Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
If We’re So Polarized, What Is The Culpability Of Technology?
So what is the ideology of the Internet? An optimist might invoke the idea of democratization, pointing to the medium’s ability to amplify otherwise...
Editor William Whitworth’s Outsized Influence On The Atlantic Magazine
Bill was a mentor to two generations of writers—writers of narrative reporting, primarily, but also novelists, biographers, intellectuals, essayists, and humorists. He expanded The Atlantic’s...
Why Theatre Resonates: What A 19th Century Ibsen Play Has To Say About Today
It would be challenging to find a 19th century drama that speaks as directly to our pandemic-scarred society as this one. - Los Angeles...
Arnold Schoenberg’s Hollywood
He played tennis with George Gershwin, who idolized him. He delighted in the American habits of his children, who, to the alarm of other...
Yerba Buena CEO Quits After Controversy
Sara Fenske Bahat’s departure follows weeks of turmoil at the center. After artists Jeffrey Cheung and Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo alleged that YBCA prevented them from...
UNESCO Talks About Protecting Intangible Cultural Heritage
The Unesco convention defines intangible cultural heritage as: “Practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated...
NY Times Co-Chief Art Critic To Retire After 32 Years, 4,500 Reviews
Roberta Smith started freelancing for The New York Times in 1986, after writing for Art in America and The Village Voice, and after a...
Proposed Law To Increase Streaming Royalty To A Penny A Stream
Streaming has grown to represent 84 percent of recorded music industry revenue, but that Spotify, the leading music streaming platform, only pays an average...
Those Round-Up Purchase Donations Have Added Up To Be Big Money
In 2022 alone, charities raised $749 million nationwide through so-called point-of-sale donations, a 24% jump from 2020, according to Engage for Good, which tracks...
The Evolutionary Roots Of Our Attraction To Music
Groups that could make music together - whether a simple drumbeat or a beautiful melody - were more cohesive, communicative, cooperative and defensive. Natural...
Technology And Teaching The Violin. What Will AI Change?
A team at the University of Maryland (UMD) has received almost a million dollars from the US National Science Foundation (USNSF) to study the...
Report: Children Become Discouraged From Reading By Adult Judgment
“Children have told us that they think that reading choices are judged by the adults around them,” said Cassie Chadderton, CEO of World Book...
Study: Big Increase In Retail Record Shops In The UK
A study by the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) finds that there are now 461 indie record shops in the UK, 122 more...
Museums Are Buying As Private Sales Decline
Museums are increasingly important buyers at TEFAF Maastricht, as the number of private individuals purchasing old master pictures, sculptures and antiques has declined. - The New...
Have A Conversation With A New Marilyn Monroe AI Chatbot
The AI-generated Digital Marilyn chatbot lets you interact “in real-time using advanced natural language processing, deep learning and GPT 3.5,” Soul Machines said in...
Hollywood’s Rough Year, And Trends We’d Like To See
The movie industry is notorious for learning precisely the wrong lesson from its successes, not to mention failures. Here are some trends from last...
Russia Opens Museum Celebrating Its War In Ukraine
Russian authorities have announced plans to memorialise the destruction of the occupied city in the Donbas—which it blames on Ukraine—with a new “museum of...
The Binge: Healthy Indulgence Or Destructive Behavior?
Here’s what has me perplexed: The word itself means doing something excessively, and to do anything excessively means doing it more than is reasonable...
The Psychology Of How We Sort Into Categories
At some point, we have to make a principled decision about what the category is and why that is the best way to think...
The Physicality Of Books Versus What They Say
Sometimes we ignore a book’s material presence: absorbed, ‘good’ reading is often figured as a forgetting of the material conditions of book, body, room...
If Our Tools Shape Us, How Will AI Change Us?
Just as Joseph Stalin called artists the “engineers of the soul,” Gemini and other AI bots may function as the engineers of our mindscapes....
Europe Works To Pry Open Big Tech Companies
The law essentially crowbars open what the EU calls the gatekeepers’ “core services.” In the past regulators have proposed containing corporate giants by taking them...
Anti-TikTok Legislation In Congress Has TikTok Stirring A High-Schooler Rebellion
Congressional staff reported on some of the calls they were getting. “We’re getting a lot of calls from high schoolers asking what a Congressman...
The Making Of Keith Haring
Even as his fame grew, Haring remained dedicated to grass-roots activism: designing posters for anti-nuke rallies, anti-apartheid protests, safe sex promotions, and events for...
How Flamboyant Academics Were Purged From the Universities
Part of the official reason for the elimination of flamboyant academic styles such as these was that they tended to be off-putting to new...
