AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Four Supreme Court Justices’ Book Deals Sank a Copyright Case
Good Morning,
Sotomayor, Gorsuch, Barrett and Jackson recused themselves from a Supreme Court case on foreign music copyrights, leaving no quorum. The court gave no reason; the watchdog Fix the Court points out that all four have book deals with Penguin Random House, a party to the case (NPR). Meanwhile a law firm representing more than 2,200 authors, including Jacqueline Winspear, author of the Maisie Dobbs mysteries, is suing Meta one author at a time, seeking up to $150,000 per work where the Anthropic class settlement pays roughly $3,000 (Publishers Weekly).
Boréal, the Canadian publisher of Haitian Canadian novelist Thélyson Orélien, ended its relationship with him after an outside analysis of his drafts found AI tags in the metadata; he denies the book was machine-written (The Guardian). Owl & Co., a consulting firm, counts AI in 3 percent of vertical microdrama releases outside China in the first quarter, 28 percent in the second quarter and two-thirds in the third (The Hollywood Reporter).
Opera Australia’s 15-year partnership with Haruhisa Handa’s foundation, which gave more than $15 million and named its Sydney Harbour productions, ends December 31; Aida returns there in March under HSBC’s name instead (ArtsHub).
Judi Dench, 91, told BBC Radio 4 she can no longer read, perform or recognise faces because of macular degeneration, and that she is still “besotted by” Shakespeare’s sonnets (The Guardian).
All of today’s stories below. See you tomorrow.
- Sacha Baron Cohen Insists That “Ali G: Who Iz I?” Is His Final Guerrilla Comedy
“He’s adamant. No more Borat. No more Bruno. No more Ali G. … He’s tired of hoodwinking people to expose their prejudices, and he’s even more tired of the death threats that periodically follow. … Eventually his luck will run out.” Problem is, he’s said this many times before. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Opera Australia Loses Major Philanthropist Support For Harbor Opera
Japanese billionaire philanthropist Dr Haruhisa Handa is ending his 15-year partnership with Opera Australia, closing a significant chapter in the history of one of the company’s most recognisable flagship events, Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour.- ArtsHub
- The International Dance League Is Trying To Make Dance Into A Competitive Sport. Is It Working?
Evidently so. “Since its official opener in May, the IDL has secured a media rights deal with ESPN and garnered more than 2 billion views on social media. … Almost every stop on the season tour sold out; the Los Angeles finals sold out in 15 minutes.” – Dance Magazine
- Chicago Shakespeare Theatre Leader Moves On
Kimberly Motes, the executive director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater since 2023, is leaving her position in mid-November to become president and CEO of Hennepin Arts in Minneapolis. – Chicago Tribune
ISSUES
- Kennicott: The New LACMA Is A Train Wreck
He has achieved what many curators, scholars and museum professionals dream of: A museum that decontextualizes art, mixes it all up in a giant cauldron of visual distraction and isolates it from history and culture. But why? How could this happen to one of the country’s great art collections? – Washington Post (MSN)
- Now Staff At All Four V&A Museums In London Will Strike
“Unionized staff across all four branches of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London announced their intention to strike on October 29 and 30, citing stalled negotiations and allegations of ‘Amazon-style’ working conditions at the newly-opened V&A East Storehouse.” – ARTnews
- Could AI Help Identify The Unknown Subjects Of Centuries-Old Portraits?
“Identifying a sitter in a portrait is a tricky art-historical task that involves a study of provenance, inscriptions, archival documentation, iconographic juxtaposition, collection history, and costume and jewelry. Could present-day technologies be another item in the researcher’s tool kit?” A project in Switzerland is giving it a try. – ARTnews
- Historic City Hall Is Burned Down During French Riots
In Limoges, the 19th-century Hôtel de Ville, which had historic landmark status, was destroyed by arson during the violence that has convulsed much of France in recent days. One suspect has been arrested. – Euronews
- Donors Are Trying To Save Artworks At The Kennedy Center
Donors who have given artwork to the institution are trying to reclaim their gifts, fearing for their safety amid a renovation and in the wake of layoffs. They are not convinced that the leadership, largely appointed by Trump, values the artworks as part of the institution’s holdings. – ARTnews
MEDIA
- This Year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Booted From The National Mall, Thrived On A Nine-Month U.S. Tour
“Clifford Murphy, the director of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, which runs the festival, called it a ‘democratizing experience’ — one that added up to more than just making lemons into lemonade.” – The New York Times
- Colombia’s National Museum Is The First Casualty In The New President’s Culture War
Last week, Abelardo de la Espriella, a far-right politician sworn in as President in August, declared a “cultural counterrevolution” and had dozens of artworks and historical objects removed from the Museo Nacional in Bogotá. In response, some 62,000 people demonstrated in the capital, arguing that the President’s action violates Colombia’s 1991 Constitution. – Artnet
- Hong Kong Overhauls Its System For Performing Arts Funding, And Groups Are Nervous
Since 2008, the territory’s government has funded nine designated major performing arts groups, including the Hong Kong Ballet, Philharmonic, and Repertory Theatre. The city’s chief executive has announced a planned change to a more flexible, “merit-based” system which would make room for more organizations. – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
- San Francisco Has Not Paid Artists The City Grants They Were Awarded This Year
“In typical years, grant agreements are sent in early July, with artists getting money in hand within four weeks. As of October, multiple artists still haven’t received a dime, and at least two received their grant agreements only after the Chronicle wrote the commission to ask about the delay.” – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- What’s Behind The Current Wave Of Theater, Film, Literature, And Other Art About AIDS
Much of the new work being done has a sense of mission — a feeling that, 45 years after the epidemic first broke out, something many gay people today are too young to remember — a struggle that changed our world cannot be permitted to recede into mere abstraction. – T — The New York Times Style Magazine
MUSIC
- Hundreds Of Authors Skip Class Action Case And Sue Meta/Facebook Individually
“Nearly 300 authors filed (separate) copyright infringement claims against Meta Platforms on October 19 in (Federal court in San Francisco), alleging the company trained its AI models on pirated copies of their books and, more recently, on physical books it bought and scanned without a license.” – Publishers Weekly
- Publisher Cuts Ties With Author Thélyson Orélien Over Alleged AI Use In His Hit Novel
“Orélien has denied allegations that he used AI on his breakthrough novel (C’était ça ou mourir) and, last week, Canadian publisher Les Éditions du Boréal said it was standing by the 38-year-old writer. But on Wednesday, Boréal said it had conducted a further investigation” and concluded that Thélyson did use AI. – The Guardian
- Will Wikipedia Survive AI?
It was neither the first online encyclopedia—Britannica had a web presence by 1999—nor even the first that users could edit. Rather, its vitality arose from the community of obsessives whom it attracted, and its decline has coincided with the market’s capture of their creativity. – The New Yorker
- Jeffrey Daunt And The Culture Of Reading
Actually, in America, the reading of books is up. Sales of print books have increased nearly twenty-five per cent from a decade ago. The number of independent bookstores in the United States has climbed steeply since 2009, with a seventy-per-cent increase since 2020. – The New Yorker
- France Gets A New Literary Prize Specifically For Books Written With AI
“The Prix Pascal will open for submissions on 2 November, inviting French-language writers to submit manuscripts alongside an initial prompt of no more than 100 words and a technical account of the language model and generation process used. The competition is open to non-professional writers and those working in the literary sector.” – Firstpost
PEOPLE
- Four Supreme Court Justices’ Book Deals Sank a Copyright Case
Good Morning,
Sotomayor, Gorsuch, Barrett and Jackson recused themselves from a Supreme Court case on foreign music copyrights, leaving no quorum. The court gave no reason; the watchdog Fix the Court points out that all four have book deals with Penguin Random House, a party to the case (NPR). Meanwhile a law firm representing more than 2,200 authors, including Jacqueline Winspear, author of the Maisie Dobbs mysteries, is suing Meta one author at a time, seeking up to $150,000 per work where the Anthropic class settlement pays roughly $3,000 (Publishers Weekly).
Boréal, the Canadian publisher of Haitian Canadian novelist Thélyson Orélien, ended its relationship with him after an outside analysis of his drafts found AI tags in the metadata; he denies the book was machine-written (The Guardian). Owl & Co., a consulting firm, counts AI in 3 percent of vertical microdrama releases outside China in the first quarter, 28 percent in the second quarter and two-thirds in the third (The Hollywood Reporter).
Opera Australia’s 15-year partnership with Haruhisa Handa’s foundation, which gave more than $15 million and named its Sydney Harbour productions, ends December 31; Aida returns there in March under HSBC’s name instead (ArtsHub).
Judi Dench, 91, told BBC Radio 4 she can no longer read, perform or recognise faces because of macular degeneration, and that she is still “besotted by” Shakespeare’s sonnets (The Guardian).
All of today’s stories below. See you tomorrow.
- Sacha Baron Cohen Insists That “Ali G: Who Iz I?” Is His Final Guerrilla Comedy
“He’s adamant. No more Borat. No more Bruno. No more Ali G. … He’s tired of hoodwinking people to expose their prejudices, and he’s even more tired of the death threats that periodically follow. … Eventually his luck will run out.” Problem is, he’s said this many times before. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Opera Australia Loses Major Philanthropist Support For Harbor Opera
Japanese billionaire philanthropist Dr Haruhisa Handa is ending his 15-year partnership with Opera Australia, closing a significant chapter in the history of one of the company’s most recognisable flagship events, Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour.- ArtsHub
- The International Dance League Is Trying To Make Dance Into A Competitive Sport. Is It Working?
Evidently so. “Since its official opener in May, the IDL has secured a media rights deal with ESPN and garnered more than 2 billion views on social media. … Almost every stop on the season tour sold out; the Los Angeles finals sold out in 15 minutes.” – Dance Magazine
- Chicago Shakespeare Theatre Leader Moves On
Kimberly Motes, the executive director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater since 2023, is leaving her position in mid-November to become president and CEO of Hennepin Arts in Minneapolis. – Chicago Tribune
PEOPLE
- Four Supreme Court Justices’ Book Deals Sank a Copyright Case
Good Morning,
Sotomayor, Gorsuch, Barrett and Jackson recused themselves from a Supreme Court case on foreign music copyrights, leaving no quorum. The court gave no reason; the watchdog Fix the Court points out that all four have book deals with Penguin Random House, a party to the case (NPR). Meanwhile a law firm representing more than 2,200 authors, including Jacqueline Winspear, author of the Maisie Dobbs mysteries, is suing Meta one author at a time, seeking up to $150,000 per work where the Anthropic class settlement pays roughly $3,000 (Publishers Weekly).
Boréal, the Canadian publisher of Haitian Canadian novelist Thélyson Orélien, ended its relationship with him after an outside analysis of his drafts found AI tags in the metadata; he denies the book was machine-written (The Guardian). Owl & Co., a consulting firm, counts AI in 3 percent of vertical microdrama releases outside China in the first quarter, 28 percent in the second quarter and two-thirds in the third (The Hollywood Reporter).
Opera Australia’s 15-year partnership with Haruhisa Handa’s foundation, which gave more than $15 million and named its Sydney Harbour productions, ends December 31; Aida returns there in March under HSBC’s name instead (ArtsHub).
Judi Dench, 91, told BBC Radio 4 she can no longer read, perform or recognise faces because of macular degeneration, and that she is still “besotted by” Shakespeare’s sonnets (The Guardian).
All of today’s stories below. See you tomorrow.
- Sacha Baron Cohen Insists That “Ali G: Who Iz I?” Is His Final Guerrilla Comedy
“He’s adamant. No more Borat. No more Bruno. No more Ali G. … He’s tired of hoodwinking people to expose their prejudices, and he’s even more tired of the death threats that periodically follow. … Eventually his luck will run out.” Problem is, he’s said this many times before. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Opera Australia Loses Major Philanthropist Support For Harbor Opera
Japanese billionaire philanthropist Dr Haruhisa Handa is ending his 15-year partnership with Opera Australia, closing a significant chapter in the history of one of the company’s most recognisable flagship events, Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour.- ArtsHub
- The International Dance League Is Trying To Make Dance Into A Competitive Sport. Is It Working?
Evidently so. “Since its official opener in May, the IDL has secured a media rights deal with ESPN and garnered more than 2 billion views on social media. … Almost every stop on the season tour sold out; the Los Angeles finals sold out in 15 minutes.” – Dance Magazine
- Chicago Shakespeare Theatre Leader Moves On
Kimberly Motes, the executive director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater since 2023, is leaving her position in mid-November to become president and CEO of Hennepin Arts in Minneapolis. – Chicago Tribune
THEATRE
VISUAL
- The Creative Mindset
Actively shaping this perception, rather than only letting it shape you, is a big part of what makes you creative. You need to actively create an attitude that enables you to do work amidst your circumstances, or even transcending it. – 3 Quarks Daily
- Research: Why AI Won’t Replace Humans At Creativity
While AI can bypass years of artistic training, it cannot replace the transformative experiences that give creativity its deeper meaning. The research suggests that the future of art may lie less in producing impressive works and more in using technology to inspire exploration, meaningful experiences and new ways of seeing the world. – TechExplore
- Arundhati Roy On The AI End Game
Remember how, in Thailand and Indonesia, the ocean drew back from the coastline? People ran out to marvel at the miles of pristine new beach that suddenly emerged, not realising that, far out at sea, a wall of water was building up and would come crashing over them. – Equator
- How Intuition Works
The key is to see that intuition works in much the same way as perception, in that both can directly present something to us as actual. Once we understand what gives perception this feature, we can see why intuitions might involve exercising the same basic kind of cognitive capacity. – Aeon
- Brewster Kahle: Why The Internet Needs A Memory
Many people assume that once something is published online, it will remain forever retrievable. The saying that “the internet never forgets” has produced a dangerously false sense of permanence. In reality, the internet forgets continuously. Websites are constantly revised, deleted, and abandoned altogether. – The Atlantic