Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Spotify Says It Will Shed 17 Percent Of Its Workers
The figure represents around 1,500 of the Sweden-based streamer’s 9,000 staff, as is the result of economic growth slowing “dramatically,” according to Spotify CEO Daniel...
What We Learn From Critics About Thinking About Art
Out of what soil spring these beings who absorb art and photosynthesize it into pronouncements, or, worse, into principles. - The New Yorker
Documentary Makers And Their Subjects — It Gets Complicated When The Film Is Successful
When the story becomes a marketable product, the production conditions, processes and relationships behind the storytelling are further obscured. It devalues the passage of...
Judge Strikes Down Montana’s TikTok Ban
“The current record leaves little doubt that Montana’s Legislature and attorney general were more interested in targeting China’s ostensible role in TikTok than with...
A Remarkable Change In American Theatre Leadership
Until recently, the artistic director has been thought of as the singular person whose vision drives the programming and culture of a theatre. That...
Study: Links Between Your Music Taste And Your Moral Compass
Specifically, musical elements like pitch and timbre emerged as crucial predictors for values of Care and Fairness, while sentiments and emotions expressed in lyrics...
Why Destroying Cultural Icons Leaves A Deep Wound
Artefacts that have been around for a thousand years or more have been destroyed in Russia’s illegal war. However, facing up to the issues,...
The Medieval Twitter Account With 700,000 Followers
Olivia Swarthout is the researcher behind the popular art history-inspired social media account Weird Medieval Guys, which has attracted nearly 700,000 followers on X,...
Playwright And Artist John Byrne, 83
His much-loved BBC series Tutti Frutti, about an ageing rock’n’roll band attempting a tour of Scotland, starred Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson and won...
Mark Bradford Wins The New $500,000 Getty Prize
Starting this year, the award comes with $500,000 for the winner to donate to a non-profit of their choice. (Bradford has yet to announce...
That Was Fast – Jezebel Website Is Sold And Will Reopen
Paste Magazine, a digital pop culture publication based in Atlanta, announced Wednesday that it was buying Jezebel.com from G/O Media, which closed it and laid off its...
Playing Politics? Of Course – It’s The Parthenon Marbles!
For a large part of international public opinion the return seems only fair. For some, it is a matter of aesthetics: repatriating historic monuments...
A Foundation Decides To Accelerate Its Impact And Spend Down Its Resources
“We thought, 'What’s the point in us existing in perpetuity and just trickling out funds while saying no to more communities when we knew...
How To Tell Whether Research is Trustworthy
Lately, however, the social-science world has become mired in controversy. Researchers themselves have started to note that many famous experiments have been debunked—such as, indeed,...
Are We “Addicted” To Social Media? A New Study Puts The Notion To The...
A small but thoughtful new study in PLOS One calls into question whether addiction is the right term for heavy social media use, and suggests digital detox, at least...
The Limits Of AI In Creating Photographs
A.I. as photographer falls short because it can’t truly empathize with a subject. A camera, no matter how high-tech, can’t grasp the unspoken stories...
The Problems With AI Provisions In The SAG-AFTRA Contract
“It’s one thing to use to make a King Kong or a flying serpent (though this displaces many VFX/CGI artists), it is another...
Hunter College Reschedules Movie Critical Of Israel After Campus Protests
Hunter College has agreed to reschedule a screening of a documentary critical of Israel, following an outcry from faculty members and students who claimed that the...
Slave To The Machines – Have We Already Set Up A System Where Humanity...
A new book argues that the invention of states and corporations has something to teach us about A.I. But perhaps it’s the other way...
BBC Cuts Staff For Evening News – Audience Has Changed
"This is a discerning audience, and they are looking for added value, but they're listening to podcasts, their habits have changed." - BBC
$100M Botticelli Discovered In Italian House. Who Is The Owner?
The artwork was originally displayed in a small church in the Italian town of Santa Maria la Arita before being given to a local...
How “Frozen” Shifted Disney’s Focus From Male-Centric Stories
It set the stage for the rise of empowering culturally rich narratives in the decade that followed. Subsequent hits included the strongly female-centric Moana (2016), Encanto (2021), and Turning...
Iowa Families Sue To Block Law Prohibiting Mention Of LGBTQ In Schools
The law, which passed earlier this year via a majority Republican Legislature, forbids "any program, curriculum, test, survey, questionnaire, promotion, or instruction relating to...
Hollywood Biopics Are In Again. What Happened?
All these movies are awards contenders, and each of them, in a different way, is enthralling. What they add up to is the glorious...
Google Caves, Agrees To Pay Canada’s Link Tax For News
The federal government had estimated earlier this year that Google's compensation should amount to about $172 million. Google estimated the value at $100 million. - CBC
