Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
The Refined Art Of Campaigning For An Oscar
To campaign for an Oscar, as for the Presidency, you need a narrative—some compelling story, decided on by a combination of the nominee, campaign...
Maps Show Us Not Only Where We Are But Who We Are
Cartography has become one of the most successful technologies we have developed for understanding the world around us. At the same time, maps have...
Why Is Debate On College Campuses So Difficult These Days?
The fact of the matter is that the problem is not our students. It is us: faculty and administrators who are too afraid—of random...
Philosophy, Folk Wisdom, And Rethinking Values
I still believe in philosophy’s capacity to seek truth, but I’m conscious that I’ve tethered myself to an academic heritage plagued by formidable demons....
In 1995 A Crowd Gathered To Describe Data On The Internet…
By the end of the long weekend, the eclectic crowd had created a radical system for describing and discovering online content that still directly...
How Disney Built The Disney Adult Industrial Complex
Whether Disney adults are embarrassing or enchanting is largely a matter of opinion. What is missing from endless comment sections is the fact that...
It’s Artists Who Rule New York
If no one industry rules the city, one group of people does: artists. Every year, a new generation of them arrive in New York...
Supreme Court Hears Case That Would Fundamentally Change Social Media
The laws, championed by right-leaning state lawmakers, are rooted in the idea that the tech platforms have had a bias against conservatives. They’ve long...
British Film Board Reclassifies Classic “Mary Poppins” Movie As “Unsuitable For Children”
Mary Poppins is being re-released in select UK cinemas next month to celebrate the film’s 60th anniversary, prompting BBFC to upgrade its classification for the...
Fran Drescher Warns About AI
AI will entrap us in a matrix where none of us know what’s real. If an inventor lacks empathy and spirituality, perhaps that’s not the...
Can Warner Studios Win Back JK Rowling?
She is the last member of what was known internally at one time as Warner’s “A+ talent” crew, a group that included only two...
New York Is Home To More Endangered Languages Than Anywhere Else
All told, there are more endangered languages in and around New York City than have ever existed anywhere else, says Perlin, who has spent...
The Ethics Of Fandom
Sports fandom raises a number of interesting and important philosophical issues such as the connection between sports fandom and identity, and whether it is better...
The Trigger-Warning Debate
A trigger warning is not a call to censorship as the quoted tweeter above suggests – if there is an instinct for that, it...
Every Dictator Needs A Good Storyteller
It is a writer’s work to wrestle coherent storylines out of the mess that is real life (that’s what dictators employ writers for). - New...
Michelangelo’s Diary Wherein He Describes How Miserable It Was to Paint The Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo was trapped with his thoughts. He began to have doubts, ones he described as “crazy.” He worried painting in such an unnatural position...
Tyler Perry Puts $800M Studio Expansion On Hold After Seeing AI Video
“Being told that it can do all of these things is one thing, but actually seeing the capabilities, it was mind-blowing,” he said in...
The Culture Wars Come For AI
What we’re seeing here is the collapse of a long and interesting discussion about AI bias into a tense, obfuscating exchange between anti-woke culture warriors and...
When Fan Fiction Becomes A Commercial Hit… A Legal Grey Area?
The great success of Fifty Shades has turned publishers’ attention to the wealth of stories found in online fan fiction archives. These stories sometimes...
What Will The Arts Canon Look Like In 2050?
In terms of defining the canon in 2050, preservation of the “now” is a big question, but so is whether a preserved work can...
Those Who Are In Love With Chaos
The researchers came up with a term to describe the motivation behind these all-purpose conspiracy mongers. They called it the “need for chaos,” which...
Warhol Museum Staff Complain About Wall Text
A second staff member, who also requested anonymity, wrote to Hyperallergic in an email that the text was “a broadly unpopular move, and people in all...
Orange County’s Hilbert Museum To Triple In Size
The $12 million museum – a part of Chapman University – will expand from 7,500 to 22,000 square feet, nearly tripling its size. Galleries...
Could a Paywall Have Saved Pitchfork?
Implementing a paywall would have given Pitchfork’s readers an opportunity to support it while liberating its staff from having to conjure money out of thin...
Where Should Privately-Owned Art With Murky Provenance Go? Universities
The best stewards for these privately held collections, I believe, are university museums openly committed to provenance research, repatriation, and public education about cultural...
