Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Why Scientists Can’t Give Up Their Chalkboards
No one appreciates the power of this venerable technology better than physicists and mathematicians, who infinitely prefer the humble blackboard to its high-tech rivals....
Want To Be The Next Director Of The British Museum? Here’s The Job
Applicants must have a “vision for the future of the British Museum and its purpose as a national and a global museum in the...
Is Teresa de Keersmaeker The World’s Best Dancer?
Arguably the world’s most celebrated dancer and choreographer, De Keersmaeker has produced a vast body of work over four decades, from major theatre productions...
Why You Need To Learn To Think In Probabilities
One of the most important conceptual developments of the past few decades is the realisation that belief comes in degrees. We don’t just believe something...
The Audacious Scheme To Sell The World’s Most Expensive Painting Ever
Of the multiple schemes and fabrications attributed to Bouvier in court the most audacious involved Dmitry Rybolovlev’s acquisition of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which...
Algorithms Are Increasingly Choosing Our Culture. Here’s How They Fail
To build algorithms that more effectively predict user preferences and better enhance consumer well-being and social welfare, organizations need to employ ways to measure...
Britannica Once Published “The World’s 102 Great Ideas.” Ambitious, Yes, But Also A Flawed...
Devised at a time before computers were widely available, the index was certainly an impressive achievement. It had taken 24 researchers some five years...
How Consolidation Has Changed Book Publishing
Up to the immediate post-WWII period, publishing was a fairly local, personal business, with houses founded by whiskered men shipping out books to stores...
Fraught: Museums Are Changing How They Collect Antiquities
Acquiring older cultural objects through purchase or donation can be risky for museums if they suspect the art or artifacts might have to be...
New Tax On UK Orchestras Touring In Europe Is The Latest Brexit Blow
A new Brexit tax hike set to hit U.K. orchestras later this year could make trips to Europe “unviable” and undermine their activities back...
Study: How Music Puts Us In “Sync”
“I am interested in how being ‘in sync’ with other people through the experience of music-making and other forms of artistic expression supports a...
Generative AI Is Still In Its Infancy. We Need To Treat It Like A...
A.I. is in the phase when kids live like tiny energetic monsters, before they’ve learned to be thoughtful about the world and responsible for...
Just Because Western European Culture Has Been Dominant For A Long Time Doesn’t Mean...
First was the original ‘world order’ created by Genghis Khan (and his house) in the 13th century. If there is indeed an ‘East’ that is distinct...
Why The LA Public Library Bought A Book Publisher
The LAPL, which manages 73 branches and houses more than 8 million books, has lately been much more ambitious than even the average big-city...
Russian Billionaire’s Aide Testifies In Court About Sotheby’s Alleged Role Convincing Him To Overpay...
An adviser to a Russian billionaire asserted in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday that he and his boss had been tricked by a Swiss...
A New Center To Give Shape To Creativity Of Lakota Artists
The Artspace is the latest manifestation of a resurgence of Native cultural traditions and ceremonies and the increased national and international visibility of Indigenous...
Jonathon Heyward On The Future Of The Baltimore Symphony
I don’t want it to be an art form where people feel like it’s only for certain types of people. Because it’s not. I...
When AI Comes For Culture (Who Cares Who Gets Hurt?)
If A.I. is the key to a gleaming utopia or else robot-induced extinction, what does it matter if a few poets and painters got bilked...
The Musical Mind Of George Lewis
George Lewis is one of the most formidable figures in modern music: a composer of international renown, a legendary improvising trombonist, a computer-music pioneer,...
Just How Classical Are India’s Classical Dance Traditions?
Although Indian classical dance is commonly assumed to be ancient and reverential—and there is a documented history of devotional dancing extending back more than...
Can ‘The Nicest Guy In Show Biz” Make Lower Manhattan’s New Arts Center Work?
“Amazing work happens at the grassroots level, but how can an organization and people with positional sway and a multimillion-dollar budget do that without...
Sam Altman: The Unexpected Leaps AI Will Make In 2024
Chatbots will expand well beyond digital text by handling photos, videos, diagrams, charts and other media. They will exhibit behavior that looks more like...
The First “Influencer” And The Quest For Reality
Beau Brummell’s a really interesting figure. He’s often called the first influencer, the inventor of sponcon (sponsored content). He was a Regency-era (early nineteenth...
Star And Understudy Sick, Actor Drives 150 Miles To Save “Evita” Performance
An actor travelled more than 150 miles to ensure a performance of the musical Evita could go ahead after the lead and understudy became...
Stats: Trends Across Ten Years In The Classical Music World
One notable finding over the past ten years has been the steady rise in programming of music by living composers. Worldwide, since 2013, contemporary music has...
