one’s idea of a growth industry. But publications have managed to make a dire situation worse; it’s now reached the point where long-tenured veterans are having their jobs erased in a misguided rethinking of what criticism even actually is. – The Guardian
- Philadelphia Is About To Suffer Massive Transit Cuts. What Will That Mean For The Arts There?
With funding stalled in the state legislature, transit agency SEPTA instituted a 20% service cut in the city last week and will make drastic reductions in regional rail next week. Philadelphia arts organizations say many employees and at least 20% of their patrons use transit. Will they simply stop coming? – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
MUSIC
- Compared To AI, CliffsNotes Look Pretty Good, Says Professor
“CliffsNotes for students who struggle to get through Brontë, Woolf, or Shakespeare seem laughably analog in the time of ChatGPT, but CliffsNotes offer genuine analysis and even scholarship. The difference between CliffsNotes and today’s computerized counterparts encapsulates the disintegration of knowledge, particularly of reading comprehension.” – Literary Hub
- The Poet With An Inadvertently Brilliant Legacy Strategy
Unlike his contemporary and admirer T.S. Eliot, he didn’t see history as ending “with a whimper” but rather with a long, subsiding, pleasurable sigh of recollection. For Constantine Cavafy, when life and history came close to their ending, poetry began. – The New Republic
- Chicago Reader Saved From Closure By Owner Of Seattle Alt-Weekly The Stranger
The 54-year-old paper, one of the US’s oldest alt-weeklies, made major layoffs and narrowly avoided shutting down in January. The Reader has now been acquired by Seattle-based Noisy Creek, which owns The Stranger as well as The Portland Mercury. – WTTW (Chicago)
- Anthropic Settles Class Action Copyright Suit Brought By Authors
Anthropic has reached a preliminary settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by a group of prominent authors, marking a major turn in of the most significant ongoing AI copyright lawsuits in history. – Wired
- Simon & Schuster CEO Is Stepping Down To Launch New Imprint
Jonathan Karp became CEO in 2020 and steered the publishing house through COVID, an antitrust case and a change in ownership. He’s moving on to launch the imprint Simon Six, which will release just six books a year. (In 2005, he started a similar imprint, Twelve — one book each month — at Hachette.) – AP
PEOPLE
- “Enslurrification” — How Culture At Large Is Melting Together Into “One Half-Resolved Substance”
Ben Davis: “In the non-metaphorical world, slurry means an unresolved mix of liquid and solid. …. The word comes to mind with this very pervasive kind of content that’s gunking up my feed, where different content types are running together into one half-resolved substance. Where everything assumes the qualities of everything else.” – Artnet
- Hope For AI: Consciousness Across Generations
Might the relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence follow a similar logic—a hope of consciousness helping consciousness across generations? Perhaps the best thing that we’re put here for is indeed to see; but our vision is limited. – 3 Quarks Daily
- Steep Drop In International Students At US Colleges This Fall
Arizona State University reported a fall semester decline for the first time since 2020. Declines have been announced at universities in Texas, Missouri and Illinois. The state of Massachusetts is expecting about 10,000 fewer new international students this year. – NPR
- Compared To AI, CliffsNotes Look Pretty Good, Says Professor
“CliffsNotes for students who struggle to get through Brontë, Woolf, or Shakespeare seem laughably analog in the time of ChatGPT, but CliffsNotes offer genuine analysis and even scholarship. The difference between CliffsNotes and today’s computerized counterparts encapsulates the disintegration of knowledge, particularly of reading comprehension.” – Literary Hub
- Museums Are Under Fire. Remaining Silent Is Not An Option
Museums serving audiences of color are becoming targets of immigration agents. Amid these changes, the voices of some directors and curators seem to have dimmed both here in the U.S. and internationally, perhaps reasonably seeking to avoid unwanted attention. As much as I understand this impulse, I cannot embrace it; instead, I choose to speak. – Artnet
PEOPLE
- “Enslurrification” — How Culture At Large Is Melting Together Into “One Half-Resolved Substance”
Ben Davis: “In the non-metaphorical world, slurry means an unresolved mix of liquid and solid. …. The word comes to mind with this very pervasive kind of content that’s gunking up my feed, where different content types are running together into one half-resolved substance. Where everything assumes the qualities of everything else.” – Artnet
- Hope For AI: Consciousness Across Generations
Might the relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence follow a similar logic—a hope of consciousness helping consciousness across generations? Perhaps the best thing that we’re put here for is indeed to see; but our vision is limited. – 3 Quarks Daily
- Steep Drop In International Students At US Colleges This Fall
Arizona State University reported a fall semester decline for the first time since 2020. Declines have been announced at universities in Texas, Missouri and Illinois. The state of Massachusetts is expecting about 10,000 fewer new international students this year. – NPR
- Compared To AI, CliffsNotes Look Pretty Good, Says Professor
“CliffsNotes for students who struggle to get through Brontë, Woolf, or Shakespeare seem laughably analog in the time of ChatGPT, but CliffsNotes offer genuine analysis and even scholarship. The difference between CliffsNotes and today’s computerized counterparts encapsulates the disintegration of knowledge, particularly of reading comprehension.” – Literary Hub
- Museums Are Under Fire. Remaining Silent Is Not An Option
Museums serving audiences of color are becoming targets of immigration agents. Amid these changes, the voices of some directors and curators seem to have dimmed both here in the U.S. and internationally, perhaps reasonably seeking to avoid unwanted attention. As much as I understand this impulse, I cannot embrace it; instead, I choose to speak. – Artnet
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Hope For AI: Consciousness Across Generations
Might the relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence follow a similar logic—a hope of consciousness helping consciousness across generations? Perhaps the best thing that we’re put here for is indeed to see; but our vision is limited. – 3 Quarks Daily
- What If The Moral Arc Of The Universe Bends Toward… Chaos And Confusion?
Reality, as we now understand, does not tend towards existential flourishing and eternal becoming. Instead, systems collapse, things break down, and time tends irreversibly towards disorder and eventual annihilation. – Aeon
- What Does It Really Mean The “Reasonable” People Can Disagree?
To say that “reasonable people can disagree” can encourage suspension of judgment in response to important matters of personal and social concern. – 3 Quarks Daily
- How To Talk (And Creatively Solve Problems) With A Chatbot
ChatGPT, as ever, was upbeat, inexhaustible, and, crucially, unfazed by failure. It made suggestions. It asked its own questions. Some avenues were promising; others were dead ends. – The New Yorker
- Can We Please Reframe What An AI World Will Mean To Us?
Rather than asking AI to hurl itself over the abyss while hoping for the best, we should instead use AI’s extraordinary and improving capabilities to build bridges. What this means in practical terms: – The Atlantic
