AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- The Ninety Nobody Wants From ChatGPT
Good Morning,
Students, it turns out, are tired of AI — not on principle, but because a ninety from ChatGPT doesn’t feel like anything, while a ninety earned over six hours in a basement does (The Walrus). Most people want to earn their accomplishments. That’s the argument culture often fails to win when it’s asked to justify itself in somebody else’s currency.
Today’s institutional news is that failure in four lenses. London’s Gate Theatre closes after 47 years, four years after Arts Council England zeroed it out (The Guardian). Hungary’s new government scrapped the National Gallery its predecessor planned as a monument to itself (The Art Newspaper). The Lucas Museum opens billing its collection as “the people’s art” (Los Angeles Times) while four contractors allege it called itself private to skip the rules that govern public building (Los Angeles Times). And Lonnie Bunch’s exit from the Smithsonian gets two perspectives: a legacy of keeping the place on mission (The Atlantic), and a warning that what can’t be captured gets destroyed by chaos (Washington Post).
Meanwhile, following the administration’s example, South Park has renamed itself South America, with thanks to “Paramount — a Skydance Capitulation” (The Guardian).
All of our stories below.
- Europe’s Largest Center For Dance Is Now Under Construction In The Netherlands
“Located on a prominent site in Rotterdam’s historic docklands, … Danshuis will be the largest centre in Europe dedicated to the production and development of dance under one roof. Open to all ages and levels of experience, it will provide facilities for both professional and amateur dance-making.” – Gramilano
- Many Students Are Sick Of AI
“Obviously, failing and struggling is not fun, but the sense of pride and succeeding afterwards is very, very motivating for me. And I don’t think you’d get that same kick or that same hit from getting a ninety from ChatGPT versus getting a ninety over an essay where you spent six hours in a basement.” – The Walrus
- Scott Rudin Is Back On Broadway Again — And These Next Projects Are Pretty Brave
The first, starting previews next month, is Bruce Norris’s Downstate, about four convicted sex offenders, one of whom is confronted by a now-adult victim. The second has less fraught subject matter; in fact, it has almost no words at all. Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds stars Julia Roberts and Paul Rudd. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Lonnie Bunch’s Smithsonian Legacy
Through a combination of principled stances and deft political skills, he has kept the sprawling institution on mission and aligned with its public. – The Atlantic
ISSUES
- Will The Lucas Museum Disrupt Museums?
The museum calls it “narrative art,” defined as art “created to tell stories through images.” George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, have also described their collection as “the people’s art.” – Los Angeles Times
- Contractors Sue $1B Lucas Museum Over Unpaid Bills
The suit, one of four recently brought by contractors alleging nonpayment, claims the museum “actively promoted, contracted, and labeled the construction as a ‘private, non-profit development’ to bypass the rigorous administrative, registration, and bonding mandates of the California Public Contract Code, Civil Code, and Labor Code.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- Hungary’s New Government Cancels New Museum
Hungary’s new government has scrapped plans for a New National Gallery that was to form part of a development in Budapest’s City Park (Városliget) aimed at elevating the capital’s cultural standing. – The Art Newspaper
- Trump Administration Strips Critical Language On Confederacy From Statue
That language has been removed from the website, and the marker in the cemetery has been replaced by a new sign that omits wording critical of slavery and the Confederacy. – Washington Post
- Rome’s Largest Surviving Ancient Fresco/Mosaic Is Opening To Public, Three Decades After Its Discovery
“Mayor Roberto Gualtieri presented the recently restored ‘Painted City’ fresco and ‘Great Mosaic’ that were discovered in an underground gallery during excavations in the 1990s of the Baths of Trajan on the Oppio hill near the Colosseum.” The sites are opening on a trial basis, only on weekends, strictly for small groups. – AP
MEDIA
- The Making Of American Sophistication
Sophistication, one begins to think, is a thing won against the grain of privilege—a substitute for it, a social sleight of hand. A “classy” entertainer is almost never someone from the upper classes; sophisticated people are mostly smart people passing as rich people. – The New Yorker
- The Meaning Of Lonnie Bunch Leaving The Smithsonian
What this administration cannot capture directly of the country’s culture, it destroys with chaos, making life intolerable for people who persevere in the audacious belief that things like “the increase and diffusion of knowledge” actually matter. – Washington Post (Yahoo)
- Appalled Eiffel Tower Staffers Strike After Their Female Colleagues Are Told To Make Themselves Scarce
“The Eiffel Tower closed Monday due to strikes over outrage that female workers were allegedly ordered to leave and stay out of sight to comply with a special request from a traditional Hindu delegation that visited the monument over the weekend.” – ARTnews
- What Does A Healthy Arts Ecosystem Look Like?
A healthy cultural ecosystem needs not just the creation and presentation of art. It needs education, access, discovery, interpretation and criticism, documentation, advocacy, funding, participation, connection, preservation and audience development. – Culture OC
- Smithsonian Chief Lonnie Bunch To Retire Amid Trump’s Culture-War Attacks
“Bunch’s resignation comes at one of the most politically fraught moments in the Smithsonian’s 180-year history. … Trump has sought to purge what he calls ‘improper ideology’ from its museums, while his administration has threatened the institution’s federal funding, tried to fire a museum director and challenged its authority over personnel and exhibitions.” – The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
MUSIC
- How Allen Ginsburg’s “Howl” Became A Free-Speech Landmark
In 1957, undercover police bought a copy of the poetry collection which featured “Howl” at City Lights bookstore in San Francisco — and proceeded to arrest owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti and manager Shig Murao for selling obscene material. Their trial set a major precedent in First Amendment case law. – BBC (MSN)
- We Need Word Detectives
We appreciate that each of us is a link in a millennia-long chain of language, connected to people over the centuries by the words they bequeathed us. Following where, and through whom, that chain has passed is the business of etymology. – Psyche
- American Literary Culture Is Besotted With Reissues
“If the past few years of American literary publishing have had a zeitgeist, it has been more like a series of geists from zeits past.” – n+1
- Destroying Rare Books To Capture Them?
Having identified books as the “highest quality source of training data” for Anthropic’s L.L.M.s, it initiated a covert program called Project Panama, defined succinctly in court documents as “our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world.” “Destructively scan” means precisely that. – The New Yorker
- Authors Push Back As Agents, Publishers Scramble To Get Pieces Of The Anthropic AI Settlement
Writers have been posting on social media that publishers seem to be claiming more than their fair share of some payments. – TechCrunch
PEOPLE
- The Ninety Nobody Wants From ChatGPT
Good Morning,
Students, it turns out, are tired of AI — not on principle, but because a ninety from ChatGPT doesn’t feel like anything, while a ninety earned over six hours in a basement does (The Walrus). Most people want to earn their accomplishments. That’s the argument culture often fails to win when it’s asked to justify itself in somebody else’s currency.
Today’s institutional news is that failure in four lenses. London’s Gate Theatre closes after 47 years, four years after Arts Council England zeroed it out (The Guardian). Hungary’s new government scrapped the National Gallery its predecessor planned as a monument to itself (The Art Newspaper). The Lucas Museum opens billing its collection as “the people’s art” (Los Angeles Times) while four contractors allege it called itself private to skip the rules that govern public building (Los Angeles Times). And Lonnie Bunch’s exit from the Smithsonian gets two perspectives: a legacy of keeping the place on mission (The Atlantic), and a warning that what can’t be captured gets destroyed by chaos (Washington Post).
Meanwhile, following the administration’s example, South Park has renamed itself South America, with thanks to “Paramount — a Skydance Capitulation” (The Guardian).
All of our stories below.
- Europe’s Largest Center For Dance Is Now Under Construction In The Netherlands
“Located on a prominent site in Rotterdam’s historic docklands, … Danshuis will be the largest centre in Europe dedicated to the production and development of dance under one roof. Open to all ages and levels of experience, it will provide facilities for both professional and amateur dance-making.” – Gramilano
- Many Students Are Sick Of AI
“Obviously, failing and struggling is not fun, but the sense of pride and succeeding afterwards is very, very motivating for me. And I don’t think you’d get that same kick or that same hit from getting a ninety from ChatGPT versus getting a ninety over an essay where you spent six hours in a basement.” – The Walrus
- Scott Rudin Is Back On Broadway Again — And These Next Projects Are Pretty Brave
The first, starting previews next month, is Bruce Norris’s Downstate, about four convicted sex offenders, one of whom is confronted by a now-adult victim. The second has less fraught subject matter; in fact, it has almost no words at all. Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds stars Julia Roberts and Paul Rudd. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Lonnie Bunch’s Smithsonian Legacy
Through a combination of principled stances and deft political skills, he has kept the sprawling institution on mission and aligned with its public. – The Atlantic
PEOPLE
- The Ninety Nobody Wants From ChatGPT
Good Morning,
Students, it turns out, are tired of AI — not on principle, but because a ninety from ChatGPT doesn’t feel like anything, while a ninety earned over six hours in a basement does (The Walrus). Most people want to earn their accomplishments. That’s the argument culture often fails to win when it’s asked to justify itself in somebody else’s currency.
Today’s institutional news is that failure in four lenses. London’s Gate Theatre closes after 47 years, four years after Arts Council England zeroed it out (The Guardian). Hungary’s new government scrapped the National Gallery its predecessor planned as a monument to itself (The Art Newspaper). The Lucas Museum opens billing its collection as “the people’s art” (Los Angeles Times) while four contractors allege it called itself private to skip the rules that govern public building (Los Angeles Times). And Lonnie Bunch’s exit from the Smithsonian gets two perspectives: a legacy of keeping the place on mission (The Atlantic), and a warning that what can’t be captured gets destroyed by chaos (Washington Post).
Meanwhile, following the administration’s example, South Park has renamed itself South America, with thanks to “Paramount — a Skydance Capitulation” (The Guardian).
All of our stories below.
- Europe’s Largest Center For Dance Is Now Under Construction In The Netherlands
“Located on a prominent site in Rotterdam’s historic docklands, … Danshuis will be the largest centre in Europe dedicated to the production and development of dance under one roof. Open to all ages and levels of experience, it will provide facilities for both professional and amateur dance-making.” – Gramilano
- Many Students Are Sick Of AI
“Obviously, failing and struggling is not fun, but the sense of pride and succeeding afterwards is very, very motivating for me. And I don’t think you’d get that same kick or that same hit from getting a ninety from ChatGPT versus getting a ninety over an essay where you spent six hours in a basement.” – The Walrus
- Scott Rudin Is Back On Broadway Again — And These Next Projects Are Pretty Brave
The first, starting previews next month, is Bruce Norris’s Downstate, about four convicted sex offenders, one of whom is confronted by a now-adult victim. The second has less fraught subject matter; in fact, it has almost no words at all. Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds stars Julia Roberts and Paul Rudd. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Lonnie Bunch’s Smithsonian Legacy
Through a combination of principled stances and deft political skills, he has kept the sprawling institution on mission and aligned with its public. – The Atlantic
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Many Students Are Sick Of AI
“Obviously, failing and struggling is not fun, but the sense of pride and succeeding afterwards is very, very motivating for me. And I don’t think you’d get that same kick or that same hit from getting a ninety from ChatGPT versus getting a ninety over an essay where you spent six hours in a basement.” – The Walrus
- How Knowledge Is Assembled
Just because something makes sense doesn’t mean that it’s true. Even valid reasoning cannot establish that its starting premises are correct. Even today, science continues to rely on experience, reasoning, and knowledge passed down by others. Much of the scientific process comes down to how we check our knowledge. – 3 Quarks Daily
- How Neoliberal Policies Corroded Democracy (And How To Fix It)
Promises of prosperity by Reagan, Thatcher and other advocates of neoliberalism were mistaken because it brought only fragility to previously prosperous democracies. – Aeon
- How Art And AI Can Hold Each Other Accountable
Beyond pushing our concepts of “who” can make art, AI provides a new medium for art experience — it is immersive and participatory. – Stanford
- It’s Not Just Physical Media
Landlines are making a slightly abashed return. “The phone itself is a sleek black with gold trim, and the cord connecting the receiver is all coiled up—just like the ones I grew up with back in the ’90s.” – Maclean‘s