AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Culture Gets Its Nutrition Label
Good Morning,
Two companies started labeling their own output today, which tells you where the pressure is. Spotify will tag AI-generated “performers” as “AI Personas” and pull them from editorial and algorithmic recommendations (TechCrunch). Anthropic says every model released after August 2 will watermark generated text and files using the C2PA standard (TechCrunch). Neither is altruism. The harder version of that question is proving you’re human when the good bots and the bad bots look identical (The New Yorker). That’s the fascinating question Jill Lepore ponders.
Ownership, meanwhile, is consolidating faster than authorship. Ari Emanuel’s Mari, which already owns Frieze, is now buying ATG — seven Broadway houses, ten London venues, and TodayTix — for a rumored $6 billion (The Hollywood Reporter). Theatre and the art fair now have the same owner with a huge bet on culture.
The money underneath is shifting too. Public media booked $290 million from 66,000 new donors after federal funding tanked (Greater Public), and a family foundation put $5 million CDN into the Giller Prize after its bank sponsor walked (The Canadian Press). Sponsorship out, patronage in.
And front-of-house staff would like you to know that phones are the least of it (The Guardian).
All of our stories below.
- Front-Of-House Theatre Staffers Describe The Terrible Audience Behavior They Deal With
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
- Unlocking The Mysteries Of Hegel
In both its depth and breadth, Hegel’s philosophy is perhaps rivalled only by that of Aristotle. – Psyche
- Germany’s Resurgent Far-Right Party Threatens To Defund “Anti-German” Culture
Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) stands a good chance of winning a majority in the state legislature of Saxony-Anhalt, home to the birthplaces of Martin Luther and George Frideric Handel as well as the Bauhaus. The latter is a particular target of AfD, which says it will refuse to fund “anti-German art.” – Deutsche Welle
- What The Outpouring Of Donor Support Says About The Future Of Public Media
The American public responded with an outpouring of support—contributing a jaw-dropping $290 million in new revenue. Now, we have the research to understand why that happened and, more importantly, how we turn this historic moment into a permanent foundation for public media’s future. – Greater Public
ISSUES
- Why Is The New George Lucas Museum In LA Trying To Raise Money?
It is not a good look to say the least, for a billionaire museum founder to be hustling for visitors’ money. Why would Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson, a successful executive in her own right who runs a large investment company, ask for any support beyond admission? – The Art Newspaper
- The Long, Delicate Process Of Getting The Bayeux Tapestry To London
The extremely careful handling of the fragile cloth and the custom-made equipment to protect the piece from vibrations while in transit weren’t the only part of the process: it was almost as complicated a project to get France to agree to the Tapestry being moved in the first place. – The Times (UK)
- Former Exec Accuses Smithsonian’s National Gallery Of “Soft Censorship” Of Symposium
A May 2025 symposium about race issues in the art of the US and Mexico, created and organized by the National Gallery, was abruptly moved offsite and scrubbed from the museum’s website — a decision made, says a former executive, after a visit from Trump’s DOGE. – The New York Times
- Why Are America’s Houses Turning Gray?
Today, almost no one seems to be looking to the hues of jelly beans for inspiration for their home—or car or couch or fridge or practically anything else. Since the late 2000s, essentially colorless colors—think white, beige, gray—have taken over. – The Atlantic
- Trump Arch “Horribly Flawed” Says Cultural Landscape Foundation
“The process for the selection and siting of the Triumphal Arch has been horrifically flawed from the outset. Remarkably, there was no design competition, which is a dangerous and radical decision for what would be the second largest monument in the Monumental Core after the Washington Monument.” – Los Angeles Times
MEDIA
- Germany’s Resurgent Far-Right Party Threatens To Defund “Anti-German” Culture
Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) stands a good chance of winning a majority in the state legislature of Saxony-Anhalt, home to the birthplaces of Martin Luther and George Frideric Handel as well as the Bauhaus. The latter is a particular target of AfD, which says it will refuse to fund “anti-German art.” – Deutsche Welle
- American Universities Are In Parlous Shape. Here’s Why
Though elite colleges profess a faith in meritocracy and insist that they are engines of class mobility, in practice they reward the already rewarded. – The Nation
- Anthropic Says It Will Watermark All Text And Files Created In Claude
Anthropic said that all models released after August 2 will automatically have tech to watermark both computer-generated text and files. For files, the company is using the C2PA open standard. – TechCrunch
- A Radio Station That Erroneously Broadcast The Death Of King Charles Is In Some Trouble
Whoops: “Once the staff member who accidentally played the files realised what they had done, they stopped playing them, ‘panicked and left the premises.’” – BBC
- Study: Arts Orgs That Got More COVID Relief Funding Are Doing Better Than Those That Didn’t
From Sacramento and Seattle to New York City and Philadelphia, the study highlights diverging trends across cities — some rebounded from the pandemic and even exceeded their 2019 numbers, while others plummeted. – Hyperallergic
MUSIC
- Canada’s Top Literary Award Broke With Its Sponsor. Now A Foundation Has Come To Its Rescue.
Early last year the Giller Prize broke ties with its longtime sponsor Scotiabank — leaving it without the means to support the C$100,000 award and other programs. Now the foundation which stepped up with C$! million in bridge funding has made a C$4 million donation to keep the Giller going longer-term. – The Canadian Press (MSN)
- Judging Books By Their Covers
We can thank the Preraphaelite coterie for this tendency. ” – LitHub
- Companies Using AI To Create Writing Are Missing The Entire Point Of Books
“It speaks about the creative process as though it were something getting in the way of our creativity, slowing us down, rather than being the path that leads us to it. Then again, it’s no surprise that a capitalist venture focuses on the product and speed to market.” – Irish Times
- Millennials Miss Their Childhood Book Program So Much That They’ve Recreated It For Adults
Personal pan pizzas for reading? Yes: “Pizza Hut’s Book It! program is part of the lore of countless childhood readers turned adults. According to Pizza Hut, over 70 million children have participated since the program was founded in 1984, a Reagan-era initiative.” – Slate
- Book Prizes Judges Are Human, And In An Age Of AI, We Should Be Deeply Thankful For That
“Modern prize culture has existed for about 125 years; James F. English, in his excellent book The Economy of Prestige, dates the current craze for literary awards to the Nobel Prize, which debuted in 1901.” – The New York Times
PEOPLE
- Culture Gets Its Nutrition Label
Good Morning,
Two companies started labeling their own output today, which tells you where the pressure is. Spotify will tag AI-generated “performers” as “AI Personas” and pull them from editorial and algorithmic recommendations (TechCrunch). Anthropic says every model released after August 2 will watermark generated text and files using the C2PA standard (TechCrunch). Neither is altruism. The harder version of that question is proving you’re human when the good bots and the bad bots look identical (The New Yorker). That’s the fascinating question Jill Lepore ponders.
Ownership, meanwhile, is consolidating faster than authorship. Ari Emanuel’s Mari, which already owns Frieze, is now buying ATG — seven Broadway houses, ten London venues, and TodayTix — for a rumored $6 billion (The Hollywood Reporter). Theatre and the art fair now have the same owner with a huge bet on culture.
The money underneath is shifting too. Public media booked $290 million from 66,000 new donors after federal funding tanked (Greater Public), and a family foundation put $5 million CDN into the Giller Prize after its bank sponsor walked (The Canadian Press). Sponsorship out, patronage in.
And front-of-house staff would like you to know that phones are the least of it (The Guardian).
All of our stories below.
- Front-Of-House Theatre Staffers Describe The Terrible Audience Behavior They Deal With
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
- Unlocking The Mysteries Of Hegel
In both its depth and breadth, Hegel’s philosophy is perhaps rivalled only by that of Aristotle. – Psyche
- Germany’s Resurgent Far-Right Party Threatens To Defund “Anti-German” Culture
Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) stands a good chance of winning a majority in the state legislature of Saxony-Anhalt, home to the birthplaces of Martin Luther and George Frideric Handel as well as the Bauhaus. The latter is a particular target of AfD, which says it will refuse to fund “anti-German art.” – Deutsche Welle
- What The Outpouring Of Donor Support Says About The Future Of Public Media
The American public responded with an outpouring of support—contributing a jaw-dropping $290 million in new revenue. Now, we have the research to understand why that happened and, more importantly, how we turn this historic moment into a permanent foundation for public media’s future. – Greater Public
PEOPLE
- Culture Gets Its Nutrition Label
Good Morning,
Two companies started labeling their own output today, which tells you where the pressure is. Spotify will tag AI-generated “performers” as “AI Personas” and pull them from editorial and algorithmic recommendations (TechCrunch). Anthropic says every model released after August 2 will watermark generated text and files using the C2PA standard (TechCrunch). Neither is altruism. The harder version of that question is proving you’re human when the good bots and the bad bots look identical (The New Yorker). That’s the fascinating question Jill Lepore ponders.
Ownership, meanwhile, is consolidating faster than authorship. Ari Emanuel’s Mari, which already owns Frieze, is now buying ATG — seven Broadway houses, ten London venues, and TodayTix — for a rumored $6 billion (The Hollywood Reporter). Theatre and the art fair now have the same owner with a huge bet on culture.
The money underneath is shifting too. Public media booked $290 million from 66,000 new donors after federal funding tanked (Greater Public), and a family foundation put $5 million CDN into the Giller Prize after its bank sponsor walked (The Canadian Press). Sponsorship out, patronage in.
And front-of-house staff would like you to know that phones are the least of it (The Guardian).
All of our stories below.
- Front-Of-House Theatre Staffers Describe The Terrible Audience Behavior They Deal With
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
- Unlocking The Mysteries Of Hegel
In both its depth and breadth, Hegel’s philosophy is perhaps rivalled only by that of Aristotle. – Psyche
- Germany’s Resurgent Far-Right Party Threatens To Defund “Anti-German” Culture
Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) stands a good chance of winning a majority in the state legislature of Saxony-Anhalt, home to the birthplaces of Martin Luther and George Frideric Handel as well as the Bauhaus. The latter is a particular target of AfD, which says it will refuse to fund “anti-German art.” – Deutsche Welle
- What The Outpouring Of Donor Support Says About The Future Of Public Media
The American public responded with an outpouring of support—contributing a jaw-dropping $290 million in new revenue. Now, we have the research to understand why that happened and, more importantly, how we turn this historic moment into a permanent foundation for public media’s future. – Greater Public
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Unlocking The Mysteries Of Hegel
In both its depth and breadth, Hegel’s philosophy is perhaps rivalled only by that of Aristotle. – Psyche
- When Is Stereotyping Useful?
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
- The Complications Of Proving You’re Human
Now the problem is how to let in the good bots (like the avatar you send to the Gap to buy you a new pair of pants) and keep out the bad bots (like the thief trying to scrape the data of every Gap customer). The rest of us have to be our own bot detectors. – The New Yorker
- This AI Moment Could Be Clarifying For How We Think About Culture. Or…
“Our contention is that, if we fail to think through and delimit the role of AI in our lives, we risk undermining the intelligibility of our own guiding cultural concepts, and thus initiating a period in our own society of which it may someday be possible to say that “nothing happened.” – The Point
- There’s A Lot Of Sex In This Summer’s Movies
OK, not The Odyssey or Spider-Man, but the other movies. – The Guardian (UK)