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- In Defense Of The Fourth Wall
Good Morning,
A defense of the proscenium arch is a defense of limits. Dominic Dromgoole calls the old box “liberatingly restrictive” — a form like the sonnet or the 12-bar blues, the frame Chekhov and Brecht needed something to push against (The Guardian). Two stories show what happens when a limit goes. Live Auto-Tune is now a routine stage instrument, no longer a confession (The New York Times), and in China AI video generation is already cranking out the smartphone micro-dramas Hollywood keeps warning itself about (Los Angeles Times). Removing a constraint isn’t removing a form. The question is which form replaces it — see Jill Lepore’s tech billionaires, who read science fiction as blueprint rather than warning (The Atlantic).
The Smithsonian’s frame is being redrawn from outside. Lonnie Bunch’s resignation opens the first secretary search that starts with the White House already dictating what the exhibits should say (Washington Post) — while the institution puts up a 9/11 exhibit Congress ordered it to build, for an administration that accuses it of distorting history (Washington Post). Quieter but structural: Operabase, the scheduling backbone the entire opera industry runs on, has been sold to an events company (The Violin Channel). Shared infrastructure is now somebody’s product.
France reports the Bayeux Tapestry lost two threads out of 70 meters on its way to London (Le Monde).
All of our stories below.
- ‘Tribute in Light’ Phantom Presence of the Missing Twin Towers<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/09/tribute-in-light-phantom-presence-of-the-missing-towers.html" title="‘Tribute in Light’
Phantom Presence of the - Cockroach Milk, Underpants Soil Testing, A Scientific Definition Of Kissing: The 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes
“Winning work highlighted during the 36th annual award ceremony” (which was in Zurich this year rather than Boston) “included hilarious research on the aerodynamics of nose blowing, gently stepping on venomous snakes, confirming that teenagers do indeed smell worse than babies and other side-splitting scientific undertakings.” – Smithsonian Magazine
- Toronto International Film Festival Shifts Emphasis To Film Dealmaking
In a tumultuous time for the industry, this transformation could help keep TIFF in the conversation, but as ticket prices rise, what does it all mean for the heart of this festival: the filmgoing public? – CBC
- The Advantages Of The Proscenium Stage
At this point in history, many of us think of the proscenium as conventional, perhaps limiting or even dull. Yet director Dominic Dromgoole describes it as “liberatingly restrictive,” like the sonnet form or the 12-bar blues. After all, the revolutionary work done by Chekhov and Brecht happened on proscenium stages … – The Guardian
- How AI Has Been Transforming China’s Movie Industry
The Chinese film and video industry is being transformed by AI-driven storytelling, fueled by rapid advances in video generation software, and at ground zero are the so-called micro dramas that play out on millions of smartphones. – Los Angeles Times
- Flock’s Vision Of Surveillance Everywhere
Flock was reported to have a valuation of more than eight billion dollars, with its biggest investor being the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Around forty per cent of the United States’ law-enforcement agencies now have contracts with the company, and a reported hundred and thirty thousand cameras monitor roads in every state but Alaska. – The New Yorker
- Today’s Tech Billionaires Learned The Wrong Lessons From Science Fiction
As young people, the future billionaires were spending hours (under their covers with flashlights, I imagine) consuming stories about killer robots or Mars colonies. What they seemed not to get—maybe couldn’t get—was that these were cautionary tales, stories that projected deep societal worries into space or onto a future many millennia away. – The Atlantic
- Young Africans Are Sparking A Renewal Of Interest In African Languages
“Experts say the revival in some of them is driven partly by second- and third-generation Africans in the diaspora finding it easier to reconnect with their roots and communicate with older relatives, thanks to social media, online learning and entertainment.” – AP
- High Tension As Charlie Kirk Statue Unveiled In Times Square
Shouting and a shoving match erupted as Italian-American artist Sergio Furnari unveiled his unpermitted life-size bronze memorial to slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Times Square on Thursday. – ARTnews
- Auto-Tune As An Everyday Performance Tool
The debate has come a long way since the advent of Auto-Tune, when artists like Cher and T-Pain had hits that used the technology to turn their recorded vocals into something markedly robotic. – The New York Times
- Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Getting Ready To Open
All eyes are on the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi as it prepares for opening on December 11 after two decades of delays. – ARTnews
- Mexico’s First Female Professional Sculptor, Geles Cabrera, Has Died At 100
“When Cabrera began her long career, few other women in Mexico were taken seriously as artists, and sculpture was something that only men were expected to do. While she enjoyed some early recognition, … major institutions only started noticing her pioneering work much later in her life.” – ARTnews
- A New Survey Of Readers To Find Out How They Discover Books
The survey will talk to 5,000 book buyers and profile them by genre, covering how they discover books across every channel—including social media and other digital tools—where and how they buy, and their mix of print, e-book, and audio, with a deeper look at audio habits, subscription behavior, etc. – Publishers Weekly
- Lonnie Bunch Resignation Throws Smithsonian Into Uncharted Leadership Waters
Previous searches have largely revolved around professional qualifications. This one begins after Trump has spent more than a year demanding changes to the Smithsonian’s exhibits and leadership — and as Republicans and Democrats are already staking out competing visions for Bunch’s successor. – Washington Post (MSN)
- US Supreme Court Orders Blue State AGs to Respond To Red State Paramount Antitrust Objections
The SCOTUS deadline is one day after the dozen blue states are set to argue against the David Ellison-owned Para’s desire for a $1.88 billion bond in front of a federal judge in Oakland. – Deadline
- Operabase Is Acquired By Events.com
The go-to web platform for finding scheduling information about opera worldwide, Operabase developed the technology to convert fragmented information from different companies into a machine-readable, searchable record. Available in 31 languages, it has been online for three decades and is used by virtually the entire industry. – The Violin Channel
- The Day the Twin Towers Vanished in a Shroud of Ash<a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/09/the-day-the-twin-towers-vanished-in-a-shroud-of-ash.html" title="The Day the Twin Towers Vanished in a
- A Whiteface Incident At Finnish National Ballet
Brazilian dancer Nayara Lopes of Philadelphia Ballet spent this past season with FNB in Helsinki. In February, she was rehearsing the role of Cupid in Don Quixote when she was asked to wear white makeup for the staging. (As one might expect, she is now back in Philadelphia.) – Dance Magazine
- Okay, So Maybe The Bayeux Tapestry Had A Tiny Little Bit Of Damage While Being Moved
As French Culture Minister Catherine Pegard put it, “A break of two threads over a length of 70 meters was reported. … So today, if we say it is in the same state after having arrived in London as it was when it left Bayeux, I think we’re not very wrong.” – Le Monde
- FCC Approves Transfer Of Penn State’s NPR Station
“The Federal Communications Commission has approved the transfer of WPSU’s broadcast licenses from Penn State University to news/talk WHYY Philadelphia (90.9), clearing the principal regulatory hurdle for a transaction designed to preserve public media service across central and northern Pennsylvania.” – Inside Radio
- How The Smithsonian Prepared Its 9/11 Anniversary Exhibit As Trump’s White House Keeps The Pressure On
After the attacks, Congress charged the Institution with documenting them and preserving the physical record. A quarter-century on, with the White House constantly accusing the Smithsonian of distorting American history, its 9/11 exhibit is especially fraught — and especially important. – The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
- Sacha Baron Cohen In Quentin Tarantino’s First Stage Play (Wait, What?)
The play, titled The Popinjay Cavalier and set in Europe in the 1830s, will be produced by Sonia Friedman in London’s West End next spring. – Deadline
- “A Woman Going Places” — The New Statue On London’s Fourth Plinth
Ten feet tall, on a 13-foot-high platform, made of bronze, painted, and striding with purpose. Tschabalala Self’s Lady in Blue is this year’s sculpture for the empty fourth column in Trafalgar Square. – CNN
- The Acrobats Who Entertain Drivers Stuck In Nairobi’s Horrendous Traffic Jams
“Nairobi’s street acrobats first began appearing in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they have since become normalized at traffic stops in and around the city, with acrobats taking advantage of gridlocks to perform in exchange for cash tips. It is how they earn a living.” – AP
- What Jonathan Swift Warned Us About Reading
“Far from merely raising a reactionary fist in the air at the new science, Swift identified an attitude that is still around today — and one that has created many of the greatest challenges now facing educators.” – The Dial
- How, And Why, The BBC Must Renegotiate The Terms Of Its Existence Every Decade
The BBC’s charter, the legal document which enables the national broadcaster’s existence, must be renewed every ten years. That renewal results from a multi-year negotiation, with plenty of public participation, between the network and the national government — a process largely hidden from public view. – The Guardian
- For The First Time, Netflix Will Report Box Office Numbers
Netflix will start reporting box office grosses with its upcoming expected Oscar contender, “La Bola Negra,” a queer drama from directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi that the mega-streamer acquired after its acclaimed premiere at Cannes earlier this year. – The Wrap
- Louisville’s Speed Museum Gets A New Leader
The Speed Art Museum, which is Kentucky’s oldest and largest museum with around 15,000 objects in its collection, will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. – ARTnews
- Bristol Old Vic, One Of UK’s Top Regional Theatres, Announces Staff Buyouts
The company, saying it needs to cut personnel costs by 5%, is launching what it calls a “‘Voluntary Leavers Scheme.” Britain’s oldest continuously operating theatre, the Bristol Old Vic has for years been struggling with a pandemic-related decline in attendance and sharp reductions in arts funding from the city. – Bristol Live
- When “Average-Level” Work Is Worth Nothing
When competent work is available at nearly zero cost, it provides little competitive advantage. We have seen versions of this value shift before: Cloud computing changed the skills required to manage infrastructure and GPS reduced the value of navigational skills. AI brought on a similar reset across a broader range of knowledge work. – Fast Company
- Could AI Ever Make a Relativity-Level Discovery?
As philosophers of science have long recognized, that such advances require not inductive reasoning that derives a general rule from the accumulation of data or examples, but abductive reasoning: “a creative leap that invents a cause for a singular phenomenon”. – Nature
- Arts Centre Melbourne Workers’ Conflicts To Win Better Pay
Where in most other industries bargaining occurs between workers and employers, in subsidised cultural institutions wage negotiations are often inseparable from questions of government support. – The Conversation
- Brussels’s Big, Contentious, Expensive New Contemporary Art Museum Has Set Its Opening Date
“After a crisis-ridden decade of planning and renovations and more than €250 million ($290 million), the 430,000-square-foot Kanal-Centre Pompidou complex is set to open on November 28, when it will become the Belgian capital city’s only major modern and contemporary art museum.” – ARTnews
- The Market For Non-Fiction Is Collapsing
The nonfiction collapse has profound implications for the industry. Nonfiction, historically, has always been seen as the more stable part of the business for logical reasons. The demand for nonfiction has always felt more predictable than fiction. – Dear Head of Mine