Leading the news today: A major escalation in the political scrutiny of national cultural institutions. Senate investigators say they have obtained documents suggesting the Kennedy Center is being operated as a “slush fund and private club” for political allies, departing from its statutory mission, reports The Guardian. This report lands just as the Washington Post confirms plans to reconstitute the Commission of Fine Arts with past political appointees to approve federal projects.
Meanwhile, the intersection of technology and art is getting personal—perhaps too personal. Producer Charlie Brooker is floating a “creepy” proposal to use AI to scan moviegoers’ faces and insert them into the films they are watching, notes Deadline. It’s a vision of the future that pairs uneasily with a resurfaced 1999 clip of Prince, who warned that computers would allow musicians to generate sound without ever learning the “language of music,” writes Music Radar.
Also today: A historic Amsterdam church is destroyed in a New Year’s fire, reports The Telegraph; China criminalizes the performance of Uyghur songs, according to the AP ; and the argument that if we want young people to pick up a book, we should stop calling it virtuous and start branding reading as a “vice,” via The Atlantic.
Would you like me to draft the “Top Stories” section next?
